Dionysus

One of my favorite gods that we just got a little glimpse of is Dionysus or Bacchus to the Romans, so I did a little more research on him and here's what I found out.
Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, and therefore spent much of his life fleeing from Hera. His birth was a pretty exciting one as told by Apollodorus, apparently Hera, Zeus's actual wife, got so jealous that Zeus had impregnated Semele that she convinced Semele to ask Zeus to show himself in all his glory, but because Semele was human she could not withstand the sight of Zeus in all his glory, and she died. But Zeus was able to remove the unborn baby from her belly and place it in his own thigh, where Dionysus was born from. When he was born Zeus gave Dionysus to Ino, Semele's sister, who had two other children, Learches and Melicertes. But Hera in all her jealousy made Ino and her husband go mad. Athamus, Ino's husband, ended up killing his son Learches with a spear, mistaking him for a stag and Ino ended up killing their other son by placing him in boiling water. Ino then threw herself into the ocean holding her boiled baby. So last but certainly not least Dionysus spent the rest of his life wandering the earth trying to avoid the rather of Hera. Along his travels he aquired many vineyards and hence became the god of wine. He has also been associated with plant life, festivals, dance, and just pure excess - that is with everything that takes man out of his dailt routine.
When he returned to Greece, the sisters of Semele had convinced everyone that he was not the son of Zeus but the product of their sister and some man she had been cheating with. First, Dionysus punished the woman that had spread these rumors by causing them to go mad and sent them up to Mount Cithaeron. Thebes was ruled by Pentheus at the time, who was actually a cousin of Dionysus. So, Dionysus went to talk to his brother and convince him that he was actually the son of Zeus. There he convinced Pentheus to go up to Mount Cithaeron and see where he had made the woman mad. When Pentheus did this the woman tore out a tree and smashed him and then cut him into pieces. Agave, Pentheus's mother, took her son's head and stuck it to a Thyrsus ( a staff with ivy leaves at the top) and carried it to the city, displaying it with pride in her madness. And this is the major plot line in The Bacchae, a tragedy by Euripides.