EN 2140 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Zeus, W. S. Gilbert, Wine
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
EN 2140
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Sept 20, 2017
Lecture 1
Euripides
(Greece, 480-406 b.c.e)
Major plays:
-Medea (431 b.c.e.)
-Hippolytus (428 b.c.e.)
-The Bacchae (c. 407 b.c.e.)
Thyrsus- very long staff, like a king might carry, fertility symbol, pine cone at the end of it,
dyonisis carries it
The Bacchae
●Takes place in Thebes in Greece
●Dionysus comes from the outside, Eastern mediterranean
●Notion of conflict, differences, cultures colliding
●Notions of the central and the margins
●Conflict between order, power, authority, control represented by athens by the centre and
pentheus and chaos desire on the other hand
●Origins of western civilization, greeks were very civilized, barbarian- someone who did
not speak greek
●Barbarism- response of greeks to non greek speaking africans, persians,
●Binaries are still present within our society today. pentheus representing athenian control
and cultural specifics of order, what makes a society
●Dionysis party animal, sexy, represents alternative, women are in power, their desires run
free become murderous, masculine power, fertility God, represents sexual power key to
life, drink wine fall in love and make babies, he has two sides, God who in one hand is all
smiles love and fertility but can also release tremendous destruction and anger, energy
moves from pleasure to anger
●The Bacchae sexual desire and violence, understanding masculine power, two different
representations of power pentheus orderly, ruler, authority and Dyonisis,
●Dyonisis leader of the mad worshippers who like to go to the mountains and like to drink
energy turns quickly
●Pentheus is offended by Dionysus by his long hair, insults him, pentheus is a tightly
wound anxious, dionysus is more accepting and embraces feminine chaos, pentheus
dresses up as a lady to see the the performance of the riot, fascination of what he has
suppressed, he wants to watch the girls as they do their thing, dyonisis gives him the
dress
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
●Pentheus wants to reject, control and punish women who celebrate dionysus but he's also
fascinated by them
●What does this text say about women?
●Pleasure and combination of masculinity and femininity
●Invasion of Greece by a new Asian
●Pentheus represents authority and order
●But this conflict highlights his own limitations
●Destruction, punishment, thebes in ruins
●Pentheus’s scattered body
●Brutality, inhumanity: it ridicules the Thebans who do want to worship Dionysus and
punishes mountains
●Absence of heroism
●Divine punishment for pentheus’s refusal to accept Dionysus
●But does the punishment fit the “crime”
●The irrationality of Dionysus’s “Justice”
●Excess vs. repression (pentheus)
●Dionysus makes pentheus deal with a part of himself
●Dionysus represents an important part of life: it is possible that he is just trying to get
Thebes to accommodate it.
●Participating in a ritual
Passages:
First speech of dionysus- “I son of zeus, have come to this land of the Thebans...”
“In this land of Hellas, i have first excited Thebes to my cry, fitting a fawk-skin to my body and
taking a thyrsos in my hand, a weapon of ivy”
“Therefore i have graded 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. 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. For this city
must learn, even if it is unwilling, that it is not initiated into my Bacchic rites”
●Question about his ancestry
●Idea of god coming into human form
●Sense from the past, dead mother
●Dionysus introduces himself and key aspects, divine, thyrsus, describes the power
of his worshippers (order to chaos)
●Sense of costume fundamental to the play, sacred garments
●Of the women aren’t there everything will fall apart who will make the fire, watvh
the children, image of power of women
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Thyrsus- very long staff, like a king might carry, fertility symbol, pine cone at the end of it, dyonisis carries it. Dionysus comes from the outside, eastern mediterranean. Notions of the central and the margins. Conflict between order, power, authority, control represented by athens by the centre and pentheus and chaos desire on the other hand. Origins of western civilization, greeks were very civilized, barbarian- someone who did not speak greek. Barbarism- response of greeks to non greek speaking africans, persians, Binaries are still present within our society today. pentheus representing athenian control and cultural specifics of order, what makes a society. The bacchae sexual desire and violence, understanding masculine power, two different representations of power pentheus orderly, ruler, authority and dyonisis, Dyonisis leader of the mad worshippers who like to go to the mountains and like to drink energy turns quickly. Pentheus wants to reject, control and punish women who celebrate dionysus but he"s also fascinated by them.
