Been contemplating how different things might rub someone wrong or make them so uncomfortable itโs hard to be reasonable about it for the last couple days.
This is me when it comes to Dionysos (which makes it a little hard here on Tumblr sometimes considering how enthusiastic everyone is about him), and this is the reason why heโs not going to ever show up more than briefly in anything I write. Gifts of Katabasis is undoubtedly the only fic that I will do that focuses on him.
I seriously just cannot deal with anything related to The Bacchae, and the various other bits of โDionysos makes someone insane and they Do Bad Things without even knowing itโ myths. Just reading fairly short and dry summaries of these myths/the play gets me upset and always brings with it a vague urge to write something not just dark, but ungenerous in its interpretation just to deal with it, but thatโs an unreasonable reaction, I know.
So I just have to ignore him as much as possible in my writing. Iโm not sure why itโs easier to not get as upset about the times Hera does similar things; to Dionysos, but he doesnโt really appear to DO ANYTHING during that period; to Heracles, who also gets stuck with this condition as a on-off chronic one since he kills someone else during a fit of madness later, aside from Megara and the kids, but maybe itโs because it doesnโt take up as much real estate of her mythic corpusโฆ
And Hera is also not the one basically portrayed as nothing but fun, sweet, drunk dude. Like, as Iโve said before, I donโt begrudge people focusing on the lighter side of things in Greek myth, weโre all here to do whatever we want and have fun, but it sometimes gets me seriously uncomfortable how hard Dionysosโ darker sides are basically erased.
I completely relate to you. Dionysus himself is pretty dark and cruel but what hits the nerve for me is how everyone just makes him the fun, party god who uprooted patriarchy with his cults. When it's just Dionysus imposing himself on people, including women, rather cruelly and making those who refuse him do horrifying things. I don't understand what about that is "uprooting patriarchy"? And in practice, his cults weren't all that liberating and inclusive as people like to think either.
Sure, all the gods can be cruel, but Dionysus comes off more strong and intense to me. It's probably because he wasn't yet a god when he started punishing people for not worshipping him or following him, while most of the gods themsleves never seem to have employed such methods. Well, Apollo does technically kidnap a bunch of Cretan men to be his priests, but when they get scared and confused, he explains things to them and promises them prosperity - they find his words convincing and assuring, so they agree to serve him. But Dionysus just doesn't put that kind of effort and expects people to join him. And come on, getting your followers crazy drunk and making them tear apart wild animals is not the best way to convince other people into joining your cult :P not everyone wants to do crazy things. In that sense, Dionysus comes off as entitled and self serving. And people ignoring this side of his, acting like it doesn't exist at all (all the while criticising other gods for being wrathful), doesn't help me feel better about him.
