It concerns the struggle between the old state religion of the Olympian gods [polytheism] versus the new ecstatic, private and personal religion of Dionysos [monotheism]. The new religion as described in the play is very much the people's choice.
There is some evidence that the Maenads may have taken hallucinogens during their worship of Dionysos in his cult.
Structuralist's Analysis of the Play [ChatGPT's point of view]
ARGUMENT.
And herein is told how Dionysus came in human guise to Thebes, and filled her women with the Bacchanal possession, and how Pentheus, essaying to withstand him, was punished by strange and awful doom.
Dramatis Personae
Dionysos, (the god, son of Zeus and of the Theban princess and mortal, Semele, sometimes in disguise as a "Priest" of his cult. Sometime he is referred to as a "Stranger".)
Cadmos, (formerly king of Thebes and its founder, father of Semele and Agave)
Pentheus (current king of Thebes, grandson of Cadmos)
Agave (daughter of Cadmos, mother of Pentheus)
Teiresias (an aged Theban prophet)
A Soldier of Pentheus’ Guard.
Two Messengers.
A Chorus of Bacchantes (Maenads), followers of Dionysos from Lydia.
Setting: The skene represents the palace of Pentheus in Thebes. To one side is the tomb and monument to Semele which Cadmos has erected.
Summary:
Prologue [Lines 1–63]:
Enter Dionysos
Dionysos, the god, delivers the prologue. He tells us that he has come back to the city of his birth, Thebes; that he is standing before the palace and by tomb and shrine to his mother, Semele, a mortal who had been struck down and killed by a lightning bolt, caused by the appearance of his father, during her birth of him. Hera had done this in a jealous rage. She had tricked Zeus into appearing before Semele her convincing she needed to look at Zeus in his true form, for which Zeus appeared to her as a lightning bolt, killing her instantly.
Semele was a princess of Thebes, the daughter of Cadmos, its founder. She had had sex with Zeus. No one in her family had believed her that she had lain with the god. And Zeus had killed her because she had lied to them about the paternity of Dionysos. Dionysos has now come back to avenge the wrongs done to his mother by her family. They had accused her of using the good name of the god to cover up a tawdry human affair
Semele‘s family, particularly her sister Agave, had never believed her story about giving birth to a divine child, and was convinced that Semele had died as a result of her blasphemous lies about the identity of the baby’s father, and the young god Dionysos had therefore always been spurned in his own home city.
Dionysos tells us that he has been on a long journey. That he had begun it in the lands of Lydia and Phrygia; that he had then travelled across the steppes of Persia onto barren Bactria and the grim wasteland of the Medes. Thence he went to Arabia Felix and afterwards the coast of Asia Minor where Greeks mix with barbarians. It was there where he had taught the people there to dance and has established the rite and mysteries of his cult amongst them so that he could reveal to mortals for what he is, a god.
The god has put on human form, not to lead the unarmed women against Pentheus, its king -for this indeed he would need his divine attributes- but in order to establish his rites in Thebes.
He is pleased that Cadmos has made his mother's tomb a shrine to her.
Now he has come to Thebes. It's the first city in Hellas to accept his new religion, where the women dance and shriek in ecstatic joy, where they now wear the fawnskin costume of his cult and carry staffs of ivy, [their thyrsoi staffs tipped with a pine cone]. In his revenge he has compelled all the women of the city, and only the women, to leave their homes and together with the daughters of Cadmos, be with them sitting under the silver birches and fir trees in the mountains of Cithaeron near Thebes. They must be initiated in his mysteries, by this way he will exact revenge upon the city for the scorn it showed his mother. They mention Cadmos has abdicated, leaving his throne to his grandson, Pentheus.
When his religion has become firmly established in Thebes, he will leave. But if Thebes marshals an army against his maenads he will take to the field in their defence. He calls on his Maenads to enter beating their Phrygian drums. Let the city of Thebes know that they have come. That he is now off to join them disguised as a mortal.
Exit Dionysos.
Parodos [Lines 64–169]:
The Chorus of Bacchantes enter, waving their thyrsos staffs, and clashing their drums.
They declare they are from Asia's soil, by Mount Tmolus, near Lydia. That they have come with their lord and leader Dionysos, that they are his Bacchantes (Maenads); they serve him; they are his worshippers and followers. They call upon all the women of Thebes whether they are in the palace or other homes to come out onto the streets and dance with them to the mountains. They retell the story of Dionysos' double-birth and his immense divine power.
