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erniet's avatar

Dionysian rites

Pomp and circumstance, performed

Once the bull is slain

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Honeygloom's avatar

Oh I love this! A little sacrifice scene🖤

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erniet's avatar

Well, they sacrificed a bull before the drama contests at every Dionysia…

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Honeygloom's avatar

It seems like they sacrificed bulls A LOT in ancient times. The more I read for HHC, it’s like every day was a festival and every festival needed a bull😂 There was one goddess who got chickens…. But i forget which, maybe Hestia?

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erniet's avatar

Well, bulls (and rams and billys) are expendable...it's not Greco-Roman, but in Ireland the first day of spring (Imbolc, February 2) coincided with the lambing...and the ram lambs were slaughtered for fresh meat and the ewes milked for milk and cheese. Calving comes later in the year, so bull calves (or older bulls for culling) would be plentiful at certain times.

It would actually be more surprising (and probably a bigger sacrifice in terms of cost) if they'd killed cows (or ewes or nannys)...

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

It’s writing a short story in spurts.

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Gloria Horton-Young's avatar

Well, this was fun!!

∞ Grape-dark sea of time

Myths bob like corks, half-sunken

We drink. We drown. We …

∞ Ritual frenzy:

(Theatre of cruelty?)

[Artaud nods, offstage]

∞ Dionysus dances

On the edge of language, where

Syntax stumbles, drunk

∞ Leopard skin, thyrsus

Symbols spill from broken urns

We piece god together

∞ Vine tendrils / synapses

Intoxication rewrites

The brain's old grammar

∞ Euripides whispers:

"Madness is a kind of wisdom"

Dionysus winks

∞ In wine, veritas?

Or just the blur of boundaries?

(Footnote: Ask Nietzsche)

∞ Ritual madness

Peels back civilization's bark

Raw sap of being

∞ Maenads' ecstasy:

Body language speaks in tongues

Reason stands mute, watches

∞ Divine / Mortal

The slash bleeds into both sides

We drink the mixture

∞ Theatre mask grins

Behind it, Dionysus

Or is it us?

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Honeygloom's avatar

Madness bookended by brilliance! I love these! The first and last are my faves🖤

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David Perlmutter's avatar

The master of the revels, he retained his importance in Roman mythology as Bacchus.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Haha the Romans loved a bit of wine and violence.

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A.P. Murphy's avatar

Maenads tear plump grapes

with filed teeth, and awaken

with men's blood on lips

🍇

Orpheus fell foul

of the wild sisters, and met

his end torn to strips

🍇

Hear women singing?

The sisters, drunk on vintage

staggering this way

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Honeygloom's avatar

🫣Don’t want to meet them in a dark alley. I love this mini narrative🖤

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M. N. Tarrint's avatar

Spilled wine and laughter

blur into wild confusion

and broken green glass.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Sounds a little ominous😬 Very nicely set scene!

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Dylan Delgado's avatar

A sip of the brew

I fall victim to its hues

and madness ensues

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Honeygloom's avatar

Oh I like what you did with the rhymes! Very cool🖤

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Chris J. Franklin's avatar

In a shackled world,

Our minds, would taste freedom, through,

Music, dance, and wine... 💃🕺😎🕺💃

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Honeygloom's avatar

Ha! Absolutely! Love a night out dancing!

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Chris J. Franklin's avatar

Yes! It does sound like they were having a great party! Haha... 😎

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Songsterfunsterhamster's avatar

Hangover dawn, feet bruised,

Cheek smeared red with grape or worse -

God, not you again.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Ooo 😬This is so good! I love the suspense you left us with🖤

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Richard Blaisdell's avatar

Drove a Prius, satyr perfection

Stripped down in Greece

All I got was a Dionysian experience.

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Honeygloom's avatar

I mean it could have been worse, you didn’t get torn apart by Maenads😏

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Richard Blaisdell's avatar

No . The wine drunk. Morning became Electra.

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Honeygloom's avatar

Guess I need to read up on Electra😅

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