Janice
SIEGEL Euripides' Bacchae
as Inverted Model for Ovid's Procne
Many texts have been identified as
influencing Ovid's Procne (Met. 6.424-674): Sophocles' and Accius' Tereus,
Accius' Atreus,
Euripides' Bacchae and
Pacuvius' Pentheus, Euripides' Hippolytus and Euripides' Hecuba. But one of these texts suspected of
"influencing" Ovid's presentation is in fact its inverted
model: Euripides' Bacchae. This discovery explains why
Ovid makes two curious poetic choices in his presentation
of this episode: to drain the tale of all divine elements
(in defiance of the mythographic tradition), but to
nevertheless include references to Dionysianism (despite
his care in presenting Procne's vengeance as quid pro
quo and very personal). Ovid's specific use of
language and poetic devices are also explained (in many
cases) by the model text.
Despite plot-level differences, the conflict
remains essentially the same. The theme of each play
concerns the implications of the abuse of power.
Character pair-ups fluctuate as the textual reflection
deepens. Each play begins with the
exposition of a crime of impiety (by Pentheus, Tereus).
The avenger (Dionysus, Procne) is determined to avenge
wrongs of a sexual nature suffered by female kin. The
avenger is aided by his alter-ego (Stranger, Philomela).
A queen (Agave, Procne) is overcome by a passion not of
her own making. It changes the way she perceives the
world and she ends up killing her own child (Pentheus,
Itys) with the help of her sister(s). Each aggressor has
a double target (Agave/Pentheus, Tereus/Itys).
The humiliation of each victim
is essential to the punishment. The victim of the
vengeance plot suffers sparagmos at the hands of his mother who
intends a cannibal feast. Gender codes become fluid as
the male attributes of power are adopted by women, who
de-masculinize their male enemy. Justice is attained by
the sexualized disempowerment of the true target of each
wronged avenger. In each case, the decapitated head of
the murdered child is a stylized castration, and the
similarly dramatic presentation of each head leads to the
final discovery in each play, where the manipulator is
clearly distinguished from the manipulated. After the
revelation, Pentheus' mother regrets her errors; Itys'
father bemoans his own fate without remorse. The
surviving characters suffer permanent exile.
A discussion of one pair of
corresponding scenes &endash; The Maenadization &endash;
will serve to expose both the verbal resonances of the
Bacchae
evident in Ovid's text as well as his use of thematic
inversion to make his own, unique point. In each scene,
the aggressor effects a sham maenadization as part of the
vengeful response to wrongs suffered, but Dionysus turns
Pentheus into a maenad to destroy him, while Procne
disguises Philomela as a maenad to save her. Rife with
ironic Dionysian allusions misunderstood by many as
literal, this scene marks the point of divergence of the
two plays and effectively shifts the drama from the realm
of the divine to that of the human. In the end, the irreparable destruction
Procne (as opposed to the guiltless Dionysus) wreaks in
her genuine quest for justice in a godless world cannot
be mitigated in the name of a greater Truth.