First Episode [Lines 170–369]:
Enter Teiresias. He is dressed as a Bacchante in a fawnskin, wearing an ivy crown and brandishing a thyrsos.
He seeks Cadmos. They had made an agreement to dress up and follow the Bacchantes.
Enter Cadmos, dressed like Teiresias.
Cadmos tells Teiresias that he dressed in the costume demanded by the rites of Dionysos, ready to go. Though they are old they must do honour to him.
They both say they are glad to participate in the revels as it makes them feel young again. They will walk to the mountain as it honours the god. Are they the only men? Cadmos tells the blind Teiresias that he will lead him. Cadmos espies Pentheus enering the palace in an agitated manner.
Enter Pentheus [king of Thebes]
He's heard some strange mischief is happening in the city, stories of how all the women are leaving their homes
“to frisk in mock ecstasies among the thickets on the mountain, dancing in honour of the latest divinity, a certain Dionysos, whoever he may be! In their midst stand bowls brimming with wine. And then, one by one, the women wander off to hidden nooks where they serve the lusts of men. Priestesses of Bacchus they claim they are, but it's really Aphrodite they adore."
Pentheus then says he has had some of them rounded up; that his gaolers have bound their hands and locked them up in his prison. The rest will be hunted down out of the mountains like animals. His mother, Agave, is amongst them, and her sisters Ino and Autonoë too.
Pentheus goes on to say that a foreigner from Lydia has come to Thebes,
"one of those charlatan magicians with long yellow curls smelling of perfume, the flush of wine in his cheeks and all the spells of Aphrodite in his eyes. His days and nights he spends with women and girls dangling before them the joys of initiation in his mysteries."
Pentheus wants to arrest him too. That he will have his head severed from his body.
This is man who claims that Dionysos is a god. and was sewn into the thigh of Zeus when, in point of fact, that same blast of lightning consumed him and his mother both ... Whoever this stranger is, aren't such impostures, such unruliness, worthy of hanging?
He sees Cadmos and Tereisias dressed in dappled fawnskin with their thyrsoi. He orders them to drop their wands. He blames Tereisias, saying he only wants to profit from reading the entrails of birds and burnt offerings for yet another god. He tells him that it is only his age which is preventing him from being sent to prison with the Bacchantes for importing these filthy mysteries into Thebes. He says that if one sees a festivity with wine and women, be sure that festivity is a rotten one.
The chorus declare what Pentheus has said to be a blasphemy.
Tereisisas adds ... his conceit declares him to be a worthless and stupid citizen, and warns that the god he ridicules has enormous power and prestige throughout Hellas. The goddess, Demeter provides Man with food, but the son of Semele invented liquid wine. The latter helps mankind to forget his troubles, and sufferings.
There is no other medecine for misery. And when we pour libations to the gods, we pour the god of wine himself that through his intercession man may win the good things of life.
...
This is a god of prophecy. His worshippers like maniacs, are endowed with manic powers. For when the god goes greatly into a man he drives him mad and makes him tell the future.
Tereisias tells Pentheus that one day one will see his rites celebrated at Delphi, and his thrysos great throughout Hellas. Welcome the god to Thebes, pour him libations, join his revels.
Dionysos does not compel a woman to be chaste. Always and in every case it is her character and nature that keep her so. But even in the rites of Dionysos the chaste woman will not be corrupted.
He tells Pentheus to join in the dances to the god; that he is mad not to do so.
Cadmos tells Pentheus that Tereisias has advised wisely, that even if Dionysos is a false god, the falsehood is noble, for it honours his family. Do not let what happened to Actaeon happen to him.
Cadmos: Come with us!
Pentheus tells them to go off and worship their Bacchus.
By god, I'll make him pay, the man who taught you this folly of yours.
He tells an attendant to go and find where the "Priest" of Dionysos is prophesying and to overturn his stall, to demolish everything.
He tells other attendants to go find the "Priest" who is polluting and infecting the minds of the city's women. To clap him in irons and bring him here for him to judge. He has to die by being stoned to death.
Tereisias tell Pentheus he's raving mad. He tells Cadmos to come revelling with him.
