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Longing, Not Envy in the Heart
Sententiae Antiquae posted a selection from the Anacreonta very much in line with my last post: “I am aching for the dancesOf playful Dionysus–I am in love with playing the lyewith a young man as...
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Jumping back to Aegyptika, Herodotos felt that there was an affinity between Bacchic, Egyptian, Pythagorean and Orphic beliefs and practices: The Egyptians wear linen tunics with fringes hanging about...
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Hail the Epaphian! The Golden Calf!
Hyginus, Fabulae 150: postquam Iuno vidit Epapho ex pellice nato tantam regni potestatem esse, curat in venatu, ut Epaphus necetur, Titanosque hortatur, Iovem ut regno pellant et Saturno...
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Putting The Mysteries to use
I originally came up with The Mysteries as a meditation tool and writing prompt – but I just realized that it has another function, namely that it can be used as a divination system comparable to the...
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A God’s tears
Βάκχος ἄναξ δάκρυσε, βροτῶν ἵνα δάκρυα λύσῃ.“Lord Bakchos has wept tears, that he may wipe away man’s tears!”(Nonnos, Dionysiaka 12.171)
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You are a child playing with your friends on a hot summer day. Bored with your usual games you decide to go explore in the woods, a dark and scary place well away from the prying eyes of parents....
View Articlethe Keeper of the Gate
Plutarch, On Isis and Osiris 364fThey call Dionysos up out of the water by the sound of trumpets, at the same time casting into the depths a lamb as an offering to the Keeper of the Gate. Hyginus,...
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The hands of my god are dark and rough,calloused and imperfect.Fingers too long, with slight tremorsstraining to maintain their man shape.Nails lacquered black, chipped and chewed,and everywhere...
View Articlei am asterios
i touched you, oh untouchable ariadne,while the faces of long-dead heroes watchedfrom the wall of ivy, and the moon bledand time stood still around usand the lamps bathed us in goldand music none...
View ArticleAnd the show must go on
My hair is slick with mud,my beard forming stalactites,my face unrecognizable in its pale coating.Flesh of earth I wear,cracks forming as I turn my head this wayand that, and grin, something other...
View ArticleApokathistémi
He smiled at her,and did not look away.Strange.It had been so long,so very long since she had been seen,that the old woman had forgotten how to respond.Most found themselves suddenly busy as they...
View Articleeverything is so 3-D
“I don’t feel anything, dude.” Tim whispered though we were alone,words slurring, hand out waving slowly back and forth,back and forth, back and forth. “I think these mushrooms are …”I waited for him...
View Articleall this is passing
do not weepall this is passinga procession of mad and glorious imagesslipping away like water through fingersbut you cannot stop the showto hold and stroke a cherished memoryfor when you stop dancing...
View ArticleAriadne on Naxos
Ariadne sat on a rock in the cave,watching as the sea washed past her feetin silvery rivulets, and outside she heardinvisible maidens splashing in the surf.She was all alone and going mad from...
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but he cheerfully allowed an old woman to put a charm round his neck
I just came across an interesting anecdote by Diogenes Laertius: We hear that Bion, to whom the Scythian land of Borysthenes gave birth, denied that the Gods really exist. Had he persisted in holding...
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