The Masks of Dionysus
Euripides Bacchae 2
Agenda
• Recap and Update
• Dionysianism cont’d Analysis Part 2, Advice,
• How to Play?
• Pentheus’ Maenadic Make-Over
(pp. 432 ff.)
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Recap and Update
Dionysianism cont’d Analysis Part 2, Advice,
Dionysus, Dionysianism
Dionysian initiation
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Cross-dressing
Mystic knowing
Ritual rebirth
Maenads, maenadism
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Rapture
Thyrsus. . .
• “. . . and with the fennel,
join reverence to riot” (p.
400)
• lit. “Sanctify the hubristic
(hubristas) fennel rods all
around!”
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•
Sparagmos, Omophagia
Oresibasia
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Maenad/bacchant
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Analysis
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prologue (starts p. 395)
• Dionysus
parodos (398): “Asian” (Anatolian)
Bacchants. Cult hymn
1st episode (402)
• Tiresias, Cadmus, Pentheus
1st stasimon (412)
• Pentheus’ impiety
2nd episode (414)
• Servant, Pentheus, Dionysus (in
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2nd stasimon (417)
• Thebes’ rejection of Dionysus
Choral dialogue (418): Chorus & D
• Earthquake
Trochaic dialogue, D & Leader (420)
• “messenger” scene
3rd episode (422)
• Short dialogue, D&P
• Messenger scene: hubris in the hills
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disguise)
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3rd stasimon (431)
• Hope restored, do not mock the god
4th episode (432)
• D&P. Fitting scene
4th stasimon (436)
• Excited song of vengeance
5th episode (438)
• Messenger (servant on death of
Pentheus)
5th stasimon (442)
• Short song of triumph
exodos (443)
• Agave’s mad scene
• lyric dialogue
• Cadmus’s return with Pentheus
• recognition, reversal
• Lament for Pentheus
• Deus ex machina
“. . . with the fennel, join
reverence to riot” (p. 400)
lit. “Sanctify the hubristic (hubristas)
fennel rods (narthēkas) all around!”
Aristotle on Bacchae?
concept
Bacchae
ethos “character”
(Pentheus)
stock tyrant’s paranoia (creon-like), stubborn.
hamartia “error”
hubris – arrogance in the face of Dionysus.
desis “complication”
lusis “unraveling,
solution”
anagnorisis “recognition”
peripeteia
“reversal (of fortune)”
catharsis “purification”
learning?
pleasure?
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Bacchae 1
Journal-Prompt Discussion
(Agon pp. 414 ff)
Imagine yourself inside Euripides' play.
What would you say to Pentheus? Is he
in the right? In the wrong? What would
be your advice for handling this problem
he's got?
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Advice…
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go along with Dionysus
the revenge element….
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• deserved?
• yes, p is over the top
• no, you can’t go around
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in the end d a good
guy?
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d doesn’t go too far
d like Krishna etc.
christlike thing
killing jerks –
disproportionate
punishment
both wrong
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How to Play?
Pentheus’ Maenadic Make-Over
(pp. 432 ff.)
Dionysus to Chorus
“Imbue him with a dizzy fantasy. / Sane, he never
will consent / to put a woman’s clothing on. . . .
Pentheus . . . will come to know full well at last /
Dionysus, son of Zeus, a god indeed: / to man most
gentle — and most dangerous.” (p. 430)
Literally: “Drive him out of his wits (ekstēson phrenōn).
he shall come to know Dionysus, . . . whose nature is to
be a god most terrible to those undergoing initiation (en
telei), yet to humankind, most gentle.” (lines 859-861)
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