MYTH
Because the Queen of the Gods, Hera, drove Dionysus into madness due to her anger towards Zeus’ infidelity, Dionysus wanders throughout Aigyptos where he introduces mankind the art of wine making. As he teaches the citizens, he sees a beautiful, young woman named Aria, one that may have been blessed by shining Aphrodite’s touch. Astonished by her beauty, the wine god Dionysus plans to drunken her and take her away on his travels. He worked for three days and two nights, gathering the richest, ripest grapes and turning them into the most sweet-smelling wine any human has ever smelled or tasted. Even just a sip can lead to a near sense of ecstasy.
The following night, as Dionysus takes the wine and brings it to Aria who lives in the farmlands of Aigyptos, he sees her husband Jimon holding a rose that he brings back from a hard day of labour. Struck with jealousy, Dionysus begins to morph into a vicious leopard, hoping to tear Jimon limb by limb and take Aria with him, while the flesh of her husband rots and nurtures Aigyptos’ soil for grapevines to be grown. However, before he can do so, the playful Eros, a winged, chubby boy with a golden quiver, bow, and arrows, was amused by Dionysus’ incompetence to achieve a mortal’s love, so he proposed a deal. "Dionysus, the love of Aria can be yours. I will use my lovestruck arrows to pierce her heart with desire for you and only you. This will be done if I get a sweet taste of your nectar, but we must do so in secret as my mother will surely be angered at my defiance."
Without hesitation, Dionysus offers his wine to Eros who takes giant gulps, becoming quickly drunken due to his infant-like physique. After a few hours, the heart-piercer readies his bow to take aim at Aria. Still impaired by the bountiful glasses of Dionysus’ sweet wine, Eros unknowingly pulls thousands of arrows from his quiver, all ranging in different sizes, sharpness, and materials and aims to the sky, not able to see where he is targeting. With full force, he clumsily shoots upwards into the dark night and as the collage of different arrows rain back down to earth, they scattered into different regions of the world. Not only did women and men fall in love with each other from Eros’ arrows, but some opposed love or sex, some men desired other men, and some women desired other women in Aigyptos. Two of whom were Jimon and Dionysus, as they were struck with the painful desire for each other, leaving Aria to be alone in the morning. Meanwhile, Eros laid on the ground hungover, feeling groggy and nauseous, ultimately waking up to a stern Aphrodite.
ANALYSIS
The focus on my myth is the origin of sexual orientation. Today, although we have two biological sexes: man and woman, there are a variety of sexual orientations (heterosexual, homosexual, bi-sexual, etc.). This fictional aetiological myth describes how different genders/sexual orientations formed using the ancient myths of Dionysus during his travel to Egypt, the son of Aphrodite Eros, and two unique characters I made up that are a reference to two actual persons in Dionysus’ myth.
Firstly, the base of this aetiological myth is the story of Hera inflicting madness upon Dionysus (Apollod. 2.29). After he recovers by going to the temple of Zeus (Hyg., Poet. astr. 2.23), he ventures to Aigyptos (Egypt) where he teaches how to make wine for the citizens and meets King Proteus as he welcomes Dionysus (Apollod. 2.29). Though King Proteus is not mentioned in this myth, it makes it clear that Dionysus is travelling to Aigyptos as the narrative makes parallels to the art of winemaking and Dionysus wandering around the country. It is also great to note that the aetiological myth kept the tradition of Dionysus cultivating wine and sharing this knowledge with humans too. This fact of going to other civilizations and boasting about his wine is backed up by many ancient writings: “Father Liber [Dionysos] went out to visit men in order to demonstrate the sweetness and pleasantness of his fruit… he gave a skin full of wine as a gift and bade them spread the use of it in all the other lands” (Hyg., Fab. 130). Because of Dionysus’ travels and his sharing of winemaking, he has created cults that worship him and societies that drink wine during festivals, celebrations, and more. Additionally, he is known as the god of ecstasy and drunkenness, as he makes his followers go frenzy a lot of the times (Cundy, “Tragedy” 2021). Here, he is introducing this wine culture to the people of Aigyptos so they too can worship Dionysus’ doings. Mixing in with the story of Dionysus’ journey, this unique myth is also inspired by the story of Ariadne and Theseus. Although this narrative does not use the actual character names and does not use actual plot points (for it would not make sense in terms of the setting being Egypt, when really this happened on Krete), it is similar in the sense that there is a common trope of Dionysus taking away another man’s wife using ruthless means. In this case, to add content to Dionysus journey in Egypt, it is shown that Dionysus falls for a beautiful woman named “Aria” who is currently married to her husband Jimon, much like how in ancient texts he falls in love with Ariadne who is with Theseus (Diod. Sic. 5.51.4).Here, Dionysus plans to transform into a leopard to kill Jimon, and in the Library of History, he threatened to kill Theseus if he does not give up Ariadne (Diod. Sic. 5.51.4).A quick note about his method of murder: I chose the leopard, as this animal symbolizes Dionsyus and his pet of choice when destroying his foes in many myths (Atsma). In both tales, the husbands leave: one is infatuated with another man and the other sails away. A similarity here is that the romantic partner is out of the scene before getting physically hurt by Dionysus himself. However, a difference here is that instead of obtaining the woman he loves, Dionysus gets the man he loves, which makes the narrative more comical and ironic since Jimon was his rival, and Dionysus usually annihilates his oppressors. Overall, my myth and published ancient texts incorporate the essence of his madness and pride, as he makes people give him what he wants and those who oppose are dealt harshly (without guilt).
