In this passage by Nonnos, Ariadne has been deserted on Naxos by the hero Theseus. As she lies on the lonely shore sleeping, she is discovered by the god Dionysus who transfigures the human woman into the goddess that defines Ariadne. "Bacchus [=Dionysus] now leaving Ilissos’ honey-sweet watercourse [in Attica], comes in joyous procession with his reveling troop to the vine-clad island of Naxos." Read more
In our initial discussions we concentrated on the Homeric epics and identified some of the themes that appear in our focus passages. When we viewed together the main subjects surrounding the words appearing with oinops—pontos, ‘sea’, and bous, ‘ox’, we started to see a connection with seasonality, so we decided to look in more detail at the two oinops passages in Hesiodic Works and Days. Read more
~ Update ~ In addition to our original selection, for the discussion on September 5 we will also read Hymn 26, which is also to Dionysus. Here is a link to the English text: Homeric Hymn 26: to Dionysus Our next Book Club selections… Read more
