Editing Dionysus (section)

====Interpretation====
[[File:Delos Museum Mosaik Dionysos 05.jpg|thumb|250px|A [[Hellenistic art|Hellenistic Greek]] [[mosaic]] depicting the god [[Dionysos]] as a winged [[daimon]] riding on a tiger, from [[Mosaics of Delos|the House of Dionysos]] at [[Delos]] (which [[History of Delos|was once controlled]] by [[History of Athens|Athens]]) in the [[South Aegean]] [[Administrative regions of Greece|region]] of [[Greece]], late second century BC, [[Archaeological Museum of Delos]]]]
Even in antiquity, the account of Dionysus' birth to a mortal woman led some to argue that he had been a historical figure who became deified over time, a suggestion of [[Euhemerism]] (an explanation of mythic events having roots in mortal history) often applied to demi-gods. The 4th-century Roman emperor and philosopher [[Julian (emperor)|Julian]] encountered examples of this belief, and wrote arguments against it. In his letter ''To the Cynic Heracleios'', Julian wrote "I have heard many people say that Dionysus was a mortal man because he was born of Semele and that he became a god through his knowledge of [[theurgy]] and the Mysteries, and like our lord Heracles for his royal virtue was translated to Olympus by his father Zeus." However, to Julian, the myth of Dionysus's birth (and that of Heracles) stood as an allegory for a deeper spiritual truth. The birth of Dionysus, Julian argues, was "no birth but a divine manifestation" to Semele, who foresaw that a physical manifestation of the god Dionysus would soon appear. However, Semele was impatient for the god to come, and began revealing his mysteries too early; for her transgression, she was struck down by Zeus. When Zeus decided it was time to impose a new order on humanity, for it to "pass from the nomadic to a more civilized mode of life", he sent his son Dionysus from India as a god made visible, spreading his worship and giving the vine as a symbol of his manifestation among mortals. In Julian's interpretation, the Greeks "called Semele the mother of Dionysus because of the prediction that she had made, but also because the god honored her as having been the first prophetess of his advent while it was yet to be." The allegorical myth of the birth of Dionysus, per Julian, was developed to express both the history of these events and encapsulate the truth of his birth outside the generative processes of the mortal world, but entering into it, though his true birth was directly from Zeus along into the [[Neoplatonism|intelligible realm]].<ref name=julian>Julian, trans. by Emily Wilmer Cave Wright. To the Cynic Heracleios. ''The Works of the Emperor Julian'', volume II (1913) Loeb Classical Library.</ref>