Music, Women, Elvis, and Bacchae

            Music, Women, Elvis, and Bacchae. I’m sure you are wondering how all of these things go together and I’m sure some of you are saying that they don’t go together but they do. In Euripides’ Bacchae, there is a character, Dionysus, that uses his music to soothe women and make them worship him. Dionysus and Elvis are very much alike in that sense. Dionysus and Elvis also are something that people have never seen before in the sense of how the women acted. When Elvis first came into the world as a singer, it was something that people had never seen before. This is just one of the reasons why Dionysus and Elvis are alike.

            In the beginning of Euripides’ Bacchae, Dionysus is a new god in disguise as a priest for the Bacchic religion. He is trying to persuade people to practice his religion. The Greek people do not like him, and they really don’t like his religion. The king, Pentheus, even goes as far as calling it a revolution. He says, “I happened to hear, when I was out of town,/ there’s trouble in the city – a revolution:/ These women of ours have left their homes/ and run away to the dark mountains, pretending/ to be Bachhants. Its this brand-new god,/ Dionysus, whoever that is; they’re dancing for him!” (215-220). Pentheus puts emphasis on him because it’s not just that the women are dancing for a god, but they are dancing for Dionysus. The Greeks have never seen their women act like this, and they think that they are dancing for a false god. Elvis was like this because when he came up on stage, the women would act crazy and go crazy over him.

            Pentheus also says that he sings to get the women to follow him. “Also, I hear there’s a foreigner come to town,/ a wizard with magic spells from Lydia, who has/ long blonde curls-perfumed!-upon his head,/ and the bloom of wine, the grace of Aphrodite,/ on his cheeks. Day and night he plays around young girls, showing off his “VoHé”/ mysteries.” (233-239). They describe Dionysus being like a wizard with the women, using spells to get women to follow his religion. Elvis was known to have a great voice and be able to soothe women and they go crazy over him. This is one way that Dionysus is like Elvis.

            Another way that Dionysus and Elvis are alike is that the high officials didn’t like them. Pentheus doesn’t like Dionysus because he thinks that he is making a fool of the women that are in his town, and he also doesn’t like that he is spreading his religion. In the beginning, he is trying to stop the spread of the religion. “I’ll put a stop,/ right now, to this dirty business, this Bacchism.” Pentheus, who is king, is trying to put a stop to the spread of Bacchism. “I’ll add to the sentence of punishment we’ll give/ this person, for laying his clever schemes on women” (675-676). Pentheus is working on his punishment for Bacchae (Dionysus) when a messenger comes in and tells him that he was seen in the mountain. He then increases his punishment because he believes that he is using clever schemes to get these women to follow him and his religion. The elders thought the same thing about Elvis. They when Elvis started to sing, thought that he would use his clever songs to win over the women and caused the women to do crazy things. This is another way that Elvis and Dionysus are alike.

            Elvis and Bacchae go together. They both were able to persuade women, they could both persuade women with their voice, and they were also not very liked by people other than the women. In Euripides’ Bacchae, we can see how the women acted crazy for Dionysus in the same way women in the 1960’s acted for Elvis. They are both smooth talkers and know how to get their way with women. They are also both not very liked by most older people and high officials. These are just some of the ways that they are alike and why Elvis is on the cover of Euuripides’ Bacchae.