The Bacchae Seq 2 Key PDF

KEY TO THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES Document: “The Bacchae” – In Our Time BBC Radio 4, Thu 18 Mar 2021. Host: Melvyn Bragg Guests: Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King’s College London; Emily Wilson, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania &...

KEY TO THE LISTENING COMPREHENSION EXERCISES Document: “The Bacchae” – In Our Time BBC Radio 4, Thu 18 Mar 2021. Host: Melvyn Bragg Guests: Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at King’s College London; Emily Wilson, Professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania & Rosie Wyles, Lecturer in Classical History and Literature at the University of Kent. I) Introduction 0’24’’ 1’13’’ 1- True or false? Justify. a- Euripides’ The Bacchae was first staged in the fifth century AD1. False: Athenians first saw the Bacchae in 405 BC. b- Euripides’ The Bacchae was first staged in Athens as Sparta was about to lose the Peloponnesian war. False: Athens was on the point of defeat by Sparta // about to be defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian war2. 2- Fill in the gaps: Melvyn Bragg (host): Pentheus, King of Thebes, torn3 into morsels4 by his mother in a Bacchic frenzy5; his grandparents condemned to crawl6 the earth as snakes. All of this because Pentheus denied the divinity of his cousin Dionysus, known to the audience as the god of wine, theatre, fertility and religious ecstasy. It has been called the greatest tragedy ever written. II) Euripides & his plays 1’13’’ 3’08” True or false? Justify. a- Euripides accidentally died on stage while playing King Pentheus in The Bacchae. (False – he died at a very old age before the first performance of his play, The Bacchae.) b- Euripides was not only a tragedian7. (True: he also wrote satyr plays, that is rowdy8, bawdy9 comedies performed in between tragedies at the festival of Dionysus.) c- Euripides was apparently not a very prolific author. (False: he wrote at least a hundred plays though only seventeen of them have been retrieved so far.) d- Today’s versions of The Bacchae are unlikely to match perfectly Euripides’ original script. (True: Edith Hall explains that as it is one of Euripides’ most performed plays, it is also one of those most often written out10.) e- Although it is a pagan11 play, early Christian civilizations took an interest in The Bacchae. (True: Hall explains that even after the fall of pagan Antiquity, the play was still written out in the monasteries and scriptoria of Byzantium.) 1 AD = Anno Domini (= Year of the Lord => after the birth of Christ); BC = before Christ. 2 431-404 BC – It pitted the Delian League (a pro-democracy Athenian alliance) against the Peloponnesian League (an antidemocratic alliance led by Sparta). 3 tc:n Cf : tear, tore, torn => déchirer, déchiqueter 4 )mc:sFlz = pieces (often of food, meat…) 5 )frenzq Frénésie ou transe bachique (inspirée par l’énergie divine du dieu Bacchus (nom romain de Dionysos), lors des rituels orgiastiques en son honneur.) 6 krc:l => ramper 7 In English, a tragedian can be either a tragic playwright or a tragic actor or actress, unlike the French word “tragédien”, which only designates an actor or actress who specializes in performing tragic parts. The word “comedian” in English originally referred to authors or actors specializing in comic plays. In modern usage, it mainly refers to performers of stand-up comedy. 8 )raxdq boisterous, disruptive, rough & disorderly. (ici: tapageur, turbulent) 9 )bc:dq Lewd, obscene. (ici: paillard) 10 Write sth out / write out sth: (here) To rewrite (something), usually in order to make improvements to the content or (esp. in early use) to produce a fair copy. (OED) (other common meaning : erase or take out elements (characters, plot elements, information …) from a text => eg. : They wrote out the most violent part of her play.) 11 )peigFn païen => paganism: )peigFnizm le paganisme 2- Answer the following questions: a- What does Edith Hall say about Roman Emperor Nero? She says The Bacchae was Nero’s favourite play. b- Were Euripides’ plays retrieved and handed down to us by chance only? Hall explains that some of them, like The Bacchae, were written out over and over again by aesthetic choice – as happened with The Bacchae, Nero’s favourite play, while others were simply stored and passed on from one monastery or library to the next by accident when the Ottomans overran12 the Byzantine Empire13. III) Likely setting for