About Dionysus being the same person as Hades, I want to ask (and that's a genuine question, I don't mean any hate towards you) where did you read that? Bc as far as I recall in the early versions Dionysus was identified with Zagreus who was the son of Persephone with Zeus (ew, I know) and in some versions with Hades (I think Overly Sarcastic Productions’ video about him explains it better). Sooo, you could say that Dio is like a son to the underworld couple, if that makes sense
yep yep valid question! anon is referring to my tags on this post. so uhh,,, quite ashamedly i read it on the universe’s most reliable source of information, wikipedia,, but i did some more research on it, and basically, it’s the interpretation given by the greek philosopher Heraclitus.
He says this, “… For were it not Dionysus to whom they institute a procession and sing songs in honour of the pudenda, it would be the most shameful action. But Dionysus, in whose honor they rave in bacchic frenzy, and Hades are the same…” (Fragment of Heraclitus (5th BC), quoted by Clement of Alexandria 2nd CE.
So they were a unification of the two extremes of existence- Dionysus representing a fullness of life and Hades representing the inevitable end of it all, death (which makes for some really nice visual and poetic imagery).
Furthermore, Karl Kerényi (a scholar dude) notes that when Persephone went missing, Demeter refused to drink wine which is kinda like, Dionysus’ thing so that could be interpreted as saying that Demeter was really pissed at Dionysus/Hades who had taken her daughter, implying that Persephone is Dionysus’ wife. You could read further into Kerényi’s interpretation of Dionysus in his book, Dionysos: Archetype of Indestructible Life.
Anyways, hope this answers your question!!
