BACCHUS
Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Semele. Juno, to gratify her resentment1 against Semele, contrived2 a plan for her destruction. Assuming the form of Bero?, her aged3 nurse, she insinuated4 doubts whether it was indeed Jove himself who came as a lover. Heaving a sigh, she said, “I hope it will turn out so, but I can’t help being afraid. People are not always what they pretend to be. If he is indeed Jove, make him give some proof of it. Ask him to come arrayed in all his splendors5, such as he wears in heaven. That will put the matter beyond a doubt.” Semele was persuaded to try the experiment. She asks a favor, without naming what it is. Jove gives his promise, and confirms it with the irrevocable oath, attesting6 the river Styx, terrible to the gods themselves. Then she made known her request. The god would have stopped her as she spake, but she was too quick for him. The words escaped, and he could neither unsay his promise nor her request. In deep distress7 he left her and returned to the upper regions. There he clothed himself in his splendors, not putting on all his terrors, as when he overthrew8 the giants, but what is known among the gods as his lesser9 panoply10. Arrayed in this, he entered the chamber11 of Semele. Her mortal frame could not endure the splendors of the immortal12 radiance. She was consumed to ashes.
Jove took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the Nys?an nymphs, who nourished his infancy13 and childhood, and for their care were rewarded by Jupiter by being placed, as the Hyades, among the stars. When Bacchus grew up he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Juno struck him with madness, and drove him forth14 a wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Rhea cured him and taught him her religious rites15, and he set out on a progress through Asia, teaching the people the cultivation16 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 some princes, who dreaded17 its introduction on account of the disorders18 and madness it brought with it.
As he approached his native city Thebes, Pentheus the king, who had no respect for the new worship, forbade its rites to be performed. But when it was known that Bacchus was advancing, men and women, but chiefly the latter, young and old, poured forth to meet him and to join his triumphal march.
Mr. Longfellow in his “Drinking Song” thus describes the march of Bacchus:
“Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
Ivy19 crowns that brow, supernal20
As the forehead of Apollo,
And possessing youth eternal.
“Round about him fair Bacchantes,
Bearing cymbals21, flutes22 and thyrses,
Wild from Naxian groves23 of Zante’s
Vineyards, sing delirious24 verses.”
It was in vain Pentheus remonstrated25, commanded, and threatened. “Go,” said he to his attendants, “seize this vagabond leader of the rout26 and bring him to me. I will soon make him confess his false claim of heavenly parentage and renounce27 his counterfeit28 worship.” It was in vain his nearest friends and wisest counsellors remonstrated and begged him not to oppose the god. Their remonstrances29 only made him more violent.
But now the attendants returned whom he had despatched to seize Bacchus. They had been driven away by the Bacchanals, but had succeeded in taking one of them prisoner, whom, with his hands tied behind him, they brought before the king. Pentheus, beholding30 him with wrathful countenance31, said, “Fellow! you shall speedily be put to death, that your fate may be a warning to others; but though I grudge32 the delay of your punishment, speak, tell us who you are, and what are these new rites you presume to celebrate.”
The prisoner, unterrified, responded, “My name is Acetes; my country is M?onia; my parents were poor people, who had no fields or flocks to leave me, but they left me their fishing rods and nets and their fisherman’s trade. This I followed for some time, till growing weary of remaining in one place, I learned the pilot’s art and how to guide my course by the stars. It happened as I was sailing for Delos we touched at the island of Dia and went ashore33. Next morning I sent the men for fresh water, and myself mounted the hill to observe the wind; when my men returned bringing with them a prize, as they thought, a boy of delicate appearance, whom they had found asleep. They judged he was a noble youth, perhaps a king’s son, and they might get a liberal ransom34 for him. I observed his dress, his walk, his face. There was something in them which I felt sure was more than mortal. I said to my men, ‘What god there is concealed35 in that form I know not, but some one there certainly is. Pardon us, gentle deity36, for the violence we have done you, and give success to our undertakings37.’ Dictys, one of my best hands for climbing the mast and coming down by the ropes, and Melanthus, my steersman, and Epopeus, the leader of the sailor’s cry, one and all exclaimed, ‘Spare your prayers for us.’ So blind is the lust38 of gain! When they proceeded to put him on board I resisted them. ‘This ship shall not be profaned40 by such impiety,’ said I. ‘I have a greater share in her than any of you.’ But Lycabas, a turbulent fellow, seized me by the throat and attempted to throw me overboard, and I scarcely saved myself by clinging to the ropes. The rest approved the deed.
