Descriptions of bacchic frenzy abound in Greek and Roman literature and are usually read as a metaphor for uncontrollable female madness. Recent work on the Dionysian elements of Greek tragedy has demonstrated that descriptions of bacchic madness, whether within the context of an actual bacchic ritual or as metaphor, are closely related to the central issues of Greek drama; many plays focus on the destruction of a household. The annihilation of the oikos is usually divinely inspired and eventually brings salvation to the polis in the form of cult (Seaford 1994, 354). Maenadism is closely associated with this theme. While in ritual practice maenadism is a benign communal negation of female adherence to the household, in tragedy it is represented as an uncontrollable force, causing the collapse of the structures that preserve the integrity of the house (Seaford 1994, 352).
Though tragic maenadism is brought about by divinely inspired frenzy, frenzy is never the sole reason behind maenadic behavior. It is occasioned by other features such as resistance to the male (Seaford 1994, 357). Indeed the theme of female transgression into the male sphere is a pivotal component of the thematic structure of most tragedies. Women who participate in this transgression are frequently portrayed as maenads, actual or metaphorical. Thus in tragedy the image of bacchic frenzy followed by the maenadic departure from home is associated with the negation of marriage ritual, the destruction of the household (Seaford 1994, 355-57), and the killing of offspring (Schlesier 1993).
Roman authors, such as Catullus and Vergil, display a sure understanding of these themes, which they manipulate for their own poetic purposes (Panoussi 1998, 2003). In his account of the story of Procne and Philomela, Ovid puts the Dionysian motif to work to illustrate the processes of the destruction of Tereus’ family, which begins with the empowerment of his wife Procne and sister-in-law Philomela and culminates in the cooking and eating of his son, Itys.
Side by side with the Dionysian motifs, Ovid manipulates the motifs of perverted rituals of marriage and perverted sacrifice. Greek tragedy regularly depicts marriage rituals gone awry or imagines death rituals as weddings (Rehm 1994). Rites that belong to the realm of the family are used in order to explore issues pertaining to the social and political realms. In Roman thought familial ties are the cornerstone of social structures: the relationships among men of the state are regularly depicted as bonds of kinship, and political alliances are often cemented through marriage. At the same time, the leader of the state and his relationship to his people is typically cast in the image of the paterfamilias ruling over his family. Given this ideological framework, it is no surprise that Roman authors choose to appropriate motifs of marriage, maenadism, and sacrifice to explore problems in the Roman sociopolitical realm.
Distorted rites of marriage, maenadism, and sacrifice frame Ovid’s story of Philomela, drawing attention to the perversion of family relations in the Thracian royal household. These motifs signify the empowerment of the women in this household and trace their transformation from victims to aggressors. The narrative puts in sharp relief the vicious retribution that abusive power may generate, thus perpetuating a cycle of violence that can destroy the most fundamental social (and by extension political) structures.
Ritual perversion figures prominently in the opening scene of the episode, which features a detailed description of the wedding ceremony of Tereus and Procne:
Juno was not present in the marriage as pronuba [matron of honor], nor Hymenaeus, nor the Graces:
Furies held torches snatched from a funeral,
The Furies made the bed, and an ominous owl settled in
Their house and sat on the roof of their bedroom. (6.428-32)
The deities that regularly sanction marriage are replaced by Furies holding funeral torches, a disturbing exchange that sets the tone for the narrative that follows. Here Ovid deploys the motif of marriage to death differently from Greek tragedy: death awaits not the bride but the groom. The perverted nature of Procne’s and Tereus’ marriage ceremony indicates the perversion of the family bonds that it creates: hac ave coniuncti Procne Tereusque, parentes/hac ave sunt facti [with such an omen Procne and Tereus were united, they were made parents with such an omen] (433-34). In the narrative, Tereus’ lust for his wife’s sister Philomela is described primarily as confusing and distorting family ties. This outcome is foreshadowed in the description of Tereus’ sexual fantasies (quotiens amplectitur illa parentem,/esse parens vellet: neque enim minus inpius esset [whenever she embraces her father, he wants to be her father: nor would he be less sinful]; 481-82) and made explicit by Philomela in her powerful speech to Tereus after her rape: omnia turbasti: paelex ego facta sororis,/ tugeminus coniunx [you’ve confused everything: I have become the rival of my sister, you a husband to two women] (537-38; Pavlock 1991, 38-39; Raval 1998, 118, 120-21). Elements of defiled wedding rites also appear in the scene where Pandion entrusts Philomela to Tereus by joining their right hands (506-7), thus evoking the dextrarum iunctio of the marriage ceremony. This gesture, normally expressing fides (loyalty) between husband and wife (Pavlock 1991, 35), ironically underscores Tereus’ violation of the sanctity of his marriage to Procne and of Philomela’s virginal body.
Family relations in the episode also function as a metonymy for political relations. The hand of Procne comes as a reward for Tereus’ military aid to Athens (424-25) and fixes the alliance between the two men and their two kingdoms. Pandion thus neutralizes the barbarian threat ( barbara... agmina, 424) by aligning himself with the barbarian Tereus. The antagonism between Athens and Thrace, Greek and barbarian, however, surfaces in Tereus’ jealousy of Pandion as Philomela embraces him, which may be thus taken to symbolize Tereus’ desire to control Athens (Joplin 1984, 32-33). As a result, the perversion in ritual expresses the perversion of family relations, which in turn stand for the perversion of political relations and institutions.
