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{{work}}
{{quote|"ἥκω Διὸς παῖς τήνδε Θηβαίων χθόνα
Διόνυσος, ὃν τίκτει ποθ᾽ ἡ Κάδμου κόρη
Σεμέλη λοχευθεῖσ᾽ ἀστραπηφόρῳ πυρί"|'''Euripides''', ''Bacchae'', Lines 1-3 <ref>(I have come, the child of Zeus, to this land of Thebes. I, Dionysus, whom Semele the daughter of Cadmus once bore, brought forth by the fire of lightning.)</ref>}}
''Bacchae'' is a Greek tragedy composed by [[Euripides]] and performed posthumously at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC, where it and the accompanying tragedies won first prize.
The play follows the god of wine and ecstasy Dionysus' return to Thebes, where most of his mortal family -- his grandfather Cadmus, his aunts (Ino, [[Spell My Name
As a result, he drives his aunts and the rest of the Theban women mad, causing them to desert their homes and dwell in the mountains with his own followers, the maenads. He then turns his attention upon Pentheus, the present king of Thebes, who dares to θεομαχεῖν (make war against a god) -- not a wise thing to do.
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The play is available online [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0091 here]... if you're not in the mood to translate ancient Greek, you could look [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3atext%3a1999.01.0092 here] or [http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/bacchan.html here].
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Abdicate the Throne]]: Cadmus gave over the rule of Thebes to young Pentheus, his grandchild.
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* [[Angel Unaware]]: Dionysus takes the appearance of a mortal throughout the play.
* [[Animal Motifs]]: As Dionysus guides Pentheus to the maenads, the king thinks that the god has taken on the appearance of a bull.
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: At the end, Cadmus and his wife Harmonia are turned into serpents by Dionysus.
* [[Big Screwed-Up Family]]: Pentheus and Dionysus are cousins. Pentheus [[Foreshadowing|also mentions another cousin]], [[Classical Mythology|Actaeon]], in the play.
** The whole royal house of Thebes is one big screwed up family. Virtually none of them have a happy ending.
* [[Blind Seer]]: Tiresias.
* [[Bolt of Divine Retribution]]: Semele's sisters claim that her death was the result of this.
* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: The Bacchae tend to fill this role, mostly because of their Dionysus inspired ecstasy.
* [[Disguised in Drag]]: Dionysus convinces Pentheus to disguise himself as a maenad in order to spy on them.
* [[Downer Ending]]: It '''is''' a [[Exactly What It Says
* [[Dramatic Irony]]: The audience knows from the prologue that the "Bacchant" is Dionysus himself. Pentheus isn't so lucky.
* [[Driven to Madness]]: Dionysus drives all the women of Thebes mad from their homes.
* [[Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas]]: Dionysus's morality is arguable [[Above Good and Evil|for a number]] [[Omniscient Morality Licence|of reasons]], but he's at the very least flippant. However he takes his mother's reputation very seriously.
* [[Foe Yay]]: Pentheus seems a bit too obsessed with Dionysus at times. Other times he outright hits on him.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Pentheus himself mentions [[Classical Mythology|his cousin, Actaeon]], and Cadmus reminds his grandson of Actaeon's horrible fate for challenging a goddess.
* [[God in Human Form]]: Zeus in the backstory and Dionysus for most of the play.
* [[Grey and Gray Morality]]: Pentheus wants to keep his city orderly to the point where he basically runs a fascist state and is so blinded by his orthodoxy, he doesn't recognize a god in his presence. Dionysus wants to be rightly recognized as a god and clear his mother's name, to the point where he is willing to cross the [[Moral Event Horizon]].
* [[Greek Chorus]]: Composed of the Bacchantes.
* [[Human Mom, Nonhuman Dad]]: Dionysus.
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* [[Oblivious to Hints]]: Multiple characters try to convince the king to accept Dionysus -- none succeed.
* [[Offing the Offspring]]: {{spoiler|Agave does to to Pentheus, though unknowingly}}.
* [[Off
* [[Order Versus Chaos]]: Pentheus wants to keep the traditional, established society of Thebes, and Dionysus wants to set it on its head.
* [[Parental Incest]]: Pentheus is ''really'' interested in seeing all the immoral things the women of Thebes are up to, with a very particular emphasis on his mother.
* [[Pretty Boy]]/[[Dude Looks Like a Lady]]: Dionysus is very ''very'' pretty. Pentheus describes his feminine beauty at great length.
* [[Reality Subtext]]: The play was written and performed during a time when Athens was suffering the worst effects of the Peloponnesian War and Athens itself was suffering under both a devastating plague that was decimating the population and a Spartan naval blockade that was starving it. Many Athenians felt that [[Bolt of Divine Retribution|the gods must be very pissed off]] and decided that the [[The Scapegoat|sophists, who had questioned the existence of the gods, were to blame]] (this bad feeling towards sophists and philosophy in general indirectly resulted in the execution of [[Socrates]] for, among other things, impiety). It's hard not to see evidence of this sentiment in characters constantly chastising Pentheus for being "clever, but not wise" and the punishment he receives for his blasphemy.
* [[Sex Is Evil and I Am Horny]]: Pentheus pretty quickly convinces himself sexual misconduct is going on among the women of Thebes, and despite constantly decrying it, is ''very'' interested in seeing it for himself.
* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: It's a very bad idea to deny the gods...
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[[Category:Theatrical Productions]]
[[Category:Bacchae]]
[[Category:Classic Theatre]]
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