Bacchus, trois actes
BACCHUS A Drama in Three Acts
by Lionel Landry
ANTENOR enters, introducing Perseus
King Pentheus, a stranger has just arrived, weary from a long journey, and while your servants prepare him a meal, I have invited him to come and greet you.
PENTHEUS, rising
Welcome, stranger! And according to the sacred law of hospitality established by Cadmus, sit here while my servants prepare your food, and tell me of your journey, for you seem to come from afar and appear to have seen strange peoples with incredible customs. But perhaps your journey has a sacred character that may not be revealed?
PERSEUS
Greetings to you, ruler of Thebes, illustrious child of Echion! The sun was reflecting an incomplete disc upon the sea as I crossed the misty Thermopylae this morning, and I would like to reach the port of Tanagra today. I cannot therefore linger long, and I even curse the night that spreads sweet sleep upon my limbs.
PENTHEUS
At Tanagra, do you wish to take passage on some ship?
PERSEUS
On some swift vessel, chartered for a port in Egypt or Libya, which will carry me, driven by a favorable wind, cleaving the waves and steering by the stars.
PENTHEUS
I suspect, stranger, by the haste you seem to be in, either that you are pursuing some very noble and difficult purpose, or else that, banished from your homeland for a murder, you are fleeing the resentment of a powerful enemy. But if you wish to confide in me, know that the son of Cadmus will shield you against all vengeance, or ease your way on the most distant voyage; if you wish to keep your secret, tell me your name, at least, or that of your father, or some byname that will let me greet you one day and recall the bond of hospitality that exists between us.
PERSEUS
You have hit the mark, like a skilled archer.
PENTHEUS
You committed a murder?
PERSEUS
At Larissa, yes, I committed a murder.
PENTHEUS
Who was your victim?
PERSEUS
An old man who had once oppressed me.
PENTHEUS
Was there no king in that land who could have rendered you justice?
PERSEUS
The one I killed was himself a king; he had held my mother captive and tried to have me put to death.
PENTHEUS
And yet you should not have assailed the power that Zeus established on earth. No doubt the crimes you accuse this ruler of were simply swift measures to restore order and peace in a country. Should the welfare of a people be sacrificed to the happiness of one man? And should not the victim of such political necessities bow and sacrifice herself?
PERSEUS
Better to sacrifice the guilty than the victim.
PENTHEUS
Was the king you struck down your kinsman?
PERSEUS
He was the father of my mother.
PENTHEUS
You dared to shed your own blood!
PERSEUS
When my grandfather sought to have me killed, the blood that ran in my veins was no less familiar to him.
PENTHEUS
Do you not fear that misfortune will befall my palace for having sheltered a man stained with so horrible a murder?
PERSEUS
If misfortune were to fall, it would more likely fall on me, who committed it.
PENTHEUS
Perhaps you hope the gods will not have noticed your crime?
PERSEUS
I hope they will attend first to their own.
PENTHEUS
I see that you despise the gods as well!
PERSEUS
I have more right than most to despise them.
PENTHEUS
Explain your meaning.
PERSEUS
I owe my breath to the debaucheries of an Olympian.
PENTHEUS
Let me venerate you, scion of immortal blood.
PERSEUS
I thought the laws established by Cadmus proscribed the child of adultery?
PENTHEUS
What would be a fault in the lowly is amusement in the great.
PERSEUS
You speak like a king!
PENTHEUS
I am accustomed to speaking and acting as one. Born of a god and of royal blood, you should think and speak as I do.
PERSEUS
Kings or gods, may I never follow the example of my ancestors!
PENTHEUS
Which god gave you life?
PERSEUS
The most powerful and the most criminal of all: I mean Zeus.
PENTHEUS
And how did he share the bed of your mother?
PERSEUS
PENTHEUS
And to hide her shame, your grandfather locked her in a tower?
PERSEUS
No; she was already a captive when she conceived me.
PENTHEUS
What was the reason for this captivity?
PERSEUS
What! It is the murderous old man you pity!
PENTHEUS
As a king, I owe my sympathy to kings.
PERSEUS
We shall not have the same friends.
PENTHEUS
And who recovered the frail vessel in which you lay?
PERSEUS
A misshapen dwarf, an inhabitant of a Hercynian forest, who raised me and taught me every exercise of strength and every art of knowledge. Fear alone he could not teach me.
PENTHEUS
Was it in our climes that you lived such a youth?
PERSEUS
No, but far toward the Bear, where reindeer and aurochs dwell.
PENTHEUS
Though you were born under the blue sky of Argos or Sicyon, your blond hair is that of a Cimmerian.
PERSEUS
There, I bore a name still famed on the banks of a great river with seven mouths; and that name foretells the Peace that through my Victory shall reign over the world.
PENTHEUS
What exploits made you famous?
PERSEUS
The killing of Medusa.
PENTHEUS
Who was Medusa?
PERSEUS
In that forest there opened a deep cavern where lay, as precious treasures, the will to know, free inquiry, the hatred of oppression, and that cavern was called Ekhthrantre, and a monster with a woman’s face guarded its entrance, not by force, but by the power of an old tale — namely, that no one dared to look upon her visage, said to be capable of petrifying the boldest — and by superstitious influence a great Medusa held men in chains, men who preferred to let themselves be oppressed by their masters and terrified by the sinister flight of a bird or the hoarse cries of a pythoness. And since I knew no fear, I came, and I killed Medusa.
PENTHEUS
Is it because of you, then, that now no one respects anything?
PERSEUS
The example I set, few have followed; but men are beginning to know that they can, if they choose, kill the Medusa that oppresses them.
PENTHEUS
In Ekhthrantre lay a treasure. What prize did you take from it?
PERSEUS
This sword. Can you read the characters engraved on the blade, hierodule of the Past?
PENTHEUS
No.
PERSEUS
These words, written in a language so ancient that perhaps it never existed, say: Take me. Do you better understand what is inscribed on the other face?
PENTHEUS
No.
PERSEUS
This second language will not be spoken for fifty centuries, and here is what the dwarf taught me to read: Leave me.
PENTHEUS
What is the meaning of this riddle?
PERSEUS
The time will have come then when I may lay down the sword.
PENTHEUS
How many bitter centuries, how many struggles, how many hatreds!
PERSEUS
Victory is my joy; my joy shall be peace.
PENTHEUS
You go now, my guest, to a coming battle?
PERSEUS
I go to deliver a woman beset by great dangers.
PENTHEUS
You are going once more to fight against kings and laws.
PERSEUS
And the gods who ordained her captivity.
PENTHEUS
Where does this guilty woman languish?
PERSEUS
Why do you say this guilty woman?
PENTHEUS
She is guilty, since the gods have condemned her.
PERSEUS
On the barren coast of Libya, the victim of the gods awaits a savior.
PENTHEUS
Within the walls of a dark tower.
PERSEUS
Chained to a rock, facing the sea.
PENTHEUS
To whom is she offered, an expiatory sacrifice?
PERSEUS
To the hatred of ox-eyed Hera.
PENTHEUS
What is the cause of this hatred?
PERSEUS
Hera curses the surpassing beauty of Andromeda. She knows that from her and from me shall spring, heir to my sword, the lineage of avenging rebels. Guardian of the ancient laws, she hates in me the adulterous child of Zeus, through whom those laws must one day fall.
PENTHEUS
Stranger, I fear the gods. They are, invisible, around us; no place is without some mysterious spirit dwelling in it. Unknown masters of this life, radiant masters of the life below, they hold over us a power that is absolute.
PERSEUS
Over those who fear them, the power of the gods is absolute. But let a man teach you to banish these vain terrors from your mind!
PENTHEUS
The hatred of the gods has risen against me, faithful worshiper at their honored altars!
PERSEUS
Evil is the order under which you bend mankind; false is the freedom with which you lull them, a freedom for the few purchased by the enslavement of the many! But this name alone of freedom, whatever ideas may one day animate and fill it, is hateful to the gods. And because the work of Cadmus is the organization of wealth, the protection of human industry, the gods, whose dreaming and despotic cult is repugnant to active and wholesome labor, seek to destroy that work, as once they destroyed that of Prometheus.
PENTHEUS
The dark mourning of which my name is the emblem invades my mind. I shall see the death of the ancient cities.
PERSEUS
The gods detest whatever elevates man. Remember the Provident One, who gave flame to the mortals and who shall groan, chained to the Caucasus and devoured by the winged hound of Zeus, the ravenous eagle, until the day when my descendant shall come to deliver him! Remember the sagacious Canaanite, inventor of the alphabet, who crawls, changed into a serpent, and who, cursed everywhere, wanders through the world, because, happy torchbearer, he knew how to transmit ancient wisdom! Heir of Cadmus, tremble for yourself! And now, farewell! Far still is Tanagra, farther still the Libya where Andromeda awaits me.
PENTHEUS
On your return, pass through Thebes, my guest.
PERSEUS
I shall return to Thebes, wise son of Echion.
PENTHEUS
You have told me by what name the peoples of the North know you; tell me what your name is in the Achaean land.
PERSEUS
I am the son of Danae — Perseus! Farewell, Pentheus.
