Pentheus Sacrificed and I'm Still a Vegetarian

Entry #20
28 March 2007 (approximate)
Work: Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides

I suppose that The Bacchae does offer some humor, though of a very twisted sort. The ritual flogging of Tiresias, an interesting parallel between African culture and the Greek culture from which Soyinka borrows it, is humorous in its own way. It’s hard to view these things as serious rituals of society from our position, seeing playacting as of the realm of childhood or something done for our entertainment. Serious people don’t do this, I think most Americans would think. But if we look at our religious rituals, confined mostly to the organized church these days, or to secret societies (thinking: Masons and the History Channel), or to memorials…is it all that different? We can mock the ritual crucifixion reenactments as barbaric because we don’t do them as part of a backyard barbeque and Easter celebration, but we have our own rituals. About a year ago, I attended Catholic mass for the first time with a friend. It was the Palm Sunday service, and though I will say that a large part of my energy was focused on my ability to keep up with the genuflection, I was struck by the ceremony involved. Even the idea of communion struck me as something very foreign in my world, but quite natural to the others in attendance.

This cannibalistic act of drinking the blood of Pentheus at the end is a little disturbing. It surely doesn’t help overcome my inability to eat meat (of course, neither does the thought of communion). I know that it is my own spiritual (I hesitate to say “religious”) beliefs that keep me from accepting the interruption of another life in order to restore some sort of balance to nature and to fulfill a god’s will. It’s still all so confusing, and I’m looking forward to the semester’s close if only for the time to sit on the porch, watch the creatures of nature, and try as hard as I can to open myself up to what they have to offer me, say to me.

Why is it okay to drink the wine, but not the blood of Pentheus if one is thirsty? A question for vegetarians the world around.

Till later...