MYTHS OF THE GREAT DIVINITIES OF EARTH
=110. Myths of Bacchus.= Since the adventures of Ceres, although she
was a goddess of earth, are intimately connected with the life of
the underworld, they will be related in the sections pertaining to
Proserpine and Pluto. The god of vernal sap and vegetation, of the
gladness that comes of youth or of wine, the golden-curled, sleepy-eyed
Bacchus (Dionysus),--his wanderings, and the fortunes of mortals
brought under his influence (Pentheus, Acetes, Ariadne, and Midas),
here challenge our attention.
[Illustration: FIG. 82. SILENUS TAKING DIONYSUS TO SCHOOL]
=111. The Wanderings of Bacchus.= After the death of Semele,[145] Jove
took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the Nysæan nymphs,
who nourished his infancy and childhood and for their care were placed
by Jupiter, as the Hyades, among the stars. Another guardian and tutor
of young Bacchus was the pot-bellied, jovial Silenus, son of Pan and
a nymph, and oldest of the Satyrs. Silenus was probably an indulgent
preceptor. He was generally tipsy and would have broken his neck early
in his career, had not the Satyrs held him on his ass's back as he
reeled along in the train of his pupil. After Bacchus was of age, he
discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its
precious juice; but Juno struck him with madness and drove him forth
a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess
Rhea cured him and taught him her religious rites; and then he set
out on a progress through Asia, teaching the people the cultivation
of the vine. The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition
to India, which is said to have lasted several years. Returning in
triumph, he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was
opposed by certain princes who dreaded the disorders and madness it
brought with it. Finally, he approached his native city Thebes, where
his own cousin, Pentheus, son of Agave and grandson of Harmonia and
Cadmus, was king. Pentheus, however, had no respect for the new worship
and forbade its rites to be performed.[146] But when it was known that
Bacchus was advancing, men and women, young and old, poured forth to
meet him and to join his triumphal march.
[Illustration: FIG. 83. BEARDED DIONYSUS AND SATYR]
Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
Ivy crowns that brow, supernal
As the forehead of Apollo,
And possessing youth eternal.
Round about him fair Bacchantes,
Bearing cymbals, flutes, and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves or Zante's
Vineyards, sing delirious verses.[147]
It was in vain Pentheus remonstrated, commanded, and threatened. His
nearest friends and wisest counselors begged him not to oppose the god.
Their remonstrances only made him the more violent.
=112. The Story of Acetes.= Soon the attendants returned who had been
dispatched to seize Bacchus. They had succeeded in taking one of the
Bacchanals prisoner, whom, with his hands tied behind him, they brought
before the king. Pentheus, threatening him with death, commanded him
to tell who he was and what these new rites were that he presumed to
celebrate.
[Illustration: FIG. 84. SATYR AND MÆNAD WITH CHILD DIONYSUS]
The prisoner, unterrified, replied that he was Acetes of Mæonia; that
his parents, being poor, had left him their fisherman's trade, which
he had followed till he had acquired the pilot's art of steering his
course by the stars. It once happened that he had touched at the island
of Dia and had sent his men ashore for fresh water. They returned,
bringing with them a lad of delicate appearance whom they had found
asleep. Judging him to be a noble youth, they thought to detain him
in the hope of liberal ransom. But Acetes suspected that some god was
concealed under the youth's exterior, and asked pardon for the violence
done. Whereupon the sailors, enraged by their lust of gain, exclaimed,
"Spare thy prayers for us!" and, in spite of the resistance offered by
Acetes, thrust the captive youth on board and set sail.
Then Bacchus (for the youth was indeed he), as if shaking off his
drowsiness, asked what the trouble was and whither they were carrying
him. One of the mariners replied, "Fear nothing; tell us where thou
wouldst go, and we will convey thee thither." "Naxos is my home," said
Bacchus; "take me there, and ye shall be well rewarded." They promised
so to do; but, preventing the pilot from steering toward Naxos, they
bore away for Egypt, where they might sell the lad into slavery.
Soon the god looked out over the sea and said in a voice of weeping,
"Sailors, these are not the shores ye promised me; yonder island is
not my home. It is small glory ye shall gain by cheating a poor boy."
Acetes wept to hear him, but the crew laughed at both of them and sped
the vessel fast over the sea. All at once it stopped in mid-sea, as
fast as if it were fixed on the ground. The men, astonished, pulled at
their oars and spread more sail, but all in vain. Ivy twined round the
oars and clung to the sails, with heavy clusters of berries. A vine
laden with grapes ran up the mast and along the sides of the vessel.