PENTHEUS, alone
Ungrateful gods, why do you seek to lead my mind astray! Zeus, king of burnt offerings, lavished with victims, answer my supplication; protect me against the impostor Iacchus, who would overturn your altars, and whose mother you struck with lightning when she falsely boasted of having shared your bed.
GLAUCUS, entering
Hail, King Pentheus.
PENTHEUS
It is you, Glaucus! Have you, as I ordered, observed the movements of Bacchus?
GLAUCUS
Yes, master, I mingled with the crowd of his disciples.
PENTHEUS
The crowd, you say? Are they that many?
GLAUCUS
More than two thousand persons of every age and both sexes.
PENTHEUS
Where did you join this rabble?
GLAUCUS
On the road, just outside the Electra gate.
PENTHEUS
Where did Bacchus lead you?
GLAUCUS
Up the Mountain.
PENTHEUS
To Cithaeron?
GLAUCUS
To Cithaeron.
PENTHEUS
What teaching did he give?
GLAUCUS
He glorified his father, the illustrious Zeus, and told how he himself was born of a young woman of the royal line to regenerate the worship of the gods. He affirmed to us that his destiny was to die and to rise again, and that he took for this reason the surname of Dithyrambus; he foretold that he would descend into the underworld —
PENTHEUS
That is most interesting indeed! Does he preach like this often on the Mountain?
GLAUCUS
Yes, master, for his disciples have given him the surname Bacchus Oreios.
PENTHEUS
Well then, if he is so eager to descend into the underworld, we shall make that journey easier for him.
GLAUCUS
Master, he affirms that he shall be crushed, and shall be reborn stronger and younger, to reign thereafter for a thousand years.
PENTHEUS
Did he dare speak against the established order?
GLAUCUS
He does not appear to respect it much. He claims, for example, that one should not worry about one’s food, nor about the clothing of one’s body, and that Iacchus will provide for his faithful.
PENTHEUS
But that is a ridiculous doctrine. When his disciples no longer have the resource of begging from those who still work, what will they do?
GLAUCUS
He also said: Judge not others and you shall not be judged. I noted everything on my tablets.
PENTHEUS
But that is the doctrine of a murderer seeking impunity! That man has a murder on his conscience.
GLAUCUS
Furthermore, he reveals the mysteries.
PENTHEUS
A crime worthy of death. Repeat to me some more of his teachings.
GLAUCUS
He openly incites division within families; he says: I have not come to bring peace to Thebes; I have come to bring not peace, but the lance — and saying this he waved his thyrsus, which concealed a lance-head. — I have come to set son against father, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and a man shall have his own household for enemies.
PENTHEUS
Never would Zeus have inspired such a doctrine.
GLAUCUS
Yet they say Zeus dethroned his own father.
PENTHEUS
Precisely. The doctrine would lend too much force to the example.
GLAUCUS
Bacchus is a great wonder-worker; he performs miracles.
PENTHEUS
The ancient gods proved their power otherwise than by subtle tricks.
GLAUCUS
They say he raises the dead.
PENTHEUS
Why then has he not raised his mother, and his grandfather Cadmus!
GLAUCUS
It is affirmed that the other day, at Anthedon, drinking with his disciples and lacking wine, he changed the water contained in six great amphorae into wine, and made it flow from every fountain.
PENTHEUS
Report only what you yourself have seen.
GLAUCUS
On the mountain, when around midday those assembled grew hungry, he had bread and fish distributed among them.
PENTHEUS
A meager meal; is that the miracle?
GLAUCUS
Yes; but it is claimed that for this distribution he had in all only five loaves and two fish.
PENTHEUS
You make me laugh in too grave a matter. Tell me more of the subversive declamations of this so-called god.
GLAUCUS
He says that ablutions and sacrifices offered to the gods are useless.
PENTHEUS
That is because his own power is not yet acknowledged.
GLAUCUS
He condemns work and intelligence. He claims that one must live like little children.
PENTHEUS
He dares preach this doctrine to the sons of Cadmus, renowned for their ingenious industry!
GLAUCUS
Moreover, he proscribes marriage. I believe he permits the pleasures of the senses only in secret.
PENTHEUS
If he proscribes marriage, he must be encouraging debauchery. O tempora! O mores!
GLAUCUS
He is followed by a troop of contemptible men, mountebanks, prostitutes, all eager to hear him without always understanding him.
PENTHEUS
A fine retinue, and most worthy of him.
GLAUCUS
The other day, at the temple of Delion, he drove out the sellers of incense and myrrh who were gathered at the entrance. That struck me as singular for someone who claims to be a god!
PENTHEUS
Describe to me the appearance of the impostor.
GLAUCUS
He is tall, thin, pale, with gentle, almost feminine features; his beard is blond; in public he always inclines his head a little and assumes a pensive air. It is said that during the Bacchanalia he is quite another man.
PENTHEUS
What did you do after all these discourses?
GLAUCUS
The disciples of Bacchus spent the night on the Mountain.
PENTHEUS
They did not celebrate the Bacchanalia that evening?
GLAUCUS
No, for the wine was lacking.
PENTHEUS
You missed no doubt a curious spectacle.
GLAUCUS
To tell the truth, I regretted it.
PENTHEUS
Around what hour did Bacchus leave Cithaeron?
GLAUCUS
Early in the morning, marching toward Thebes.
PENTHEUS
What did they do along the road?
GLAUCUS
They gave themselves over to the worst disorders.
PENTHEUS
What were these disorders?
GLAUCUS
I fear your anger.
PENTHEUS
Speak; only the guilty shall be punished.
GLAUCUS
The women, their hair streaming, their fawnskins flying in the wind, half-naked, some of them holding in their arms young goats or wolf-cubs to which they offered the breast, advanced at the front, crowned with oak, ivy, and smilax. One of them struck a rock with her thyrsus and made a spring of pure water burst forth.
PENTHEUS
You saw this?
GLAUCUS
It was told to me; for my part I saw only the spring.
PENTHEUS
Continue your account.
GLAUCUS
Another let her staff fall upon the ground, and a copious stream of wine gushed forth.
PENTHEUS
GLAUCUS
PENTHEUS
Good. Continue.
GLAUCUS
Suddenly one of the Bacchantes saw a large band of shepherds lying in ambush in a dense thicket, and cried out: O my faithful companions, swift hounds of Bacchus, men are pursuing us, but let us attack them, arming our hands with our thyrsi! — And behold, the shepherds, struck with a panic terror, fled before the approach of the Bacchantes; and the women, letting them flee, fell upon the herds that grazed in the meadow. They seized a fat heifer and tore it to pieces, still bellowing; shreds of flesh, bones, and quivering limbs flew in every direction and hung from the neighboring trees whose branches dripped with blood. The bulls, horns lowered, were engulfed by the swarm of young women who seized and tore them apart. As a vulture that cleaves the air in swift flight — and the prey it has chosen from the heights of the sky succumbs before even seeing it — so the Bacchantes swept into the rich plain of the Asopus, where the golden harvests, hope of Thebes, rippled in the sun; and descending like enemies upon the towns of Hysia and Erythra, situated at the foot of Cithaeron, they brought devastation; from the burning houses they snatched children and hurled them to the ground; they passed through the flames without appearing to suffer. The inhabitants ran for their weapons; but then was seen, O king, a most strange spectacle: the iron-tipped javelins did not wound, while the thyrsi of the Bacchantes struck inevitable blows; these frail women, exalted by a god, put the men to flight. At last they arrived at the banks of the Asopus, and there they washed the blood that covered their faces, their arms, and their breasts; then, since in the pillaging they had found wine, they gathered in groups and gave themselves over to the sacred orgies; then rising and dividing into three choruses, they wove their dances until the moment when the perpendicular rays of the sun saw them lie down, exhausted, in the meadows, mingled pell-mell with the followers of the god. But when the sun began to sink toward the horizon, they rose, adjusted their garments, and suddenly I cried out: To Thebes, to Thebes! Let us go to Thebes! — and this cry, repeated a thousand and a thousand times, resounded through the valley of Cithaeron. Bacchus took the head of the procession, waving his thyrsus, followed by the Bacchantes with their streaming hair. And I had thought that this drunken throng would be easy prey once lured into the vicinity of Thebes. But soon we arrived at the Electra gate: it was shut, and armed guards crowned the towers. Bacchus then halted his disciples and led them back to a small grove nearby; I managed to conceal myself and returned by the Neilid gate.
PENTHEUS
You are a faithful servant and I shall make use of you on occasion. To know how to direct a riot, to steer it toward the point where it is least dangerous, to persuade conspirators to vent their fury on a statue or monument instead of striking a powerful man — this is no contemptible part of the great art of governing. But to handle the crowd so deftly requires the long traditions found, for example, in the house of Cadmus; new men would not play so subtly with such difficulties. Count therefore on my gratitude. I shall assemble the citizens to attack the disorderly band of Bacchantes.
Glaucus exits.
O mighty Zeus, it is for you that I fight! This stranger who calls himself your son would dethrone you if I let him have his way. The fickle favor of the crowd goes willingly to the youngest gods. This one, by the specious appeal of his new cult, would draw to himself the light and frivolous women, the men of unruly imagination, and the brigands only too happy to cloak their crimes.