“Then Bacchus (for it was indeed he), as if shaking off his drowsiness41, exclaimed, ‘What are you doing with me? What is this fighting about? Who brought me here? Where are you going to carry me?’ One of them replied, ‘Fear nothing; tell us where you wish to go and we will take you there.’ ‘Naxos is my home,’ said Bacchus; ‘take me there and you shall be well rewarded.’ They promised so to do, and told me to pilot the ship to Naxos. Naxos lay to the right, and I was trimming the sails to carry us there, when some by signs and others by whispers signified to me their will that I should sail in the opposite direction, and take the boy to Egypt to sell him for a slave. I was confounded and said, ‘Let some one else pilot the ship;’ withdrawing myself from any further agency in their wickedness. They cursed me, and one of them, exclaiming, ‘Don’t flatter yourself that we depend on you for our safety,’ took my place as pilot, and bore away from Naxos.
“Then the god, pretending that he had just become aware of their treachery, looked out over the sea and said in a voice of weeping, ‘Sailors, these are not the shores you promised to take me to; yonder island is not my home. What have I done that you should treat me so? It is small glory you will gain by cheating a poor boy.’ I wept to hear him, but the crew laughed at both of us, and sped the vessel42 fast over the sea. All at once—strange as it may seem, it is true,—the vessel stopped, in the mid43 sea, as fast as if it was fixed44 on the ground. The men, astonished, pulled at their oars45, and spread more sail, trying to make progress by the aid of both, but all in vain. Ivy twined round the oars and hindered their motion, and clung to the sails, with heavy clusters of berries. A vine, laden46 with grapes, ran up the mast, and along the sides of the vessel. The sound of flutes was heard and the odor of fragrant47 wine spread all around. The god himself had a chaplet of vine leaves, and bore in his hand a spear wreathed with ivy. Tigers crouched48 at his feet, and forms of lynxes and spotted49 panthers played around him. The men were seized with terror or madness; some leaped overboard; others preparing to do the same beheld50 their companions in the water undergoing a change, their bodies becoming flattened51 and ending in a crooked52 tail. One exclaimed, ‘What miracle is this!’ and as he spoke53 his mouth widened, his nostrils54 expanded, and scales covered all his body. Another, endeavoring to pull the oar39, felt his hands shrink up and presently to be no longer hands but fins55; another, trying to raise his arms to a rope, found he had no arms, and curving his mutilated body, jumped into the sea. What had been his legs became the two ends of a crescent-shaped tail. The whole crew became dolphins and swam about the ship, now upon the surface, now under it, scattering56 the spray, and spouting57 the water from their broad nostrils. Of twenty men I alone was left. Trembling with fear, the god cheered me. ‘Fear not,’ said he; ‘steer towards Naxos.’ I obeyed, and when we arrived there, I kindled58 the altars and celebrated59 the sacred rites of Bacchus.”
Pentheus here exclaimed, “We have wasted time enough on this silly story. Take him away and have him executed without delay.” Acetes was led away by the attendants and shut up fast in prison; but while they were getting ready the instruments of execution the prison doors came open of their own accord and the chains fell from his limbs, and when they looked for him he was nowhere to be found.
Pentheus would take no warning, but instead of sending others, determined60 to go himself to the scene of the solemnities. The mountain Citheron was all alive with worshippers, and the cries of the Bacchanals resounded61 on every side. The noise roused the anger of Pentheus as the sound of a trumpet62 does the fire of a war-horse. He penetrated63 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; and first among them his own mother, Agave, blinded by the god, cried out, “See there the wild boar, the hugest monster that prowls in these woods! Come on, sisters! I will be the first to strike the wild boar.” The whole band rushed upon him, and while he now talks less arrogantly64, now excuses himself, and now confesses his crime and implores65 pardon, they press upon him and wound him. In vain he cries to his aunts to protect him from his mother. Autono? seized one arm, Ino the other, and between them he was torn to pieces, while his mother shouted, “Victory! Victory! we have done it; the glory is ours!”
So the worship of Bacchus was established in Greece.
There is an allusion66 to the story of Bacchus and the mariners67 in Milton’s “Comus,” at line 46. The story of Circe will be found in Chapter XXIX.
“Bacchus that first from out the purple grapes
Crushed the sweet poison of misused68 wine,
After the Tuscan mariners transformed,
Coasting the Tyrrhene shore as the winds listed
On Circe’s island fell (who knows not Circe,
The daughter of the Sun? whose charmed cup
Whoever tasted lost his upright shape,
And downward fell into a grovelling69 swine).”
ARIADNE
We have seen in the story of Theseus how Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos, after helping70 Theseus to escape from the labyrinth71, was carried by him to the island of Naxos and was left there asleep, while the ungrateful Theseus pursued his way home without her. Ariadne, on waking and finding herself deserted72, abandoned herself to grief. But Venus took pity on her, and consoled her with the promise that she should have an immortal lover, instead of the mortal one she had lost.
