#bacchae retelling

[actually-the-antichrist]

Wait what's this about transmasc Pentheus? 👀

😂😂I'm so happy to see this ask since I can ramble abt my writing. It's a short story I finished last week, it's a retelling of the Bacchae from a Pentheus perspective, and in it he is a gay teenager who undergoes conversion therapy as his coming of age ritual bcs Cadmus needs a straight grandson to be heir. It's set in a 1984-esq society (reminiscent of the school structure I was raised in). Pentheus is a rational highly achieving student and member of the Culture and Morality department who hates tragedies but can't help reading them. For the yearly Autumn Festival the school puts on a play as a collectivist ritual, and in one year someone sent in the Bacchae as a suggestion. Pentheus dismisses this as an insult but cannot stop the play's events from unfolding as Bacchic activity pick up around the school. Eventually, Dionysus confronts him directly, undoes the repressive hypnosis (which Pentheus does not even remember until it's revealed at this point), and finishes the play. I wrote this, and then, realizing I had the exact same feelings of horror around male gay conversion therapy, consequently realized that I love men in a gay way, and that I'm a man. So it's not exactly a transmasc Pentheus story but it is how I found out. (really, if you don't want unscheduled epiphanies about your identity, do not become a writer)

[peggy-sue-reads-a-book]

Waiting for the Euripides retelling where the maenads are an especially insane sorority.

[dootznbootz]

I don't think Greek Mythology retellings/adaptions/inspired/etc. are necessarily "evil"...but I DO think people REALLY need to understand that there's a huge difference between the actual mythology and certain media.

I feel like people have to basically do a "Fandom ___" to say the different versions. Like "PJO ___", "Hades game ___", "TSOA ___". For it to be understood that these depictions are DIFFERENT. I'm saying this as someone who grew up reading PJO and still has a soft spot for it. But as someone who really loves Greek Mythology as well, I sometimes get really SAD.

I'm going to use the comparison of Howl's Moving Castle with it's Book Vs. Movie. I enjoy both!!! But they are honestly very different. In the movie there is no "sister swap", Markle isn't a young teenager, Sophie doesn't throw weed killer at Howl, and many more moments. But I enjoy both because even though there are changes they still keep components that are ingrained into the characters!

In some Greek Myth retellings/adaptations/stories/etc., characters are...SO different from the source material. That's fine...Choose what you want with your story... But folks should know that the modern adaptations are NOT the source material!!!

It bothers me that a lot of these wonderful myths and stories are twisted up and seen so differently because of a modern version of them. You can have that character be "awful" or a certain way in your story. But I almost feel that as fans, it's not good to generalize them or see it as "This is the truth". People are hating the mythological figure when it's only in that interpretation they are like that.

In PJO, Ares is "Zeus' favorite", isn't a good dad, a misogynist, etc. The actual myths? One of his Epithets is LITERALLY "Feasted by Women", in the Iliad everybody basically bullies him with Zeus literally saying he hates him. He cries when he learns one of his sons is killed in the war. He literally kills someone about to rape his daughter. Ares isn't perfect but it makes me sad with how he's viewed and talked about when it's only in PJO he's like that. Same with Dionysus. Read the Bacchae, you'll love it.

In Lore Olympus, Apollo rapes Persephone (noticing the fact that modern takes on the myths add rapes where there never were hmmmmm) when he never did in any of the myths.

In TSOA, Thetis is cruel when in the Iliad, she is such a loving mother to Achilles. She grieved alongside her son over Patroclus. Also with Agamemnon. In Ipheginia at Aulis, Agamemnon is a MESS. He adored his children.

In Circe, Odysseus is viewed as a selfish man who ONLY hurts others and doesn't care about his family when that is LITERALLY his one consistent character trait. HE is actually the one who is the victim of rape. Circe was never raped.

Medusa is only a victim in Ovid's, a Roman man, works. Not in GREEK mythology. She was just a cool monster. Leave Perseus alone. Poseidon and Medusa actually had a consensual relationship in Greek Mythology!

These adaptations/retellings/inspired by/etc. whatever anybody wants to call them, are not the real myths! They may be similar in some ways but to just generalize them or hate the deity/mythological figure because of something they did in the new media feels fucked up!

You can enjoy these new stories. There's nothing wrong with that!!! But know they're not the real myths. Maybe even label it as "I hate ____'s version of ____". As that makes it clear what version you're talking about.

[dionysia-ta-astika]

Time to Vote!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to submit their work for this 2024 edition of the City Dionysia! The link to vote is at the end of this post. You have until March 18th 11:59pm PST to submit your vote. The winners will be announced on March 19th.