Exit Cadmos and Teiresias
First Stasimon [Lines 370–433]:
The Chorus in an ode invoke the minor god Holiness and religious piety, condemning the impious arrogance and blasphemy of mortals towards Dionysos, and celebrating the gifts of the goddess of Peace, Eirene. They praises Dionysus for giving equal pleasure to both the blessed and the less fortunate, while hating everybody who doesn’t lead a happy life by day and a friendly one by night. They remind the audience that Pentheus has committed a sacrilege.
Second Episode [Lines 434–518]:
Enter Dionysos [disguised as a "Priest"] in chains led captive into the courtyard of the palace by a group of Pentheus' attendants.
The Attendant explains to Pentheus that he had had no trouble taking the "Priest" captive: in fact the "Priest" had been so tame, holding out his hands, telling the attendants to tie him up, and to bring him here. In the end they ended up apologising to him saying that they were not to blame for what they were doing and were only doing what they had been ordered to do by Pentheus.
The Attendant told Pentheus that all the Bacchantes (Maenads) who had previously been taken captive and incarcerated, had somehow been freed, escaped and run off; gone clean away. singing praises to their god Dionysos [Bromius]. The chains on their legs had snapped apart by themselves, and the doors of the gaol swung open by themselves, untouched by human hands.
Pentheus tells his attendants to untie Dionysos, he will not escape.
Speaking to Dionysos, Pentheus tells him that he seems to be attractive to women, at least to those in Thebes. He asks him where he is from.
Dionysos tell Pentheus he is from Mount Tmolus, which rings the city of Sardis in Lydia.
Pentheus then ask Dionysos what cult has he brought to Thebes. Dionysos tells him it is the cult of Dionysos, son of Zeus and Semele of Thebes. Pentheus asks Dionysos to describe the rites of this cult, what were their benefits. Dionysos tells Pentheus that it was forbidden to reveal them to the unitiated, that their mysteries abhor an unbeliever. Pentheus then said to Dionysos that he had said that he had seen Dionysos in the flesh, that he had appeared to him. He asked what form did he take. Dionysos replied whatever form he wanted.
Pentheus: You evade the question
Dionysos: Talk sense to a fool, and he calls you foolish.
Pentheus then asks had the cult been introduced anywhere else, or was Thebes first.
Dionysos: Barbarians everywhere now dance for Dionysos.
Pentheus: They are more ignorant than Greeks.
Dionysos: In this matter they are not. Customs differ.
Pentheus asks whether the rites are held more during the day than by night. He is told that they are held mostly at night, that they are best suited to darkness
Dionysos: Mostly by night. The darkness is well suited to devotion.
Pentheus: Better suited to lechery and seducing women.
Dionysos: You can find debauchery by daylight too.
Pentheus: You shall regret these clever answers.
Dionysos: And you your stupid blasphemies.
Pentheus tells Dionysos he is bold with words, that he is going to have his curls cut off. Dionysos explains that they are holy and belong to god.
Pentheus cuts some of Dionysos' curls off and takes his Thyrsos from him. And tells him he will now be locked up. Dionysos replies that the god himself will release him, that he is already amongst them and is watching what is taking place.
Pentheus: Where is he? My eyes don't see him.
Dionysos: With me. Your blasphemies have made you blind.
Pentheus tells his attendants to seize him,
Dionysos: Don't chain me up. I am sane but you are not.
Pentheus: Chain him. I'm ruler here.
Dionysos: You do not know what you do. You do not know who you are.
Pentheus: I am Pentheus, the son of Echion and Agave.
Dionysos: You shall repent that name.
Pentheus tells his guards to take the "Priest" away and to lock him up in the stables by the palace in the darkness, that the women already taken captive are to be sold as slaves, or put to work on the looms.
Dionysos: He whom you outrage by your acts, whom you deny is god will call you to account. ... It's he whom you drag to prison.
Exeunt Pentheus, Dionysos, and Pentheus' guards.
Second Stasimon [Lines 519–575]
The Chorus of Bacchantes (Maenads) reproach Thebes for spurning Dionysus particularly when they have come there, especially when it is the holy city of his birth. Someday Thebes will come to know the worhip of Bromius [Boisterous Bacchus]. As for Pentheus he has cast some of their comrades into a dark prison. They pray to Dionysos to come down from Olympus on high, whirling his golden wand [thyrsos] to quell the violence of this blood-thirsty man.
