Th
e
B
a c c h a e
It is one of those moments when C.S. Lewis catches
you off guard. It can’t be . . . but it is. Then you think,
“What is he doing here?” Certainly it must be an
invasion—new forces of destruction have
been imported from ancient Greece to
wreak some new havoc in Narnia. It
seems the pagan god Bacchus or
Dionysus has risen. He and his
maenads are dancing around
bringing who knows what sort
of mischief to the forest. “Watch
out Lucy! Watch out Susan!” you
think. Where is Father Christmas when you need him?
But wait . . . Bacchus . . . has
come with someone. He is with
Aslan! Didn’t see that coming! Lewis,
however, the master storyteller has a
point. He has imported this rascal and put him in
the service of the Lion to show us how misguided our views of the faith often are. Sadly,
modern Christians mistake the faith for
something that would remove all joy
from the world. They think Christ
came to bring a sanitized, tightly
controlled world where everyone
would walk in lines and no one
would play jazz. In that version of
a Christian world sanctification
would be evident by the length of
one’s dour countenance. No one
would climb trees. No one would
pitch on the inside part of the plate.
No one would spit or bleed or feast.
Not so fast, says Lewis. The point
of his use of Bacchus in service
to Aslan is that a pharisaical
world of mint, dill and cumin
counting is not the world that
God intended. Christianity replaces dour tasteless food with
feasting. It replaces water with
wine. It replaces minimalist silence and clashing cacophony with
a symphony. It means to fill the world
with laughter and joy. It will not stop until all of
have been banished or joined the dance.
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Notice, however, that Lewis’s Bacchus brings freedom,
but he is not free. His joy and laughter comes in the service
of Aslan. Wine, finally, finds its place not as the purveyor
of drunkenness, but as in the chalice of the Lord’s Supper.
Euripides, however, is not a believer—not even
close—and his Bacchus is not bound to Aslan. He is free,
and with that freedom, he brings madness.
General Information
Author and Context
Euripides (485–406 b.c.) was the youngest of the three
great classical Greek tragedians. Roughly speaking, Aeschylus represents the conquering generation, Sophocles
the conserving generation, and Euripides the collapsing
generation of classical Athens. Born of “good family” he
lived nearly his entire life in Salamis on a family estate,
not far from Athens, until he was self-exiled to Macedonia in his last years. This may partially explain why he
apparently was considered something of a loner for a
public writer. It was said he wrote most of his plays in a
cave by the sea. He was obviously familiar with the leading intellectual lights of his day, including Protagoras and
Socrates, and acted as a lay priest in the sanctioned cult
of Zeus. Euripides seems to have been an “edgier” writer,
less “politically correct” than Aeschylus and Sophocles,
and he was criticized during his lifetime for his innovations in tragic drama and his inclusion of “common
people” in his plays. This may have been one reason why
Euripides won only five first prizes (including one for The
Bacchae) in the annual Athenian theatrical competitions,
compared to twenty first-place awards for Sophocles and
a dozen for Aeschylus.
Apparently disturbed at the disintegration of classical Athens in his lifetime, he exiled himself to Macedonia
where he lived the last few years of his life and wrote his
final plays, including The Bacchae. Euripides intuitively
sensed that the classical Greek city-state, based as it was
on a formal Apollonian law and order, could not sustain
peace and harmonious community any more than the
old tribal societies, because the city-state failed to adequately address the need for Dionysian joy and freedom
within their formal legal order. The setting of the play is
the Greek city-state of Thebes in mythical times. The Dionysian takeover of Thebes was one of five famous mythological cycles of stories related to Thebes, which had the
predominant mythological history of all city-states in ancient Greece. Euripides wrote the play near the end of the
famous Peloponnesian War (431–404 b.c.), an ancient
Greek military conflict, fought by the Greek city-state of
Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League,
which included Thebes and was led by the Greek city-state
of Sparta. This is the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the
Israelites first returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple
after their exile in Babylon, then Persia. This would make
Ezra and Nehemiah contemporaries of Euripides.
Significance
Euripides’ Bacchae is significant
not merely because it is the last
play written by Euripides and
the classical Greek tragedians. The play itself questions the very worldview
of the classical Greeks,
and their attempt to
control what they
perceived to be
fickle and inscrutable gods by
rational organization and law.
