C C 303 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Pentheus, Tutelary Deity, Maenad
11 Dec 2017
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Pentheus and ajax similarities: seemingly unsympathetic, brute, dictator, tyrant, unwilling to broach any kind of subversion in his city. Pentheus: obsessed with order, rationality, critical of tiresias and cadmus for wanting to join this new religion thing, clever, but not capable of full wisdom, serious, stern appearance. Dionysus: wine, frenzy, larger than life appearance, patron god to the athenians, democracy, dramatic performance, theater of dionysus, festivals, encourages us to embrace irrational, emotional, chaotic parts of personality. Tiresias: mortal character, appearance of a prophet, comes to provide his characters with a deeper understanding of how the universe works, blind deeper insight than that which can merely be provided by his senses. I(cid:374)sists pe(cid:374)theus is getti(cid:374)g it (cid:449)ro(cid:374)g (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause he does(cid:374)"t see that true (cid:449)isdo(cid:373) (cid:272)o(cid:373)es through a much more capacious understanding of human behavior than the narrow, controlled account that pentheus wants. Chorus (maenads: followers of dionysus, appeal to natural/divine law, foreign women from asia minor (turkey), excluded from democracy.
