The Bacchae Scholarship Flashcards
(28 cards)
Stuttard
‘Play Themes’
- gender/identity
- madness/rationality
- vengeance/repression
- foreignness/fanaticism
Stuttard
‘Semele’s Tomb’
In the real city of Thebes, the site of Semele’s incineration became increasingly venerated.
It is a very sacred place.
Stuttard
‘Euripides’ Flaws’
General:
-reduce the role/impact of the chorus
-anti-hero characters
Bacchae:
-god as protagonist
Morwood
‘Dionysus’
Dionysus is both:
- Terrifying to mortals
- Gentle to mortals
Morwood
‘Dionysus + disorder’
Dionysus has disrupted the city’s social structure.
The women have abandoned both their homes and children.
Morwood
‘Agave”
She is degraded by what she carries.
Her actions are non-Greek due to its barbarism.
Morwood
‘Dionysus enjoyment’
He may well be wearing a smiling mask.
Edith Hall
‘Performance’
Actors played many roles.
May not have been able to disguise their voices.
Foley
‘Dionysus’
Euripides presents Dionysus as a director who constructs his own play within a play.
Rosie Wyles
(Semele’s’ tomb / Pentheus)
The tomb igniting and Pentheus refusing to acknowledge Dionysus despite seeing this symbol of divinity.
Raises tensions.
Rosie Wyles
‘The earthquake / palace)
The destruction of the palace is a symbol of Dionysus’ power.
Rosie Wyles
‘Pentheus’
Pentheus cross-dressed with Bacchic accessories shows a visual representation of Dionysus’ full control over him.
Rosie Wyles
‘the chorus / Pentheus’ death)
Their ecstatic joy is chilling.
While heightening the pathos of Pentheus’ death.
Stuttard
‘the head of Pentheus’
In 53BC at the wedding of Pacorus the Bacchae was performed.
Instead of a prop the actor of Agave brought out the severed head of one of the Parthians’ enemies.
Chris Carey
‘Dionysus’ control over Pentheus’
We have the uncanny sense that the god is both beside and within him.
Sophie Mills
‘The Euripidean Dionysus’
He is not a remote, spectacular deity.
But a deity that has deliberately disguised himself to deceive a mortal.
Sophie Mills
‘Dionysus and Pentheus’
Pentheus is manipulated into believing that he is competing with an equal.
Makes the audience highly uncomfortable.
Sophie Mills
‘modern perception of the play’
The Bacchae was considered so violent that it was seldom performed before 1960’s.
Goldhill
‘Bacchic Chorus’
The chorus of the Bacchae focuses on:
-the paradoxes and problems with Bacchic worship
-uncertain tensions between human reason and order
-the potential destruction, violence and madness in human society
Kovacs
‘Euripides speaking in favour of religious beleifs’
Cadmus and the chorus speak in defence of Maenadism.
This is a reply to contemporary speculation.
Garvie
‘Dionysus’
The most striking paradox is that the god who throughout the play promises joy will at the end produce only suffering and horror.
Garvie
‘Tiresias’
The trajedians usually treat Tiresias with respect and those who don’t regret it.
Garvie
‘The play as a whole’
Somehow the despair seems all the darker because of the recurring theme of joy it followed.
Hannah Roisman
‘Pentheus’
Neither completely good nor bad.
He has enough good in him to arouse sympathy.
