The Eleusinian Mysteries were secret religious rites held each year in Eleusis and Athens to celebrate the abduction and rescue of Persephone from Hades and to honor Demeter and Iacchus, a god identified with Dionysus. Thus, it’s rather apt that Dionysus himself should happen upon their festivities. Though Dionysus likely wouldn’t have made it to Hades without Xanthias’s help, it’s of little consequence to Xanthias’s social status—as an enslaved person, he’s still beholden to Dionysus, even if he far exceeds him intellectually. Not only does the play embrace older dramatic traditions (Dionysus’s preference for the dying art of tragedy over contemporary comic plays), but it also upholds traditional, longstanding social hierarchies, as well.