again the bacchae

7/29/2019 Again the Bacchae

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Again the Bacchae

Author(s): W. B. SedgwickReviewed work(s):Source: The Classical Review, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Feb., 1930), pp. 6-8Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/699158 .

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6 THE CLASSICAL REVIEWthe pitch-accent on the second syllableof -rar'pa had any metrical value weshould expect the iambic scansion to bemost frequent; (2) if there was a slightstress on the first syllable, as in thecurrent English or Latin pronunciation,the trochaic scansion should be mostfrequent; (3) if there was no stress atall, both scansions should be equallycommon. I said (Classical Tradition inPoetry, p. 85) that the trochaic scansionwas 'very common '-which is true-and the iambic 'very rare '-which is anexaggeration.Mr. Dale shows that in Sophoclesthe two uses are practically equal;trochees Io, iambi 9. Elsewhere, how-ever, the disproportion is marked: inAeschylus it is 7 to 2, in the IndexTragicus to the fragments 6 to i. ForEuripides I fear I have no statistics,but Mr. E. Harrison has very kindlysent me those for all the plays exceptCyclops and Rhesus. The result istrochees 42, iambics 22, or about 2 to I.It is noteworthy that of the iambics noless than 17 are in the first foot, wheremetrical varieties are most commonand where, for example, in Englishblank verse a trochee very frequentlytakes the place of an iambus. Ofcourse, however, the mere mechanics ofmetrical convenience must count fora good deal.

The Aristophanes figures are interest-ing. At first sight they are 13 to 8, buton examination we find that 5 of the 8occur in one short passage, Birds 1350-1364, where a deliberate effect is madeby repeating the same words in thesame rhythm several times. It wouldtherefore, perhaps, give a truer pictureof the case to count the whole passageas one and make the proportion 13 to 4.(If, as I think, the rhythm was slightlyunusual the effect would be heightened.)The frequency of the iambic 7rarepain Sophocles is curious. Four of thenine cases are accounted for by theformula war'pa 7rvZ?LLv: two more bythe juxtaposition 7ra7?\p 7ra7-pa, 7rarpa7ra7n7p. I should be inclined, on thewhole, to believe that (I) the trochaicscansion was decidedly the more usualand therefore probably nearer to thenormal pronunciation, but (2) the pre-ference was so slight that it couldreadily be dropped for almost any goodmotive-e.g. for rhetorical antithesis(Trarpa 7raaryp), for a convenient poeticformula ('ranrCpaaOiv alzov), or of coursefor the sort of emphasis that comesfrom a slightly unusual rhythm (Birds1350 ff.; cf. ib. 757)-

lHIar-pa happens to be a usefultribrach for this purpose because it isparoxytone. GILBERT MURRAY.AGAIN THE BACCHAE.

I HAVE sometimes wondered whetherthe problem of the Bacchae may not bemore imaginary than real. It mayperhaps help to throw light on thequestion if we start, not with the playas we now have it, but with the idea ofthe play as it might present itself to thepoet's mind.Euripides had been living in Mace-donia, and critics are no doubt right insupposing that his experiences therefirst suggested the idea of a play whichshould deal with the worship ofDionysus. The choice lay between thestory of Pentheus and that of Lycurgus(both treated of by Aeschylus) : havingdecided on Pentheus, Euripides couldnot avoid following the main outlinesof the myth. This necessitated a plotcontaining--

i. The arrival of Dionysus and theintroduction of his rites;2. Opposition to them, with apresentation of the points for andagainst ;3. Confronting of Dionysus andPentheus;4. The folly and death of Pentheus;and,5. Almost inevitably, choral odesdescribing the religious experience ofthe worshippers.Now this, and nothing but this, iswhat the play contains. Nowhere hasEuripides gone out of his way to intro-duce controversial matter: he simplyfollows tragic routine. Pentheus is thetypical Aristotelian hero-a good manwho meets with a dreadful doomthrough some atzaprta. This comes

