The Bacchae

Genres: Classics

Synopsis

The Bacchae (SparkNotes Literature Guide) by Euripides
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Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Print pages: 80

Sample

The three great Greek tragedians Aeschylus (525–456 B.C.) Sophocles (497–405 B.C.) and Euripides (485–406 B.C.) wrote a composite
ninety-two plays, of which seventeen survived. Most of these were composed in the years between the defeat of the Persians
by the Greeks at Salamis in 480 B.C. and the defeat of Athens by Sparta in 404 B.C. During that time, Athens experienced tremendous
political, social and economic change. In 525 B.C. the tyrannical Pisistratus and his sons were in command, but just five
years later a series of swift constitutional changes were begun, culminating in the establishment of democracy. Abroad, the
Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great, had already absorbed all of Asia Minor and extended its influence over the Ionian
Greeks. The Athenians pushed back the Persians in 480 B.C. and embarked upon a tremendously expansive age, matching internal
democracy with imperialism abroad. The extension of Athenian commerce and political influence throughout the Mediterranean
brought in great revenue, stabilized the nascent state, and provided the funds necessary to adorn the Acropolis with public
buildings graced by an unmatched purity of style. For many, Pericles (460–429 B.C.), one of the greatest rulers of Athenian
history, was the living embodiment of the achievements of this period.


Naturally, Athens's power aroused jealousy in the two other prominent Greek powers: Sparta and Corinth. In 432 B.C. a Peloponnesian
coalition under Sparta launched a long and costly war against Athens, concluding in a costly Spartan victory in 404 B.C. Although
Euripides himself died two years before the final Athenian defeat, in his lifetime he had witnessed both the sharp rise and
precipitous fall of Athenian power in the Mediterranean.


Euripides was born c. 485 at Phyla in Attica, probably of a good family. He made his home in Salamis, most likely in the estate
of his father, and it is said that he composed his works in a cave by the sea. He held a lay priesthood in the cult of Zeus.
Evidence in his own plays and other documents connects him with leading philosophical circles and thinkers of his day, including
Protagoras and Socrates. Considered something of a loner, he spent his entire life upon his estate, living with family. In
408–7, he left Athens to go north all the way to Macedonia; it is not known why he chose to leave his homeland so late in
life. In Macedonia he wrote his last play, The Bacchae, and was buried there.


Euripides wrote for Athens and the surrounding Attica, and these geographical and historical limits gave his plays an intense
and narrow focus. Euripides, like other Greek dramatists of the era, was a man of his times, participating enthusiastically
in the social and political life of his community. He is generally considered the most tragic and least polite of the major
dramatists, and can be understood as foreshadowing the individualism of the coming Hellenistic age in his writings.


The Bacchae was not performed during Euripides' lifetime, only reaching the amphitheater after his death. The play won first prize at
the annual contest where it was performed, ironically, a prize that had eluded Euripides all his life. It is considered to
be in the same class as Aeschylus's Agamemnon and Sophocles' Oedipus the King.

In Euripides's time the story of the Bacchus was familiar to all and had been written about by many, including Aeschylus.
Our records concerning the history of the cult of Dionysus at the time of Euripides are extremely scant, although sources
are plentiful for later periods of the cult. During his lifetime Euripides saw the incursion of strong Asian influences into
cult practices and beliefs. Even the god himself mutated, taking on new forms and absorbing new powers: Dionysus was the God
of theatre, the God of ecstatic female worshippers, God of fertility and the wildness of rampant nature, and, of course, the
God of vine and husbandry. He was often worshipped in the form of a phallus. As a counterpoint to this ecstatic, wild virility,
Dionysus was also intimately linked to Hades, the God of the underworld.


Performances of Greek plays always took place in the open air, and audiences sat on benches inserted into the slope of a circular
and recessed hillside. Chorus and actors shared a round dancing floor. The effect for the audience was a spectacle not just
of words and emotions but also of music and choreography. Forecourts, courtyards, and streets were the main settings of most
dramas, while enclosed, priv. . .