Perhaps it is because of my Catholic upbringing that I decided to add Dionysian words to the tune of The Canticle of the Turning. Perhaps it is because of my Irish heritage that I decided to add them to The Star of the County Down. Either way, I have a Dionysian hymn that can be sung to the tune. Enjoy!

I begin to sing of the Bacchic King,

Dionysus, the god of wine;

The wandering god with his cult outlawed,

Brings the secrets of the vine.

The god of the stage shall break the cage,

That entraps the common mind;

The god of flowers with his bacchic powers

Is the Liberator of mankind.

The lord of the earth is the god of rebirth,

His blood is the wine outpoured;

And those lost in the dance and caught in a trance,

Hear the shout of the Bacchic Lord.

By the toys beguiled, the thrice born child,

Was ruptured and eaten raw;

And from a lightning flash, the titanic ash,

Came us mortals, divine and flawed.

Both Persephone and Semele

Gave birth to the ill fated child.

And from Zeus’ flesh, came the god afresh

He’s the good Lord of the wild.

The lord of the earth is the god of rebirth,

His blood is the wine outpoured;

And those lost in the dance and caught in a trance,

Hear the shout of the Bacchic Lord.

Jealous Hera’s pain drove the god insane

And he wandered the world deranged.

But Kybele’s might set the god aright,

And the world he began to change!

He taught us all to make alcohol,

To release us and set us free,

And we honor the lord, our god adored,

With his mask upon a tree.

The lord of the earth is the god of rebirth,

His blood is the wine outpoured;

And those lost in the dance and caught in a trance,

Hear the shout of the Bacchic Lord.