Beginning of Essay
Winter squalls are drained out of the sky. The violet season of flowering spring smiles. The black earth glitters under green lawns. Swelling plants pop open with tiny petals. Meadows laugh and suck the morning dew, while the rose unfolds. The shepherd in the hill ....

Middle of Essay
.... The most important festival, the Greater Dionysia, was held in Athens for five days each spring. It was for this celebration that the Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote their great tragedies. Also, after the 5th century BC, was known to the Greeks as Bacchus. is the son of Zeus and Semele. He is the only god to have a mortal parent. The birth of began when Zeus came to Semele in the night, invisible, felt only as a divine presence. Semele was pleased to be a lover of a god, even though she did not know which one. Word soon got around and Hera quickly assumed who was responsible. Hera went to Semele in disguise and convince ....