Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

In the prologue of Euripides ' lJacchae. Dionysos emphasizes his divine and
mortal parentage and his reasons for being in Thebes . His mother 's sisters deny his
biological connection with Zeus and clai m that his mother wasconsumed because she
lied about her relationship with Zeus. There fore. be basdisgui.sed himself as a mortal
in order to exact reven ge on the perpetrators (1-4; 26-31). Part of Dion ysos ' mission
is to defend his mother's reputation by the revelation of his divinity as proo f that his
mother's story is true ; he is the product of the union betweenSemele and Zeus . the
father of gods and men . He also intends to introduce the Bacchic rites and Dionysian
ritual to me Theban s becausethey. through the arrogance of Penlbeus, have neglected
to worship him as god . Dionysos makesthis clear in the prologue that he stung the
Theban women with madness. driving them from their homes. Dressed in Bacchic
costume, they have gone to Mount Cilhaeron to participate in Dionysian rites (32-36) .
The irony is that Dion ysos takeson mortal form but uses his supernatural powers to
entice and excite the Theban women into Bacchic worship and perfonn numerous
miracles . While the Theban women , compelled to perform in Dionysian rites . are out
on Mount Cithaeron, the group of Lydian women , who willin gly followed Dionysos
fro m Asia Minor. form the Chorus on stage.
As the title suggests. the Baccnae is also a play about women . The Greek word
transliterated as bacchae, is the nominative, feminine , plural of the masculine singular
noun , bacdua, meaning women possessed/inspired by the god , Bacchus. Euripides
makes reference to several mytho logical women. Dionysos comes to honour the
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