Dion: His Life and Mine by Sarah Cate Anstey Page B

would deter any future repeats and embarrassment to the city.
    Years later, Dion arrived on the scene, claiming to be Kadmus’s grandson. Let’s just say that arms were not opened wide to clasp him to the family bosom. Kadmus, getting on in years and beginning to have doubts and regrets over the treatment of his youngest, may have been persuaded, but for the protestations of “impostor” from Pentheus, the son of Agave. As the only (acknowledged) grandson, Pentheus was set to inherit Thebes on his grandfather’s retirement, which Pentheus was attempting to hasten by leaving cruise brochures around for his grandmother, who was complaining of itchy feet. Pentheus hadn’t inherited his mother’s free-spirited nature and had started implementing his own plans in Thebes. He wasn’t about to give them up without a fight. Despite Dion’s insistence that he didn’t want a claim on Thebes, Pentheus still denounced him.  Pentheus had the backing of his mother and aunts, who still hadn’t forgiven Semele her beauty. Kadmus closed his open arms and left Dion out in the cold.
    A few years later Tireseus, Kadmus’s trusted friend, explained to me why Dion wasn’t already a member of the Kadmus Clan when I’d met him, or why we didn’t receive a welcome when we first married.
    “In order to have enough ammunition against Dion, Pentheus hired a private eye to uncover the details of Dion’s childhood.”
    “He needn’t have forked-out so much money,” I snorted, “Dion would have willingly told him everything.”
    “I’m sure Dion would have, the young scamp,” Tireseus winked. “Anyway, Pentheus discovered that after Dion’s father had saved him, he looked around for a safe place for the baby to be brought up and for someone to whom he could be entrusted.”
    “Hang on,” I interrupted. “Pentheus knew Dion wasn’t an imposter? He knew about Dion’s father?”
    “Of course he did, my dear, we all knew,” Tireseus exclaimed in his pompous but loveable way. “Take away that exotic blond mop and Dion is the image of his mother, the absolute spit!”
    I blushed, thinking how long it had taken even me to believe Dion’s story wholeheartedly, and I sensed Tireseus knew that.
    “Besides, no one has that much talent unless the gods choose to bestow it on them. It was Dion’s father that caused the explosion. He came to Semele, as promised, in his full godly form. Anyway, Pentheus found out about that commune of women living on that mountain in Thrace. As you say, Dion is quite open and proud about his upbringing, so it wasn’t difficult for Pentheus’s PI. All Pentheus had to do was twist the truth to his advantage. He harangued Kadmus and told him he had proof that Dion couldn’t be Theban. The blond-haired, exotic looking Dion could not possibly be Kadmus’s grandson and the fact that he was brought up outside Greece somehow proved this.”
    “But you just said that you all knew who Dion truly was. Why didn’t Kadmus overrule Pentheus?”
    “My dear,” Tireseus responded, “put yourself in Kadmus’s place. He was devoted to Pentheus; he didn’t want to do anything to upset him, however much he wanted to put things right with Semele’s child. He did suggest that Dion could come and visit Thebes, but Pentheus put paid to that and said that he was sure Thebes would not welcome a foreigner, brought up on a mountain by a bunch of lesbians and tainted with debauchery. I remember him waving that damned article , he and that PI of his had cobbled together, as if it was pure proof rather, than biased bull. But it did its job. Kadmus faltered and Pentheus played his trump card.”
    “Which was?” I asked.
    “Oh, you are going to love this!” Tireseus squealed, knowing I wouldn’t, “…that having been brought up by a group of women, Dion wouldn’t be the appropriate grandson for Kadmus because he hadn’t had a strong male role model.”
    “Crap,” I blurted out, “Dion is more masculine than any