Jupiter, Neptune, and Dis in triad, are the primal energy of the three regions of existence, the light of sky and earth, the realm of the sea, and the darkness under the earth. Intervening they wear the mask of circumstance, and take on the nature of a driving force.
In a sense the gods are all one god, and the goddesses all one goddess, each in their many aspects. They are intermittent forces, applied at the end of the lever, with a mortal at the fulcrum on whom a myth turns. The waters swirl and a monster or a tempest appears: the following dawn is tranquil, the corpse lies on the sand. They trouble the leaves, an arrow or a spear flashes: there is a cry and then silence.
#Tiny token empires dionysus crack
They illuminate the sky, there is a crack of thunder and they vanish. They visit at a prayer, or on a whim, or driven by a passion. And to be born of the union of divine and mortal, to be a Perseus or Hercules, sons of Jupiter, a Theseus, son of Neptune, a Ulysses, son of Mercury, or an Aeneas, son of Venus, is likewise to be a constant disturber of human events. To see a god, to meet a goddess, is the highest of risks. Dis snatches up Persephone and a whole mythological complex of death and re-generation is set in motion. Actaeon has a single glimpse of Diana bathing and throws away his life. Jupiter sees Semele, Juno intervenes maliciously, and the girl ends as a heap of charred ash. Apollo pursues Daphne, and forever afterwards the laurel is his emblem. The gods are like flashes of lightning: a human encounters one, and like the effect of a stone thrown into a pool, the ripples of consequence follow. The alien, the indeterminate and unbounded, pierces the world and out of it comes turmoil and the stories. The male gods, Jupiter and his brothers Neptune and Dis, Apollo, Mercury, and Bacchus impregnate the girls who will mediate between the human and the divine. Chosen by lineage or beauty, those fated creatures are the seedbeds of divine intervention. The first and most potent interference with the human world by a god is always through a pregnant woman. Thetis mates with Peleus, and Achilles already sweeps through the glittering darkness of the Iliad. Jupiter consumes poor Semele, and Bacchus-Dionysus, is plucked from the destruction. Venus embraces Anchises, the mortal, and Aeneas is propelled on his path towards the creation of the Roman people. Fate appears as chance and circumstance, but destiny is divinely initiated. Mating with mortals they charge history with the numinous, creating human destiny. Entering the world, interacting with it, taking on the forms and surfaces of human beings and creatures, they initiate events by their presence. The gods in Greek myth are an intensification of the human. IX Justice, Moderation, Order and Rights.This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. Kline © Copyright 2003 All Rights Reserved