Poetry

LARPing by @nyxshadowhawk

To Bacchos by @piristephes

I dance... by @scenecoreshrine

I know you with my blood and bones by @silkravensssssss (tw: violence)

Savage & Free by @khaire-traveler (tw: violence, cannibalism)

Art

Thrice-born by @khaire-traveler (tw: skull, blood, wine)

Untitled by @vdoes

Two-horned by @nyuiarantes

Untitled by @silkravensssssss

Retellings

Sparagmos (or Euripides, Eat Your Heart Out) by @delirpa (tw: blood, organs, bacchae, graphic death, violence) l🌿

Original Myth

Apothnesko and the Psychopomp by @hillbillyoracle (cw: death, death of sibling, death of parent, death of partner, death of child, illness) 🌿

Congratulations to @delirpa and @hillbillyoracle for winning the retelling and original myth categories, respectively.

Which leaves us with the poetry and art categories to vote for:

CLICK HERE TO VOTE

[thesearchforbluejello]

I have to admit, I'm not enjoying season two all that much. Secret kid is such a broke fantasy trope, and while that can sometimes be used to great advantage, I just didn't enjoy it here. I felt like Lucy Lawless made me get it but the writing just didn't? But I am predisposed to not like that trope, so maybe it was just me.

I did quite like Remember Nothing, which again is a trope, but I feel like it's one that gives so much more to work with in any context.

And like... I feel like Girls Just Want to Have Fun was just an excuse to give wlw everywhere a fucking heart attack. And once again, I am EXTREMELY predisposed to not like almost any retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice, but I didn't really care about that here. I do however have a lot to say about Bacchic epithets, the Bacchic Mysteries, and Euripides' Bacchae, and I feel like they really did my boy Bacchus rough with that whole Satan getup. I was mostly apathetic towards this episode though.

HOWEVER, Callisto really has the market cornered on entertainingly insane warlords, so maybe things are looking up.

[drdamiang]

5 BEAUTIES

5 BEAUTIES: 5 poems of mine picked out as special by META AI

WITH APHRODITE

I held

a long interview with Aphrodite

peace

love

sex

these we touched upon

sinking ciders by the poolside

(wedge of lemon

jammed tightly into

the neck of the bottle)

in the course of which

frank and honest

and open-

ended discussion

the goddess revealed much

of her immortal self.

****

TROY

am

a reporter on the scene

at the siege

of Troy

rushing for a scoop, meet

my deadline

ask ancient poet

Homer what he saw

in such

vivid

inner colours

far

as the eye can see

****

PRODUCTION

on the farm,

perforce, we

put our heads together

everything under the Sun

puts is head together

wheels

set in

motion

as

word speads

and Heraclitus of Miletus

stops by

a number of things

brings to mind

solid argument inclusive: that

all is

twice, thrice,

there is nothing that

is not in process

meanwhile (forgive the inadvertent South African

colloquialism) not

back

at the ranch

but in the heart of Johannesburg

they are staging a production

of Euripides' The Bacchae

have

already

launched into

the opening scene

which very instant, being

in the audience my

mind

thirsting for

ecstasy

veers towards chaos, entropy,

fractal mathematics

as we suddenly welded into one

sift and exchange

that whole Pandora's box

of memories and

recollections

whispers and ghosts

the very

incantations that

pull aside the veil, strip

off the veneer

speaking for myself

but

perhaps all

hardly able to wait, kill

that terminal longing,

set eyes

upon the mask

that is

dark Dionysus' face

****

HOME

we spent all night

in my tiny room

on

the huge

farm

touching

loving

playing with

each other

retelling fairy tales

reciting

nursery rhymes

until

the cows would

come home

dawning upon us

the cows

would come home

the cows came home

home home home

****

GREEN

the rains

the rain

the rain

the rain

have given

the grass, the trees,

the plants

a lush edge

the green fingers of

the gods responsible

for green

have grown

greenier

and me

on the margins

liminal

as usual

feeling both oddly alien

and strangely at home

[popewearsprada]

Opening ceremony of the Olympics got people talking about The Feast of Dionysus so I'm taking the opportunity to share a scene from my film Dirty Twin - a modern retelling of Euripides' The Bacchae featuring my mom (and other favorites). Enjoy!

[kebriones]

Dionysus Radio Drama

(by Andrew Kissik, broadcasted on BBC) (read notes)

A sort-of retelling of the bacchae.

PLS NOTE: I am sharing this with y'all for the sole reason that Chiwetel Ejiofor is by far the best Dionysus I have ever seen (well, heard, in this case), and I have seen many stage-dionysuses, both from greek actors and foreign. Nobody comes close.

NOW FOR THE BAD PARTS: this is a re-writting of the bacchae from an extremely christian point of view. The writer took the similarities between dionysus and jesus and basically merged the two and it becomes extremely obvious especially near the end. (some similarities do exist between the two in reality, and are very interesting, but extensive changes and effort has been made in this particular play to really sell the jesus message. Even I, who watched a bacchae play once replicating the Last Supper and thought it was pretty genius, got really upset by how christian-y this retelling is.

However, if you can sit through this and endure a bit of cringing at dionysus literally preaching "love others" , I think the performances are worth it, the actors are fantastic.

[lynniceberg]

The opening ceremony of the Olympics got people talking about The Feast of Dionysus so I'm taking the opportunity to share a scene from my film "Dirty Twin" - a modern retelling of Euripides' The Bacchae. Enjoy!

