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Title: Bakkhai (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Euripides, Reginald Gibbons, Charles Segal, Peter Burian, Alan Shapiro ISBN: 0-19-512598-3 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Summary: Foolish Pentheus resists the worship of the god Dionysus
Comment: "Bakkhai" ("The Bacchae") was written by Euripides when he was living in Macedonia in virtual exile during the last years of his life. The tragedy was performed in Athens after his death as part of a trilogy that included one extant play, "Iphigenia at Aulis," and one which is lost, "Alcaeon in Corinth." These factors are important in appreciating this particular Greek tragedy because such plays were performed at a festival that honored the Dionysus, and in "Bakkhai" he is the god who extracts a horrible vengeance. The tragedy clearly demonstrates the god's power, but it is a terrible power, which suggests less than flattering things about the deity himself.
Pentheus was the son of Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of the Royal House of Thebes. After Cadmus stepped down the throne, Pentheus took his place as king of Thebes. When the cult of Dionysus came to Thebes, Pentheus resisted the worship of the god in his kingdom. However, his mother and sisters were devotees of the god and went with women of the city to join in the Dionsysian revels on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus had Dionysus captured, but the god drove the king insane, who then shackled a bull instead of the god. When Pentheus climbed a tree to witness in secret the reverly of the Bacchic women, he was discovered and torn to pieces by his mother and sisters, who, in their Bacchic frenzy, believed him to be a wild beast. The horrific action is described in gory detail by a messenger, which is followed by the arrival of the frenzied and bloody Agave, the head of her son fixed atop her thytsus.
Unlike those stories of classical mythology which are at least mentioned in the writings of Homer, the story of Pentheus originates with Euripides. The other references in classical writing, the "Idylls" written by the Syracusean poet Theocritus and the "Metamorphoses" of the Latin poet Ovid, both post-date "Bakkhai" by centuries. On those grounds, the tragedy of Euripides would appear to be entirely his construct, which would certainly give it an inherent uniqueness over his interpretations of the stories of "Medea," "Electra," and "The Trojan Women."
I see "Bakkhai" as being Euripides' severest indictment of religion and not as the recantation of his earlier rationalism in his old age. The dramatic conflicts of the play stem from religious issues, and without understanding the opposition on Appollonian grounds of Pentheus to the new cult readers miss the ultimate significance of the tragedy. This is not an indictment of Appollonian rationalism, but rather a dramatic argument that, essentially, it is irrational to ignore the irrational. As the fate of Pentheus amply points out, it is not only stupid to do so, it is fatal. Consequently, "Bakkhai" is one of the most important of Greek tragedies.
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Title: The Oresteia (The Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Aeschylus, Peter Burian, Alan Shapiro ISBN: 0195154878 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $27.00 |
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Title: Seven Against Thebes (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Aeschylus, Anthony Hecht, Helen H. Bacon ISBN: 0195070070 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 1991 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Persians (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Aeschylus, Janet Lembke, C.J. Herington ISBN: 0195070089 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: March, 1991 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Oedipus The King by Bernard Knox ISBN: 0671888048 Publisher: Pocket Books Pub. Date: 01 September, 1994 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: Iphigeneia at Aulis (Greek Tragedy in New Translations) by Euripides, W.S. Merwin, George E. Dimock, William Arrowsmith, Herbert Golder ISBN: 0195077091 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 1992 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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