"When Hephaestus bound Hera to a magical chair, Dionysus got him drunk and brought him back to Olympus after he had passed out. For this act, he was made one of the twelve Olympians."
Here we have Spock, AKA Vulcan/Hephaestus, "drunk" from the spores of the planet Omicron Ceti III. Captain Kirk eventually rescues Spock (returning him to "Olympus"), so it makes me wonder if Tiberius Kirk isn't resonating sump'n sump'n Dionysus? Dionysus is always shown carrying his pine cone tipped thyrus, or fennel, wand (translation: always holding/playing his organ of reproduction), so interesting that Chris PINE played the most recent incarnation of Captain Kirk.
John Belushi is probably the most overt Dionysus resonating archetype from Saturday Night Live, narrowly winning out over Chevy Chase and Michael Myers. In 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House, he becomes "Bluto" (Blue toe, or maybe blue tow, as in the blue tug boat) - the patron saint of the toga party, presiding over a movie that is essentially a Dionysian coming of age/initiation ritual for Thomas Hulce - Pinto.
My own fraternity had a rather wonderful Dionysian initiation ritual: the first house kegger of the year always culminated in the upper classmen throwing the freshmen into "frosh pond" - a drunken baptism. The Kappa Sigs had a famous drinking song, another curious tradition:
"Here's to (brother's name) he's true blue, he's an asshole through and through. So may he find, at the bottom of his glass, a solid gold nugget and a piece of ass! Now drink!"
Remember that piece of ass part, because upcoming is the Dionysus myth with adult homo content.
Jim Morrison, of the Doors (door to Hades?) consciously evoked the archetype of Dionysus before his premature death due to excessive "wine". Morrison was "born again" via Valentine Kilmer, who resonates Valentine, the heart, and the gay God Eros. Val also played the "Dark Knight", that Lord of the Underworld.
When Dionysos goes to Hades to retrieve his mother, Semele, to bring her to Olympus, he meets Prosymnos on the way. According to Arthur Evans in his book The God of Ecstasy, Christian writer Clement of Alexandria reports:
Dionysos wanted to descend to Hades but did not know the way. A certain Prosymnos promised to show him for a price. The price was indecent but not for Dionysos. The price he asked of Dionysos was a sexual favor.
Upon his return from the underworld, Dionysos can’t locate Prosymnos because he has died and instead has sex with a wooden dildo made from the branch of a fig tree in order to pay his due to his guide.
So a gay man is the God of Ecstasy's guide to the Underworld??? It figures.
--
Light My Fire. The Doors.
7 comments:
What's the difference between a gay fraternity and a regular fraternity?
The gay fraternity has slightly more gay sex.
John Belushi would have been my choice to play Dionysus in a movie about his life. It pisses me off to imagine a guy that talented is dead.
My favorite part about "This Side of Paradise" is that Spock was putting the moves on Charles Bronson's wife, Jill Ireland. I can just imagine craggy faced tough guy Bronson waiting offstage in case Spock tries anything frisky.
Another elf friend of mine, DRGN, has a site where one of his articles addresses the question as to whether the Dionysian Jim Morrison was really the legendary avatar of the Picts, Bran Mak Morn, readable here.
Of course, you must already Gno that Aldous Huxley's second wife & widow, Laura, was rarin' to sue The Doors over their name, that is, had they gone the whole way with naming themselves after her late husband's excursion into the antipodes of the mind, "The Doors of Perception". They truncated the psychedelic classic's title as their name, but the implication still remains.
I doubt that Dionysian revelries of yore were simply limited to fermented grape juice, probably utilising the induction of entheogens, perhaps via the wine so long attributed to that god's worship.
Great article as always Michael!! Esperanto Grrl comment was very funny -altho fraternities are not something in am very in the "gno" about(agree about Belushi also)hey I am easy! which brings me to Anadae:) I always learn something from him whether it is mundane, esoteric or humourous (humerus:) and this time it was the information about Huxley's widow and The Doors-I had gno idea! best to you and Var as always and everyone here-I hope all are having a great week!WV=fularrh -ok someone do something with this:)
E Grrl - I came out my Junior year at school, and I was pretty amazed when I found out about all the bro on bro action going on. It seems like many Dionysus resonators die young.
Anadae - I'll check out the DRGN link, and thanks for the tie-in to AH. I'm sure you're right about the "spiced" wine. Indeed, Joseph Smith was said to have kick-started the Mormon Church via entheogen laced elixirs.
A Latter Day Dionysian Mystery Cult?
Dev - I was posting my comment while you were. Two comments, passing in the night... :-) Thanks for reading, and hope you are doing fine.
Michael -thanks for your comment:) I have been offline much more recently than usual-and thought I might have missed some articles-well of course I did-but your site on my blog is saying "Luke I am your father" as a new post for you-and I am not seeing it here-(well not new but only 3 days old) this same thing has happened with my blog before -just wanted to make sure it wasnt "me" so to speak! as when I first came over here it said your blog didnt exist-then it did without comments-and now again-I will try one more time in case:) best as always to you and Var-(sheesh when I was typing "Var" I almost did "Vader") I suppose that breath mask thing might turn a few folks I know on-but not me:)
Hi Dev,
I've decided to really pull back on the blog for the time being. Summer is too short to spend it typing. :-) Hope you are fine,
Michael
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