“[Dionysus] himself is unimaginable without his followers but does not resemble them. He is seldom drunk, seldom mad, never sexually aroused. The relationship with Ariadne, often depicted, is dignified and restrained. Even in grim situations he retains a smiling tranquility which comes suddenly to seem sinister. (Was he a model for Plato’s portrayal of Socrates?) The calmness of the god of madness is a characteristic Dionysian paradox. His followers surrender their individuality in the collective excitement. But they do not achieve union with the source of that excitement, however close they may seem to approach. Dionysus eludes them, and retains his enigmatic smile.”
— Polytheism and Society at Athens, by Robert Parker (via mirroir)
“how to love a mortal: i.
stay away from him. gods
do not love. you are a god.
do not love something
that will someday die. ii.
small-boned, soft-hearted,
voice smooth as stones.
when he breaks his ankle
you think to yourself:
oh, how easily the world
wounds him. oh, how easily he bleeds. iii.
he kisses you first. he is thirteen and human
and he will someday die.
do not kiss him back. iv.
you say: mother, can
a god love a boy?
thetis sharpens her teeth.
she says: well, what good has love ever done? v.
you were born a weapon
but you kiss him anyway.
you kiss him because he is beautiful and temporary
and you do not yet understand
what it means to kill. vi.
making love to him feels
like being remade, doesn’t it?
here, the knife in his mouth.
here, the starlight in his eyes.
here, his sweat on your tongue
like salt of the river Styx. vii.
in this dream, you
kill Agamemnon.
in this dream, there is no war.
in this dream, he lives forever. viii.
he puts your clothes on
and you forget he is mortal.
he puts your clothes on
and he forgets it, too. ix.
when the world burned,
your mother whispered:
you knew, didn’t you? i told you not to love something that will someday die. x.
you do not say:
i knew, but i was selfish. i am a god. it is my nature.”
“Anytime one tries to take fragments of one’s personal mythology and make them understandable to the whole world, one reaches back to the past. It must be dreamed again.”