The sound of flutes was heard, and the odor of fragrant wine spread all
around. The god himself had a chaplet of vine leaves and bore in his
hand a spear wreathed with ivy. Tigers crouched at his feet, and forms
of lynxes and spotted panthers played around him. The whole crew became
dolphins and swam about the ship. Of twenty men Acetes alone was left.
"Fear not," said the god; "steer towards Naxos." The pilot obeyed, and
when they arrived there, kindled the altars and celebrated the sacred
rites of Bacchus.
[Illustration: FIG. 85. DIONYSUS AT SEA]
So far had Acetes advanced in his narrative, when Pentheus,
interrupting, ordered him off to his death. But from this fate the
pilot, rendered invisible by his patron deity, was straightway rescued.
Meanwhile, the mountain Cithæron seemed alive with worshipers, and the
cries of the Bacchanals resounded on every side. Pentheus, angered by
the noise, penetrated through the wood and reached an open space where
the chief scene of the orgies met his eyes. At the same moment the
women saw him, among them his mother Agave, and Autonoë and Ino, her
sisters. Taking him for a wild boar, they rushed upon him and tore him
to pieces,--his mother shouting, "Victory! Victory! the glory is ours!"
So the worship of Bacchus was established in Greece.
It was on the island of Naxos that Bacchus afterward found Ariadne, the
daughter of Minos, king of Crete, who had been deserted by her lover,
Theseus. How Bacchus comforted her is related in another section. How
the god himself is worshiped is told by Edmund Gosse in the poem from
which the following extracts are taken:
[Illustration: FIG. 86. BACCHIC PROCESSION]
Behold, behold! the granite gates unclose,
And down the vales a lyric people flows;
Dancing to music, in their dance they fling
Their frantic robes to every wind that blows,
And deathless praises to the vine-god sing.
Nearer they press, and nearer still in sight,
Still dancing blithely in a seemly choir;
Tossing on high the symbol of their rite,
The cone-tipped thyrsus of a god's desire;
Nearer they come, tall damsels flushed and fair,
With ivy circling their abundant hair;
Onward, with even pace, in stately rows,
With eye that flashes, and with cheek that glows,
And all the while their tribute-songs they bring,
And newer glories of the past disclose,
And deathless praises to the vine-god sing.
... But oh! within the heart of this great flight,
Whose ivory arms hold up the golden lyre?
What form is this of more than mortal height?
What matchless beauty, what inspirèd ire!
The brindled panthers know the prize they bear,
And harmonize their steps with stately care;
Bent to the morning, like a living rose,
The immortal splendor of his face he shows,
And where he glances, leaf and flower and wing
Tremble with rapture, stirred in their repose,
And deathless praises to the vine-god sing....[148]
[Illustration: FIG. 87. DIONYSUS VISITING A POET]
=113. The Choice of King Midas.=[149] Once Silenus, having wandered
from the company of Bacchus in an intoxicated condition, was found by
some peasants, who carried him to their king, Midas. Midas entertained
him royally and on the eleventh day restored him in safety to his
divine pupil. Whereupon Bacchus offered Midas his choice of a reward.
The king asked that whatever he might touch should be changed into
gold. Bacchus consented. Midas hastened to put his new-acquired power
to the test. A twig of an oak, which he plucked from the branch, became
gold in his hand. He took up a stone; it changed to gold. He touched
a sod with the same result. He took an apple from the tree; you would
have thought he had robbed the garden of the Hesperides. He ordered
his servants, then, to set an excellent meal on the table. But, to his
dismay, when he touched bread, it hardened in his hand; when he put a
morsel to his lips, it defied his teeth. He took a glass of wine, but
it flowed down his throat like melted gold.
He strove to divest himself of his power; he hated the gift he had
lately coveted. He raised his arms, all shining with gold, in prayer
to Bacchus, begging to be delivered from this glittering destruction.
The merciful deity heard and sent him to wash away his fault and its
punishment in the fountainhead of the river Pactolus. Scarce had Midas
touched the waters, before the gold-creating power passed into them,
and the river sands became golden, as they remain to this day.
Thenceforth Midas, hating wealth and splendor, dwelt in the country and
became a worshiper of Pan, the god of the fields. But that he had not
gained common sense is shown by the decision that he delivered somewhat
later in favor of Pan's superiority, as a musician, over Apollo.[150]
FOOTNOTES:
[145] § 60.
[146] Ovid, Metam. 3, 511-733.
[147] Longfellow, Drinking Song.
[148] From The Praise of Dionysus.
[149] Ovid, Metam. 11, 85-145.
[150] See § 85.
[Illustration: FIG. 88. RAPE OF PROSERPINA]