CLAS C205 1st Edition

Lecture 15 Outline of Last Lecture I. Review of Clytemnestra II. Tantalus III. Pelops IV. Atreus and Thyestes V. Aeschylus a. Apollo and furies b. Athena and Orestes VI. Athenian Democracy VII. The trial

Outline of Current Lecture

I. Euripides

II. Dionysus

III. Bacchae and character interactions

a. Tiresias

b. Pentheus Current Lecture

 What character appears in the Bacchae – Tiresias

o From the Odyssey

 Euripides, Bacchae

o 406 or 405 BCE (50 years after other plays)

o Produced with Iphigenia at Aluis, Alchmaeon in Corinth, lost satyr paly

o Won first prize

 Dionysus (also called Bromius, Bacchus, Liber)

o God of wine, theater, animal nature and altered states of being

o Son of Zeus and Semele, born in Thebes

These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute. o Birth story: Semele had an affair with Zeus, Hera came to Semele as an old women and was making Semele question if Zeus was who he said he was, so Semele asked Zeus to swear an oath to appear to her in his real form, his real form is a lightning bolt and he killed Semele (Hera’s plan the whole time) but Semele was pregnant at the time she was killed

o Double birth of Dionysus: from Semele upon moment of death and from Zeus’s thigh

. Raised by nymphs in the east

. Travels throughout the east before returning to Greece

o Another version of Dionysus birth:

. Dionysus is the son of Zeus and Persephone

. Hera convinced Titans to tear him apart and eat him

. Athena saves his heart and delivers it to Zeus, who swallows it then impregnates Semele

o Dionysus is a god because of the double birth from Zeus

 House of Cadmus, King and founder of Thebes

o Actaeon came upon Artmeis bathing (who is a virgin) and turned him into a stag who got murdered by his hunting dogs

 Dionysus and his aunts (529)

o Aunts are saying Semele was sleeping around

o Dionysus puts them in a trance and turned them into Maenads (Bacchae) against their wills

o Theben Bacchae and Asian Bacchae

 Bacchae / Maenads

o Shown in long flowy robes

o Have crazy hair and wear wreaths of ivy

o Sacrifice animals like lions

 Chorus of Asian Bacchae (530)

o Only surviving dithyramb – choral ode in honor of Dionysus – origin of tragedies

 Tiresias to Cadmus (534)

o Tiresias: blind prophet living in Thebes