Dionysus and Jesus

Dionysus, in Greek mythology, was the God of wine, parties/festivals, madness and merriment. His life closely paralleled that of Jesus of Nazareth. While Dionysus is a mythical figure and Jesus is a historical figure, there lives were filled with events that can be compared. Events such as divine patronage, violent death, decent into the underworld, and resurrection into immortal life in heaven, all of these events were shared by the two figures. This paper will compare and contrast Dionysus and Jesus of Nazareth.
Dionysus was the son of Zeus, the supreme god, and Semele, the princess of Thebes and mortal being. Jesus was the son of God and the Virgin Mary, a mortal being. While these circumstances are similar, the actual births of the two figures are very different.(Harris, p75) Jesus, as we all know, was born naturally and was praised as the son of God. Dionysus, on the other hand, had a very unusual birth. Zeus was involved in an affair with Semele for quite awhile. Semele had no idea that her lover was in fact Zeus, the supreme God and husband to Hera. Zeus had always visited her in a different form to hide his identity. After awhile, Hera had discovered her husbands’ infidelity and decided to put an end to the affair. Hera visited Semele posing as a nurse and suggested she ask her anonymous lover to grant her a wish and reveal his identity. Hera knew that Zeus would take an oath and grant his mistresses wish, therefore killing Semele and ending the long time affair. When Semele ask her lover to grant her a wish, Zeus agreed and was obligated to reveal his identity. Knowing that by doing so would lead to the death of Semele. Zeus was devastated, but could not morally betray the oath he granted to Semele. When Zeus transformed into his true form to reveal his identity, the room filled with thunderbolts resulting in the death of Semele. Heartbroken, Zeus made the decision to extract the unborn child from Semeles’ womb and carry it on his thigh until the child...