"There is no cure for madness when the cure itself is mad." (22) Bacchae is a play filled with drama and the struggle for recognition. Dionysus' story is not like that of any other god and his quest for respect and divinity is certainly relatable to humans even though he is characterized as a higher being. Dionysus, the god of wine, prophecy, religious ecstasy, and fertility, returned to his birthplace in Thebes with the objective to clear his mother's name and to punish the insolent city-state for their refusal to worship him. He tells the audience the story of his mother, Semele, in the prologue. She was once a princess in the royal Theban house of Cadmus and was accorded great respect. However, she ended up having an affair with Zeus, the king of the gods, and became pregnant. Zeus’ wife, Hera, in a fit of jealousy common for her, persuaded Semele into asking Zeus to appear to her in his divine form. Too powerful for a mortal to endure, when he emerged from the sky as a bolt of lightning, Zeus ended up striking Semele to death. Dionysus, as an unborn child, was rescued by his godly father and taken back with him. The city of Thebes immediately ostracised Semele’s family and claimed Dionysus died along with his mother and was scorned by the general public before his birth. This rich backstory allowed for Euripides to use many techniques in the writing of Bacchae to portray the young god's experiences and show his determination to prove himself once and for all. Dionysus is shown to struggle with his lack of recognition that is normally accorded a divine status, which is the basis of the play. However, Euripides also uses dualities, the contrasting forces of human and nature, and the motif of disguise throughout his writing to entrance the audience and show that the greek myth is deeper than one might think.
Dionysus has spent most of his time in the story arguing his godliness. This concept is known as divine recognition. He wants the human beings to appreciate his power and to treat him as they would the more widely accepted gods of Mount Olympus. The Bacchae is based around the idea that, since his birth, the rest of the royal family has denied that he is a god. He struggles with the concept of being forgotten and attempts to flaunt his power to be treated with the respect he deserves. Dionysus states, "Can you, a mortal, measure your strength against a god?" It’s surprising that the god so willingly admits his true immortality and flaunts that he is a higher being. Even after hearing his self-proclaimed divinity, the majority of the characters do not take Dionysus seriously which only amplifies his need to be worshiped and put on a pedestal. King Pentheus continues to mock Dionysus while in his mortal form, known as The Stranger, throughout the play. The King then locks Dionysus up in jail, but quickly is shown the repercussions of his actions. As an act of not only aggression, but also validation for himself, the god summons earthquakes and lightning, destroying both the jail and the King's entire palace. This is the first true demonstration of his control and this then continues throughout the rest of the piece. Dionysus’ power trip peaks when he puts other characters in trances, such as Pentheus and his mother, Agave, and convinces them to do as he pleases. INSERT QUOTE HERE Dionysus shows his true form at the end of the play and proves once and for all his godliness and so gets the recognition he believes is his due.
Dionysus also embodies many dualities throughout the play. Euripides uses his family’s backstory of coming from the most powerful Olympian, the king of the gods, but also a mortal mother as a way for the audience to relate to his struggles. Although a simple tale of greek gods are interesting, having this connection with the character enriches the experience. It is clear from the prologue that Dionysus is a divine being, but he portrays both sides by appearing in his human disguise for most of the play. The other characters in the play have no indication that he is any different than any other foreign traveler in their home city. This adds to the drama when he performs feats that no mortal could dream of despite looking like any other person. From an outside audience perspective, we have the knowledge that Dionysus truly is a god but Euripides manages to tie him to the mortal world. Dionysus struggles with very relatable issues that humanize his character to the audience such as acceptance and the desire to show one’s true self.
Much of the tension and action of the play comes about due to two important disguises. The most obvious being Dionysus disguised as the Stranger, but another part of the motif is Pentheus as the female bacchant. Euripides’ use of disguise is a comment on theater itself and its powers. He makes the visual aspects add to the play instead of drawing attention from it. More specifically, Pentheus' disguise resonates in different ways. His cross-dressing echoes the common Greek thought of one’s Rite of Passage. Although it is usually from boyhood to manhood and to the position of warrior, in this sense, it appeared to the audiences of Ancient Greece as a failed rite of passage. Pentheus never realized his transformation and induction into the cult, and so is seen as a bust. In addition, his disguise draws upon another ritual which often uses costumed enactments to represent the death of an old self and the rebirth of a new self dedicated to the deity. Pentheus was not a willing devotee, but an impious imposter. WEIRD QUOTE CONVO AB HIS IMPENDING DEATH NEED TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO USE FROM IT His character is killed by his own crazed mother, directly after being dressed in disguise by Dionysus in another nod to the god’s true power. He therefore has no possibility of being reborn into the following life. Euripides was incredibly gifted to use the ancient greek notions of dress and transformations in his disguises. As Pentheus is typically seen as the antagonist in the play, his failure to complete this form of initiation into manhood would put the audience off even more than his verbal lines throughout the play.
A final example of dramatic playwriting is in the comparison of the animalistic and human forces Dionysus demonstrates throughout. He experiences the irrational force of the need for chaos but, while in human form, he appears calm and collected. Dionysus, as the Stranger, feels the need to act upon people, and in his divine form acts upon nature and the world surrounding him. These supernatural acts have two distinct modes, which reproduce the duality of his creativity and destructiveness. On the one hand, earthquakes, fires, and flashes of white light destroy the royal palace and wreak havoc. On the other, the maenads experience the positive side of his supernatural powers, receiving the gifts of the earth: wine, honey and milk issue forth from the ground for them. Whilst putting King Pentheus into a trance, the royal family observes the god's divine form saying, "Now I'd say your head was horned…or were you an animal all the while? For certainly you've turned into a bull" (178). Dionysus has the opportunity to experience inherently different instincts and he acts according to his form, although he is the same soul no matter what. He demonstrates his knowledge when he states, "It's a wise man's part to practise a smooth-tempered self control." This is ironic as he himself has a hard time keeping a cool mentality, especially when he is treated with disrespect. The effect of this duality on the myth is powerful as it shows the audience that the gods aren’t fully in control of themselves as one might think. It gives a look into the struggles they endure, just as a normal human would, but with the added consequences of their divinity. Dionysus is used as a symbol for contradictions throughout the play and Euripides uses the drama to portray the distinct characteristics of humans and nature respectively.
The play's ending is unlike that of any other tragic story-telling. There is no moment of clarity or hero's remorse for the pain and suffering caused, Dionysus feels no regret about the horror that has unfolded due to his actions. Euripides doesn't let the drama end with closure, he continues it until the very last second. In my opinion, this is brilliant, as he presents the tragedy of not just one protagonist but of all humankind. He portrays the cycle of our harsh, chaotic, and unsympathetic universe by using a well-known myth and relating it to the world as humans know it.