Euripides
intuitively understood that the
Greeks
could
not save themselves through
the political device and organization known as the
city-state. The Bacchae makes it clear
that an imposed formal order based on the
reason of man—whether
of the individual through
stoic self-control or of society
through formal systems of government—cannot suppress sin, control our “irrational” impulses, or bring
peace to a society. Such a solution will fail
largely because it misunderstands the depths of
humanity’s real problem. As a result, the rational imposition of law and order ironically creates the very same
violence, chaos, and disorder it seeks to avoid by the suppression of nature, freedom, and change.
The Bacchae unintentionally witnesses to the truth
of Scripture’s view of mankind and society—man, individually or collectively—cannot save himself or keep
himself “pure” by imposing rational law, because such
systems merely cover over the real problem—man’s sin
The Bacchae
and his failure to love his Creator. Similar in some ways
to the Pharisees’ strategy in New Testament Israel, the
Greeks’ attempts to prevent sin and disorder amounted
to “whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of
dead people’s bones and all
uncleanness.” Inevitably,
as Euripides understood, the impurity and dead
bones of the
classical
Greek
Main Characters
Dionysus and Pentheus are the main characters
in The Bacchae. Dionysus is the Greek god of wine and
ecstasy, as well as a fertility god. He is son of Zeus and
the human Semele. In the play Dionysus has two roles:
the traditional god on high, and his disguised role as the
“Stranger” who comes to Thebes to punish the Greek city
for slandering his mother.
Pentheus is the King of Thebes, son of Agaue, grandson of Cadmus and first cousin of Dionysus. Opposite in
personality to his cousin, he is a law-and-order type, determined to keep control of Thebes by force if necessary.
Despite his domineering, puritanical personality he is also
a curious voyeur, secretly attracted to the Dionysian cult.
Semele, mother of Dionysus and daughter of Cadmus, is already dead when the play begins. Cadmus is
the legendary founder of Thebes. He is the grandfather
of Penthius and Dionysus, and the only male public worshipper of Dionysus in his family. His friend and famous
Theban seer (prophet) is Teiresias, who persuades Cadmus to worship Dionysus.
Agaue is the daughter of Cadmus and mother of Pentheus. At the beginning of the play she is already one of
the maenads (from the Greek mainad, “to be mad”), the
secret cult worshippers of Dionysus, but her major role
is near the end of the play. The Chorus represents female
bacchants (followers of the secret Dionysian rites) from
nearby Lydia, who are led by Dionysus in his disguised
human form as the Stranger.
Summary and Setting
The
Greek
god
of wine,
Dionysus,
appears on
this pottery,
which is an example
of red-figure vase painting. This technique was
developed in Athens in the sixth
century b.c., and its greater flexibility in
rendering detail soon supplanted the black-figure
painting style which had dominated previously.
city-states such as Athens were exposed by history. Euripides could not solve this vexing problem of humanity, but by pointing to the failure of the Greek solution
he also unknowingly pointed to the truth of the gospel.
Dionysus’ mother Semele was a princess in the royal
Theban house of Cadmus. She has an affair with Zeus, becoming pregnant with Dionysus. Zeus’s jealous wife Hera
tricks Semele into requesting Zeus to appear in divine
form. Zeus’s appearance as a lightening bolt unfortunately
burns Semele to a crisp. Zeus manages to rescue the unborn Dionysus stitching him into his “thigh” from which
he is later born. (More appropriate chuckling!) Semele’s
family maligns her name, does not believe her child was
from Zeus, and rejects the young god Dionysus.
As the action of the play begins, Dionysus returns to
Thebes disguised as a human stranger, in order to vindicate
his mother and punish the insolent city for refusing to acknowledge his divinity. In the meantime Cadmus’s proud
and arrogant grandson Penthius has become King of the
city, and promptly forbids the worship of Dionysus. Upon
his arrival Dionysus first drives Semele’s sisters mad, and
they promptly flee to the mountains to worship Dionysus.
Though threatened by the Dionysian rites, Pentheus
refuses to believe the women’s madness is divine and as-
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IV
sumes they are purposely violating the orderly customs
of Thebes. He orders his soldiers to arrest the stranger
(Dionysus disguised) and his maenads. Dionysus permits
himself to be arrested and taken back to Pentheus.