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THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 7about in the traditional way by theaction of i5pts. But this necessarilyimplies that Pentheus will be cruellytreated by the god, and it is just thiscruelty of the god which is thestumbling-block to so many readers.Still this is inherent in the conceptionof the working of i"T-. The difficulty isthat here the god, contrary to the usualpractice, appears personally instead ofemploying human agency. We havenot the vague cruelty of 'God,' 'thegods,' or 'Fate,' but the actual un-folding, step by step, of the god'spurpose, and the gradual progress ofthe victim to his doom.But in all this we need not assumeany malicious intent of Euripides: it isonly the natural corollary of the ordinaryGreek view of the gods. It is note-worthy that the gods in action in Greekliterature usually act much more repre-hensibly than human beings. We neednot go to the 'rationalist' Euripides tosee this, nor to the ' unpopular'Dorian Apollo. The cruelty of thevengeance in the Odyssey is chargeableto Athene rather than to Odysseus. Itis Athene again who deludes andtramples on the fallen Ajax in the playof the respectable Sophocles (preciselylike Dionysus in the Bacchae). But aGreek would not have seen anythingunworthy in this. It is only by im-porting our own ideas of fair play thatwe find anything reprehensible in theidea of exacting vengeance on a (private)enemy to the utmost farthing. Thegods, being stronger than men, canenjoy a more complete triumph (cf.Ajax, 1. 118: p~'9, 'VO-TEv'e, 7Tv Be


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8 THE CLASSICAL REVIEWwhole I take to be a glorification of thenatural life, as exemplified in this case bythe 'return to Nature' of the worshippersof Dionysus, with their simple creed(hence the references to the folly ofWisdom and the futility of Philo-sophers). This is different, indeed, fromwhat we get elsewhere in Euripides,but by no means opposed to it; andassuming that odes were to be sung bythe chorus at all, it is difficult to seewhat theme could be more appropriateor effective: it was perfectly natural forthe poet's thoughts to have turned in thedirection they did. Perhaps, however,some distinction may be drawn; Ipersonally feel that the attacks on free-thought are spoken rather more ' incharacter,' while the passages showingreligious feeling and love of nature aremore expressive of the poet's own views,though not necessarily his feelings, sincethey are here bound up so closely withBacchic inspiration. We have hereEuripides' L'Allegro. I would take themuch discussed lines 402-431 at theirface value: expressed in plain Greekthey mean that the unbending puritanis av27p avapp~StTro, tovroo and a;"8po7ror,7. It is only what was morebriefly expressed by Martin Luther:'Wer nicht liebt Weib, Wein undGesang, der bleibt ein Narr seinLeben lang.'Another case where critics may havecreated difficulties where the audiencesaw none is the second half of the speechof Tiresias, especially lines 286-297. Isuspect that many of the audience hadheard very similar speeches fromSophists or their followers and admiredthem. If it were put into prose, itmight have come straight from theGorgias or Protagoras. As an answer toPentheus it seems to us singularlyunconvincing, but that Euripides didnot intend such an effect is shown bylines 314-318 - a flimsy argument,which, however, every word of thechorus shows to be seriously meant.Euripides certainly did not intend to

leave in our minds a lurking suspicionof the chastity of the Bacchantes.This is not to say that Euripideswould necessarily himself have usedthese arguments. It is, I think, a habitof the Greek mind to play speculativelyaround an idea, to try out possiblearguments, and to accept tentativesolutions. It is this which makes muchof Plato hard to follow. One is con-stantly asking oneself whether Plato canreally have been satisfied with thepurely verbal arguments which so oftenmeet us. His answer, I think, wouldbe that such arguments are right enoughas far as they go, and necessary indialectic, but by no means conclusive.Such a refutation of Thrasymachus,for instance, is the preliminary to thefull discussion in the Republic.So in the Bacchae; I would suggestthat Tiresias' arguments, though notnecessarily intended to be convincing,are at least suggestions as to howPentheus' criticisms may be met; butthe full answer to them is to be found inthe play as a whole. I feel, however,that the audience would have applaudedTiresias' speech as a clever rt7efLtSv--not excluding even lines 286-297 : itwas probably not the first time they hadheard such etymological rationalisation.The arguments are at any rate no worsethan Apollo's in the Eumenides, and theweakness for etymology can be illus-trated from the Cratylus.I would therefore suggest that theplay is no 'problem play,' is neitherrecantation nor apologia, that it con-tains nothing outside the ordinarypractice of Greek drama, and that to theaudience no special difficulty wouldpresent itself. W. B. SEDGWICK.

I I accept Sandys' translation of 292-4. I amnot so sure of my Greek as to deny that t$avppoSgr rov alOepovcan possibly mean drro "f',ar7L roD alOpor. I would read 'aObjvaa in 295, aseveppadc,7 in 286 implies some further mention ofstitching, and the coincidence rpadp4v,"L: Aaoiivatis too striking to be accidental. rpaouval wouldbe an obvious error for a careless scribe.

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again the bacchae

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