the first performance 3’09”5’40’’ 1- True or false? Justify. a- The first performance of The Bacchae took place inside the Parthenon, whose construction was finished by then as part of the Periclean building programme14. (False – It took place outside the Parthenon15, the other temple in the Periclean building programme, erected on the south-west slope of the Acropolis16.) b- The Bacchae was first performed during the second yearly festival of the City of Athens, which marked the harvesting17 season. (False – It was performed during the first festival, honouring Dionysus, which marked the beginning of the sailing season. The harvest season was marked by the festival of Athena, in mid-summer.) c- The first yearly festival of Athens marked the beginning of the sailing season. (True – It was the festival of Dionysus18 that took place in March-April.) d- After opening in Athens, the theatre company toured the whole Athenian empire so that The Bacchae was seen by an international Greek audience. (False – the international Greek audience came to see the play in Athens during the festival of Dionysus as they could then sail to the port of Piraeus from all over the Athenian Empire – from the Black Sea, southern Italy and the islands of Asia Minor.) e- The theatre where The Bacchae was first performed stood exactly where it is still standing and looked no different. (False – It was indeed located on the exact same spot where it can be found today, on the south-western slope of the Acropolis. But it was not made of stone stalls19 as today. The stalls would have been mere wooden benches arranged on the grassy slope20 such as we put up in parks today for summer fairs21 and performances.) 12 )FxvFrAn => To overrun sth (overrun, overran, overrun) : invade & take control of a territory (empire, country, army …) 13 )baqzFntaqn Fm)paqF “The Byzantine Empire existed from 330 to 1453. It is often called the Eastern Roman Empire or simply Byzantium. The Byzantine capital was founded at Constantinople by Constantine I (r. 306-337). The Byzantine Empire varied in size over the centuries, at one time or another, possessing territories located in Italy, Greece, the Balkans, Levant, Asia Minor, and North Africa.” Source: World History Encyclopaedia To learn more about the Byzantine Empire, go to: https://www.worldhistory.org/Byzantine_Empire/ 14 Pericles (495 BC – 429 BC), then ruler of Athens, ordered the allied Greek city-states (mainly Athens, Delphi, Sparta, Thebes or Corinth) to contribute to the rebuilding of Athens after the destruction caused by the Greco-Persian wars (449-499 BC). 15 Temple dedicated to the Greek Goddess Athena, crowning the Acropolis. 16 The Acropolis of Athens is the ancient citadel overlooking the City. It is located on a rocky outcrop at the heart of Athens. 17 )ha:vFst la moisson / to harvest wheat : moissonner le blé 18 In French, the Festival of Dionysos is called “Les Dionysies”. 19 stFxn stc :lz gradins de pierre => stalls = les gradins (dans un théâtre moderne, « the stalls » peut aussi désigner « la salle », c’est-à-dire l’endroit où se trouve le public, par opposition à « la scène » (the stage).) 20 )grAsq slFxp Pente herbeuse 21 feF = feast (town or village feast) (fête, kermesse ou foire). 2- Fill in the gaps: And the audience are looking out – they can actually see in the far distance on their right hand the glittering22 waters of the Piraeus and the harbour area. Behind them they know they’ve got the great temples and statues of the gods and towards their left they’re looking over to other parts of Attica. So, they’re looking at their own real sunlit April morning in Athens but they’re about to be conjured23 by actors in fascinating costumes and masks that Rosie Wyles is one the great world experts on – they’re about to be in trance – probably quite early in the morning I think the tragedies were put on24 erm by being transported in their imaginations to the hated city of Thebes. 3- How does E. Hall answer M. Bragg’s following question? Give details. Was it an exclusively male audience? It was probably almost exclusively male, apart from the priestesses25 that attended26 and presided over the performance – including the high priestess of Athena herself. Hall explains it must have been so not because women were barred from27 attending but because the seating was limited. There were so few seats and so many spectators that she believes it highly unlikely28 that organizers would have agreed to let women folk in29 when men were still queuing at the door. IV) Summary of The Bacchae by Emily Wilson, translator, in less than two minutes. 