The Bacchae

A soldier enters with Dionysus tied up and peacefully unresisting. Events have left the soldier wary. He reports that the Bacchants who Pentheus imprisoned were spontaneously set free. Pentheus remains unconcerned, mocking Dionysus for his feminine looks and threatening to cut his hair. Pentheus questions him, and Dionysius claims to be from Lydia and an initiate in Dionysus’ rites, which he will not reveal. Pentheus threatens to punish Dionysus, and he warns Pentheus against impiety. His warnings go unheeded, though, as Pentheus orders his soldiers to lead Dionysus into the palace. The Chorus sings to Thebes, asking the city why it has rejected the god. Referencing Dionysus’s divine birth, the Chorus asks Zeus to come down and destroy Pentheus.

Dionysius’ voice is heard from the palace calling on his Bacchants. The Chorus replies for him to set the palace aflame. Dionysius emerges, revealing that he freed himself easily. In a frantic rage, Pentheus tried to bind him, while Dionysus quietly watched. The god deluded Pentheus, who did not realize that the creature he was struggling with was not the man from Lydia but a bull. While Pentheus exhausted himself in his futile endeavors, Dionysius calmly exited the palace. Pentheus emerges from the palace demanding an explanation from Dionysus, who tells him to listen to the messenger who has just arrived from Mount Cithaeron, where Dionysus has sent his Theban maenads.

Fearing Pentheus’ temper, the messenger, a herdsman, demurs, until Pentheus assures him that no harm will come to him. The messenger shares that he saw “three bands of female worshippers” sleeping peacefully (145). When Agaue, Pentheus’ mother, heard his herds lowing, she alerted the Bacchants, who promptly woke up and donned fawnskins and other hides. Some nursed young deer and wolf-cubs. Others struck rocks and soil with their wands, causing water, wine, and milk to sprout forth. Had Pentheus witnessed the scene, the messenger says, he would worship Dionysus. The herdsmen tried to capture the Bacchants, but the hunters became the prey, and they narrowly escaped being torn apart by the frenzied women, who then swept through the villages at the base of Cithaeron “like an invading army” (147). The messenger concludes by urging Pentheus to worship Dionysius.

The Chorus-Leader affirms Dionysus’ supremacy, but Pentheus is more determined than ever to muster an army to confront the Bacchants. In a rapid exchange between Dionysus and Pentheus, Dionysus warns Pentheus to remain calm and not challenge him, but Pentheus calls for his weapons.