Discuss the differences in attitudes towards the gods which are
apparent in Oedipus and Bacchae
Religion was a central pillar of Ancient Athens, it was the edifice of society and united its
people in various ways. The Bacchae and Oedipus Rex both depict the gods in different and
sometimes similar ways; addressing ideas such as whether human agency matters to the
gods and whether they should still be honoured in a time of sophists and natural
philosophers. By looking at each play and the playwright's intentions, this essay will discuss
the different attitudes towards the gods in the Bacchae and Oedipus Rex.
Sophocles and Euripides were two vastly different playwrights, despite creating Oedipus
Rex and the Bacchae - tragic plays that are similar in a variety of ways. Sophocles was
known for writing with structural perfection, and for also forming his characters around this
same idea of perfection; showing people how they ought to be and not how most people
truly were. He was, as argued by most, a believer in the gods, and feared impiety in the
same way most Athenian citizens did. Despite writing during the new era of discovery in 5th
century Greece, he did not believe in the ideas presented by sophists and natural
philosophers - he was biassed more towards traditional beliefs in the gods. In his plays the
gods are always prevalent and, as displayed in Oedipus Rex, are often very influential,
unpredictable and somewhat sinister. E.R Dodds states that Sophocles' opinions on the
gods were as follows: ‘First, he did not believe (or did not always believe) that the gods are
in any human sense 'just'; Secondly, he did always believe that the gods exist and that man
should revere them.’1 Oedipus Rex portrays these opinions to a fault, the tragic story of a
man desperately trying to escape a fate prophesied and decided by the gods, only to fall
deeper and deeper into making the prophecy a reality the more he tries to avoid it. He is
unable to escape the will of the gods, and despite various characters falling to impiety to try
and disprove the prophecy, it is revealed to be true.
Euripides wrote in a distinctly different style to Sophocles, his plays often structured far more
freely and flowing. His characters are often also reflective of this, as he presented people as
they truly are as opposed to what they should be. In some of his plays, Euripides does not
have the gods appear on stage, but in the Bacchae Dionysus is the protagonist. He depicts
the god as near human-like in his pettiness, and makes it clear that he is very interested in
human affairs. It is sometimes believed that Euripides was an atheist due to his apparent
mocking of the gods in many plays of his, however it is far more arguable that he was not.
The Bacchae tells the story of Dionysus as he returns to his hometown, Thebes, to avenge
his mother, Semele, who he feels was wronged by her sisters and is being disrespected by
the current king of Thebes, Dionysus’ cousin Pentheus. The play follows Dionysus as he
gets his revenge on Pentheus, who repeatedly refuses to believe that Dionysus is a god. In
terms of Aristotles’ Poetics, Pentheus’ harmartia is his impiety and ignorance, which leads to
him being brutally murdered by his own mother Agave and other woman under Dionysus’
bacchic spell. The fact that Dionysus achieves his revenge in the play whilst human agency
is overridden perhaps shows that Euripides was not an atheist, as the play seems to almost
warn an audience, who were living through an era of sophists, against disregarding the
gods.
1
On Misunderstanding the 'Oedipus Rex' Author(s): E. R. Dodds
