THE PIRATES' PUNISHMENT

a story from Greece

from AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 TALES

[Kingfisher 2007]

A young man hired a ship to take him across the sea to the Greek island of Naxos.
    ‘Where shall we really take him?’ sniggered the crew among themselves, ‘Turkey? North Africa?’
They looked for all the world like honest tradesmen but they were really pirates in disguise. Their job was to kidnap passengers and sell them on as slaves.  They made a lot of money that way; the chests in the hold were full of gold.
‘The poor fellow is still a boy,’ muttered one of the oarsmen.  ‘Will not his mother miss him?’
The others laughed in his face.  Pirates could not afford to think of their victims’ mothers, or sisters and children.  They had to be cruel and heartless or they would fail at their job.
The passenger spoke from his seat by the mast.  ‘Are you sure this is the way to Naxos?’
The captain replied without hesitation.  ‘We’ve done this journey many times before, sir.’
The oarsmen threw worried glances at each other.   Was the young man suspecting foul play already?  Had he overheard their conversation?
‘I would like some wine, if I may,’ said the passenger, sniffing the air. ‘Your cargo seems to be leaking costly stuff.’
The captain sniffed the air. Strange, he could smell expensive wine too.  Where was it coming from? His barrels held nothing but cheap stuff fit only for workmen.
‘Our senses must be playing tricks on us, sir.  We have been out in the sun too long.’
The passenger laughed and slapped his knee.  He couldn’t suspect he’d been kidnapped, then.  He would be panicking and trying to get the attention of a passing vessel if he did.
‘I like the masts on your ship, captain.  They go very well with the wine, don’t you think?’
The captain looked up from the barrel he was inspecting.  The straight masts had warped in the sun. They had branches with leaves growing out of them.  They looked more like grapevines than masts on a ship. The sun, thought the captain. It was playing tricks on all their minds.  He had to give the men some water…
‘I do like a bit of revelry when I am travelling,’ laughed the passenger.  He leapt up and started dancing.  His hair had changed from black to gold, his eyes were the colour of ripe grapes.
Was it he who was making them see these things, then?  Was their passenger a magician?
Someone in the crew started to pray.  ‘Oh Dionysus, god of wine and vegetation, help us.’
‘But I am helping you,’ laughed the passenger.
The captain reeled at the words.  They hadn’t kidnapped a magician, then, but a god, the son of the great Zeus himself.  These strange happenings were his punishment.
A scream made him look from Dionysus to his men.  The oars in their hands had turned to serpents, writhing and spitting poison.
‘Abandon ship,’ he yelled. ‘Each man to his own.’
The men needed no further prompting, even though none of them could swim to save his life.  In a minute, they were all in the sea, struggling to keep afloat.

‘I am the god of happiness, the god of revelry,’ shouted Dionysus from the deck of the ship. ‘You mock me by kidnapping people, by turning their lives to misery.  I should let you all drown, but one of you spoke kindly about me and my mother, so I shall spare your lives.’

He passed his hand over the sea and the pirates suddenly found they could swim.  They had been turned into dolphins.  

‘Go,’ ordered Dionysus, ‘and from now on, be kind to all people crossing the sea.  Help them when they are in trouble.’

The dolphins scattered, their past lives as pirates completely forgotten. To this day, they still roam the wine-dark sea, helping sailors and swimmers in distress!