Euripides Bacchae 1The Masks of Dionysus

Dionysus and Satyr, Makron, ca. 480

David Koresh(Waco TX 1993)

NeoMatrix Reloaded (2003)

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What Sort of God is This? drunk (?) both sides

• means to do well but doesn’t

gods can be ambiguous• don’t have to be good

or bad

d a little too human

good thing to follow him (bad not to)

plato would be conflicted• p & d have multiple

sides

b/c d acting human, takes divinity out of it

personal affront• more than hippolytus

For Next Time:

Performance and interpretation• scene pp. 264 ff.

Ending: justice? WHAT WOULD the Platonic

SOCRATES SAY TO DIONYSUS?• What would Dionysus say back?

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Agenda

Background 1• Play Facts, Backstory

Background 2• Dionysus, Dionysianism

Theme and Action• Keep it Real? Dionysus

Background 1Play Facts, Backstory

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Other Dionysian Tragedy

Aeschylus• Edonians (tetralogy)• Pentheus tetralogy

Sophocles’ son …• Xenocles Bacchae

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Euripides’s Bacchae:Play Facts, Backstory Posthumous production (Mar 405)

• Iphigenia at Aulis• Alcmeon• Bacchae• satyr play

Text• interpolation• corruption

Backstory• Cadmus founds Thebes• Semele scorned• Pentheus king• Dionysus returns

characters, etc.

Artemis and Actaéon (c.470 BCE)

Analysis

prologue (pp. 229 ff.)• Dionysus

parodos (231)• Chorus of Asian (Anatolian)

Bacchants. Cult hymn1st episode (234)

• Tiresias, Cadmus, Pentheus1st stasimon (241)

• Pentheus’ impiety2nd episode (243)

• Servant, Pentheus, Dionysus (in disguise). Interrogation

2nd stasimon (248)• Thebes’ rejection of Dionysus

3rd episode (250)• Earthquake. Choral dialogue with

Dionysus. Short dialogue, D&P (250)• Messenger scene. “Hubris” in the

hills (254)• Tempting of Pentheus. D&P (258)

3rd stasimon (262)• Hope restored, do not mock the god

4th episode (264)• D&P. Fitting scene

4th stasimon (268)• Excited song of vengeance

5th episode (269)• Messenger (servant on death of

Pentheus)5th stasimon (273)

• Short song of triumphexodos (274)

• Agave’s mad scene– with lyric dialogue

• Cadmus’s return with Pentheus– recognition, reversal

• Lament for Pentheus• Deus ex machina

Background 2

Dionysus, Dionysianism

Dionysus on What Dionysus Is

I am Dionysus, the son of Zeus. My mother

was Semele, the mortal daughter of Cadmus….

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Many a town have I seen, with beautiful towers

and Greeks and Barbarians mingling in the streets.

Everywhere I stayed to teach my dances and rites,

Making my godhead known to all men. But this

great city is the first I’ve reached in Hellas.

(pp. 229-230)

Tiresias on What Dionysus Is(pp. 238 ff.)

INEXPRESSABLE:… my words cannot begin to describe His magnitude.

GOD AS WINE:He drew forth sweet liquid from the grapes,…

DOUBLE BIRTH:[Zeus] broke off a piece of the ether that circles the earth / and from it he molded a likeness of Dionysus.”

PROPHECY

The Bacchic frenzy inspires frenzy.

Dionysus with Satyrs,Athenian cup (“Brygos painter”)circa 510 BCE

Dionysus Masks

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Maenadic Frenzy / Rapture Frenzy

• thyrsus …• sparagmos

– “dismemberment”

• omophagia– “raw eating”

• oresibasia– “mountain dancing”

Rapture …

io bakkhe !euoi !

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Dionysian Mysteries, Initiation

Cross-dressing Mystic knowing Ritual dying, rebirth

LIFE-DEATH-LIFE

Theme and ActionKeep it Real?

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Bacchae: Seeds of Doubt?CADMUS I’m only a man. When God speaks, I must

listen.

TIRESIAS Indeed! Nor should we pretend to know too much / about the ways of Heaven. Our fathers’ faith, as old / as time itself – no logic shall overturn it! (p. 236)

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CADMUS If you doubt the god is a god, then lie a little, / tell a white lie for our glory, admit that Semele / is mother of a God. (p. 240)

Choral Dialogue pp. 97-9:

How to stage earthquake-demolition?

Why??