IMAGE AND SYMBOL: THE LINK BETWEEN THE TWO WORLDS OF THE ‘BACCHAE’

Abstract

AT line 215 of Euripides' Baeehae1 Pentheus strides an to' a stage where we have sO'far seen anly the exatic effeminacy af Dianysas and his charus and the ludicraus spectacle af aId Teiresias and Kadmas dressing as Bacchant wamen, the ane aut af a prafessianal respect far all religians, the ather aut af a certain ald-warld layalty to' his family gad2• In his apening speech Pentheus shaws himself a ratianal man af decisian and actian, a Greek general whO'believes, like all gaad Greek rulers, that he is the sale salvatian af his city. At this impressive mament we cannat tell he has already invalved himself in the strange destructian fram the supernatural pawers pramised by Dianysas himself. The reality and immediacy nf the canfident, vigaraus and utterly intelligible figure an stage autweigh all the strange spectacle we have seen befare. Yet the will of the gads warks in mysteriaus ways, as Hamer had taught af Zeus and Achilles, warks thraugh the apparently spantaneaus ematians af man and the decisians which appear his awn. The ratianal self-canfidence af Pentheus is itself hybris tawards the irratianal pawer af Dianysas. The attitude far the autsider shauld be 6crto'tll~, humility and respect far a gad whase secrets have nat been revealed to' him (cf. D'Odds ad 370-2). The vigaraus attack an the cult as a sacial evil appears ratianal in Pentheus, but in the area af his mind where shauld lie acceptance af Dianysas, and humility tawards the mystery af his pawer, is the prurient curiasity abO'ut the generative farce af waman-her sexual functians, birth and grawthS-af an adalescent. Thraugh this curiasity the wrath af Dianysas will enter his mind and lead him to' destructian. The first indicatiO'naf this trait cames as early as lines 222-5. But it is nat the purpose af Euripides to'·shaw a man struck dawn by a farce autside him. The structure af his myth precludes that. Far the fate af Pentheus was to' be tarn to' pieces in the O1tapayJ.lo<;, the savage climax af the biennial ritual af the Bacchants ..Euripides must make it canvincing that the Bacchants, searching to' find in the blaad af their victim the principle af life and grawth which is Dianysas, shauld find it in the bady af Pen-