The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - PREVIEW Chronicles #40

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome back to Chronicles, where today we're going to be talking all about

00:00:19.580 the Barcai by Euripides, which is one of the plays in this book that I've got here on

00:00:25.460 Greek tragedies. Now, why have I chosen to talk about this? Well, we have actually covered

00:00:31.140 Euripides, one of Euripides' plays once before. It feels like quite a long time ago, to be honest,

00:00:36.640 at this point. But some of those original chronicles that I did, we did something of a

00:00:42.100 trilogy. We did Agamemnon with Stelios looking at a really famous ancient Greek tragedy. And then

00:00:48.740 Then I covered Lysistrata, and then we did The Cyclops, which was a satire play by Euripides.

00:00:56.200 It being written by Euripides was almost incidental because I wasn't really focusing on the fact

00:01:02.420 that this was a Euripidean play, I was focusing on the fact that it was a satire play because

00:01:07.640 it was the only complete satire play that we actually had surviving from antiquity.

00:01:13.700 So now I just wanted to go through a proper Euripidean tragedy,

00:01:19.560 talk about some of the characteristics that make it up.

00:01:23.360 And also as well, the Bacchae is such a fantastic story.

00:01:28.400 One of the interesting things about Euripides is that in Nietzsche's very, very famous work,

00:01:35.640 his original, his first book, in The Birth of Tragedy,

00:01:39.700 he squarely points a finger at Euripides and accuses Euripides of being the man who brought

00:01:47.700 about the death of tragedy. So I want to interrogate some of those ideas as well whilst we discuss

00:01:54.280 the Bacchae here, though it is a little bit more atypical as a Euripidean work, which is why I

00:02:02.180 don't think that when Nietzsche basically comes along and says, oh yeah, the problem with Euripides

00:02:08.760 is he took all of the Dionysian aspects out of theatre

00:02:12.160 or certainly minimised them and forced the Apollonian forward.

00:02:17.460 And then there does happen to be that one play

00:02:20.040 right at the end of his career

00:02:21.680 where he did the exact opposite of that.

00:02:24.020 And this was right at the end of Euripides' career.

00:02:28.020 In fact, this was so far towards the end of Euripides' career

00:02:32.340 that he wasn't actually personally alive

00:02:34.980 when it was first staged.

00:02:36.400 Euripides passed away at the court of the king of Macedon in 406 BC and one of the reasons as well

00:02:44.620 just to say why Euripides went to that court was because he was just not appreciated very much in

00:02:52.580 Athens at the time though Euripides was a regular writer for the city Dionysia for the grand festival

00:03:01.240 where the playwrights would be chosen by the city magistrate

00:03:04.820 and there would be a very healthy competition

00:03:07.340 over who created the greatest trilogy of tragedies

00:03:11.540 followed by a satire play.

00:03:13.900 So you wrote four plays

00:03:15.280 and then obviously you won gold, silver or bronze.

00:03:18.100 And Euripides in his own lifetime

00:03:20.620 only won this about four times

00:03:23.480 which is significantly less than the other great Trigians

00:03:28.040 such as Aeschylus or Sophocles.

00:03:31.240 Aeschylus being a fair bit before the other two.

00:03:35.180 But nonetheless, there is an interesting irony to all of this,

00:03:39.920 which is that though Euripides was always regarded

00:03:42.980 very much as the bronze of these three writers in his own time,

00:03:49.320 we actually have more of Euripides' plays

00:03:52.160 than we do of Sophocles or Aeschylus.

00:03:56.000 And one of the reasons for this is because actually

00:03:58.720 there was something of a Euripidean revival after his death

00:04:03.320 and after the expansion of Alexander the Great

00:04:07.600 and the Macedonian Empire going throughout Persia and Alexandria

00:04:12.280 and, of course, the rest of Greece as well.

00:04:15.800 And in this particular time period, Euripidean drama proved to be very, very popular.

00:04:22.360 Part of the reason for that was because a lot of the Socratic ideas

00:04:27.780 that had come down from Socrates further on, that rationality was really starting to take

00:04:34.220 more and more of a route in Greek society. And there were themes in that about reason,

00:04:42.100 virtue, happiness, that were really spoken to by Euripides' style of writing, where we see the

00:04:49.280 language. It's very hard for me personally to tell. I appreciate not being a native Greek speaker,

00:04:55.520 But when you read something like the Oresteia, as I've covered with Stelios in earlier episodes of the show, you see that the language, even though Euripides and Aeschylus are both writing tragedy, the language of Aeschylus is much more mythical.

