Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele, daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. The relationship had been going on for some time, but Juno was aware of everything and, as usual, took countermeasures. She took on the appearance of Semele’s nurse and planted the seed of doubt in her mind that her lover was not really Jupiter. Semele was six months pregnant, and Jupiter, deeply in love, would have done anything for her. On the advice of her nurse/Hera, the girl asked Jupiter to grant her one wish. Jupiter made an oath that was impossible to break. The girl asked Jupiter to show himself in his true form, and Jupiter shuddered. He had to do what she asked, but this would mean Semele’s immediate death. Before revealing himself, however, he made an incision in his thigh, extracted the fetus from Semele’s womb while she was still alive, placed it in his pocket, and closed the wound. This was the first caesarean section in history and the first natural incubator. In this way, Jupiter saved his son from certain death and hid him from other dangers by transforming him into a kid and taking him to Mount Nisa in Helicon (54). He was raised by some nymphs whom Jupiter transformed into a constellation out of gratitude. It was on the slopes of Mount Nisa that Dionysus invented the drink for which he gained eternal fame: wine. As soon as he reached adulthood, Hera, who believed him to be effeminate, discovered that he was the son of Zeus and therefore reserved special treatment for him. She suddenly drove him mad (as she had done with Heracles), and Dionysus, surrounded by satyrs and maenads wielding sticks with ivy twisted around them and pine cones on top, began to wander everywhere. He travelled as far as India via Mesopotamia and Egypt, with the sole mission of teaching these peoples how to cultivate vines. He was always accompanied by Silenus, his tutor, and in Egypt he was welcomed by the king of Pharos. Here, he allied himself with the Amazons and waged war on the Titans, defeating them. I forgot to mention that on his journey to the East, he had clashed with the king of Damascus on the Euphrates River and flayed him alive (55), then arrived at the Tigris River, where a beast, sent by his father, ferried him across. He encountered the Amazons again, who now opposed him, but they were defeated and took refuge in the temple of Artemis at Ephesus. Some others took refuge in Samos, but Dionysus pursued them and slaughtered them. Stopping on his way back to Phrygia, his grandmother Rhea purified him of his crimes and initiated him into the mysteries that would become the Dionysian mysteries. He wanted to invade Thrace, but found it a tough nut to crack. Lycurgus, king of the Edonians, captured his entire entourage, and Dionysus managed to save himself only by throwing himself into the sea and taking refuge in the cave of Thetis (56). Rhea, once again, freed the prisoners and drove Lycurgus mad, who mistook his son for a vine and mutilated him horribly. The land dried up, and Dionysus declared that it would remain so as long as Lycurgus remained alive. The Edonians then took the king to Mount Pangeo (57) and had him trampled to death by wild horses. Dionysus passed through Boeotia and invited the women of Thebes to join his nocturnal rites, which were not exactly suitable for schoolgirls and took place on Mount Citerone. The king of Thebes, Pentheus, arrested the Maenads, but, driven mad (by Rhea, as usual), he put a bull in chains instead of Dionysus. The Maenads fled to the mountain, pursued by the king, and when he caught up with them, they killed him by biting him (they were true ladies).
So in this myth we see little kindness and goodness compared to the previous one. Violent behavior and bloody episodes follow one another in this story, far from the effeminate nature that Hera believed in!
It doesn’t end there. In Orchomenus (58), three maidens, invited by Dionysus himself to his festivities, refused to participate. They too went mad and dismembered and devoured the son of one of them, Hippias’s, before fleeing in distress to the mountains. They were transformed into birds, but others say into bats. From Boeotia, Dionysus tried to spread his cult to the Aegean islands. He was captured by pirates who wanted to sell him in Asia, but this was not a good idea because Dionysus had the ship’s mast wrapped in ivy and vines and turned himself into a lion. The pirates threw themselves into the sea to save themselves and were transformed into dolphins. Continuing his voyage, he stopped on the island of Naxos in the Cyclades, little more than a rock in the middle of the Aegean Sea, where Theseus, returning from Crete, had abandoned Ariadne (59). The god, who, as we have seen, had a wild nature, also had moments of generosity. He welcomed the poor girl and immediately made her his consort. Ariadne bore him five or six children over the years and was eternally grateful to him. Dionysus landed at Argos in the Peloponnese, ruled by Perseus, who persecuted the god’s followers. After a brief dispute, Perseus got the message and erected a temple in honor of Dionysus, and everything fell into place. Once his cult had been established throughout Greece, Dionysus was elevated to Olympus on his father’s orders, where he sat next to Jupiter on the seat vacated by Hestia. Once again, he had to accept and watch another son of Jupiter sit beside him (there would be time, and it certainly wouldn’t end there!). Inventor of wine, surrounded by Maenads, Bacchantes, and so on, creator of personal mysteries and object of an obscene cult, Dionysus was certainly not a recommendable god, but even the ugly and evil ones are needed. What do you say, Fabrizio? “
” Well, what can I say, Professor, there is little to add about Hestia. She is very similar to one of our blessed women, Saint Catherine, for example, and I wouldn’t want to go any further. Even the way she rejects the advances of the other gods and Priapus speaks volumes about her nature. Dionysus, on the other hand, reveals a nature that is both ferocious and destructive. In our culture, we could define him, without exaggeration, as Mephistophelean. But he also shows mercy, especially towards Ariadne, who, in addition to her troubles with her mother, had gone looking for an unemotional and treacherous man. A draw is too much, so I would say he is a contradictory god. But Professor, I don’t know if I was distracted, but we haven’t talked about the Etruscan counterparts of these two deities.” “I’ll answer you right away. I have no information about specific deities related to Vesta, but there was something similar to the vestal virgins, that is, virgin priestesses dedicated to the sacred fire, among the Etruscans. As for Dionysus, we have a counterpart in Fufluns, who is totally comparable to the god of the grape harvest, health, and happiness. I don’t know what you were like before, Fabri, and I think you were the first to underestimate yourself. Only one word comes to mind. Well done!” Fabrizio blushed and headed for the door. They said goodbye with a nod of understanding.
Lascia un commento