Dionysos riding a cheetah, mosaic from a wealthy home of the late 4th century BC, the "House of Dionysos" at Pella, in Pella, the capital of the Macedonian Kingdom. Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theater and religious ecstasy in ancient Greek religion and myth. Wine played an important role in Greek culture, and the cult of Dionysus was the main religious focus for its unrestrained consumption. He is a major, popular figure of Greek mythology and religion, becoming increasingly important over time, and included in some lists of the twelve Olympians, as the last of their number, and the only god born from a mortal mother. Roman mosaics are constructed from geometrical blocks called tesserae, placed together to create the shapes of figures, motifs and patterns. Materials for tesserae were obtained from local sources of natural stone, with the additions of cut brick, tile and pottery creating colored shades of, predominantly, blue, black, red, white and yellow.