Myth Mondays: Behind the Scenes with God of Pleasure by J. C. Martin

Please welcome J. C. Martin to Myth Mondays for her post on God of Pleasure, which is featured in Seducing the Myth. Take it away, J. C….

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Everybody knows Eros (better known as Cupid) is the Greek god of love. Some of you may know of Dionysus (Roman name Bacchus), the god of wine and merrymaking. But not many people know that old Dionysus is also the god of ecstasy. In ancient times, parties in his honour are commonly called bacchanalia, a mass orgy of dancing, sex and drunkenness.

Whilst he is often portrayed in modern illustrations as a middle-aged drunkard with an expanding beer gut, ancient carvings depict him with the usual godly physique and otherworldly good looks. When writing God of Pleasure, I imagined Dionysus to be much like one of those A-list celebrities of today: young, handsome, worshipped by gaggles of women, with a leaning towards booze and kinky sex.

Now, there are a wealth of tales about the sexploits of Eros, and the king of the Olympians himself, Zeus. But Dionysus has his own share of saucy stories, one of which I chose as the setting for God of Pleasure.

When Theseus travelled to Crete to defeat King Minos' beast, the Minotaur, he was aided in his quest by Minos' daughter, Ariadne, who fell in love with Theseus. When he agreed to take her back to Athens with him in return for her help, Ariadne gave him a sword and a ball of fleece, which he used to find his way back out of the Labyrinth.

After Theseus killed the Minotaur, he took Ariadne with him on his ship. However, Theseus reneged on his promise. When they made a brief stop on the small island of Naxos, he snuck off whilst Ariadne napped, sailing off without her and leaving her stranded on the island alone. Luckily for Ariadne, she caught the eye of Dionysus, who promptly rescues her.

And that is where I chose to begin my story.

 

Find out more about J. C. Martin on her website, http://jc-martin.com/fighterwriter/

Find out how to bag your copy of Seducing the Myth here.