Bacchae Modern Scholarship

Mossman

• Dressing as a maenad, Pentheus seems to give up his own identity
• It might be easier for a mortal audience to sympathise with another mortal, even an unpleasant one, rather than with a god who cannot die or be hurt
• God's potential for destruction
• His punishment for Pentheus will be so vicious
• Easily the god destroys him
• He will recognise Dionysus, and his death will be a convincing demonstration of the god's power
• Her punishment is not only complete when the divine madness is withdrawn from her but when she realises what she has done
• Terrifying [Dionysus]
• Even when…