"A feature in the mythical character of Dionysus , which at first sight appears inconsistent with his nature as a deity of vegetation, is that he was often conceived and represented in animal shape, especially in the form, or at least with the horns of, a bull." (The Golden Bough, 452)

We embarked upon a piquant discussion of the Metamorphoses as secular scripture, meaning basically that it contains everything of import, whether the extant be broad or narrow and fleeting. And Ovidian focus can be a slippery thing with unexpected objects. For instance, the hero Theseus and his slaying of the Minotaur is mentioned perfunctorily, while a great deal of space is granted to the artist/inventor Daedalus, creator of the Labyrinth and wax wings, in that order.

This connects to another thing that occupies a great deal of space in mythology: bulls. When you start looking, you notice them everywhere. The story of Mino's wife and the( yukky )conception of the Minotaur is an example of the trifold mythological intersection of the human world, the animal world and the divine world.

Roberto Calasso, in the Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, designates three stages of humankind's relation to the gods.

1. Conviviality(where everything is close and hunky-dory)
2. Rape(were there is a very disturbing, violent seperation)
3. Indifference (the state of which most of us currently reside)

State two is something that Flannery O'Connor in her fiction gives extensive attention to. Such as her story Greenleaf, which deals with Rape and with bulls and with violent apocalyptic revelation. O'Connor is in compatible company with Mary Renault, author of The Bull from the Sea.

The Greek word for "home" is nostos, from which we get "nostalgic" because there's no place like home, which mythologically speaking would be back at state one. If that makes any sense.