XENON, entering
King Pentheus, Tiresias and Diomedon are here.
PENTHEUS
Let them enter.
Xenon exits. Enter Tiresias and Diomedon.
TIRESIAS
Hail, Pentheus, son of Echion! I received your message at my observatory and have come to hear your intentions.
PENTHEUS
Tiresias, I know and revere your high wisdom. If the goddess Pallas took from you your human and material sight, she gave you in return a wholly divine gaze upon the things of the present and the future. Now a great danger threatens the race of Cadmus. A bastard sprung from that race, fruit of Semele’s transgression, returns from Lydia, where he has passed himself off as a god. He brings with him a rabble of prostitutes and vagabonds who live in disorder and drunkenness, ravage the lands through which they pass, and at this moment, camped before the Electra gate, threaten Thebes herself. This Bacchus, or Iacchus, called Sabazius, called Bromius, bearing in short more names than an honest man ordinarily carries, preaches a morality that would be subversive of all society. I intend therefore to take advantage of his impudent boldness, march out with a few soldiers, and destroy these wretches. But before beginning this expedition, noble Tiresias, I wish to be certain of the Thebans, and I count on you to keep them in their duty, in respect for their king, and in the worship of the ancient gods.
TIRESIAS
I approve your intentions, Pentheus. But do you not reflect that if you convict Bacchus of imposture, you tarnish the blood of your grandfather Cadmus? Even if this young man were not a god, you should still affirm that he is, and by an honorable falsehood assure Semele the glory of having given birth to a god, and save the honor of your house.
PENTHEUS
Certainly the respect owed to the royal family is an important matter, but nevertheless I cannot tolerate the disorders of this man.
TIRESIAS
Moreover, the preaching of Bacchus will have a happy effect upon religion. The cults of the ancient gods are today nothing more than empty formalities; from time to time a new impulse is needed, a younger prophet who shakes the dust of indifference from the traditional cults.
PENTHEUS
And what do you make in all this of the royal power?
TIRESIAS
Religion is the natural ally of power.
PENTHEUS
As man is the natural ally of the horse.
TIRESIAS
Do not blaspheme the gods!
PENTHEUS
So Tiresias himself is against me.
TIRESIAS
I would see serious advantages in establishing the cult of Bacchus here.
PENTHEUS
What advantages?
TIRESIAS
First, a great pilgrimage would be established in Thebes, a throng of people bringing their offerings, for which they would pay tithes at the toll-gates, the city gates, and the inns. The city would grow in renown; and finally, for several years, the Thebans would not concern themselves with politics.
PENTHEUS
Bacchus is god; Tiresias is his prophet.
TIRESIAS
I shall at least have had the honor of having divined it.
from which they would pay tithes at the toll-gates, at the city gates, at the inns. The city would gain in renown; and finally, for several years, the Thebans would not concern themselves with politics.
PENTHEUS Bacchus is god, Tiresias is his prophet.
TIRESIAS I shall at least have had the honor of divining him first.
PENTHEUS Tiresias, I have the greatest respect for your age and your wisdom. I am therefore all the more surprised to see you humble your white hair in the footsteps of an adolescent. Suppose nevertheless that you had converted me; what would you counsel me to do?
TIRESIAS It would be necessary to admit Bacchus into Thebes, to consecrate a temple to him and regulate his cult; a college of priests would be established, governed by a High Priest of the god —
PENTHEUS Tiresias, for example —
TIRESIAS — and a college of Bacchantes to which only women of irreproachable morals would be admitted, chosen with care, passing rigorous examinations —
DIOMEDON Do you think, by such proposals, to stir the proud soul of Pentheus, Tiresias? Listen to me, Pentheus; do you fear what comes after death?
PENTHEUS Yes, I have that fear.
DIOMEDON When, on a winter’s evening, you sit in your banquet hall, surrounded by your faithful, drinking mead and dark wine, and you feel yourself happy to be thus wrapped in light and joy, you sometimes see a bird enter through a half-open door, cross the warm and bright hall, and vanish as it had come. So do we pass, O Pentheus, having emerged from an unknown night only to disappear into a deeper night, and of the millions of souls that have gone down to Hades, not one has returned to tell us what the wandering shades are like there, and to know the road, we too must make that journey. And behold: Iacchus reveals to us that life beyond, and in exchange for a brief span of privations and devotions to his cult, he assures the ephemeral an eternity of blessedness. Is it not, O king, the wisest course to hear him and to obey?
PENTHEUS And thus would crumble the splendor of the proud city!
DIOMEDON For the building of an eternal and divine city!
PENTHEUS The glory of the race of Cadmus would be tarnished.
DIOMEDON How blessed the one who would humble himself in view of an immortal glory!
PENTHEUS No! — Both of you, leave! You, I pardon, but Bacchus shall perish, and I go this instant to assemble the citizens to exterminate his band.
DIOMEDON Farewell, Pentheus!
TIRESIAS Farewell, Pentheus of the mournful name!
They exit.
PENTHEUS, alone O Perseus! Would that you had stayed to fight this new enemy!
He begins to arm himself. Suddenly Bacchus appears at the door.
BACCHUS Son of Echion, Pentheus, impious man, weary of waiting for you at the gates of Thebes, I have come to seek you out even in your palace!
PENTHEUS Ha! — He draws his sword, rushes toward Bacchus, but stops upon seeing two slaves advance behind him to seize him. Ha! Ha! The wild beast has come to catch itself in the trap! Impudent one! Do you think to dazzle me with the same illusions as your credulous worshipers? You know poorly the son of Echion, O son of Semele! The shadow of your divinity shall soon be dispelled. The slaves bind Bacchus’s hands. Are you not a god, Bacchus? You will know well how to free yourself alone! With fury: Thaumaturge! Worker of miracles! Your bonds are not yet broken! You knew how to draw water from the rocks and change it to wine; can you not manage a simple rope?
He draws his sword and approaches Bacchus. Fear nothing, son of Semele; this sword, upon touching your throat, will shatter like glass. If by chance I should kill you, you would quite naturally resume your divine form. He places the point of his sword on the throat of the impassive Bacchus, then sheathes it, and speaking to the slaves who hold Bacchus: Throw this man into the cellar beneath the stable, after binding all his limbs; seal the cellar with a heavy stone, and stand all night at the entrance! If he escapes, you shall answer for him with your heads! You shall die tomorrow, Bacchus!
Bacchus is led away. — For some moments the daylight has been fading greatly.
PENTHEUS, stretching his arm toward the door: O Zeus, give me a manifest sign that truly I fight for you, and that I shall win the victory.
A flash of lightning illuminates the scene; a thunderclap resounds; Pentheus exits.
Curtain.
SYMAION He assured me that before I died I would see the new god.
PENTHEUS It is the impostor Bacchus you call by that name?
SYMAION It is the divine Bromius, son of Zeus, who must live, die, and rise again, and renew the ancient cults.
PENTHEUS The ancient cults no longer sufficed for you, then?
SYMAION A new faith called to my still youthful heart.
PENTHEUS And you saw Bromius —
SYMAION On Cithaeron, among the divine Bacchanals.
PENTHEUS And what do you say? Do you thank Zeus for having prolonged your life beyond its natural term?
SYMAION I say from the depths of my heart: O Zeus, I was for you a faithful servant, and now, following the inspiration of the sacred daimon, you let me go and fall asleep with my fathers, content to have seen before dying the new god, your son.
PENTHEUS Your white hair shall not descend in peace into Hades.
SYMAION What does it matter? I have seen what I needed to see!
PENTHEUS Curse the old age that let you reach a dishonorable death.
SYMAION It shall not be dishonorable to die in honor of Bacchus.
PENTHEUS I shall grant you that satisfaction. To the slaves: Take him away. To Damis, who is brought before him while others lead Symaion away. And you, man of happy countenance, who are you?
DAMIS I am Damis; for three years I have followed in the footsteps of Bacchus.
PENTHEUS What was your trade before?
DAMIS I farmed the toll-gates at Cyzicus. He saw me sitting and said to me: Rise and follow me, and I obeyed.
PENTHEUS You believe, then, that Bacchus is the son of Zeus?
DAMIS Yes, proceeding from Hermes, the divine spirit of Zeus.
PENTHEUS Explain yourself.
DAMIS The god begets himself and reappears in a new generation after passing through the womb of a goddess, at once his wife and his mother.
PENTHEUS I do not understand.
DAMIS Yet it is quite simple. Zagreus —
PENTHEUS Who is Zagreus?
DAMIS Son of Kore and of Hades, the same as Iacchus.
PENTHEUS Who is that one now?
DAMIS He is the infant Bacchus, otherwise called Coros, husband and son of Kore.
PENTHEUS Continue.
DAMIS Iacchus is therefore the son of Kore; he is father and son at once; hence his surname Dimetor.
PENTHEUS I was unaware of that surname. Go on.
DAMIS Two divine couples balance and complement each other. Dionysus Eleutherios and Kore Soteira correspond precisely to Dionysus Soter and Kore Eleutheria.
PENTHEUS That leaps to the eye.
