Term Paper

                              Dionysus: The Architect of Romance


Dionysus is the architect of romance in that he personifies one of the required elements, the remembrance/revelation; as the god of epiphany, Dionysus is known as the 'the god that comes'.  Additionally, Dionysus is present in numerous peripheral aspects of romance securing his place as the divine architect of Romance.  Dionysus is present in both the descent and the ascent themes of romance literature.  Dionysus, the 'twice born' is a male fertility god associated with nature and the seasonal cycle.  He is known to intoxicate and destroy as well as to arrive unexpectedly and possess.  As the god of wine and other intoxicants, such as music and dance; Dionysus is also the god of celebration, music, and ecstasy. He is known as a patron of the arts and the origins of theater are contributed to this multifaceted god of the harvest, wine, ritual madness, and ecstasy.  His role in the peripherals of romance include:  seasonal cycles, violence, Eros, sparagmos, and doubling.  Furthermore, Dionysus is the god of deconstruction and one of the goals of this course has been deconstruct romance in search of the elements that make for good story telling.  Dionysus is the 'beast-god within' and is thought to represent the unconscious mind.  His followers have traditionally been on the margins of society.  Classical romance is heavily linked to the aristocracy and the notion that 'blood will tell' without the marginalized followers of Dionysus (women, slaves, foreigners) and their contributions to these stories, the genre would not exist.
Dionysus, as the god of deconstruction has influenced the overall theme of the course.  As swimmers in the sea of stories, it has been pivotal to deconstruct these tales in search of their connection to one another and their connection to the reader over time.  Perhaps Dionysus is best known for his contribution to the peripheral aspects of the descent.  Doubling or twining is an element of descent that occurs so often it should almost be a required element.  Dionysus, “the twice born” is not only a symbol of rebirth but an example of this doubling.  The stories of Dionysus’ origins suggest that he is essentially his own twin.  The prevailing myths of the origin of Dionysus are that he is the serpent offspring of a union between Zeus and Persephone.  In her jealousy, Hera sent the Titans to destroy the baby.  Baiting him with toys the Titans tore the child to pieces and consumed all but his heart which was rescued by Athena.  Some versions state that Zeus then sewed the heart into his thigh and resurrected Dionysus, while other versions suggest that Zeus used the heart to impregnate Semele.  The myth of Zeus and Semele is the other prevalent version of the origin of Dionysus, in which Zeus rescues the fetus from his destroyed lover Semele and sews it into his thigh until he is ready to be born.  From the stories of Dionysus’ births the concepts of doubling, restoration, and duality are realized.  After all, Dionysus is very dualistic; he invented wine and the art of tending grapes; the nature of wine is that it has two sides.  One side brings joy and divine ecstasy while the other brings brutality and unthinking rage.  If he chooses, Dionysus can either drive a man mad or restore his sanity as is seen in the story of King Midas.      
Furthermore, the tales of Dionysus’ origins introduce the concept of sparagmos, which is deeply linked to the deity and lends itself to the peripheral elements of romance literature.  Sparagmos, or tearing of flesh, is not only present in Dionysus’ origins but follows both Dionysus and his followers throughout mythology.  Sparagmos often appears during the descent in romance literature.  Humans or animals are regularly torn apart or are slated to be torn apart, often by dogs or wild creatures in many romantic tales.  In Lucius or the Ass, the donkey’s carcass is to act as a prison for a young maiden so that she may be torn apart by vultures.  In this tale the donkey and the girl escape sparagmos but in Dahnis and Chloe, Dorcon is not so lucky and is torn to pieces by dogs.  This is not the only type violence portrayed in romance literature and Dionysus is known to have a violent nature.  In many tales of Dionysus he destroys those who resist and oppose him.  This is the goal of most villains in classical romance and mythology.  Dionysus is also an expert in seduction, “to seduce also means ‘to destroy’ in Greek (Calasso, 20).”  Dionysus is said to not only be outside his followers but within them as well.  He represents gratification and libido which are both heavily tied to violence, such as sparagmos and rape which are prevalent themes mythology and romance.  Due to the pervasive duality of Dionysus, he not only lends himself to violence but love as well.  “They desired something, they did not know what they desired.  This only they knew, that the kiss had destroyed him and the bath had destroyed her (D&C, 149).”  In Daphnis and Chloe, the lovers experience a ‘sickness’ that arrives unexpectedly and possesses them completely.  It is in this way that Dionysus acts in concert with Eros.  Dionysus connects the act of ‘falling in love’ to the theme of descent, in addition to bridging the gap between humans and the great god Eros.
In both Lucius and Daphnis and Chloe, wine is present as not only as an intoxicant, but as a medicine.  Wine includes herbal, floral and resinous ingredients that add to not only its flavor but its presumed medicinal qualities.  Whether by being used to calm, sedated, or heal; wine is present in most of the storylines in the required readings for the course further cementing Dionysus’ role as the architect of romance literature.  Additionally, wine itself is tied to celebration and ecstasy due to its powers of intoxication.  Music and dancing are likewise associated with celebration and ecstasy as ways of achieving intoxication without imbibing substances.  Celebration normally takes place in romance literature at weddings, funerals, and harvest time.  Thus illustrating the role of wine, music, and dancing in both the seasonal cycle and the life cycle.  In the pastoral setting of most romance, agriculture and fertility are paramount to the rejuvenation of the cycle of life and love.  Whereas fertility is often attributed to a female deity, Dionysus is the male representation or animus of a single concept of natural fertility which must contain both masculine and feminine elements to achieve balance.  Dionysus preserves the balance of nature.
Aside from his task of preserving the balance of nature, Dionysus preserves the balance of romance literature.  He is the embodiment of the remembrance/revelation aspect of the ascent.  “Self-recognition, or attaining one’s original identity, reverses all the Narcissus and twin and doppelganger themes that occur in the descent (Frye, 152).”  As the god of epiphany, Dionysus is responsible for recognition associated with the revelation aspect of ascent themes in romantic literature.  “In the nineteenth century, theories about an unconscious mind that never really forgets anything were starting to be developed, and such a mind supplies a possible setting for the recovery of a lost memory (Frye, 145).”  The Dionysian mysteries suggests that through the powers of intoxication and spirit possession that Dionysus is the ‘beast god’ within and is an early representation of what modern psychology refers to as the unconscious mind.  Dionysus is master of both the remembrance and revelation themes which signal the first level of ascent in romance literature.  Perhaps Dionysus’ most important role as a deity is his rule over the marginalized.  Whereas “Naïve romance confines itself largely to royal families; sentimental romance gives us patterns of aristocratic courage and courtesy, and much of it adopts a ‘blood will tell’ convention (Frye, 161),” Dionysus and his marginalized followers; women, slaves, and foreigners provide the setting in which most romance takes place.  Even though characters are revealed to be of noble birth, the story itself takes place among the marginalized.  Without the devotees of Dionysus there would be no setting in which the story unfolds.
Duality and cyclical movement are no doubt operating within the confines of romance literature.  Intoxication, celebration, violence, and Eros have their place within the genre.  The unconscious mind containing the remembrance and the revelation or epiphany is necessary to move toward a conclusion.  Dionysus is all of these things and as a result, he is the architect of romance.