Euripides Bacchae 1
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Transcript of Euripides Bacchae 1
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??