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Classics - Mr Short > The Bacchae Summary > Flashcards

The Bacchae Summary Flashcards

1
Q

c

Describe briefly what happens in the Prologue (lines 1-48)

A
  • Dionysus announces himself & his reason for coming to Thebes
  • disguised as the human leader of the Dionysiac cult
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2
Q

Prologue

Why does Dionysus say he has come to Thebes

A

to avenge the dishonor of his deceased mother, Semele

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3
Q

Prologue

What does Dionysus set out to achieve in Thebes

A
  • the citizens of Thebes to:
  • observe his godlike power, and honour him accordingly
  • know the rumors about Semele are wrong, and give her the respect she deserves
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4
Q

Prologue

What was the House of Cadmus’ view on Semele’s affair

A
  • Dionysus was not acknowledged by the house of Cadmus
  • and Semele’s family accused her of having a mortal lover and lying about Zeus, dying at his hands as punishment.
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5
Q

Prologue

What 2 reasons must Dionysus seek revenge

A
  • to exact retribution for their disrespectful treatment of his mother’s memory
  • to punish the ruler of Thebes for refusing to allow his people to worship him
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6
Q

Prologue

Semele is the daughter of ……….

A
  • Cadmus, the former King of Thebes
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7
Q

Prologue

What has Cadmus just done

A

recently abdicated in favor of his younger and stronger grandson Pentheus

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8
Q

Prologue

Backstory to Semele - what happened with Semele regarding the affair, with Hera

A
  • After Semele’s affair with Zeus, his wife Hera, taunted the woman for never having known her lover in his divine, form
  • Semele fell for Hera’s ploy and begged Zeus to appear to her as a divinity;
  • he came from above as a bolt of lightning, and the mortal Semele, unable to behold him, was burned to death
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9
Q

Prologue

Backstory to Semele - what did Zeus do to Dionysus

A

Zeus rescued the unborn fetus and stitched him into his thigh

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10
Q

Prologue

What has Dionysus done so far

A
  • He has already inflicted madness upon the women of the city & the palace,
  • causing them to abandon their homes for Mt. Cithaeron, where the Bacchants perform ecstatic rites.
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11
Q

Prologue

How does Dionysus appear as a mortal

A

in the disguise of a male Lydian leader of female bacchants

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12
Q

Prologue

Who inparticular is Dionysus angry at

A

His cousin Pentheus for refusing to offer him sacrifice or prayer

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13
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the Parados (lines 49-142)

A
  • The Chorus enter & sing a hymn in honour of Dionysus
  • They have come to Greece following their cult leader
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14
Q

Parados

What is unusual about this particular chrous

A

all female Bacchants (worshippers of Dionysus)

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15
Q

Parados

What aspects of Dionysiac worship are stressed

A
  • Oreibasia - mountain dancing
  • singing
  • holy rituals waving thyrsuses
  • eating raw meat
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16
Q

Paarados

What veiled warnings are there about the worship of Dionysus

A
  • cannibalism
  • its addictive, intoxicating nature
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17
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
1 . Tiresias & Cadmus

A
  • These old friends have decided to wear fawnskins and worship Dionysus on Mt. Cithaeron.
  • They begin to dance and start their journey up the mountain
  • not ashamed to be the only men in Thebes who are willing to dance for the new god
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18
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
2 . Pentheus arrives —-> gives opinions on Maenads

A
  • Pentheus appears on stage and does not see the old men, lost in his rage about the women
  • He considers the bacchic rites to be simply a thin veil to cover licentious, depraved and drunken behaviour
  • Pentheus brags that he has already imprisoned some of these unruly women, and will continue to hunt those on the mountain, inc his relatives
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19
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
3 . Pentheus arrives —-> gives opinions on Dionysus

A
  • His campaign to bring the maenads back to civilization has been made harder by the recent arrival of an effeminate stranger
  • He declares that he will cut off this foreigner’s head, thereby ending his efforts to seduce the local women.
  • Finally, Pentheus mocks the idea that Dionysus is a god, claiming that Semele and Dionysus were killed because she lied that Zeus was her father’s child.
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20
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
4 . Pentheus mocks Cadmus & Tiresias

A
  • Pentheus launches into a admonishing tirade against Tiresias & Cadmus for wearing Dionysiac costumes
  • He tells Cadmus that he is ashamed of him,
  • and accuses Tiresias of paying homage to the god only so he can make extra money from prophecies associated with Dionysian worship.
  • The chorus accuse Pentheus of blasphemy
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21
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
5 . Tiresias responds to Pentheus’ rampage

A
  • T prophesies that Dionysus will become a powerful god in Greece & he’s mad to ridicule him
  • T suggests wine is a valuable means to escape grief, enabling men to commune
  • T claims that Dionysus is even able to grant his worshipers prophetic powers while they engage in his ecstatic rites.
  • He refutes Pentheus’ claim that Dionysus causes women to become unchaste, instead the god releases their true nature, chaste or unchaste.
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22
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
6 . Cadmus contributes advising Pentheus

