Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Euripides’ work, The Bacchae presents us with many interesting ideas and scenarios throughout the text but what I want to highlight on today is the nagging question of was Pentheus in his right mind when deciding to listen to Dionysus and go to see the women which ultimately results in his death. Additionally how could we apply this story into our own lives today? Let’s journey on throughout the Bacchae to discover the answers.

The story begins with Pentheus seeming to enjoy acting as if Dionysus were just a lying bag of garbage. Pentheus utters quite a few slanders to Dionysus’ name and his power. The text says, ”And he’s the one who says Dionysus is god.”(242) In the book the word “he’s” is italicized and when reading over the sentence I understood it to be Pentheus being sassy or sarcastic about this. Almost as if trying to be degrading of Dionysus’ authority and his power, I see this because Pentheus hits on the fact that they only think of him as a god and having powers because he told them this about himself. Therefore if he is lying the whole story is forfeit. Pentheus also shows no fear of Dionysus when Tiresias and Cadmus are encouraging him to join in worship of the god or face the consequences of opposing this and he responds with “I don’t care who he is…”(247). In my opinion Pentheus proves himself quite foolish and prideful in saying this as you should never underestimate an enemy, but instead overestimate them so you are challenged to stay one step ahead.

Now even though Pentheus thinks Dionysus a bag of garbage, many other characters do not and I most definitely don’t believe Euripides ever portrays him as anything less than a clever and powerful god. Evidence of his being a powerful god is seen several times throughout the text but how he uses his power is left to the imagination. It is not clearly spoken, but instead we’re given a general idea of how his powers work. This is seen when the text states “ and when the god enters people/ in force, he maddens them”(300-301) How exactly are they maddened, is a question you might be asking and you’ll be happy to know that I wonder this myself. We do know from Tiresias that Dionysus “has his share of the war gods power”(302) and that he has the ability to put people into a “panic”(304). This still does not tell us what this madness or panic actually does to a person, so let’s search further to discover the answer. Just a few lines down the author writes “a woman who is really virtuous/ will not be corrupted.”(316-317), I interpret this to mean that Dionysus cannot force a person to commit an act that goes against their true nature, but can only make an individual act in a way that they have already considered. Therefore a person with a malleable mind will easily be influenced by Dionysus and his power.

When presented with the character Pentheus, Euripides appears to want readers to think him a prideful, foolish, quick-tempered boy who does not care to listen to his elders. The longer I read and engaged with the characters the more I began to understand that Pentheus seems to have a malleable mind, as I mentioned being easy prey for the clever and cunning Dionysus. We see Dionysus easily outwit being jailed “He thought he’d tied me up,/but he never laid a hand on me”(616-617). Then Pentheus and Dionysus share quite the argument, Pentheus seems to hold true to his thoughts and stands against Dionysus. When all the sudden Pentheus begins to agree with Dionysus or at the least acknowledge his ideas as a possibility which goes against every attitude we’ve seen Pentheus show towards Dionysus thus far. Pentheus first suggests trying to go unnoticed and Dionysus begins weaving this web that ultimately leads to his death. Dionysus tells him “they’ll track you down, no matter how sneaky you are.”(817) and Pentheus responds with “OK. I’ll stay in the open. You give good advice!”(818). Yes, you read that correctly readers Pentheus told Dionysus he gives good advice! Now who in their right mind thinks a person they consider a bag of garbage, gives good advice and then listens to this advice? No one in their right mind does such a thing. Dionysus then starts suggesting that Pentheus dress up as a woman and the immediate reaction from Pentheus is “How? As a woman? That’s disgusting!”(828) Then just a few lines later they begin to chat about what the dress up will consist of as if they are two teenage girls talking about getting ready for a dance. The text says “As for my outfit, what did you propose to cover me with?”(830) and then Dionysus responds “Start with your head. I’ll give you a wig with long hair.”(831) the conversation only continues from there until Pentheus leaves to further contemplate these ideas. Right after this Dionysus shares some vital information when speaking about Pentheus “Fill him with a skittish frenzy. He’ll never want/ to take on a woman’s dress in his right mind.” (851-852) and even shows agreement in the fact that you would have to be out of your mind to be doing the things that Pentheus begins to do. Then continuing to read we see the text state “But if he marches right outside his senses, he will get/dressed.” (853-854)

Now if this were happening today we would call that a confession, because Dionysus is all but walking out hands up saying he is the man who leads Pentheus to his ultimate death. He says this confession we will call it and then Pentheus shows signs of true madness when he comes out dressed as a woman and claims to be seeing things. “Hey, I think I am seeing two suns, I’m seeing double-/Thebes, the seven mouthed fortress, all double.”(918-919) Consequently we have found the answer to the question of if Pentheus was in his right mind when he followed Dionysus to his death. This being said, I would like to present you with a thought-provoking analogy. Let’s first take Pentheus, I think most of us can be like Pentheus in life sometimes. We can be foolish and quick-tempered, but most importantly we can be easily influenced by cunning and clever people. We have malleable minds and hearts if we are not rooted in our beliefs. Now let’s look at Dionysus, Dionysus is a handsome, clever, and cunning god. I think we could say that Satan can contain these characteristics as well, can’t we? Satan can look oh so very tempting with what he offers us and he knows exactly what our weaknesses are and how to use them against us. Couldn’t we easily interpret this story to be any of us humans portrayed as Pentheus and Satan as Dionysus, as he leads us to our ultimate death with us never knowing the better?

Therefore I leave you with this friends, I challenge you to strive to do better than Pentheus and to never ever underestimate the enemy, who is Satan. As I said we should always try to stay one step ahead of the enemy, and that is a very difficult task to do when facing Satan but our best defense against him will always be The Word and our personal faith in Jesus Christ. As the text says “a woman who is really virtuous/ will not be corrupted.”(316-317).