5’407’38” Tick the correct statements and correct the wrong ones: a- As in many other plays by Euripides, The Bacchae opens with a long choral prologue with Dionysus acting as coryphaeus. (False – there is indeed a long prologue, but it is spoken by a single character and not by the chorus, quite like other plays by Euripides. In this instance, it is a monologue spoken by Dionysus himself.) b- From the start, the audience is informed Dionysus has returned from the east to Thebes, his own mother Semele’s birthplace, to exact terrible revenge on the ruler of that city-state, King Pentheus, who happens to be his own cousin. (True) c- For Dionysus, Pentheus deserves to be punished harshly for failing to perform Dionysian rites properly. (False – Dionysus wants Pentheus punished harshly and killed for failing to recognize him as a god and rejecting Dionysian rites altogether from Theban religious cults.) d- Pentheus instantly recognizes Dionysus and manages to lock the god up. (False – Pentheus does not know he is Dionysus as the latter30 pretends to be only the leader of the group of maenads31. Besides, he makes only futile attempts to chain him and fails to lock him up.) 22 To shine with a brilliant but broken and tremulous light; to emit bright fitful flashes of light; to gleam, sparkle (OED) => proverb: “All that glitters is not gold.” 23 kFn)dGjxFd Made to appear as if by magic. A conjuror = magician 24 Put a play on / put on a play (verbe à particule adverbial (cf. grammar)) = stage a play (mettre une pièce en scène) 25 A priest : pri:st = prêtre priestess : )pri :stFs = prêtresse => plural form : priestesses )pri:stFsqz 26 Attend a performance, a play : watch, be part of the audience. / attend a meeting : participer à une réunion 27 ba:d To be barred from doing sth : not to be allowed to do sth / be forbidden access to sth 28 yn)laqklq = not probable … 29 To let sbdy in = allow sbdy to enter (a place) 30 DF )lAtF = ce dernier/ cette dernière. 31 )meqnFdz = followers of Bacchus / Dionysus) and frienzied women, who worshipped Dionysus. They were represented on stage as female dancers and singers bearing a staff called a thyrsus. According to mythological accounts, the maenads also brought up the young Dionysus in the forest of Nysa, with Silenus, the Greek god of wine-making and drunkenness. (in French: Ménades (nom grec) / Bacchantes (nom romain)) e- From his cell, Dionysus persuades Pentheus to walk with the maenads to the mountain side where Agave, the Theban king’s mother, and his aunts are busy grazing cattle32. (False – Dionysus escapes miraculously from his cell (by provoking an earthquake that destroys his prison walls) before persuading Pentheus to walk to the mountain side where his mother and aunts are not grazing cattle but ritually ripping33 them apart with their bare hands.) f- However shocking it may appear to him, Pentheus is convinced by Dionysus that he would enjoy very much watching the women going about their strange business on the mountain side. (True) g- Once he gets to the women, Pentheus commits the crime of sparagmos before being punished by Dionysus. (False – Pentheus is subjected to the ritual of sparagmos, that is the ripping apart of a living creature – this time a human being – an act of worship and sacrificial celebration of Dionysus.) h- Victoriously, Agave exhibits the head of Dionysus on the god’s spike, mistakenly believing it to be her criminal son’s head. (False – Agave has mistaken her son for a wild animal whose head she believes she is holding up on a Dionysian sacred spike34, the thyrsus (a sacred wand35 topped with grapes and a pine cone36) symbolizing fertility and prosperity.) i- Cadmus, Pentheus’ grandfather has to explain to his daughter that she is not holding a wild animal’s head at the end of her spike but her own son’s. (True) j- Eventually, Pentheus is triumphant and orders the gods to turn his treacherous grandparents Cadmus and Harmonia into snakes. (False – It is Dionysus who finally triumphs37 for having put down38 Pentheus the apostate39 and has Cadmus and Harmonia sent to Illyria where they will be turned into black snakes (by Zeus who thus intended to save them while punishing the rebellious Illyrians).) V) Plot and characterization. 