Nicholas Clemente

Dionysus in New York: a Fable Nicholas Clemente

In the Bacchae, the 400 BC play by Euripides, Dionysus arrives in Thebes, bringing with him the cult of the wine. The prince, Pentheus, opposes the upstart god. Enraged by such effrontery, Dionysus lures Penteus into viewing an orgiastic ritual where Penteus's mother, drunk with wine, is made to kill her own son. Now, in the twenty-first century, Constantine Bacchus, of Greek and Native American heritage, comes to New York. He believes that he is the reincarnation of the god Dionysus because of several drug-induced trips to Mount Olympus. His symbol is a hollowed-out, fifteen-foot totem pole that he uses to dispense his LSD-laced wine at revival-style meetings. Rich and spoiled, Horace Penney is the mayor of the City of New York and aspires to claim the presidency of the United States. When Dion announces that he is holding a freedom festival in New York, Mayor Penney pretends to embrace his cause but instead seizes the opportunity to gain national prominence by denouncing Dion. Feeling betrayed, Dion decides to destroy the mayor. Penney, reacting to the brain-washing of his mother, jails Dion on a trumped-up charge. Despite being imprisoned, Dion sets in motion a plan by which the mayor's drugged mother will kill her own son at the festival in Central Park.