CHAPTER TWO

THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BACCHAE21

In the history of the interpretation of the Bacchae, more interest was originally focussed on the god Dionysus than on his antagonist, Pen­ theus, king of Thebes. The interpretations also sought primarily for an answer to the question of what the poet's personal attitude was towards the god Dionysus, towards the myth, and towards the religious attitudes to life in which maenadism had its roots. The question of the motive for Pentheus' actions took only second place. To some extent this lesser in­ terest is explained by the facts of the play itself, in which from the mo­ ment that he drove the Theban women into the mountains, the god holds the initiative of the action both on and off the stage (23 ff.). Pentheus' ac­ tions are above all a reaction to those of the god; and, depending upon the answer to the first question on Euripides' personal opinion about Dionysus, the second question, on the motive of Pentheus' actions, was often answered either in terms of atheism and criminal behaviour, or with a defence of his casting as the victim of religious terrorism. On the other hand this lesser interest in the character of Pentheus must also be ascribed to the opinion of many commentators that Pentheus is not the central character in the Bacchae and that the alternative title of Pentheus for the play is not original. 'We have the ordinary hot-tempered and narrow­ minded tyrant-not very carefully studied, by the way, and apparently not very interesting to the poet'. 22 The role of Pentheus was, and is seen by many as, an inferior one in the play, in which Dionysus is the central figure, whose revalation, whose manifestation as a god, forms the over­ riding theme. 23 Pentheus' stubborn attitude is seen by A. Rivier as the resistance to the god 'de son adversaire le plus noble', since both the character of Pentheus and the motives of his resistance are noble. So in all its aspects the dramatic conflict glorifies divine omnipotence: 'On se

21 Harald Merklin gives an historical summary of the interpretations in Gott und Mensch im 'Hippolytos' und den 'Bakchen' des Euripides, (diss.) Freiburg im Breisgau 1964, 30-39. I have dealt summarily with the period covered by Merklin; I have only gone into more detail than Merklin did in the case of Rivier's theory (n. 24), in view of his influence par­ ticularly on the French school of Bacchae criticism. 22 Gilbert Murray, Essays and Addresses, London 1921, 79. 23 Felix Wassermann, Die Bakchantinnen des Euripides, Neuejahrb. fiir Wissenschaft und Jugendbildung 5 (1929), 273. 8 THE INTERPRETATION OF THE BACCHAE

convainc done sans peine que le role de Penthee est compose de maniere a rehausser I 'image qui nous est donne de la grandeur du dieu'. 24 The opposite view has been expressed in its most extreme form by A. W. Verrall and G. Norwood. They thought that the Dionysus of the Bac­ chae is not the god, but an impostor, the mortal prophet of a false religion, who brilliantly (but without scruples, and with ghastly cruelty, Norwood) forces Thebes to his will. 25 It is striking that Verrall 's rationalist criticism not only comes to a conclusion that is diametrically opposed to that of Rivier about the stranger/Dionysus, but also about Pentheus. 'His whole sin, and it is enough, lies in punishing upon a presumption-the most in­ tolerable use of authority' (p. 58). Verrall was reading a completely dif­ ferent tragedy to Rivier: 'Even the leader, detestable as upon the whole he is, proves himself an ardent and brave devotee, who, in the part of captive and martyr, confronts the oppressor with a dignity which compels our sympathy. His mildness, candour, and trust in an invisible protec­ tion contrast to great advantage with the petulance, prejudice, and violence of the King' (p. 145). The many interpretations which have been made of the play are distributed between these two extremes. The identification of the stranger with the god has not been disputed again since Verrall, but even so the identity of the god with the stranger leads many critics again and again to the conclusion that in the Bacchae, as elsewhere in his work, Euripides is the rationalist protesting against the religious ideas of his time. E. Bruhn had already expressed it as follows (Einleitung 24): 'Also ist Euripides den Anschauungen, welche er als Mann vertreten hatte, als Greis treu geblieben. Wie er so oft in dem Rahmen des Kunstwerks gegen eben den Stoff protestiert hatte, den er kiinstlerisch darstellen musste, so hat er es auch hier gethan. Aber freilich, er war ein Greis und des Kampfes miide; so ist der Ton, in dem er seinen Widerspruch erhebt, ein anderer geworden'. However, in this school of protest, of dissent, Pentheus too gains more sympathy than Verrall had for him. 26 Paul Masqueray gave an almost entirely favourable view of the Pentheus character; 27 such was also the opinion of Max Pohlenz: 'Liebenswert,

24 Andre Rivicr, Essai sur le tragique d'Euripide. Lausanne 1944, here quoted from 2 Paris 1975, 81f. 25 Gilbert Norwood (cf. n. 10) retracted his suggestion in Essays on Euripidean Drama, London 1954, 52-73. A. W. Vcrrall, The Bacchants of Euripides and other Essays, Cambridge 1910, 1-163. 26 Norwood, too, held different opinions from Verra!) about the character of Pentheus, cf. The Riddle of the Bacchae 66: 'Pcnthcus, in short, far from being the villain of the play, is the finest character in it'; p. 67: 'Arrogant he is, and impulsive, but most would rather lie beside his mangled body at the end than share the thoughts of the believers who stand around it'. 27 Euripide et ses idees, Paris 1908, 144ff.