Very enjoyable. The whole story is seen as a tragedy, but I, personally, had a lot of fun.

I wonder why Nietzsche, who drank only water and milk in his lifetime, was influenced by a god of wine. On the contrary, Dyonisus is not a god who Socrates could respect, because his actions challenge Socrates' beliefs. And Socrates had no problem with alcohol. Who said that birds of a feather flock together ?

This is why I dont go to parties

....no, I don't know why Elvis's mugshot is on the cover either.

Euripides & Anne Carson. Exquisite!

The Ancient Greeks had raves
2 May 2013

tWe actually don't have a complete copy of this play though the edition that I read attempts to reconstruct the missing sections (which is mostly at the end) because, as they say, this is a popular play that is regularly performed. This in itself is a strange statement since I have never seen it performed (in fact I have only ever seen one Greek play performed, and that was Oedipus Tyrannous and that was by an amateur theatre group). Mind you, Greek plays tend to be short, meaning that they last generally only as long as about a third of a Shakespeare play (though when they were performed in ancient times, it would usually be along with three others plays).

tThe Bacchae is about change and about the resistance to change and how our attempts to resist change is generally futile. Mind you it is a tragedy and it does have a pretty bloody ending (in that a number of the main characters end up dead, though the progenitor of change, Dionysus, doesn't, but then again he is a god). There are two things that do strike me about this play, the first being how there are reflections of Christianity in it, particularly early Christianity, and the second involves reflections of the modern rave culture. However, before I go into exploring those two aspects of the play I should give a bit of a background so you may understand where I am coming from.

tThe cult of Dionysus was a rather new cult to appear in Ancient Greece, as far as the gods are concerned, and he was not one of the traditional gods of the pantheon. He apparently was introduced through migrations from the north, particularly through Thrace. The cult itself was a mystery cult, meaning that the rituals and celebrations tended to be conducted behind closed doors (and this comes out in the Bacchae, particularly since the main worshippers were women). The celebrations (as also comes out in the Bacchae) generally involved drunken revelries out in the bush.

tThe Bacchae itself is set in the mythical period of Ancient Greece in the city of Thebes. The king of Thebes, Penthius, is concerned about this new cult that has appeared that is seducing all of the women into joining. As such he goes out of his way to attempt to put an end to it, including arresting Dionysus. It is interesting that Dionysus, unlike the gods in many of the other Greek plays, has a major role. Most of the gods in Greek drama tend to only come in at the beginning or the end, either to provide an introduction, or to intervene in a hopeless situation. However Dionysus is one of the major characters in this play.

tAnyway Dionysius, in an attempt to defend his cult (and one wonders if his portrayal here is similar to the charismatic cult leaders that we have seen throughout history) convinces Pentheus to spy on one of the celebrations. However, in a drunken haze, the women in the midst of their celebration mistake Pentheus for an mountain goat, capture him, and tear him to pieces. However, the women do not get away scot free as they are exiled for, well, murder, despite their arguments that they were not in control of their faculties at the time.

tThe idea of the new cult is something that societies have faced throughout time, and it goes to show that the Roman persecution of Christianity is something that is not limited to that particular religion at that particular time. It is interesting to note that in the play Pentheus does not believe that Dionysus is a god, despite certain actions (such as blowing up his palace) that suggest otherwise. Further, the ignorance of the bacchic rites is also similar to Roman ignorance of certain Christian rites, such as the Lord's Supper.

tSome have even suggested that Dionysus is a Christ figure, and the introduction to the play even has some similarities with the virgin birth. For instance, Dionysus is born of a woman but has Zeus as his father (though unlike Christianity, where the term 'conceived of the Holy Spirit' does not indicate a sexual union between God and Mary, where it is clear from this play that there was a sexual union between Zeus and Dionysus' mother, though this can be put down to our failure to understand, or accept, the possibility that conception can occur outside of sexual union, though these days this is changing). More interesting is that Dionysus mother is accused of extra-marital sex, which Mary also faced. Another interesting note is that after Dionysus' birth, Zeus hides him to protect him from being killed by a jealous Hera, which has reflections in the Christ story in that Jesus was spirited off to Egypt to protect himself from the murderous rampages of a jealous king.

tSome might suggest that I am drawing some rather tenuous examples here, but I would argue otherwise. One of the reasons is generally because of the fear of Christians to look outside the box. We are more than happy to accept the Bible, but to consider anything outside of that, particularly with regards to pagan representations (or could they be prophecies) of the Christ, can open up to many probabilities. I guess it has to do with the conservative bent that most Christians have, in that what has been done over hundreds of years has proven itself and anything that is new can be dangerous or even destructive. However, remember what Paul writes in the book of Thessalonians: test everything, hold onto what is good, and reject what is bad. He did not say 'reject everything' but to 'test everything' which includes age old traditions.

