The Bacchae

The Bacchae (also called *The Bacchantes*) is an ancient Greek tragedy by the Athenian playwright Euripides, composed during his final years at the court of King Archelaus I of Macedon. It was first performed after his death in 405 BC at the Theatre of Dionysus, as part of a tetralogy that included *Iphigeneia at Aulis* and *Alcmaeon in Corinth*, and was likely directed by Euripides’ son or nephew. The play won first prize at the City Dionysia festival. It tells the myth of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave, who are punished by the god Dionysus—Pentheus’s cousin—for refusing to accept his cult.

The story opens with Dionysus announcing his arrival in Thebes with his followers, seeking revenge for the slander spread by his aunts that he is not the son of Zeus. Disguised as a foreign holy man, he intends to bring Dionysian rites to the city, but the Thebans reject his divinity, and King Pentheus orders his arrest. Dionysus then drives Pentheus mad and lures him to the mountains. The play ends with the women of Thebes, seized by Dionysus’s orgiastic frenzy, tearing Pentheus apart, while his mother Agave carries his head on a thyrsus to her father Cadmus.

Considered Euripides’ masterpiece, *The Bacchae* is ranked among the greatest ancient tragedies. It stands out because the chorus is woven into the plot, and the god is not a distant figure but an active character—indeed, the protagonist.

**Background**

The Dionysus of this tale is a young god, angered that his mortal family, the royal house of Cadmus, has denied him honor as a deity. His mortal mother, Semele, was a mistress of Zeus. While pregnant, she was tricked by a jealous Hera into asking Zeus to appear in his true form. As a mortal, she was killed by Zeus’s thunderbolts. Zeus saved the unborn Dionysus by sewing him into his thigh. After Semele’s death, her sisters claimed it was Zeus’s will and accused her of lying; they also accused their father, Cadmus, of claiming Semele was pregnant by Zeus to hide an affair. Most of Semele’s family refused to believe Dionysus was Zeus’s son, and the young god was rejected by his household. He traveled through Asia and other lands, gathering a cult of female worshipers, the Maenads.

At the start of the play, Dionysus returns to Thebes, disguised as a stranger, to take revenge on the house of Cadmus. He has already driven the women of Thebes—including his aunts—into an ecstatic frenzy, sending them to dance and hunt on Mount Cithaeron, horrifying the young king Pentheus, his cousin. Complicating matters, Pentheus has banned the worship of Dionysus throughout Thebes.

**Plot**

The play begins before the palace at Thebes, with Dionysus telling his birth story and his reasons for visiting the city. He explains he is the son of the mortal Semele and the god Zeus. Some in Thebes, he notes, do not believe this. In fact, Semele’s sisters—Autonoë, Agave, and Ino—claim it is a lie to cover up a pregnancy by a mortal. Dionysus reveals he has driven the city’s women mad, including his aunts, and led them to the mountains for his rituals. He is disguised as a mortal for now, but plans to vindicate his mother by appearing as a god and establishing his cult.

Dionysus exits to the mountains, and the chorus (the Bacchae) enters, singing a hymn in his praise. Then Tiresias, the blind seer, appears and calls for Cadmus, the former king. The two old men set out to join the mountain revelry when Cadmus’s petulant young grandson, King Pentheus, enters. Disgusted to see the old men in festival dress, he scolds them and orders soldiers to arrest anyone engaging in Dionysian worship, including the mysterious “foreigner” who introduced it. Pentheus intends to have him stoned.

Guards soon return with Dionysus himself. Pentheus questions him, both skeptical and fascinated by the rites. Dionysus’s answers are cryptic. Enraged, Pentheus has him chained to a bull in the palace stable, but the god breaks free and destroys the palace with an earthquake and fire.

Dionysus and Pentheus clash again when a herdsman arrives from Mount Cithaeron. He reports seeing women on the mountain acting strangely: wandering the forest, suckling animals, twining snakes in their hair, and performing miracles. The herdsmen tried to capture one celebrant—Pentheus’s mother—but the Bacchae became frenzied and chased them. The men escaped, but the women tore their cattle apart with bare hands, then plundered two villages, stealing bronze, iron, and even babies. When villagers fought back, the women drove them off with fennel staffs. They then returned to the mountain top and washed, as snakes licked them clean.

Dionysus, still in disguise, persuades Pentheus to abandon his plan to attack the women with an armed force. Instead, he suggests spying on them disguised as a female Maenad. Dressing Pentheus in fawn skins and giving him a thyrsus, Dionysus leads him out of the house.