Euripides' "Bacchae" Dramatis Personae

Euripides' Bacchae Study Guide Contents
Summary of Euripides' Bacchae
Study Questions
Terms to Know
Bacchae Quiz
Main Characters

Not a term the great Greek tragedian Euripides would have used, dramatis personae refers to the roles of the actors of the play. The Latin word personae, so obviously related to the English 'person,' refers to the mask of an actor, perhaps because it's through that mask that the sound comes, although that etymology has been questioned. The masks in Greek drama allowed the actors to play multiple roles. They may have served as resonance chambers so actors could be heard even when their backs were turned.

By the time of Euripides, there were 3 speaking actors in a tragedy, plus the chorus, generally thought of as a singing and dancing group that interacted with the actors. You will notice that there is no scene in The Bacchae (or The Bacchantes) where there are 4 actors with spoken parts (Greek tragedy permitted silent extras). Although Agave was a woman, a male played her part. The costumes and mask would have disguised the incorrect gender assignment.

While what I have written above could apply to other tragedies by the Greek tragedians (although earlier tragedians were content with fewer actors), the idea of gender is an element to keep an eye on when reading The Bacchae. Tiresias had been a woman before the action of the play and Pentheus dresses as a woman in the play; thus the character Pentheus is a man dressing as a woman, just like the actor who plays the character of his mother.

Recommended Reading:

• _{"Choral Identity in Greek Tragedy," by Helene Foley; Classical Philology, (2003).}
• _{"Pentheus and the Spectator in Euripides' 'Bacchae'," by James Barrett; The American Journal of Philology, (1998).}

• Read Gilbert Murray's Translation of Euripides' The Bacchae Online

Topics in the History of Ancient Greece