7’39’’ 9’43”: Answer the following questions: a- Is the prologue a complete spoiler according to Emily Wilson? No, it isn’t a complete spoiler, although the fate of Pentheus is revealed from the start by the god himself, whom the audience can surely trust for triumphing and achieving what he has prophesied – so in a sense, it is both a spoiler and a promise. Yet, the audience are not told how Dionysus’ revenge will play out40 and be effected concretely. b- Does the play bring Dionysus into focus? How? It does bring Dionysus into focus by showing him cunningly41 manipulating Pentheus and thus reveal his powers of deceit42, persuasion and spiritual control or mesmerism43 – Pentheus is gradually brought under his spell and Dionysus is the one who is in control and acts like a god. He is revealed as the 32 To graze cattle : greiz )kAtFl faire paître le bétail. 33 Rip sth / sbdy = tear apart violently 34 Ici: un épieu (autres sens courants de spike : épine (de porc-épic) ; pic (sur une courbe de mesure) / augmentation soudaine ; (to spike = augmenter soudainement) etc…) 35 wAnd Or : staff, sceptre 36 paqn kFxn Pomme de pin 37 )traiFmfs (N & vb) : 38 To put sbdy down / put down sbdy (verbe à particule) = kill sbdy 39 Apostate : )ApFsteit A person who abjures or forsakes his or her religious faith, or abandons his or her moral allegiance (OED) (F.: un apostat) => cf. apostasy (the fact of forsaking one’s faith) = l’apostasie. 40 Here : se concrétisera, se réalisera 41 )kynqC (N & adj.) : la ruse / a cunning animal = un animal rusé / cunningly = avec ruse 42 dq)si:t La duperie, la tromperie, tricherie. => to deceive sbdy : dq)si :v tromper qqn 43 )mezmerqzm = hypnosis (hqp)nFxsqs) / To mesmerize sbdy = hypnotize sbdy outsider god, the liberator god, the theatre god, the god who can go into the wild and bring the wild into the City. c- Should both Acteon and Dionysus be considered doppelgangers44 or mirror images of Pentheus? In what respective ways? Yes, they could. First because Acteon’s fate closely resembles Pentheus’ since he ends up ripped apart by his own hounds45 for having been disrespectful to Artemis (he saw her naked in the forest and she turned him into a stag46 to bait47 his own hounds which finally devoured him.) Besides, both Acteon and Dionysus are Pentheus’s cousins; Dionysus also mirrors Pentheus through his own thirst for total control. But unlike Pentheus, who remains a self-delusional48 hubristic49 human king with limited powers, Dionysus is a god endowed with50 infinite powers of control and knows how to use them.) VI) Original performance features 9’43”12’47” Tick the correct statements and correct the wrong ones: a- The audience of the original performance was huge, somewhere between 4,000 and 15,000. True: the audience was huge, and the size of the stalls area (auditorium) was somewhere between the Royal Albert Hall and Wimbledon centre court. b- The main four areas of the performance space for this play were - the orchestra, a flat area where the chorus danced; - perhaps a lower stage at the back of51 the orchestra; - the theatre building representing Pentheus’s palace downstage (False: as a stage backdrop52); - Semele’s grave53 downstage left. (False: Semele’s tomb lay on one side of the backdrop, that is upstage54). c- Semele is Dionysus’s mother, and Hera’s jealous lover. (False: Semele was Zeus’s lover and Hera, Zeus’s wife had her killed out of jealousy. [Hera cunningly told Semele she could seek proof of Zeus’s love by asking him to show himself in his real shape, which Zeus would have to agree to since he was bound by oath55 to always do what Semele asked for and tell her the truth. Of course, when he revealed himself in his true shape, that is lightning56, Semele was instantly burnt to ashes. Zeus only had time to snatch the embryo of Dionysus and sew it in his thigh so it could go on growing until it was born a second time. Then, he was hidden from Hera in the forest of Nysa where he was to be raised by Silenus and the maenads, who taught him the ropes of wine-making and the performing arts, music and dance] d- All characters, except the maenads, were played by male actors wearing masks. (False: All characters, female ones and therefore the maenads included, were played by male actors.) 44 )dopFl(gAngF An apparition or double of a living person (OED) => in literature, the double of a character in a story. 45 haxndz = hunting dogs 46 stAg un cerf 47 beit Lure, attract into a trap. (a bait = un appât / to bait an animal = appâter) 48 Self-delusion= illusion, self-deception. To be self-delusional => se faire des illusions. 