Third Episode [Lines 576- 861]:
Dionysos [offstage and from inside his prison] sings with the Chorus. The rumble of an earthquake is heard.
Dionysos: Let earthquake come. Shatter the floor of the world.
Chorus: Soon the palace of Pentheus will totter. Dionysos is within, Adore him. ... Look, how above the pillars the great stones gape. Bromius [Dionysos] cries victory.
Dionysos: Launch the blazing thunderbolt of god! Consume with flame the palace of Pentheus.
Chorus: Look how the raging fire leaps up ... Our lord attacks this palace, and turns it upside down.
The Chorus falls to the ground in terror. Dionysos emerges from the palace.
Dionysos tells his Bacchantes not to be afraid. He has humiliated Pentheus, outrage for outrage. Instead of locking him up in the stable, he had substituted a bull in his place instead. Pentheus believed the bull was him. Then he made it seem Semele's, his mother's, tomb was on fire. Pentheus imagined that his whole palace was burning down. He panicked ordering his slaves to bring water to put the flames out, all in vain. Then Bacchus brought on the earthquake, The Pentheus, afraid that he the Priest (Dionysos), might escape, drew his sword. thrusting it at empty air, thinking he was killing the Priest (Dionysos). At that moment Bacchus shook the earth: the whole palace collapsed as a ruin. Pentheus was nothing but a mere man, nothing more. yet he presumed to make war upon a god.
Dionysos: I have now come out of the palace quietly. Let Pentheus bluster. I will not turn to rage: wise men know constraint; our passions are controlled.
Enter Pentheus from the palace.
Pentheus: What has happened to me is monstrous! That stranger, that man I clapped in irons, has escaped.
He espies Dionysos
Well, what do you have to say for yourself? How did you escape? Answer me.
Dionysos: Your anger walks too heavily, tread lightly here. ... I said someone would set me free.
Pentheus: Who was it?
Dionysos: He who make the grape grow in clusters for mankind. ... The god himself will come to teach you wisdom.
Pentheus: I hereby order every gate, in every tower to be bolted tight.
[Attendants are sent to do this]
Dionysos: Could not a god leap over your city walls?
Pentheus: You are very clever - but not where it counts.
Dionysos: Where it counts the most there I am clever.
The Messenger herdsman relates his story: At dawn, when the herdsmen of the Cithaeron take their cattle up the mountains to graze, they had espied the maenads. They are divided into into three columns, each one led by a daughter of Cadmos: Autonoë, Agave (Pentheus' mother) and Ino. They had lain amongst the oak leaves and boughs of fir exhausted, and were not, as one might expect, drunk with wine and wandering around to the music of the pipe (aulos) hunting Aprodite in the woods; but were modest and sober. Agave had heard the cattle and had awoke: she woke the others. The messnger described the women as a beautiful sight to behold, as they put on their fawnskins clasped with writhing snakes that licked their cheeks. New mothers who had left their babies behind and whose breasts were swollen with milk suckled gazelles and young wolves. The maenads crowned their hair with leaves of ivy, oak and bryony.
One of the women had struck her thyrsos on a rock: a fountain of cool water came bubbling up. Another drove her fennel into the ground, and where it struck the earth, a spring of wine flowed forth. Those who wanted milk scratched the ground with their bare hands; white milk came welling up. Pure honey spurted and streamed from their wands.
The messenger told Pentheus that if he had seen all this he would surely have approached in fervent prayer the god he denied; that he and his fellow herdsmen gathered awestruck at what they had seen. One of their number, a man who had a way with words, told them they would gain favour with the king, if they rescued Agave, his mother, from the revels. They had lain hidden in the undergrowth, and when the Bacchantes had started to shake their thrysoi in worship of Bacchus. They cried out
"O Iacchus! Son of Zeus" "O Bromius!"
All the beasts of the mountain were wild with divinity. Everything ran with them. Agave had run by where the ambush had been set. He, the messenger, had leaped up and tried to take her. But she had cried out:
Hounds who run with me men are hunting us down! Follow, follow me! Use your wands for weapons!
