The Darker Side of Dionysus

Understanding the Bacchae

Dear Classical Wisdom Reader,

If I had to pick my favorite ancient Greek deity, I’d surely have to go for Dionysus...

I literally moved to Argentina for the wine, I set up a theatre company in University and as my friends will hopefully confirm, I love throwing a good party.

But even for those who have a flair for the dramatic and love a tipple, sometimes Dionysus can be a bit... much. This is perhaps most evident when you get to the whole ‘insanity’ and ‘ritual madness’ aspect of the god.

Like, can’t we have a great time without ripping someone’s head off???

According to Dionysus and the equally troubled playwright, Euripides, the answer is no.

In arguably one of the greatest (and most mysterious) plays from the ancient world, The Bacchae, ancient audiences and modern readers can explore the darker side of Dionysus. In the words of today’s author, Ben Potter:

The Bacchae is not only an electric, macabre, and profound piece of drama in its own right, but a document of historical note – a manuscript that may have changed the way a populace thought about the man who would go down in history as the greatest playwright until the Bard of Avon put pen to parchment 2000 years later.

Given Euripides’ popularity in the modern world, it’s difficult for us to comprehend that he was anything other than loved in his own time, but there is a lot of credible speculation that it was only the performance of Bacchae that set the seal on Euripides’ reputation, in his own era, as one of the true greats of Athenian theatre.

And yet, this fantastic work is still -in many ways- a mystery.

What exactly was the moral? What was Euripides trying to tell his countrymen? And why is (my beloved) Dionysus so… mean?

Read on for today’s in-depth article on understanding The Bacchae and the murderous morals within...

Members, you can enjoy the full article, along with the Ebook The Bacchae, complete with additional commentary and the original text, here:

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Now… for a party you don’t want to attend…

All the best,
Anya Leonard
Founder and Director
Classical Wisdom

The Bacchae: The Morals of Murderous Women

By Ben Potter

If I invited you to a bacchanalia what would you expect? Wine? Dancing? Sex? Of course you would. How about harmonizing with nature? Mass hallucination? Violence? Carpaccio? You’re beginning to think you should call and cancel, aren’t you? Well don’t worry, it might not be as wild as you think. Then again, it might be much worse.

The ancient Athenians, like you and I, did not seem to have a crystal clear idea of what constituted a bacchanalia. The reason for this is simple – it was a secret. Well, a mystery to be precise.

The shroud of secrecy that hung over these proceedings is appropriately reflected in Euripides’ The Bacchae. Appropriate because, despite a straightforward plot, The Bacchae is probably the least easy of Euripides‘ extant plays to analyse. Written in Macedon and performed posthumously in Athens, the story is simple: