St Gregory of Nazianzus subversion of Euripides & Dionysus told as Christian anti-tragedy

The epic play Christus Patiens, or Christ’s Suffering, is attributed to St Gregory of Nazianzus, though it’s actual authorship is contested.

It takes about one-third of its verse directly from tragedies by Euripides, but subverts them to tell the story of Christ’s Passion, death, and resurrection, telling what one might call a Christian anti-tragedy.

The aim of this transformation is to reveal the true, hidden sense of the famous pagan original.

The ultimate and highly original goal is to contrast the vindictive pagan destroyer Dionysus with the merciful redeemer Jesus Christ in this Christian anti-tragedy with its new and different world-view.

It’s long, 2,600 iambic trimeters.

I offer a link below from a new translation by Alan Fishbone.

For some background, Karla Pollmann writes HERE,

“In terms of its content, Euripides’ tragedy Bacchae in particular represents a challenge for Christians. Its subject is the spread of the cult of Dionysus in Greece in the face of resistance from the family of Cadmus.

However, aspects such as the appearance of a god among humans in human form, his suffering, the failure, or even active resistance by many to recognize his divinity, as well as the eventual revelation of his godhead are reminiscent of the Christian understanding of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

Thus, it is not surprising that a Christian discussion of this material was very appealing: among other things, the Christus patiens provides a specifically Christian interpretation of the Bacchae."

And scholar Michael Benjamin Cover writes HERE,

“Paul's dramatic christology would have been heard in Philippi: Euripidean tragedy. Echoes of Dionysus's opening monologue from Euripides's Bacchae in the carmen Christi suggest that Roman hearers of Paul's letter likely understood Christ's kenotic metamorphosis as a species of Dionysian revelation.

Jesus's Bacchic portraiture supports a theology of Christ's pre-existence, while simultaneously establishing him as a Dionysian antithesis to the imperial Apollonian kyrios Caesar. These Dionysian echoes also elevate the status of slaves and women, and suggest that “the tragic” remains modally present within the otherwise comic fabula of the Christ myth.”

Anyway, click HERE to download,  Enjoy !