Literature Analysis Essay on Bacchae by Euripides

Introduction

Euripides undertook the writing of the play Bacchae to show what modern society has had to contend with over contemporary issues that define the social aspect of life. The Theban maenads abandon their domestic sphere, and household tasks just because of Dionysus. This was a disruption of normative undertakings that Pentheus views as both alarming and unusual. The seeming family feud threatens to disrupt and tear apart a once-promising family that was full f hope and optimism. Most of the actions committed by Pentheus throughout the play are triggered by this alarm. Certainly, Pentheus is opposing the idea of maenads even before they do dangerous, and violent acts (Friesen 2015). In the play, in the first line, he expresses his fear that women may be behaving immorally outside their homes, "I hear of strange mischief in this city, that the women have left our homes in fictitious ecstatic rites...they set up full wine bowls in the middle of their assemblies and sneak off....to tryst in private with men" (p.215-225). This is one of the contested themes that prominently emerge in the play with the question very the moral standards and social expectation that is put before the women as well as men in the entire play. One Pentheus oppositions to Dionysus is that "He consorts day and night with the young women, offering them ecstatic rites" (p.235-238). Hence, most of the actions he decides to take appear to be reactions to overturning the immorality of maenads and gender norms. Conferring to Pentheus, the integrity and purity of the Theban woman is a close-infatuated concern. In this paper, we shall discuss how Pentheus is justified in his resistance to the cult of Dionysus.

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Gender contests have a key role in the play Bacchae; the majority of the plot gravitates around the fact that the women of Thebes have been driven into the mountains, and this has caused them to abandon their homes in the process. The blatant acts of open discrimination against the women is a clear manifestation of how far and bad the society has been falling sort of harmonizing the gains made from appreciating the gender place in the social aspects of life. As gender exclusion happens, Pentheus is fighting to preserve the gender norms, and undo the disorders caused by their madness (Friesen 2015). The potential immoral effect on women and feminine attributes of Dionysus are some of the factors Pentheus is finding most intolerable about Dionysus, thus his resistance to the cult. However, the audience is left to fathom whether indeed Dionysus is immoral or just harshly judged on the premise of her gender orientation.

Dionysus causes gender roles to be chaotic in Bacchae. This enabled his followers to participate in masculine activities and to use feminineness as a weapon against Pentheus. More to that, Dionysus also bends the gender roles himself, by displaying female-like characteristics which are strongly opposed by Pentheus. These changes are seen to be disruptive and dramatic in the firmly gender defined context of Greek society. These acts triggered a lot of resistance to the cult of Dionysus by Pentheus. Thus, Pentheus is justified to fight for the peace and gender norm stability in Bacchae.

Dionysus challenges the discrepancy between the foreign and the Greek in the Bacchae. Represented as the god of the new cult, yet a part of the Greek religion, he symbolizes both identities instantaneously (Friesen 2015). The aspect of religion is a factor that cannot be disregarded in the play, with the clear manifestation of the fact that religion controls and dictates a large part of the social setting of the society as well as moral and political trends in the society. His believers, also, appear to place a very lightweight on the differences between foreign and Greek. Dionysus who was perceived by Pentheus as a perfumed, effeminate, and filled with eastern softness, imitate to this latter definition. Moreover, he forces Pentheus to take some of these characteristics, before he forces him to behave like a woman. He dresses Pentheus in a buss (linen dress) of the sort that is likely to be worn by the Easterners and women and a headband, which other than being feminine, is an "Emblem."

Consequently, Pentheus also perceived Dionysus as a prophet of a disruptive cult, and he uses this as a means of persecuting him accordingly. It is noted that this form of allegation would have had a contemporary impact on the audience of Bacchae (Friesen 2015). During the period of Euripides, Athens was plagued with apprehension about foreign Cults. As a result, charges popularly known as "Asebeia" or (crimes against the gods) were imposed against any person who worshiped or introduced bizarre gods such as Isodaites, Adonis, and Sabazios. To be precise, foreign cults contained sexually immoral implications, magic, and profiteering, as well as damning appeal to people of low social status, and women. According to Pentheus, the cult of Dionysus happened to contain all the above-mentioned characteristics. From page (p.255-257) it is seen that Teiresias is blamed for wanting to encourage the foreign cult so that they can make a profit from them. This stranger appears to be a prophet of a disruptive, eastern god, and an eastern charmer and sorcerer with rites comprising of lustful women and drunkenness.

These traits are all qualities of a chary foreign cult, and this justifies Pentheus actions since it makes his reaction towards the cult understandable (Friesen 2015). As a matter of fact, Pentheus tone, and by the fact that Dionysus is regularly called a" daimon" (Foreign god) is evocative of the terminology and atmosphere of the "Asebeia Trials."

What's more, Versnel adds that there exists a noticeable conflict to the originality of these non-traditional gods, and also the simple hatred for their compassion. Greek devoutness, Versnel argues, was dependent on the lack of revolution and admiration for the traditional, which is endangered by the invasion of foreign cults. By this, Pentheus is fully defensible in smashing out against Dionysus. This is because, as far as Pentheus is concerned, Dionysus is a representation of something new, something which is disruptive, and lastly, something which is un-Greek. In spite of Cadmus's appeals to Pentheus to adhere to the tradition by adoring the god, Pentheus was in fact following the traditions through opposing the worship of Dionysus (Friesen 2015).

Conclusion

In conclusion, after noticing danger to law and order of his "polis," Pentheus tries to take actions against the worshipers of Dionysus through executing, enslaving the "maenads," and finally humiliating the prophet. Pentheus saw that this could be perfectly legitimate in a case where a foreign cult is invading. Since Dionysus is a full foreigner, Pentheus feels justified in persecuting his cult, as he would have done for any other foreign cult.

Reference

Friesen, Courtney JP. Reading Dionysus: Euripides' Bacchae and the Cultural Contestations of Greeks, Jews, Romans, and Christians. Vol. 95. Mohr Siebeck, 2015.