AU2

normal text still from Saberhagen's Ariadne's Web:

But a silence had fallen over the humans gathered in the great hall. This was not quite the appearance which Alex, at least, had been expecting. The realization forced itself upon them all that the visitor was no greater in stature than humanity – there was of course no reason why he should be – and at the moment he appeared less impressive than many merely mortal men.

The shocking and ugly fact was that Dionysus was fat. Not only fat, bloated, his once-fair skin blotched red and gray. At a closer look, Alex could see that there was gray in the god’s hair and beard, and patches of both had fallen out. There were still remnants of a once considerable beauty in that face, a comeliness now all but erased by the all-too-human ravages of age and dissipation. The cloak of the Twice-Born, which he kept tightly wrapped around his massive body, was stained and frayed.

It could simply be due to the season. It is the time of harvest, when the vines are cut down and burned or left to die. Legends tell that Dionysus died along with his charge, to be reborn again in the next spring. Alex’s father, a devout follower of Dionysus (and his drunken ways) often refer to that interpretation as the ultimate sacrifice: Dionysus going through the pain of death to provide humanity of his precious blood, the wine. Death, Alex can equate with deterioration and this with the graying hair and uneven complexion, but what about the fat? “The fat would symbolize the ripe and succulent grapes, hanging heavily from the vines,” the voice of Alex’s father rang in his ears in defense of the wine god. He knew that whatever news he brings home of Dionysus’ appearance, his father would still worship him, but it would have been more exciting to report of a youthful god, whose beauty rivals that of Apollo and strenght could compete with Ares, not of a bloated apparently sedentary god who looks not much better than the old rich merchant his mother washes clothes for. Alex suddenly wished that King Minos called on to Dionysus on a spring.