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nog xx dagen voor de
première van Herakles
door Jan Kott Kott (1914-2001) is een Pools literair criticus die vooral bekendheid kreeg met zijn essay Shakespeare our contemporary uit 1964. Een moderne lezing van Shakespeare's stukken. In The Eating of the Gods (1970) onderneemt hij eenzelfde zoektocht, maar van de Griekse tragedie. Hij wijdt in dit boek een heel hoofdstuk aan de Bacchanten dat hij een tragedie van de lustmoord noemt, paradigmatisch voor de gewelduitbarsting en het bloedvergieten. Hij trekt een interessante parallel tussen Christus en Pentheus/Dionysos.
‘Pentheus is made the scapegoat. The scapegoat is a surogate who must be made to resemble the One whom he has replaced; in an ancient ritual a ram led to sacrifice had his horns gilded and a wreath hung around his neck. He scapegoat is the image of the One to whom he is sacrificed. The ritual is a repetition of divine sacrifice.' (pagina 193)
‘The Mass is a repetition and renewal of the sacrifice of the Son of God, but the ritual ‘slaughter of the lamb' is symbolized in the liturgy only by the archetypal gestures of the Offertory. The symbolic sign of Christ's death on the cross is Elevation and Consecration, and according to another interpretation, Fractio, the breaking of the Host in two above the chalice. Bread and wine, the substances of transubstantiation, also have their archetypal symbolism: they embody the opposites of nature and culture, death and life - and their overcoming. Nature produces corn and vine, but they require cultivation. The kernel and the grape are pure, ‘natural' substances, but in order to become flour and grape juice they have first to be cut, crushed by human hands and dismembered. The flour and the grape juice are subjected to fermentation. Fermentation is putrefaction and so - decay and natural death. But fermentation is also a cultivation process; flour and juice - dead matter - come to life, are transformed into food and drink.' (pagina 211)
Jan Kott, The Eating of the Gods, Northwestern University Press, 1987, ISBN 0810107457