A myth of books

The gods decide all things. I was uncertain whether I should spend the evening telling fortunes on the street corner or writing more poetry. Once I walked all the way down there and set up the shrine the heavens began to thunder and pour though it had been bone dry all afternoon. So poetry it [...]

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The reverie of Arlecchino

He fell asleep as Osiris and woke up as Serapis – that’s bound to take some getting used to. (King Ptolemaios I of Makedon was a high priest of the artists of Dionysos and a powerful magician, spinning enchantments like a spider that hunts in the night, all for the good of his people. He [...]

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Dionysos around the blogosphere

I’m starting a new semi-regular feature here at The House of Vines. It’s sort of like the old Miscellanea posts – only better because it’s entirely focused on Dionysos! If you write something for him or encounter some interesting tid-bit in your online travels and would like to see it highlighted here, drop me a [...]

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Patterns of blood

Patterns of blood like rorschach ink blots form under the sacrificial bull as the mystic augurs wait for god’s sign to reveal itself. Overhead three crows head west to cloudy Etna where the Bacchic women of Sicily have their dances. Marcus Antonius finishes the solemn prayer and removes the veil from his head, content that [...]

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My spirit-song

Ever since the onset of puberty our protagonist has lived with unfamiliar voices in his head, voices impossible for him to shut out. It has made him … a little strange. For instance, when the other children were out playing catch or tag or whatever it is children play these days (their iPods, mostly) he [...]

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I finally figured out the Garland

Originally I was going to write a series of prayers to be recited for each bead, honoring specific aspects of Dionysos. I got the first couple completed but the rest never came to me. Then I figured I’d take a different direction with it, but none of those really panned out either. However I knew [...]

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Idus Martiae

ANTONY If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle: I remember The first time ever Caesar put it on; ‘Twas on a summer’s evening, in his tent, That day he overcame the Nervii: Look, in this place ran Cassius’ dagger through: See what a rent the envious Casca [...]

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A song from the land of the midday sun

Be warned – there is an equal mixture of lies and mysteries here. Act I: Ruminations of the illustrious actor Marco Antonio, innovator of the commedia dell’arte While waiting to go on stage in the piazza of the church of Saint Mark in Venice, Italy where are revered the relics of Alexander the Great, whom [...]

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Rex mortis est

The haunting strains of the aulos fill the empty spaces in the room between the clouds of sweet incense and pools of dim lamplight, revealing the still forms of the dinner guests caught in the musician’s spell mid-revel, words dead in their mouths, bowls of wine forgot, Demetrios’ hand hovers over the olives, and all [...]

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Looking forward by looking back

One of the most important functions of tradition is that serves as a point of reference which allows us to make sense of our own all-too-often chaotic and confusing lives by furnishing us with a rich vocabulary and a storehouse of symbols and stories from the past that can be used to explain and make [...]

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Things are coming together in interesting ways

Enjoy the show. This is what we call: Literary mysteries. So, Dionysos is hypersyncretic because he’s the god of acting, right? Well, that got me thinking. For instance he dresses up like Herakles in Aristophanes’ The Frogs so that he can descend into the underworld. This katabasis scene can’t help but invoke that enigmatic passage [...]

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A Revelation

When you peel away the flesh of a god, don’t be surprised if you find a man beneath, covered in blood and smiling madly. In his madness he’s no longer mortal, but there’s nothing to be done about the weight of the mask. Why do I tell you these secrets, oh ghostly strangers? Because I [...]

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Thinking about ink

I stopped off this afternoon at my partner’s work for lunch and we talked a little about tattoos. Since leaving, that’s pretty much all I’ve been able to think about. It’s been a year and change since I got my last one and I’m starting to feel the itch. At present I have four tattoos [...]

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Reunion

“I have been away too long.” Antony smiles, but not as freely as he once did. His eyes have grown harder, colder from things he’s seen but will not tell her about. There are more lines etching his handsome face than she remembers, new streaks of grey at his temples. He holds himself stiffly, even [...]

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Something to do with Dionysos

“It all comes back to talent and tragedy, the artful weaving of fictions that reflect a higher order.” Antony proclaims, emphasizing his point with the motion of his ritual rhyton. Drops of wine splash to the ground like blood, but no one notices, for that is when the gracefully leaping mime enters the symposion-hall to [...]

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Wedding-night jitters

So this is to be my husband, she thinks as she watches him approach from the scented sheets of her bed – now their bed, by official decree of the Roman people and the conqueror, Julius Caesar. He looks ridiculous in the double-crown, perched precariously on his boyish brow. She hopes he has the sense [...]

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A message from Antony to his beloved Kleopatra

I promised you wine and raving in the woods, pine needles clinging to your unbraided hair as you race around, out of your mind, clutching living dead things in your hands, paying respect to poisonous herbs that call forth memories of the long-departed, the fair ones who feast wearing the faces of savage beasts, while [...]

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This is starting to get a little absurd

So I was just on the toilet thumbing through a book about Renaissance Italian literature and commedia dell’arte (where better to conduct one’s Classical studies?) when I opened it at random to the following passage: Another play shows him in despair because he thinks his Diamantina does not love him, and he announces that he [...]

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A month of Antony and Kleopatra

Although there will be no festivals, no regular devotional days and no oracular session during the month which the vulgar insist on calling “August” it is not entirely true that this will be a time completely devoid of religious significance for me. I plan to spend each of its 31 days intensely focused on my [...]

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The New Wine we were promised: I

For Castus. Act One: Is everybody in? The ceremony is about to begin. I was recently asked to say a few words on a topic that is near and dear to my heart – hero cultus within contemporary polytheism. My literary patron (whose generosity is exceeded only by his wisdom) had some specific criteria in mind [...]

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