Dionysus was not included in my work “The Gods of Greece” (1929), because he does not belong to the circle of true Olympians to whom the book was dedicated. Now it is becoming the central theme of a separate work. What I presented in this work in many ways significantly contradicts generally accepted trends in the study of mythology. Usually the study of ancient beliefs involves tracing the evolution that begins with the first primitive ideas of deity and ends with the greatness of his classical manifestation. In this work, on the contrary, the center of critical understanding is the origins of beliefs, which appeared much earlier than the activities of individual poets and artists. In fact, without this powerful impulse, their activities would have been completely impossible. Compared to the basis of creation, all later strokes, no matter how significant they may be, turn out to be trivial.