FREE ESSAY ON DAVID AND LEGEND

DAVID AND LEGEND

The legend of David and Goliath is a very familiar one to many people. It is an oral
legend that has been told from one generation to the next. It has been mostly assumed to
be a fictional story. The question is how do we know it is fiction. This is the problem
historians have when using the tool of oral bards or legends. The story may have changed
drastically in the years it has taken to be told and retold over many years. We do not
know if the story had any truth to it in the first place. It is difficult to isolate the
actual historical data from everything else.


  
    
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Dionysus
Dionysus was the god of the vine. He invented wine and spread the art of tending grapes.
He had a dual nature. On one hand, he brought joy and divine ecstasy. On the other hand,
he brought brutality, thoughtlessness and rage. This reflected both sides of wine's
nature. If he chooses, Dionysus can drive a man mad. No normal fetters can hold him or
his followers. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and Semele. He was the only god to have a
mortal parent. Zeus came to Semele in the night, invisible, felt only as a divine
presence. Semele was pleased to be a lover of a god, even though she did not know which
one. Word soon got around and Hera quickly realized who was responsible. Hera went to
Semele in disguise and convinced her she should see her lover as he really was. When Zeus
next came to her, she made him promise to grant her one wish. She went so far as to make
him swear on the River Styx that he would grant her request. Zeus was madly in love and
agreed. She then asked him to show her his true form. Zeus, was unhappy, and knew what
would happen but, having sworn he had no choice. He appeared in his true form and Semele
was instantly burnt to death by the sight of his glory. Zeus did manage to rescue
Dionysus and stitched him into his thigh to hold him until he was ready to be born. His
birth from Zeus alone conferred immortality upon him.Dionysus' problems with Hera were
not yet over. She was still jealous and arranged for the Titans to kill him. The Titans
ripped him into pieces. However, Rhea brought him back to life. After this, Zeus arranged
for his protection and turned him over to the mountain nymphs to be raised. Dionysus
wandered the world actively encouraging his cult. He was accompanied by the Maenads, wild
women, flush with wine, shoulders draped with a fawn skin, carrying rods tipped with pine
cones. While other gods had temples, the followers of Dionysus worshipped him in the
woods. Here, they might go into mad states where they would rip apart and eat raw any
animal they came upon. Dionysus was also one of the very few that was able to bring a
dead person out of the underworld. Even though he had never seen Semele, he was concerned
for her. Eventually he journeyed into the underworld to find her. He faced down Thanatos
(Death) and brought her back to Mount Olympus. Dionysus became one of the most important
gods in everyday life. He became associated with several key concepts. One was rebirth
after death. Here his dismemberment by the Titans and return to life is symbolically
echoed in tending vines, where the vines must be pruned back sharply, and then become
dormant in winter for them to bear fruit. The other is the idea that under the influence
of wine, one could feel possessed by a greater power. Unlike the other gods, Dionysus was
not only outside his believers but, also within them. At these times, a man might be
greater then himself and do works he otherwise could not. The festival for Dionysus is in
the spring when the leaves begin to reappear on the vine. It became one of the most
important events of the year. Its focus became the theater. Most of the great Greek plays
were initially written to be performed at the feast of Dionysus. Those who took part,
including writers, actors and spectators, were regarded as sacred servants of Dionysus
during the festival. This is a god who gives pleasure to mankind: he discovered honey and
the vine and its cultivation. But some say that it was Aristaeus who discovered honey and
that he competed with his honey against the wine of Dionysus but Zeus gave the first
prize to the wine. Some say that Oeneus, king of Calydon, was the first to receive a
vine-plant from Dionysus. Dionysus formed the women (MAENADS) into an army and made a
campaign over all the inhabited world. Dionysus is also known because of his Indian
campaign. He also instructed all men in the knowledge of his rites, but he punished
severely those who opposed him (like Lycurgus and Pentheus). He was attended by SATYRS,
MAENADS and others. Semele was a daughter of Cadmus and Harmonia. Zeus fell in love with
Semele and consorted with her. But Hera was jealous, and in order to delude Semele, Hera
took the shape of Beroe, Semele's nurse, and told Semele to ask Zeus to come to her as he
comes to Hera, so that she would know what pleasure it is to sleep with a god. At her
suggestion Semele made this request to Zeus and was smitten by a thunderbolt. Later
Dionysus brought up his mother from Hades, named her Thyone, ascended with her to heaven
and there she was made immortal by Zeus. After Semele's death Zeus carried the unborn
child in his thigh. When the child was born Zeus brought him to Nysa in Arabia where the
boy was reared by NYMPHS. But it is also said that Hermes entrusted Dionysus to Athamas
and Ino, and persuaded them to rear him as a girl. But Hera (or Tisiphone) drove them
mad, and Athamas hunted his elder son Learchus as a deer and killed him. The CORYBANTES
are also named as guardians of Dionysus in his growing days. The HYADES are sometimes
