Summary Of Bacchae By Euripides And Oresteia

After reading “The Bacchae of Euripides” written by Euripides really opened my eyes with the interpretation of the beautifully written stanza above. I had discovered that the main focus and the way the way it was writhen reminded me of a tragedy. This really caught my eye because of all the tragedy’s I have read in the past like many of Shakespeare’s famous plays including Romeo and Juliet. Not only did I enjoy reading it but I also enjoyed it being performed in the YouTube video. I really enjoyed reading this passage from “The Bacchae of Euripides” because the theme that we have to discuss involving nature vs culture is very prevalent throughout the passage. I also really enjoyed this passage because there are numerous images and mental pictures

We are going to explore the Ancient Greek family and identify what their responsibilities are in the household and in the society. We are going to identify the different stages from childhood to adulthood, the specific festivals for each gender and what roles each member have in the Ancient Greek religion. In addition to this, we are going to cover slavery in Ancient Greece, specifically in Athens, and how they contribute to the family they are serving.

Euripides’ play, The Bacchae, brings into perspective the Greek god, Dionysus. The play focuses on Dionysus wanting to establish his divinity in the city of Thebes, “Therefore I shall prove to him [Pentheus] and everyone in Thebes that I am god indeed” (47-49). As it can be seen here, Dionysus seeks to substantiate his divinity in the city that originally rejected him right from the get-go. He demonstrates this divinity through a very unique pathway, that pathway being vengeance. This course of vengeance leads him to manipulate various character's repressed desires. Dionysus uses these repressed desires in Thebes to enact his revenge on the city, but more specifically his own family. Albeit, repressed desires are not an actually character in The Bacchae, they arguably play one of the most important roles in the play. Dionysus brings out the repressed desires within Agave and Pentheus, and this ultimately shows their true character. He manipulates the two character’s repressed desires to fit his own agenda, which was mentioned earlier, and this is ultimately why he succeeds in his conquest for vengeance and the manifestation of his divinity to the city of Thebes. It also provides an explanation for why the two character’s behave the way that they do. It’s important to know your own desires so you cannot be easily manipulated and tricked like Agave and Pentheus were by Dionysus. If the two character’s would have known their own repressed desires, then arguably they would have

The conflict between the rational and the irrational is present in every person or situation. In Greek tragedies, this conflict is constantly present within the characters’ actions and decisions. Usually, there is always one character that will act rationally compared to the others and would try to fix the conflict. Both The Eumenides and The Bacchae depict the conflict between the rational and the irrational, yet the act and solution are presented differently. Whereas The Eumenides portrays it through killing the family by committing matricide and homicide, The Bacchae portrays it through killing the family by committing unconscious homicide driven by the desire of the forbidden.

Some evaluations claim that the Dionysus appearing in The Bacchae is fairly true embodiment of the ideals of ancient Athens. He demands only worship and proper reverence for his name, two matters of honor that pervaded both the Greek tragedies and the pious society that viewed them. In other plays, Oedipus' consultations with Apollo and the many Choral appeals to Zeus reveal the Athenian respect for their gods, while Electra's need for revenge and Antigone's obligation to bury Polyneices both epitomize the themes of respect and dignity. Yet although Dionysus personifies these two motifs, his clashes with the rest of Athenian tradition seem to make him its true adversary.

       Gender is made explicit as a theme throughout the Oresteia through a series of male-female conflicts and incorrectly gendered characters dominated by the figure of Clytemnestra, a woman out of place. This opposition of gender then engenders all the other oppositions of the trilogy; conflicts of oikos and polis, chthonic and Olympian, old and young can be assigned to female and male spheres respectively.  In this essay I will look at how the polis examines itself in terms of gender by focusing on the Eumenides' exploration of the myth of matriarchy, issues of the conflict between oikos and polis and the use of speech within the polis. I will then look at how these themes are

In Homer’s Odyssey, the relationship between Penelope and Odysseus represents the “ideal" according to the traditional Greek values, while in Agamemnon, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s relationship challenged it. In this paper, I will argue that even though Clytemnestra did over step her role as a woman, her decision to kill her husband was justified because Agamemnon killed their daughter and he brought back Cassandra as a lover.

I pursue the idea that while Penelope faces oppression at the hands of her son, her suitors, and her social obligation to remarry, she remains free and powerful. Both her freedom and power are manifest in her cunning and deliberate ways. I argue that this is the manifestation of a femininity characteristic to her, and to the tradition of misogyny. Her deliberation marks her presence/power/femininity not despite her veil but because of it. When she tricks her suitors by unraveling Laertes' shroud after each day at her loom, when she tests Odysseus with questions about their bed, when she announces the contest of the bow, when she refuses to recognize Telemachus' impending adulthood, she shows, in veiled ways, her deliberate nature, her presence/power/femininity.

