The Bacchae ended up being a rather disturbing tale. It seemed that at first Dionysus was attempting to change the minds of the family who denied him but it slowly became more and more obvious what Dionysus' intentions were by the end. Agave's ignorance of what she had done was one of the more disturbing things that I have seen in any literature.
Once again, everyone who does not listen to Tiresias was punished. You would think that people would eventually listen to everything he had to say. Cadmus' punishment was the hardest to accept. He, like Tiresias, was involved with the celebration of Dionysus. However, it seems that Tiresias was attending the rituals because he truly believed (well since it's Tiresias, he truly knew) that Dionysus was a god. It seems that Cadmus was motivated by other things and that he may not have necessarily believed that Dionysus was a god, nevertheless, having someone who is believed to be a god as part of the family would be advantageous.
I must say that I personally felt sorry for the characters who were punished, Pentheus in particular. There are probably several reasons why he was punished, including pride and ignorance, but to me the main thing he was punished for was having doubts about the gods. I feel it's pretty safe to assume that most people today have probably had spiritual doubts. Facing these sort of consequences for the doubts that everyone seems to have is a pretty scary thought. What's more is that I think if the tables had been turned around, and Dionysus was not actually a god but was claiming to be one and Pentheus had worshipped him, he probably would have been punished by Zeus and/or the other gods. It appears that Pentheus and the entire family were doomed no matter what, further reinforcing the idea that forms the foundation of tragedy - that the best thing in life for these people would to have never been born.
2 comments:
I like how the BAccae seems to have a theme of insanity vs. sanity. This is an important theme I think. Within this work is shown an initiation to some form of wisom or insight about the human condition.
good point-if dionysus was a fake and you worshiped him you risk putting mortal above god which is a bad thing to do. But since he wasn't but you didn't worship him because you thought he was a fake, you get punished. Hmm. The "gods" certainly were fickle.
I would say it's not that you shouldn't have been born, but instead be born a god and you can be a jerk to all the mortals for no good reason. :D
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