dreadful revenge of an offended god

This work explores what can happen to mere mortals when they reject the gods; Dionysus is not pleased that everyone denies he is the son of Zeus, so he decides to get his revenge. Bloody and disturbing, with a particularly nasty twist at the end. It has a vague whiff of a church hell-house play, except it was written before the age of Christianity. The play appears to be saying if you ignore the gods, or don't worship them enough, nasty things will happen to you - really nasty things. Some interesting one-liners. ( )

The Short and Sweet of It
Dionysus wishes for Thebes to recognize him as a god, but the current man-in-power, Pentheus, refuses to acknowledge him. As a result, Pentheus and his whole family are punished rather remarkably. The sort of over-the-top punishment doled out in this play is one of the reasons I adore ancient Greek texts.

A Bit of a Ramble
Dionysus is alternately the most awesome god ever, the most ridiculous, and the most dangerous. He seems to be the god of excess, of drunken orgies and animal instincts; but along with the sexier versions of excess comes violence and rage and emotion without logic. It is to Dionysus which can be credited the reality of ecstatic frenzy (think arms in the air, speaking in tongues type religion, but with lots and lots of alcohol). When Dionysus begins his evil plan to reveal himself to Thebes, he seduces/possesses the women of the town who run off into the woods with him. This pisses Pentheus off since those women are his relatives, including his mother. Understandable really, I mean who wants their mom taking off with some playboy into the woods for irresponsible sex and drinking?

Pentheus determines to get the women back and drive Dionysus, who he refuses to believe is a god, from Thebes. But come on folks, as we all know, you don't mess with a god - and you certainly don't deny him his existence in the first place. Mucho badness befalls Pentheus and his family.

The central theme of The Bacchae is arguable. Certainly the convergence of religious tradition and rationality is at work in the text, represented by Dionysus and Pentheus; however, to say that the play favors one over the other seems questionable. While Dionysus "wins" in the play, both characters are presented as equally undesirable. Dionysus is manipulative and conniving and Pentheus stubborn and delusional. Personally, I believe the play supports the immovability of mankind's belief more than it supports any religious doctrine. The truth of the existence of gods is secondary to people's belief in the existence. ( )