The women then turned and fell on their cattle and with their bare hands tore them to pieces. There were ribs and hooves scattered everywhere. Scraps of flesh hung dripping with blood from the fir trees. The bulls tried to defend the herd and charged with their horns and heads lowered. They fell to earth as hordes of women pulled them down and they too were stripped of their flesh.
Then the women took off down the road leading to Thebes, which crossed the fertile plains. They swooped down upon all the villages they came to, pillaging and destroying everything in sight; seizing the children and piling the plunder on their shoulders. They had fire in their hair but it did not burn them. The villagers took to arms and tried to fight back, but despite that the men's spears were pointed and sharp, they drew no blood, whereas the women threw their wands they inflicted wounds.
The men ran routed by women!
The women returned to the mountains and springs, and wshed their hands. Snakes licked the blood from their cheeks.
Whoever this god is, sire, welcome him to Thebes. For he is great. ...They say it was he who gave to mortal men the gift of wine by which our suffering is stopped. And if there is no god of wine, there is no love, no Aphrodite either, nor other pleasure left to men.
Exit Messenger
Chorus Leader: There is no god greater than Dionysos.
Pentheus said that this uprising of Bacchic violence had disgraced Thebes. It had to be put down with force. He ordered his attendants to go to the Electran gates to summon the army: heavily armed troops, fastest cavalry and mobile squadrons and the archers. They were to march against the Bacchae. th whole matter had got completely out of hand.
Dionysos tells Pentheus he must heed his words. That he warns him once more not to take up arms against a god. Stay in Thebes. Bromius (Dionysos) will not allow his women to be driven from their worship of him on the mountains.
Pentheus threatens to give the new god the sacrifice he deserves, the blood of those same women, He will make a great slaughter of them in the woods of Cithaeron.
Dionysos warns Pentheus he will be defeated, shamefully so. His women's thyrsoi are more powerful than his soldiers bronze shields.
Dionysos tells Pentheus that there was one more thing he could do to save the situation. He tells Pentheus he will bring the women back to Thebes without weapons.
Pentheus says that this is a trap. The Priest (Dionysos) retorts he has agreed with the god to do this. Pentheus says that he had agreed with the god to establish his rites in Thebes forever.
The Priest (Dionysos): True.
Pentheus: Bring my armour. And you - stop talking!
The armourers bring out his armour
The Priest (Dionysos): Wait! Would you like to see them sitting on the mountains?
Pentheus answers that he would. He could crouch hidden beneath the fir trees, quietly. Dionysos warns him they will track him down. Dionysos tells him that he must dress up as a woman, warning that if the women see he is a man they will kill him. He, Dionysos will help him to get ready. He will make his hair long and luxuriant, that he needs a rich and long trailing robe and a headband. He will no longer look like a man, but be a woman. Finally he will need a thyrsos for his hand and a fawnskin.
Pentheus: I could not bear it. I cannot bring myself to dress in women's clothing.
Dionysos: Then you must fight the Bacchae. That means bloodshed.
Dionysos and Pentheus plan to take the backstreets of Thebes so that they are not seen.
Pentheus goes back into the palace to ponder on what he has agreed to do. Either he will lead his army or go dressed as a woman to spy on the women.
Dionysos is alone on the stage. He tells the Chorus of his Bacchantes that he has set up a trap for Pentheus. He will pay the price with his death. His arrogance and hubris has ensured that. But first he must bewitch him with madness and dress him up as a woman: then lead him through the streets of Thebes as a laughing stock, this man who, in sanity, would never to dare dress up as a woman. Dionysos explains that he has to leave to get Pentheus dressed up ready. He will truly come to know Dionysos, son of Zeus, a most terrible god, but most gentle towards humankind.
Exit Dionysos into the palace.
Third Stasimon [Lines 862–911]:
The Chorus of Bacchantes sing an ode looking forward to dancing once more barefoot all night in the the damp air, like a fawn, free from the fear of being hunted, free of the beaters and the hunters' dogs, free to bound with joy by the river where there are no men. They go on to sing how the gods punish a man like Pentheus who honours folly with mad conceit, with total disregard of the gods. The gods are strong, and time is the law of nature. Blest is he who escapes a storm at sea, who finds a safe haven in his harbour. Ten thousand men possess ten thousand hopes: a few find happiness; others go awry. But he who garners day by day will find a happy life. Call him truly blessed.
