#13: The Bacchae

Written by Nick Renart; edited by Alex Zachary

Timeline of The Ancient Greeks:

513 BCE: Birth of Aeschylus
490-480: The Persian Wars
460: Pericles’s political party leads Athens
458: The Oresteia is performed
431: The Peloponnesian War begins
429: Plague in Athens
426: Oedipus the King performed
408-406: The Bacchae written
404: The end of the Peloponnesian War

The Story of the Birth of Dionysus

Zeus lies with Persephone, the daughter of Demeter, and Hera gets incredibly jealous as usual. Hera tries to kill the offspring of this sexual act. This offspring is Bacchus (Dionysus). Athena, who represents wisdom, saves the heart of Bacchus, the God of passions, emotions, and desires. Zeus then eats part of the heart and feeds part of it to Semele, who then becomes pregnant with it. Hera becomes furious, and tricks Semele. She asks Semele if she has ever seen Zeus in his real form showing all of his power. Hera knows that seeing Zeus in this state will kill Semele. Semele gets her wish and sees Zeus in all his glory and dies. Zeus quickly tears Dionysus from her womb and implants him into his thigh. Zeus thigh represents sexual desire and all that Bacchus stands for. Zeus then gives Dionysus to Hermes who gives him to Ino to nurse. Dionysus is disguised as a girl for protection against Hera. This is the story of how Dionysus came to being.

The Bacchae and the Cult of Dionysus

The Bacchae tells the story of how Dionysus came to be worshipped in the same way that The Hymn to Demeter shows how Demeter came to be worshipped. Bacchus was first worshipped in East Asia and was then incorporated into Thebes. Dionysus eventually became an important God in Athens.

Relationship with The Oresteia

The Bacchae may be read as a response to the Oresteia. In the Eumenidies Athens embraces a new justice system, reason, and law. Euripides is responding to the newly established authority of reason and highlighting the dangers of ignoring irrationality. Euripides wanted to show the importance of maintaining the theater as a necessary release from everyday life. In the Oresteia we see the conflict between Apollo (rational) and The Furies (irrational). In the Bacchae we see the conflict between Pentheus (order) and Dionysus (disorder).

Athenian Monuments and Rituals

Athens had two main statues in the Acropolis: one of Athena and one of Dionysus. Athena represented reason and justice while Dionysus represented passion, desire, appetite, and irrationality. There were law courts on one side of the Acropolis and theaters on the other. The theater in Athens was a way that the actors and the audience could express their emotions openly and publicly. It was a release from the confines of life governed by law and reason. Religion is much like the theater. People would go to worship Dionysus in the theater and accept their irrational side that came from the God. These experiences would take people out of themselves and would a person to remain integrated in the public unlike Pentheus was in The Bacchae. The theater was a way to acknowledge irrationality in one's life in a safe and contained way.

Themes in The Bacchae

1. The need to understand and recognize desire as the thing that governs human actions. Humans don't always use reason when they act or make decisions. We are motivated by desire. In lines 773-75 Euripides writes, “And if there is no God of wine,/there is no love, no Aphrodite either,/nor other pleasure left to men.” He is reminding the reader that lust and sex are what make us human, and without them there would be no human life. 2. The need to understand that humans are both irrational and rational at the same time. If a person doesn't understand this, he will surely do himself in. We see through Agave the dangers of denying irrationality when she unknowingly mauls her son Pentheus to death. Also all of the women of Thebes go mad because of their denial of their sexuality and desires. More notable still is the victimization of Pentheus himself, who refuses to accommodate the irrational, the feminine, and so is sentenced to die. 3. The different reasons for religious worship. Many people in the world today and Euripides's world worshipped God or the gods for selfish reasons. Cadmus tells Pentheus to worship Dionysus whether he believes in him or not because it is good for the people and especially good for their own family. Semele would become the mother of a god. Actual belief in the God does not matter to Cadmus. Many people today go to worship in order to be seen by the community as a good person or in order to form business contacts. These are the Cadmus’ of today. On the other hand, we see the dangers of interpreting religion incorrectly or too fanatically again by Agave's murder of her son. This is a very important theme in light of the recent tragedies that have occurred in the name of god. 4. Real wisdom comes from acceptance of irrationality and desire as forceful human motivations and from knowing oneself in full. Pentheus doesn't know who he is and Dionysus tells him, “You do not know the limits of your strength. You do not know what you do. You do not know who you are”(lines 505-507). Pentheus’s lack of self-knowledge leads him to his death. Teiresias also says at one point that it is much better to have wisdom than power (310-312).

Important Scenes

Lines 855-861: Dionysus names himself here as terrible and gentle to humankind. This apparent contradiction fits Dionysus perfectly. He is gentle because humans go to the woods, enjoy wine, and get out of themselves for a while. This is a great release. Dionysus is terrible because he brings out people hidden emotions and desires which can sometimes cause hurt and chaos.
Lines 793-96: Dionysus warns Pentheus to not rage and kick against necessity, defying a god. Dionysus is not accessible to human reason. He is a necessity, and necessity is associated here with divinity.
Lines 200-210: Teiresias proclaims that he and Cadmus must honor traditions and customs. He tells Cadmus they must not always think logically and that customs can't be rationalized. No logic can ever explain the mysteries of the gods.

Pentheus

Pentheus is a young king who thinks about the world and life in terms of black and white. He thinks that if he's to establish rule, his rule must be definitive. He's not wise enough to realize that there's usually a grey area in life. Pentheus is also shown to be immature through his ignorance of the actions of the Bacchants. He has a sort of “Diophobia” and exaggerates what the women of Thebes are doing in the hills. Pentheus, like Oedipus, lacks self-knowledge. When he refuses to see something as his own, he projects it onto Dionysus. Pentheus and Dionysus are cousins and look incredibly similar. Pentheus is attracted to Dionysus and all that he represents, although he denies it. Pentheus says, “So, you are attractive, stranger, at least to women” (line 443). Pentheus also accuses Teiresias of being a traitor like Oedipus did. After condemning the orgies of Bacchus's followers, Pentheus is eager to go spy on them and enjoys dressing up in women's clothes. This [behavior set beside Pentheus's earlier condemnation of female sexuality suggests] his youth and inexperience.

Political Allegory

Euripides is telling the people of Athens that the state must acknowledge irrationality and religion or else mob rule will ensue. Societal order cannot be achieved through suppression of the disorderly tendencies of the psyche. The irrational must be accommodated in moderation, within boundaries.