The Bacchae

1. Ancient Philosophy The Bacchae

2. Bacchus’ Birth • Zeus loved Semele and had an affair with her unknown to Hera. • Deceived by Hera, Zeus came to Semele in his divine form. • Zeus came to her bridal chamber in a chariot, with lightnings and thunderings, and launched a thunderbolt. • Semele is incinerateced

3. Bacchus’ Birth • Zeus, snatching the sixth-month abortive child from the fire and sewed it in his thigh. • At the proper time, Zeus undid the stitches and gave birth to Dionysus. • The other daughters of Cadmus spread a report that Semele had bedded with a mortal man, and had falsely accused Zeus, and that therefore she had been blasted by thunder.

4. Bacchus • Bacchus was thus half mortal and half divine. • The rule was that only those who were full-blooded immortals could gain admittance to Mt. Olympus. • Bacchus set himself the goal of making everyone worship him so that the gods would have to admit him to Mt. Olympus. • He did and, thus, became the last god allowed onto Mt. Olympus.

5. Bacchus • Ivy • Bull • Snakes • Grapes and wine • Feminine features

7. Cadmus • The founder of Thebes • Zeus, disguised as a bull, carried away Europa, Cadmus’ sister. • Cadmus went looking for his sister, but the Oracle of Delphi told him to abandon the search. • Instead he was to go forth until he met a cow. • He was to follow this cow wherever it should lead and found a city upon the spot where it lay down. • At that spot, he killed a dragon, offending Ares. • Cadmus populated his new city by sowing dragon teeth, which sprouted into warriors that fought with one another until only five remained. • Cadmus taught them the alphabet, which he had brought from Phoenicia

8. Cadmus • He placated Ares and married Harmonia, one of Ares’ daughters. • His daughters were Agave, Ino and Semele. • Agave and Ino spread the rumor that Semele had intercourse with a mortal and blamed it on Zeus, which was why she was destroyed. • Cadmus and Harmonia were turned into serpents.

9. Initial Scene • Mixtures and contradictions • Divine mortal • Foreign native • Death (Semele) and eternity (ivy) • Moving from pure barbarian cities to mixed to pure Hellenic city • Move from edge of Hellenic world to the center of it • Nature (fawn skin) and artificial (city) • Unfamiliar family members

10. Divine Possession I have goaded them from the house in frenzy, and they dwell in the mountains, out of their wits; and I have compelled them to wear the outfit of my mysteries. [35] And all the female offspring of Thebes, as many as are women, I have driven maddened from the house, and they, mingled with the daughters of Kadmos , sit on roofless rocks beneath green pines.

11. Possession of Women • Alienated and downtrodden • Outside of the city-return to nature from the artificiality of civilization • Refuse to perform the assigned jobs

12. Pentheus • fights against the gods as far as I am concerned and drives me away from sacrifices, and in his prayers makes no mention of me, for which I will show him and all the Thebans that I was born a god.

13. Possession • Ecstatic conversion experience • Dance • Drums • Flutes • Rearrangement of the self with a new system of meaning • Produce of alienation and sense of meaninglessness • Transcending a contaminated world through purity

14. Dervishes Dancing with the Divine

15. Origin • Shamanistic experience of mediating group conflicts by traveling to a different level of reality • Cultural revitalization movements • Religion • Great Cultural Revolution of China • Marxist movements of the 20th century

16. Chorus-Purity Blessed is he who, being fortunate and knowing the rites of the gods, keeps his life pure and [75] has his soul initiated into the Bacchic revels, dancing in inspired frenzy over the mountains with holy purifications

17. Paradise • Transcend to a better world • “The plain flows with milk, it flows with wine, it flows with the nectar of bees” • Miracles • Release of followers from jail

18. Teiresias and Cadmus • Both convert • Old become young • The only coverts in the city

19. Thyrsos

20. War on Freedom • Children's game TAG ban in Massachusetts elementary school. • Sweets Ban" in Massachusetts elementary school forbids frosted cupcakes for birthday celebrations. • "Noise Ban" in New York forbids dog barking for over five minutes AND "out of tune ice-cream trucks." • "Bull fighting Ban" in Barcelona • "Low-slung pants Ban" in Louisiana AND teeth "grills" in Texas • "Cell phone Ban" in New York High Schools • "Happiness Ban" prohibits smiling on Passport photos • "Gift Bag Ban" disallows the giving of "diaper bags filled with baby formula" to new mothers in Massachusetts hospitals as they "discourage natural breast feeding." • "Pan-handling Ban" in Atlanta, Georgia • And in case you thought irony was dead: The banning of comedian Jon Stewart's book "America: A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction" in Mississippi Libraries due to its "profane" cover. (FYI: This ban was later lifted) • South Dakota ban on abortion • Trying to define marriage • Suspension of habeas corpus • Legalization of torture and secret spying on Americans

