{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXI/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXI","id":"wikisource_The_Age_of_Fable_Chapter_XXI","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Age_of_Fable/Chapter_XXI","summary":null,"tags":["Headers_applying_DefaultSort_key","Subpages"],"text":"BACCHUS \u2014 ARIADNE\n\nBACCHUS\n\nBacchus was the son of Jupiter and Semele. Juno, to gratify her\nresentment against Semele, contrived a plan for her destruction.\nAssuming the form of Bero\u00eb, her aged nurse, she insinuated doubts\nwhether it was indeed Jove himself who came as a lover. Heaving a\nsigh, she said, \"I hope it will turn out so, but I can't help\nbeing afraid. People are not always what they pretend to be. If he\nis indeed Jove, make him give some proof of it. Ask him to come\narrayed in all his splendors, such as he wears in heaven. That\nwill put the matter beyond a doubt.\" Semele was persuaded to try\nthe experiment. She asks a favor, without naming what it is. Jove\ngives his promise, and confirms it with the irrevocable oath,\nattesting the river Styx, terrible to the gods themselves. Then\nshe made known her request. The god would have stopped her as she\nspake, but she was too quick for him. The words escaped, and he\ncould neither unsay his promise nor her request. In deep distress\nhe left her and returned to the upper regions. There he clothed\nhimself in his splendors, not putting on all his terrors, as when\nhe overthrew the giants, but what is known among the gods as his\nlesser panoply. Arrayed in this, he entered the chamber of Semele.\nHer mortal frame could not endure the splendors of the immortal\nradiance. She was consumed to ashes.\n\nJove took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the Nysaean\nnymphs, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their\ncare were rewarded by Jupiter by being placed, as the Hyades,\namong the stars. When Bacchus grew up he discovered the culture of\nthe vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Juno\nstruck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through\nvarious parts of the earth. In Phrygia the goddess Rhea cured him\nand taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress\nthrough Asia, teaching the people the cultivation of the vine. The\nmost famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India,\nwhich is said to have lasted several years. Returning in triumph,\nhe undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed\nby some princes, who dreaded its introduction on account of the\ndisorders and madness it brought with it.\n\nAs he approached his native city Thebes, Pentheus the king, who\nhad no respect for the new worship, forbade its rites to be\nperformed. But when it was known that Bacchus was advancing, men\nand women, but chiefly the latter, young and old, poured forth to\nmeet him and to join his triumphal march.\n\n\u00a0\n\nMr. Longfellow in his \"Drinking Song\" thus describes the march of\nBacchus:\n\n\"\"Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;\n\nIvy crowns that brow, supernal\n\nAs the forehead of Apollo,\n\nAnd possessing youth eternal.\n\n\"Round about him fair Bacchantes,\n\nBearing cymbals, flutes and thyrses,\n\nWild from Naxian groves of Zante's\n\nVineyards, sing delirious verses.\"\n\nIt was in vain Pentheus remonstrated, commanded, and threatened.\n\"Go,\" said he to his attendants, \"seize this vagabond leader of\nthe rout and bring him to me. I will soon make him confess his\nfalse claim of heavenly parentage and renounce his counterfeit\nworship.\" It was in vain his nearest friends and wisest\ncounsellors remonstrated and begged him not to oppose the god.\nTheir remonstrances only made him more violent.\n\nBut now the attendants returned whom he had despatched to seize\nBacchus. They had been driven away by the Bacchanals, but had\nsucceeded in taking one of them prisoner, whom, with his hands\ntied behind him, they brought before the king. Pentheus, beholding\nhim with wrathful countenance, said, \"Fellow! you shall speedily\nbe put to death, that your fate may be a warning to others; but\nthough I grudge the delay of your punishment, speak, tell us who\nyou are, and what are these new rites you presume to celebrate.