When Dionysus came to Attica in Pandion's time, Icarius received the vine and shared wine with shepherds who, thinking themselves poisoned, killed him; Erigone found the body with the dog Maera and hanged herself, and Dionysus punished Athens until the swinging rites of the Aiora honoured the maiden — father, daughter, and hound set among the stars.1
The vine in Attica
In the reign of Pandion, Demeter and Dionysus came to Attica. Celeus welcomed the goddess at Eleusis; Icarius received Dionysus, took from him a branch of a vine, and learned how wine is made. Hyginus tells how Father Liber, travelling to show men the sweetness of his fruit, came to the generous hospitality of Icarius and Erigone, gave them a skin full of wine, and bade them spread its use through other lands.2
Wine for the shepherds
Wishing to bestow the god's gift on men, Icarius went to shepherds in Attica. Hyginus has him load a wagon and travel with Erigone and the dog Maera to demonstrate wine's sweetness. The shepherds tasted the new drink and quaffed it immoderately without water; made drunk, they collapsed, and thinking Icarius had given them bad medicine or bewitched them, they killed him — Apollodorus with clubs in the general account, Hyginus explicitly with clubs after the wagon journey.3
Maera and the hanging
By day the shepherds understood what they had done and buried Icarius. When his daughter Erigone searched for her father, the dog Maera — which had attended Icarius — discovered his dead body to her. She bewailed him and hanged herself; Hyginus adds that she hung from a tree over her father's corpse, Maera howling beside the slain man.4
The Aiora
Because of these deaths Father Liber afflicted the daughters of the Athenians with the same punishment. They consulted Apollo, who answered that they had neglected the deaths of Icarius and Erigone. The Athenians exacted punishment from the shepherds and, in honour of Erigone, instituted a festival day of swinging — the rite born of the affliction — decreeing that through the grape-harvest they should pour libations to Icarius and Erigone.5
Justice in the sky
By the will of the gods Icarius, Erigone, and Maera were placed among the stars. Hyginus in the Fabulae names Erigone the sign Virgo, whom they call Justice; Icarius is Arcturus, and Maera is Canicula. The Astronomica identifies Bootes with Icarius, father of Erigone, and repeats the gift of wine and the dog's discovery of the murdered host.6
· EXEUNT ·
How the centuries saw it
Dionysus, Acme, and Icarius (House of Dionysos mosaic)
Unknown (Roman mosaicist, Paphos), late 2nd–early 3rd century AD
Paphos mosaic — Dionysus bringing the first wine to Icarius, the Attic gift that will cost the host his life.
Dionysos and Ikarios (Farnese relief)
Unknown (Roman), 1st–2nd century AD
Farnese relief — the god visiting Icarius with the vine, the hospitality myth before the shepherds' murder.
The Sleep of Erigone
Jean-Baptiste Aubry-Lecomte (after Girodet), c. 1820s
After Girodet — Erigone asleep before she finds her father's body and the Aiora swinging rites begin.
Erigone Ensnared by Dionysus
Unknown (after classical types), c. 18th–19th century
Print of Erigone and the vine — the daughter of Icarius caught in Dionysus' gift that named her grief among the stars.
Bacchus and Attendants Visiting Icarus
Unknown (after the antique), 18th–19th century
After-antique visiting scene — Bacchus at Icarius' door with the wine that Attica will learn to fear and celebrate.
In play
Icarius (Athenian)
The Attic host of Dionysus who shared the first wine — murdered by shepherds, mourned by Erigone and the dog Maera, and set among the stars.
Erigone (daughter of Icarius)
Daughter who finds her father's body and hangs herself — the Aiora swinging rites and Virgo still remember her grief.
Boötes
The constellation tradition that places Icarius among the stars — wine's first teacher as the herdsman of the northern sky.