The Gates of Horn and Ivory - 2.2 Charming Dionysus

Stories

“Good morning, princess!”

Dionysus entered the room, surrounded, as always, by a large posse of obviously impaired maenads and satyrs.

He never went anywhere without them, and sometimes Persephone wondered if he’d ever been alone.

Huge Etruscan amphorae filled with wine had been brought to the room for his visit, a welcome escape from the white on white decor, even though the god himself barely partook, since he drank nectar like the rest of them, to restore his beauty and youth.

Persephone admired his graceful demeanor as he approached her, a vaguely androgynous countenance, with long flowing hair, braided with wild vines, a beautiful figure who looked deceptively young, his gait as light and carefree as the spirit which shone, childlike, in his eyes.

He smiled at the goddess, who was close kin, and with whom he shared the gift of walking between worlds.

‘How did he keep so fit?’ Persephone couldn’t help but be amazed, ‘when he was constantly engaged in this self-indulgent lifestyle!’

It obviously took its toll on his entourage, the satyrs who, she assumed, had never experienced sobriety, and the maenads who roamed the forests drunk and out of control, acquiring the strength and ferocity of wild beasts from the substances they consumed.