ABSTRACT
One aspect of the development of humankind has been (uneven) progression towards the alienation of individuals from nature and from each other. The ancient Greeks, who in their earliest recorded history were experiencing this progression in a rapid form, were thereby left with a sense of loss, of absence. But absence implies the possibility of presence, and the absence and presence of the transcendent power that unites us with nature and with each other is projected onto an imagined person, Dionysos. Dionysos was not invented out of nothing, but the result of continuous adaptation of deity to evolving needs. In this he is like other deities, but more likely than they are to embody what has been lost.
