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I really can't remember where I read this but there is a Celtic myth (for want of a better way to say it) where the most beautiful young man in the tribe, village or whatever, was chosen to be King for a day and at the end of this day he then got pulled limb from limb by drug crazed maedads who were priestess of the goddess and who had been eating magic mushrooms. It sounds like one of Graves little stories? After a while it became a week and then he actually got to be king for a whole year before being torn apart and then it was a bull that was slaughtered, or something. Maiden is also etymologically linked to male youths not yet old enough to grow a beard so this need not be gender specific. One of the naughty things these Celts also did apart from tearing each other apart in drug fuelled orgies was mess up gender distinctions. Well, you know those stories about Welsh sheep f***ers and what the Celtic Kings did to mares in full view of the whole village. This I got from a scholarly source, Rankin _Celts and the Classical age_, ever so polite in tone, too, scholarly politeness. So not only did gender get mixed up but the subjectivity which defined humans was also impinged upon. This may well have upset the Classical worldview of the ways things ought to be. Again, can't remember my other sources. I was heavily into reading wacky Celtic mythologies, the wackier the better, a few years back now. Anyone know of any good sources? Got a stinking headache from making compost. apparently mould spores in compost can make you sick, headache and nausea being the most common symptoms and death from compost is not unheard of. This I am now experiencing.... (although I don't think I am going to die, in all honesty.) so must go.... best wishes -- Chris Jones <[log in to unmask] On Fri, 2003-10-03 at 01:32, Alison Croggon wrote: > Thanks for that discussion, Rebecca - wasn't Actaeon also torn to > pieces by Artemis, after surprising her when she was bathing, and > torn to pieces by dogs? So many extreme punishments in these > stories, for transgressions or intrusions into divine mysteries. And > that switch again from gentle to murderous. Yes, part of Dionysus' > beauty is his androgyneity, if there is such a word; beautiful young > men often have that quality. > > Best > > A