Mother Moo

The Irrational

In preparation for his expedition to go look at the Bacchae women, Pentheus has an exchange with Dionysus where he learns that he will need to disguise himself. As Dionysus explains that Pentheus will need to dress up like a forest woman, wearing “a rich and trailing robe of fine-linen… a snood… [a] dappled fawn-skin and [a] wand,” he resists, saying “Nay, I will not” and, “Enough! I cannot wear a robe and snood.”

Even though Pentheus has some initial resistance to this mandated cross-dressing, his rationality breaks down and he ends up doing it.

The Rational
Euripides uses his craft to help us understand this irrationality of cross-dressing. He reveals that Dionysus, while acting as Pentheus’ guide, can use Pentheus’ curiosity to manipulate him to do something irrational. He helps us realize that when we rationally put our trust in a guide or leader who knows more about something than we do, we may be led to do something irrational.

Euripides develops Dionysus as a character who is definitely in control and can lead or compel others to do irrational things.

The Personal
I was at Girl’s Camp and my older sister invited me to go to the older girls’ cabin and play a game with them. They told me that one girl in the group was going to be the guesser and leave the cabin, another girl inside was going to be silently chosen as the loudest mooer, and then when the guesser girl came back in, everyone would moo loudly at the same time, and the guesser girl would guess who mooed the loudest.

We played one round and then I was chosen to be the loudest mooer. The guesser girl came back in and everyone counted to three, and then I mooed as loud as I possibly could. “MOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” But no one else was mooing. I was yelling like a cow and I was the only one doing it. I felt so embarrassed and irrational, but decided it was ok because I believed and trusted my guide, my sister.

I don’t think that this technique of attributing irrational acts to some guide or leader is always appropriate. I believe that we each have our own agency to act how we want to. However, Euripides does a great job of highlighting this technique that I am sure many people have experienced.