\"\n\nThe prisoner, unterrified, responded, \"My name is Acetes; my\ncountry is M\u00e6onia; my parents were poor people, who had no fields\nor flocks to leave me, but they left me their fishing rods and\nnets and their fisherman's trade. This I followed for some time,\ntill growing weary of remaining in one place, I learned the\npilot's art and how to guide my course by the stars. It happened\nas I was sailing for Delos we touched at the island of Dia and\nwent ashore. Next morning I sent the men for fresh water, and\nmyself mounted the hill to observe the wind; when my men returned\nbringing with them a prize, as they thought, a boy of delicate\nappearance, whom they had found asleep. They judged he was a noble\nyouth, perhaps a king's son, and they might get a liberal ransom\nfor him. I observed his dress, his walk, his face. There was\nsomething in them which I felt sure was more than mortal. I said\nto my men, 'What god there is concealed in that form I know not,\nbut some one there certainly is. Pardon us, gentle deity, for the\nviolence we have done you, and give success to our undertakings.'\nDictys, one of my best hands for climbing the mast and coming down\nby the ropes, and Melanthus, my steersman, and Epopeus, the leader\nof the sailor's cry, one and all exclaimed, 'Spare your prayers\nfor us.' So blind is the lust of gain! When they proceeded to put\nhim on board I resisted them. 'This ship shall not be profaned by\nsuch impiety,' said I. 'I have a greater share in her than any of\nyou.' But Lycabas, a turbulent fellow, seized me by the throat and\nattempted to throw me overboard, and I scarcely saved myself by\nclinging to the ropes. The rest approved the deed.\n\n\"Then Bacchus (for it was indeed he), as if shaking off his\ndrowsiness, exclaimed, 'What are you doing with me? What is this\nfighting about? Who brought me here? Where are you going to carry\nme?' One of them replied, 'Fear nothing; tell us where you wish to\ngo and we will take you there.' 'Naxos is my home,' said Bacchus;\n'take me there and you shall be well rewarded.' They promised so\nto do, and told me to pilot the ship to Naxos. Naxos lay to the\nright, and I was trimming the sails to carry us there, when some\nby signs and others by whispers signified to me their will that I\nshould sail in the opposite direction, and take the boy to Egypt\nto sell him for a slave. I was confounded and said, 'Let some one\nelse pilot the ship;' withdrawing myself from any further agency\nin their wickedness. They cursed me, and one of them, exclaiming,\n'Don't flatter yourself that we depend on you for our safety;'\ntook any place as pilot, and bore away from Naxos.\n\n\"Then the god, pretending that he had just become aware of their\ntreachery, looked out over the sea and said in a voice of weeping,\n'Sailors, these are not the shores you promised to take me to;\nyonder island is not my home. What have I done that you should\ntreat me so? It is small glory you will gain by cheating a poor\nboy.' I wept to hear him, but the crew laughed at both of us, and\nsped the vessel fast over the sea. All at once\u2014strange as it may\nseem, it is true,\u2014the vessel stopped, in the mid sea, as fast as\nif it was fixed on the ground. The men, astonished, pulled at\ntheir oars, and spread more sail, trying to make progress by the\naid of both, but all in vain. Ivy twined round the oars and\nhindered their motion, and clung to the sails, with heavy clusters\nof berries. A vine, laden with grapes, ran up the mast, and along\nthe sides of the vessel. The sound of flutes was heard and the\nodor of fragrant wine spread all around. The god himself had a\nchaplet of vine leaves, and bore in his hand a spear wreathed with\nivy. Tigers crouched at his feet, and forms of lynxes and spotted\npanthers played around him. The men were seized with terror or\nmadness; some leaped overboard; others preparing to do the same\nbeheld their companions in the water undergoing a change, their\nbodies becoming flattened and ending in a crooked tail. One\nexclaimed, 'What miracle is this!' and as he spoke his mouth\nwidened, his nostrils expanded, and scales covered all his body.\nAnother, endeavoring to pull the oar, felt his hands shrink up and\npresently to be no longer hands but fins; another, trying to raise\nhis arms to a rope, found he had no arms, and curving his\nmutilated body, jumped into the sea. What had been his legs became\nthe two ends of a crescent-shaped tail. The whole crew became\ndolphins and swam about the ship, now upon the surface, now under\nit, scattering the spray, and spouting the water from their broad\nnostrils. Of twenty men I alone was left. Trembling with fear, the\ngod cheered me. 