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Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, a princess. When the wife of Zeus, the Queen of the Gods heard that Semele was pregnant with her husband’s child, she decided to take her revenge. She tricked Semele into seeing Zeus in all his splendor and as a result, she died. The King of the Gods took the unborn Dionysus and put him in his thigh and eventually, he emerged from his father’s leg <ref>Graves, Robert. The Greek Myths (London, Pelican, 2000), p 119</ref>. Zeus gave the child to the satyrs to raise and educate, who would protect him from Hera’s wrath. Dionysus is the subject of many myths. In many stories, there are tales about kings and others rejecting him and refusing to worship him. It must be remembered that Dionysus was initially on a demi-god because his mother was a human. However, he had a great many supernatural attributes and powers. Many of the fables about Dionysus concern his struggles achieving divine status or to have it recognized by humans. In one story a king of Lycurgus attacked him and his companions, the maenads, and pushed them into the sea. In revenge, Dionysus drove the king mad and this led him to massacre his family and to mutilate himself. The King of Thebes Pentheus also rejected the cult of Dionysus and even tried to arrest the god. Dionysus drove his daughters mad and in a frenzy, they tore Pentheus apart. The god also had secret knowledge and possessed the knowledge of winemaking. It is stated in several sources that he discovered this after Hera drove him mad and that he learned the secrets of winemaking in distant India. Dionysus gave the secret of making wine to a Greek hero Ikarios and he shared it with other mortals and for this reason, he was regarded as a benefactor of humanity. The god of wine was a wanderer, and he traveled far and wide. According to one story, he was captured by a group of pirates in the Mediterranean <ref>Graves, p 119</ref>. In retaliation, the god filled the pirate ship with vines, specters, and wild animals. The pirates jumped overboard to escape the chaos and they were transformed into dolphins. Dionysus was believed to have traveled far and wide as a conqueror and often demanding recognition as a god. Some sources claim that he was the first to invade India, which later greatly influenced Alexander the Great. It has also been claimed that Dionysus fought the Amazons who were female warriors in what is now RussiaRussian Steppe. During his wanderings, the god was to learn many secrets and acquire a great deal of secret knowledge. In a story found in Apollodorus, he learned the secret of the orgies from an Eastern Goddess, the Cybele <ref>Apollodorus. The Library of Greek myths, ii, iv</ref>. These were ecstatic practices that it was believed allowed the devotee to attain a higher and liberated state of being. Dionysus was believed to have descended into Hades (the realm of the dead) to retrieve his mother. Here he fought and defeated the God of Death and he was able to bring Semele to Olympus. In most accounts, it was at this time that he was finally deified and became a full god. In some stories, the god of wine was crucial in the defeat of the giant monster Typhoon who challenged Zeus for supremacy of the cosmos. It is also narrated in several sources that Dionysus was also instrumental in the Olympians' destruction of the Titans during the War of the Giants. However, he was torn apart by the Titans but was later brought back to life. Dionysus was also a major character in other myths. He is often credited with bestowing on King Midas of Lydia the ability to turn everything he touched into gold<ref>Graves, p 134</ref>.