Chapter 1.2: Agile Ariadne
Ariadne consciously and deeply exhaled. Dionysus did raise a valid point; her home on Crete is no more. She no longer trusted Theseus to be her saviour despite her saving him. But what of Dionysus? Why does he want to help her? She considered Artemis’ offer of starting fresh from anywhere. But anywhere is not quite safe for a maiden such as her. Would Artemis take her into her entourage? Ariadne chuckled internally as she doubted she could keep to Artemis’ oath of maidenhood. She really did not have many options. “I’ll take my chances with Dionysus.” She held Dionysus’ still out-stretched hand and felt that same wave of calm the last time they held each other.
“End scene! Oh what an epic start to our romance!” Dionysus clinked his wine to Ariadne’s, the glow of red and black from the TV mimicking campfire. “Oh, how vivid to my mind’s eye; a montage of you cleaning the house all domestic-like. Judging the Dionysia. The rough, drunken orgies. That time at the Alps with the satyrs AND nymphs. WHOA. So beautiful. Elegant. Agile.” Ariadne snorted.
“You know… nothing much has changed in that regard,” she purred while coaxing Dionysus closer to her with her feet. His eyes lit up while throwing his phone to the floor. He leant in to pin her. She gave him the space. Then she locked her thighs around his, suplexed him with her entire body and slammed him into submission. “But I want to remind you of how we really met.”
Dionysus was trapped. He had no choice. He was going to have to suffer a long, hard exposition.
Ariadne was in a coastal field with the women of Heraklion in Crete. A village farmer named Yidini recently died so they were preparing for his burial. As was custom, poppies were required for the ceremony as they allowed him to crossover to the Underworld and for his living relatives to say their Final Goodbyes in the In-Between. Ariadne, being a semi-Underworld goddess herself, was tied to the Earth and therefore had an aptitude for plant growth with a particular penchant for poppies. For how can a plant thrive if not for the death around it? The soil itself would not be fertile if not for the recycling of life.
She spurred buds to open, seeds to mature, seeds to germinate, seedlings to grow, buds to form, only to have the buds open with seed again. However, there are only so many cycles a plant can go through before it ultimately dies, only for it to return to the Earth so that the cycle can continue for life anew. And the Minoan women around her understood this cycle all too well; they taught this to their daughters and their daughters taught it to their daughters for what seemed to them until the end of time. Ariadne had become part of their culture’s tapestry.
“My Lady Ariadne, I managed to get your arms just right on my fifth try.” professed Kitane, one of the women in their group. She was holding a votive offering of a terracotta statue of a bare-chested, curvaceous woman with her arms at perpendicular angles to the sky. Her skirt was long; from her waist down to her hidden feet. When the statue would be set on an altar, it would give the impression of a grounded goddess, looking to the present, but having access to the sky above.
“I don’t think I can get it much better than that.” continued Kitane, “I hope you aren’t offended by my lack of talent. I promise I tried!” Her pleads were met with a soothing stroke of her hair.
“My dear Kitane, what matters most is your intent. I can see you intended for this to be the best offering you can make and this is what gives me power and in turn, it gives you power.” The Goddess kissed Kitane’s forehead. “I will hold onto this forever.” Kitane blushed and ambled back to the group who were not only picking poppies for the ceremony but also harvesting and planting seeds for the poppy fields’ cycle to continue. Once Kitane was out of reach, Ariadne sighed and muttered to herself, “I am so loved and lucky… why do I feel nothing?”
The ceremony began at dusk with Yidini’s family furnishing his burial chamber with his favourite tools, foods, and clothes. Once the moon could be seen from the cave’s entrance, a priest and priestess began their hymn in unison:
During the hymn, at the utterance of Ariadne and Hekate, they appeared. The priestess greeted the goddesses and led them to the altar next to Yidini’s body. The goddesses then began their work creating an In-Between. They sang:
We call to the Goddesses at Life’s Brink.
Hekate. Ariadne. Please come forth!
We offer to you incense, wine, honey.
They are yours, with statues, with art, with love.
May you bless us with our Final Goodbye,
To Dear Yidini.
Hekate shrouded the burial chamber in moonlight by coaxing it from the cave’s entrance. Ariadne danced to make the poppy incense potent and guided the smoke into the bodies of Yidini’s family and friends. She then went to the body of Yidini and asked him to wake up. His shade left his body and his family and friends greeted him as they started saying their Final Goodbyes. The two goddesses moved to the outskirts of the congregation.
Be still; we will calm your melancholy.
We are the guards to the Sea. To the last,
Resting place of your soul, your shade will know,
Where you will go, what you will be, just trust -
Cycles. Life & Death. Seed to Bloom. Again.
Cycles. Night & Day. Wax & Wane. Again.
I, Hekate, created the space of,
The In-between, be at peace, in In-Between.
Let Selene bathe you with serenity,
Just trust in my protection while you sleep.
I, Ariadne, will metamorphose
Through fire, the leaves, the petals, the seeds.
Through their change, they give the blessing of the Final Goodbye.
“So Ariadne, we meet again.” Hekate said, the moonlight from the cave’s entrance casting three shadows from her like the moon’s dark prism. “Yidini seems like he was much loved by his family so we have time to catch up. How have you been?” They both sat by the cave’s entrance to moon bathe.
“The same old story really. Watching over the cycles, caring for the mortals. And now I have to coax Yidini here to the sea. How are you?”
“A bit on edge actually. There’s some new stories being written. I fear I’m going to change again.”
“What kind of stories? We always change Hekate, we just have to hold on to ourselves a bit.” Ariadne advised while caressing Kitane’s offering. “You have been keeping your favourite offerings right?”
“Of course,” She side-eyed Ariadne, “I was the one who taught you that trick. You see, I worry because these new stories are… quite different. First there’s talk of some new god who can inflict madness on mortals. I guess Pan might be changing a bit? Who knows. Second of all, they’re deathly afraid of death. Quite unnatural if you ask me, how do they think life springs? And what of us? What if we start to become forgotten? You know they don’t even want to utter Aidoneus’ name? They’re calling Persephone ‘Kore’. Who calls her ‘maiden’?! She’s older than most of us for goodness sake! I just… I am worried about these trends. What if they take off?” Ariadne looked incredulously at Hekate,
“What if they do? I guess we just leave it up to the Fates. They’re the real ones pulling the strings here and it takes me millenia to figure out their rhyme and reason. All I can do is just continue doing what I do. And I guess that’s all you can do too. I don’t want to burden you with my hot take, but what’s the worst that can happen if I am forgotten? I’ve been doing the same thing over and over again here on Crete for as long as I can remember and I’m sure there’s other goddesses of similar ilk to me. When does it change? When the mortals die? Sorry, I guess I’m just bored of all this. Immortal God Problems, am I right?”
Hekate gazed into Ariadne’s eyes and asked her, “When did you lose your light?” Ariadne looked to the moon.
“The mortals have not associated me with her like they have with you. Her cycles are the same, over and over. She seems comfortable with it I think. I’m not getting that same joy. But we are so peaceful. I’m important to these people. I’m good at what I do. Why do I feel this way?”
“Ariadne, I - ” Hekate’s advice was cut short by the final Final Goodbyes to Yidini. Yidini’s shade treaded carefully toward the goddesses. “I thank you both for this beautiful goodbye. What of me now?” Hekate hugged the shade, kissed his forehead and said, “I will now close the In-Between and leave once you leave the cave. Ariadne, are you ready?” Ariadne smiled and led Yidini’s shade outside the cave. Walls of moonlight zig-zagged through the space between the cave’s mouth and the sea.
“Let’s head into the labyrinth.”
