Stage Alive

In “The Birth of Tragedy”, Nietzsche considers that plays of Euripides represent the decline of tragedy. He writes that “now we have all recognized that Euripides failed absolutely in his efforts to base tragedy upon the Apolline spirit” [P62], where Apolline spirit refers to rationalism and moderation in contrast with the Dionysiac spirit. However, “The Bacchae”, Euripides’ last play, is the most Dionysiac tragedy where the playwright explores the dark insight into the irrational and unpredictable human nature by staging a gruesome battle between Pentheus and Dionysus. This is a play about pleasure personified by Dionysus and boundaries backed by individual moral agency exemplified by Pentheus, as well as the agony of their transgression. In the play, Dionysus is capable of transforming people into “blond beasts”, who “enjoy freedom from every social constraint, in the wilderness they compensate for the tension which is caused by being closed in and fenced in by the peace of the community” [GM, I, 11]. Hence, to a large extent, the defeat of Pentheus by Dionysus epitomizes the failure of the moral systems in regulating behaviors desired by human communities, corresponding to Nietzsche’s ideas in “On the Genealogy of Morality”.
In the era when new surge of sophistic education, rhetorical training and more materialistic explanations of the gods (as we witness from Eryximachus in Plato’s “Symposium”) clashed with polytheistic worship and traditional mythologies, young men like Pentheus adopted Socratic questioning to challenge old customs with the belief that the city should be run by reasoning. For instance, Pentheus expresses his doubts to Tiresias by saying: “Do you really need another deity to profit from your trade as a prophet?” [The Bacchae, 251-253].He emphasizes practical necessity and downplays the significance of erratic inclination in human behaviors. On the other hand, perceiving Dionysus’ cult as an usurpation of his authority, Pentheus defends his ascetic ideals by standing firm against the god of intoxication and fertility, renouncing personal desires for “the awakening of the communal feeling of power” [GM, III 19]. Nevertheless, Pentheus indeed finds Dionysus’ look aesthetically compelling, as he exclaimed “oh look what a darling he is, the handsome stranger!” [The Bacchae, 435-436] Ironically, his downfall at the mountainside is brought upon by what has been repressed the most—his sexual desires. Here, power comes from submission to desires rather than self-control. Moreover, his guilt, surely aroused after he allows himself to be dressed like a woman, is just the “excess of feeling” [GM, III 19] which he has been feeding himself with to maintain a seemingly moral superiority that ultimately crippled. In Nietzsche’s eyes, the self-deceptive attempt of preserving a degenerating life by physiological inhibition against the deepest instincts “which has remained intact” [GM, III 13], eventually leads to Pentheus’ tragic death.
We witness the regressive nature of individual moral agency not only in the character of Pentheus, but also from the exercise of his power. He holds Dionysus responsible for disrupting the sexual order hence the political order for he “has taught our women his abominable arts” [The Bacchae, 651]. As a result, Pentheus seeks to punish the objects of his desire in a misguided attempt at imprisoning Dionysus. Later, Pentheus is surprised to discover he has not bound the stranger at all. Despite of his claim that Dionysus’ followers are “backward” and “less wise than the Greeks” [The Bacchae, 465], this metaphor reveals Pentheus’s oblivion in paradoxical contrast with the knowing Dionysus. Similarly, Nietzsche argues that ascetic procedures along with human invention of punishment are exploited to “hypnotize the whole nervous and intellectual system” and to make these fixed ideas “ineradicable, ubiquitous and unforgettable” with the preaching of human free will [GM, II, 3]. Nevertheless, the audience sees what Pentheus himself cannot see: his physical mediocrity compared to Dionysus and his interest in his own sexual gratification which threatens his sanity and self-control.
It is Dionysus who is in complete control of actions in “The Bacchae” and thus he is the real ruler of the Thebes. While he seductively persuades Pentheus to degrade himself to the status of a woman, Pentheus is still blind to the god’s divinity but beginning to recognize the desires that had thus far been hidden from him. With the gradual disintegration of traditional religions and customary moral systems in the Greek society, Euripides presents a dark imagery that irrational fanaticism overthrows the patriarchal society, where citizens has been increasingly substituting communal moral codes with philosophical inquiries in public affairs. Facing divided ideologies in the society, he demonstrates the need to contemplate on how to exploit and balance between human beings’ rational judgment and animalistic instincts in running a city. Nihilistic individual moralities are no longer able to cure or completely restrain the inborn sexual desires except turning them into inward aggression. In “The Bacchae”, the triumph of hedonism represented by Dionysus warns audiences against the vulnerability of moralizing repressed desires and grievances, just as Nietzsche’s call to decide on “the rank order of values” [GM, I, 11], in order to achieve self-affirmative power without withdrawing from life.