In the end Dionysus and Jesus were both really bad for the status quo. There’s a reason the crackdown on the Bacchanalia by the Roman senate in 186 BC was the first large-scale religious persecution in European history.46 And there’s a reason Christianity followed suit. In the eyes of the ruling class, the idea of continuity between the Greek and Christian Mysteries was pretty darn clear. Barbaric to the core, they both offered direct access to the Lord of Death following the consumption of the god himself in the form of fortified wine.
