Euripides a freak

Antigone on PCP

Sophocles' Antigone is about tyranny, or more broadly authority: Creon's need for order vs. Antigone's need for personal freedom. Everyone loses, Creon most of all, and your reaction to Antigone might depend partly on your feelings about authority; if you're a pro-authority type of person, your sympathies might tend towards Creon.

Here we have essentially the same debate. Dionysos shows up in his birthplace of Thebes to start his cult, with a band of ecstatic lady followers in tow. Theban leader Pentheus (also Dionysos' cousin, which doesn't particularly come into play) is all "You guys are nuts and I'm having none of this bullshit." And Dionysos responds.

Because this is Euripides, who's relatively lurid, Dionysos' reaction seems completely out of proportion, at least to me: he sends Pentheus's mom into a frenzy during which she tears off Pentheus's head. Holy shit, right? Isn't that sortof a ripoff of True Blood season 2?

But the point is authority vs. freedom, a theme the Greeks returned to again and again - see, in addition to Antigone, that whole Socrates thing. This is about what leadership should be - what should be led and what left alone - and it's a good thing the Greeks spent so much time thinking about it, considering that they were in the process of inventing leadership as we know it. And that exploration, cast through the double-crazy lens of Dionysos and Euripides, is terrific.

Guys, I'm so glad I figured this out. My original review was like "WTF is this, I don't get it," and I feel way smarter now. Also, now I really like this play. High five!

Also: nice to see the old blind sex-shifting prophet Tiresias, as he gets ready to go out Bacchaeing with Pentheus's grandfather:

Well, where do we dance?
Where do we let our footsteps fall
and waggle our decrepit grizzly heads?

which is something I might put on my tombstone. Tiresias kicks ass.

This is a review of the play, not this translation; I used Paul Roche's translation, which was (as usual) fine.

I've read this before, but I just had to experience it again. I'm sure we've all had some experience with lunacy, whether in our reading or in the soft whisper of our lives. When I bring this story in to my imagination and let it grow, it becomes so horrifying that I can barely stand it. It may not be as flashy as anything modern usually is, but deep down, it cannot help but disturb. Crazy mobs? Impiety? Drunken revelry or plentiful bounty or peace from mortal woes? Or is it truly the bald-face madness of which is written? Is there truly any difference? *shudder*

Dionysos tragedya içinde kendi tragedyasını yazıp sahneliyor gibi.. Diğer okuduklarım arasında bu açıdan ilgi çekiciydi..

"Gods should not be like mortals in temper"

Carlsberg don’t review ancient Greek mythology, but if they did…

Pentheus’ mam Argave has gone out on the raz with the maenad girls and they’ve all had one-too-many cabby savs. They’ve smashed it up on the woodland dancefloor to Bacchus’ Greatest Hits all night and now they’re ambling around aimlessly, carrying their shoes and clamouring for a decent kebab.

Meanwhile, Agave’s dad Cadmus is on the Guinness with his weird mate Tiresias, who is blind and fancies himself as a clairvoyant (he’s savage at the pub quiz; great with riddles) he used to be a cross-dresser back in the day, all to try and prove a point to Hera and Zeus about women enjoying “ the no pants dance” more than men...

Turn’s out the proprietor bloke who runs the woodland club, the one who procures all the booze, is an absolute mentalist called Dionysus. He’s been embroiled in some argy-bargy with Agave’s lad Pentheus; somehow manages to get him sloshed, then convinces him to dress up in women’s clothes and go out on the town!

So Pentheus goes to the woodland club looking for his mam, and it all goes a bit “Pete Tong” from here. Basically, he climbs this massive tree, falls - because he’s off his chops - then his mam and her mates naturally confuse him for a proper lush kebab, and proceed to rip him limb from limb!

Cadmus wasn't best pleased when he found out what happened later in the taxi queue; Agave was too proud of the kebab she’s snagged to care - she had a right pounding headache... not as bad as the one Pentheus’ had though...

The End.

This, dear friends, is a chilling reminder of why I seldom attend parties.

Anne Carson's translation really captures a lot of nuance in the story that I haven't picked up in other versions. Very powerful and with a lot of complexity. Her introductory poem is also really enjoyable.

4.5

Ruthless Dionysus destroys mortals who do not acknowledge him, in the worst ways possible.

I loved this. Well its not news that I love Euripides but I like to repeat it again. I really like his attitude towards Dionysus' duplicity.
I looovveeee Dionysus as well. I think he is the most interesting god ever in the Greek pantheon. I love his double identity.

Medea still holds the first place in my heart but this tragedy was also genuinely good.

I have been reading Anne Carson's translations of Greek tragedy. Bakkhai is a lesser-known drama, but deserves to be better known. It's theme is that it's not a terribly good idea to flout the divine, as Pentheus does. Dionysos in the beginning seems to be amenable to a wide range of behaviors, but Pentheus goads him until -- dressed as a woman -- he is murdered by his own mother in the presence of the Bakkhai (Bacchic women). As Anne Carson translates, Euripides at one point says:

To live and think and act within measure,
reverencing the gods,
this is a man's finest possession.

4.5
Adorei! Prontíssima para minha releitura de A História Secreta

no thoughts just city state identity