In Fables of Abundance by Jackson Lears, the
first chapter describes how human perceptions
of wealth and prosperity have changed over
time.
Lears refers to Greek mythology once in the
chapter, alluding to the creation myth of
the cornucopia.
However, further study of Greek culture presents
us with other models that exemplify theories
presented by Lears.
In particular, we’re going to be talking
about Carnival and the Bacchae, a Greek tragedy
written by Euripides in the 5th century BCE.
Carnival was a festival of abundance in early
modern Europe that celebrated
leisure and consumption.
It was a time of celebration, role reversals,
and the profaning of high culture.
Carne meaning flesh, it was also a time of
embracing eroticism and liberation.
Lears argued that carnivalesque elements permeated
through all cultures, supported an animistic
(or spiritual) worldview, and that they continued
to hold an influence in the modern marketplace,
appealing to customers’ fantasies of material
wealth and repressed carnal instincts.
The philosopher Nietzsche described two opposing
forces of nature: the Apollonian, based off
the Greek god of light and truth who provides
the world with a rational structure; and the
Dionysian, the god of wine and ecstasy, whom
Nietzsche describes as ‘centred in extravagant
sexual licentiousness’ where ‘the most
savage natural instincts were unleashed.’
Dionysus stars in the Bacchae, and we see
such carnivalesque traits exemplified when
he turns the women of Thebes into crazed Maenads,
or female worshippers of Dionysus.
They spend the play hunting, dancing, and
embracing sexual freedom.
He also humiliates Pentheus,
the king of Thebes, causing him to dress
up as one of the Maenads and join
their rites of celebration—this is also
reminiscent of the role reversals so prevalent
in the European Carnival.
Although Lears analyzed these concepts as
they apply to American advertising, we see
how studying Greek art, for example the similarities
between Carnival and the Dionysian, can allow
us to understand how these values manifested
across time and place, a shared experience
among many cultures.