Pentheus attempts to bind and torture the boyishly
handsome stranger, without success. Attempting to tie up
Dionysus, Pentheus finds he has only tied up a bull. Attempting to plunge a knife into Dionysus, he finds only
the blade passing through the stranger like a shadow.
Suddenly, an earthquake shakes the palace foundations
starting a fire, and Pentheus is left dazed and confused.
As Dionysus attempts unsuccessfully to persuade
Pentheus that his path of resistance is destructive, a cowherd is brought before the King. The cowherd has witnessed a blissful scene of the maddened Theban women
(including Pentheus’s mother) in the forest, alternately
resting peacefully and feasting, singing and dancing,
playing music and suckling wild animals. When, however, the women
see the cowherd, they suddenly
fly into a murderous rage
and chase him
within
The
Who,
Janis
Joplin,
Grateful Dead,
Creedence Clearwater Revival,
Blood, Sweat & Tears, Santana,
and Jimi Hendrix were among
the performers at the infamous
“3 Days of Peace & Music.”
inches of his life. He barely escapes, and his poor cows
are torn apart by the crazed women with their bare
hands.
Frightened but intrigued by the cowherd’s story,
Penthius is about to order another military expedition
to arrest the Bacchants, when Dionysus the stranger offers Pentheus a chance to see the maenads in person, but
undercover. Unable to resist, Pentheus accepts the offer. Dressing himself in a wig and long skirts, Pentheus
becomes an effeminate cross dresser—a vain, arrogant
and lecherous parody of a man of authority. When Pentheus at first cannot get a clear view of the women, Dionysus miraculously places him in a treetop. Instantly the
maenads spy Pentheus atop the tree, and Dionysus signals them to attack. Friends, I must here hide from your
eyes the horror of what follows. Let us just say it involves
lots of violence, a lion, a beheading, and lots of tears.
Worldview
You may have heard about the Sixties and an American phenomenon called the “Hippie” movement.
The Hippie generation believed in “peace and
love,” and a more “back to nature” lifestyle, reacting against “the establishment” and what it
perceived to be the lifeless materialism, dead religion, corporate conventionalism, and militarism
of modern American society. At the end of the
1960s, a host of confusing and frightening things
were happening. The Vietnam War was escalating
and dividing the country, while the nuclear arms race
between the United States and Soviet Union accelerated, the civil rights movement was in its prime
with much racial tension, NASA was sending the
first men to the moon, the radical student movement
was at its zenith on many college campuses, demanding
changes in education and government, and rock concerts
The Bacchae
and festivals became a staple of the youth scene.
The most famous rock festival in history was held
over three days in August 1969 on a large farm near rural
Woodstock, New York. Over half a million young people
showed up (originally expecting 50,000, the promoters
planned for 150,000); the facilities were not adequate to
handle this many people. There were copious amounts of
drugs consumed, the New York Thruway was shut down
due to traffic jams, and it rained off and on during the
festival. Yet miraculously there were no riots, murders or
serious criminal incidents. A book extolling “Woodstock
Nation” lauded the event, and it seemed the Hippie spirit
of Woodstock might live up to its “peace and love” claims.
More big rock festivals promoting peace and love were
planned, and on December 6, 1969, just four months after Woodstock, the Altamont Free Concert was held at a
raceway in central California and approximately 300,000
people attended. Unfortunately, the spirit of peace and
love turned to a spirit of anger and violence. Numerous
riots broke out, one of the big name bands refused to
go on stage for fear of the violence, another performer
was knocked unconscious following a fight on stage,
one man was murdered by a Hell’s Angel gang member,
and three others were killed by a hit and run driver. As
soon as their set was over, the members of the headlining
band, the Rolling Stones, ran off the stage and into their
limousines, and police had to be called to restore order.
The whole sordid concert scene was filmed, including the
murder. It was the effective end of “Woodstock Nation,”
and the innocence of the Hippie movement. The famous
classic rock song by Don McLean entitled “American
Pie” includes these lyrics reportedly written about the Altamont affair:
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
my hands were clenched in fists of rage.
No angel born in hell
could break that Satan’s spell.
The maenads in a frenzy
attack Pentheus in this wall
painting from the Casa
dei Vettii in Pompeii,
excavated in the 1890s.
