Comparing The Eumenides And The Bacchae

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

Euripides’ The Bacchae can be read as an allegory celebrating the revolution of women against a patriarchal society. The argument for this allegory has substantial evidence. The Theban women reject the men of Thebes and the laws to join the Dionysian cult out in the wood. However while the women gain power initially, in the end they lose their newly gained power. The women then face severe punishment for their rebellion. Agave and her sisters receive the punishment on behalf of all the bacchants. The message is that female rebellion is a threat to social order and their power must be weakened or destroyed to restore order. This provides the conflict and resolution to entertain and appease the audience. The Bacchae condemns the proposition of

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

Euripides uses the god Dionysus in The Bacchae in order to emphasize that humans need to embrace irrational behavior in their day to day lives. In Thebes, Dionysus finds a structured and ordered society, with their goal simply being to work as hard as possible, while Dionysus aims to simply live to have fun and make merry. Due to the disrespect given to him by the Thebans as a result of their differences, Dionysus aims to take revenge and force the people to worship him by destroying their society and recreating it in his image. Dionysus and Theban society are complete opposites. Dionysus is considered to be the god of wine and merriment.

Thus, Athena is the only character who demonstrates a reasonable idea of justice, and it is consequentially the best idea of justice found in the piece. (transition) Thanks to this idea of justice, the issue was finally resolved and the piece was able to avoid a tragic

Our stream of conscience contributes to our ability to speak and form language in a powerful way, which overall contributes to the ability to function successfully within a society. Many philosophers built on the philosophies of the political atmosphere, language, and the shift from literacy (recited knowledge) to oratory (agency, ability to formulate personal thoughts and opinions). Through the analysis of various philosophical works, I will provide the basic understanding of the importance of the development of rhetoric and how it’s foundation has set the precedent for the future. In this paper I intend to explore, Gorgias Encomium of Helen,

Greek tragedy has long been considered as a play about how men receive their doom due to their own actions. However, comparing between King Oedipus and Bacchae shows that tragedies are caused not only by the actions of men, but also by the choices of their mothers. To be specific, Jocasta and Agave are expected to fulfill their obligation both as women and as mothers: as women, they are expected to be submissive to whatever arrangement given by the dominant power of their lives, such as males or gods. As mothers, they are expected to provide protection to their offsprings against all odds. And tragedy occurs when the two role conflicts yet the mothers still try to fulfill both.

Bacchae is the story of King Pentheus and his mother Agave who were punished by the God Dionysus for failing to worship him because they refuse to believe that their relative can be the son of a God. It is made evident that it is hubris which makes Agave unable to see that her nephew is the son of Zeus. Dionysus states: "Well, now, Cadmus has given his rights as king / to Pentheus, the son of his daughter Agave, / and Pentheus wages war on the gods through me, / shoves me away from libations, pays no attention" (Euripides 43-46). Her refusal to accept Dionysus as divine condemns not only herself but her son as well. The god punishes both son and mother with utmost hostility, such as when Pentheus dies. "Mistaking him for a wild beast, [young women] tear him limb from limb, playing catch with pieces of him. His mother Agave, in the lead, carries off his mangled

In the play Bacchants, there was a lack of worshipping to Dionysus since people did not believe that he was a god. Resembling to ancient Greece’s beliefs, those who did not believe in Dionysus were running a risk. Dionysus states in the beginning of the play, “This city must learn, whether it likes it or not, that it still wants initiation into my Bacchic rites. The cause of my mother Semele I must defend by proving to mortals that I am a god, borne by her to Zeus,” (Euripides, 784). Dionysus continues the passage by stating that the grandson of Cadmus, Pentheus opposes to worship him, therefore Dionysus was going to expose himself to Pentheus and prove him wrong. This connects to the belief that if one does not pray to a god in ancient Greece, then they would be running the risk of having something bad happen to them. In the end, since Pentheus still did not want to recognize Dionysus as a god, he was killed by his mother while she was performing the Bacchic

Paul Woodruff’s translation of the Greek play Euripides Bacchae tells the story of the primary character Dionysus, who is the son of the Greek God Zeus. Dionysus is out to seek his revenge on his mother’s sisters, his grandfather Cadmus, and also his cousin Pentheus because they have denied that he, Dionysus was born a God. Also important in this play is Pentheus who was made King of Thebes as a young teenage boy by his grandfather who is also Cadmus. Pentheus learns of Dionysus trying to change order in Thebes and Pentheus is determined to stop this form happening at all costs.

Aphrodite is the goddess of war and If you are the goddess of war you haft to be ready to fight at all times

In sum, it is fair to say that the tragedy of Phaedra could have been avoided had she applied more balance and propriety to her decisions. In the heat of passionate feelings, her mind was muddled and in no state to let reason thrive. In this sense, the play can be seen as a testimony to the validity of Enlightenment values and corresponding individual virtues. The most striking aspect of Phaedra’s behavior is her disdain for rationality and judiciousness. In a way, such behavior is sub-human, for it is humans who can exercise their will and apply restraint in their actions. By showing that she was not capable of either, Phaedra had caused her own demise and that of the innocent Hippolytus making her twice guilty. The application of Enlightenment values at crucial moments in the play would have led to a different final outcome.

Often unaware to the reader, a story is routinely viewed through a particular lens. Our society has shaded minds to read tales through a black and white spectrum, but frequently the big picture of a story can be missed because it lies hidden within the gray area. Fairytales have influenced their apprentices to always look for a hero and a villain; however, similar to the real world, theses lines between “right” and “wrong” become indistinguishably skewed. Sophocles’ Antigone is not to be viewed through the eyes of morality because together hero and villain lie within the motives of both the play’s main characters. Simon Goldhill asserts that “it is difficult, in other words to read Antigone without making not only moral judgments, but the sort of one-sided moral judgments that the play itself seems to want to mark as leading to tragedy”, but this frame of mind must be actively fought against. The “gray area” type of mindset through which this play must be filtered is established in the assertion that conformity brings peace, but conflict brings progress. The complexity of Sophocles’ writing pleads with its readers to carefully analyze the text a second, third, or even fourth time in order to grasp the ideologies of the author in their fullest extent. This paper serves to promote such an analysis through the careful examination of the actions of Creon and Antigone, as well as the means by which Sophocles develops his “gray area”

In comparison to this is Lysistrata, a comedy in which violence is not shown to be an answer that works. In this story, however, the overarching dilemma is the existence of the Peloponnesian War. For Euripides, violence is a question and a centerpiece of intrigue, yet it is not the root of the plot. Aristophanes, on the other hand, chooses to investigate gender relations and the concerns of daily life by using a hollow context of violence that ostensibly motivates the actions of the characters while avoiding center stage as an issue of any weight in the play itself.

In this paper, I intend to describe the inner working of the household in Greek civilization on three levels: family, city, and cosmos of gods. To achieve this goal, we will look into Bacchae by Euripides, and Oresteia by Aeschylus. Bacchae shows the workings of the house of Cadmus, a royal family, whose actions directly affect their city. This family tree includes a god, and is strongly affected by the will of the cosmos, through Dionysus. Oresteia is a play of three parts. We see the families dysfunctional interactions, and how they impact the city over time. We also see how the gods have an influence on these characters lives throughout the events that happen. Overall these interactions lead to the undermining of Greek civilization through death and destruction.