tI want to finish off with a comment on the modern rave scene. Okay, the idea of the outdoor rave out in the bush rose out of Britian where, in an attempt to stamp out drug use, the government made raves themselves illegal. However, it could also be suggested that the reason the mystery cults of ancient Greece met out in the bush was because they were also illegal. However (particularly since I have been to raves myself) there is something almost bacchic about the rave. The idea of taking drugs to induce feelings of pleasure, as well as the lights and the sounds adding to that, reflects what was occurring here in the Bacchae. In many cases, the rituals were sensual experiments in pleasure, which is similar to what happens at a rave. This also goes to show that the rave is not something new, but something that has been going on for centuries.

this one really has it all. homoerotic rival foil characters. fanatic fevered bacchic maenad girls' night. dismemberment

Dionysus is my favourite ancient Greek god. Why? Because he is the coolest, simple as.

n  “He is life's liberating force.
He is release of limbs and communion through dance.
He is laughter, and music in flutes.
He is repose from all cares -- he is sleep!"n


- The Young Bacchus by Caravaggio, 1595.

Not only is he the god of theatre (a huge passion of mine) but he is also the god of wine, festivals, ecstasy and madness. Every set of self-respecting Gods needs one like him on the team. In a way he represents excess, the excess of human emotion and passion. Every so often we all need a good binge of some sort and any god that denies our needs is a very poor god. Dionysus gets it. He understands.

And he is capable of great good and filling the needs of his subjects, but his whims can easily slip into darkness. In this play he presents himself in a clam collective manner; he does not really represent the aspects of human nature he is god of: he merely facilitates them. He gives man the opportunity to go too far; it’s up to him if he takes it and falls into complete intoxication. And this bespeaks his enthralling power. He is not controlling and does not tamper with free-will, if his subjects worship him to heavily then it is of their own accord.

The Dionysian cult Euripides creates here is one completely necessary in the society of Ancient Greece. He is the solution for the ongoing battle between freedom and restraint. He suggests that the irrational and the indulgent are both necessary for society to function and develop. Any society that denies these things will fall apart in misery. So Dionysus is an important force, but one that should be taken is small measures.

So this is a good play, and it’s completely character driven and loaded with this message (supposedly as a learning tool.) It’s real fun to read.

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.

Dos "três grandes" da tragédia grega, faltava-me ler o "mái novo", Eurípedes.

In disguise, Dionysus returns to the land of his birth, Thebes. He is angry at the women of Thebes for denying him his rights of worship and sends them all mad. The women become his Bacchantes and run into the forest to revel in Dionysus's ownership. They become drunk with wine and dance in wild displays of Dionysian rituals. He is especially angry with the family of Cadmus and seeks their destruction.
The chaste and prudish King of Thebes, Pentheus, is furious when he returns to discover that the women, including his mother, have gone into the forest. His grandfather, Cadmus, and the seer, Tiresias, also decide to join the women in the woods, wisely realizing the danger of going against the gods' wishes.
Pentheus orders the destruction of Tiresias' shrine to restore order, and he imprisons Dionysus in disguise. The women, however, have not been able to overcome. So, after Dionysus regains his freedom, God convinces Pentheus to dress as a woman and enter the forest as one of the Bacchantes to go among them in disguise, find his mother, and bring her back to the city.
After dressing as one of the female Bacchantes, Pentheus enters the forest and finds the women's dwelling place. However, Dionysus achieves his ultimate revenge by driving the women into their madness to think that Pentheus is a wild beast. At Pentheus' mother's insistence, the women fall upon him and tear him to pieces. Agave, his mother, holds Pentheus' head in her hands, imagining it as a wild beast, and Dionysus' revenge is complete.
After the horrible act, Dionysus releases the women from their madness, and Agave realizes she has destroyed her son. Dionysus reveals himself as the God and tells the former Bacchantes that he had Pentheus killed because he refused to honor and worship him and thus put himself against the gods' will.
Agave and Cadmus protest the dreadful punishment bestowed on Pentheus and Cadmus' family, who will be exiled.

Bu sefer kolaya kaçıyorum ve yorum yapmayıp kitaptan benim için kitabın özeti olan iki alıntı yapmayı tercih ediyorum.

"İnsani tutkular tanrılara yakışmaz" (s.62).

"Tanrılar insanların bahtında
türlü türlü gösterirler kudretlerini.
Türlü hallere sokarlar bizi hiç beklenmedik,
umduğumuz şeyler olmaz
ummadığımız hallere getirirler bizi.
İşte bu dram da böyle bitti" (s.64).

I have quite an extensive list of fictional Greek mythology husbands. It includes Hades, Helios, Cupid, and Achilles, just to name a few. One particular 'guy' surpasses almost all of them.

He enjoys wine, celebrations, strolls along the shore, leopards, and dispatching his female followers to cause chaos in cities that have offended him.

