Because there are a lot of them, some quite important, I’m going to explain my allusions in Wintermärchen.
First, of course, there’s the title: “A Winter’s Tale” is an epic poem by Heinrich Heine chronicling his trip from Paris to Hamburg. Aside from moving the narrative thread along – the poem preceding Wintermärchen, as you may recall, was set in Paris – there’s also a minor name drop, as Heinrich Heine mentions the Retinue of Dionysos in this evocative passage from Die Götter im Exil:
Silenus, whom the merry maids had raised upon an ass, rode along, holding a golden goblet, which was constantly filled for him. Slowly he advanced, while behind whirled in mad eddies the reckless troop of vine-clad revelers. You, reader, who are well educated and familiar with descriptions of Bacchanalian orgies or festivals of Dionysos, would not have been astonished by this. At the utmost, you would only feel a slightly licentious thrill at seeing this assembly of delightful phantoms rise from their sarcophagi to again renew their ancient and festive rites, all rioting, reveling, hurrahing Evöe Bacche!
Suitable, since in our story Dionysos is currently vagabonding through Eastern Europe, specifically the site that will one day become Olbia on the Black Sea.
His travel companion is the Grace or Charis Pasithea whom Theoi.com describes as follows:
Pasithea as the wife of Hypnos, god of sleep and dreams, may have been envisaged as the goddess of hallucinations and hallucinogenic drugs. Her name is difficult to translate–the prefix pasis can be translated equally as “all”, “possessed” or “acquired” and the suffix thea as “sight”, “seeing”, “contemplation”, “goddess” or “divine”. Translating it as “Acquired-Sight” may suggest a goddess of hallucination, however, in the story of the Iliad, where Hypnos acquires her from Hera in exchange for certain favours, the “Acquired-Goddess” meaning is quite apt. The name pasithea was also given to some unidentified “magical” plant, perhaps even an hallucinogenic. Hypnos was himself associated with poppies and opiates.
Yes, you read that correctly. For parents she has Dionysos as father and Hera as mother; she is also the “green-haired” Marijuana Goddess. There’s a story in that but I am not yet ready to tell it.
The poem goes on to provide an aition for the Kapnobatai, “those who Walk in Smoke,” Skythian shamans who went into ecstatic states and communed with the dead after inhaling marijuana vapours.
The sacred use of marijuana wasn’t just limited to these religious specialists; many Skythian tribes had reverence for her.
The rose-red girl who lives on the edge of the woods parallels the serpent-nymph Herakles bedded to propagate the Skythian race; Dionysos comes disguised as a Metragyrtes as a nod to Anacharsis and the Enarei; the specifically Median attire alludes to his son Medus as well as Pharnabazos, diviner of Hermes.
The apple he gives her is of course, Hesperidian Mela with “the West” understood in its traditional sense as the place of Death. (Brother of Hypnos, husband of Pasithea. Circles, man.) This should also remind one of the peach scene from Labyrinth where Sarah quotes Herakleitos’ πάντα χωρεῖ. (A little subliminal advertising, as that’s a forthcoming title from Nysa Press.)
Oh, and the Dakytloi use sickles to free themselves not because they’re in the birthplace of Marxism – perish the thought – but because of this tool’s role in the Orphic Rhapsodies.
And, finally, you can read about trans warrior Hervör’s cursed sword Tyrfing here. And you should, because such stories are rare and thus all the more important for us to know and remember.
One more. I just can’t help myself. The black and white mounts mirrored by the seagull and crow – that’s an allusion to this clip from ODN.
With all those allusions out of the way anyone want to take a crack at what Wintermärchen is really about?