00:05:13.720 It feels deeper. It feels more ancient. It's more weighty, right? It has just much more

00:05:21.720 sort of divine gravitas to it. Whereas by comparison, Euripides' language is much more

00:05:28.800 ordinary. And this is one of the reasons why Nietzsche was not a huge fan of him.

00:05:34.460 But we'll talk about all of this and more after we've been through the initial story.

00:05:39.860 So let's begin talking all about the Bacchae.

00:05:49.140 Before the heroics of Heracles and the great trials of Perseus, there was Cadmus.

00:05:56.020 Setting out from his father's Phoenician realm of Tyre, he pursued mighty Zeus,

00:06:01.360 who had taken his sister Europa, whose name honours our continent.

00:06:06.800 After submitting to the wisdom of Athena and the oracle at Delphi, Cadmus founded the city of

00:06:12.460 Thebes in the land of Belecia. From its founding, he governed as its king with justice and virtue

00:06:18.900 for many years. But with advancing years, Cadmus reasoned that his kingship must pass to his

00:06:25.500 grandson, Pentheus, who could rule with a prudence unwearied by age. The young lord is stubborn and

00:06:32.860 stern. In another age, he might have been an austere but capable ruler. But fate had other

00:06:39.300 plans for him. Descending from the mountains out of the east comes Dionysus, son of Zeus,

00:06:46.540 and Cadmus' own daughter, Semele. The god means to avenge himself against all who deny his divinity,

00:06:54.500 and heresies are spoken from on high within the royal family. Agave, mother of Pentheus,

00:07:00.640 did not believe that her sister Semile had conceived a child with a god. In retribution

00:07:06.400 against the unbelievers, and to defend his late mother's honour, Dionysus entrances Agave and her

00:07:13.060 sisters, making them thralls to his will as they join the ranks of the Bacchae, a primal Dionysian

00:07:20.980 cult that has followed their god from distant Asia. The young god proclaims, I am Dionysus,

00:07:28.220 the son of Zeus, come back to Thebes, this land where I was born. My mother was Cadmus's daughter,

00:07:35.080 Semele by name, midwifed by fire, delivered by the lightning's blast. And here I stand,

00:07:42.980 a god incognito, disguised as man beside the stream of Dursae and the waters of his menace.

00:07:51.020 There before the palace I see my lightning-married mother's grave, and there upon the ruins of her

00:07:57.500 shattered house, the living fire of Zeus still smoulders on in deathless witness of Hera's

00:08:04.460 violence and rage against my mother. But Cadmus wins my praise. He has made this tomb a shrine,

00:08:11.380 sacred to my mother. It was I who screened her grave with the green of the clustered vine.

00:08:17.700 Far behind me lie those golden rivered lands, Lydia and Phrygia, where my journeying began.

00:08:24.960 Overland I went, across the steppes of Persia, where the sun strikes hotly down,

00:08:30.920 through Bactria's fastness and the grim waste of Medea.

00:08:35.180 Thence to rich Arabia I came, and so, along all Asia's swarming littoral of towered cities

00:08:42.400 where Greeks and foreign nations mingling live, my progress made.

00:08:48.340 There I taught my dances to the feet of living men, establishing my mysteries and rites,

00:08:54.440 that I might be revealed on earth for what I am, a god.

00:08:58.920 And thence to Thebes, this city, first in Hellas,

00:09:03.560 now shrills and echoes to my women's cries, their ecstasy of joy.

00:09:09.380 Here in Thebes I bound the fawn skin to the women's flesh,

00:09:13.140 and armed their hands with shafts of ivy.

00:09:16.500 For I have come to refute that slander spoken by my mother's sisters,

00:09:21.560 those who least had right to slander her.

