Showing results for "Euripides' Bacchae" in All Categories

The Bacchae by EuripidesIn Euripides' "Bacchae," the god Dionysus gets back to Thebes to state his heavenly nature and rebuff the people who deny him, especially Lord Pentheus. Camouflaged as a human, Dionysus prompts the ladies of Thebes, including Pentheus' mom Agave, to leave their homes and revel in wild, happy love. Pentheus, not set in stone to keep everything under control, endeavors to keep an eye on the Bacchae yet is at last caught. In a heartbreaking turn, Agave, made distraught by Dionysus, erroneously murders her child, trusting him to be a wild creature. The play investigates ...

Euripides' Bacchae tells of Dionysus, the God, come to the city of Thebes, there to drive mad those who refuse participation in his ecstatic rites, sing and dance on the mountainside and worship him as God. A family tale as well as a sacrificial rite, in it Dionysus drives his own aunts mad and lures his cousin, Pentheus, cross-dressed as a woman, to a humiliating death at his own mother's hands. An extraordinarily beautiful, utterly terrifying tale.