Bacchae Flashcards
Summary of the Bacchae
A young Dionysos, with his troop of worshippers, has been spreading his cult all across the non-Greek cities to the east. He now arrives in Thebes, where his mother, Semele, was from. Dionysos is enraged that the Thebans have failed to recognize him as a god and as a son of Zeus. The god has already driven the women of the city, including his aunts, Agave, Ino, and Autonoe, to a spiritual ecstasy. They are up in the mountains, worshipping him. Cadmus, the comically elderly founder of Thebes and father of Agave, agrees to worship the god, along with the old blind prophet, Tiresias, and they hobble up the mountain together. But Agave’s son, Dionysos’ cousin, Pentheus – the current king of Thebes – is resistant to the god’s rites. He arrests Dionysus, who is disguised as a follower, not himself the god. Then the messenger comes to tell the king about the Maenads killing the men. Then Pentheus wants to go to see the Maenads in the mountains. Dionysus tells him he needs to listen to him and dress up as the Maenads to blend in. But in reality, Dionysus is sending him to his death. The messenger will come back and tell the story of how Pentheus died. He went to spy and got on top of a tree to see them better. The Maenads would ultimately kill him by ripping him apart, lead by his mother, Agave. Agave comes back to boast about her killing, not knowing it is her son, until her father, Cadmus helps her realize.
Who wrote the Bacchae?
Euripides
When was the Bacchae written?
405, the last year of the Peloponnesian War
What is the Great Dionysia?
Yearly spring festival in Athens
Procession and sacrifices to Dionysus
3 days of tragedy competitions
What performances happen in the Great Dionysia?
Starting at dawn, three tragedies and one satyr play were performed in the outdoor Theater of Dionysus
Three male citizen actors, plus a chorus of 12-15, all wearing masks and costumes, singing and dancing for the choral passages
Three days of these shows, by three different poets/ playwrights. Official judges determined the winner
The Bacchae was performed with Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis (about Agamemnon killing his daughter) and two other plays
Who is Actaeon?
Son of Autonoe, cousin of Pentheus and Dionysus
Hunting in the forest, he saw Artemis bathing naked
She changed him into a stag, and he was ripped apart by his own hunting dog
Dionysus vs Pentheus
Pentheus tries to impose power by chaining and tying up and yelling; Dionysos asserts his power by quietly setting free the wildness inside everyone / everything.
Pentheus thinks in binary terms, Dionysus evades binaries: he’s animal / god, he’s genderqueer, he’s east and west, he’s rich and poor, he’s the liberator from distinctions and bonds.
How is Bacchae plot similar to Medea?
A privileged Greek male ruler fails to honor a semi-divine gender-queer visitor from foreign lands
At first, the privileged Greek seems to be obviously in the wrong
But then the stranger does things that may feel shocking & excessive
The foreigner has supernatural abilities
The foreigner takes a terrible revenge
A parent kills a child
Greek men aren’t as clever as they think they are
Dragons/snakes pop up unexpectedly
Who is Dionysus?
God of theater, wine
Son of Zeus and Semele
What is stichomythia?
The dramatic technique in which two characters each deliver just one line each, in quick succession
Euripides uses this technique to show how Dionysus seduces Pentheus
Who is Pentheus?
The king of Thebes, cousin of Dionysus
Who is Agave?
Mother of Pentheus, kills her son