In Antigone, Sophocles examines gender roles and expectations of Ancient Greece through the contrast between conformity and individuality.

Society is a dynamic force in modern life and civilization. Through collective decisions, society shapes the livelihoods of those who live within it, by those who live within it. This self-sustaining and dynamic exchange is the main focus of the drama Antigone, written c. 440 BC by Sophocles. The play focuses on a what is left of a very dysfunctional royal family who rules over the city-state of Thebes, which is basically the sequel to the story of Oedipus, the famous hero who was cursed to kill his father and marry his mother. In the interactions between these family members, Creon, the now assumed king, Antigone, Haemon, and Ismene and the prophet Teiresias, divisions become clear how each believes society should be run, whether by the institution of the state, the gods themselves, or by reason and democracy. All three arguments give insight into the mechanics of society and eventually convey the thematic convictions of the playwright Sophocles.

In the book, Birth, Death and Motherhood in Classical Greece, Nancy Demand, begins with a description of “The Lives of Greek Women” (page 1), centering on the oikos, “the cultural context of control” (page 147), for reproduction for all women. Nancy Demand, begins light to the problems that pregnant women are likely to have faced in Greek antiquity, and to the ways in which a male dominated society sought to understand and manage women's necessary role in procreation. There is much provoke thought and not least because male control of female reproductivity was woven inextricably into the institutions of the oikos. The prevalence of female infanticide, arranged marriages, and pressure to produce male offspring; and the life described is one that Nancy Demand clearly thinks Greek women themselves found oppressive. For example, In the book, Birth, Death and Motherhood in Classical Greece, Nancy Demand say, “most widely celebrated of the occasions that allowed women a temporary respite from the routines of the oikos”,

Aeschylus shows the battle between the family structures. He explores the idea that family does not always guarantee an individual a spot at the forefront of ruling (as what happened to Orestes when his father, the king, died). What matters is who is holding the powers before something happened, and what are they going to do with that power (his mother is holding the power with his uncle, and they used it to kill his father off so they could rule together). Aeschylus displays the family as the spark and downfall of individuals who thought they upheld the power and authority because of its tendency to bring about a battle and revolution between

As Penelope waits countless years for her husband, Odysseus, to return from the war, not once is she unfaithful. “Let me finish my weaving before I marry” (Homer 1325). Penelope utilizes all methods of procrastination in order to delay the suitor’s marriage proposals and give Odysseus enough time to return home, something that can only be done through heart. Easily, Penelope can take the suitors hand in marriage but instead, she waits for Odysseus’ arrival. “‘Odysseus my Lord among the rest. If he returned, if he were here to care for me, I might be happily renowned’” (Homer 1309-1311)! Although she is certain as to whether or not he will make it home alive, she never lost hope in seeing him again and stays hopeful that he will come back to her and fill her empty heart. Thus, even though Penelope never knows of Odysseus’ where- abouts, she never stops loving him and anticipating his return. Penelope’s everlasting loyalty reveals that the Greek culture is very family oriented. Prominently, Penelope depicts the Greeks behavior as family oriented through her actions with Odysseus by never giving up on him and remaining faithful to their relationship and their

Plautus’ play Casina shows another example of “double duty” typically seen in Greek tragedies, wherein the female characters are used to explore issues that are not commonly approached by men. Throughout Casina, we could see “double duty” through the actions and behaviors of its female characters, most especially in Cleostrata. Problematic issues throughout the women include the topic of infidelity in Cleostrata’s and Lysidamus’ marriage and property. Furthermore, the ending of Casina endorses the Greek status quo by allowing Cleostrata to stay and forgive her husband.

Unabashedly, tragedy is brimming with violence and death, “it reeks of blood and is strewn with corpses” (Henrichs 173). If it is not the precipice of the action, the plot of tragedy often revolves around the build-up to or the after-effects of violence; what to do with the body, how to reintegrate after the fact, and even what to do when violence is taken too far, such as in the Ajax. As a pervasive force in classical antiquity, the audience of the City Dionysia would be all too familiar with the many faces of violence throughout the cusping three decades of the Peloponnesian war leading up to 405 BC. Although it is flawed to attempt to condense tragedy into a single function, it is perhaps less so to name one as a digestion of the everyday violence of the ancient world. In Euripides’ Bacchae, the motif of violence is first presented by means of an enraptured herdsman speech that revels in the spectacle of violent delights and foreshadows what is to come. This motif comes to a close when a second messenger reveals the tragic reality of violence and Pentheus’ sparagmos while the chorus of bacchants revels in their god’s brutality. Through examining the chorus’ status and perspective on violence, the staging behind Agave wielding Pentheus’ head, and the contemporaneous socio-political climate in Athens, the Bacchae can be examined as in dialogue with tragedy’s tradition of violence.