Creatures of Dionysos

In a shapely vessel with eyes painted on the graceful prow,
Dionysos set sail from Ikaria - for Naxos he was bound -
the mast entwined with tropes of vine instead of hempen ropes
and twine, gunwhales running with the new-pressed wine,
Dionysos set sail…

He had hired a company of cut-throats as his crew, buccaneers
who steered him wide of Naxos for the Asian ports,
where golden youth could fetch far more than amphorae of oil
and wine, and there would be no Ariadne waiting on the fateful shore.

The god of harvest and the grape gestured skyward with his stave;
the mast became a writhing mass of serpents, all the oars were snakes;
ivy fouled the rudder, bound the mariners more fast than chains;
Dionysos, intended slave, was metamorphosed to a lion;
from the air, the strains of flutes drowned out the rhythmic pulse of waves.

The frenzied men tore at the bonds of ivy, grappled themselves free,
in mortal terror plunged into the sea and sank without a trace;
but in the scheming sailors' place rose dolphins, emulating flutes
with piping cries, the ghost of Bacchic laughter in their knowing eyes…

In this way, small cetaceans became creatures of Dionysos…