Challenging Gender Roles: Dionysus, Lucian, Dialogues of the Gods 18

Bacchus, Bending Gender Roles

Name: Lucian Date: 125 – 180 CE Region: [modern Turkey] Citation:   Dialogue of the Gods 18.1

Juno: Jupiter, I’m so embarrassed by how girly and what a partygoer your son is! He wears his hair all dolled up in a mitra, he spends all his time with rampaging women, but yet he’s more womanly than them. He’s always playing his little tambourine, his flutes, his cymbals, and he’s NOTHING like you.

Jupiter: And yet, Juno, this womanly mitra-wearing man who’s “more womanly than women,” not only conquered Lydia, captured Tmolus, and subjugated Thrace, but he also assembled an army of women and conquered all of India, including their war elephants, and brought the whole region under his control. When their king dared to resist him, he led him away as his captive. He did all this singing and dancing, whirling his ivy-covered thyrsus, drunk, and raging mad (as you say). And yet, if someone has it in mind to slander him, bringing disrespect to his sacred acts, they’ll pay the punishment, whether it’s being bound by vines, or be torn limb-from-limb by their own mother. Isn’t that manly, and worthy of his father?  Who cares if he does it while playing around and flirting? There’s nothing shameful in it! And who would criticize him, if he can do all this tipsy? What more would he accomplish if he were sober?

 

Ἥρα: ἐγὼ μὲν ᾐσχυνόμην ἄν, ὦ Ζεῦ, εἴ μοι τοιοῦτος υἱὸς ἦν θῆλυς οὕτω καὶ διεφθαρμένος ὑπὸ τῆς μέθης, μίτρᾳ μὲν ἀναδεδεμένος τὴν κόμην, τὰ πολλὰ δὲ μαινομέναις ταῖς γυναιξὶ συνών, ἁβρότερος αὐτῶν ἐκείνων, ὑπὸ τυμπάνοις καὶ αὐλῷ καὶ κυμβάλοις χορεύων, καὶ ὅλως παντὶ μᾶλλον ἐοικὼς ἢ σοὶ τῷ πατρί. Ζεύς: καὶ μὴν οὗτός γε ὁ θηλυμίτρης, ὁ ἁβρότερος τῶν γυναικῶν οὐ μόνον, ὦ Ἥρα, τὴν Λυδίαν ἐχειρώσατο καὶ τοὺς κατοικοῦντας τὸν Τμῶλον ἔλαβε καὶ τοὺς Θρᾷκας ὑπηγάγετο, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπ᾽ Ἰνδοὺς ἐλάσας τῷ γυναικείῳ τούτῳ στρατιωτικῷ τούς τε ἐλέφαντας εἷλε καὶ τῆς χώρας ἐκράτησε καὶ τὸν βασιλέα πρὸς ὀλίγον ἀντιστῆναι τολμήσαντα αἰχμάλωτον ἀπήγαγε, καὶ ταῦτα πάντα ἔπραξεν ὀρχούμενος ἅμα καὶ χορεύων θύρσοις χρώμενος κιττίνοις, μεθύων, ὡς φής, καὶ ἐνθεάζων.

JUNO: Me quidem puderet, Juppiter, talis filii, tam feminei & corrupti ebrietate; qui mitra revinctam gerat comam, plurimum cum furibundis mulieribus versetur, mollior iis ipsis, ad tympana tibiasque & cymbala choreas agens, atque omnino cuivis similior, quam tibi patri. JUPITER: Atque hicce mitra feminea redimitus, mollior mulieribus, non solum, Juno, Lydiam subegit, incolentesque Tmolum cepit, & Thracas sibi subiecit; sed & adversus Indos rapto muliebri isto exercitu elephantos in potestatem redegit, & regione tota potitus est, regemque paululum resistere ausum captivum abduxit: & ista quidem omnia perfecit saltans simul & choreas ducens, thyrsis usus hederaceis, ebrius, ut ais, & furore concitus.

εἰ δέ τις ἐπεχείρησε λοιδορήσασθαι αὐτῷ ὑβρίσας ἐς τὴν τελετήν, καὶ τοῦτον ἐτιμωρήσατο ἢ καταδήσας τοῖς κλήμασιν ἢ διασπασθῆναι ποιήσας ὑπὸ τῆς μητρὸς ὥσπερ νεβρόν. ὁρᾷς ὡς ἀνδρεῖα ταῦτα καὶ οὐκ ἀνάξια τοῦ πατρός; εἰ δὲ παιδιὰ καὶ τρυφὴ πρόσεστιν αὐτοῖς, οὐδεὶς φθόνος, καὶ μάλιστα εἰ λογίσαιτό τις, οἷος ἂν οὗτος νήφων ἦν, ὅπου ταῦτα μεθύων ποιεῖ.

Tum si quis in animum induxit maledicere ipsi, contumeliis in sacrorum initia iactis, ab eo quoque poenas expetiit, vel ligatum obstringens palmitibus, vel ut discerperetur efficiens a matre tanquam hinnulus. Viden' ut virilia sint ista, atque haud indigna patre? Si vero lusus & lascivia simul adsint, nihil est ea in re, quod invidiam faciat; inprimis si quis reputet, qualis sobrius hicce foret, ubi isthaec facit ebrius. Translated into Latin by Tiberius Hemsterhuis and Johan Frederik Reitz

Lucian [Lucianus Samosatensis; 125 – 180 CE, modern Turkey] was a Roman satirist from Samosata [modern Turkey] who wrote in ancient Greek. His works are a mixture of sarcasm, wit, and biting social criticism. He is without a doubt one of the most popular authors of the later Roman empire.