Bacchae Flashcards
Dionysus’ parents?
Semele
Zeus
“I must vindicate my mother Semele”
Dionysus in his first speech
“therefore I will demonstrate to him, and to all Thebes…
…that I am a god.”
Dionysus first speech
“he is a fighter against gods, defies me, excludes me from libations, never names me in prayers”
Dionysus first speech - about Pentheus
“we see things clearly;…
…all the others are perverse”
- Teiresias to Cadmus about how they are the only ones to worship Dionysus
“he desires equal worship from all men”
Teiresias on Dionysus
Pentheus’ first dialogue how does he describe the Bacchants?
“astounding scandal”
“our women… have left their homes on some pretence”
“upstart god Dionysus”
“give themselves to lecherous men”
says there is more of aphrodite than bacchus in their ritual
“the truth about Dionysus is that he’s…
…dead”
Pentheus
Teiresias representing societal fear of prophets taking advantage of people
Pentheus says “by introducing a new god, you hope to advance your augurer’s business, to collect more fees”
Teiresias’ advice to Pentheus ?
“welcome this god to Thebes, offer libations to him”
Teiresias on Bacchic influence on women?
“in the Bacchic ritual, as elsewhere, a woman will be safe from corruption if her mind is chaste”
Cadmus foreshadowing?
“remember… Acteon’s miserable fate - torn and devoured by hounds” (for disrespecting Artemis)
“I will punish this man who has been your instructor in lunacy”
Pentheus thinks he can punish Dionysus
“He’s securely in the trap”
Pentheus to the guard after catching Dionysus
Dionysus says Pentheus must be punished for his
“blindness and impiety to the god”
Pentheus says their “moral standards fall far below ours” about what
Dionysus says every eastern land dances bacchic mysteries
“the god himself, whenever I desire, will set me free”
“he is close at hand here”
Dionysus tricking Pentheus
“where is he, then? Not visible to my eye”
Pentheus can’t see Dionysus - foreshadowing
“your name points to calamity…
… .it fits you well.
- Dionysus to Pentheus (foreshadowing)
“i made a mockery of him”
“he neither held nor touched me, save in his deluded mind”
Dionysus to the Bacchants about how he tricked Pentheus and escaped
“he, a man, dared to take arms against a god”
Dionysus on Pentheus trying to attack him with a sword
“strange and terrible doings”
Herdsman describing the bacchants
How does the herdsman dispute Pentheus’ judgement of the Bacchants?
He says they were modest - not as Pentheus suggested using the woods to have affairs
Examples of powers the Bacchants have?
- at peace with animals, suckling wolf cubs
- can make milk or wine from the ground
- thrysus produce honey
Examples of the Bacchants breaking societal expectations of women?
“bare-limbed”
“let their hair fall free over their shoulders”
“tied up the fastening of fawnskins they had loosened”
“snatched babies out of the houses”
“turned the men to flight”
What triggers the Bacchants to tear apart the cattle?
the herdsman and other men try to capture Agave
Who advises Pentheus to accept Dionysus next, after Teiresias, Dionysus himself and Cadmus?
the herdsman/ messenger
“i would control my rage and sacrifice to him if i were you”
Dionysus to Pentheus
“this is beyond all bearing, if we must let women so defy us”
Pentheus after hearing of the Bacchants plundering the villages
what would Pentheus give a “weighty sum of gold” for?
to see the bacchants
“the Maenads must not mock me; better anything than that”
Pentheus is afraid of being mocked by women
“he will visit the Bacchae; and there death shall punish him”
Dionysus lays out his plan/ foreshadows
“first fill him with wild delusions, drive him out of his mind”
Dionysus is planning to make Pentheus mad
“come, perverse man, greedy for…
…sights you should not see”
Dionysus on Pentheus
What do Dionysus’ delusions make Pentheus see? (2)
- two suns
- Dionysus as a bull
“you will return borne high…
…. … in your own mother’s arms”
- Dionysus tells Pentheus what will happen
P - “you insist that I be spoiled”
D - “one kind of spoiling”
P - “yet I win what I deserve”
high levels of foreshadowing and dramatic irony
“their hands busy at their happy tasks”
The Bacchants are twining ivy crowns in the woods - mimics the role of women to stay in the home weaving and the perversion of the bacchants against the expectations of women in Greece
“possessed by the very breath of Bacchus”
The Bacchants before they kill P
“Pentheus, helpless in this pitiful trap”
sympathy for P
“Pentheus fell, with one incessant scream as he understood what end was near”
sympathy / horror
“Agave was foaming at the mouth; her rolling eyes were wild; she was not in her right mind, but possessed by Bacchus”
Wildness of Agaue
“I have left weaving at the loom for greater things, for hunting wild beasts with my bare hands”
- Agaue
this shows the theme of the danger of women breaking from their boundaries - she has not in fact achieved ‘greater things’ but has killed her own son
“I wish my son were a great hunter like his mother… but he can only fight with gods”
Agave (still possessed)
reminds us why Pentheus has been killed
“No! I hold Pentheus’ head in my accursed hand”
Agave’s realisation
“Your guilt, my daughter, was not heavier than his”
Cadmus blames Pentheus for his downfall “he sinned like you, refusing reverence to a god”
“I kiss the flesh that my own body nourished and my own care reared to manhood”
Agaue when arranging Pentheus’ body
“therefore death came to him in the most shameful way, at his own mother’s hands”
Dionysus on Pentheus’ death
“gods should not be like mortals in vindictiveness”
Cadmus to Dionysus
“there is strange tyranny in the god who sent against your house this cruel punishment”
Agave on Dionysus
Who is on stage in the prologue of B?
Dionysus
Who is on stage in the 1st episode of B?
Cadmus, Teiresias and Pentheus
Who is on stage at the 2nd episode of B?
Pentheus and Dionysus
Who is on stage in the 3rd episode of Bacchae?
Pentheus, Dionysus and a herdsman
Who is on stage in the 4th episode of Bacchae?
Dionysus and Pentheus
Who is on stage in the 5th episode of Bacchae?
messenger
Who is on stage in the epilogue of Bacchae?
Agaue, Cadmus and Dionysus
How do the bacchants cross social boundaries?
they cross the line dividing gods from men and the law of the wild vs. the law of the polis
