Ir al contenido principal

On the wine

If you go to "El Museo Nacional del Prado" in Spain, among several of the most important pictures in the history of Mankind, you could see "Baco's triumph" by Diego Velázquez. The picture is also known as "The drunken people". In it, a bunch of men are drinking wine and smiling, surrendering a man who receives a special light. Dressed with a pink mantle, and carrying a laurel crown, he seems to be the leader of the party.

The rest of men are old, bearded and ugly, but this young men seems to be perfect, like if he was a God... Well, that is because he is a God. Roman people called him Baco, the Greeks called him Dionisos. Walt Disney's Fantasy shows him as a happy and fat men, alwais enjoying the parties.

Dionisos was the God of the festivities, the happiness, the wine. He taught men how to make wine, how to cultive grapes. Greeks thought good wine required to be a little time in earth and little time in barrel... As the own Dionisos was at his first days. He was the product of the love that Zeus felt for Semele, a mortal princess (the only woman Zeus loathed was "Fidelity"). However, Hera, completely jaleus and searching for a revenge, dressed her like an old woman, and told Semele the truth about Zeus. Then Semele asked the God that he must show with his true aspect "and if you really love me, then you'll do as I want". Knowing what was about to happen, but knowing also that a God cannot refuse to do what he compromises to do, turned him into the father of Gods, with imperial eagle at her side... And carrying the thunderbolt in his hand. So the palace teardown, and Semele died. He was with child, and Zeus, using his magic, grabbed the little one from Semele's belly, and introduced him into his own leg. After several months, dionisos appeared. A few months within his mother's belly, a few months within his father's leg.

But he was not just a gay and drunken God. On the contrary, was one of the few that remain in Mount Olimpus when the giants attacked, turned himself into a huge lion, and then, in his travels, conquered India and Egypt, and probably all the world, as the wine conquered the world.

But obviously, his favorite moments were in company of men, drinking and laughing and singing and making notoriously "Bacanalia", and making the world a little bit happier, as you could see if you go to "El Prado"

Comentarios

Publicar un comentario

Entradas populares de este blog

A regular man

There is a story about a man . Just a regular man, not specially tall, or smart, or funny. An average man. As any other man in the world, he had a father, and also a mother. He loved his mother and his mother loved him. He deeply hated his father, and his father hated him. His mother was a kind woman, always smiling, always tender. The father was a terrible person. He beat his son, insulted him... That man despised his son. Several years later, when the man of our history was 30 or 35 years old, the mother died. That kind and tender mother who had loved him and who had cared for him, simply passed away. During the burial, trying to remember things he had in common, or beautiful memories of her, the man discovered himself totally incapable of crying. And even more several years later, when our man was 50 years old, his father passed away. That terrible father who had made our man's life miserable, who had beaten him, caught a fatal condition, and died. But in the father's fu...
Publicar un comentario
Leer más

I'm inside sadness

I'm inside sadness, which is a time And a space, and a soul devoured by another ghost soul which hasn't been. Nothing or anyone pains inside sadness, meanwhile slow days get longer And their darkness kingdoms Drown from "Soy en mayo". A poem by National Poetry Awarded Julio Martínez Mesanza
Publicar un comentario
Leer más

The throne room

300 years ago, there was a great warrior, who united seven kingdoms in one single Crown. The warrior had a beast. A black great monstrous dragon. The dragonfire melted down a thousand blades, and forged a throne, so high that it touched the roof of the great room, inside a Red Fortress. Today, the king is not a warrior, not a ruler. He is just a kid. And kids are not good enough to be kings. The kingdom is ruled by King's advisors, like his grandfather, a powerful landlord from the west. There are others. An old Master of the Citadel, with a chain carrying rings of gold and silver. And there are two men. Two smart and powerful men, who came from nothing. Men from nothing are the most dangerous of every men. Those who have nothing to lose, have nothing to fear. These men like and hate one each other. And that is the key of today's story. A lesson one though the other. In the throne room. The two men look the Iron Throne. "A thousand blades... Taken from the hands of Kin...
Publicar un comentario
Leer más