Irrationality = Rationality

In The Bakkhia, the rational Pentheus is destroyed
 by irrationality.

I am intrigued with Euripides’s use of the topic of invention, comparison.  The Bakkhia is chock-full of comparison and symbolism.  The most intriguing symbolism is that between men and women.  Women seem to represent chaos and irrationality, while men, specifically Pentheus, seem to represent order and rationality.  For example, the only revelers in Mount Kithairon are women.  The women are naked, suckle wolf cubs, and hunt with their bare hands.  That should not make sense to anyone, even in Greek times.  Furthermore they believe that Dionysus is a god.  By all reasonable thought, Dionysus should not exist.  However, irrationally, Dionysus was birthed again from Zeus’s thigh.  And when Dionysus showed up in Thebes, he was dressed with long hair like a women, furthering his irrationality.

Contrast that to Pentheus, who could be considered a symbol of Athens.  Athenians prided themselves on their rationality and logic.  Pentheus does not believe in the irrational.  He doesn’t think Dionysus exists.  He thinks that the irrational women should be put to death. Even though he leaves his manly rationality behind when he dresses as a woman, he does not accept it as a power.  His mother, Aguaë, a symbol for irrationality, destroys him.  His downfall, therefore, is not recognizing irrationality as a hugely powerful force that controls a bit of everyone’s life.

In writing this play, Euripides takes irrational thought and makes it tangible.  We can then deal 

Poetry allows me to express my irrational emotions
             in a rational way.

with it, and understand our erratic thoughts. If Pentheus represents Athens and Aguaë represents irrationality, Euripides is warning Athens to not become too rational because irrationality is a huge and powerful part of life.  I have always thought the best way to make something innately human and irrational into something tangible and rational is to personify it in the arts.  I think that is what Euripides is doing when he wrote The Bakkhia.  I, like Euripides have dealt with irrationality through writing.  I once got into a huge fight with my father.  After I stormed out of the house, I wrote this poem on my phone’s notepad.  It helped me be able to see my emotions in a tangible, understandable, and rational way while the poem itself is irrational.

Here it is:

Evaporation

Love-guilt spilled out of her mouth,

But he boiled it.  It turned to steam,

Unsure in its floating consistency

Until it became dry ash, undrinkable

Though it longed to be drunk.