[callixton]

oh i totally forgot that i started a bacchae retelling. i should keep writing that.

[lunian]

Oh yeah so many "greek mythology inspired stories / retellings" suck asssss hdjdhdjjd but as a nerd I have to say Dionysos actually was blonde in the Bacchae! Sure it was because he was in disguise but I think that's what they might have referenced

hmmmm curious, I just read a couple of stories (well, retellings from originals) where it was mentioned he had dark/black hair, plus all of his designs I've seen so far were like that so ofc I was UNCOMFORTABLE to think he might have been blond 😭 TOO EXTRA CHANGE FOR MY BRAIN

I know that my interpretations of gods and stories may anger someone too but I think, that book just were too naive but also too extra in the end, as if.. idk if author wanted to show more "realistic" story but also avoid some fishy triggeting things, but at the end I'm just disappointed how Ariadne as a character was written there :/ weh

[wehaveallgotknives]

nightmare vision of someone writing one of those ahistorical girlboss retellings like madeline miller does except it’s the bacchae

[actually-the-antichrist]

Wanted to make a coming out post today to commemorate the occasion. Recently I was finishing up a modern day Bacchae retelling centering Pentheus when I realized I'm a trans man. I have been exploring my gender for the better part of a year now, but never before realized as I did then because I never felt anything extremely dysphoric or euphoric. Turns out I had always just assumed that I was a boy and had been living like that forever. So much stuff also make sense now in relation to my social anxiety and lack of self-esteem. Going forwards I am very much at a loss what to do. I don't think I need to medically transition, but I do wish to further hone my fashion sense so it feels more gender in general. I guess I'll just keep doing what I always did. I was raised a girl and am perceived one, and that never changed my sense of my own gender. I will also be upfront about it in social interactions, which, honestly I am excited about, since it will finally feel like people are talking to me directly. At the end, I just want to say that I love men! And I want men to be happy. My whole life I never stopped writing alternative masculinities, reaching for a way out of the patriarchy, and I never will. I will always be a man, and my masculinity will always be queer.

Oh and also I have a crush on Dionysus now. Dammit.

[whenthecagebirdsings]

desperately want to sit my friend down and just. read them Works and Days, and Theogony, and the Library, and the Iliad, and the Odyssey, and the Bacchae, and Medea, and the Trojan Women, and Jason and the Golden Fleece, and Antigone, and the Republic, and Symposium, and the Oresteia, and the Homeric Hymns, and the Orphic Hymns, and the entire works of Sappho, and somewhere in between they’ll bring up some modern retelling or another in realisation of how ridiculous it was, and I’ll throw my head back and laugh and offer to cook for them, and we’ll delve into days long discussion over this and that and—

[leonsrightarm]

i was struggling to come up with a way to describe malpertuis that wasnt 'nightmarish' because that's extremely trite and unhelpful as horror novel descriptors go but tbh it is the best word in a very literal sense. it really is like someone retelling a terrible anxiety dream they had. absurd things happen as a matter of course and the horrors appear and disappear almost without explanation. everything has a strange dream-like logic to it - that is to say, none at all except a sense that "of course it has to happen like that." the greek motifs and themes read less like allusions and more like someone who watched an intense production of the bacchae yesterday and then went to bed after an ill-advised midnight snack. and the terror it inspires is also very dreamlike. in the moment it's frightening. in the retelling, not so much. yet something about it really induces a clinging sort of dread that lingers in the mind and keeps you ruminating on it long into the next day.

anyway i recommend it if you like weird little books. emphasis on the weird.

[infinitelycomplexpuzzles]

// it's very interesting to me that Ovid basically made up the story of Medusa being a tragic character; the story of Medusa existed before him, but as far as we can tell, he's the one that decided to put the spin of her being a powerless, wronged person into the narrative.

Now don't get me wrong, I love Ovid. But I think that something is lost in his version with Medusa, which is that in making her a victim, he also removes her agency. In the original story, as far as we know, her relationship with Poseidon was consensual, and her defense of her having sex in the temple is basically 'he's literally Poseidon, what was I supposed to do?'

Now, that changes the story considerably. Obviously, the story is less tragic this way, and Ovid loves a tragedy. I mean, he wrote the Bacchae, and the concept of mortals being either destroyed or used by Gods appeals to him.

But I think that all the modern attempts to turn Medusa into some kind of overcoming the odds hero, where her punishment being unfair means that actually she's a #girlboss sorta undermines her?

Like, maybe it's just me, but if you're trying to write Medusa as a powerful, independent figure with agency, then you would be better served doing that with the pre-Ovid version. A woman who decides that yes, she's going to have that relationship with a god, she's going to make a conscious decision, and then when she's cursed, she's going to own that and move forward.

That's an entirely different narrative though. But I think we do need to acknowledge that so many of our modern ideas were basically fanfiction of myths. Which is fine! that's how they work!

It's just curious to me how few of them mesh together as future generations retell the stories for their own audience.