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And as the flames climbed high into the night,
to light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
the day the music died.
Like the young concertgoers in the Hippie era, the Bacchants, worshippers of Dionysus, can suddenly change
from peaceful nurturers of young animals to murderers
who tear their sacrificial victims apart in ecstasy. At one
level, The Bacchae is a story about not enough of and then
too much of a good thing. Ultimately, at a much deeper level,
it is a story that, however dimly, perceives a flaw in man’s nature so fundamental that no formal government structure,
organization or set of laws can successfully suppress it.
Dionysus’s mother Semele is slain by the grandeur of
his father Zeus in this painting by Gustave Moreau
(1826–1898).
Although The Bacchae reflects the unbiblical classical Greek worldview, Euripides was able to perceive,
however imperfectly, this fundamental flaw of man’s
nature because of the times he experienced. Placing The
Bacchae in its historical and literary context will better
help us see this. You may remember from your last trip
to the ancient world (Omnibus I) reading some wild and
wacky plays called Oresteia (by Aeschylus) and The Theban Trilogy (by Sophocles). Oresteia, written at the height
of Athens classical glory was all about the transition
of Athens from a society based on the oikos (Greek for
“household”), governed by household gods and the laws
of blood vengeance, to a society based on the polis (Greek
for “city-state”), governed by the Olympic gods (Zeus and
company) and a republican rule of law. In the oikosbased society, the most sacred bond of community had
been “blood” (family or tribal relations) but because of
constant family feuds the newer polis-based society was
organized around a sacred “contract” between citizens
and elected rulers. Oresteia was a celebration of the triumph of the city-state over tribal organizations, a change
that initially seemed to bring so much peace, prosperity,
and greatness to classical Athens.
The Theban Trilogy, written a generation later, as the
dark clouds of the Peloponnesian War gathered over Athens, is set in Thebes, where the city-state’s peace and prosperity are threatened by a devastating plague. It turns out
that the Theban king violated the sacred contract of the
city-state by engaging in unintended but forbidden sexual
relations with his mother. The only way to end the plague
and save the city-state is to make a scapegoat of the king,
exiling him outside the city-state forever. Although there
was still hope that the city-state concept would be successful and bring lasting peace, Sophocles’ play implies that
maintaining the purity of the city-state, which was necessary to avert disasters, would not be easy.
Euripides’ Bacchae was written as the Peloponnesian
War was drawing to its destructive end and Athens was
about to lose its classical glory forever. As the translator
of the play notes:
For three generations, ever since the repulse of
Persian power, many Greek states had tried in
varying degrees to order their public life according to reason; autocracy had given place to [limited] assembly, debate and the vote. This change
had been followed by a generation of war; it had
led to a degree of organization which had taken
from life much of its liberty and beauty and joy
and given anxiety in return. The life of reason
was proving a heavy strain. Dionysiac worship
offered an escape from reason back to the simple
The Bacchae
joys of a mind and body surrendered to unity
with nature.
Euripides witnessed the impact of more draconian
laws and the conflicts they engendered in Athenian society as the war dragged on. He also noticed that fear of
violence from excessive Dionysian freedoms often led
ironically to violent means to repress those very Dionysian freedoms.
The Bacchae highlights a universal situation of man’s
condition—the fractured nature of both individuals and
communities, and the resulting contradictions in our nature. We are disordered and fearful creatures, as well as
guilty and lost creatures, but we react in different ways to
our situation based on our personalities, our culture and
our experiences. Additionally, we tend to swing between
extremes in responding to our plight. Looking about for
a solution to our dilemma, we often choose to favor one
part of our nature as superior to another part based on
the false assumption that one aspect of our nature, or
one aspect of creation, is more righteous or pure than another. In a futile attempt to save (and justify) ourselves, we
then repress, by force of law or violence, the aspect of our
nature we deem impure or unrighteous.
The Greeks recognized this to some extent in their
mythological gods, which were of course simply projections of their own human nature and culture. Hence
Apollo and Dionysus represented two divergent tendencies of man’s nature—his desire for order and control of
his environment through reason on one hand, and his
desire to be one with nature and experience authentic joy
and freedom on the other. Both gods, that is both tendencies, manifest themselves at different times in the same
person or society. Because we are broken and fractured
creatures, Apollo and Dionysus battle for control within
each of us, as well as in society. Each “side” of our nature
tends to fear and despise the other side.