A
  • C encourages P to support the new god, ragardless of truth
  • First it will increase the family’s status to become known for having a god as a relative.
  • Second, if D is a God, it will preserve Pentheus from divine retribution like that suffered by his cousin Actaeon, who was ripped apart by hounds after bragging that his hunting skills surpassed those of a goddess.
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23
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Episode (lines 143-291)
7 . Pentheus responds to Tiresias’ counter-argument

A
  • In reply Pentheus brashly rejects the advice of both men & spitefully threatens to destroy Tiresias’s religious objects and sacrificial stores.
  • He then orders the arrest of the Dionysiac priest
  • The two old men hurry away, hoping that Pentheus does not bring calamity upon the family through his unremitting rejection of Dionysus, but knowing that he will.
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24
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the First Stasimon (lines 292-346)

A
  • 1st Stanza - Pentheus’ sacreligious insolence against Dionysus should be held accountable by the Gods
  • 2nd Stanza - glorify the quiet life that does not indulge recklessness
  • 3rd Stanza - escaping to Cyprus, the isle of Aphrodite, where they can perform their rites in beauty and peace.
  • 4th Stanza - praise Dionysus for the peace and moderate life he brings
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25
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the Second Episode (lines 347-433)
1 . Servant gives Dionysus as a prisoner

A
  • A servant leads the disguised Dionysus to a very pleased Pentheus.
  • The arrest of the Stranger who did not even attempt to flee, making the servant feel ashamed
  • His other prisoners, the theban women bacchants escaped, the chains & doors unbarred themselves.
  • Servant hints by explaining the miracles that Pentheus may be wrong
  • But Pentheus is happy with his new prisoner and does not pay attention to the signs of Dionysus’ divinity.
26
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the Second Episode (lines 347-433)
2 . Pentheus unknowingly interrogates Dionysus

A
  • sequence of stichomythia, Pentheus’ anger & futility is exposed:
  • P asks where he’s come from and on whose authority he now introduces these rites to Thebes.
  • The Stranger remains calm, saying D instructed him on various bacchic rites.
  • P mocks the rites, infectious to know
  • As Pentheus has been impious, continues the Stranger, he is not allowed to know what the rites consist of or what the god’s true nature is.
27
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the Second Episode (lines 347-433)
3 . Pentheus ends the conversation with Dionysus

A
  • Conventionally of Pentheus, he resorts to crude physical acts: arrest, imprison, and destroy.
  • Pentheus promises to cut off Dionysus’ hair, destroy his possessions, and lock him up for good.
  • The Stranger calmly states that his god will free him and then chain and punish Pentheus, which exacerbates P’s fury
28
Q

Second Episode

What is Pentehus initially interested in at the beginning of their exchange

A

Dionysus’ appearance, particularly the features he is attracted to

29
Q

Second Episode

What does Pentheus threaten to do to the stranger, but why has he not carried this out

A
  • behead him as physical torture
  • leave him in the dark as mental torture
  • yet, he is an impetous leader, who issues threats without fulfiling them
30
Q

Second Episode

Where is the dramatic irony in this scene

A
  • the one is issuing the threats is oblivious to the diminishing miniscule power he yields, whilst impiously interrogating & threatening a God
31
Q

describe briefly what happens in the second stasimon (lines 438-478)

A
  • First section - Reapproaches all of Thebes for rejecting Dionysus stressing his connection to Zeus and fire.
  • Second section - depicts a murdeous monster Pentheus, whose ancestry, house of Cadmus was said to have descended from a dragon’s tooth planted in the earth.
  • Third Section - The chorus believe that soon they will leave Thebes, a cursed city & return to worshipping Dionysus
32
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
1 . Dionysus escapes

A
  • Dionysus easily frees himself from jail while utterly destroying the entire palace in the process by creating an earthquake
  • He then summons fire next and the flames on his mother Semele’s tomb flare up.
  • The chorus flings itself on the ground in mounting hysteria.
33
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
2 . Pentheus enters enraged

A
  • Pentheus enters, furious about the escaped prisoner, still unwilling to acknowledge the divinity and power of Dionysus.
  • He sees the disguised Dionysus, and is enraged that this priest is somehow still free, standing at the entrance to his palace.
  • Dionysus asks him to stay calm and reminds him that no matter how many reinforcements arrive, how high the walls, god will triumph.
34
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
3 . The first messenger enters, describing the Bacchants initially

A
  • The first messenger, a herdsman, arrives to tell Pentheus what the Bacchae have been doing
  • The messenger claims to have seen Agave, Ino and Autonoe leading the other women.
  • At first, they were sleeping deeply, as if exhausted from their dancing and wild activities.
35
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
4 . The Maenads go rogue description