21. Pentheus • Contrived Bacchic rites • Bacchus is “a sorcerer, a conjuror” • Engage in orgies-”to serve the beds of men, on the pretext that they are Maenads worshipping; [225] but they consider Aphrodite before Bacchus.” • Excuse to get drunk • Shows power • Arrested some • Will hunt others down • Will cut off Bacchus’ head • Will hang Bacchus

22. Pentheus • Repressed desires of a hierarchical order • Mad women • Are the sane insane, or the insane sane?

23. Teiresias • Sensible person is not sensible • “For two things, young man, [275] are first among men: the goddess Demeter--she is the earth, but call her whatever name you wish; she nourishes mortals with dry food; but he who came afterwards, the offspring of Semele, discovered a match to it, the liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it [280] to mortals. It releases wretched mortals from grief, whenever they are filled with the stream of the vine, and gives them sleep, a means of forgetting their daily troubles, nor is there another cure for hardships. He who is a god is poured out in offerings to the gods, [285] so that by his means men may have good things.” • Do not mock the god

24. Cadmus “Even if, as you say, he is not a god, call him one; and tell a glorious falsehood, [335] so that Semele might seem to have borne a god, and honor might come to all our race.”

25. Pentheus • Effeminate stranger • Pollutes women • Deserves death by stoning

26. Cadmus “O wretched man, how little you know what you are saying! You are mad now, and even before you were out of your wits.”

27. Bacchus • Bacchus and his followers are captured • His followers were miraculously freed

28. Bacchus and Pentheus • Bacchus • Accuses Pentheus of impiety and insanity • Pentheus • Rituals at night • Will imprison Bacchus • Actually imprisons a bull

29. Bacchus • Sends an earthquake to destroy Pentheus’ palace • Illusion of fire in palace • Jousted with the air

30. Messenger • serpents licking their jaws • wolf-pup, gave them white milk • stream of water sprang forth. Another let her thyrsos strike the ground, and there the god sent forth a fountain of wine. • All who desired the white drink scratched the earth with the tips of their fingers and obtained streams of milk; [710] and a sweet flow of honey dripped from their ivy thyrsoi; • Torn cattle apart by their bare hands

31. Pentheus • Plans to send army against the Bacchae • Wants to see them in their drunkenness • Lascivious—repressed sexuality • Dresses as a woman • Overcomes shame

32. Bacchae • First drive him out of his wits, send upon him a dizzying madness, since if he is of sound mind he will not consent to wear women's clothing, but driven out of his senses he will put it on. I want him to be a source of laughter to the Thebans, led through the city in [855] women's guise after making such terrible threats in the past.

33. Chorus • Oh, for life to flow towards the good, to be pure and pious day and night, and to honor the gods, [1010] banishing customs that are outside of justice. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat [1015] this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.

34. Pentheus • Spy • See what is hidden by being hidden

35. Messenger • Pentheus killed by his mother-Agave • Went to view the lascivious acts of the women • Bacchus put Pentheus in a pine tree and alerted the women to his presence • The women tore down the tree • Dismembered Pentheus

36. Agave • Thought she killed a young lion • Lion=king of beast • Symbol of political order • Realized she killed her own son • Cadmus • If anyone scorns the gods, let him look to the death of this man and acknowledge them.

37. Dionysus • Cadmus and Harmonia live a life of war • Agave in exile

38. Lessons • The return of the repressed • Alienated and excluded individuals dismember the political order • Over time, social orders become rigid and obsessed with control • Not all forces can be controlled • Control releases uncontrollable forces

39. Ending Chorus Many are the forms of divine things, and the gods bring to pass many things unexpectedly; [1390] what is expected has not been accomplished, but the god has found out a means for doing things unthought of. So too has this event turned out.

40. Themes • The Bacchae depicts a struggle to the death between the twin forces of control (restraint) and freedom (release), and permits Dionysus to provide an answer to this question. • The god's implicit message is that not only is there space within society for the irrational, but that such a space must be allowed for that society to exist and thrive. • By denying or opposing the irrational, as Pentheus did, the person who opposes it, or the society that denies it, will be torn apart.

41. Dualities • life-death • creation-destruction • natural-artificial • divine-human • reason-irrationality • male-female • young-old • foreign-native • order-chaos • Apollo-Bacchus • the tyranny of order-the murderous frenzy of collective passion • long hair-cut hair

42. Human Error • tendency toward oversimplification • Denying one of the polarities of a polar universe

43. Amathia • it is the opposite of wisdom • It means recklessness, deep ignorance about oneself and the nature of the universe. • It leads to excess, impatience. It is a trait possessed by many of the old and almost all of the young. • Pentheus is the prime example of a man inflicted with this trait. • He is impatient, bullying, and at times brutal. • He irrationally rejects Dionysus and the new religion; • Dionysus' excessive revenge is hardly the act of a wise man. • Religion can become just as brutal and oppressive as a tyrant like Pentheus.