DAMIS Iacchus is the twofold son of these two couples; he slays himself and survives himself.
PENTHEUS That is clear!
DAMIS And this duality is thus transformed into a Trinity.
PENTHEUS By what means?
DAMIS Do you not know Bacchus Triphyes or Trigonos?
PENTHEUS I was absolutely unaware of it.
DAMIS He is triple; three years in the underworld, he was the husband of Persephone.
PENTHEUS In three hours he may once again be the husband of Persephone.
DAMIS He must three times be born, die, and rise again.
PENTHEUS And Semele?
DAMIS Good minds hold that she was the nurse of Bacchus. But that interpretation is strongly tainted with euhemerism. I incline rather to believe that she never existed.
PENTHEUS Semele, my mother’s sister, never existed!
DAMIS No; she is a solar and terrestrial myth at once. Semele, Themele, or again Thyone, personifies the Earth.
PENTHEUS And I — am I a solar myth?
DAMIS Perhaps. I shall study the question after your death.
PENTHEUS You expect, then, to outlive me?
DAMIS I am immortal. Can you conceive of a god, a prophet, or a sage without a Damis to collect his fine thoughts?
PENTHEUS How now does this Bacchus, who is one with his father, come to be the son of Hermes?
DAMIS Bacchus is not the son of Hermes, but Hermes transmitted the child from his mother to his nurse.
PENTHEUS What is the meaning of the cult of wine?
DAMIS The wine represents — and this is the most beautiful thing, and the most just — the blood of Bacchus, just as in the mysteries of Demeter and Kore of the underworld, the wheat represents his body, or rather his body represents the wheat. What you perhaps do not suspect is that Kore was a virgin when she bore Bacchus; her name at least allows one to suppose so; and this moreover delivers the death-blow to euhemerist interpretations. What is certain is that Hermes, the divine spirit, proceeds from Zeus through Bacchus, and Bacchus from Zeus through Hermes, and that they are of a similar or like nature.
PENTHEUS There is something elegant, simple, and comprehensible! And my two cities pillaged, my cattle slaughtered, my servants slain, idleness, murder, rebellion preached everywhere in my domains — how does euhemerism account for all of that?
DAMIS What — there has been pillaging! It is incredible; it is inadmissible; they are agents provocateurs —
PENTHEUS Cease your mockery. Have you understood that your hour has come?
DAMIS Bacchus is immortal; if he wills it he can save me.
PENTHEUS He has raised the dead, has he not?
DAMIS He has also put to death insolent living men. Let the fate of Lycurgus, king of Thrace, instruct you and bring you back to wisdom.
PENTHEUS What happened to Lycurgus?
DAMIS He had tried to uproot the vine from his country; Bacchus struck him with a raging madness, during which that king violated his mother, killed his wife and his son, cut off his own foot with an axe, was hurled from the heights of Rhodope, and torn apart by panthers.
PENTHEUS All this is dreadful, but is it not also a solar myth?
DAMIS That has been argued. Lycurgus would signify winter — leader of wolves — threatening to the vine. In that line of reasoning, anything can be defended.
PENTHEUS Do not think, Damis, because you have made me laugh, that your life will be spared. If your madness seems less dangerous than that of the plunderers and murderers of the rest of the band, it is more threatening for the future. Ah! If ever Bacchus and you had the power, with what meticulous ferocity would you not exterminate all those who thought differently from you about the life of your master and the morality of his exploits! In Damis, I shall punish the baneful rage of mystical subtleties! At a gesture from Pentheus, Damis is led away and Autonoe is brought before him. Remove your veil, woman, and tell me your name.
AUTONOE I would rather, if I must, die veiled and unknown.
PENTHEUS Your voice is not new to my ear, though you try to disguise it. To the slaves: Remove that veil.
AUTONOE, unveiling herself Know now who I am.
PENTHEUS My sister among the captives! Is it an error, or did you take part in the infamous Bacchanals?
AUTONOE I glory in having celebrated the sacred Bacchanals.
PENTHEUS Do not seek to provoke me; do you expect punishment from me?
AUTONOE What I fear most is to see your heart led astray to the very end!
PENTHEUS Tell me why you went to the Bacchanals.
AUTONOE. She kneels before her brother and gently takes his hand. To worship the sweet, the divine Bacchus!
PENTHEUS You love this man!
AUTONOE I adore this god.
PENTHEUS When did you first see him?
AUTONOE It was an autumn day when I was returning from the Mysteries of Kore, dreamy and with my soul disposed to receive the divine breath. I saw in a square a great crowd surrounding a young man, pale, and who seemed to me beautiful. The men, kneeling, stretched out their hands toward him; the women, their hair streaming in the dust, sought with their lips the hems of his garments. But he, dreaming, was silent and seemed to gaze within himself, and, since I was veiled and accompanied by a single servant, I dared to stop, and I listened to him.
PENTHEUS What did he say?
AUTONOE He denounced Kings, Priests, the Rich; his words repelled me and drew me. He cursed the house of Cadmus; he foretold the destruction of Thebes. I was pierced with horror, but with a kind of religious horror; when I had gone, my thought remained turned toward him, and at times I cursed my rank and my fortune. — Then I saw him in a dream, clothed in white, and he told me that he must die, offered in sacrifice to his father Zagreus, to his father who, he said, was himself.
Often thus I have seen him in dreams. But here is how I saw him again. — One of my slaves, a faithful one —
PENTHEUS Name for me the procuress of Bacchus!
AUTONOE She is dead now — How peacefully she died, happy, speaking of betrothal, of divine marriage with Iacchus — I was almost jealous of that nuptial death — One evening she had led me into the dark underground chamber where Iacchus taught in secret — Many a disciple was there, but I saw only him —
PENTHEUS What baleful conjurations, what atrocious words did this wicked man utter?
AUTONOE He said: Love one another; as I have loved you, love one another. I leave you my peace, I give you my peace; I do not give it to you as the world gives it. Let not your heart be troubled, and fear not.
PENTHEUS, troubled What do these words mean?
AUTONOE, in ecstasy Bacchus saw me, and came toward me; but I fell to my knees before him, and I said to him: Master, I give you my entire love. — He answered me: Woman, you do not give me your entire love, for you have not sacrificed in the depths of your heart the last memory of your earthly affections. I said to him: Master, I shall love only you. — You must love, Iacchus said to me, only him who loves me, and you must not love him who hates me, for no one can serve two masters. Him who loves me, you love in me, and if you love him who hates me, you hate me to the degree that you love him.
PENTHEUS, to himself I have not come to bring peace — — the father shall have his son for an enemy — —
AUTONOE How sorrowful I was when I believed myself abandoned by the god! My soul seemed to die within me — — what night fell upon me, what night of Hades! It was then that I learned of your crime, my brother, and that you held captive the god and savior.
PENTHEUS Yes! That man, that impostor, is in my power. He shall expiate his crimes by a slow and ignominious death.
AUTONOE No! Iacchus is your captive no more: I have seen him free, this night!
PENTHEUS Bacchus is free!
AUTONOE Bacchus is free! Hear me! When I learned that he was captive, I fled, mad with grief, shrieking through the streets. I went to the worshipers of the god. With them I wept until the moment when your soldiers came to attack that unarmed crowd. I would not flee; I could not die; men dragged me away, captive, uttering insults that I scarcely understood. With the other prisoners, I spent the night in the courtyard of the palace. As I stood there, chilled with cold, bathed in tears, I saw beside me, in a faint light, a man, clothed in white, whom I did not recognize. He said to me: Woman, why do you weep? And I said to him: I weep because I have lost Iacchus, my master and my god — and, thinking it was a servant of the palace, I added: Can you not tell me where they hold him captive? — But he called me by my name: Autonoe! I recognized him then, and I said: O divine Bacchus! — But he said: Do not touch me, but go to my brothers and tell them that I go to reign in the name of my father Zeus.
PENTHEUS Lies! Madness! Bacchus is captive, bound with strong bonds, in the depths of a dark cellar. And now his hour has come. All that I see, all that I hear, increases my hatred. Treachery has seated itself at my hearth; my sister prostitutes herself to my worst enemy; but the greater the danger, the more terrible shall be the vengeance. Bring me Bacchus! Slaves exit; enter Glaucos. This man dishonors by his birth the blood of the Cadmeans. To Autonoe: In your person, he sought to dishonor it further still, but now his hour has come. — To Tiresias: You shall attend the judgment of your accomplice. Be seated, and listen.
TIRESIAS This judgment shall not confound whom you think.
Glaucos enters, followed by slaves who bring Bacchus, his hands bound upon his belly. Bacchus raises his eyes, looks first at Tiresias and Autonoe; then his gaze settles proudly on Pentheus. The slaves and Glaucos take their places at the left.
PENTHEUS, to Autonoe You had, this night, a dream soon disproved. See with your own eyes your Iacchus, captive. — To the slaves: Bring in all those who wait before the gates. I wish the city to attend the judgment of this man!
The slaves exit; gradually, the entire left of the stage fills with spectators. Pentheus, having taken a few steps, stops suddenly before Bacchus, and accosts him abruptly with irony.
