'The Disguise And Trickery Dionysus In Euripides'

In Euripides’ the Bacchae, the city of Thebes is shown to have a system of political inheritance as Pentheus is given control over the city by his grandfather Cadmus, the founder of the city. The god Dionysus is also a grandson of Cadmus, yet is not chosen to be the heir to Thebes, which creates a rivalry between Dionysus and Pentheus. Pentheus does not allow Dionysus into the city of Thebes or give recognition to Dionysus at all. Dionysus and Pentheus both wish to establish their own political rule over the city of Thebes. Pentheus attempts to rule Thebes in an Apollonian fashion. The women brought to Thebes by Dionysus are put under arrest at the order of Pentheus, due to the drunken partying they were having due to Dionysus’ powers. The women’s party went against the social order enforced by the city of Thebes, and Dionysus

During the time of Euripides, approximately the second half of the fifth century B.C., it was a period of immense cultural crisis and political convulsion (Arrowsmith 350). Euripides, like many other of his contemporaries, used the whole machinery of the theater as a way of thinking about their world (Arrowsmith 349). His interest in particular was the analysis of culture and relationship between culture and the individual. Euripides used his characters as a function to shape the ideas of the play (Arrowsmith 359).

In the myth of Dionysus there isn’t exactly a conflict between two sides of people battling for good or evil, its more as a battle between the two sides of Dionysus’ inner self. Unlike most examples of good versus evil, there isn’t a triumphant side. Just the personality switches between Dionysus being the joy-god or the heartless, savage, brutal-god. The reason for this change is due to the fact that he is the vine god; Wine is bad as well as good. He’d bring up peoples hopes and make them believe that they were capable of anything, but once they were sober again

Pentheus foolishly suspects that the stranger is weak based solely on his effeminate appearance. The audience is quickly made aware of Pentheus’ ignorance in expecting the conventional, because they know that Dionysus is far from it. The king’s shallowness proves to be fatal when he is convinced to enter the domain of the Bacchae and is brutally killed by them, just as Dionysus had planned. Euripides and many of his contemporaries were masters of dramatic irony.

This sculpture was given the title, “Dionysus,” and is dated at 50 – 150 A.D. During that period, the Roman Empire went through a civil war, multiple rebellions, a couple disastrous fires, the building of the Colosseum, the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, the peak of Roman military expansion and thirteen different Emperors. One of which started the Flavian Dynasty, which would bring stability to the empire that was crumbling because of financial strife. With all of these events happening, good and bad, it seems difficult to pin point the inspiration or message behind this sculpture. But if you break that period of time down into parts, it may be easier to get a feel for what the artist was feeling so strongly about, whether it was inspired by

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

Dionysos is defined as the god of wine, festivity, vegetation, pleasure, and divine intoxication. In the Hope Dionysos, he is depicted as a peaceful and joyful figure that represent happiness in Greek mythology. The statue is sculpted from marble as its medium and is classified as a stone

One of the most famous tragedy was The Bacchae from the Athenian playwright Euripides. The Bacchae won first prize when it premiered at the Theatre of Dionysus in 405 BC, and is known as Euripides greatest work. This tragedy represents the two opposite sides of a man's nature: the rational and civilized side, which is represented by the character of Pentheus, the King of Thebes, and then there is the instinctive side, which is represented by Dionysus. This side feels a connection between man and beast and it’s a potential source of divinity and spiritual power. It’s believed that The Bacchae implies that it’s dangerous to deny this instinctive human nature; those who accept it find spiritual power, and those who suppress the desire in themselves

The chosen art piece, from Roman origin, is titled “Dionysus” and portrayed Dionysus, the god of wine, with his follower Pan. This artwork is a great example of Greek art’s influence in Roman artwork. The main elements of Greek’s naturalistic art, specifically of High Classical period, are rendered beautifully in this piece combined with distinctive elements from verism, unique to Roman art. So, the idealism of Greek art and the individualism of Roman art come together to create an art piece that is divine, mythical, and yet very human and therefore, relatable.

Dionysus is an important figure of Greek mythology. He is the Olympian god of wine, vegetation, festivity and pleasure. He represents humanity’s longing for pleasure and desire to celebrate. Dionysus is also the god of hallucination, theatre, reincarnation and homosexuality. He is called: “the youthful, beautiful, but effeminate god of wine. He is also called both by Greeks and Romans Bacchus (Bakchos), that is, the noisy or riotous god…” (Roman 201).

Dionysus is the god of wine and fertility, however also became considered a patron of the arts. Along with the variety of things Dionysus was associated with, he is associated with some important concepts. These are, being able to bring a dead person back from the underworld, rebirth after death represented through the symbol of his tending to vines to bear fruit for the making of his wine. There is also the feeling of being possessed by a greater power – which he demonstrated via the influence had from wine. This means that the greater power is the wine – that at these times a man might be greater than himself and do works he otherwise could not.

   Many different interpretations can be derived from themes in Euripides's The Bacchae, most of which assume that, in order to punish the women of Thebes for their impudence, the god Dionysus drove them mad. However, there is evidence to believe that another factor played into this confrontation. Because of the trend of male dominance in Greek society, women suffered in oppression and bore a social stigma which led to their own vulnerability in becoming Dionysus's target. In essence, the Thebian women practically fostered Dionysian insanity through their longing to rebel against social norms. Their debilitating conditions as women prompted them to search for a way to

Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a financial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, or his committee, was likely pushing their own agenda and choose playwrights that matched their ideals. This is just one example of how theater in ancient Greece was used to influence the morality of Greek culture by using the stories of tragedies, like those of Euripides.

Dionysus was a wanderer. During these journeys he explored the world. On these journeys he came across many different people and taught them how to keep their vines healthy. On one of his journeys he was captured by pirates. While he was in bondage of these pirates they tried to tie him down. Wherever the rope would touch him it would fall apart. In

Though both genres of theatre are closely tied to religion, Greek theatre and medieval drama have different religious motivations that impact the ways in which the theatrical event is utilized. In Greece, theatre was used to entertain or please the Gods, more specifically the God Dionysus, during the most important of the four Athenian festivals: the Great Dionysia. The first known Greek playwrights, such as Thespis and Euripides, were chosen to compete in the festival and submit three tragedies and one satyr play to be performed in front of approximately 15,000 spectators. In classical Greece, theatre was the center of citizenship and society; religious ideologies towards Dionysus were not only realized by performances, but strongly encouraged by the state. For example, if a citizen could not afford to attend the