Dionysiac Poetics And Euripides Bacchae

In his play Bacchae, Euripides chooses as his central figure the god who crosses the boundaries among god, man, and beast, between reality and imagination, and between art and madness. In so doing, he explores what in tragedy is able to reach beyond the social, ritual, and historical context from which tragedy itself rises. Charles Segal's reading of Euripides' Bacchae builds gradually from concrete details of cult, setting, and imagery to the work's implications for the nature of myth, language, and theater. This volume presents the argument that the Dionysiac poetics of the play characterize a world view and an art form that can admit logical contradictions and hold them in suspension.

In his play Bacchae, Euripides chooses as his central figure the god who crosses the boundaries among god, man, and beast, between reality and imagination, and between art and madness. In so doing, he explores what in tragedy is able to reach beyond the social, ritual, and historical context from which tragedy itself rises. Charles Segal's reading of Euripides' Bacchae builds gradually from concrete details of cult, setting, and imagery to the work's implications for the nature of myth, language, and theater. This volume presents the argument that the Dionysiac poetics of the play characterize a world view and an art form that can admit logical contradictions and hold them in suspension.

Collected here for the first time in the series are three major plays by Euripides: Bacchae, translated by Reginald Gibbons and Charles Segal, a powerful examination of the horror and beauty of Dionysiac ecstasy; Herakles, translated by Tom Sleigh and Christian Wolff, a violent dramatization of the madness and exile of one of the most celebrated mythical figures; and The Phoenician Women, translated by Peter Burian and Brian Swamm, a disturbing interpretation of the fate of the House of Laios following the tragic fall of Oedipus. These three tragedies were originally available as single volumes. This volume retains the informative introductions and explanatory notes of the original editions and adds a single combined glossary and Greek line numbers.

"Regarded by many as Euripides' masterpiece, Bakkhai examines both the horror and the beauty of the religious ecstasy that Dionysos brings to Thebes. His offer of closeness to nature and freedom from the constraints of civilization, especially for women, excites bitter resistance as well as fanatical acceptance." "Disguised as a young holy man and accompanied by his band of Asian worshipers, the god Dionysos arrives in Greece at Thebes, proclaims his godhood and his new religion, and drives the Theban women mad. When the Theban king, Pentheus, tries to imprison him, Dionysos afflicts Pentheus himself with madness and leads him, dressed as a bacchant, to the mountains, where his own mother, Agaue, and her companions tear him to pieces in an insane Bacchic frenzy."

More complex than straightforward notions of the Dionsyiac, Euripides' Dionysus blurs the dividing line between many of the fundamental categories of Greek life - male and female, Greek and barbarian, divine and human. This text explores his place in Athenian religion, detailing what Euripides makes of him in the play.

Through their sheer range, daring innovation, flawed but eloquent characters and intriguing plots, the plays of Euripides have shocked and stimulated audiences since the fifth century BC. Phoenician Women portrays the rival sons of King Oedipus and their mother's doomed attempts at reconciliation, while Orestes shows a son ravaged with guilt after the vengeful murder of his mother. In the Bacchae, a king mistreats a newcomer to his land, little knowing that he is the god Dionysus disguised as a mortal, while in Iphigenia at Aulis, the Greek leaders take the horrific decision to sacrifice a princess to gain favour from the gods in their mission to Troy. Finally, the Rhesus depicts a world of espionage between the warring Greek and Trojan camps.

A new translation by Colin Teevan.