00:09:24.440 They said that Dionysus was no son of Zeus, but Semele had slept beside a man in love,

00:09:31.360 and fathered off her shame on Zeus. A fraud, they sneered, contrived by Cadmus to protect

00:09:37.300 his daughter's name. They said she lied, and Zeus, in anger at that lie, blasted her

00:09:44.040 with lightning. Because of that offence, I have stung them with frenzy, hounded them

00:09:49.260 from home up to the mountains where they wander, crazed of mind and compelled to wear my orgy's

00:09:55.080 livery. Every woman in Thebes, but the women only, I drove from home mad. There they sit,

00:10:03.020 rich and poor alike, even the daughters of Cadmus, beneath the silver furs on the ruthless rocks.

00:10:09.700 Like it or not, this city must learn its lesson. It lacks initiation in my mysteries,

00:10:16.400 that I shall vindicate my mother Semele and stand revealed to mortal eyes as a god she bore to Zeus.

00:10:24.900 Travelling in the guise of a mortal man, Dionysus descends from Mount Scytheron,

00:10:30.100 intent on subjugating this impious city.

00:10:34.240 The Barcai honour him in their dress, draped in fawnskins mantled by ivy and clutching their fiercest staffs.

00:10:41.820 With premonitions of the approaching force, Tiresias, a blind and ancient prophet of Apollo,

00:10:48.900 beckons for the aged Cadmus to join him, and the two men rejoice at the arrival of this deity,

00:10:55.760 donning the festive apparel of the Bachei in his honour. Dionysus is a lord of all that blunts the

00:11:02.640 brutalities of existence, wine, festivity, fertility, theatre, and, of course, illusion.

00:11:11.660 The two men mean to hobble their old bodies towards the hills and pay homage to the son of Zeus.

00:11:17.200 We do not trifle with divinity. No, we are the heirs of customs and traditions hollowed by age

00:11:25.200 and handed down to us by our fathers. No quibbling logic can topple them. Whatever subtleties this

00:11:32.540 clever age invents. People may say, aren't you ashamed at your age, going dancing,

00:11:38.560 wreathing your head with ivy? Well, I am not ashamed. Did the gods declare that just the young

00:11:45.420 or just the old should dance? No. He desires his honour from all mankind. He wants no one

00:11:52.520 excluded from his worship. Because you cannot see, Tiresias, let me be interpreter for you this once.

00:11:59.040 Here comes a man to whom I left my throne, Echion's son, Pentheus, hastening towards the palace.

00:12:06.140 He seems excited and disturbed. Yes, listen to him. Pentheus enters, incensed by reports of the

00:12:13.420 madness that has infected his people. Stories of our women leaving home to frisk in mock ecstasies

00:12:19.820 among the thickets on the mountain, dancing in honour of the latest divinity, a certain Dionysus,

00:12:26.400 whoever he may be, in their midst and bowls brimming with wine, and then one by one the

00:12:33.620 women wander off to hidden nooks where they serve the lusts of men. Priestesses of Barcus,

00:12:40.140 they claim they are, but it's really Aphrodite they adore. I have captured some of them. My

00:12:45.940 jailers have locked them away. Those who run away in the safety of our prison. Those who run at

00:12:51.360 shall be hunted down, out of the mountains like the animals they are. Yes, my own mother,

00:12:57.760 Agave, and Eno, and Otone, the mother of Actaeon. In no time at all I shall have them trapped in

00:13:04.660 iron nets and stop this obscene disorder. I am told a foreigner has come to Thebes from Lydia,

00:13:11.000 one of those charlatan magicians with long yellow curls smelling of perfumes,

00:13:15.340 with flushed cheeks and the spells of Aphrodite in his eyes. His days and nights he spends with

00:13:21.100 women and girls, dangling before them the joys of initiation in his mysteries.

00:13:27.560 But let me bring him underneath that roof, and I'll stop his pounding with his wand

00:13:32.320 and tossing his head. By God, I'll have his head cut off.

00:13:37.520 And this is the man who claims that Dionysus is a god, and was sewn into the thigh of Zeus,

00:13:43.500 when, in point of fact, that same blast of lightning consumed him and his mother both

00:13:48.300 for her lie that she had lain with Zeus in love. Whoever this stranger is, aren't such

00:13:54.700 impostures, such unruliness, worthy of hanging? Cadmus tries to reason with his grandson.

