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The Bacchae

            Euripides, at the end of his life, wrote the Bacchae while he was living in exile in Mecedonia. The city in question is Thebes but there is a sense of a dying Athens. There is evidence of cult-worship that was on the rise in Athens at the end of the war. This play is about the resistance to divine power. Dionysus, who is the central character in this play, is unlike most gods in the fact that he is in human shape. He comes in the form of man and women and because he is a god his motives are not to be questioned. For when it comes to human fate the truth lies with the divine. Dionysus is a god who lacks mercy because of the punishments he inflicts on Cadmus's family. Pentheus has been a great king but he could not comprehend a god who came in the form of a man and for this Dionysus punished him. "Euripides has often been called a rationalist, a playwright who excelled in the workings of the mind, who celebrated logic and rational argument." In this play Euripides sho!.
             ws many cases of black humor. For example, when Pentheus is wearing woman's dress with his hemline all askew. .
             The Bacchae opens with Dionysus grieving over his mother's death. Hera outraged by Zeus's infidelity kills Semele, Dionysus's mother, with a lightning bolt while she is pregnant with Dionysus. Hera, however, did not know that Zeus hid Dionysus in the false womb of his thigh. Dionysus was therefore born again. Once he was grown he came to Thebes after he "set all Asia dancing" and proved himself to be a god. He made the women cry of ecstasy and clothed their flesh in the "skins of fawns". In their hands he put the thyrsus, a spear clothed in ivy. They wore this in memory of his mother. Dionysus has a hatred for his mother's sisters because they said that a mortal bedded Semele. They said that Zeus "put her to death" for claiming that she was pregnant with his child. For this Dionysus drove them mad into the wild mountains, which is now their home.


Essays Related to The Bacchae

1. The Tragic Hero of Bacchae

... , caused by a simple mistake or character mishap. In addition, he or she has to undergo a downfall and a reversal of fortune, from higher to lower status. Lastly, the tragic hero must recognize his or her mistakes in the end (Krucli). In the Greek play Bacchae by Euripides, many of the characters, such as Dionysus, Cadmus, and Pentheus, have at least one of these aforementioned attributes, but ... the one with all those characteristics who would most likely be the tragic heroine of Bacchae is Agave. The first character to appear in the play is Dionysus. Though his mother, Sem ... of Kit...

  • Word Count: 775
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

2. The Bacchae

... based upon passion and ecstasy and travels all over Asia teaching his rites to men, forming the Asian Bacchae. Dionysus corrupts the women of Thebes and basically turns them into savages. The King of Thebes, Pentheus, denounces this new religion and plans to overtake this leader of the Bacchae. He captures the leader, but is deceived, and is persuaded to come take a closer look at this religion ... on the foothills of Thebe where the women congregate. He is dressed as a woman to disguise himself but is revealed by Dionysus ... and is savagely killed by the women including his mother Ag...

  • Word Count: 256
  • Approx Pages: 1
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Concepts of Justice in The Bacchae and Antigone

... definite form of justice exists in these plays, or whether notions of justice in the world are absurd. Furthermore, by presenting cases where justice is claimed to be enacted by a character or a god like force, the playwrights encourage speculation as to whether the punishments delivered are reasonable. In "Antigone" and "The Bacchae," both authors address similar theme and concerns. Just as we saw in Plato ... 's "Republic," the subject of the city-state and how it should be best governed and notions of civic and natural laws ... amends. Stubbornness brands you for stupidity "pride is ...

  • Word Count: 739
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Has Bibliography

4. Bacche

... as a character within the drama. Therefore, he gives audiences the idea that he is an actor and the author. As an actor he portrays the mortal character the Stranger and as an author he is the transcendent god who has the power to open and orchestrate the entire narrative of the play. Dionysus was also a god of illusion, in which he makes several characters in the Bacchae see things that are ... not there, and the theater is all about illusion and ... the suspension of disbelief. In one sense the illusion can be ... ...

  • Word Count: 381
  • Approx Pages: 2

5. Tragedy

... even tell us how we should not interpret something. They are often used as a device to pray or to call on the Gods in a story. The Chorus can be used for many different things. In the three plays, Agamemnon, Oedipus Rex, and The Bacchae, the Chorus is used for a variety of different reasons. These are three plays from ancient Greek times. They are from three different ... authors. In Agamemnon the Chorus is used for a few different reasons. In the beginning of the play the Chorus is telling the audience the history of the Trojan War. They give us a better ... there is also a lot of dru...

  • Word Count: 1007
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Apollo and Dionysus Dichotomy in Greek Mythology

... madness and death to those who refuse to accept his divinity, as seen in Euripides' play, Bacchae. It is not surprising that the two gods are seen as nearly opposites of one another in terms of the nature of their cults and the things they represent for the Greek society. In his representations, Apollo is often portrayed with his bow and not only is he ... his cults, Dionysus often meets resistance, for instance, when he attempted to promulgate his new cult of ecstatic experience in the home of his mother, the city of Thebes. As he spread the message of his worship, Dionysus is accompan...

  • Word Count: 1445
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Sacrifice In Mythology

... sacrificial rites in order to maintain contact with the gods succeeds in further solidifying the social foundations created by these very rituals. Additional occurrences of animal sacrifice take place in the Dionysiac religion, which is centered on Dionysus "the god of vegetation, consists of the Bacchae (female worshippers of Dionysus), and Satyrs (the male counterparts). In mythology, however, both ... . They worship Dionysus through crazed periods of ecstatic dancing, and ravage the raw flesh of a sacrificial animal, a ritual believed to bring the worshippers closer to the god, as he ...

  • Word Count: 2118
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. manipulation

... can definitely manipulate anyone who strongly abides by their religion's beliefs to the point that all of their views have been altered in order to accommodate this particular religious system. Modern day society is not the only place where manipulation has taken place. After reading Euripides's Bacchae, although not all in the same form, I noticed more than one occasion where manipulation took ... place throughout the play. In my opinion, there has always been some kind of higher force containing ... the power to change people's views toward anything. In the beginning of the story ther...

  • Word Count: 542
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Greek ancient mythology

... settle problems. His influence toward creating a more realistic drama was powerful. Of the more than 90 plays credited to Euripides, 18 survive: Alcestis, Andromache, the Bacchae, the Cyclops, Electra, Hecuba, Helen, the Heracleidae, Heracles, Hippolytus, Ion, Iphigenia at Aulis, Iphigenia in Tauris, Medea, Orestes, the Phoenissae, Rhesus and the Trojan Women. Herodotus the Historian Herodotus wrote the first historical narrative and first great prose work of Greek literature. His ... History is an entertaining description of the many lands and peoples he visited and of ... ...

  • Word Count: 2001
  • Approx Pages: 8
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

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