Saved by his mother Rhea, Zeus avoids the sad fate of being devoured by his father Cronus and with the help of the Cyclopes even ousts him. Then he falls in love with his daughter Persephone, who escapes and hides in a cave. But this ineffable master father, an incurable womanizer, turns into a serpent, catches up with her and, relentless, fertilizes her. The maiden gives birth, thus, to twins: Zagreus and Bacchus.
A pupil of the centaur Chiron, Bacchus learns from him the art of song and dance and is initiated into Bacchic rites. His stepmother, Juno, is forced to recognize him as the son of Zeus but punishes him with madness. Thus begins his wanderings, in the company of Silenus, satyrs and bacchae, between Egypt and India.
He comes into conflict with numerous opponents, including the king of Damascus. He defeats him and flays him alive, thus gaining, immortality. He then routs the Amazons and lands in Thrace, where he clashes with King Lycurgus, who imprisons all his followers. He manages to escape, not without sending his enemy a terrible drought and taking care to give him the gift of murderous madness as a result of which he kills his own son with an axe, having mistaken him for a tree trunk.
Having subdued Thrace, Bacchus moves on to Boeotia and from there to some islands in the Aegean, where he charters a ship and with it reaches the island of Naxos. There he meets Ariadne, abandoned and "planted in Naxos" by Theseus, and marries her. He then resumes, then, the sea and lands in Argos where Perseus erects a temple for him, which allows him entry into Olympus as god of wine.
During one of his real cruises along the Mediterranean coast he notices the inlet of the Fjord. He enters it in the company of his adored priestesses, the Maenads, and is enchanted. Taken by a great curiosity, he climbs the hilly crags of Terra Furoris and plants there all the Aglianico vines he had brought with him, Thanks to this precious gift of his, on this craggy cliff vines sprout, thus, forming the most scenic vineyard in Italy. Back on the beach, Bacchus' escorts are seized by irrepressible erotic-sexual rapture and begin to give vent to their mad frenzy. Covered in a fox skin, they wield a staff crowned with ivy and, together with Satyrs and Silenes, begin the celebration of Bacchus' feast. The invaders, excited by the deafening sound of cymbals and flutes, sing, play and dance wildly. They hold a fawn in their arms, which, having reached maximum frenzy, they quarter and eat, convinced that they are thus incorporating Bacchus. Possessed by their god, they perform wonders and predict the future. Then some of them, stracque, fall asleep on the seashore. Only when they wake up do they find that Bacchus has departed and abandoned them there. Great is the despondency. Weeping, cries, desperate wailing echo through the night. The fury of the Maenads ends up marking these places. Thus was born the name Terra Furoris or Land of Fury: FURY OF LOVE. The Maenads themselves passed from the Dionysian cult to that of Diana. Hence "dianare" and, therefore, "janare," these half-nymph, half-fairy women are the same ones who try in vain to conquer Odysseus, passing through our sea on his way back to Ithaca. Mischievous sirens, they continue to populate our lands. Late at night, they leave the nuptial thalamus and go to the beach to celebrate their rites under the walnut tree of the Fjord first and Benevento later. Without neglecting the unfailing midnight raid on the Cilento coast.
At this point everything comes together, everything is explained or almost explained. The myth remains, the mystery lingers. And it is the aspect that most contributes to the irresistible appeal of these places.