Date Posted:18:42:48 02/10/08 Sun Author: JD Subject: Zeus as the original in the Bacchae?
In Girard's chapter on Dionysus and Euripides' Bacchae he spoke of how Pentheus and Dionysus were an identical pair. He then said that Pentheus' tragedy was, in a way, the retelling of the tragedy and sacrifical violence that involved Dionysus. However, in lines 120-134 there is a reference to the history of Zeus, in which he is hidden in a cave for fear of his father eating him and he was kept safe. I was struck by how the story of Zeus seemed to be similar to the myth of Dionysus. Perhaps the origin of Zeus is the foundation for the myth of Dionysus just as the myth of Dionysus is the source for the story of Pentheus.
