Chapter 14

Chapter XIV
Bacchus. Ariadne Bacchus was the son of Jupiter and Semele. Juno, to gratify her
resentment against Semele, contrived a plan for her destruction.
Assuming the form of Beroe, her aged nurse, she insinuated doubts
whether it was indeed Jove himself who came as a lover. Heaving
a sigh, she said, "I hope it will turn out so, but I can't help
being afraid. People are not always what they pretend to be. If
he is indeed Jove, make him give some proof of it. Ask him to
come arrayed in all his splendors, such as he wears in heaven.
That will put the matter beyond a doubt." Semele was persuaded
to try the experiment. She asks a favor, without naming what it
is. Jove gives his promise and confirms it with the irrevocable
oath, attesting the river Styx, terrible to the gods themselves.
Then she made know her request. The god would have stopped her
as she spake, but she was too quick for him. The words escaped,
and he could neither unsay his promise nor her request. In deep
distress he left her and returned to the upper regions. There he
clothed himself in his splendors, not putting on all his terrors,
as when he overthrew the giants, but what is known among the gods
as his lesser panoply. Arrayed in this he entered the chamber of
Semele. Her mortal frame could not endure the splendors of the
immortal radiance. She was consumed to ashes. Jove took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the
Nysaean nymphs, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for
their care were rewarded by Jupiter by being placed, as the
Hyades, among the stars. When Bacchus grew up he discovered the
culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious
juice; but Juno struck him with madness, and drove him forth a
wanderer through various parts of the earth. In Phrygia the
goddess Rhea cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he
set out on a progress through Asia teaching the people the
cultivation of the vine. The most famous part of his wanderings
is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted several
years. Returning in triumph he undertook to introduce his
worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes who dreaded
its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it
brought with it. As he approached his native city Thebes, Pentheus the king, who
had no respect for the new worship, forbade its rites to be
performed. But when it was known that Bacchus was advancing, men
and women, but chiefly the latter, young and old poured forth to
meet him and to join his triumphal march. Mr. Longfellow in his Drinking Song thus describes the march of
Bacchus: "Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
Ivy crowns that brow, supernal
As the forehead of Apollo,
And possessing youth