ty has separate and distinct powers which make him a double god.
As Greek myths tell it, the three daughters of Proitos, king of the Argolid, grew up and went mad. Then the daughters refused to honor the will of Dionysus. Instead, they abandoned their father's palace and wandered throughout his kingdom. Proitos was distraught and called a renowned soothsayer, Melampous. Melampous was summoned to bring his medicinal herbs, perform incantations, and purify the women in the kingdom. But the Proitos refused to give Melampous two-thirds of his kingdom as payment for Melampous' services, and so the malady which affected the king's three daughters became worse. After most of the women in the kingdom disappeared in the woods, Melampous was paid his two-thirds share of the kingdom. Dionysus was the god who appeared in the form of a malady which first attacked the king's daughter. In this tale, not a woman in the kingdom was spared the malady. The disease brought by Dionysus took on epidemic proportions in the kingdom (Detienne, 1989, p. 3). (At that time, Greek medicine was unaware of how contagious diseases spread, and so Dionysus was thought to have done convulsive dancing in the villages and spread dionysism in the form of diseases) Dionysus was a god who spilled blood and madness.
The presence of Dionysus in a province signified that he was taking some action. In essence, Dionysus was the god who arrives: he appears, manifests himself, and makes his presence known. Dionysus could be present anywhere--all geography was suited to his mobile activities. Unlike other gods, Dionysus bad no lair, no throne, no sanctuary entrance or well-lit temple to call home. Dionysus fell from heaven, and his ship loomed on the sea's horizon. He would often lead a female army which would storm the gates of any city (Detienne, 1989, p. 5).
As the god who ruled over fountains of wine, he attended many official feasts, and none of the oth...