PENTHEUS Indeed, stranger, your features are made to please the women you would seduce. Your long flowing hair breathes softness and grace; your white and delicate skin has not lost its luster in the cellar where I had sheltered you from the sun. Tell me your origin; I should like to hear that tale once more.
BACCHUS Why should I waste words telling you what you could not understand? I refer you to my disciple Damis.
PENTHEUS I have already questioned Damis, and I had hoped you would be clearer than he.
BACCHUS What is clear to the wise is obscure to the fool. You confuse clarity and precision.
PENTHEUS Why do you bring into Hellas mysteries unknown?
BACCHUS For a long time my mysteries have been celebrated in fertile Lydia.
PENTHEUS Must the Hellenes take barbarians for their model?
BACCHUS In not knowing me, they are more barbarous than the barbarians.
PENTHEUS In what does this cult consist?
BACCHUS We celebrate the Sacred Orgies.
PENTHEUS These Orgies — what are they?
BACCHUS It is forbidden to reveal them to the uninitiated.
PENTHEUS What advantages do those who take part in them derive?
BACCHUS You cannot know, but they are worthy of being proclaimed.
PENTHEUS Why can I not know?
BACCHUS Because you have not learned, through attendance at the mysteries, the true meaning of my precepts.
PENTHEUS You are two-faced; you give with one hand and take back with the other.
BACCHUS On what evidence do you condemn my teaching?
PENTHEUS On the reports of faithful agents.
BACCHUS, pointing to Glaucos Do you believe such men capable of grasping the meaning of the mysteries?
PENTHEUS You evade when you should explain. Will you dodge the sword as well?
BACCHUS He who loves me understands me. The fool pours perfume into a soiled vessel.
PENTHEUS You insist, son of Semele, on having the last word!
BACCHUS I shall have divine eternity in which to speak, and you shall soon be silent!
PENTHEUS I shall not ask you to explain all the ravings reported about your birth. I shall make your faithful Damis pay dearly for the tedium he inflicted on me just now with those stories. Whether you are double, triple, your own father or your own son — that is of little interest since, this day done, you shall have ceased to be. It is to you I now address myself, Tiresias, last survivor of the Sown Men, venerable in your age though your weakened mind yielded for a moment to temptation. The social order established by Cadmus rests upon labor and hereditary family rule. The venerable father, who directs the industry of his children and his servants, is their natural intermediary with the gods; he appeases the Masters on high by traditional rites, easy to follow and restful for the soul. A paternal hierarchy extends from the dynast of Olympus to the humblest of slaves. Each man knows what respect he owes his master, and what protection he owes his servant. These sacred bonds, Bacchus shatters; he isolates the individual; he bends him, he prostrates him, he crushes him into the dust before all-powerful gods and dreaded priests. He excites and lashes the senses by the lure of fear and the image of forbidden transgression multiplied by his cult; he preaches to men a demoralizing idleness, which may lead them as readily to the senseless privations we are told of among the sages of the Orient, as to the debaucheries of the Bacchanals. — Giving to our efforts a mystical aim external to life, he would leave man to vegetate motionless and savage, without hope of well-being or progress, such as he was before the coming of the most wise ravisher of fire and the revered son of Agenor and Telephassa, inventor of the signs that speak to the mind, and founder of this city.
At these words, all bow, except Bacchus.
TIRESIAS I am two lifetimes older than you, O Pentheus; I have seen cults born and die, and I believe that none is dangerous, because their innermost spirit is never understood and observed by the fickle multitude. Introduce tomorrow the cult of Bacchus; what things will be changed in the city? There will be each year two or three more festivals; a new college of priests and priestesses will be created, as I had proposed to you. The material life of the city will be scarcely altered, for one cannot live an entire year in Bacchanals.
PENTHEUS The moral life of the city will be profoundly disturbed.
TIRESIAS I will tell you, Pentheus, that one must not hold the reins too tightly, nor the sluice-gate too high. Women above all are truly bored in the Women’s Quarters, and boredom is the most detestable counselor. The day they feel their souls somewhat restless, allow them to go pour themselves out in prayers more spontaneous and more intimate than those of the ancient rite; you will have averted evil thoughts, if not grave faults. A very free country, leaving each person free to develop as he sees fit, can content itself with a cold and austere religion. But here, where the law is dominant, where each person follows the path marked for his steps, at least set the imaginations free. In a word, if you wish to keep the political fetters tight, at least break the religious bonds.
PENTHEUS If I yield on one point, everything will be wrested from me. One must present to every kind of demand an unassailable wall.
TIRESIAS You are still young and unyielding; I am old and full of experience, and if Bacchus properly understands the political necessities — —
BACCHUS, vehemently Blind old man, who has an icicle in place of a heart, do you forget that I am a god, that my truth is one and absolute, and that to prove by political reasons the divinity of my mission is to utter a blasphemy?
Tiresias makes a gesture of discouragement.
PENTHEUS I prefer you to speak thus. At least you shall die without having contradicted yourself. But I wish to know as well how you will excuse the crimes of which you stand accused.
BACCHUS What crimes? My life has always been pure and in accord with my teaching.
PENTHEUS In Aetolia, you were the guest of Oeneus.
BACCHUS He did indeed receive my doctrine.
PENTHEUS Althaea, his wife, also received your doctrine.
BACCHUS I do not understand your smile. Althaea also received my doctrine.
PENTHEUS On that point I have no proof. Nor have I known anything but vague reports about the debaucheries in which, under your direction, the Mimallones and Clodones of Thrace engaged. At that time, you had taken the name of Sabazius — —
BACCHUS Are those all your grievances?
PENTHEUS In Laconia, you were the guest of Dion. You seduced his daughter Carya, and you changed her into a walnut tree.
BACCHUS Is it from the walnut tree that you have this information?
PENTHEUS The story is well known.
BACCHUS To accusations so ridiculous, I shall not reply.
PENTHEUS The miracles you display on Cithaeron to credulous and simple souls — do you believe them entirely free of absurdity?
BACCHUS If your mind were not intoxicated with pride, they would have long since cast you at my feet.
PENTHEUS What will you say of your visit to Icarius?
BACCHUS You are going to exploit a deplorable accident.
PENTHEUS Yes or no — did you draw the shepherds of Icarius into your orgy?
BACCHUS Icarius died by chance, falling into a ditch.
PENTHEUS The wandering Erigone brought a formal accusation against you.
BACCHUS She was mad; she took her own life.
PENTHEUS It is not always good to be your host.
BACCHUS It is always bad to be my enemy.
PENTHEUS You seduced and drove mad the daughters of Minyas.
BACCHUS Just punishment for their impiety!
PENTHEUS As for the story of Prosymnus, I could not repeat it before Autonoe. — — But words are from yesterday and deeds are from today. Slaves! Seize this impostor! Hang him upon the walls of the city, facing the noonday sun, that he may expiate his crimes in a long and atrocious death.
BACCHUS And I too raise my voice! You all know the power of my hatred; greater still is that of my love. Tremble with fear today before me; tomorrow, with the shudder of divine ecstasy. All! On your knees!
Nearly all the spectators prostrate themselves; only a few slaves remain standing, held back by fear of Pentheus.
PENTHEUS Seize him! No one moves. Slowly Bacchus advances toward the right. He brushes past the bewildered, motionless Pentheus. As he advances, he extends his right hand toward the slaves, and these prostrate themselves one after another. Suddenly Pentheus recovers his courage and rushes toward Bacchus. Bacchus turns toward him, and Pentheus, overcome by the same power, stops in fright. He casts his gaze around him and sees the crowd prostrate, and in a muffled voice: So you have deceived me, Zeus, author of eternal betrayals! The broad and flowering road that Prometheus and Cadmus had shown to man — you do not wish man to follow it! And you yourself, incapable of showing him those paths of strange dream where you would lure him, you send this man, this new god, your son! Woe to you! Your son is barren, and shall die one day, and drag you down into death! Woe to you! The last-born divine one shall die in his turn! The haughty Olympus where you dwell shall blaze with the burning rays of the desire for knowledge kindled by Prometheus in the heart of man! It shall collapse, your proud Olympus, it shall collapse with you, and with all the great Ouranian gods! Woe to you! I shall be avenged, and I know my avenger, and your divine power, O Bacchus, shall not stay his hand, for he knows not fear. — Behold before you the last descendant of Cadmus, father of the city. He casts down his arms. Strike me, if you dare! All hesitate. Who shall deal the blow of death to the last of the great Theban kings?
AUTONOE I!
She hurls herself upon Pentheus, knife in hand, and strikes him. Then all rush upon him; he falls beneath a rain of blows. Some exit, dragging his body; the others prostrate themselves, all bloodied, before Bacchus.
GLAUCOS, also prostrating himself Master, in the depths of my heart I have always worshiped you.
BACCHUS Rise! You are the laborer of the eleventh hour, and your reward shall be no less.
All remain before Bacchus, one knee on the ground or bowed, except Autonoe, who lies at his feet.
Curtain
ACT THREE
Diomedon and Antenor are standing downstage.
ANTENOR
And you, Diomedon, what is your opinion in the affair that vexes and divides the country? Do you believe Bacchus the son of Semele or the son of Kore?
