Erigone or Irigoni
(In ancient Greek ‘έαρ’ + ‘γόνος’ = ‘daughter of spring)

The myth of ‘Erigone the drifter’ or ‘Erigone as old as wine’ tells the story of the Athenian Icarius. According to the legend when Dionysus visited Athens, Icarius hosted him at his house. During his stay, the god fell in love with Erigone and had a child with her, Staphylus. 
When Dionysus left, he gave Icarius a vineyard as a gift and taught him the secrets if wine, instructing him to spread the art of viticulture to the rest of the Athenians.

Once Icarius had made his first wine, he went out to share it with the local shepherds (in the present-day Marathon area) as the god had advised him. But after the shepherds drank the delicious wine they became intoxicated and, having never experienced this before, they believed that Icarious was trying to poison them, In their hazy state, they killed him and hid his body.
When her father did not return, Erigone went out to look for him and wandered for days (hence the epithet ‘drifter’) until her father’s loyal dog, Maera (‘Fate’), led her to the spot where the shepherds had hidden his dead body. Erigone attended to her father’s body and, after performing the necessary rites, she buried him under a tree and them hung herself in despair on one of its branches.

Dionysus was enraged by this heinous crime and cursed the Athenians by condemning their daughters to the same fate as Erigone. The next day the young women of Athens were overcome by mania and, one after another, the began to hang themselves. The devastated Athenians, according to Apollodorus, turned to Apollo and the Oracle of Delphi for help. The way to atone and to put an end to the wrath of Dionysus was to find and punish Icarius’s murderers and to establish the festival of the hammock in memory of Erigone and her father. According to some versions of the legend, Dionysus begged his father Zeus to immortalise Erigone, Ikarus and Maera by transforming them into constellations. They were turned, respectively, into the constellations that are now known as Virgo, Boötes and Canis Minor.

A second reading reveals the myth’s allegorical connection to wine, viticulture and indeed worship of Dionysus. Erigone, the daughter of spring, symbolizes the vineyard and its cultivation. The constellation of Virgo appears in the night sky at the beginning of spring, the period in which new buds develop in the vineyards. The appearance of Virgo marks the start of preparations for agricultural work in the vineyards, while Canis Minor culminates during the period in which the grapes are ready for harvest. The myth also contains warnings about misuse of wine, which when drunk in large quantity can bring great misfortune. Historically, the hammock celebration took place on the second day of the three-day Dionysia festival held in ancient Athens from the 11th to the 13th of the month of Anthesterion (the eight month in Attic calendar). 

During the celebration, young girls hung wax dolls from the tree branches in memory of the hanged girls. They also put up hammocks on which maidens rocked back and forth singing the song ‘Drifter’, which narrated Erigone’s tribulations during her wandering. 
Swings are ritually associated with purification through air and the euphoria.

Despite its Dionysian origins, the hammock celebration was preserved over the years and incorporated into local Christian traditions. So every year on Easter, Sunday, in many areas of Greece – including Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace and many other parts of mainland Greece, as well as on many islands – the Aiora festival is celebrated.

Irigoni or Erigoni
From the depths of the ages, I come
Bearing my wounds, bearing your sins
My story changes over time
My story remains the same

Gog came to my doorstep
knowing the harm he would cause me
When promising me the kingdom of heaven
I was unable to resist his words
Weak as a human, I surrendered
Uniting our bodies as only mortals should

Sweet, as Aristaeus’ first honey
Exhilarated, as Corinthos’ best wine
Oh Dionysus! You destroyed me!
Men castigate what they do not comprehend
Then and now
My story changes over time
My story remains the same

From Dionysus’ hair
Sprouted the first vine in our garden
The first wine my father harvested
Had a deep red color like blood
It was strong! as if made for gods

People were invited home
My father wanted to share his new creations
Patting everyone on their shoulders
“I made the best wine”
“I made wine for gods!”
The pure wine drove them tipsy
And dark thoughts came to their minds
That this wine should ne their own

First, these wretched men, killed my father
You know this well
But I, unlike Apollodoros words, did not hang myself
I was hanged by them
Dragging me from my hair
Despite of all my kicks and bites
I couldn’t stop them
Men destroy what they do not comprehend
Then and now
Gods do the same

Dionysus heard of my woe
And sent his maenads in secret
Correcting injustice with new injustice
Broken-hearted mothers crying at their doorsteps
All with a hanged daughter
All with a bewildered look

Next day my man came to Hades
He had punished my murderers!
Taking revenge for me and my father
Thirty daughters dead
Thirty roses cut

For the dead girls I wept
I jumped over him to rip him
Foolish foolish Dionysus!
Beast you are, like Aris

I felt frozen and petrified
a woman always has to suffer
whether goddess or mortal
women’s pain feeds the gods
women’s pain feeds the mortals

Wandering for days on the road to Phokis
With tears in my eyes I fell down at Apollo’s feet
Begging him to reverse Dionysus’ curse

For every hanged daughter you bring back
I will leave a piece of cloth
Out of my heart
More beautiful than Zeus’ mantle 

Apollo agreed
And I began to weave
When the last one was completed
nothing was left within me
I had no heart, I was dry
Apollo felt sorry for me
And turned me into a tree
Hanging on it pieces of my heart

Ever since, children and travelers only
climb my branches
Swinging at the woven cradles
Each hammock an embrace
with my not existing hands

 I am Erigoni, the daughter of Icarus
Mother of Staphylus and mistress of Dionysus
My story changes over time
My story remains the same
My soul remains a vagrant.