8/2/07 - Classical Literature - Euripides: Bacchae (1)

The Bacchae was performed in 405 BC at the City Dionysia. It was one of Euripides' few first prizes. It is probable that he died shortly before the performance. The Bacchae is persistently popular with audiences and scholars. It is Euripides' most conservative and traditional play in terms of structure.

Euripides was often criticised for his choral odes. Aristotle blamed him for the decline of choral odes. Frequently, it is not obvious how his choral odes fit in with the rest of the play. However, in the Bacchae the chorus is active and opinionated, so it is central to the play.

Some of the original play is missing due to the corrupted manuscript. Some of it has been restored by a Byzantine manuscript which used lines from various plays in reference to Christ. A large component of it consisted of lines from the Bacchae.

Is Greek tragedy primarily about Dionysia? This is often questioned. The Bacchae is important in understanding this because it is about Dionysus. Some people read it as a play about tragedy itself.

Dionysus is a god of binary opposites: male and female, androgynous forms. Also, cooked and raw, city and mountain, bound and unbound, human and animal, hunter and hunted, spectator and actor, sanity and madness, reality and imagination, Greek and unGreek, whole and dismembered. Dionysus often represents the opposite to 'us'. All the former categories fall under 'us' as opposed to 'them'. But each half inhabits the other. While Dionysus represents only one half, we see the other half simultaneously. "Ecstasy" and "enthusiasm" are words associated with Dionysus, hence the Bacchae, where the followers of Dionysus adopt a unified identity and the realisation of ecstasy and enthusiasm. This explains theatre: actors are also surrendering their identity while performing. Having both binaries rather than just one was supposed to bring happiness in this world and the next. When the ecstasy is over, the person returns to their daily life the wiser.

The Bacchae is based on the Dionysiac ritual of initiation.

There is a divine prologue because Dionysus speaks it. The main character is a god, which was unusual, and he is in disguise, which was revolutionary. The appearance of Dionysus' followers is similar to the appearance of the god himself. The thyrsus is a phallic symbol, and it is also used as a weapon. Dionysus had only one god as a parent, yet he is still an Olympian god. Dionysus tries to convert non-believers in two ways: 1. by teaching them his ways (active initiation); 2. by showing them the rituals. Note that the Bacchae is the play with the most visual imagery and reference by Euripides. Dionysus converts the women into their opposites: they forget their female roles and leave the city for the mountain. There are two sets of Bacchae: the mad women and the chorus, the Asian women that Dionysus brought with him (consenting Bacchae).

The parodos is long. It is about being a Bacchae, a faithful follower. The Bacchae are entirely positive in their views of Dionysus until about two thirds of the way through. Everything seems easy and joyful for the true Bacchae, because they know the rituals. Flutes (oboes) and drums (associated with the East) are played. Greeks thought music helped to build character, but the drums are connected with wildness and letting oneself go. The fawn skins also show wildness. There is a reference to rituals: the journey to the mountain, drinking and dancing, hunting wild animals and dismembering them with their bare hands, and eating it raw. They then return to the world with new knowledge. Every Greek rite of passage had such stages: separation into a new world, becoming part of neither world, and reintegration into the native society, involving the sharing of food. Dismembering animals was important because Dionysus was dismembered as a child, so the Bacchae re-enact it and merge parts of themselves with the god to associate with him. Eating the meat raw merges human and god also. The resistance of Dionysus leads to forced belief, in which dismembering of the unbeliever is his rite of passage.

Dionysus comes to punish Pentheus who doesn't believe in Dionysus - an act of hubris. His father Cadmus and the prophet Tiresias decide to worship Dionysus without initiation; all they have is the correct dress, and they look ridiculous. Pentheus laughs at them because he is ashamed. He knows nothing of Dionysiac rituals; he is the new ruler at the age of 20 and wants to show people how strong he is. He is convinced that the women of the city are having sex in the mountains. He decides to try to control the women. His language consists of hunting and bondage imagery. This is not far from Dionysus' view of control; he takes control of the city in this way also.

Tiresias takes a pragmatic view. He has two arguments echoing Sophistic rhetoric: allegorical interpretations of gods, "as Demeter brings food, so Dionysus brings wine"; and the words for 'thigh' and 'imprisonment' are the same so he suggests that Dionysus wasn't put in the thigh of Zeus, he was simply imprisoned.

Cadmus says that they must worship Dionysus as it's good for the family (Dionysus is his cousin). This reason is inappropriate for Dionysiac worship. Both Tiresias and Cadmus have their own vision of him, but Dionysus can appear in any form.

Madness is a continual theme in the Bacchae. Accusations of madness and disease are thrown around frequently.

Pentheus' first meeting with Dionysus is his first chance. Dionysus tries to teach him that he has an invisible form as he wants Pentheus to see him and not the vision that Pentheus imposes on him. Pentheus is at first interested in Dionysus' erotic appearance, still suspecting him of sleeping with the city's women in the mountains. The ensuing discussion shows that they speak completely different languages: Pentheus asks straight questions and Dionysus answers in riddles which are truthful but Pentheus can't fathom them because he wants a direct answer.