Don't Tell No Lie, You Can't Deny the Beast Inside
Suppose there’s an old man standing on the side of the road, tiptoeing around and mumbling to himself. Immediately, what does the average person assume? He’s crazy, totally mad. So let’s alter the situation: the same man, tiptoeing and talking under his breath, except he’s in the middle of a forest whispering to a bear, remaining calm so he can escape without alarming the bear and getting himself attacked. Now? That man is a genius, an outdoorsman, or a bear whisperer if you like. Our general concept of madness is completely dependent on the situation in which we view it. Madness is not a constant quality but rather a temporary state of mind where instinct takes over and alters our behavior, typically having us act against the standard of social expectations, as is exemplified through Euripides’ play Bacchae.
Dionysus is the primary influence of the madness in the women of Thebes; he has “stung these women into madness, goaded/ them outdoors, made them live in the mountain, struck/ out of their wits, forced to wear [his] cult’s panoply” because he is angry that Pentheus, the grandson of King Cadmus and the new ruler of Thebes, blatantly denies his divinity (33-35). The women that are struck by the influence of Dionysus revert to this instinctual, seemingly ancient state of religious ecstasy, while spending the majority of their time “dancing on mountaintops”(76) and “sing[ing] praise to Dionysius/ over thundering drums”(155-156). Some of the women “cradled young gazelles or wolf cubs,/ and gave white milk for them to suck”(699-700) and acted as mothers to these wild babies while “their babies [were] left behind”(702). Though these behaviors seem crazy to those on the outside who are not influenced by Bacchus, the women are acting with the animal instincts that are deep inside everyone, nurturing and caring for nature as nature nurtures and cares for them. The “madness” of the Bacchic revel is not madness at all, but only the trigger that brought these deeply internal behaviors to the surface.
The gentle, nurturing behavior is not the only instinct that the Bacchic trance brings out of the women; under the influence of Dionysus, the women also reveal a predatorial, aggressive behavior like that of lionesses in the hunt. The first messenger testifies that when interrupted by men, the women became aggravated and attacked livestock. He saw “one women/ tear apart a young cow with her bare hands”(737-738) as “others ripped grown cows to pieces”(739-740); the women punished the men of Thebes that disrupted their peace by destroying what belongs to them, specifically their livestock, before pushing onward and ravaging two river villages, Hysiae and Erythrae, in their rage. The Bacchae “fell on [the villages] like enemies on a rampage, tore/ the towns to shreds, stole children from the houses,/ put booty on their shoulders” and traumatized the men of Thebes even further than before (753-755). After their frenzy, the women returned to their tranquil state of peace on the mountain and to their dances and nurture of the wild as if nothing had disturbed them.
You’d think that the men of Thebes would have learned not to disturb the women again, but Dionysus convinces Pentheus to go and witness it himself, knowing that it would lead to Pentheus’ death. (Perhaps it’s another form of Dionysus’ divine influence.) So a second party of men consisting of Pentheus, Dionysus, the second messenger, and some others went up on Mount Kithairon to see what the women were doing in their Bacchic revel. After Pentheus interrupts the women’s tranquility, his own mother, Agavê, and her sisters Inô and Autonoê are the first ones to attack him. Their animal instincts and the influence of Bacchus make them destroy him; Agavê “tore off his shoulder”, while “on the other side Inô [takes] him apart,/ breaking off bits of meat”(1129-1130) before Autonoê and the rest of the Bacchae tear into him and distribute the pieces of his body all over Mount Kithairon. Once again, like that of a pride of lions, the women go on a rampage when provoked, both attacking the men as if they are prey and protecting themselves and each other from the invasion of men, before returning to their dance and continuing in their Bacchic activities.
Tiresias states to Pentheus in the beginning that “even in a Bacchic revel,” the women “will not be corrupted,” but Pentheus does not truly understand (316-317). Tiresias is right, the women have not been corrupted into madness but rather have recrudesced to their animalistic instincts. These instincts are inside all of us, both men and women, but only the women have been influenced by Dionysus to return to their ancient practices. (Maybe the women are just better dancers, so that’s why he doesn’t make the men dance too. Who knows?) Pentheus calls it madness, but Dionysus would call it fun. (I call it weird, but that’s not the point.)