He goes by many names - Dionysus, Bacchus, and even the patron saint of frat boys, rock stars, and married people.

The god of wine, festivity, fertility, and theatre rarely seeks revenge, but when he decides to, he does so in a truly stylish manner.

I hear about disgusting things going on, here in the city - women leaving home to go to silly Bacchic rituals, cavorting there in mountain shadows, with dances honouring some upstart god, this Dionysus, whoever he may be.   

SPOILERS:

I thought about which book to revisit, Bacchus or Medea. The choice was easy. There's crazy, and there's my husband left me, so I murdered our children crazy.

Medea:

n  n


I prefer to indulge in stories about a hot deity struggling with alcoholism and leading an all-female cult that negatively impacts others JUST BECAUSE.

I have many friends who aren't familiar with Greek mythology, so before diving into the story, let me provide you with a quick background on Dionysus.

Dionysus was born to Semele, a mortal, and Zeus, the ruler of the gods. Semele was seduced by Zeus and ended up pregnant. Hera, Zeus' wife, disguised herself as an elderly woman to gain Semele's trust. Through manipulation, Hera convinced Semele to ask Zeus for a wish. Zeus, bound by his oath on the River Styx, had to comply. Semele's wish was to see Zeus in his full divine form. Despite his shock and sadness, Zeus had to reveal himself. It is essential to honor any commitment made on the River Styx. When a mortal lays eyes on a god in their full splendor, the result is fatal, and Semele was consumed by flames.

Zeus rescued the unborn baby by stitching him inside his thigh (don't ask how; I'm not a doctor). If you find that insane, you better dig into the origins of Athena, the half-sister of Dionysus. Don't worry about Semele - when Dionysus reached adulthood, he ventured into the Underworld and brought her to Mount Olympus. It seems like Hades took the day off or something.

Let's dive into the book now.

Dionysus was chilling, minding his own business:

n  n

Suddenly, some of the citizens of Thebes, including his three aunts, began spreading rumors about his mother. They accused Semele of being promiscuous and getting pregnant by a mere mortal. They refused to accept that Dionysus was Zeus' son. Enraged, Dionysus vowed to seek justice for his mother and teach a lesson to those who dared to speak badly of her.

You messed up by angering not just any god but one of the twelve Olympians. Well done, Thebes.

'Tis a majestic thing, the darkness.   

Dionysus causes the women of the town to go insane, even his aunts, and guides them to the mountains to participate in 'sacred' rituals. By 'sacred,' I mean some weird shit went down.

That's what you get for talking smack about a deity's mother.

n  n

He wants to avenge his mother, prove his divinity to all, and establish a cult. Sounds like a bulletproof plan to me.

Upon discovering the existence of the Dionysus cult, Pentheus, the king of Thebes (and the son of Semele's sister Agave), becomes furious. He prohibits the worship of Dionysus and vows to hunt down and eliminate the enigmatic stranger responsible for seducing his subjects (who is, in fact, Dionysus in disguise).

Dammit, Pentheus, if people want to join a cult, let them! What else is there to do in ancient Greece?

The stranger (Dionysus) is captured and confined. Utilizing his godly abilities, he frees himself and wreaks havoc on his surroundings. Meanwhile, the women of the town, now identifying as the Bacchae, descend into madness. They begin assaulting the villagers. I haven't questioned anything so far, so why begin now? Do what needs to be done, ladies.

Dionysus, in disguise, successfully convinces Pentheus to refrain from resorting to violence against the women. He manipulates and distorts Pentheus' mind. He leads him out of the security of his palace. Pentheus begins to act strangely. I'm going to climb a tree kind of crazy. Dionysus reveals his true identity, and the Bacchae show up to begin killing Pentheus (his mother, Agave, is among the women).

Pentheus loses his head. Literally. Agave returns to the town, holding her son's decapitated head. She proudly presents it to her father, the former king of Thebes. Shock and horror fill his face as he witnesses the gruesome sight. As Agave's madness gradually subsides, she starts to comprehend the magnitude of her actions. She and her sisters are forced into exile. Her parents transform into serpents. Dionysus and his followers embark on their mission to destroy another city. What else is there to do in ancient Greece?

Exclusive clip from Semele, chilling in the afterlife, watching her sister Agave kill her son Pentheus:

n  n

I'm sure most of you are familiar with the tale of Theseus leaving Ariadne on a deserted island only to be saved by Dionysus, who later became her husband. I'm currently on a quest to discover a deserted island, intentionally lose my way, and patiently await the arrival of a hot deity who will rescue me.

P.S. There are several translations of this book. Choose wisely.


Playlist:

Living Colour - Cult of Personality
MGMT - Little Dark Age
Billie Eilish - You Should See Me in a Crown
Lana Del Rey - Gods and Monsters
David Kushner - Daylight
The Chainsmokers - Sick Boy
Echos - Saints
Post Malone ft. 21 Savage - Rockstar