'Fear not,' said he; 'steer towards Naxos.' I\nobeyed, and when we arrived there, I kindled the altars and\ncelebrated the sacred rites of Bacchus.\"\n\nPentheus here exclaimed, \"We have wasted time enough on this silly\nstory. Take him away and have him executed without delay.\" Acetes\nwas led away by the attendants and shut up fast in prison; but\nwhile they were getting ready the instruments of execution the\nprison doors came open of their own accord and the chains fell\nfrom his limbs, and when they looked for him he was nowhere to be\nfound.\n\nPentheus would take no warning, but instead of sending others,\ndetermined to go himself to the scene of the solemnities. The\nmountain Citheron was all alive with worshippers, and the cries of\nthe Bacchanals resounded on every side. The noise roused the anger\nof Pentheus as the sound of a trumpet does the fire of a war-\nhorse. He penetrated through the wood and reached an open space\nwhere the chief scene of the orgies met his eyes. At the same\nmoment the women saw him; and first among them his own mother,\nAgave, blinded by the god, cried out, \"See there the wild boar,\nthe hugest monster that prowls in these woods! Come on, sisters! I\nwill be the first to strike the wild boar.\" The whole band rushed\nupon him, and while he now talks less arrogantly, now excuses\nhimself, and now confesses his crime and implores pardon, they\npress upon him and wound him. In vain he cries to his aunts to\nprotect him from his mother. Autono\u00eb seized one arm, Ino the\nother, and between them he was torn to pieces, while his mother\nshouted, \"Victory! Victory! we have done it; the glory is ours!\"\n\nSo the worship of Bacchus was established in Greece.\n\n\u00a0\n\nThere is an allusion to the story of Bacchus and the mariners in\nMilton's \"Comus,\" at line 46, The story of Circe will be found in\nThe Age of Fable/Chapter XXIX\n\n\"Bacchus that first from out the purple grapes\n\nCrushed the sweet poison of misused wine,\n\nAfter the Tuscan manners transformed,\n\nCoasting the Tyrrhene shore as the winds listed\n\nOn Circe's island fell (who knows not Circe,\n\nThe daughter of the Sun? whose charmed cup\n\nWhoever tasted lost his upright shape,\n\nAnd downward fell into a grovelling swine).\"\n\nARIADNE\n\nWe have seen in the story of Theseus how Ariadne, the daughter of\nKing Minos, after helping Theseus to escape from the labyrinth,\nwas carried by him to the island of Naxos and was left there\nasleep, while the ungrateful Theseus pursued his way home without\nher. Ariadne, on waking and finding herself deserted, abandoned\nherself to grief. But Venus took pity on her, and consoled her\nwith the promise that she should have an immortal lover, instead\nof the mortal one she had lost.\n\nThe island where Ariadne was left was the favorite island of\nBacchus, the same that he wished the Tyrrhenian mariners to carry\nhim to, when they so treacherously attempted to make prize of him.\nAs Ariadne sat lamenting her fate, Bacchus found her, consoled\nher, and made her his wife. As a marriage present he gave her a\ngolden crown, enriched with gems, and when she died, he took her\ncrown and threw it up into the sky. As it mounted the gems grew\nbrighter and were turned into stars, and preserving its form\nAriadne's crown remains fixed in the heavens as a constellation,\nbetween the kneeling Hercules and the man who holds the serpent.\n\n\u00a0\n\nSpenser alludes to Ariadne's crown, though he has made some\nmistakes in his mythology. It was at the wedding of Pirithous, and\nnot Theseus, that the Centaurs and Lapith\u00e6 quarrelled.\n\n\"Look how the crown which Ariadne wore\n\nUpon her ivory forehead that same day\n\nThat Theseus her unto his bridal bore,\n\nThen the bold Centaurs made that bloody fray\n\nWith the fierce Lapiths which did them dismay;\n\nBeing now placed in the firmament,\n\nThrough the bright heaven doth her beams display,\n\nAnd is unto the stars an ornament,\n\nWhich round about her move in order excellent.\"","title":"The Age of Fable/Chapter XXI","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":2230}