31 pages • 1-hour read
The Bacchae
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Lines 1165-1390Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Lines 1165-1390 Summary
Agaue enters holding Pentheus’ head, which she believes is a mountain lion’s. In a rapid exchange with the Chorus, she invites them to feast on her spoils. Repulsed, they urge her to show her “spoils of victory” to the citizens of Thebes (159). Boasting of her feat, she calls for Cadmus and Pentheus. Cadmus enters holding Pentheus’ remains. Agaue exalts in her success, wanting her father to take Pentheus’ head. He grieves for them both, destroyed by Dionysus “justly but excessively” (160). Agaue says Cadmus should “take [Pentheus] to task” for “opposing the gods” and call him to witness her success (161). Cadmus mourns that being restored to sanity will bring her grief, then gently guides her back to her senses, instructing her to look “properly” at the head in her arms (161).
When she realizes that the lion’s head is Pentheus’, Cadmus explains how Agaue and her sisters killed him in a Bacchic frenzy, and that this was Dionysus’ punishment for not accepting his divinity. The surviving text in the following section has two substantial gaps. The first falls between two questions Agaue asks Cadmus: 1) whether he has arranged Pentheus’ remains and 2) what part Pentheus played in her madness. Cadmus replies that Pentheus, like his mother, rejected Dionysus, prompting the god to destroy their family “in a single ruin” (162). He laments for his household, himself, and Pentheus, his protector. The Chorus pities him but not his grandson. The second gap follows Agaue lamenting the great “change in my fortunes” and picks up with Dionysus addressing Cadmus from above the stage (163).
Dionysus tells Cadmus that he and his wife, Harmonia, will be transformed into serpents, that he will sack many cities and be stopped at Delphi, and that Ares will bring Cadmus and Harmonia “to the land of the blessed” (163). Cadmus appeals to Dionysus, but he replies that it is too late. Cadmus objects to the harshness of Dionysus’ punishment. The god counters that “Zeus gave his consent to this” (164). Agaue and her sisters will be exiled, and Cadmus will have no peace. In a sung exchange, Agaue and Cadmus sorrowfully bid each other goodbye. The closing lines are sung by the Chorus, noting the inscrutability of the gods’ plans.
Lines 1165-1390 Analysis
It is difficult to measure how shocking the sight of Agaue holding Pentheus’ head might have been to Athenians participating in a divine ritual. Actors performed in full length garments, with masks that may have covered their entire heads. Agaue would have been holding the mask that the actor playing Pentheus wore throughout the play. The description of Bacchic ritual allows the implication of potential cannibalistic acts, amplified by the fact that it is a mother who destroys, and possibly consumes parts of, her own son. This is transgression upon transgression, all provoked by a god for the purpose of punishing mortals. Pentheus’ impiety is the most extreme, and to punish him sufficiently, Dionysus also causes his mother and grandfather (who was innocent) terrible suffering.
Some modern interpretations have tended to read the play as critical of the gods and Euripides as an atheist, while others have pointed out that this interpretation ignores tragedy’s ritual context. Tragedies were performed as part of a sacred ritual to honor the gods, and rituals were taken very seriously; they were of far more importance than personal belief. Thus, to even speak of Euripides as a believer or nonbeliever may be to miss the point. What mattered was conducting the ritual properly to counteract the excesses present in myths. Though Bacchic frenzies may have been part of Dionysian ritual in Thebes, evidence does not support that it was part of Athenian cult practice.
Dionysus’ demeanor is calm throughout the play. At no point do his emotions seem to spill over. Pentheus and Agaue have done wrong, and it is necessary for them and their city to “learn its lesson” concerning “the blessing of [Dionysus’] rites” (129). However, Dionysus remains dispassionate throughout. On one level, the play could be understood to illustrate why rituals are important—because they keep the gods in a positive, beneficial aspect relative to mortals. Gods, existing outside of time, cannot understand human suffering and may not see the need to temper their punishments. When Cadmus tries to explain to Dionysus that his punishment went too far, Dionysus does not seem to understand. Punishing mortals is at the gods’ discretion, and mortals cannot anticipate what that will look like or judge its appropriateness.
Unlock all 31 pages of this Study Guide
Get in-depth, chapter-by-chapter summaries and analysis from our literary experts.
- Grasp challenging concepts with clear, comprehensive explanations
- Revisit key plot points and ideas without rereading the book
- Share impressive insights in classes and book clubs