ABSTRACT
The Bacchae shows us how tragedy develops two types of sight: a “seeing through” and a “seeing double.” Both of these ocular modalities are a part of Euripides’ art of recognition as re-cognition. And yet, the Bacchae have a way of ferreting out Pentheus’ hiding place, just as tragedy has a way of finding out its audience and attacking its imagination with the same savage intensity that Agave attacks the hiding Pentheus, tearing his forearm from his shoulder with her bare hands. The extraordinary tableau of the actor playing Agave, contemplating the mask of his previous role as Pentheus, joins two iconic images of Agamemnon walking on the red carpet and Electra crying over an empty urn. And so, Pentheus begins to resemble one of those seemingly recalcitrant audience members who foreswear all things theatrical. Pentheus is perhaps the most virulent type of anti-theatricalist.