DIOMEDON
Antenor, I do not wish to be too credulous. We now know very well that Bacchus is not the son of a virgin made fruitful by Zeus descending from heaven in the form of lightning or a dove, but rather the child of Semele seduced by the soldier Pantherus. Old Cadmus, who surpassed our petty politicians of today, had the idea of attributing to Zeus the child he sent to be raised abroad. Bacchus perhaps believed it; for a long time I believed it too, but today I am more wary.
ANTENOR
What ideas have come to you, Diomedon, since your voyage to Athens? Once you were an ardent promoter of the new cult.
DIOMEDON
Antenor, when Bacchus appeared, I felt my soul filled with trouble and bitterness, and I was afraid of what lies beyond this life. The traditional cults no longer sufficed; they showed me gods I feared without being able to love them; they offered me, to atone for my faults, only ritual purifications that satisfied neither my heart nor my reason. When Bacchus appeared, a new impulse swept me toward him. My heart was seized by a divine love and I believed the Wrath of the gods appeased, redeemed forever. But Bacchus himself I saw, like the others, wrathful, selfish, and jealous; the spell of that first adoration faded. His cult, being new, had quieted mysterious fears in my heart; it had not satisfied my eternal desire for knowledge, nor the love of liberty that the early ways of the city had kindled in me, and which had made me hope with joy for the destruction of castes and the rigid bonds of the ancient Family! And it was in Athens that I came to know a man, of the ancient race of the Philaidae, who was a true succor to my soul; and that man, through Science, cured me of vain Terrors.
ANTENOR
He taught you contempt for the gods.
DIOMEDON
Either, he would say, the gods do not exist, or else, removed from the world by their very immensity, they are incapable of concerning themselves with earthly affairs.
ANTENOR
You pursue knowledge! Beware! Remember Tiresias, who became blind the day that Supreme Knowledge, that Pallas Athena, let her veils fall before him!
DIOMEDON
O how poorly you understand the punishment that struck Tiresias! To him alone among mortals, the wisdom of Pallas offered itself entire. But when he saw it before him, radiant and unveiled, seized by a superstitious reverence, he dared not lay his hand upon that body he believed divine. And for that fear, blindness was the punishment, not for audacity; and that is why, unable to see and know what is real, he can now do nothing but interpret the flight of birds or the entrails of victims. And always, against the soaring of his high reason, that primal superstition, of which he could not rid himself, raises an invincible barrier.
ANTENOR, after a silence
Acknowledge, however, what noble ideas the cult of Bacchus has introduced into men’s minds.
DIOMEDON
Now that these ideas can make their way alone, Bacchus is nothing more to me than the past lingering on.
ANTENOR
Greetings, Glaucos; what is the news?
GLAUCOS
One item that must remain secret: Polydorus, son of Cadmus, is in Thebes, unknown.
ANTENOR
Does he mean to claim his throne?
GLAUCOS
He will claim it.
DIOMEDON
The sword drawn from its scabbard, once again, and for a long time.
After a silence, Tiresias enters.
ANTENOR, in a low voice
Tiresias comes here! He is lost.
GLAUCOS, in a low voice
Bacchus will be pitiless!
DIOMEDON, in a low voice
Bacchus would perhaps forgive, but Damis will not forgive.
The stage gradually fills with new arrivals.
DIOMEDON, in a low voice
See how the servile crowd flees the company of Tiresias, now that he is suspect and threatened!
ANTENOR, in a low voice
For souls so base, a religion is needed.
DIOMEDON, in a low voice
It is in the name of religion that these men carry out their baseness and their crimes! Question them: it is Tiresias’s error they will say they hate, and not his ruin!
A HERALD, from the doorway
The god will manifest his presence.
DIOMEDON
I would rather not see what is about to happen.
He exits; all the others prostrate themselves. Two priests enter, then Bacchus, who casts upon the prostrate crowd a gaze of domination and contempt; other priests follow, and, bringing up the rear, the High Priest Damis.
DAMIS
Rise! The god has resumed his human form, and now profane eyes may behold him without danger.
The Thebans rise, brushing off their robes at the knees.
BACCHUS, pointing his thyrsus at Tiresias
There is the insolent one who dared deny my divinity! Old man! Must I repeat to you what you should already know? You give as mother to the god Bacchus a mere mortal!
To Damis: Priest, proclaim the truth, that none may err henceforth!
DAMIS
The Child whom Zeus begot in the womb of the virgin Kore was transmitted to Semele by Hermes. Thus Bacchus was born three times: first from Kore, whose virginity repudiated the labor of childbirth; the second time from Semele, when she was struck by the thunderbolt; and the third time from Zagreus, who was Bacchus preformed, at once male and female, so as to contain and engender himself.
Likewise, Bacchus shall die three times: the first time as Zagreus, divine and primordial Bacchus; the second time as terrestrial Bacchus; the third time as Koros Soter, or Redeemer, infernal bridegroom of Kore Eleutheria, the Liberatrix who intercedes before him.
THE PRIESTS
Glory to Bacchus! Redemption to the Redeemer!
DAMIS
And whosoever denies the truths I have just expressed shall be punished as a corrupter of youth and a contemner of the gods.
A keen sensation.
DIOTIMOS
Are these three forms of Bacchus’s divinity successive or simultaneous, distinct or intermingled?
DAMIS
They are at once distinct and intermingled, just as in the triangle that is their emblem, the three sides exist in themselves and exist as a whole; they are successive and simultaneous, as the three lines we know successively as lines and simultaneously as a triangle. Moreover, at the height where the divinity of Bacchus dwells, space and simultaneity, time and succession are but vain words.
DIOTIMOS
That is clear!
BACCHUS
Silence!
Now that you possess the Way, the Life, and the Truth, we must tear from among you the tree that bears no good fruit, we must cut off the gangrenous limb: I name the old man Tiresias, who was spreading pernicious doctrines among you, insinuating that my nature was different from that of my father, and falling into the most lamentable heresies. Now the scandal must come, but woe to him through whom scandal comes! Therefore Tiresias shall be punished as a warning to the obstinate.
TIRESIAS
I have seen the Hellenes wage bloody wars over interests sometimes trifling; I have seen the Locrian hate the Aetolian, the Thessalian threaten the Boeotian, the Athenian attack the lands of Megara. I have seen men revile one another because some were Asiatic, others European; still they fought under different leaders and sometimes against one another. But never until this day had Hellas seen the citizens of a city condemn to death other citizens of the same city because they thought differently on a point of dogmatic interpretation.
BACCHUS
The foundation of my power is the establishment of unity. I will reign over subjects of the same race and thinking alike on every matter. The dissenter is the enemy; however slight the heresy, it suffices to leave a stain. I have had condemned and sold as slaves rich, industrious, intelligent Asiatic metics, but of another race and another religion, and I shall pursue the same policy of isolation and conformity.
CYNES, in a low voice, to Antenor
The most curious thing is that Bacchus has not a drop of Theban blood in his veins! His mother was Phoenician, and his father —
He falls silent at a frightened gesture from Antenor.
TIRESIAS
Is this the application of those doctrines of brotherhood and love you once preached? Was it not you who said: Love your enemies; what merit is there in loving one’s friends? A tax collector would do as much!
DAMIS
Yes, but the Master also said: If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better to enter life with one hand than into death with two.
TIRESIAS
Did you not say: Judge not and you shall not be judged?
DAMIS
Yes, but the Master also said: Men shall give account on the day of judgment for every idle word they have spoken.
Laughter.
TIRESIAS
Are they idle words, those by which I defend my life?
DAMIS
The wicked shall be cast into the blazing furnace.
TIRESIAS
Bacchus! Will you let this lackey mock me any longer?
BACCHUS
Do not insult Damis, the sure guardian of my doctrine! You hate him because you wished to become High Priest and could not obtain the office. But your hatred and your error shall be chastised. To Damis: I deliver this man to you to pronounce upon him.
DAMIS
Let this man be accursed and cut off from the Community of the Faithful! But as our sacred beliefs forbid us to judge and condemn, we shall simply see to it that he is enclosed in a secure precinct, so that his evil doctrine may corrupt no one, and we forbid anyone to bring him food or drink. Let him be seized, let him be taken away. Anathema, Maranatha!
The Thebans rush in emulation upon Tiresias, who is brutally dragged outside. The crowd gradually departs with many genuflections. Autonoe and her attendants enter and come to prostrate themselves before Bacchus and take their places at his right; the Priests station themselves at the left. Autonoe and Damis are seated on two chairs at the foot of the dais, the others standing.
BACCHUS
Let the foreign pilgrims be admitted.
A dozen or so pilgrims enter, men and women; each hands an offering to a priest stationed near the entrance and goes to prostrate himself before Bacchus, then exits through the left door.
During this procession, a religious chant:
DAMIS, intoning
Hocus Pocus!
THE PRIESTS
Bonus Jocus!