The turning point of the narrative, the empowerment of Procne with its fatal consequences for her household, occurs within the context of bacchic ritual. Procne, under the pretext of participating in an all-female bacchic cult, goes to the cabin where Tereus has hidden her raped sister, breaks open the door, seizes Philomela, dresses her in bacchic clothing, and brings her home (587-600). The narrative lingers at the moment of Procne’s assumption of the bacchic ritual attire, indicating that her dress is commensurate with a negation of civilized values. To be sure, the narrator explicitly states that Procne’s participation in the rites is a sham and that the motive for her actions is frenzy and anger (595-96; see Joplin 1984, 44; Pavlock 1991, 43). Yet these emotions are precisely the effects of bacchic possession. When Procne dons the bacchic accouterments she is invested with the power that allows her to negate her marriage to Tereus. In dressing Philomela in bacchic dress and hiding her secretly inside her house, Procne transfers her loyalties from her husband and son back to her natal family. Both women move from enclosure to wilderness and back to the domestic interior (Segal 1994, 271). But their return to the house via the forest signals a renewal of their bond that necessitates aggression against Tereus. Since bacchic ritual frenzy is also synonymous with the killing of kin, the sisters’ disguise prefigures the subsequent murder of Itys (see also Segal 1994, 270-71). Their collusion is made possible through the performance of a rite that aids and abets the ultimate destruction of Tereus’ household. A similar development can be seen in Euripides’ Bacchae, where the removal of women of the household to Mount Cithaeron under the spell of bacchic frenzy sets in train the killing of Pentheus, the exile of Cadmus and Agave, and the destruction of the Theban royal family. The episode also appropriates elements from other texts: the bacchic ritual conducted by Amata in Aeneid 7 and the brutality of Hecuba’s revenge on Polymestor in Euripides’ Hecuba. (See further Segal 1994, 270-71, 274, 277.)
The killing of Itys is presented as a result of the confusion of family relations that Tereus’ rape brought about. Bacchic activity facilitates Procne’s alignment with her sister, and Itys becomes a target because he is perceived as belonging to his father (622). When the boy speaks to his mother, she contrasts his ability to speak with her sister’s muteness (631-32). Procne is presented as considering who merits her loyalty: cui sis nupta, vide, Pandione nata, marito/degeneras! scelus est pietas in coniuge Tereo [watch that you may not disgrace your husband, daughter of Pandion! But loyalty to my husband Tereus is a crime] (634-35). But when she considers her options, it becomes obvious that she has already made her choice: even as she asserts her status as Tereus’ wife, she addresses herself as daughter of Pandion, an identification registered in the text with the juxtaposition of nata and marito.
Critics have long noted that Agave’s killing of Pentheus in Euripides’ Bacchae bears the marks of a sacrifice (Seaford 1994, 311-18). In Ovid too the description of Itys’ killing resembles the preparation for a sacrificial meal (640-46). Philomela’s cutting of the boy’s neck looks back to the cutting of her tongue by Tereus (553), which is rife with sacrificial symbolism (Pavlock 1991, 39, 44). The boy’s killing also implies bacchic sparagmos (rending), since his limbs are taken apart and roasted while he is still alive (Pavlock 1991, 44). Procne serves Tereus his son’s flesh, an act that constitutes a horrific reversal of the fertility ritual she purports to be offering (patrii moris sacrum mentita [lying about a ritual meal for fathers], 648; Pavlock 1991, 44). The killing of Itys in the deep recesses of the house (penetralia, 646) indicates the destruction of Tereus’ domus from within. The innermost corners of Tereus’ house, where the atrocious sacrifice of Itys takes place, look back to the darkness of the night that hosted the bacchic rites and Philomela’s liberation (588-90, where nox is repeated three times), as well as to the ‘‘dark earth’’ on which Philomela’s severed tongue quivered like a snake (558; see Richlin 1992, 164).
Woman, darkness, and the earth are all linked with the presence of Furies (Richlin 1992,164), who thus frame the story with the theme of crime and retribution: Furies presided over the wedding of Tereus and Procne, while Philomela resembles a Fury with her hair spattered with gore as she hurls the bloody head of Itys to Tereus (sparsis furiali caede capillis, 657). Procne too was Fury-like when she hastened to her sister’s rescue dressed as a bacchant ( terribilis Procne furiisque agitata, 595; Segal 1994, 275). Furies are evoked by Tereus to avenge the death of his son (661-62). Tereus abuses his power over the women, thus bringing about the killing of his son and the destruction of his household (see also Pavlock 1991, 45). Bacchic ritual lends strength to the wronged woman, who nevertheless exacts her revenge by forfeiting her role as mother and wife. The ritual perversion framing both the beginning of the episode (the wedding of Procne and Tereus) and the end (the sacrifice of Itys) draws attention to the distortion of family relations, while maenadism is the catalyst that propels the women to destructive action.
In Roman literature the problematization of family relations often expresses anxieties about the stability of the state. Tereus, described as tyrannus in the narrative (549, 581), abuses his power as paterfamilias and defiles family bonds and loyalties. In the Metamorphoses, the term tyrannus is synonymous with authoritarianism and ruthlessness (Pavlock 1991, 34). Ovid stresses the political nature of Tereus’ and Procne’s union as an exchange for military assistance in times of war (426-28). The portrayal of Tereus as a tyrant with utter disregard for social institutions also suggests that abusive authority may lead to the breakdown of the very values on which society rests (Pavlock 1991, 45). The empowerment of Procne and Philomela and their ultimate revenge poignantly dramatize the distortion of social (and by extension political) relations as well as the destruction of the social and political fabric.
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