Religions 8: The Religions 8: The BacchaeBacchae

EuripidesEuripides Born ca. 480-406 BCE First first prize: 441 BCE Youngest of ‘big three’: Aeschylus

(ca. 525/524-ca. 456/455 BCE), Sophocles (ca. 496-406 BCE)

22x participated in tragedy contests during Dionysia, won only 4 times (Sophocles won many times more)

Influenced by ‘sophists’:Influenced by ‘sophists’: criticised traditional public values, such as the law, justice and the gods

Not a sophist, but child of ‘sophistic movement’ in which these ideas were debated

Juxtaposes more and less accepted norms and values, e.g. Orestes in Electra is an un-heroic doubter; Hippolytus dies because he only worships one god

Realism: women inwardly disrupted figures with very real and human feelings (Medea, Electra, Phaedra in Hippolytus)

In Aeschylus and Sophocles: higher play of divine powers and fate; Euripides among humans

Bacchae (406 BCE) picks up ambivalence towards gods; normal belief was that gods do a lot of things to harm men but in the end they are good; this is criticised/put on the agenda by Euripides by emphasising that gods actually do as many evil as good things, and that the result is as mysterious as their own existence

Zeus + Semele : DionysusZeus + Semele : Dionysus• Child not recognized by father (Cadmus) and Child not recognized by father (Cadmus) and

sisters (Agaue, Ino, Autonoe)sisters (Agaue, Ino, Autonoe)• Zeus kills Semele as thunderboltZeus kills Semele as thunderbolt• Family still blames Semele for her deathFamily still blames Semele for her death• After wanderings, Dionysus comes back to set After wanderings, Dionysus comes back to set

record straight and establish his cult in record straight and establish his cult in ThebesThebes

• Resistance from King Pentheus (son of Agaue) Resistance from King Pentheus (son of Agaue) – revenge > main theme of Bacchae– revenge > main theme of Bacchae