My Mondays and Wednesdays often begin with Dr. McCoy writing a word out on the board and asking the class to research its origins and the evolution of its meaning. Sometimes, the words are familiar to me. Other times, I am a stranger to them. One class discussion on the various names Dionysos is referred by, lead us to attempt to unpack the etymology of the word “ecstasy”, since Dionysos is often referred to as the god of ecstasy.
Staring up at the word, I thought to myself, Hey! I know this one! And I was at least partially correct in knowing that ecstasy means an overwhelming sense of joy or excitement. But, I never knew that the word originated from the Greek word ekstasis, which itself means “standing outside oneself”.
Standing outside oneself, what does that mean? How can it be accomplished? Metaphorically? Physically? Would standing outside oneself be a good thing, or a bad thing?
In our daily lives, particularly as students, we are painfully aware of who we are. We are more or less affixed to a certain major, a particular club, etc. Every day we have roles to play, roles as students and as members of society. It can be beneficial for us to step outside ourselves for a moment by distracting ourselves with an array of activities that can put us into a state of “ecstasy”.
Ecstasy for the college student can be achieved by stepping away from social and academic roles and the expectations that accompany these roles. We can enter an “ecstatic” state by watching TV shows or movies, where we can empathize and identify with different characters and become focused on their problems, instead of our own.
Perhaps the most destructive example of ecstasy is the college party. Excess consumption of mind-altering substances and music so loud one can barely hear oneself think, combine to form the perfect recipe for an ecstatic experience. But, this environment can ultimately prove destructive for students, as they can find themselves in uncomfortable situations that result from poor decisions they may have made in their time outside themselves.
The women who become Dionysos’ Maenads in Euripides’ The Bacchae and Percival Everett’s Frenzy originally had to adhere to the strict role their society had created for them. While Vlepo is inside Agave’s head he watches her thoughts swirl angrily and assert: “This dancing scares them, these strings of movement mock their stillness, and they say “Come back here, you women, come back, you property!” (Everett, 44). The role women served in Thebes is made clear through Agave’s thoughts. They were seen as the property of men, sentenced to silence and inaction as their husbands were able to act freely, taking on mistresses and running their mouths, relishing in their perceived dominance over their wives.
Agave’s thoughts also tell us of the extent to which the frenzy of Dionysos liberated the women of Thebes. The ecstasy stirred in them by Dionysos freed them from men, who used them as plows, fields, and laying hens (to paraphrase Agave from page 111 of Frenzy). In their trance they are no longer still, and are dominated by movement. They exist in a constant dance, whether that dance is a graceful tribute to their god, or a dance of destruction as they tear an animal limb from limb. They are in a constant state of ecstasy, living not only outside their city, but outside themselves entirely. And just as the feeling of ecstasy can prove both beneficial and destructive to college students, it proves to be the same for the Maenads as well.
Ecstasy is the downfall of Dionysos and his Maenads, particularly Agave, at the end of The Bacchae and of Frenzy. In The Bacchae Agave steps so far outside herself, that she kills her son, Pentheus. She forgets her role as a mother and is unable to see that the “beast” before her is, in fact, her son. When she is finally called out of her trance, she is emotionally wrecked with guilt and disbelief.
However, we should not take this to mean that we should never seek to escape from our roles and the expectations others have for us. Though, there is a better way to cope with expectations: to challenge them. If we ever feel that we are being treated unfairly, or that we are meant to meet unrealistic or unjust expectations, we should not rely on the feeling of ecstasy to help us escape from the bitterness of our reality, we should, whenever possible, try to challenge the legitimacy of these norms or expectations. Stepping outside yourself should only be a temporary solution to the stresses that may arise from daily responsibilities. It is not the solution to dealing with roles you never agreed to play.