said to have been the nurses of Dionysus and to have been put to flight by Lycurgus, king
of the Edonians (Thrace) or the Arabians, who was the first to expel Dionysus. Or else,
river NYMPHS (NYMPHS LAMUSIDES), took care of the child Dionysus, but they were maddened
by Hera. Hera hated him so much that she promised Artemis to the giant Alcyoneus if he
would fight against Dionysus. And to the giant Chthonius she promised Aphrodite if he
would do the same thing. Hera incited also the giant Peloreus against Dionysus and to the
giant Porphyrion she promised Hebe as his wife if he would fight Dionysus. Hera drove
Dionysus mad and when Dionysus was afflicted with madness he came to a large swamp which
he could not cross. He was then met by two Asses and one of them carried him across the
water so that he could reach a temple of Zeus. When Dionysus came to the temple he was
freed at once from his madness and, feeling gratitude for the Asses he put them among the
stars (Asellus Borealis and Asellus Australis in Cancer) and gave human voice to the Ass
which had carried him. This Ass is said to be the saddle-ass of Silenus, a Satyr adviser
and instructor of Dionysus. He came to Cybela in Phrygia where Rhea, the mother of the
gods, purified him and taught him the rites of initiation. He then came to Thrace where
Lycurgus was king of the Edonians, who lived beside the river Strymon. This Lycurgus was
the first to insult Dionysus and expel him. Dionysus learned of the plot of Lycurgus
against him from Charops, the grandfather of Orpheus, and he conquered the Thracians in a
battle and killed Lycurgus, or else Lycurgus was maddened by the god and killed himself.
Thereupon, out of gratitude to Charops for his aid, Dionysus made over to him the kingdom
of the Thracians and instructed him in the secret rites connected with the initiations.
Later the son of Charops took over both the kingdom and the initiatory rites. It is also
said that when Dionysus was persecuted by Lycurgus he took refuge in the sea with Thetis
the Nereid, while the MAENADS were taken prisoners together with the SATYRS that attended
him. But when the MAENADS were released, and Dionysus drove Lycurgus mad, the latter
struck his son dead with an axe, imagining that he was lopping a branch of a vine, and
having cut off his son's extremities, he recovered his mind. Others say that Lycurgus was
almost killed by the MAENADS but was saved by Hera and made immortal, but first he was
driven mad by Zeus so that no other man should be as proud as he. It is also told that
the Edonians themselves bound him to horses which rent him in pieces, because they
believed Dionysus who had said that the land would not bear fruit until Lycurgus was put
to death. When Dionysus came to Thebes, he forced the women to abandon their houses and
rave in Bacchic frenzy on Cithaeron. King Pentheus attempted to put a stop to these
proceedings, but he was torn limb from limb by his mother, who believed him to be a wild
beast, or by the MAENADS. After Thebes Dionysus came to Argos, and because they did not
wish to honor him, he drove the women mad, and they devoured the infants whom they
carried at their breasts to the mountains. On another occasion Dionysus desired to sail
from Icaria to Naxos. He then hired a Tyrrhenian pirate ship. But when Dionysus was on
board, they sailed not to Naxos but to Asia, intending to sell him as a slave. So
Dionysus turned the mast and oars into snakes, and filled the vessel with ivy and the
sound of flutes so that the SAILORS went mad, and leaping into the sea, were turned into
dolphins. Others say Dionysus came on board when these SAILORS, having leapt ashore,
captured him, stripped him of his possessions and tied him with ropes. When Theseus came
to Crete, Ariadne, being amorously disposed to him, offered to help him if he would agree
to carry her away to Athens and have her to wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so,
she asked Daedalus to disclose the way out of the labyrinth. And at his suggestion she
gave Theseus a clue when he went in. And having found the Minotaur he killed him; and
drawing the clue after him made his way out again. And by night he arrived with Ariadne
at Naxos. There Dionysus fell in love with Ariadne and carried her off, when deserted by
Theseus. He brought her to Lemnos and there she had children by him. Some say she had
children by Theseus as well. Ariadne's final fate is most uncertain. Some say that she
was killed by Artemis, for something that Dionysus told the goddess. Others say that she
was turned into stone when Perseus shook in front of her the face of Medusa. Still others
say that she hung herself because she was abandoned by Theseus. It is also told that
Theseus and Ariadne, coming from Crete, were driven out of their course by a storm to
Cyprus. Ariadne was big with child and Theseus set her on shore alone, while he was borne
out to sea again by the storm. Ariadne was taken into the care of the Cyprian women, who
helped her during the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her
child was born. Yet others say that Ariadne was made immortal by Zeus and that Dionysus
set the Crown among the stars as a memorial of the dead Ariadne. Aura, a Phrygian
huntress unacquainted with love, daughter of the Titan Lelantus and the Oceanid Periboea,
was ravished by Dionysus while asleep. She had twins but killed one of the children and
in despair she threw herself into the river Sangarius and was transformed into a fountain
by Zeus. Nicaea was a huntress and nymph of Astacia with whom Hymnus fell in love. She
grew angry and killed him as he was declaring his love for her. However later, having
drunk wine, she fell asleep and Dionysus seduced her