Analyzing pg. 33 (A bit of foreshadowing)

The page I picked was not at all random. I came across it while reading, not looking for a page to analyze.  Perhaps it was the fates leading me to that page, knowing of the trials yet to come. As we move from the beginning of all things to the initiation, a common theme begins to form. What we find when we look at the trials and tribulations that mark an ‘initiation,’ we see that the trails are not the end goal in and of themselves. The reason behind the trial is the reward and comradely that follows after completing the trial.

We see this on pg. 33 of “The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony.” Dionysus has just drugged and raped Aura, a mighty huntress, and left her impregnated with twins. Aura is furious with Dionysus and tries to have the children killed when they are born. Dionysus then calls upon the help of Nikaia.

Nikaia is a former victim of Dionysus; she too was drugged and raped by Dionysus and left with a child. Like Aura, Nikaia was a great huntress and killed any man who dared to try to seduce her. Dionysus now comes to her and asks for her help to save the child of his evil deeds. While many would never help the person who committed such boundless evils against us, Nikaia doesn’t. Calasso gives a slight glimpse as to why, “…now Nikaia would be able to see that another huntress had come to the same sorry end. Now she could take comfort, Dionysus said, in the thought that she formed part of a divine order.” We see in Nikaia the same thing we see in all groups that have a rite of passage, a form of comradely.  It may seem sick or sadistic when we think of this, Nikaia is getting joy out of watching another go through the same horror that she endured, but it is how we all feel and what we expect to become ‘one of us.’ When we watch underclassmen of the same major struggle through the classes we went through (PHSX 261) we experience the same thing, we see their struggles as a rite of passage, as a coming of age, earning their stripes. While in the middle of the trial we may see things as pointless and dismal, once we’re clear we can see how the tribulation was shaping us and making us better. After the darkness we know that we could never have accomplished all that we’ve done if it had avoided the challenge.

This is even clearer when we look at the name of Nikaia’s child; “Teleté which means ‘initiation,’ ‘ultimate achievement.’” The child is proof of her initiation into the ‘divine order.’ Nikaia has overcome the immense obstacle before her and arrived on the other side stronger because of it, so much so that she names her child ‘ultimate achievement.’