The Bacchae of Euripides
emotional, Orphism easily excited both enthusiasm and ridicule. It lent
itself both to inspired saintliness and to imposture. In doctrine it
laid especial stress upon sin, and the sacerdotal purification of sin;
on the eternal reward due beyond the grave to the pure and the impure,
the pure living in an eternal ecstasy--"perpetual intoxication," as
Plato satirically calls it--the impure toiling through long ages to wash
out their stains. It recast in various ways the myth of Dionysus, and
especially the story of his Second Birth. All true worshippers become in
a mystical sense one with the God; they are born again and are
"Bacchoi." Dionysus being the God within, the perfectly pure soul is
possessed by the God wholly, and becomes nothing but the God.
Based on very primitive rites and feelings, on the religion of men who
made their gods in the image of snakes and bulls and fawns, because they
hardly felt any difference of kind between themselves and the animals,
the worship of Dionysus kept always this feeling of kinship with wild
things. The beautiful side of this feeling is vividly conspicuous in
_The Bacchae_. And the horrible side is not in the least concealed.
A curious relic of primitive superstition and cruelty remained firmly
imbedded in Orphism--a doctrine irrational and unintelligible, and for
that very reason wrapped in the deepest and most sacred mystery: a
belief in the sacrifice of Dionysus himself, and the purification of man
by his blood.
It seems possible that the savage Thracians, in the fury of their
worship on the mountains, when they were possessed by the God and became
"wild beasts," actually tore with their teeth and hands any hares,
goats, fawns, or the like that they came across. There survives a
constant tradition of inspired Bacchanals in their miraculous strength
tearing even bulls asunder--a feat, happily, beyond the bounds of human
possibility. The wild beast that tore was, of course, the savage God
himself. And by one of those curious confusions of thought, which seem
so inconceivable to us and so absolutely natural and obvious to
primitive men, the beast torn was also the God! The Orphic congregations
of later times, in their most holy gatherings, solemnly partook of the
blood of a bull, which was, by a mystery, the blood of Dionysus-Zagreus
himself, the "Bull of God," slain in sacrifice for the purification of
man. And the Maenads of poetry and myth, among more beautiful proofs of
their superhuman or infra-human character, have always to tear bulls in
pieces and taste of the blood. It is noteworthy, and throws much light
on the spirit of Orphism, that apart from this sacramental tasting of
the blood, the Orphic worshipper held it an abomination to eat the flesh
of animals at all. The same religious fervour and zeal for purity which
made him reject the pollution of animal food, made him at the same time
cling to a ceremonial which would utterly disgust the ordinary hardened
flesh-eater. It fascinated him just because it was so incredibly
primitive and uncanny; because it was a mystery which transcended
reason!
It will be observed that Euripides, though certainly familiar with
Orphism--which he mentions in _The Hippolytus_ and treated at length in
_The Cretans_ (see Appendix)--has in _The Bacchae_ gone back behind
Orphism to the more primitive stuff from which it was made. He has
little reference to any specially Orphic doctrine; not a word, for
instance, about the immortality of the soul. And his idealisation or
spiritualisation of Dionysus-worship proceeds along the lines of his
own thought, not on those already fixed by the Orphic teachers.
* * * * *
P. 80, l. 17, Asia all that by the salt sea lies, &c.], _i.e._ the
coasts of Asia Minor inhabited by Greeks, Ionia, Aeolis, and Doris.
P. 80, l. 27, From Dian seed.]--Dian=belonging to Zeus. The name
Dionysus seemed to be derived from [Greek: Dios], the genitive of
"Zeus."
P. 81, l. 50, Should this Theban town essay with wrath and battle,
&c.]--This suggestion of a possibility which is never realised or
approached is perhaps a mark of the unrevised condition of the play. The
same may be said of the repetitions in the Prologue.
Pp. 82-86, ll. 64-169.--This first song of the Chorus covers a great
deal of Bacchic doctrine and myth. The first strophe, "Oh blessed he in
all wise," &c., describes the bliss of Bacchic purity; the antistrophe
gives the two births of Dionysus, from Semele and from the body of Zeus,
mentioning his mystic epiphanies as Bull and as Serpent. The next
strophe is an appeal to Thebes, the birthplace or "nurse" of the God's
mother, Semele; the antistrophe, an appeal to the cavern in Crete, the
birthplace of Zeus, the God's father, and the original home of the
mystic Timbrel. The Epode, or closing song, is full, not of doctrine,
but of the pure poetry of the worship.
Pp. 86-95, ll. 170-369, Teiresias and Cadmus.]--Teiresias seems to be
not a spokesman of the poet's own views--far from it--but a type of the
more cultured sort of Dionysiac priest, not very enlightened, but ready
to abate some of the extreme dogmas of his creed if he may keep the
rest. Cadmus, quite a different character, takes a very human and
earthly point of view: the God is probably a true God; but even if he is
false, there is no great harm done, and the worship will bring renown to
Thebes and the royal family. It is noteworthy how full of pity Cadmus
is--the sympathetic kindliness of the sons of this world as contrasted
with the pitilessness of gods and their devotees. See especially the
last scenes of the play. Even his final outburst of despair at not dying
like other men (p. 152), shows the same sympathetic humanity.
Pp. 89 ff., ll. 215-262.--Pentheus, though his case against the new
worship is so good, and he might so easily have been made into a fine
martyr, like Hippolytus, is left harsh and unpleasant, and very close in
type to the ordinary "tyrant" of Greek tragedy (cf. p. 118). It is also
noteworthy, I think, that he is, as it were, out of tone with the other
characters. He belongs to a different atmosphere, like, to take a recent
instance, Golaud in _Pelleas et Melisande_.