00:14:02.060 My boy, Tiresias advises well. Your home is here with us, with our customs and traditions,

00:14:09.740 not outside, alone. Your mind is distracted now, and what do you think is sheer delirium?

00:14:17.340 Even if this Dionysus is no god, as you assert, persuade yourself that he is.

00:14:24.060 The fiction is a noble one, for Semele will seem to be the mother of a god,

00:14:29.420 and this confers no small distinction on our family.

00:14:33.260 You saw that dreadful death your cousin Actaeon died,

00:14:37.340 when those man-eating hounds he had raised himself savaged him,

00:14:41.420 and tore his body limb from limb, because he boasted that his prowess

00:14:45.900 and the hunt surpass the skill of Artemis. Do not let his fate be yours. Here, let me wreathe your

00:14:52.840 head with leaves of ivy, then come with us and glorify the god. Pentheus continues to seethe

00:14:59.240 at the gaiety and mania that Dionysus's power have cast over his subjects. He prohibits any

00:15:06.100 demonstrations of worship, and he orders his guards to arrest the foreign menace and bring

00:15:11.620 him before the king to be sentenced. The god is brought before Pentheus in manacles, and there he

00:15:18.700 stands, gentle and unafraid, in the humble guise of an old man. Untie his hands. We have him in

00:15:26.580 our net. He may be quick, but he cannot escape us now, I think. Now then, who are you, and from

00:15:33.220 where? It is nothing to boast of, and easily told. You have heard, I suppose, of Mount Molis and her

00:15:40.180 flowers. It rings the city of Sardis. I know the place. I come from there. My country is Lydia.

00:15:48.160 Who is this god whose worship you have imported into Hellas? Dionysus, the son of Zeus. He

00:15:54.660 initiated me. You have some local Zeus who spawns new gods? He is the same as yours. The Zeus who

00:16:03.900 married, Semele? How did you see him? In a dream or face to face? Face to face. He gave me his rights.

00:16:13.380 What form do they take, these mysteries of yours? It is forbidden to tell the uninitiate. Tell me

00:16:19.960 the benefits that those who know your mysteries enjoy. I am forbidden to say, but they are worth

00:16:26.960 knowing. Your answers are designed to make me curious. No, our mystery is a bore, an unbelieving

00:16:33.720 man. You say you saw the god. What form did he assume? Whatever form he wished. The choice was

00:16:40.780 his, not mine. You evade the question. Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish. Have you

00:16:48.100 introduced your rights in other cities too? Or is Thebes the first? Foreigners everywhere now

00:16:54.280 dance for Dionysus. They are more ignorant than Greeks. They are not. Customs differ in this

00:17:02.600 matter. Do you hold your rights during the day or night? Mostly by night. The darkness is well

00:17:08.860 suited to devotion. Better suited to lectury and seducing women. You can find debauchery by daylight

00:17:16.500 too. You shall regret these clever answers. And you, your stupid blasphemies. What a bold

00:17:26.100 barkant. You wrestle well when it comes to words. Tell me, what punishment do you propose?

00:17:34.480 First of all, I shall cut off your girlish curls. My curls belong to God. My hair is holy.

00:17:41.200 Pentheus shears away the god's curls. Second, you will surrender your wand. You take it. It

00:17:49.380 belongs to Dionysus. Pentheus takes the Thersus. Last, I shall place you under guard and confine

00:17:56.200 you in the palace. The god himself will set me free whenever I wish. You will be with your women

00:18:03.020 in prison when you call on him for help. He is here now and sees what I endure from you. Where

00:18:09.500 is he? I cannot see him. With me, your blasphemies have made you blind. Seize him. He is mocking me

00:18:17.060 and Thebes. I give you sober warning, fools. Place no chains on me. But I say, chain him,

00:18:27.300 and I am the stronger here. You do not know the limits of your strength. You do not know what you

00:18:33.920 do. You do not know who you are. I am Pentheus, the son of Echion and Agave. Pentheus, you

00:18:43.660 shall repent that name. Off with him. Chain his hands, lock him in the stables by the

00:18:49.200 palace. Since he desires the darkness, give him what he wants. Let him dance down there

00:18:54.160 in the dark. As for these women, your accomplices, are making trouble here, I shall have them

00:18:59.380 sold as slaves or put to work at my looms. That will silence their drums. As Dionysus is taken

00:19:06.440 away, his devoted Barcai chant in prayer for their divine lord. Suddenly, Pentheus' palace is struck

00:19:13.380 with elemental fury. Fire and lightning strike its pillars as an earthquake raises its very

00:19:20.740 foundations. Pentheus is wrathful, not only at the destruction of his palace and pride, but at the

00:19:28.040 sight of this troublesome foreigner returning to his side, unbound and quite alive. Before Pentheus

00:19:35.520 can act on his frustrations, however, a messenger approaches with tidings from Mount Scytheron.