The island where Ariadne was left was the favorite island of Bacchus, the same that he wished the Tyrrhenian mariners to carry him to, when they so treacherously73 attempted to make prize of him. As Ariadne sat lamenting74 her fate, Bacchus found her, consoled her, and made her his wife. As a marriage present he gave her a golden crown, enriched with gems75, and when she died, he took her crown and threw it up into the sky. As it mounted the gems grew brighter and were turned into stars, and preserving its form Ariadne’s crown remains76 fixed in the heavens as a constellation77, between the kneeling Hercules and the man who holds the serpent.
Spenser alludes78 to Ariadne’s crown, though he has made some mistakes in his mythology79. It was at the wedding of Pirithous, and not Theseus, that the Centaurs80 and Lapith? quarrelled.
“Look how the crown which Ariadne wore
Upon her ivory forehead that same day
That Theseus her unto his bridal bore,
Then the bold Centaurs made that bloody81 fray82
With the fierce Lapiths which did them dismay;
Being now placed in the firmament83,
Through the bright heaven doth her beams display,
And is unto the stars an ornament84,
Which round about her move in order excellent.”
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1
resentment
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| n.怨愤，忿恨 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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3
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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insinuated
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| v.暗示( insinuate的过去式和过去分词 )；巧妙或迂回地潜入；（使）缓慢进入；慢慢伸入 | |
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splendors
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| n.华丽( splendor的名词复数 )；壮丽；光辉；显赫 | |
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6
attesting
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| v.证明( attest的现在分词 )；证实；声称…属实；使宣誓 | |
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7
distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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8
overthrew
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| overthrow的过去式 | |
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9
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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10
panoply
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| n.全副甲胄，礼服 | |
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11
chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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12
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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13
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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14
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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16
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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17
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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disorders
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| n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 )；凌乱；骚乱；（身心、机能）失调 | |
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ivy
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| n.常青藤，常春藤 | |
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supernal
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| adj.天堂的，天上的；崇高的 | |
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cymbals
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| pl.铙钹 | |
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22
flutes
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| 长笛( flute的名词复数 )； 细长香槟杯（形似长笛） | |
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23
groves
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| 树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 ) | |
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24
delirious
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| adj.不省人事的，神智昏迷的 | |
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25
remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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rout
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| n.溃退，溃败；v.击溃，打垮 | |
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27
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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28
counterfeit
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| vt.伪造，仿造；adj.伪造的，假冒的 | |
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29
remonstrances
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| n.抱怨，抗议( remonstrance的名词复数 ) | |
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30
beholding
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| v.看，注视( behold的现在分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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31
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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32
grudge
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| n.不满，怨恨，妒嫉；vt.勉强给，不情愿做 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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35
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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36
deity
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| n.神，神性；被奉若神明的人(或物) | |
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undertakings
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| 企业( undertaking的名词复数 )； 保证； 殡仪业； 任务 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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39
oar
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| n.桨，橹，划手；v.划行 | |
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40
profaned
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| v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 )；亵渎，玷污 | |
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41
drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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42
vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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mid
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| adj.中央的，中间的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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laden
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| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
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fragrant
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| adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的 | |
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48
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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50
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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51
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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52
crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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53
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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fins
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| [医]散热片；鱼鳍；飞边；鸭掌 | |
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56
scattering
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| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
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spouting
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| n.水落管系统v.（指液体）喷出( spout的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
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kindled
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| （使某物）燃烧，着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 )； 激起（感情等）； 发亮，放光 | |
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celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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61
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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arrogantly
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| adv.傲慢地 | |
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implores
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的第三人称单数 ) | |
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allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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68
misused
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| v.使用…不当( misuse的过去式和过去分词 )；把…派作不正当的用途；虐待；滥用 | |
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grovelling
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| adj.卑下的，奴颜婢膝的v.卑躬屈节，奴颜婢膝( grovel的现在分词 )；趴 | |
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70
helping
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| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
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labyrinth
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| n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路 | |
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72
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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treacherously
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| 背信弃义地； 背叛地； 靠不住地； 危险地 | |
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lamenting
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| adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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76
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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77
constellation
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| n.星座n.灿烂的一群 | |
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78
alludes
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| 提及，暗指( allude的第三人称单数 ) | |
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79
mythology
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| n.神话，神话学，神话集 | |
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80
centaurs
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| n.（希腊神话中）半人半马怪物( centaur的名词复数 ) | |
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81
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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82
fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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83
firmament
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| n.苍穹；最高层 | |
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84
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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