The main point of Euripides’ play is that societies
and people who tend toward the law and order of Apollo
ignore at their own peril the demand of the human spirit
for Dionysian experience. Those who in the name of law
and order suppress that demand in themselves or others, as Pentheus attempts to suppress his own desires as
well as those of Thebes, become unwitting agents of the
very disintegration and destruction they sought to avoid
by rejecting the Dionysian spirit in the first place. Pentheus had decided to protect the Apollonian civilization
of Thebes from the excesses and chaos of Dionysus by
banning him completely from the city. He refused to acknowledge or worship the god and prohibited all Thebans from doing the same. His measures were in fact a
mirror image of Dionysian excess, using excessive force
under the guise of law and order to keep out what he
feared most.
Dionysus is not just the god of wine and revelry,
but also of fertility. In the play the stranger turns into
a bull—the ancient symbol of fertility—when Pentheus
tries to tie him up. This is an apt image given that the
futility of controlling Dionysus can be compared to the
futility of riding a bull—the best bull riders in the world
can only control the bull for a matter of seconds. As Euripides makes clear, the Dionysian bull is in fact impossible to control.
Yet this is precisely what the Greeks were attempting
to do in their fifth century b.c. city-state organizations.
They considered their city-states as islands of law and
order in a sea of chaotic nature. Thus, when Pentheus is
forced to deal with Dionysus the stranger, who has led the
maenads out to the wild mountain, he brings him inside
the city of Thebes, hoping thereby to tame him through
the civilization devices of the city. The Dionysian-inspired
earthquake destroying Pentheus’s palace soon reveals
that this strategy is hopeless and foreshadows the eventual takeover of the city by Dionysus himself. Pentheus’
refusal to acknowledge the divinity of Dionysus (that is
the reality of the Dionysian side of the human spirit) is
the height of folly because it is the denial of an undeniable fact. Pentheus had been warned: after reprimanding
the old men, Cadmus and blind Teiresias, for participating in Bacchic rites, the blind prophet responds to Pentheus: “Power and eloquence in a headstrong man spell
folly; such a man is a peril to the state…pay heed to my
words. You rely on force; but it is not force that governs
human affairs.”
After Teiresias implores Pentheus to acknowledge
the divinity of Dionysus, the Chorus chimes in, noting that worshipping Dionysus “shows no disrespect to
Apollo.” Euripides thus implies that the Apollonian and
Dionysian sides of man’s nature are not mutually exclusive, not an “either-or” proposition. Both sides of man’s
nature need to be heeded. Yet other than implying this
need, Euripides gives us no clue as to how the multiple
aspects of man’s nature can come together. His is only a
negative warning about the need to somehow have them
come together.
Christians also sometimes mistakenly assume that
either the Apollonian or Dionysian side of our nature is
“more Christian” than the other side. In so doing they fall
into the trap of favoring certain aspects of nature and creation over others. Self-styled “conservative” Christians are
especially prone to make the mistake of Pentheus, preferring an Apollonian law-and-order approach to life while
trying to shut out other, Dionysian aspects of creation,
such as creativity, wine, music, dance and theater. Because
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Bacchus is the Latin name of Dionysus.
In his piece entitled Bacchus, Jusepe de
Ribera (1591–1652) imparts a somber
tone to the revelries with his flat color
palette and deep shadows
they easily perceive the sinful perversions in Dionysian
life, but fail to perceive the sinful perversions in their own
Apollonian life, the Dionysian things are deemed too dangerous and are therefore banned. There are two tragic consequences of this unbiblical “Pentheus strategy.” First, the
Christian life is stunted by the suppression of valid aspects
of our nature and creation. As a result unbelievers end up
controlling the Dionysian aspects of life in society by default. Second, as with Pentheus, walling ourselves off from
aspects of creation is ultimately counter productive, and
Christians who take such a strategy risk becoming, along
with their children, victims of the very perversions they
sought to suppress. At bottom, this “Christian” Pentheus
strategy is a form of escapism and an unbiblical attempt at
purification based on works rather than the imputed righteousness of Christ.
