Dionysus introduced wine throughout the world
Dionysus was nurtured in secret to avoid Hera's wrath, according to tradition. He was raised by wood and river nymphs far from Mount Olympus. Hera, on the other hand, discovered him when he was an adult. She hit her stepson with lunacy, just as she had Heracles.
Dionysus wandered the globe for many years, forgetting who he was and what his purpose was. He made wine grow wherever he went because he was still a god, and according to certain mythology, he was tied to the fertility goddess Persephone. To the Greeks, this explained why grapevines could be found all over the earth. Dionysus had unintentionally planted them as he roamed.
Rhea eventually tracked down Dionysus and cured him of his insanity. He returned to Olympus, although he still traveled the world on occasion to tend to the vineyards he had planted. Dionysus' role as the deity of madness was established in this episode. He could inspire a comparable state of mind to deliver either bliss or pain to others, having been driven insane himself.
Dionysus, according to legend, continued to tour the world when his wine grapes bloomed. According to Nonnus' epic from the fifth century, Zeus dispatched Dionysus on a military campaign to convert the inhabitants of India to his devotion. He was mostly successful because he introduced wine to the country, accompanied by an army largely made up of satyrs and maenads.
Although the Dionysiaca was not written in Classical Greece, there is evidence that the Romans had a more militant concept of Dionysus/Bacchus at an earlier time. The Roman triumphs that celebrated victorious generals and the emperor were inspired by his procession of followers.
