The Bacchae remains a puzzle. It is hard to be content with an interpretation of the play which makes Dionysus the hero, and even approximates him to Christ. Dionysus is more like Judas; he fondles the man whom he means to kill (1. 933). It is equally hard to believe that he is, as Pentheus said, a mere human hypnotist, a γόης ἐπῳδὸς (1.234) and an impostor. For the play is the story of how Pentheus, acting on that belief, was ruined utterly.I propose to argue, first, that Euripides is here, as elsewhere, a realist, giving us a picture of Dionysus worship as it really was; and that the miracles are meant as evidence of the presence of some supernatural power; and secondly, that if we want to know his judgment on that religion, we shall come nearest his thought, if not his vocabulary, in saying that it seemed to him devilish.