The theater in its full form came into being in Classical Greece. At that time, the theater was part of a religious festival and so included a number of ritual elements, several of which have been modified for use in theater ever since. The revival of classical learning in the Renaissance included a revival of Greek plays and certain ritual elements in different form. The theater of today is often profit-centered and secular but still makes use of Greek dramatic principles in many cases. The physical theater has changed greatly, as has the
relationship between the theater and the society of which it is a part. Roman theater developed from Greek traditions carried over in the Hellenic period and then transformed to fit the Roman social structure and Roman sensibilities. The two theaters have similarities and also differences. They often use the same myths as source material and give those myths different treatment. The Roman theater also developed new theatrical forms and genres which extended what the Greeks had performed.
In Greek mythology, Dionysus was a bastard son of Zeus. The mother of Dionysus is variously named depending on the source, and some have said she was Demeter, or Io, and some Diane, and still others Lethe. The most common story has it that Zeus disguised himself as a mortal and had a secret affair with Semele ("moon"), the daughter of King Cadmus of Thebes. Zeus's wife, Hera, was jealous. She disguised herself as an old neighbor and advised Semele to ask her lover to do her a favor by not hiding his identity any longer but to reveal himself to her in his true nature and form. Semele followed this advice, and when Zeus refused to comply, she refused him access to her bed. In anger, he appeared in thunder and lighting, and Semele was consumed. Hermes saved her six-month-old unborn child, however, by sewing him up inside Zeus's thigh to mature for another three months, at which time the child was...