Dionysus Wrath: The Minyades Myth Analysis Essay

In the mythological story, “Dionysus Wrath: The Minyades” there are three daughters of King Minyas, Alcathoe(Alcithoe), Leucippe, and Arsippe. King Minyas was the founder of Orchomenus, Boeotia. The rejection of Minyas to take part in the rituals and to participate in his orgies and calling him a “false god” enraged Dionysus, also called Bacchus, who is a nature god of fruitfulness and vegetation, especially known as a god of wine and ecstasy, and he is the son of Jove (Zeus). The Minyas’ scorned the god and dishonored his feast. The deity disguised himself as a lovely woman and approached the Minyades, inviting them to participate in the feast day. As the Minyades resisted once again, their weaves morphed into vines in the process. Dionysus changed into a bull, a lion, and finally a leopard right before their eyes, driving the three Minyades insane. The other deity mentioned in the story is Minverva [Athene], who is the city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason.

In the mythological story, “Hera Wrath: Gerana” Hera, the Olympian queen of the gods, and the goddess of marriage, women, and the sky, was angry at Oinoe for dishonoring her. Oinoe, a girl who was born among people known as Pygmaioi (Pygmies), gushed over her beauty- yet she lacked grace and was overbearing by nature. Oinoe’s lack of respect forced Hera to transform her into a crane, with a long neck that can fly high. The newly craned woman follows her kid about until her tribe has had enough of her continual moping and declares war on all cranes. This eventually resulted in a continuous war between the Pygmaioi and the cranes. 

In addition, Gerana, a queen and ruler of the Pygmaioi (Pygmies), angered Hera for disrespecting and dishonoring her and the other three Goddess Artemis, Athena, and Aphrodite.  Artemis is the goddess of the wild animals, the hunt, and vegetation, and chastity and childbirth. Athena is the city protectress, goddess of war, handicraft, and practical reason. Aphrodite is the ancient Greek goddess of sexual love and beauty. The Pygmaioi treated Gerana as if she were a god, lavishing her with honors befitting a god. This resulted in her growing so inflated in her mind that she dismissed the deities. Angered, Hera turned the pygmy queen Gerana into a crane as punishment for claiming to be more beautiful than she.

Dionysus is a god with lots of power, he is immortal, and specializes in making wine. Dionysus is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking, and wine, fertility, orchards and fruit, vegetation, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre in ancient Greek religion and myth. He has the power to transform himself into animals such as lions or bulls. His power to drive mortals insane was one of his skills. He can have dual personalities, such as being a friendly and joyful person, but can also be brutal and evil. Hera is the wife of Zeus, the Queen of Olympus, and the Olympian goddess of marriage, women, the sky, and the stars of heaven. She is known to be short-tempered, and her punishments can be extreme. Hera is also known to become extremely jealous, cruel, and ruthless if someone disobeys and disrespects her. She is portrayed to be beautiful, so she wants to be idolized and be praised for her beauty. She is passionate about family and relationships, but Zeus has betrayed her, which resulted in her becoming vicious toward her wrongdoers. Her principles are her priority. 

The mythical association between the winged creatures such as the crane, the birds, and the bats is that all of these creatures were originally gods/goddesses who were transformed into these creatures as a form of punishment given by Dionysus and Hera. In the mythological story, “Dionysus Wrath: The Minyades” Dionysus transformed the Minyas into bats for disobeying and insulting him. In the mythological story, “Hera Wrath: Gerana” Hera transformed Oinoe and Gerana into cranes for disrespecting and not honoring her. To conclude, winged creatures were a form of punishment by the god/goddesses. 

The correct “moral” regarding the relationship between humans and gods is, humans are created by god. Humans should thank god for their appearance, personalities, qualities, and for the good and the bad. If a human starts comparing themselves or tries to have the same power and abilities as a god, then a god will most likely be angry and punish that person. In today’s world, many of us are trying to do similar things that we as humans thought were only possible for God to do, such as fertilizing an egg and sperm in a woman's womb. Our science and medicine have surprisingly grown in the past decade. Growing up in a Muslim family, I heard from my parents that if someone tries to reach the powers and abilities of God, this means the day of judgment is closer. I thought this quote somehow related to the moral of the stories of Dionysus and Hera.