The Dionysian Mysteries were a ritual of ancient Greece and Rome which used intoxicants and other trance-inducing techniques, such as dance and music, to remove inhibitions and artificial societal constraints, liberating the individual to return to a more natural and primal state. It also afforded a degree of liberation for the marginals of Greek society: women, slaves and foreigners. In their final phase the Mysteries apparently shifted from a chthonic, primeval orientation to a transcendental, mystical one, with Dionysus altering his nature accordingly. By its nature of a mystery religion reserved for the initiated, most aspects of the Dionysian cult remain unknown and were lost with the decline of Hellenistic polytheism. Our current knowledge is largely based on descriptions, imagery and comparative cross-cultural studies.