Untitled - Memorial University of Newfoundland

From orgas mic moans the surrogate climax is achi eved. A scream finds
its electric responsein others and a rush begins for the personof the
preacher. Handfulsof his clothes are tom. his personis endan gered but
be never ' loses his cool ' . As his chan t approaches climax a sudden
human wave engulfs him and be is completely submerged under
screaming, 'possessed' lungs and bodies . AJ with such scenes there is
always somethin g of an overall ugliness about the manifested emotion.
But me radiant isolated votive or two or even the few faces of inten sely
energised spiritual rapture that standsout in the melee indicate
something of the awesome depths of lhis self- release (18- 19).
Soyinka suggests that the Slave leader "never loses his cool - implying that he is in
control and participating in a rite natural to his existence . The Slave Leader goes
thro ugh this symbolic ritual of tearing apart the willing scapegoat in order to sacrifice
for the good of the whole community as exem plified in the dance which does not
discriminate against females or slaves . The dance enacts the ritual of death and rebirth
which is so relevant to the Naturecults and deities and which is physically carried out
by the tearing of Pentheus ' flesh; the replacement of blood with wine durin g the final
celebration scene brings the drama full circ le from the co mmunion of the wine in the
Herdsman' s j ug at the beginning.
It is important to note that while the Slave Leader andthe Bacchantes co me
togeth er to symbolically perform a stylized mime of the hunt. their counte rpart on the
mountains . possessed by the god, perform the actual vio lent tearing apart of Penth eus'
flesh. indicating the dual nature of Dionysos and the creati ve/destruc tive natu re of
Ogun. In Myth , Soyinka. discusses the similarities between theatreand ritual and
suggests that the actor in ritual drama
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