Fourth Episode [Lines 912–976]:
Dionysos enters from the palace.
Dionysos: Come out Pentheus. Let us see you in your woman's dress disguised in maenad clothes so you may go and spy upon your mother and her company. ...
Pentheus comes out of the palace dressed like a maenad.
You look exactly like one of Cadmos' daughters.
Pentheus, arrogantly strutting around in a camp manner: There are two Thebes now, each with seven gates. You [Dionysos] are a bull.
Dionysos: I declare a truce with you.
Pentheus: How do I look?
Dionysos adjusts Pentheus' hair and dress.
Dionysos: You will think me the best of friends when you see how chaste the Bacchants are.
Pentheus: How do I hold and use this Thyrsos?
Dionysos: In your right hand. Raise it as you raise your right foot.
Pentheus: Could I raise up Cithaeron? And the Bacchae and everything?
Dionysos: Now you are thinking like a sane man.
Pentheus: Should we bring iron levers with us to be able to tear up the rocks with our hands?
Dionysos: Nay. That would destroy the shrines of the Nymphs and Pan.
Pentheus: True, we must not overcome the women with force. I will hide amongst the pine trees.
Dionysos: You will find all the cover you need to spy on the maenads. ... You go to surprise them, but they may surprise you.
Pentheus: Lead me through the heart of Thebes as I am the only one who is man enough to go.
Dionysos: You alone will labour for your city. A great ordeal awaits you. I will lead you there, but someone else will bring you back.
Pentheus: My mother.
Dionysos: Yes. You will be carried home cradled in your mother's arms.
Pentheus: What luxury!
Dionysos: You are an extraordinary young man and you go to face an extraordinary experience. You will gain fame as high as heaven. [aside:] Agave and Cadmus' other daughters reach out, for I bring this man to a great contest, where I, Bromius, shall be the victor. The rest will tell.
Exit Dionysos followed by Pentheus
Fourth Stasimon [Lines 977–1023]:
The women of the Chorus sing an ode seeking vengeance on the lawless, unjust madman who dares to come to the mountains to spy on them and their revels. They beg Justice to come in person with a sword to stab him through the throat, this godless man, spawn of Echion. Death will chastise his ideas. To accept the gods to act as a mortal that is a life free from pain. They beg Dionysos to appear as a bull and a serpent, and as fire-breathing lion to assist them in putting down this man.
Fifth Episode [Lines 1024–1152]:
Enter a second messenger, slave and servant of Pentheus who has come from the mountains. He tells the Chorus of captive Lydian Bacchants, that Pentheus is dead. He has been killed. They, the "Priest" (Dionysos) and Pentheus, had passed through the fertile plains and farms, crossed over the Asopus river into the barren scrubland of the Cithaeron mountains. They had stopped in a grassy glen and looked over a steep cliff where they espied some of the maenads repairing with fresh ivy the tendrils that were wound around their their tattered thyrsoi. Others sang Bacchic chants. Pentheus complained he could not see what the maenads were doing clearly enough. Then the Stranger, the "Priest" (Dionysos) worked a miracle: he bent like a bow a whole tall fir tree down to the ground, sat Pentheus on its highest tip, and gently let it rise again so as not to throw its rider off. There, he explained, his master sat perching on the top of the fir tree in plain sight of all
Then he the Priest/Stranger (Dionysos) cried out: "Women, I bring you the man who mocks at you and me and at our holy mysteries. Take vengeance upon him. Punish him."
The earth trembled and there was a flash of light from the heavens. The daughters of Cadmus recognised the voice of Bacchus. Agave (Pentheus's mother) and her two sisters led the maenads over the rocks. Then they saw the beast on top of the fir tree. Some climbing the mountain side tried to bring Pentheus down throwing stones from the streams at him; others tried to climb up the fir tree throwing pine branches or their thyrsoi at him. Naught availed.
Then Agave cried out: "Maenads, gather round the trunk of the tree."
Countless hands tore the pine from the soil. And Pentheus fell crashing down to the ground from his perch. Then Agave began to tear at him. He stripped his disguise off: "Mother don't you recognise me. It's Pentheus, your son." But wildly and with reckless madness, possessed of and with the added strength of Bacchus, she gave him no heed: she began to tear him limb from limb. Ino and Autonoe joined in too, and then the horde of Bacchanals swooped don on him. Pentheus' flesh was scattered everywhere. His mother, picked up his severed head and stuck it on the end of her thyrsos, carrying it proudly around the Cithaeron like the severed head of a mountain lion she had just hunted down.
