#dionysica

[galusandmalus]

ya know we talk about Dionysus dying a lot and coming back but like ariadne lmao she dies twice in Dionysiaca! one book! Yeah, it could be a goofy error from a guy whose name sounds like a pasta, or it could be in line with the wine gods' tradition of getting killed and kinda just popping back up.

it does mean perseus kills her twice.

[brimo5]

For a time, I thought it was just my headcanon that the Erinyes and other Chthonic deities were seeking revenge for Dionysus and punishing Pentheus. Then I discovered that Nonnus actually wrote about it:

But while Bacchos yet conversed with circling Mene, even then Persephone was arming her Furies for the pleasure of Dionysos Zagreus, and in wrath helping Dionysos his later born brother. Then at the grim nod of Underworld Zeus, the Furies assailed the palace of Pentheus. One leapt out of the gloomy pit swinging her Tartarean whip of vipers; she drew a stream from Cocytos and water from Styx, and drenched Agaue's rooms with the infernal drops as if with a prophecy of tears and groanings for Thebes; and the deity brought that Attic knife from Attica, which long before murdered Itylos, when his mother Procne with heart like a lioness, helped by murderous Philomele, cut with steel the throat of the beloved child of her womb, and served up his own son for cannibal Tereus to eat. This knife, the channel of bloodshed, the Fury held, and scratching up the dust with her pernicious fingernails she buried the Attic blade among the hillgrown roots of a tall fir, among the Mainads, where Pentheus was to die headless. She brought the blood of Gorgon Medusa, scraped off into a shell fresh when she was newly slain, and smeared the tree with the crimson Libyan drops. This is what the mad Fury did in the mountains. (44.255ff)

Even though in Book 31, Persephone sends Megaira to help Hera against Dionysus and Megaira is more jealous of Dionysus than Hera (a dumb pun). Considering that Nonnus doesn’t explicitly describe Persephone's Zagreus being reborn as Semele’s Dionysus, it's still odd to against her possible reborn son. Dionysus is a "bullshaped copy" and have "the whole shape of Zagreus", even come from the heart of Zagreus as Hydaspes claimed before book 31.

Is it because Persephone and the other Chthonic deities haven’t figured out the truth? Or did they consciously deny it from the beginning, perhaps out of anger or resentment? However, everything shifts when Dionysus prays to the moon. Persephone, who is also a figure associated with the moon, realizes that she should help Dionysus for Zagreus's sake. At this moment, the Erinyes are like, "Oh shit, we attacked the wrong target! But don’t worry, we're going to fix this now!"

Sorry, Nonnus, I still hate you. You are awful and capricious, but I want more plot twists and detils now!