"However, the story of Dionysus is not over yet." Titus took a sip of water. "The Dionysian belief is not just about bloodletting. Tearing is just a means, and rebirth is the goal - because Dionysus There are actually three. Dionysus of the past, Dionysus of the present, and Dionysus of the future. The first Dionysus was Zagreus, the son of Zeus and Hades. , he was torn into pieces by the Titans, but he was 'dying'. Zeus found the heart of Zagreos and reborn him in the belly of his lover Princess Semele. However, Princess Semele was Hera struck her with thunder from heaven, and the child in her womb was 'born': this is now Dionysus. The original meaning of the word Dionysus is 'born again'."
"Why do I feel like something big is going to happen?"
About to die but not dead, about to live but not yet born. This series of symbols gave Shangluo a premonition that "a storm is about to come".
"Yes, big things will happen. The Dionysus we see now was actually not born. He was killed by thunder in his mother's womb. He was not given full humanity. Zeus He was sewn into his thigh to give him a body. Before death, before life, the divinity from Hades has been passed on here. When he was born for the third time, Dionysus truly came to the world. "
“The Dionysian faith hopes for the coming of Dionysus?”
"No, no, no, the main body of Roman Dionysian belief is the other way around - we are afraid of the real coming of Dionysus. Because unlike the sun god Apollo, Apollo is a child god, and his divinity comes from Zeus himself. Dionysus, the god of wine, is much more terrifying. His divine essence is an ancient god! The ancient god lived in a different time than us. It needs a 'birth' to lock its time into We are here."
"Could it be that assassinating the forest king and tearing apart a bull are all the background of the ancient god?"
"Yes, this is why Dionysus can be regarded as parallel to Apollo. Apollo symbolizes the beautiful dreams of mankind, while Dionysus symbolizes the bloody past of mankind in ancient times. Although he He often appears as a weak young man, but he always inadvertently reveals the violent and cruel undertones of the ancient god. You can't tell whether the wine shaking in his glass is blood or blood, and you can't tell whether the dripping from the corner of his mouth is blood or blood. Wine. The ecstasy of Dionysus is only a cover-up of the essence of the ancient god. If Dionysus is born a third time, it will be all blood and no wine."
"Then which ancient god is this?"
"The God of Hunting! He is the ancient God of Hunting alongside the ancient Earth Mother Goddess Gaia. He is the supreme god and the eternal duality in mythology. The God of Hunting comes over and over again, budding in summer, peaking in autumn, and dying in winter. , and was reborn in spring. The same is true for the Mother Goddess of the Earth, who happily welcomed the return of the God of Hunting in the long summer, and then wandered alone in the winter. Therefore, in the belief of Dionysus, there are also differences between the God of Dionysus and the God of Hunting. In Rome The ones who performed the ceremony were the 'Orpheus sect'. They worshiped the Dionysian side of Dionysus and mainly held carnival celebrations of Dionysus. However, there was also a sect called the 'Eleusinian Mystery'. They even used the tearing of bulls to symbolize the disintegration and rebirth of the ancient god. No one except them wanted such a violent ancient god to become the next god king."
He looked at the sky: "Of course I personally would rather have our young god Apollo come back, rather than such a violent ancient god."
[Hey~ I’ll give you a little red flower. 】
"The Hunting God will become the God King, so is this something that has been confirmed? What I mean is, has it been verified?" Shangluo asked
"A very rigorous question. But it is obvious from the theogony that every time Dionysus is reborn, he is accompanied by the figure of the Mother Goddess of the Earth, or the God of Ceres. It was Perse, the Queen of the Underworld, who gave birth to him for the first time. Fournier is the daughter of the Earth Mother Goddess, and Semele, who gave birth to him for the second time, is the more obscure Earth Mother Goddess. The third birth, in mythology, directly refers to the Earth Mother Gaia herself."
"Wait, is this a partner or a child?"
"Don't use secular ethics to measure the genealogy of God. The mythical couple, brothers, parents and children are just metaphors for relative positions, not ethical relationships in the true sense. The metaphor of husband and wife is the antithesis of gods, and the metaphor of parents and children is divine. Overflow, the metaphor of brothers is the division of divinity, the metaphor of copulation is the fusion and reorganization of divinity, and the metaphor of maiden is the purity and incompatibility of divinity. So.”
He looked at the ceiling again:
"So if the young god Apollo comes back, I personally hope that she comes back as a girl. The pure and undivided Apollo, what a wonderful existence, and girls are cuter, right? Not just me, but many people now They all think so, after all, Dionysus is too tossing, and the adolescent brat can go crazy at every turn."
[Hey hehe~ I’ll give you a big red flower. 】
"Tsk" Shangluo felt as if he heard something extraordinary.
"Forget it, I'm probably just dreaming. It would be great if Apollo could really return as a girl god. His feminine name should be Apollonia. I will always be loyal to Apollonia. So what, continue? Say, I just mentioned a metaphor, right? So Zeus, the king of gods, would pull him over for sex whenever the supreme divinity needed to be emphasized, so when I sorted out the divine genealogy later, it would feel like a mess. In fact, you can Treat every interaction between gods as if it happened independently, because gods are always present and time has no meaning to gods.”
"Why do I feel like a tool stallion?"
"Yes." Titus nodded, "From a mythological point of view, Zeus goes around to breed horses. In essence, he is no different from the stallions on the horse farm. He pulls them over when needed - these They are all actions in the symbolic field, myths. And myths are history shown through stories, and are the eternal continuation of history. The older the history, the stronger it is, and the more powerful it is. Or Say, this is a 'meme'."
He drew a double helix on the blackboard:
"Just like humans in the material world use genes to record genetic information, the symbolic world uses memes to inherit. The memes from the ancient hunting gods have always been entangled in the divine genealogy of Dionysus, and even appear inadvertently. .The memes of the Hunting God have been inseparably linked to the Mother Goddess from generation to generation, and are also mixed with the memes of the God King Zeus, our God King. That’s why the power of the Forest King is terrifying, because it directly points to The foundation of the world of symbols points to the most obscure part of human history. We are all born in the dark sea of blood, and the return of the Hunting God will bring us back to the sea of blood. It is an ancient god, but it can be - maybe will be our king."
He pointed out the window:
"The king of the forest you are going to conquer is both the god of hunting and the king. It is the entanglement of the divine meme of the god of hunting with Rome, and it is our destiny. So Shangluo, this is the divinity carried on the golden branch - it is the hunting god. God’s meme is an endless sea of blood and boundless karma engraved in eternal history. I have told you everything you may face. No one in the past could bear it, and it caused all those who carried it to die. Under the sword, drowned in your own blood. I hope you are ready. If possible." He touched his forehead,
"What I mean is that if you can, you'd better not have sex, let alone have children, and don't have children by yourself like Zeus. This is for your safety, otherwise the third birth will directly kill the Hunting God King. When he comes to the world, the fun will be great. If nothing else, he will kill the king's father. This king, you don't want to be stabbed to death by your own divine son, right?"
(End of chapter)
