In learning about intertexuality, I found myself reflecting on a variety of works that seemed to relate to The Bacchae in many different ways. The work that kept coming to mind after nearly every major plot point (and also happened to be the most famous of the works that popped into my head) was the Bible.
In both the Bible and The Bacchae, characters are turned into, or forced to remain as, snakes as a result of their disobedience. In the Bible, Satan turns himself into a snake in order to speak to Adam and Eve, convincing them to eat from the tree whose fruit was forbidden. Because of this, Genesis 3:14 says: Then the Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all animals, domestic and wild. You will crawl on your belly, groveling in the dust as long as you live.’” According to the Bible, this condemnation affects not only Satan in that moment, but also creatures for the rest of eternity. In The Bacchae, Dionysus turns both Cadmus and his wife, Harmonia, into snakes, telling them that they will “lead barbarians in a mighty host, [and] sack many cities”.
The most striking similarity that I found between the Bible and The Bacchae was the idea of followers’ heads catching on fire. In the Bible, after Jesus ascends into Heaven, he sends the Holy Spirit to stay with his disciples, as his physical self is no longer on the Earth. Acts 2:3-4 says: “Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.” In The Bacchae, a messenger comes to Pentheus to relay stories of how he’s seen the women that are following Dionysus behave. One of the things he says is “They carried fire in their hair and it did not burn them”. This idea is the same: the power of the gods that each of these groups have inside of them is visually shown with literal fire appearing on the heads of those that believe and follow
these gods.
While there are many other examples that relate to both the Bible and The Bacchae, these two examples were, in my opinion, the most noteworthy similarities. The commonality between these stories really helped me understand how intertextuality is relevant and commonplace in both modern works of literature and ancient ones.