It is thought that Euripides created the Bacchae in 407, and it is tempting to think that the first performance of the Bacchae was, if not at Dion, then at Vergina, which we take to be the royal capital Aegae.įor an Athenian to travel to Macedon in the late fifth century was rather like the fashion of British left-wing intellectuals and politicians visiting Russia in the 1920’s or early 1950’s. This probably means that Euripides was used by Archelaus to create through tragedy a myth to strengthen the Argead claim to Greek ancestry: the poor tragedian was to invent an Archelaus, descended from Heracles, who founded Aegae at the command of Apollo (Borza 1990:esp. In Macedon he was active as a tragedian, and is even credited with a commissioned production bearing the title Archelaus. Towards the end of his life he moved, like several other poets (such as the tragedian, Agathon), musicians and artists, to Macedon and the court of king Archelaus, and stayed there until his death in 407/6 at the age of 75. King Archelaus (413-399) built a temple to Zeus at Dion and a theatre, and we can imagine that Euripides was commissioned to present tragedies here, perhaps even the Bacchae, as Seaford (1996:184) suggests.Įuripides had earlier gone to settle in Magnesia. Along the main road north through Pieria, Mt Olympus can be seen to the west, and at about 50 km from Tempe are found the remains of ancient Dion. Beyond Tempe one passes from Thessaly into Macedonian territory and arrives in the coastal plan of Pieria, about which the Chorus waxes lyrical in Bacchae 409-410 (“Pieria the incomparably beautiful”) and 565- 575. North of Thermopylae the next major barrier was the Vale of Tempe: in 480 the Greeks had thoughts of holding Tempe against the invading army of Xerxes and the Persians, but were forced to make a tactical withdrawal to Thermopylae. The fall of Thermopylae to Xerxes in 480 signalled the invasion of Greece by the Persians, and when Philip of Macedon marched towards Thermopylae in 346, the liberty of Greece was threatened. This means travelling over Cithaeron, and past the site of ancient Thebes then through the pass at Thermopylae.
So I want to take you on a journey from Athens, north towards Macedon. The Bacchae, as we know it, was first produced in Athens under the direction of Euripides’ son, also called Euripides, in perhaps 405 BC, a year or two after his father’s death, but when the tragedian first presented the play he was in Macedonia at the court of Archelaus. The Peloponnesian war had been dragging on for 25 years, and the military situation was getting progressively worse for the Athenians. 450-425 BCE / Louvre Museum, Wikimedia Commons Attic red-figure lekanis (cosmetics bowl) lid, ca.
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