The Bacchae by Euripides - summary

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THE BACCHAE

BY EURIPIDES

T

HE GOD DIONYSUS IS THE MAIN CHARACTER IN THE PLAY. IN FACT, 'Bacchae' is the name given to the female worshippers of Dionysus or Bacchus. Dionysus was born in Thebes where the play is set. He was born to Semele, the then king of Thebes' daughter; his name was Cadmus who features in the play as an old man. Cadmus' other daughters are called Autonoe, Ino and Agave - whose son, Pentheus, is now the king of Thrace.

Though his mother was a mortal, Dionysus' father was Zeus. When Zeus impregnated Semele, his wife, Hera, became furiously jealous and disguised herself as Semele's nurse and urged her to make her lover, Zeus, prove his divinity by granting her a wish. Semele made Zeus take an oath that he would grant her any wish and when she wished to see him in divine form, Hera knew that Semele would be destroyed. Under oath, Zeus appeared as god of lightning and a lightning bolt hit Semele and she was burnt alive and prematurely gave birth to Dionysus as a foetus. However, to save his son, Zeus sewed the foetus up in his thigh and after the correct number of months, Dionysus was born from his father's thigh.

Zeus, understanding that he couldn't possibly bring up the baby on Olympus with Hera around, gave Dionysus to his aunt, Ino to bring up. Hera turned Ino's husband mad and he killed their son, Ino was then prosecuted and jumped into the sea with Dionysus and was turned into a sea nymph. After that, Dionysus was rescued by Hermes, the messenger god and was raised by nymphs on Mount Nysa in Asia. When Dionysus grew up, he roamed the east gaining support from those who would believe in him. To those who would accept him as a deity, he punished terribly. "The most terrible and most gentle to mankind," is how he describes himself.

At the beginning of the play, Dionysus says the introductory speech or prologue and explains how he has driven the sisters of Semele, his mother, and the other women in Thebes mad and sent them as Bacchants onto Mount Cithaeron. This is because, Dionysus' aunts had been spreading rumours that Dionysus was not really a god and that Semele had just slept with some ordinary man and to save her dignity and herself from shame, she said it was Zeus' child. Dionysus and his chorus - who are voluntary Bacchants - says that if Pentheus does not acknowledge him as a god, he will lead the tranced Bacchant women into battle against Pentheus.
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Cadmus, Pentheus and Dionysus' grandfather, and the blind prophet Teiresias have already, voluntarily, submitted to the worship of Dionysus. However their reasons are very different. As a prophet of the gods, Teiresias believes that it is his duty to follow all the gods and accept them all as well. However, Cadmus believes that it will ring honour upon the royal family to acknowledge Dionysus as a god for he is related to them.

Dionysus has already explained to the audience that he has disguised himself as a priest of himself (Dionysus) and is saying that he is ...

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