A
  • But when Agave heard the sounds of an approaching herd of cattle, she called out to the other Bacchae, waking them.
  • The Bacchae loosened their hair, crowned their heads with ivy and fastened their fawnskins with snakes.
  • Nature is perverted here, some women nursed wild animals, while others used their thyrsi to strike the ground and rocks, producing water, wine and honey.
36
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
4 . attempting to capture Agave

A
  • The first messenger and his fellow herdsmen decided to earn Pentheus’s favor by trapping Agave, by capturing her distracted by rituals, intending to bring her back to the city.
  • but she cried out to the other women to use their thyrsi as weapons
  • the men escape
37
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
4 . Agave & the Maenads violence

A
  • However, Agave and the Bacchae turned to ripping their cattle apart, even the full-grown bulls, using only their bare hands.
  • the Bacchae continued to nearby villages, grabbing children & many items, carrying them long distances.
38
Q

third episode

why do the maenads attack the herdsmen

A
  • as an order from Dionysus, for watching their rituals
39
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
6. Messenger gives opinion on Dionysus

A
  • The first messenger tells Pentheus it was clear there was a god empowering the Bacchae, compelling them to superhuman feats, encouraging P to respect this God
40
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
6 . Dionysus offers one last chance to avoid war

A
  • Pentheus replies that he will not allow women to treat men so unnaturally, and orders his servants to prepare for war.
  • Dionysus offers a chance to avoid war, advising Pentehus to offer a sacrfifce, as he is a mortal, & offers to bring the Bacchae peacefully back to Thebes
  • Pentheus rejects this, calling for his armour
41
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
7 . Dionysus convinces Pentheus

A
  • Cunningly, Dionysus asks Pentheus if he would like to see the Bacchants, with the only way to do so would be do dress as a female follower of the God
  • Pentheus is attracted to the idea, yet find its both shameful & logical, yet he follows D’s instructions of dressing like a Bacchant
42
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third episode (lines 479-727)
8 . Dionysus concludes the scene

A
  • Not quite convinced, Pentheus returns to the ruined palace to think everything over.
  • Once Pentheus is gone, Dionysus tells the chorus that he plans to drive Pentheus mad and humiliate him, forcing Pentheus to acknowledge Dionysus’ power and status as a god.
43
Q

third episode

How does Euripides parody the comedy of Aristophanes?

A
  • In Thesmophoriazusae, an actor playing Eurupides dresses his relative as a woman to go & spy on women at a religious festival
  • This comic transgression is hilarious but unsuccesful, hence this heightens tension & foreshadows
44
Q

third episode

What does Dionysus doom Pentheus to when peforming his speech to the chorus at the end of the episode

A
  • He will not only be humiliated walking around Thebes as a woman, but will also be eternally doomed in Hades, to dress like a woman in the underworld
45
Q

Describe briefly what happens in the third stasimon (lines 728-770)

A
  • Tone of the chorus is now relieved, triumphant and exhilarated.
  • They imagine themselves to be a deer, running through the forest, wishing to return to freely worshipping Dionysus
  • They decide that wisdom is vengeance, so those how deny the Gods respect will be punished
  • They sing about the joys of divine revenge.
46
Q

Summarise what happens in the fourth episode (lines 771-837)

A
  • Dionysus returns from inside the palace with Pentheus following him, now totally in his power & hallucinates thinking the Stranger is a bull
  • With each line, Pentheus’ pathetic sense of self-importance grows, as does the violence in Dionysus’s warnings.
  • Dionysus hints that Pentheus will be brought back to Thebes in a special state and at the hands of his mother
47
Q

Summarise what happens in the fourth choral ode (4th Stasimon) lines 838-880

A
  • The chorus, bloodthirtsy & venegful, are rejoicing in the fact that Pentheus is about to meet his fate,
  • stressing the dangers of failing to honor the gods and leading a balanced life
  • this scene is a re-working of the cowherd’s account of the attack on the cattle, so it foreshadows his demise, as he will be percieved as an animal
48
Q

Summarise what happens in the fifth episode (lines 881-978)
1 . messenger arrives

A
  • the messenger arrives in Thebes from Mount Cithaeron & tells of events that have happened off stage - revealing to the Chorus of Maenads that Pentheus is dead
  • The chorus rejoices, but the messenger responds that, even if they are not themselves Theban citizens, it’s not right to celebrate such a disaster.
49
Q

Summarise what happens in the fifth episode (lines 881-978)
2 . Pentheus in a tree

A
  • Pentheus got impatient for a better view of the women
  • The disguised Dionysus miraculously bent the top of the tree down to the earth so Pentheus could climb onto it, then slowly straightened the tree.
  • The moment the tree is straightened, Pentheus is exposed to the maenads and the Stranger disappears.
50
Q