49 hjx)brqstqk Excessively proud or self-conceited ((selfkFn)si:tqd)) (prétentieux, arrogant, hautain) 50 Be endowed with sth : qn)daxFd être doué / doté de qqch / 51 = behind 52 )bAkdrop stage backdrop => décor ou toile de fond de scène 53 Or : tomb txm 54 Upstage = en fond de scène / downstage = à l’avant-scène 55 FxB serment 56 )laitniC la foudre => thunder : )ByndF le tonnerre => a flash of lightning : un éclair a peal of thunder : un coup de tonnerre  e- The chorus was made up of 15 professional chorus men (False: the chorus was played by Athenian citizens who would have trained rigorously for months, learning the songs and the choreography moving in unison, which was quite a feat57 with the limited peripheral vision they had with the masks on.) f- Although this does not appear clearly in the playscript, the chorus is central to the performance, especially in The Bacchae. (True It was performed by dancing characters wearing lavish costumes too, which enhanced their presence and importance.) g- The chorus men played servants of Pentheus and wore lavish Lydian costumes. (False: they played the maenads) h- The choregos58 showed off his wealth by funding the chorus. (True: it allowed the choregos to indulge in conspicuous expenditure59.) i- A modern production of The Bacchae would last around five hours. (False: an hour and a half. The three tragedies of the festival would60 last five hours in total.) VII) Athenian political backdrop of the first performance 12’48’’15’10’’ Tick the correct statements & correct the wrong ones: When The Bacchae was first performed in Athens, the Athenian city-state and empire: a- was declining T g- expected defeat in the Peloponnesian war T b- had lost the Peloponnesian war => it was h- was threatened by a more democratic Spartan about to lose the war. confederacy False: Sparta won the war, scrapped democratic institutions and imposed c- was weakened by plague and over two tyrannical rule on Athens. [democracy was decades of war T gradually restored a few years later, though.] d- lacked slaves to build its boats => i- was threatened by an undemocratic Spartan Athenian military power had waned so much confederacy T that it lacked hands to row its boats and had to rely on slaves. j- was demoralized T e- was relying on slaves to row its ships T k- was trying to build defensive walls False: the city walls of Athens were destroyed in the final f- was about to overcome the Spartan year of conflict, during the Spartan siege of the confederacy, which Thebes was part of False: city. it was on the brink of defat / about to be overcome by the Spartan confederacy (Athens l- was about to face ruin and starvation T was defeated in 404 BC (the play was performed in 405 BC)) VIII) The Bacchae, a topical play? 15’11’’16’38’’ 57 fi:t Un exploit 58 Le « chorège » en français. 59 kFn)spqkjxFs qk)spendqtHFr Conspicuous expenditure consists in spending money conspicuously, that is to attract attention and show how rich you are. 60 Notez l’emploi de la forme fréquentative « would » dans ce passage => would +VB s’emploie couramment pour décrire une action passée récurrente, répétitive, une habitude… Summarize Edith Hall’s three-part answer to Melvyn Bragg’s following question: “Is there anything in the play that intimates that this external pressure and depletion in Athens could be somehow in the wind?” Hall first explains that Greek tragedy is not supposed to be topical61 and refer explicitly to current political events or contemporary social issues. The Bacchae is set around the 13th century AD, that is in the Bronze Age, more than 700 years before the time of performance (405 BC). However, she claims that the central message of the play is that a city-state should be open to change and discussion with the outside world or that political and cultural survival depends on one’s ability to remain open-minded, cosmopolitan and think internationally – the broad doomsday62 scenario in the play thus fits63 the doomsday scenario of the contemporary Athenian empire. But as the play was actually performed at least thirty years after Euripides had written it, one cannot assert for sure that it refers in any kind of way to the situation of Athens at the time of performance, in 405 BC. IX) Tiresias, Cadmus and Pentheus 16’39’’20’20” Tick the correct statements and correct the wrong ones: Tiresias : a- is the prophet of Thebes T (Tiresias is nicknamed the “blind seer”) b- rarely appears in Athenian tragedy => False: E. Wilson explains that he is a common