Dionysus, sometimes accompanied by satyrs, centaurs, and the sileni, had human attendants known as maenads. These mythological women are shown as intoxicated and violent, as when they rip apart King Pentheus in Euripides' tragedy "Bacchae" (Bacchantes).
The parents of Dionysus are usually said to be Semele and Dionysus, although Semele died before the god's birth. Zeus then sewed Dionysus in his thigh until it was time for his birth.