Summarise what happens in the fifth episode (lines 881-978)
3 . getting Pentheus out the tree

A
  • The voice of Dionysus came out of the sky, telling the Bacchae that this was the man who had mocked the god, and asking them to take revenge against Pentheus for his crimes.
  • The Bacchae threw stones and branches at Pentheus, yet he was too high for their missiles
  • After tearing the tree out of the ground doesn’t work, led by Agave, they form a circle round the tree and use their hands to shake and drag the tree down
51
Q

Summarise what happens in the fifth episode (lines 881-978)
4 . The mutililation of Pentheus

A
  • He makes one last effort to save himself and piteously cries out to his mother to recognize him, removing his wig and forgive his errors.
  • But the queen, driven mad by the bacchic rites, does not respond and instead grasps her son’s arm and pulls it out if its socket.
  • All the other maenads, including his aunts Ino and Autonoe, tear apart his body and scatter the pieces all over the hillside.
52
Q

Summarise what happens in the fifth episode (lines 881-978)
5 . Agave’s actions once she kills Pentheus

A
  • Agave seizes her son’s decapitated head & places it on top of her thyrsus, as if it is a trophy
  • she begins to walk towards Thebes thanking Dionysus, whom she refers to as her “fellow hunter.”
  • The messenger hastily ends his tale here for he wants to leave to avoid witnessing Agave’s grief when she realizes what she has done
53
Q

Summarise what happens in the fifth choral ode (5th Stasimon) lines 979-996

A
  • To maintain the urgency of the moment, the chorus launches into a brief song
  • first triumphant over Pentheus’s death
  • and then acknowledging the horror of a mother ripping up her son
54
Q

Summarise what happens in the Exodos (a) lines 997-1054

A
  • Agave appears on stage for the first time, still possessed, triumphantly enters the palace gates with the head of her son in her arms, thinking it a lion’s head.
  • She converses with the chorus rapidly, who humour her inability to contain her excitement at the result of her hunt
  • She even calls for her son to come
55
Q

Summarise what happens in the Exodos (b) lines 1055-1216
1 . Cadmus arrives to the Palace

A
  • Cadmus enters the palace, bringing with him the rest of Pentheus’s remains
  • Cadmus’ grief over the destruction of his lineage at the hands of Bromios, disturbingly juxtaposes with the crazed joy of Agave
56
Q

Summarise what happens in the Exodos (b) lines 1055-1216
2 . Agave’s anagnorisis

A
  • Agave brags about her hunt greeting her father Cadmus, so he asks her a series of questions to re-orientate her
  • He asks her to look at the sky, & Agave sees a holy glow
  • Cadmus then suggests that an excitement inside her distorts her vision
  • As she begins to leave her trance, he asks her the name of her son & husband, & once she replies, what she is holding.
  • She first replies a lion, but then reaches her anagnorisis
57
Q

What intensifies Agave’s anagnorisis

A

She does not remember why she holds the head of her son and has to be told by her father, thus intensifying the tragedy of the situation.

58
Q

Summarise what happens in the Exodos (b) lines 1055-1216
3 . Agave & Cadmus grieve

A
  • Cadmus explains Dionysus made Pentheus suffer for refusing to honor him, so his ruined corpse should remind them of their duty to worship these powerful deities
  • Cadmus remembers him fondly, how he looked aftre him and maintained order in Thebes
  • He talks of how Pentheus had to pay for the sins of the entire family, for they denied Dionysus at the time of his birth.
  • Cadmus laments the end of his house’s dynasty, because he has no male heirs remaining to continue ruling Thebes.
59
Q

Summarise what happens in the Exodos (b) lines 1055-1216
4 . Dionysus speech

A
  • Dionysus’ divine form as God is now revealed, announcing that:
  • The city will be conquered and its citizens driven from their homes to live out the rest of their lives as slaves in foreign lands
  • Agave and her sisters are to be exiled from Thebes for the remainder of their lives due to their foul murder.
  • Cadmus and his wife will turn into serpents &be forced to lead a barbarian army that will pillage many Greek cities.
  • Finally however the god Ares will rescue Cadmus and his wife and send them to the land of the blessed.
60
Q

Summarise what happens in the Exodos (b) lines 1055-1216
5 . Agave & Cadmus grieve as the play ends

A
  • Cadmus acknowledges that he has done wrong, but pleads with Dionysus that his sentence is too harsh, claiming that it is unseemly for a god to be filled with such humanlike passion.
  • But Dionysus tells him that their fate is inevitable, and it is pointless to delay it.
  • Agave embraces Cadmus, lamenting their separation and sad destinies, but Cadmus admits that he is powerless to help her.

Classics - Mr Short (6 decks)

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