00:19:41.340 Sir, I have seen the Holy Maynards, the women who ran barefoot and crazy from the city, and I wanted

00:19:47.800 to report to you and Thebes what weird, fantastic things, what miracles and more than miracles these

00:19:53.820 women do. But may I speak freely, in my own way and words, or make it short? I fear the harsh

00:20:01.020 impatience of your nature, sire, too kingly and too quick to anger. Speak freely. You have my

00:20:07.200 promise. I shall not punish you. Displeasure with a man who speaks the truth is wrong. However,

00:20:12.420 the more terrible this tale of yours, the much more terrible will be the punishment I impose

00:20:18.200 upon that man, who taught our womenfolk this strange new magic.

00:20:22.760 It happened, however, that Agave ran near the ambush where I lay concealed.

00:20:27.160 Leaping up, I tried to seize her, but she gave a cry.

00:20:30.520 Hounds who run with me!

00:20:32.520 Men are hunting us down!

00:20:33.960 Follow!

00:20:34.960 Follow me!

00:20:35.960 Use your wands for weapons!

00:20:38.080 At this we fled, and barely missed being torn to pieces by the women.

00:20:42.100 Unarmed, they swooped down upon the herds of cattle, grazing there on the green of the

00:20:46.320 meadow.

00:20:47.320 And then, you could have seen a single woman with bare hands tear a fat calf, still bellowing

00:20:53.820 with fright in two, while others clawed their heifers to pieces.

00:20:58.140 There were ribs and cloven hooves scattered everywhere, and scraps smeared with blood

00:21:03.460 hung from the fir trees, and bulls, their raging fury gathered in their horns, lowered

00:21:09.540 their heads to charge, then fell, stumbling to the earth, pulled down by hordes of women,

00:21:15.080 And strip the flesh and skin more quickly, sire, than you could blink your royal eyes.

00:21:20.840 Like invaders, they swooped on Hycia and on Erythria, in the foothills of Scytheron.

00:21:26.400 Everything in sight they pillaged and destroyed.

00:21:28.760 They snatched the children from their homes, and when they piled their plunder on their

00:21:32.600 backs it stayed in place, untied.

00:21:35.680 Nothing, neither bronze nor iron, fell to the dark earth.

00:21:39.760 Flames flickered in their curls and did not burn them.

00:21:43.140 Then the villagers, furious at what the women did, took arms, and there, sire, was something

00:21:48.540 terrible to see.

00:21:49.960 For the men's spears were pointed and sharp, and yet drew no blood, whereas the wands the

00:21:55.760 women threw inflicted wounds.

00:21:58.640 And then the men ran, routed by women.

00:22:02.580 Some god, I say, was with them.

00:22:04.900 The Bacchae then returned where they had started, by the spring the god had made, and washed

00:22:10.060 their hands while the snakes licked away the drops of blood that dabbled their cheeks.

00:22:14.980 Whoever this god may be, sire, welcome him to Thebes, for he is great in many other ways as

00:22:22.080 well. It was he, or so they say, who gave the mortal men the gift of lovely wine by which our

00:22:28.420 suffering is stopped. And if there is no god of wine, there is no love, no Aphrodite either,

00:22:35.080 nor other pleasures left to men. In defence of his people and kingdom, Pentheus determines that he

00:22:41.380 will meet these frenzied women with an army, exposing their crimes and restoring peace to

00:22:47.120 his withering realm, and purging it of this subversive sect. If you enjoyed this piece of

00:22:53.140 premium content from the Lotus Eaters, head to our website where you can find more.

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The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - March 28, 2026

PREVIEW Chronicles #40 ｜ The Bacchae

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