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Madness In Euripides The Bacchae And Plato's The Symposium

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In language there is a plurality in the meanings of most words. In order to determine the definition of the word that the author is using, context clues are used. In Euripides’, The Bacchae, and Plato’s The Symposium, the meaning of the words intoxication and madness are played with, giving further meaning to the story and also adding further meaning to the themes in their respective plots. The meanings they use are similar in the fact that they both strengthen a common theme in both texts; the power of the gods. Where they differ is Plato’s interpretation of the word intoxication in the description of Socrates state of mind. Plato and Euripides’ literary definition of “intoxication” and “madness” in The Symposium and The Bacchae, believe …show more content…

Pentheus’ ultimate faith is determined by the type of madness and intoxication that is at the core of the play; the Bacchaen madness. Pentheus rejects that Bacchus is a god to be praised. In a pivotal moment in the play, Pentheus is brought by Bacchus to the meadow where the followers of Bacchus stayed. When the women saw him, they were overcome with the Bacchaen madness causing them to think Pentheus was an animal that they must kill. As they were dismembering him, Pentheus yelled, “No, Mother! I am Pentheus, your own son, the child you bore to Echion! Pity me, spare me, Mother…But she [Pentheus’ mother] was foaming from the mouth, and her crazed eyes rolled with frenzy. She was mad, stark mad, possessed by Bacchus” (Euripides, 1118-1124). This quote shows the great power that this madness had on the women. Pentheus’ mother, in her state of “intoxication” caused by Dionysus did not even realize that she was dismembering her own son. This definition of intoxication, the inability to perceive one’s surroundings as what they truly are, clearly helps promote the theme of the power of the gods in the play. Dionysius was able to corrupt the mind of Pentheus’ Mother and her peers to the extent that they were able to murder another human being without

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