Date Posted:17:41:47 02/17/08 Sun Author: Cara Subject: Re: The Bacchae's original act of violence In reply to:
Janelle
's message, "Re: The Bacchae's original act of violence" on 15:59:03 02/13/08 Wed
On reading these posts, I went back to Ovid's story of Actaeon, and that of Cadmus killing the snake just before it. Actaeon being Cadmus' grandson, he shares the familial fate of Oedipus and Pentheus. But for a moment Ovid seems to take Actaeon's, the victim's part:
Cadmus ...
But if you probe with care, you will not blame
your grandson; for the one to fault is Fate --
there is no crime in making a mistake.
If accidentally interrupting Diana's bath is not obviously arbitrary enough, Ovid veritably states it directly here. I think it very likely that the reference to Actaeon in th Bacchae is intentional, meant somehow to discover or at least express regret for this perennial, recurring, arbitrary violence.
