The Masks of Dionysus

Euripides Bacchae 1

“Nothing to do with Dionysus” (Chamaeleon)

Dionysus/Satyr Mask(Athenian, 500s BCE)

NeoMatrix Reloaded (2003)

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Agenda

• Aristotle’s Poetics• Tragedy Explained?

• Bacchae: Background• Drama Dramatized?

• Discussion• Advice for Pentheus…

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Aristotle’s Poetics

Tragedy Explained? (Euripides’ Bacchae)

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Poetics: ApproachMethod

• Definition• Classification• Aetiology

• origins/causes

• Critical evaluation

Criteria

• Organic coherence• Plausibility• Emotional impact• Utility

• pleasure• therapy• pedagogy

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Aristotle’s Uses of Imitation?

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please

teach purge

DEFINITION OF TRAGEDY:“Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious,

complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found

in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation

(katharsis) of these emotions.” (p. 61)

POETRY VERSUS HISTORY:“Poetry, therefore, is a more philosophical and a higher thing than

history: for poetry tends to express the universal, history the particular.” (p. 68)

PLEASURE OF LEARNING“... to learn gives the liveliest pleasure, not only to philosophers

but to men in general....” (p. 55)

9Csapo

Perfection of Plot (muthos)Less Good

• Episodic• Simple lacks…

• reversal (peripateia) and/or

• recognition (anagnorisis)

Better

• Logical, plausible• Complex has…

• reversal (peripateia) and/or

• recognition (anagnorisis)

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Concepts & Application: Bacchae

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concept Bacchaeethos “character” (Pentheus)

stock tyrant’s paranoia (creon-like), stubborn.

hamartia “error” hubris – arrogant in the face of Dionysus.desis “complication”lusis “unraveling, solution”anagnorisis “recognition”peripeteia“reversal (of fortune)”catharsis “purification”learning?pleasure?

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Bacchae: Background

Drama Dramatized?

“Happy the man whom the gods / Love, and whose secrets he knows” (Chorus, p. 399)

“For whoso leads the revel / He is always Dionysus” (Chorus, p. 400)

“There is no cure for madness, when the cure itself is mad” (Tiresias, p. 409)

Quotes: Euripides’ Bacchae

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Play Facts, Backstory

• Production• Iphigenia at Aulis• Alcmeon• Bacchae• satyr play (which?)

• Text

• Characters, Backstory• Dionysus, Pentheus• Cadmus, Tiresias• Agave, sisters• Chorus of Bacchants

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D io nysus

Z eus = S em ele Ino

P en th eus(“M an o f S o rrow s”)

E ch ion = A g ave

A ctaeon

A u tonoë

C ad m u s = H arm on ia

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Dionysus, DionysianismDionysian initiation

• Cross-dressing• Mystic knowing• Ritual rebirth

Maenads, maenadism

• Rapture• Thyrsus. . .

• “. . . and with the fennel, join reverence to riot” (p. 400)• lit. “Sanctify the hubristic

(hubristas) fennel rods all around!”

• Sparagmos, Omophagia• Oresibasia

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Maenad/bacchant

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Names

• Dionysus• “Zeus of Nysa?”

• Bakkhos (“Bacchus”)• “He of the cry iō bakkhe”

• Bromios/Bromius• “The Roarer,” Dionysus as bull

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Io bakkhe! euoi

Maenad (mainas “she who is mad”)bacchant (bakkhē)

thyrsus (fennel rod)

Analysis• prologue (starts p. 395)

• Dionysus

• parodos (398): “Asian” (Anatolian) Bacchants. Cult hymn

• 1st episode (402)• Tiresias, Cadmus, Pentheus

• 1st stasimon (412)• Pentheus’ impiety

• 2nd episode (414)• Servant, Pentheus, Dionysus (in

disguise)

• 2nd stasimon (417)• Thebes’ rejection of Dionysus

• Choral dialogue (418): Chorus & D• Earthquake

• Trochaic dialogue, D & Leader (420)• “messenger” scene

• 3rd episode (422)• Short dialogue, D&P • Messenger scene: hubris in the hills

• 3rd stasimon (431)• Hope restored, do not mock the

god

• 4th episode (432)• D&P. Fitting scene

• 4th stasimon (436)• Excited song of vengeance

• 5th episode (438)• Messenger (servant on death of

Pentheus)

• 5th stasimon (442)• Short song of triumph

• exodos (443)• Agave’s mad scene

• lyric dialogue

• Cadmus’s return with Pentheus• recognition, reversal

• Lament for Pentheus• Deus ex machina

Discussion

Advice for Pentheus…

Journal Prompt(Agon pp. 414 ff)

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Imagine yourself inside Euripides' play. What would you say to Pentheus? Is he in the right? In the wrong? What would be

your advice for handling this problem he's got?

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Advice…

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