The Bacchae also demonstrates the destructive nature of both Apollonian and Dionysian extremes in
several contexts.2 For instance, Pentheus and Dionysus
have conflicting and distorted definitions of wisdom and
justice. Pentheus sees the rites and festivals of Dionysian
worship as unwise, the very height of folly. By contrast,
Dionysus considers Pentheus a fool for his refusal to
acknowledge the Bacchus, the source of true wisdom.
Similarly, Pentheus thinks that justice is established by
maintaining order through the use of force. Dionysus,
on the other hand, uses the term to describe the vindication of his mother through revenge against his enemies.
The Bacchae
Neither Pentheus nor Dionysus represent a biblical understanding of wisdom and justice. Biblical wisdom and
justice are not possible without the redeeming of our
minds through the power of Christ, in whom reside all
the riches and treasures of wisdom. True wisdom does
not consist in worshipping any aspect of man’s nature,
Apollonian or Dionysian. Nor does true justice involve
authoritarian force or savage human revenge.
Euripides also gives us a glimpse of the conflicted nature of man in the double sidedness of Bacchic madness.
The Bacchants are first described in peaceful harmony
with nature, joyful in song and dance, making sweet
music and nurturing young animals. Yet later they fly
into a rage, savagely attack and tear apart the very same
animals, dancing like whirling dervishes and destroying
anything in their path.
Although Euripides has insights into the contradictions and conflicts within human nature, he has no ability to point us to a resolution of those conflicts because
of his unbiblical view of God and man’s relationship
with God. He is a man of his place and time, and cannot see beyond the classical Greek worldview. He lives
in a world controlled by inscrutable fate, where in fact
nobody is in control, not even the gods. The gods seek to
be acknowledged as superior to man and as an integral
part of the universe, but are otherwise not interested in
real relationships with man. The gods do not communicate any coherent revelation about reality to man, and
are every bit as fickle, unpredictable, and unreliable as
man is. As a result, man is at the mercy of the gods and
cannot in any meaningful way be responsible for his
problems. Yes, Pentheus failed to acknowledge Dionysus,
yet in Euripides’ view his blindness is not so much moral
(for the gods are amoral) as it is a defect ordained by the
gods or fate. As a result Euripides cannot point us to a
positive solution to the problem caused by the conflict of
our Apollonian and Dionysian natures. The Greeks’ only
recourse, implies The Bacchae, is to add more Dionysian
festivals to the city-state, as an outlet for the Dionysian
passions, and hope that excesses are kept to a minimum.
This is at best a patchwork approach to a much deeper
problem. It is also eerily similar to the modern American
approach of working hard during the week (Apollonian
style), then “doing-your-own-thing” on the weekend (Dionysian style) to counterbalance the grind of the week.
It is sort of a balancing approach to our nature which,
given the unpredictability of the gods and fate, gives little
confidence or comfort, although our American “balance”
consists of falling into the Apollonian ditch of excess for
five days so that we can fall into the Dionysian ditch on
the weekend—which is, of course, not getting a balance
of anything.
The biblical solution to the problem raised by Euripides goes to the root of the matter, and therefore is ultimately much more comforting to man. The world is not
subject to the whims of fate but is under the direct control of the Triune God who loves us and ordains everything ultimately for our own good. No matter how messy
the world may appear to us because of our sin and lack
of comprehensive knowledge, we can trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ precisely because of His sovereignty and
character. He has communicated to us a coherent revelation of reality in His word and has given us His Spirit
to guide us. In His word, He has revealed to us that it is
neither anything in the creation nor any aspects or characteristics of our nature, whether Apollonian, Dionysian
or otherwise, that are bad in themselves, but rather the
sin that so easily besets us in all aspects of our character.
Sin is our refusal to submit to our loving Creator in all
areas of life. The only solution to sin is faith in the One
who died for our sins and is in the process of redeeming
us and the whole world. Submitting to Christ in society
will heal the conflicts between Apollo and Dionysus,
both within us and in our communities, thereby permitting all aspects of our nature (law and spirit, nature and
civilization, freedom and responsibility, Apollo and Dionysus) to be redeemed and act harmoniously together,
as God intends. Christians who really seek to be a part
of God’s redeeming history must focus their efforts on
transforming and bringing together the Apollonian and
Dionysian aspects of life for the sake of the world and
the glory of our Lord and Savior.
