The Literary Legacy of the Dionysian Myth in Euripides' Bacchae

Abstract

The author, in turn, compares with the Bacchae the literary Dionysian myth in epic and lyric poetry, in the writing of the tragedians before Euripides (in particular the two Dionysian tetralogies by Aeschylus: Πένϑεια and Λυκούργεια) and in the works of Euripides himself. The author claims that Euripides faithfully follows in the Bacchae the earlier mythic tradition contained in all the genres of poetry. This can be noticed in particular motifs, and at the lexical level as well. That Euripides was clearly close to the writing of Aeschylus testified to the fact that the former tended to give his tragedy a religious expression and was interested in the Dionysian religion, with which tragedy had been closely connected from the beginning.

The Bacchae are therefore deeply rooted in the Greek religious tradition connected with Dionysus, taking up broadly the earlier legacy of the Dionysian myth.