Reversing Greek Mythology

Luo Yin used his status as king to summon Dionysus. After the news spread in the palace, all the royal family in the palace were surprised and frightened.

While Luo Yin was waiting for the arrival of Dionysus, a white-haired old man walked into the hall and persuaded Luo Yin.

"Penteus! My child, how can you treat the gods with such arrogance? Don't you have any fear of the gods in your heart?"

Recognizing that this old man was Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, Luo Yin showed a solemn expression on his face.

Because Cadmus, as the founder of the city, was also a deified heroic god.

In the myth of Cadmus, he wandered to the Thebes area in search of his sister Europa, who was brought to Crete by Zeus.

When Cadmus led his men to the ancient spring of Dilcea on Mount Helicon, a poisonous dragon [serpent] entrenched in the forest attacked Cadmus' men.

After Cadmus found that his men were killed by poisonous snakes, he bravely fought with the poisonous dragon and successfully killed it.

Interestingly, the poisonous dragon killed by Cadmus in the myth is set to be the child of Ares, the god of war.

After Cadmus killed the poisonous dragon and founded the city of Thebes, the gods rewarded Cadmus by letting him marry the goddess Harmonia, the daughter of Ares, the god of war, and Aphrodite, the god of love. .

So it is obvious that the poisonous dragon defeated by Cadmus was actually Harmonia.

The real-life prototype of this story is Cadmus, the leader of the Phoenician immigrants, who brought his men to the Thebes area and conquered Harmonia, the leader of the local tribe.

In order to integrate into the local area, Cadmus married the defeated female leader Harmonia.

In the orthodox myth of Cadmus, in his later years, Cadmus and his wife Harmonia moved to the northern Inlyria region, where they transformed into two giant snakes and entered the kingdom of the gods.

As we all know, snakes are hibernating creatures and will hibernate in caves during the winter.

In the myth, Cadmus and Harmonia were transformed into two serpents, apparently to imply that they were buried underground after death.

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In order to deify them, people said that they were buried after death and that they entered the kingdom of the gods.

In some unorthodox myths, Cadmus participated in the war between Zeus and Typhon as a human and helped Zeus defeat Typhon.

Although the myth of Cadmus is false, he himself does exist and has a prototype in reality.

As the leader of the Phoenician immigrants, Cadmus was able to lead his followers to successfully establish the city of Thebes in the Thebes area. He was worthy of his status as the founder of the city.

Although Luo Yin looked down on those fictional heroes and gods, he had respect for deified real-life heroes like Cadmus.

After listening to Cadmus' words, Luo Yin joked with a smile.

"Great Cadmus! That foreigner Dionysus claims to be your grandson. Rather than educating me here, shouldn't you be more concerned about this grandson who suddenly appeared? Isn't it true that Dionysus He is not your grandson, and his mother Semele is not your daughter, so you don’t care about this fake grandson at all?”

Luo Yin's words made Cadmus' eyes widen and he fell into a daze.

yes!

That stranger, Dionysus, is his grandson. Why don't he care about him at all?

More importantly, why did Dionysus not care about his grandfather at all and just wanted to be the patron saint of Thebes?

Do I not regard Dionysus as my grandson, and Dionysus as my grandfather?

So why do we become grandparents?

Before Cadmus could recover, Luo Yin's envoy ran into the hall with a bloody head and said.

"King Pentheus! I failed to fulfill my order. I came to the place where the followers of Dionysus gathered. When the believers learned that the king was going to summon their gods, they beat me up. Just when I was about to When I was beaten to death, the leader of Dionysus saved me and offered to come to the palace in Dionysus’s place.”

Seeing the injured appearance of the messenger, Luo Yin frowned and said.

"The royal family in the palace not only included Dionysus' uncles, aunts, and cousins, but also Dionysus's maternal grandfather and grandmother. He actually refused to come to the palace. It seems that the people who made up the myth wanted to give obvious hints. Dionysus is not the grandson of Cadmus. If it is not to imply that Dionysus' life experience is false, why set it in the myth that when Dionysus came to the city of Thebes, His maternal grandfather Cadmus is still alive."

"King Pentheus, do you want to summon the leader of Dionysus?"

Hearing the envoy's question, Luo Yin nodded and said.

"I'll just listen to what the leader of Dionysus has to say."

After the leader of Dionysus came to the hall, he looked at Luo Yin without fear and said.

"Dear King Pentheus, I come to you on behalf of the god Dionysus, hoping that you can accept a great god."

"Don't you claim that Dionysus is the grandson of Cadmus, so Dionysus has the legitimacy to become the patron saint of Thebes? Why doesn't Dionysus come to see my cousin? Why doesn't Dionysus come? Visiting his grandfather and grandmother?"

Luo Yin's question left the Dionysian leader speechless and he didn't know how to answer.

After all, people who make up myths do not need to consider logic, so when the people who make up myths made up this story, they did not explain why Dionysus did not visit his maternal grandparents.

Looking at the dull-faced Dionysus leader, Luo Yin said with a sneer.

"It seems that you can't answer my question, so let me ask another question! What is your name and where are you from?"

"My name is Actes, and my hometown is Mayonium in Asia Minor."

"I see, if you have a real prototype, you must be a descendant of the Thracians - a Virginian."

Luo Yin said with a smile.

"In a few hundred years it seems likely that the nomads of the north will experience a massive food famine. To survive, the nomadic Dorians moved south to invade the Peloponnese, and the Thracians crossed the straits to invade Asia Minor. , established the Kingdom of Virginia. Although Dionysus was originally a god worshiped by the Thracians, he followed the Thracians to the Asia Minor Peninsula and later became the brother of Apollo. Worshipers of Apollo captured the Temple of Delphi with force and replaced Mnemosyne with Apollo. Worshipers of Dionysus followed suit and also invaded the Temple of Delphi with force and replaced Mnemosyne with Apollo. Themis. As a god worshiped by the barbaric northern Thracians, the first reason why Dionysus could rise to become a Panhellenic god was that he entered the Panhellenic holy place Delphi. The second reason was that As the younger brother of Apollo, he became the son of Zeus, a god of the same generation as Apollo, Athena, Ares, and Artemis.”

Seeing Actes' dumbfounded look, Luo Yin continued.

"I'm not interested in listening to you talk about the greatness of Dionysus. If Dionysus doesn't come to see me, then I will take the initiative to see him! Of course, my main purpose is not to see this cheap cousin who I took the initiative to pay for. , but to save the cheap mother Agoe and the cheap sisters who were bewitched by Dionysus."