—William S. Dawson
For Further Reading
Girard, Rene and Yvonee Freccero. The Scapegoat.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.
Kitto, H.D.F. Greek Tragedy. New York: Routledge,
2002.
Leithart, Peter J. Heroes of the City of Man. Moscow,
Idaho: Canon Press, 1999.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. Seventh
Edition. Belmont, Calif.: Thomson Wadsworth,
2009. 78.
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sessiOn i: preluDe
Question To Consider:
Why do you think people sometimes feel like running away from home or school or work? Why do you
think people sometimes feel trapped by “civilization” and
just want to escape? Are these inclinations wrong ?
From the General Information above answer the following
questions:
1. In what time period and where did Euripides live?
Who were the two other great Greek Tragedy playwrights?
2. The Bacchae unintentionally witnesses to what fundamental truth of Scripture?
3. What is the main point of Euripides’ play?
4. What were the classical Greeks attempting to do by
organizing city-states in 5th century b.c.?
5. What trap do Christians fall into when they assume
that either the Apollonian or Dionysian side of our
nature is “more Christian” than the other side?
6. Why can’t Euripides offer any real solution to the
Bacchanalian dilemma raised in The Bacchae?
reaDinG assiGnmenT:
The Bacchae, lines 1–493
in the play) and civilization (represented by
Pentheus and Apollo in the play)?
Cultural Analysis
1. How does modern Western culture deal with
the Apollonian and Dionysian aspects of life
in its social structures and customs?
2. Why can’t modern Western culture adequately
integrate these two aspects of life?
Biblical Analysis
1. How does the Bible portray the Apollonian
and Dionysian aspects of life? (Ex. 7–12;
32; Eccles.)
2. What is the biblical solution to the Greek
dilemma regarding Apollo and Dionysus?
summa
Write an essay or discuss this question, integrating what you have
learned from the material above.
Is it more important to be
civilized or be natural?
reaDinG
assiGnmenT:
The Bacchae,
lines 494–841
sessiOn ii: DiscussiOn
The Bacchae, lines 1–493
A Question to Consider
What does it mean to be natural? Is it a good or bad
thing to be natural?
sessiOn iii:
WOrlDVieW
analYsis
The Bacchae, lines 1–841
Discuss or list short answers to the following questions:
Text Analysis
1. In the opening of the play how does the Bacchant
chorus describe the “mystic” power of Dionysus and
what are the attributes that the Chorus warns Thebes
to reverence?
2. According to the Bacchant Chorus who is the “blest
man” and what “spirit” is Dionysus said to embody?
3. What are some of the Bacchic rites that are encouraged by the Chorus for reverencing Dionysus in the
mountains?
4. What does The Bacchae story imply about the Greek’s
understanding of nature (represented by Dionysus
Fill in the following Chart 1 for Apollo,
Dionysus and the Bible’s view of each
of the subjects or questions in the righthand column.
reaDinG
assiGnmenT:
The
Bacchae,
lines 842–1392
The Bacchae
Chart 1:. WORLDVIEW OF APOLLO AND DIONYSUS COMPARED WITH THE BIBLE
A P OL L O
God and
the gods
D ION Y SU S
The gods are superior
beings who guide humans
who do what the gods
want and punish those
who don’t. The gods are in
competition for the worship of men and societies,
looking for their proper
due.
Man’s Problem
He is too artificial and
repressed by his reason
and fear of disorder to
live well.
Salvation
Worship and love your
Creator and Savior Jesus
the Christ with all your
heart, soul, and mind,
and love your neighbor as
yourself.
Fate or
Predestination
How can you
stay out of
trouble?
Which is
better:
civilization
or nature?
What are
justice and
mercy?
BIBLE
Fate is inscrutable and
even impacts the gods,
therefore we can never
be sure of anything
but only hope for the
best—chance is always
a threat.
Set up a very ordered,
hierarchical system of
self and societal government and avoid any
change or emotional
responses that may disrupt the order.
Nature—it lets you be
who you really are, and
creates an authentic
rather than an artificial,
hypocritical society.
Ultimate justice and
mercy come together in
the incarnation of Christ
who delivered mercy to
man while keeping the
justice of the Father.
