#Forgive me. Father Longwing! Don’t talk to me of your Trojan winepourer. the servant of your cups. Lovely Ampelos outshines Ganymedes

[bugwolfsstuff]

But fr

We have exactly two sources of Ampelos' existence in classical myth

Nonnus and *sighs* OVID

TWO SOURCES

DEUX

A DÓ

DOS

DUO

BOTH SOURCES CALL AMPELOS A LOVER OF DIONYSUS

RICKOLAS RIORDAN SOMEHOW MANAGES TO CALL THEM CHILDHOOD FRIENDS

RICK HOW???????

GENUINELY HOW THE FUCK???

Ovid has some wiggle room cause it says loved by Dionysus so you can say any form of love

BUT NONNUS HAS A SCENE WHERE DIONYSUS SAYS AMPELOS IS DEARER TO HIM THAN OLYMPUS AND THAT AMPELOS IS PRETTIER THAN GANYMEDE TO ZEUS

*angrily points at Dionysiaca book 10 and 11* LOOK AT IT RICKOLAS LOOK AT IT.

[bugwolfsstuff]

I KNOW RIGHTTTT??? IF YOU GO INTO BOOK 10-11 (and skip the part that tells the story of Ino's madness) UP UNTIL HIS DEATH ITS FUCKING ADORABLE

MY MAN LITTERALLY GOES 'my twink is better than yours' TO ZEUS (the bold red is the part im focusing on here in case you dont want to read all that)

[292] “Grant one grace to me the lover, O Phrygian Zeus! When I was a little one, Rheia who is still my nurse told me that you gave lightning to Zagreus, the first Dionysos, before he could speak plain – gave him your fiery lance and rattling thunder and showers of rain out of the sky, and he was another Rainy Zeus while yet a babbling baby! But I do not ask the heavenly fire of your lightning, nor the cloud, nor the thunderclap. If it please you, give fiery Hephaistos the spark of your thunderbolt; let Ares have a corselet of your clouds to cover his chest with; give the pouring rainshower of Zeus as largess to Hermaon; let Apollo, if you will, wield his father’s lightning. My ambition is not so high, dear father! I am springheel Dionysos! A fine thing it would be for me to wield Semele’s manikin lightning! The sparks of thunderbolt that killed my mother are no pleasure to me. Maionia is my dwelling-place; what is the sky to Dionysos? My Satyr’s beauty is dearer to me than Olympos. Tell me, father, do not hide it, swear by your own young friend – when you were an Eagle, when you picked up the boy on the slopes of Teucrian Ida with greedy gentle claw, and brought him to heaven, had the clown such beauty as this, when you made him one of the heavenly table still smelling of the byre? Forgive me, Father Longwing! Don’t talk to me of your Trojan winepourer, the servant of your cups. Lovely Ampelos outshines Ganymedes, he has a brilliancy in his countenance more radiant – the Tmolian beasts the Idaian! There are plenty more beautiful lads in troops – court them all if you like, and leave one boy to Lyaios!”

HE LOVED THAT BOY. HE LOVED THAT FUCKING BOY. AND RICK GOES 'THEY WERE JUST FRIENDS'

And then theres Ovid's version which is litterally just this:

"[The constellation] Grape-Gatherer (Vindemitor) . . . Its cause, too, takes a moment to teach. Beardless Ampelos, they say, a Nympha's and a Satyrus' (Satyr's) son, was loved by Bacchus [Dionysos] on Ismarian hills [in Thrace]. He trusted him with a vine hanging from the leaves of an elm; it is now named for the boy. The reckless youth fell picking gaudy grapes on a branch. Liber [Dionysos] lifted the lost boy to the stars."

Looking at Nonnus Dionysiaca Book 10 and 11 on specifically Ampelos/Ampelus and oh my gods they are down bad for each other

IT'S MAKING ME CRY BECAUSE I KNOW HOW IT'LL END FOR THEM (even worse because Nonnus kills Ampelos off by having him piss off Selene who makes a boar gore him to death)

Like what the fuckkkk

He had a sweet dream on his dreambreeding bed, beheld the shadowy phantom of a counterfeit shape and whispered loving words to the mocking vision of the boy. If his passionate gaze saw any blemish, this appeared lovely to lovesick Dionysos, even more dear than the whole young body; if the end of the tail which grew on him hung slack by his loins, this was sweeter than honey to Bacchos. Matted hair on an unkempt head even so gave more pleasure to his impassioned gaze. By day he was charmed to be with him; when night came he was troubled to part from him, when he no longer heard the familiar voice enchanting his hears, as he slept in the grotto of Rheia mother of mighty sons. —[264] DIONYSIACA BOOK 10, TRANSLATED BY W. H. D. ROUSE

THERE'S ALSO A FUCKING PARAGRAPH OF THEM WRESTLING IN THE BOOK

@thel1ghtningthief @smileyalater for once it's not me making other people cry

[you'll be happy to hear that for once i'm using my beLOATHED Ovid's version for most if not all of my pjo fics cause it's the version Rick uses and Dio cant exactly blame himself for it if it's Nonnus's version]