P. 91, l. 263, Injurious King, &c.]--It is a mark of a certain yielding
to stage convention in Euripides' later style, that he allows the Chorus
Leader to make remarks which are not "asides," but are yet not heard or
noticed by anybody.
P. 91, l. 264, Sower of the Giants' sod.]--Cadmus, by divine guidance,
slew a dragon and sowed the teeth of it like seed in the "Field of
Ares." From the teeth rose a harvest of Earth-born, or "Giant" warriors,
of whom Echion was one.
P. 92, l. 287, Learn the truth of it, cleared from the false.]--This
timid essay in rationalism reminds one of similar efforts in Pindar
(e.g. _Ol._ i.). It is the product of a religious and unspeculative
mind, not feeling difficulties itself, but troubled by other people's
questions and objections. (See above on Teiresias.)
P. 92, l. 292, The world-encircling Fire.]--This fire, or ether, was the
ordinary material of which phantoms or apparitions were made.
Pp. 93-95, ll. 330-369.--These three speeches are very clearly
contrasted. Cadmus, thoroughly human, thinking of sympathy and
expediency, and vividly remembering the fate of his other grandson,
Actaeon; Pentheus, angry and "tyrannical"; Teiresias speaking like a
Christian priest of the Middle Ages, almost like Tennyson's Becket.
P. 95, l. 370.--The goddess [Greek: Hosia], "Purity," seems to be one of
the many abstractions which were half personified by philosophy and by
Orphism. It is possible that the word is really adjectival, "Immaculate
One," and originally an epithet of some more definite goddess, _e.g._ as
Miss Harrison suggests, of Nemesis.
In this and other choruses it is very uncertain how the lines should be
distributed between the whole chorus, the two semi-choruses, and the
various individual choreutae.
Pp. 97-98, ll. 402-430.--For the meaning of these lines, see
Introduction, pp. lxi, lxii.
P. 100, l. 471, These emblems.]--There were generally associated with
mysteries, or special forms of worship, certain relics or sacred
implements, without which the rites could not be performed. Cf. Hdt.
vii. 153, where Telines of Gela stole the sacred implements or emblems
of the nether gods, so that no worship could be performed, and the town
was, as it were, excommunicated.
P. 103, ll. 493 ff., _The soldiers cut off the tress._]--The stage
directions here are difficult. It is conceivable that none of Pentheus'
threats are carried out at all; that the God mysteriously paralyses the
hand that is lifted to take his rod without Pentheus himself knowing it.
But I think it more likely that the humiliation of Dionysus is made, as
far as externals go, complete, and that it is not till later that he
begins to show his superhuman powers.
P. 104, l. 508, So let it be.]--The name Pentheus suggests 'mourner,'
from _penthos_, 'mourning.'
P. 105, l. 519, Acheloues' roaming daughter.]--Acheloues was the Father of
all Rivers.
P. 107, l. 556, In thine own Nysa.]--An unknown divine mountain, formed
apparently to account for the second part of the name Dionysus.
P. 107, l. 571, Cross the Lydias, &c.]--These are rivers of Thrace which
Dionysus must cross in his passage from the East, the Lydias, the Axios,
and some other, perhaps the Haliacmon, which is called "the
father-stream of story."
P. 108, l. 579, A Voice, a Voice.]--Bromios, the God of Many
Voices--for, whatever the real derivation, the fifth-century Greeks
certainly associated the name with [Greek: bremo], 'to roar'--manifests
himself as a voice here and below (p. 136).
Pp. 109-112, ll. 602-641, Ye Damsels of the Morning Hills, &c.]--This
scene in longer metre always strikes me as a little unlike the style of
Euripides, and inferior. It may mark one of the parts left unfinished
by the poet, and written in by his son. But it may be that I have not
understood it.
P. 118, ll. 781 ff., Call all who spur the charger, &c.]--The typical
'Ercles vein' of the tragic tyrant.
Pp. 120-124, ll. 810 ff.--This scene of the 'hypnotising'--if one may
use the word--of Pentheus probably depends much on the action, which,
however, I have not ventured to prescribe. Pentheus seems to struggle
against the process all through, to be amazed at himself for consenting,
while constantly finding fresh reasons for doing so.
P. 121, l. 822, Am I a woman, then?]--The robe and coif were, in the
original legend, marks of the Thracian dress worn by the Thracian
followers of Dionysus, and notably by Orpheus. The tradition became
fixed that Pentheus wore such a robe and coif; and to the Greeks of
Euripides' time such a dress seemed to be a woman's. Hence this turn of
the story (cf. above, p. 167).
P. 125, ll. 877-881.--The refrain of this chorus about the fawn is
difficult to interpret. I have practically interpolated the third line
("To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait"), in order (1) to
show the connection of ideas; (2) to make clearer the meaning (as I
understand it) of the two Orphic formulae, "What is beautiful is beloved
for ever," and "A hand uplifted over the head of Hate." If I am wrong,
the refrain is probably a mere cry for revenge, in the tone of the
refrain, "Hither for doom and deed," on p. 132. It is one of the many
passages where there is a sharp antagonism between the two spirits of
the Chorus, first, as furious Bacchanals, and, secondly, as exponents of
the idealised Bacchic religion of Euripides, which is so strongly
expressed in the rest of this wonderful lyric.
P. 127, l. 920, Is it a Wild Bull, this?]--Pentheus, in his Bacchic
possession, sees fitfully the mystic shapes of the God beneath the human