BTS’s next album, MAP OF THE SOUL: PERSONA, is due on April 12, but their fans may not make it. The BTS ARMY’s hype levels are near critical, especially after the band released the track listing for PERSONA on April 8. The new details, shared online by BTS’s company Big Hit Entertainment, revealed that the next release will be a seven-track EP, include “Boy With Luv” (their collab with Halsey), and include the already-released RM solo “Intro: Persona”, per Billboard. The five other songs include “Mikrokosmos,” “Make It Right,” “HOME,” “Jamais Vu,” and “Dionysus.”
It’s that last song, “Dionysus,” that sent some ARMY members wildin’ with the conspiracy theories. “the LGBT flag, the Gucci feminine clothing edition,the grapes which is related to “Dionysus” who turns out to be a god of intersex and transgender people, the pink clothes they’re wearing and collabing with Halsey who is btw a BI. In short, this IS LGBTQ’S SONGS!!” tweeted one fan. “so what I’m hearing is since Dionysus is the god of wine, religious ecstasy, ritual madness…WE MIGHT GET SOMETHING LIKE BS&T???” another added.
While many used the tracklisting to theorize about some hidden subtext, some were a bit overwhelmed by everything. “The way I’m still figuring out how to even pronounce Dionysus and mikrokosmos and y’all are out here forming all these theories,” one bewildered fan said.
oh my god during bst promotions they did a dionysus skit play and jungkook even called taehyung "V-onysus" i cant believe #PersonaTracklist @BTS_twt pic.twitter.com/eMG2XEqDc3
— jess⁷ (@jiminthrusts) April 8, 2019
Dionysus,the god of madness, was equated(by Jung)with the external persona reflecting the internal naked self
"To Dionysus, belong the ecstasies & excesses of drunkenness and passion"
The cult of Dionysus is strongly represented by serpents
Taehyung was the one with the snake pic.twitter.com/Aa11I8eDpN
— ᴮᴱRize (@RizeOT7addict) April 8, 2019
Credit the power behind BTS creativity in their songwriting, as they managed to get an ancient Greek god’s name to trend on Twitter. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine, winemaking, and grapes, according to greekgodsandgoddesses.net (h/t Newsweek) Dionysus is also Greek god of fertility, religious ecstasy, theatre, and ritual madness. What this all has to do with their next release remains to be seen, but some members were seen holding grapes in promotional photos.
Beyond “Dionysus,” fans also were exposed to the concept of “Jamais Vu,” or “a disorder of memory characterized by the illusion that the familiar is being encountered for the first time,” or the opposite of déjà vu. “Mikrokosmos” also translates to “microcosm” from Greek, and as Billboard notes, the title of the release is taken from Murray Stein’s Jung’s Map of the Soul. So, in addition to Greek mythology, the next album will also introduce the ARMY to Jungian philosophy? Good on BTS for educating the kids.
Map of the Soul: Persona drops on April 12, the same day “Boy With Luv” will be released.
01. Intro: Persona
02. 작은 것들을 위한 시 (Boy with Luv) [ft. Halsey]
03. 소우주 (Mikrokosmos)
04. Make It Right
05. HOME
06. Jamais Vu
07. Dionysus