Exit the Messenger.
Fifth Stasimon [Lines 1153–1164]:
The Chorus sing and dance a short ode to the power and glory of Bacchus, and the death of Pentheus, that spawn of the dragon. How dressed in woman's clothing with a thyrsos and bull that led him down into Hades. And how glorious it is for a mother to cradle her child in her arms streaming with his blood. "Hail Bacchus of Thebes your victory is fair."
Exodos [Lines 1165–1392]:
Agave enters with Pentheus' head impaled on her thyrsos. She has been bewitched by Dionysos into thinking it is the head of a mountain lion's cub.
She has come back to the palace. She sings an ode describing how happy was the hunting in the mountains, and she is pleased that she has snared the cub of a mountain lion whosc head is now speared on the end of her thyrsos. The Chorus ask where it was caught and who was the first to strike it. Cithaeron and me answers Agave. Her fellow maenads call her "Agave the Blest". She describes how her sisters had taken the next blows, and "shared the feast". "Look at its mane", she says. The Chorus then declare how Pentheus will soon praise his mother's skill, how she had caught this lion cub. Agave declares she is happy and proud.
The Chorus tell her to show this "trophy" to the people of Thebes. She does so, telling them how it had been caught not with spears but by the dainty hands of women. Now Pentheus has to come and nail this head of a wild mountain lion that she has killed on the wall for all to see.
Cadmos enters with attendants carrying a covered bier. This is the body of Pentheus; he tells the assembled people that this atrocious crime had been committed by his daughters, describing how he had come all the way back to Thebes with Teiresias, and having been told of his murder by the maenads had gone all the way back to the mountain to try to recover his body. There he found two of his daughters bewitched with a madness, and was told Agave was on her way back to Thebes. Now he sees her and it is not a happy sight.
Agave tells her father he can now boast that he has the bravest daughters in all the world; that she has left off weaving at the loom to hunt wild animals with her bare hands.
Agave: You see? Here is my trophy which is to be nailed up high on the walls to our house. Come father hold it in your hands. Glory in my triumph and invite friends to come share a feast.
Cadmos: This is grief. This is the awful murder your hands have done. This is the noble victim you have slaughtered. ... And to share a feast with all of Thebes? How I pity you and then myself. Lord Bromius (Dionysos), this god of our own blood has destroyed us all, every one!
Then Agave describes how she would like Pentheus to take his mother hunting with the young men of Thebes next time he organises a chase. But all he seems to be able to do is quarrel with a god. Cadmos should scold him.
Agave: Someone summon him (Pentheus) to come here.
Cadmos tells her that she doesn't realise the horror she has committed. Agave asks if something is wrong. Cadmos tells her to lift up her head to look at the sky.
Cadmos: Does it look the same as it did before? Or has it changed?
Agave tells him that it seems much clearer than before. He asks her whether she still feels the same inside. She tells him she feels calmer. He then asks her who her husband was.
Agave: Echion, born of the dragon seed.
Cadmos: What was the name of you son from this union?
Agave: Pentheus!
Cadmos: Whose head do you hold in your hands? Look at it!
Agave: The hunters told me it was lion's head ... Arghh! What am I holding? No! No! I see the greatest grief there is.
Cadmos: Does it look like a lion anymore?
Agave: No, it is Pentheus' head. Who killed him? Where?
Cadmos: You and your sisters. On Mount Cithaeron.
Agave: Why had Pentheus gone there?
Cadmos: To mock the god (Dionysos), You and the whole city had gone there possessed of a madness.
Agave: Now I see Dionysos has destroyed us all.
Cadmos: You had outraged him, denied him to be a god. Pentheus had also blasphemed the god who has now brought down ruin upon us all, the entire House of Thebes, utterly destroyed it. I have no male heirs left.
Cadmos sings a lament over the body of Pentheus telling us that he will now have to go into exile dishonoured, he the great founder king of Thebes.
Cadmos: If there is any mortal man who still despises the gods and defies divinity, look at this corpse and believe in the gods.
