The Bacchae
Blessed, blessed are they: Dionysus is their god!
The Bacchae is a tragedy written by the Greek playwright Euripides. It is considered to be one of the greatest written tragedies of all time. The play itself is centered around Dionysus, the Greek god primarily associated with wine, fruits, fertility, vegetation, festivity, ecstasy, madness and insanity. He is also known as the twice-born god due to his birth from both Semele and later from Zeus' thigh. It is important to note that in this tragedy, the chorus, which is an important element of Ancient Greek tragedies, does not only serve as a narrator, but is rather in the heart of the plot itself. In this aspect, the god Dionysus is also present in the play as a character and not a distant figure. Throughout centuries, the play has been regarded in many different perspectives on what Euripides wanted to achieve in this tragedy and has influenced many other works as well.
The play begins with Dionysus' arrival to Thebes, the land of the god's origins who is under the rule of Pentheus. He appears not in his godly form, but as a young boy. He tells the reader of his birth and why he has returned to the city. His mother, Semele, was a mortal woman who was impregnated by Zeus. However, the royal house of Cadmus of Thebes does not believe her. Thinking that Dionysus is not the son of Zeus, but rather an ordinary mortal, they banish him out of Thebes. After his banishment he travels through Asia and returns with Maenads, a cult of women that worships him through losing themselves with religious ecstasy. He reveals that upon his arrival, he has driven the women of Thebes mad as well, leading them to worship him in the mountains.
Tiresias, the blind prophet or seer in many other Greek plays make an appearance with Cadmus, the founder and former king of Thebes. They are dressed in Dionysian worship clothes. Upon seeing them, the disgusted and angry Pentheus states that he will have that outlander punished for bringing such nonsense into his city and others who also partake in this new ritual. Pentheus does as he says, he has Dionysus arrested by his guards. Upon questioning Dionysus, Pentheus is only enraged by the answers he gives and chains him to an angry bull. With his divinity, Dionysus breaks free. When the two meet again, before they can do anything a shepherd comes onto the stage. According to the shepherd there was a group of women in the mountains in which Pentheus' mother was among them. When the women noticed the shepherds, they went into a frenzy, which lead them to tear their animals apart and terrorizing nearby villages. After their state of frenzy, they went back to the mountains as nothing had happened and cleaned up.
Pentheus is now in search of ways to deal with these women when Dionysus, who is still in disguise, tells him that it would be wise to spy on them first. Convinced by the outsider, Pentheus disguises himself with the ceremonial robes, impersonating a Maenad. At this point, Pentheus is already under the influence of Dionysus' powers as he sees two suns in the sky, believes that he can crush mountains with his bare hands, and see horns coming out of the god's head instead of his diguise.
Upon arriving at the mountains, Pentheus, with the aid of Dionysus, climbs to the top of a tree in order to get a better view of the Maenads. While he is at the top, Dionysus reveals himself as a god and points out the man in the tree to his followers. Enraged, the women get the man down from the tree and tear him apart. Agave, who is the now deceased Pentheus' mother, carries his head as a trophy into the city, believing it to be a lion's head in her state of frenzy and madness. Horrified at the sight he sees, Cadmus brings her back to her senses. Agave realizes that he has killed her own son. The god's punishment has been delivered upon Thebes and its royal family. In the end, Dionysus reveals his true form to the whole city. He decrees that while Agave and her sisters will be sent to exile, just like Dionysus, Cadmus and his wife will be turned into snakes.
Bibliography
Wikipedia
Encylopedia Britannica
Euripides, The Bacchae.
Images
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