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12
O
m n i b u s
IV
Session IV: Recitation
The Bacchae
1. Why did Dionysus turn Semele’s sisters mad?
2.Why do the maenads “catch wild snakes, nurse them
and twine them round their hair”?
3.According to the prophet Teiresias, why are Cadmus
and Teiresias the only Thebans who will dance to
Dionysus early on?
4.When Pentheus first hears of “this astounding scandal” (the Bacchanalian activities) in his city, what
does he claim he is going to do to the Bacchants and
to the foreigner (Dionysus in disguise)?
5.What does the prophet Teiresias tell Pentheus about
his plans to stop the Dionysian worship by force?
6.When Pentheus first puts the foreigner Dionysus in
prison how does Dionysus respond?
7.What happened when the Bacchants, including Pentheus’s mother, saw the cowherd on the mountainside watching them?
8.What does Dionysus suggest and Pentheus agree to
do so that he can spy on the female Bacchants?
9.Why did Pentheus’s mother not recognize him when
he implored her to recognize him, as the women were
about to tear him apart?
10.When Agaue returned to Thebes with the head of her
son Pentheus, what did she think she was carrying?
11.Who brought Agaue to realize what she had done
after killing her son?
12.Why has all this calamity happened, according to
Cadmus?
Session V: Discussion
The Bacchae,
Question To Consider:
What is a “scapegoat”? Have you or anyone you know
ever experienced being or been made into a scapegoat?
Discuss or list short answers to the following questions:
Text Analysis
1.Who controls Thebes when Dionysus first comes to
town?
2.Who is responsible for leading the women of Thebes
to worship Dionysus?
3.How does Pentheus end up being a “sacrifice” to Dionysus?
4.Who are the scapegoats in Thebes at the end of the
play?
Cultural Analysis
1.Do we have scapegoats in our society? If so, give some
examples.
2.Rarely are our culture’s scapegoats physically exiled or
killed. How are they made scapegoats in our culture?
Biblical Analysis
1.What does the Bible say about the origins of the
scapegoat in ancient Israel? (Lev. 16:8–26)
2.What is the relationship of Jesus Christ to the scapegoat? (Isa. 43:4; John 1:29; Heb. 9–10)
The Bacchae
Summa
Write an essay or discuss this question, integrating
what you have learned from the material above.
Why is Pentheus an ineffective scapegoat, and
why is Christ the only effective scapegoat in history?
Optional Session:
Current Events
magazine, or in the newspaper that relates to the issue that
you discussed today. Your task is to locate the article, give
a copy of the article to your teacher or parent and provide
some of your own worldview analysis to the article. Your
analysis should demonstrate that you understand the issue, that you can clearly connect the story you found to the
issue that you discussed today, and that you can provide a
biblical critique of this issue in today’s context.
Issue
Assignment
Identify Apollonian—or Dionysian—Worship in our
culture today.
Instead of a reading assignment you have a research assignment. Tomorrow’s session will be a Current Events
session. Your assignment will be to find a story online, in a
Current events sessions are meant to challenge you to
connect what you are learning in Omnibus class to what
is happening in the world around you today. After the
The Triumph of Bacchus
by Cornelis de Vos
(1585–1651).
13
14
O
m n i b u s
IV
last session, your assignment was to find a story online or
in a magazine or newspaper relating to the issue above.
Today you will share your article and your analysis with
your teacher and classmates or parents and family. Your
analysis should follow the format below:
Brief Introductory Paragraph
In this paragraph you will tell your classmates about
the article that you found. Be sure to include where you
found your article, who the author of your article is, and
what your article is about. This brief paragraph of your
presentation should begin like this:
Hello, I am (name), and my current events article
is (name of the article) which I found in (name of
the web or published source)…
Connection Paragraph
In this paragraph you must demonstrate how your
article is connected to the issue that you are studying.
This paragraph should be short, and it should focus on
clearly showing the connection between the book that
you are reading and the current events article that you
have found. This paragraph should begin with a sentence like
I knew that my article was linked to our issue because…
Christian Worldview Analysis
In this section, you need to tell us how we should
respond as believers to this issue today. This response
should focus both on our thinking and on practical actions that we should take in light of this issue. As you list
these steps, you should also tell us why we should think
and act in the ways you recommend. This paragraph
should begin with a sentence like
As believers, we should think and act in the following ways in light of this issue and this article.