DAMIS
Bacchus Protogonos!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus of the two mothers!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus of the two forms!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus of the two sexes!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus, king of Nysa!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus, chaste and sacred queen!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus of the thousand names!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus thrice returned!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus who groanest upon Olympus!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus the hidden!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus the fierce!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus the ineffable!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus the warrior!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus the prophetic!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus, bull-browed!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus Euios!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus Lysios!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus Lenaios!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus Eleutherios!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Venerable seed!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Sacred germ of the gods!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bearer of the thyrsus!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bearer of the rod!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Tower of ivory!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Mirror of justice!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Gate of gold!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
Perseus enters directly and stands in the middle of the hall, regarding the ceremony with an astonished eye; Andromeda, following him, stops at his side.
DAMIS
Sacred flower!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Mystical rose!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Friend of joy!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Of the fair tresses!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Star of hope!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Thrice crushed!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Redeemer of the World!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Who rejoicest in swords and blood!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus pleasing to all!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus the fruitful!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
A priest runs to Perseus; he makes him understand that he must present an offering, follow the line, and go prostrate himself. Perseus looks at him with astonishment, then bursts out laughing.
DAMIS
Bacchus the frenzied!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus, friend of the Maenads!
THE PRIESTS
Protect us!
DAMIS
Bacchus —
PERSEUS
Speak then! Explain to me what you want!
DAMIS
Who is the mortal that dares speak in the presence of the god?
PERSEUS
What god? Is that not my host Pentheus who has decked himself out in that mitre?
A gesture of horror from the Priests.
DAMIS
Be silent! Do you wish the thunderbolt to descend upon your head?
PERSEUS
This steward is beginning to weary me.
ANDROMEDA
Perseus, I beg you —
At this name, Bacchus rises.
PERSEUS
Then let someone explain! I arrive from Libya and am not apprised of matters. Where is Pentheus? What is happening here?
Meanwhile the foreign pilgrims have departed.
BACCHUS, silencing Damis
Pentheus died last spring.
PERSEUS
Pentheus is dead, then?
BACCHUS
While hunting. An accident.
PERSEUS
By what right did you succeed him?
BACCHUS
As husband of his sister Autonoe.
PERSEUS
And whence comes this foreign costume?
BACCHUS
Raised in Lydia, I have kept its customs. And you, my guest? I believe I heard you called Perseus.
PERSEUS
I am Perseus.
BACCHUS
Who is this woman?
PERSEUS
My companion Andromeda, daughter of Cassiopeia, whom I delivered from death.
BACCHUS
Why did you not say: my wife?
PERSEUS
Because the wife is a slave, and this woman is truly another myself.
BACCHUS
Be seated, stranger, and be my guest.
Perseus and Andromeda go to sit at the right. At a sign from Bacchus, the Priests exit through the rear door, the women through the left door. Bacchus rises and beckons to Damis, who comes to join him downstage.
DAMIS, in a low voice
Bacchus, why did you not manifest your divinity to that insolent man?
BACCHUS, in a low voice
Do not seek to penetrate the divine ways.
DAMIS, in a low voice
I humble myself before your wisdom.
BACCHUS, in a low voice
We must win this man over. I know his valor, his selflessness, and the ideal he pursues. If we could have him with us, we would fear nothing.
DAMIS, in a low voice
And how do you intend to proceed?
BACCHUS, in a low voice
I wish to become for him again what I was once — when I was not yet a god. He must be shown all that my doctrine contains of love and brotherhood; conceal as best you can the metaphysical and theocratic side, which would doubtless inspire in him keen mistrust.
DAMIS, in a low voice
How profound your doctrine is! How rich! How supple!
BACCHUS, in a low voice
I flatter myself that each man finds in it what he seeks. The powerful man sees in it a call to obedience, to resignation, to detachment from worldly goods, which seems to him suited to pacify those he oppresses. The poor man is satisfied in his hatred for the rich by the thought of the punishments the rich man cannot escape after death, no more than the camel can pass through the eye of a needle. The severity of eternal punishments pleases souls given to vengeance and justice; and I have sown enough fine words to lull and charm simple and tender souls.
DAMIS, in a low voice
Is that not the very mark of divine truth, to contain within itself all human truths?
BACCHUS, in a low voice
I entrust Perseus to you, then; indoctrinate him, make him give himself body and soul to my work.
Damis goes to sit beside Perseus. At a sign from Bacchus, Autonoe rises and approaches; he stops her as she is about to kneel before him.
AUTONOE
What is your will, Master?
BACCHUS, in a low voice
You told me, Autonoe, that you loved me above all earthly affections?
AUTONOE
Yes.
BACCHUS
Do you love me more than yourself?
AUTONOE
I truly love you more than myself.
BACCHUS
Do you love me more than your love for me?
AUTONOE
What do you mean?
BACCHUS
Do you love me enough to sacrifice your love, if need be?
AUTONOE
I am your obedient slave.
BACCHUS, in a low voice
Andromeda must be mine.
Autonoe bows her head and sighs.
BACCHUS
I count on you to assist me.
AUTONOE
Command, and your commands shall be fulfilled.
BACCHUS, in a low voice
I wish to seduce the soul of Andromeda, still free, through the feminine charm of my religion. In woman, we see, as it were, an ideal and divine impurity. By proclaiming the fear we have of her, the crime that she is, we make her the spirit of evil, adorable, execrable, all-powerful. The idea of sin lends spice to the charm of amorous acts; the habit of mortifications and austerities suggests to the mind new stimulants of love. Under the old law, woman was but a slave; Perseus makes her free, the equal and companion of man. Andromeda must come to know another state, one where the woman, ostensibly obedient, in truth directs the man who loves her. I intend to employ still other weapons to destroy the work of that adventurer, while retaining for my own profit the young force that animates him.
He goes toward Perseus.
Stranger, Damis will take you to the bath, while I entrust Andromeda to Autonoe. We shall see you again presently.
PERSEUS
I thank you, Bacchus, for your hospitality.
He exits with Damis. Autonoe and Andromeda move toward one another, take each other’s hands, and converse with the most amiable air as they draw closer to Bacchus.
BACCHUS
Well, Autonoe, is Andromeda giving you many details on the new fashions of Libyan dress?
AUTONOE
Bacchus! Do you think women incapable of speaking seriously? It is rather I who am instructing Andromeda at this moment.
ANDROMEDA
Autonoe is teaching me an art of which I was ignorant until now. She claims that I shall not know how to hold the love of Perseus, that I display too much affection, gaze upon him with too much complacency, that I am too constantly tender and loving. “The art of resisting,” she says, “serves as much as the art of yielding.”
AUTONOE
Andromeda is a savage; she believes love to be a simple thing and knows nothing of the sensations that civilization leads us to seek. When I tell her that to hold the man we love, we sometimes feign to love another, she refuses to believe me.
BACCHUS
Resistance, or the threat of another love, are powerful weapons for women. All that a woman contrives not to show of her beauty or not to give of her love is added to her prestige.
ANDROMEDA
Why this bargaining?
AUTONOE
Coquetry, it is called — but its purpose is to maintain the ascendancy. Does not the veil lend a mysterious character to the beauty of women, and refusal a religious character to their love?
ANDROMEDA
It is precisely that religious character I fear. Why not live simply and naturally?
AUTONOE
Pleasure is weakened by continuity.
ANDROMEDA
And so the acts of love have their allotted time in a well-ordered life.
BACCHUS
Not for us, for they are a sin, and the sole end of existence is therefore to avoid or to pursue them. Learn what value our religion gives them. It sets them in the balance, in certain cases, against an eternity of bliss or suffering.
ANDROMEDA
Certainly, to set love in parallel with an eternity of bliss or suffering must lead either to pursuing it with passion or to fleeing it in terror.
BACCHUS
To both the one and the other.
ANDROMEDA
What an astonishing complication of life!
BACCHUS
It leads us to a great richness of sensations.
ANDROMEDA
How troubled minds must be!
AUTONOE
That very trouble is our happiness.
BACCHUS
This trouble we take care to increase and perpetuate. Others would allow a woman to remain ignorant of her errors, her hesitations, her slight faults; we, on the contrary, compel her to preserve the memory of them, to turn them over often in her mind, and — at appointed times — to come and confide them to a wise man; and thus the troubled state is sustained in her.
ANDROMEDA
And why is it not to the companion of her life that a woman makes such confidences?
AUTONOE
Could she confide to him the feelings he would learn of with displeasure?
ANDROMEDA
And the men who take upon themselves this direction of souls — do they never try to abuse it?
BACCHUS
Rarely. Other, more refined satisfactions are offered them.
ANDROMEDA
How troubled their souls must be as well! And at what age do you begin these dangerous examinations?
BACCHUS
In the child, at eleven or twelve years. And around the same time, we subject the child to an initiation into marriage: it is our principal religious ceremony.
ANDROMEDA
It seems wise to me, indeed, to teach the child what love is before he is prematurely drawn to it.
AUTONOE
Quite the contrary: we leave him ignorant of its exact nature; we make him sense its impressions.
ANDROMEDA
Yet living side by side, the children —
AUTONOE
We take care to separate the sexes, so as to leave to love the allure of the unknown.
ANDROMEDA
You forbid it and you excite it thus.
BACCHUS
We thereby give it a capital importance.
