FREE ESSAY ON DIONYSUS--BACCHAE

DIONYSUS--BACCHAE

The god, Dionysus, fills an integral role in Grecian Myth. According to Euripides'
Bacchae, Dionysus represents the animalistic and mystic life force that connects humanity
to its innate earthy roots—roots that are illogical, chaotic, and instinctual. In
this paper I will be discussing this aforementioned mystic life force and its existence
in ancient Greece's supremely logical society.
Being as completely logical as the ancient Greeks tended to be, they needed some sort of
release valve that kept them from all going crazy in their otherwise rigid existence. The
god, Dionysus, provided this release in their world through the manifestations of "wine,
women, and song." Without these simple earthy pleasures, the human spirit became warped
in its confinement as illustrated in the Bacchae through the character of Pentheus.
The polar opposites portrayed in the confrontations between Dionysus and Pentheus were
meant to illustrate the point that you simply cannot ignore your earthy half. When the
people of Thebes attempted to maintain indifference to Dionysus' claims of divinity, he
came to the town personally to invoke his punishment on all those who would not pay him
his due worship. Possessing the women of Thebes and turning them into what they tried
most to resist demonstrated was the ultimate irony that also demonstrated his awesome
mystical powers—powers that as yet had remained unseen by mortal men not initiated
into Dionysus' mysteries.
These mystical powers that Dionysus possessed allowed him to perform all sorts of
miracles that baffled and frightened the Thebians. Beyond the miracle of possessing all
the women of Thebes and making them head to the mountains, what occurred on the mountain
was what really expressed all that Dionysus was to the Thebians and to the readers of
Euripides' play. The women were reported as performing "weird fantastic things, what
miracles and more than miracles" while under Dionysus' influence (665-66). Each one of
those different mystical acts they performed represented a different aspect of Dionysus'
divinity. The women struck the ground and wine sprang forth for them to drink, they tore
live cattle limb from limb, and flew among other things. The wine was representative of
Dionysus' gift of wine to mortals. The animals were a reminder of Dionysus' love for raw
animal flesh. The women flying were simply examples of Dionysus' awesome powers and the
things mortals can do when under the mystical "high" you experience under Dionysus'
control.
These awesome acts were spread far and wide by the shepherds who witnessed them first
hand. The stories they told of the miracles performed instigated a powerful and
destructive curiosity in Pentheus. His curiosity was born out of his attempts to suppress
his human side that was all Dionysus represented. Pentheus became so focused on denying
his irrational and animalistic values that they eventually became his obsession. What
should have been a natural human "high" turned into a perversion of the normal mortal
experience with Dionysus. 
Pentheus' manic desire to view the acts of the women on the mountain was the
manifestation of his perverted sense of pleasure. This voyeuristic desire could only be
satisfied through experiencing another perversion set up by Dionysus himself for the
complete and utter humiliation of Pentheus. Pentheus was coerced into dressing up as a
woman to go and view the mountain miracles. This perversion that gave Pentheus'
personality a complete turn-about from stubborn prude to cross-dressing voyeur was what
the Bacchae Chorus warned about throughout the play. If you accepted Dionysus' world, you
could achieve a peaceful existence with the balance between life and logic.
The balance that was meant to be achieved in every day life was what Dionysus was truly
all about. Yes, he was the extreme end of irrational instincts, but he was what the
Greeks needed because they were so completely logical. Dionysus provided the balance in
ancient Grecian life that allowed them to maintain their supremely straight-laced society
values. Without the "wine, women, and song," Grecian life would have been completely
mundane and lifeless; they would have lost everything that made them mortal. After all,
"…if there is no god of wine, there is
no love, no Aphrodite either, nor other pleasure left to men (774-76)."