Who Is Dionysus In The Bacchae

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.

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

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

Dionysus, on the other hand, invents the timbrel, it is a drum beaten to furious, erratic rhythms that express his compulsive nature. Apollo retains abstract intellect, he is an educator of young men, and promotes logical and rational thought. Dionysus desires irrational power, he liberates humans to explore there potential for emotional and behavioral extremes, he allows his unconscious to flourish, and he is embodied by spontaneous emotion. Greek tradition said that each year Apollo left his sanctuary at Delphi to live with the Hyperboreans, a mythical tribe inhabiting the extreme north. When he did that, Dionysus reigned in Delphi for the 3 winter months. During these months a noticeable change would come over people. Spontaneity came over everyone, and the concept of rational thought would be lost until Apollo's return. Obviously Dionysus was much more liberal when compared to Apollo.

He could not believe anything could harm him. (B270) Pentheus in his own conceit thinks he can do anything. He feels he is so powerful that no man is above him. (B476) He is not able to see that Dionysus is a god because he is in human form. Pentheus needs to see everything before he can accept it. (B255) By Pentheus agreeing to dress up like a woman, he is asking for a tragic ending. He now begins to listen to Dionysus who he had bound with chains before. He shows how gullible he is, to think Dionysus will now help him. He cannot see himself being set up to take a large fall. (B310) When Teiresias tells Pentheus "Do not be so certain that power is what matters in life," Pentheus still feels confident. Pentheus was doomed because he did not believe other peoples word about the power of Dionysus.

Pentheus and Dionysus represent a factor of duality. For example, they both battle against each other to prove their point as leaders. Pentheus has just become the new king of Thebes and would like to gain power of his people. He seeks to rule over with rationality and social order. Whereas Dionysus is the youngest of all Olympians and wishes to prove to the world that he is an all-powerful god. However, he is also known as the god of wine and believes that everyone should wind down once in a while and celebrate with self-intoxication. His irrational ideas and objectives are the opposite of Pentheus. The ultimate conflict between the two characters is that Pentheus is in denial of Dionysus’ existence because he refuses to believe in irrationality. For example in lines 471-480 in the Bacchae, Pentheus is speaking to Dionysus about Dionysus and is in denial of his existence. Pentheus is so oblivious that he does not even recognize his presence. This relates to duality because Dionysus is the opposite force working against Pentheus or vice versa. Pentheus is devoted to living with

Dioneo has two possible namesakes: Dione, mother of Aphrodite (goddess of love and beauty), and Dionysus, the god of wine, partying, and reckless abandon. Either way, he's a good-time guy. He's sometimes interpreted allegorically as the Appetite/Lust part of the soul in the classical Greek three-part understanding of the soul. If you were only to look at the stories that Dioneo tells, you might be tempted to agree with this. For the most part, they're bawdy in the extreme (who can forget the hermit Rustico teaching the young Alibech how to put "the Devil" into "Hell"?) and often make the ladies worry that they've risked their reputations by inviting him along. One of Dionysus's nicknames was "the liberator," because he encouraged people to

His mother picking up his head impaled it in her wand.” Pentheus’ death is a result of his blasphemous words made towards Dionysus’ on multiple occasions. (Grene, David, and Richmond Lattimore, editors. Euripides V :The Bacchae. University of Chicago, 2013) ( pg.66-67 Lines

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.

Foreseeing the future, pain, drugs and alcohol. It all sounds like elements in the plot of a Hollywood movie. These elements, however, are not of a movie, but of the past of a society. “The Pueblos of New Mexico”, an essay written by Ruth Benedict talks of these different societies. Dionysian, derived from the Greek god of wine Dionysus, perceives values through “the annihilation of the ordinary bounds and limits of existence” (517). The Dionysian culture holds values that approve recklessness, glorification, states of emotional excess, and a general passion to break through the usual routine of everyday life. This society is one that has very similar characteristics to the societies of today. The frequent use of drugs and alcohol,

According to Evans, the religion served as an outlet for women to vent “their feelings in an ecstatic manner that contradicted and transcended the male-defined mentality of the greek city-state” (18). The women no longer had to be holed in up in their homes; they were able to escape to the outskirts of the city and do as they please. Extending this context to the play, we see that the women of Thebes and the Asian bacchants drew strength from Dionysus’ power and control as a god and went on to pursue higher accomplishments besides being a housewife. In this religion, the maenads were able to defy the patriarchal structure of the society. The Chorus credits the possibility of freedom and joy to the absence of men: she who is “free from fear of the hunt, free from the circling beaters...sprints with the quickness of wind...to dance for joy in the forest, to dance where the darkness is deepest, where no man is” (869-79). Through Dionysus, the women are able to reach a place of liberation away from the domineering nature of males. The religion was “an escape from painful reality” (21 Slipp). Euripides, aware of the active oppression women face emphasized how Dionysus “drove” “the women only” from their rightful place (35-36). Dionysus targets females in the city of Thebes to act out his revenge because he knows they will be more inclined to disrupt the order of society in order to escape confinement. In the play, Euripides shows the women being proud of themselves for leaving the loom to move on to better things. When Agave is speaking to her father, proud and eager to show him the lion she has beheaded, she gives praises to herself for the bravery she has shown saying, “I have left my shuttle and loom; I raised my sight to higher things--to hunting animals with my bare hands” (1236-8). Agave is confident she has left her domestic life for greater things.

At the time, the Greeks probably did not know that the parties that were thrown in the name of worshipping Dionysus would be disrupting to others around them. Most of the worshipping would take part outside the town where the only invited guest was allowed. Many of these guests would be the female followers of Dionysus, the Bacchus. The Greeks had allowed the intoxicated, frenzied, ecstatic and even violent behavior to occur in the name of worshipping Dionysus. To the Greeks, this was a good idea and was allowed as long as other people were not injured or disrupted during these

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

The Dionysian, named for Dionysus, is marked by chaos, drunkenness, madness, and instinctive emotions (Kreis, “Nietzsche, Dionysus and Apollo”). It is excess, dismemberment, and rebirth; the dark, earth-bound force of suffering (Jenkins). The Dionysian alienates figures from social, political, and familial bonds, destroying those who refuse to succumb to its power (McClure). Nietzsche says that the

In Ancient Greece religion and theater went hand in hand. The Greeks developed religion that was based on worship of many Gods. In honor of the Gods there were festivals with dancing, music, and theatrical performances. During the festivals the whole city would come to a complete stand still. All businesses were closed, politics were put on the back burner, and wars were halted. All social classes were welcome to come to the festival, and they all did. One of the most famous religious festivals is the City Dionysia, a festival in honor of the god Dionysus, god of wine, revelry, and fertility. The festival was held in ancient Athens, in March for five days, featuring dramatic competitions. These dramatic competitions consisted of dithyrambs, tragedies, comedies, and satyr plays. The tragedy competition was four plays per playwright, three tragedies and one satyr play. There were two processions; the first was carrying the statue of Dionysus from the temple to the theater of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis. The second were the patrons parading through the