AUTONOE
It is the same end we pursue throughout our entire lives. Women wear as nightclothes or house garments long flowing robes concealing their bosoms, their arms, and disguising their forms; and when they go to the assemblies where they encounter men, it is a rivalry over who shall be the least clothed.
ANDROMEDA
And why this strange contrast?
AUTONOE
What is the use of displaying one’s beauty to the man who possesses you and whose desires are certain to be satisfied? To unveil it, on the contrary, to the stranger who will perhaps never touch your hand — that is to kindle an unrealizable desire, which will perhaps profit some other woman.
ANDROMEDA
For my part, I could not make a mystery to Perseus of my body, which he knew in its entirety when I was chained, naked, upon the rock.
BACCHUS
There is a fault of which you must purify yourself.
ANDROMEDA
Everything you tell me troubles me; I would like to live, if only for an instant, this refined and supernatural life.
AUTONOE
Only try to penetrate the intimate feelings of your soul; Bacchus, who is priest as much as king, will help you do so.
ANDROMEDA
I would see no harm in that.
BACCHUS
All women here do so and are no less faithful wives.
AUTONOE
Your virtue is not at the mercy of such a trial.
ANDROMEDA
Certainly the danger does not trouble me.
BACCHUS
You do not seem to be made for leading such a life.
ANDROMEDA
What must I do, Autonoe?
AUTONOE
Kneel before Bacchus.
ANDROMEDA
As a sign of humiliation?
AUTONOE
No, to speak to him more closely.
Andromeda kneels before Bacchus; Autonoe, seated behind her, places her hand on her shoulder.
ANDROMEDA
What must I say?
BACCHUS
Your most intimate thoughts.
ANDROMEDA
Shall I know how to put them into words?
BACCHUS
Habit gives me the divinatory knowledge of feelings. I excel at making known to one who is ignorant the evil within.
ANDROMEDA, making a movement to rise, but held back by Autonoe
What a night! What is the use of returning to what is done and tormenting oneself over the irreparable? My life now appears to me dreadful and dark. Is this, then, the promised happiness?
BACCHUS
Speak, Andromeda; I shall know how to console you.
ANDROMEDA
I cannot.
AUTONOE
Child!
ANDROMEDA
Perseus!
AUTONOE
Your love is a profane thing!
ANDROMEDA
For a single moment I have knelt here before you, and that moment has sufficed to give me more wicked thoughts than twenty years of life!
BACCHUS
Speak! Tell these thoughts! Confess your sins: they shall be remitted to you here below and on high.
ANDROMEDA
Is it a sin to live one’s nature? I shall resist the seduction.
She breaks free and rises; at the same moment Perseus enters.
ANDROMEDA
Perseus! To me!
She throws herself into his arms; Perseus leads her gently toward the cushions where she sinks down, then he returns toward Bacchus.
PERSEUS
Bacchus, your high priest holds his wine very poorly.
BACCHUS
What is this jest?
PERSEUS
Damis is truly under a table.
BACCHUS
The imbecile!
PERSEUS
Furthermore, he has told me many things I did not know, among them the designs you do me the honor of having upon me.
Now I absolutely refuse to lend myself to them. I am free and will fight for no tyranny. Oh! He also taught me the three faces of your doctrine, and I have little love for men with even two faces. Furthermore, I know that you claim to be a god, and I have still less sympathy for gods than for kings — the High Priest was most eloquent!
BACCHUS
The drunkard!
PERSEUS
What seductions were you attempting upon Andromeda? I shall not remain a moment longer in this palace.
He signals to Andromeda, who rises, and precedes her toward the door; Bacchus rushes before him and bars his way.
PERSEUS
You wish to force me to violence? I will not fight my host.
He moves to pass through the right door; Bacchus unhooks a sword hanging on the wall and hurls himself upon him; Perseus, sensing his movement, turns.
BACCHUS
It is a god you fight!
PERSEUS
Would that I might slay them all in you!
He attacks Bacchus, who retreats to the rear door.
PERSEUS
Bacchus, you are my host; cast down that sword and let me pass.
BACCHUS
Never! To me, servants! To me, Thebans!
He attacks Perseus, who strikes him down.
BACCHUS, on the ground
Slayer of gods!
He dies.
PERSEUS
I accept the augury!
The stage fills with Thebans and slaves. All halt, seized with superstitious terror, before the body of Bacchus, upon which Autonoe has thrown herself. Perseus has retreated toward the right and stands with sword in hand, downstage; behind him Andromeda is pressed against the wall.
PERSEUS, sword lowered, calm, and in a clear voice
Thebans, I call you to liberty! Upon the ruins of civil power and religious power, you may raise the edifice of your happiness. Why did you submit to toiling for masters? Keep those tithes from your fields, which served only to enrich your enemies; let the labor profit those alone who have labored! Be brothers, unite to spare your efforts and better organize your toil; but upon this union impose no leaders, and cease to believe that wealth and power are sacred things of mystical essence. As for the gods — see what a free man can do to them!
The Thebans applaud without appearing to understand very well. Several gather downstage left.
CLEONYMOS, in a low voice
The occasion is superb.
DEMEAS, in a low voice
We must name him king.
CLEONYMOS, in a low voice
Let us draft an address.
DEMEAS, in a low voice
That is it; here is my writing case.
The two of them discuss the address, which Demeas writes. Perseus sheathes his sword; he goes to take Andromeda’s hand.
PERSEUS, to Andromeda
My task is accomplished; let us depart!
Andromeda makes a gesture of assent; Perseus, parting the crowd, is about to exit through the great door, when Diotimos and Rhamphias advance toward him.
DIOTIMOS, vehemently
Perseus, you have delivered us from the oppressive Tyrant, but will you stop there in your services? Must we not also repress in this city the hydra of anarchy that rears its head again? Restore society upon foundations just yet solid, which, notwithstanding that by which the impossibility consequent upon the abolished contingencies —
RHAMPHIAS
In brief, Perseus, we are the interpreters of the general sentiment in offering you the sacred powers with the title of High Priest —
DEMEAS, having finished the address, reads it to Perseus
Perseus, noble descendant of the gods, it befits you more than any other to restore the order they anciently established in Thebes. You cannot therefore refuse to resume the traditions of Pentheus, who himself received them from Cadmus, his august grandfather. The task is to preside over a vigorous policy of resistance against those blameworthy innovations which —
CLEONYMOS
In a word, Perseus, we must abolish this title of High Priest, which recalls the deplorable epoch of an obscurantist theocracy, and return to the sound traditions of the ages —
PERSEUS, astonished
But you have it all wrong —
DEMEAS
Long live King Perseus!
RHAMPHIAS, at right
Long live the High Priest Perseus!
The two cries are repeated; Diotimos and Cleonymos come to blows downstage.
PERSEUS
Pack of idolaters! I have just told you — do without kings and priests!
Silence. Perseus makes an attempt to exit.
CYNES, ironically, to Amphidoros
You might as well name him a god while you are at it.
AMPHIDOROS, aside
That is true!
Aloud.
He who vanquished a god can now be nothing less than a god! Long live the god Perseus!
All repeat this cry; many prostrate themselves.
PERSEUS
I am the equal of any god, being a man set free! One after another, the laws of ancient ages shall fall by my hand; but listen!
With the point of his sword he carves letters upon the wall.
Only on the day when, through the personal effort of your own intelligence, you succeed in reading these counsels — on that day you shall be worthy of freedom!
He exits, followed by Andromeda.
AMPHIDOROS, half rising
Where is the god?
DEMEAS, rising
He has vanished!
All rise; new arrivals appear, among them Diomedon and Antenor. Diomedon examines the characters carved upon the wall.
CLEONYMOS
I saw a flame issue from the sword.
CYNES
What do these letters signify?
DIOTIMOS
Perseus! Perseus! Have pity on us!
DAMIS, who has been standing for some time on the threshold
Before my eyes, Thebans, Perseus has just disappeared; he rises toward Olympus in a cloud of purple, and carries with him the divine element of Bacchus.
RHAMPHIAS
Glory to Perseus and Bacchus reconciled!
DIOTIMOS
Perseus was the messenger of Zeus, sent to fetch the divine soul of Bacchus.
CLEONYMOS, to Damis
Damis, explain to us these words that Perseus traced with his fulgent sword!
DAMIS
They must not be explained, but worshipped.
All press toward the wall. Antenor and Diomedon remain alone downstage.
ANTENOR
Did you understand that inscription?
Glaucos enters and speaks in a low voice to Damis.
DIOMEDON, to Antenor
Hear an apologue. A soothsayer, wishing to reward his host, revealed to him that a treasure was contained in his field. The host joyfully dug and turned his field with greater ardor —
DAMIS
Thebans! Now the will of heaven manifests itself clearly to my mind. The descendant of our kings, Polydorus, son of Cadmus, is here! Let us submit to his scepter!
CLEONYMOS
Glory to Polydorus, son of Cadmus!
CHORUS OF THE PAN-BOEOTIAN SYSSITIA
Glory to submission! Glory to obedience! Glory to tradition! Glory to reverence! Glory to Polydorus, son of Cadmus!
CYNES, to Damis
Perseus and Bacchus — all that, those are solar myths, are they not?
Curtain.