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According to many ancient sources and modern scholarship, Dionysus was a late addition to the Olympian pantheon. It is widely believed that the Greeks adopted this religious figure from a foreign culture. Many academics believe that he was a Thracian god in origin, while others hold that he had a Near Eastern origin. However, one school of thought argues that this divinity was a very old Chthonic or earth deity who was worshipped in the Mycenaean and Minoan era. It appears that he was originally a fertility god. Dionysus was widely worshipped by the Greeks from at least the 7th century BC <ref>Burkert, Walter. Greek religion (Harvard, Harvard University Press, 1985), p. 113</ref>. Based on the surviving iconography, it seems that he was originally a God of wine but later came to be associated with intoxication, frenzy, and unrestrained sexuality. At some datadate, he became linked with the concept of transformation and metamorphoses and in this way, he came to be seen as a god of resurrection. Dionysus was often associated with wilderness and animals. There are many depictions of this deity in art and he is either shown as an effeminate youth or an older bearded man. While there were many temples dedicated to the deity, often his followers celebrated his cult in the woods or mountains as shown in the play of Euripides The Bacchae. The cult of this god was associated with ecstatic rituals and orgies and the major festival held in his honor, the Dionysia was accompanied by drinking and partying. Dionysus was a god of transgression and was often associated with homosexuality and cross-dressing <ref>Burkert, p 123</ref>. The followers and priestesses of the divinity were the Maenads, who were often portrayed as engaged in a state of unrestrained ecstasywild rituals. Dionysus was very important in Greek society mainly because wine was central to its social life. The Romans adopted the cult of the son of Zeus but it never really received official recognition or became part of the state’s public religion. Indeed, the worship of the Roman variant of the Dionysus cult was initially suppressed and was only later tolerated after the cult had been reformed. The worship of the god of wine was unique as unlike other cults, he was not merely worshipped, it was believed that during festivals and rituals that he was present with his followers and indeed they became as one with the divinity. By the 5th century BC, a Mystery Religion had evolved out of the wine god’s worship. Mystery religions These were cults that offered worshippers a more personal religious experience and often offered personal salvation to worshippers. Individuals were initiated into the mysteries of Dionysus and they were thought to be blessed with secret knowledge concerning life and their salvation. The god of wine was also prominent in other mystery religions such as Orphism <ref>Angus, Samuel. The mystery-religions. (London, Courier Corporation, 2012), p 112</ref>.