HUMA250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Pentheus, Euripides, Maenad
HUMA250 Lecture Notes Wednesday 30th August 2017
The Bacchae
Establishing a background
- Made Euripides famous but post humorously
- His son ended up directing the play for his deceased father.
- It is said that Euripides died by being torn apart by wild dogs – the irony.
- It is one of the greatest Greek tragedies - is it a metaphor?
- Is Pentheus a disturbed young man who has repressed the liberating force that is
Dionysus
- Dionysus can be a deity of great blessings or can he be a god of great destruction
- A complex play, simplified into themes
- Consistent with the norms of Greek theatre – not divided into acts or scenes
- However great amounts of time still pass in the play
- Most Greek tragedies have action confined to a 24hr period
Themes
- Wisdom
o Takes many forms
o Truth takes many forms
o Wisdom of the seer, the old king, of the divinely possesses Maenads, of the
devout Bacchae, and finally the god himself
- All these characters command
o A different form of wisdom, each with its own set of limitations
o From these differet perspeties e gai isights ito the god’s ysteries
and the events of the play
- Acceptance and Compassion
o The wisdom that comes from suffering
- Its distinguishing characteristics are
o Acceptance and compassion
o This is the wisdom gained by Agave and Cadmus at the end of the play
- Amathia
o Wisdo’s opposite. Igorae, recklessness. Leads to excess, impatience
o Pentheus is a prime example
o Gods exhibit Amathia; Dionysus
- The other
o The unknown, exotic, unknown
o In the case of this play, also the divine is the other
o Wheeer the oudaries of the failiar ed, the other egis
o Dionysus is the unknown and the unknowable, but also part of the truth
o The iades the failiar orld ad represets eerythig Petheus does’t
want to know about
o Pentheus tries to oppose mysteries he cannot begin to comprehend, and he
fails to see the connection between himself and the forces represented by
Dionysus
- Order and Chaos
o Pentheus seeks to preserve order and control
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Document Summary
His son ended up directing the play for his deceased father. It is said that euripides died by being torn apart by wild dogs the irony. Is pentheus a disturbed young man who has repressed the liberating force that is. Dionysus can be a deity of great blessings or can he be a god of great destruction. Consistent with the norms of greek theatre not divided into acts or scenes. However great amounts of time still pass in the play. Most greek tragedies have action confined to a 24hr period. Wisdom: takes many forms, truth takes many forms, wisdom of the seer, the old king, of the divinely possesses maenads, of the devout bacchae, and finally the god himself. All these characters command: a different form of wisdom, each with its own set of limitations, from these differe(cid:374)t perspe(cid:272)ti(cid:448)es (cid:449)e gai(cid:374) i(cid:374)sights i(cid:374)to the god"s (cid:373)ysteries and the events of the play.
