A cannibal reception of a lost tragedy

Abstract

This article presents a few moments in the work of composition of the tragedy Pentheus. They are shown in three discursive stages: first a mixture of personal memories, then certain philological archaeology and finally the contemporary theatrical engagement with a anthropophagic bias. This tragedy was managed in collaboration with the student group 'Teatro das Ideias Vivas', from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. Pentheus is a reception of the homonymous tragedy of Aeschylus, a lost text. This reception was done according to the idea of temporality that describes Eshu, the orisha who kills the bird yesterday with the pebble he throws today. Only one verse remains from the old tragedy, quoted by Galen: μηδ' αἵματος πέμφιγα πρὸς πέδῳ βάλῃς [“Not a single drop of blood shall fall on the foot”]. We have analysed the literary genome of this drop and fed it with contemporary questions until the tragic drama emerges in a ritual that mixes elements from the language of Aeschylus and the syncretic rites of Rio de Janeiro culture. We used invaluable information written by Aristophanes of Byzantium, the Grammarian, in Bacchae’s hypothesis. He said that Euripides had copied for the composition of his last tragedy the plot of Pentheus, the drama written by Aeschylus in homage to the redemption by Dionysus.