Dionysus is the primary influence of the madness in the women of Thebes; he has “stung these women into madness, goaded/ them outdoors, made them live in the mountain, struck/ out of their wits, forced to wear [his] cult’s panoply” because he is angry that Pentheus, the grandson of King Cadmus and the new ruler of Thebes, blatantly denies his divinity (33-35). The women that are struck by the influence of Dionysus revert to this instinctual, seemingly ancient state of religious ecstasy, while spending the majority of their time “dancing on mountaintops”(76) and “sing[ing] praise to Dionysius/ over thundering drums”(155-156). Some of the women “cradled young gazelles or wolf cubs,/ and gave white milk for them to suck”(699-700) and acted as mothers to these wild babies while “their babies [were] left behind”(702). Though these behaviors seem crazy to those on the outside who are not influenced by Bacchus, the women are acting with the animal instincts that are deep inside everyone, nurturing and caring for nature as nature nurtures and cares for them. The “madness” of the Bacchic revel is not madness at all, but only the trigger that brought these deeply internal behaviors to the surface.
The gentle, nurturing behavior is not the only instinct that the Bacchic trance brings out of the women; under the influence of Dionysus, the women also reveal a predatorial, aggressive behavior like that of lionesses in the hunt. The first messenger testifies that when interrupted by men, the women became aggravated and attacked livestock. He saw “one women/ tear apart a young cow with her bare hands”(737-738) as “others ripped grown cows to pieces”(739-740); the women punished the men of Thebes that disrupted their peace by destroying what belongs to them, specifically their livestock, before pushing onward and ravaging two river villages, Hysiae and Erythrae, in their rage. The Bacchae “fell on [the villages] like enemies on a rampage, tore/ the towns to shreds, stole children from the houses,/ put booty on their shoulders” and traumatized the men of Thebes even further than before (753-755). After their frenzy, the women returned to their tranquil state of peace on the mountain and to their dances and nurture of the wild as if nothing had disturbed them.
You’d think that the men of Thebes would have learned not to disturb the women again, but Dionysus convinces Pentheus to go and witness it himself, knowing that it would lead to Pentheus’ death. (Perhaps it’s another form of Dionysus’ divine influence.) So a second party of men consisting of Pentheus, Dionysus, the second messenger, and some others went up on Mount Kithairon to see what the women were doing in their Bacchic revel. After Pentheus interrupts the women’s tranquility, his own mother, Agavê, and her sisters Inô and Autonoê are the first ones to attack him. Their animal instincts and the influence of Bacchus make them destroy him; Agavê “tore off his shoulder”, while “on the other side Inô [takes] him apart,/ breaking off bits of meat”(1129-1130) before Autonoê and the rest of the Bacchae tear into him and distribute the pieces of his body all over Mount Kithairon. Once again, like that of a pride of lions, the women go on a rampage when provoked, both attacking the men as if they are prey and protecting themselves and each other from the invasion of men, before returning to their dance and continuing in their Bacchic activities.
Tiresias states to Pentheus in the beginning that “even in a Bacchic revel,” the women “will not be corrupted,” but Pentheus does not truly understand (316-317). Tiresias is right, the women have not been corrupted into madness but rather have recrudesced to their animalistic instincts. These instincts are inside all of us, both men and women, but only the women have been influenced by Dionysus to return to their ancient practices. (Maybe the women are just better dancers, so that’s why he doesn’t make the men dance too. Who knows?) Pentheus calls it madness, but Dionysus would call it fun. (I call it weird, but that’s not the point.)
Lyz,
ReplyDeleteI simply love the points you have made and how you have presented them to us in this essay. Your thoughts on the “madness” Euripides tends to write about often, are spot on in my opinion. Before reading this essay I had not heard the women’s Bacchic activities being seen as reverting back to an animalistic nature, but looking at the evidence I completely agree with this. Evidence of their actions being in animalistic character is seen not only during their times of nurturing the young animals, but also in the times when they feel threatened. Both times when the men intruded on the women’s Bacchic dance the women immediately respond with savage like mutilation of these said men. Their ripping apart of the body does not speak of someone we might refer to as “cultured”, instead this speaks of someone raised in the wild. For example this type of action could be believable by a character such as Mowgli from The Jungle Book who was raised by wolves because this response to a threat is expected from animals. This response is not expected by women who have a home and a family and live in a town with other seemingly cultured people.
Lyz! Oh my gosh, you are such an intriguing yet humorous writer. I love the parallel you made between the old man and the women under the mind control of Dionysus. When you think about it, no matter if we are under mind control or not, we all go a little mad at some lint in our lives(even if it is only for a short period of time). In my own point of view, it does not make us mentally insane if we go a little mad, it just makes us human. Excluding those who take that madness too far and become sociopaths and/or psychopaths, of course!
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