Euripides: Bacchae

Context:        

From 431-404 B.C., the Peloponnesian War consumed much of Greece.  Eventually, Athens lost the war.  After the war, an Athenian playwright named Euripides wrote The Bacche as an example of what leaders should NOT do.  Euripides brilliantly captures these qualities in the two characters Dionysus and Pentheus.  Throughout the story, their leadership qualities are flawed and corrupt, presenting the reader with a perfect example of how a leader should not be seen.

Leadership Principles from Euripides

1. It’s Not All About You

• The responsibility of a leader is to have good intentions for everyone involved and to look out for the greater good of others.  By doing this, a leader sets himself or herself apart from others by taking charge of things and putting the success of others before their own.
•  [Negative example]  “You are an extraordinary young man, and you go to an extraordinary experience.  You shall win a glory towering to heaven and usurping god’s.”(971-974). Dionysus makes Pentheus feel important by his words when really he is just mocking him because he knows he is set up for failure and death.  He knows that Pentheus will not succeed and does not have his best intensions at heart.
• Application: Growing up, kids act like they are encouraging others in a game or activity when they know they are only being set up for failure and embarrassment.  This is similar because Dionysus goes out of his way to make Pentheus feel important and that he can succeed, which merely sets him up for a bigger fall in the end.

2. Your Way Is Not the Only Way

• A leader should be open to others input and be able to learn from others’ beliefs. A leader should not think his or her own views superior, since one can always gain knowledge from someone else.
• In the beginning of the play, Cadmus and Teirisius tell Pentheus about their belief in the Bacchae. Pentheus responds by saying, “Take your hands off of me! Go worship your Bacchus, but do not wipe your madness off on me. By god, I’ll make him pay, the man who taught you this folly of yours” (343-346). Pentheus does not try to understand the others’ view, but instead resists and lashes out on them for not agreeing with him.
• Application: The President organizes committees before coming to a decision on an issue. This way he gets opposing viewpoints before choosing the solution which benefits the most people.

3. Better to Crawl Forward Than to Run in the Wrong Direction

• Through Pentheus, Euripides makes the point that in leading others, effectiveness in the wrong direction is worse than ineffectiveness in the right direction. Euripides shows the importance of a leader who is proactive in his approach to solve issues, but the downfalls when that leader’s motives are not in the best interest over the people he serves.
• Euripides also uses Dionysus to show the negative leadership quality of effectiveness in the wrong direction. Dionysus states, “I have come to refute that slander spoken by the mother’s sisters-those who least had right to slander her. They said that Dionysus was no son of Zeus, but Semele had slept beside a man in love and fathered off her shame on Zeus-a fraud, they sneered, contrived by Cadmus to protect his daughters name” (25). In this Dionysus is being assertive because he is taking charge of his own life, but his intents are not moral.
• Application: A student who cheats on papers and receives passing grades on them. Although his cheating is effective, he will never gain necessary skills to become a better writer.