This aetiological myth also mentions Eros, god of love and son of Aphrodite (according to different pieces of literature). It is quick to reference the appearance of Eros, as it matches the description painted on vases: a winged plump baby, with his bow and arrows (Atsma). In addition, Eros in this myth is correctly depicted as a mischievous boy, as he drinks wine when he is not supposed to and fires his powerful arrows during irresponsibly. Interestingly, the myth describes Eros drinking in private so that his mother does not know, which correlates to his rebellious nature towards Aphrodite and the showcase of her frustration in ancient texts: “He certainly pays no attention to me: he defies me and always does the opposite of what I say. I am so worn out by his naughtiness that I have half a mind to break his bow and wicked arrows in his very sight” (Ap. Rhod. 3.82ff). This narrative retains the appearance and naughtiness that several texts perceive Eros as. Moreover, Eros’ arrows are emphasized as powerful and containing different abilities. In my myth, he says that his arrows can pierce the heart of Aria that she will only desire Dionysus. Also, he was able to shoot a thousand arrows into the sky, all of which poured down and targeted thousands of people across the lands, while developing different types of sexual desire. This plotline is inspired by the many tales of Eros’ ability to make people fall in love, but one story that showcases the power of Eros’ bow is when he proved to Apollo his skillfulness: “Your bow, Phoebus, may vanquish all, but mine shall vanquish you… from his quiver’s laden armoury he drew two arrows of opposing power, one shaft that rouses love and one that routs it… This one he lodged in Nympha Peneis’ heart; the first he shot to pierce Apollo to the marrow. At once he loves; she flies the name of love” (Ovid, Met. 1.452ff). In my myth and in many other myths, Eros is depicted as a mischievous boy who can be underestimated as a powerful being. Nevertheless, he proves gods and mortals incorrect as love can actually be a powerful weakness for a person.
Using ancient texts, I wanted to explore what Dionysus did during his wandering in Egypt and add details to this small event during his travel. Dionysus is an interesting god as he is not like the other gods: he does not follow Greek culture and is accompanied by beasts like satyrs or foreigners (Cundy, “Aristophanes Frogs” 2021). He travels outside of Greece and encounters people in places like Africa or Asia. Therefore, I wanted Dionysus to be the one experiencing an uncommon norm of homosexuality, as Dionysus is seen as someone who rebels from the culture of the gods. Furthermore, I wanted to add Eros to the story as the causation of gender fluidity. Many of us know about gender fluidity but how is it that we even have fluid genders in the first place? This myth explains this, by stating that Eros, god of love (which is fitting for a topic about romance), shot a variety of arrows to the sky and it rained down on the mortals. Because there is a variety of arrows, there is a variety of sexual orientations, and perhaps we did not know of these arrows piercing us because Eros did it during the dark night when no one can see. It is not until bright morning that Jimon and Dionysus falls in love, much like how we come across a revelation/understanding of our gender once a light shine in our gloomy mind that our identity confusion turns into identity acceptance.
REFERENCES
Primary Resources
Apollodorus. 1975. Bibliotheca. Translated by Keith Aldrich. Lawrence: Coronado Press.
Hyginus. 1960. Astronomica. Translated by Mary Grant. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Hyginus. 1960. Fabulae. Translated by Mary Grant. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press.
Ovid. 1986. Metamorphoses. Translated by A.D. Melville. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rhodius, Apollonius. 1959, 1971. Argonautica. Translated by Emile V. Rieu. London: Penguin Classics.
Siculus, Diodorus. 1935. Library of History. Translated by Charles H. Oldfather. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Secondary Resources
Atsma, Aaron J. “Dionysus.” Theoi Project. www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html. Accessed 30 March 2021.
Atsma, Aaron J. “Eros.” Theoi Project. www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Eros.html#Haides. Accessed 10 March 2021.
Cundy, Jody. “Aristophanes Frogs.” Ancient Mythology II: Greece and Rome, 9 Mar. 2021, University of Toronto. Lecture.
---. “Tragedy.” Ancient Mythology II: Greece and Rome, 3 Mar. 2021, University of Toronto. Lecture.
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