Dionysos enters [deus ex machina] to deliver a series of punishments upon the House of Cadmos, decreed and prophesied by the oracle of Zeus.
1. Cadmos and his wife Harmonia are to become serpents; to take a journey in a cart leading a huge barbarian army behind him, which after he and the barbarian host have finished plundering Delphi. They are to be saved and settled in the Land of the Blessed (Elysium).
2. Agave and her sisters are to be sent into exile immediately. Cadmos advises them to go to the burial place of Actaeon on Cithaeron.
Dionysos tells them that they have all blasphemed him severely: to what a dreadful end!
Exit Dionysos.
Cadmos and Agave lament the pitiful downfall of the House of Thebes, and that they will all be separated during their exiles. They make their farewells to each other.
Exeunt Cadmos and Agave
The Chorus sing of the many forms the gods take and of their miraculous power to make what seems impossible, possible.
Exit the Chorus
References
The Bacchae - Wikipedia
Cadmea - Wikipedia
Cadmus - Wikipedia
Euripides: The Bacchae - Tom's Learning Notes
The Bacchae by Euripides - GreekMythology.com
The Bacchae Study Guide | Course Hero
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Autonoë of Thebes - Wikipedia
Ino (Greek mythology) - Wikipedia
Semele - GreekMythology.com
Semele - Wikipedia
Pentheus - Wikipedia
Dionysus - Wikipedia
Dionysus - GreekMythology.com
Agave (Theban princess) - Wikipedia
Euripides: Bacchae (Bάκχαι) - - Major Reference Works - Wiley Online Library
THE BACCHAE - EURIPIDES - SUMMARY & ANALYSIS | Ancient Greece
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Greek Versions
Teubner - Euripides - Bacchae
Euripidis Bacchae. In usum studiosae juventutis : Euripides - Internet Archive
The Bacchæ of Euripides : Euripides trans Kerr - Internet Archive
Euripides : Euripides - Internet Archive
Bacchae ; Iphigenia at Aulis ; Rhesus : Euripides Loeb Classics LCL 495 edited and translated trans by David Kovacs - Internet Archive
L011 N Euripides V Bacchanals Hercules Phoenician Maidens. Loeb Classics - Internet Archive
Bacchae of Euripides. Edited by John Edwin Sandys - Internet Archive
Euripides, Bacchae - Perseus Digital Library
Gilbert Murray (1946). Euripides and His Age. Chapter VII In Macedonia: Iphigenia in Aulis, The Bacchae: Library of Alexandria. pp. 99–. ISBN 978-1-4655-7904-1.
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Bacchae - Google Books E.R. Dodds
Allan. (2024). The Bacchae of Euripides : with critical and explanatory notes and with numerous illustrations from works of ancient art /. University Press.
Translations
The Bacchæ and Heraclidæ, Literally Translated, from the Text of Dindorf. T... - Google Books
The Bacchae, and other plays: Penguin books trans by Phillip Vellacott - Internet Archive
Iphigenia among the Taurians ; Bacchae ; Iphigenia at Aulis ; Rhesus : Euripides - trans by James Morwood Oxford World Classics - Internet Archive
The Bacchae of Euripides : trans Gilbert Murray - Internet Archive
The Internet Classics Archive |- The Bacchantes by Euripides
The Bacchae of Euripides by Euripides - Project Gutenberg
The Bacchae : Euripides - Internet Archive
Bacchae of Euripides - G. S. Kirk - Google Books
Euripides V : three tragedies : Grene, David - Internet Archive
Three plays of Euripides : Alcestis, Medea, the Bacchae trans by Paul Roche
Bacchae - Wikisource
Euripides, Bacchae - Perseus Digital Library
Euripides (30 January 2008). tr Johnstone (ed.). Bacchae. RicherResourcesPublications. ISBN 978-0-9797571-2-9.
Audio/Visual
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, The Bacchae
Euripides' Bacchae. Lecture 20 by Michael Davis - YouTube
Euripides' Bacchae. Lecture 21 by Michael Davis - YouTube
Euripides - Bacchae (Great Books) : Classical Kosmos Lecture 12
The Bacchae : Euripides - Librivox - Internet Archive
The Bacchae by Euripides | In-Depth Summary & Analysis
Episode_034_the_traditions_of_our_forefathers Doug Metzger
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