character in Greek tragedy. c- is deaf64 and blind65 but not dumb66 => False: as a blind seer and prophet, Tiresias is blind but can talk a lot. d- knows the will of the Gods and the future T (He predicts and prophesies what is bound to happen to Oedipus, for instance.) e- warns Athenians against worshipping Dionysus => False: Tiresias emphasizes at the beginning of the play that Athenians ought to67 worship68 Dionysus and Demeter who both symbolize the bread and wine that give them life and sustain them every day. Although Dionysus seems foreign and wild, Tiresias insists that he is, alongside with Demeter, part of our everyday lives and we should not reach too far to communicate with such gods. 61 )topqkFl of interest at the present time; relating to things that are happening at present (Cambridge dictionary) 62 )du:mzdeq Literally : Judgment Day => end of the world ; a time of disaster 63 Or : matches, corresponds to 64 def Sourd => la surdité = deafness 65 blaqnd Aveugle => la cécité = blindness 66 dym Muet => le mutisme = dumbness 67 c:t tx = should (auxiliaires modaux) 68 )wE :Hqp To worship a god = adorer un dieu / vouer un culte à un dieu Cadmus: a- is the discoverer of Thebes => False: he is the founder69 of Thebes b- is Pentheus’s grandfather T c- believes Dionysus ought to be worshipped because he is Semele’s son T (For Cadmus, Dionysus should be worshipped because he is family. He has a nepotistic view of religion and power.) Pentheus: a- is Tiresias’s nephew b- is a broad-minded fellow => False: he turns out to be a very rigid, narrow-minded, reactionary ruler, highly resistant to change. c- is a very conservative ruler T d- seeks to remove boundaries in social life => False: he rigidly opposes any intermingling of classes, ages and genders70. Rosie Wyles explains that Pentheus’s answer to everything is to “lock them up” (i.e. women mostly) and keep rigid boundaries around every element of life. e- is unbiased => False: he is biased71, especially in terms of gender roles and sticks to traditionally patriarchal and sexist views of gender roles and hierarchies. Pentheus is portrayed as very anxious about the idea that the cult of Dionysus might involve women leaving their houses, wearing weird72 things and running around up on the mountainside to worship the god – a whole lot of anxiety-inducing things because they are not under his own control. X) Dionysus’s enthralling spell 20’20”23’56” Use the cues to summarize Rosie Wyles’s answer to Melvyn Bragg’s following questions: a- Melvyn Bragg: “Pentheus is dressed as a woman by Dionysus. How does that happen and why?” - Control - reversal - spy - take up arms Pentheus agrees to dress up as a woman to go and spy on the maenads performing Dionysian rites on the mountain side, thus signalling that a role reversal has occurred since the king who loves to exercise power and control over others is now shown to be spiritually enthralled73 to Dionysus and controlled by the god. Before that change occurred, Pentheus strongly resisted the idea of 69 )faxndF Fondateur => to found sth = fonder qqch (à ne pas confondre avec le preterit et le participe passé du verbe find, found, found …) 70 )dGendF Gender = le genre (en tant que construction identitaire) => un genre littéraire = literary genre ˈʒɑ̃ ːrə / )GonrF 71 baqFsd = prejudiced 72 wqFd = very strange or unusual 73 Mentally captivated & controlled.  having anything to do with Dionysian worship and spying on the maenadic dances – he hesitated between following Dionysus’s suggestion and taking up arms against the women to put an end to the Dionysian ritual. So when he finally goes out dressed up as a woman, the audience understands that he has finally given in74 and is completely under Dionysus’s spell and doomed. b- Melvyn Bragg: “How is his mind changed?” - “Wait” - far gone - costume - theatre director - Euripides’ mastery - Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria There is a one-word line in the play, spoken by Dionysus, that signals the sudden mind change and enthralment of Pentheus to the god, a line masterfully translated as “Wait” by Emily Wilson. Instantly, the Theban king changes his mind and comes round to75 Dionysus’s idea that he should go out and spy on the women. The audience can thus surmise76 that he has been mesmerised77 by the god, as if he was under some magic spell and seems quite far gone and raving mad as he says there is a double sun or Dionysus looks like a bull. This madness forebodes78 his tragic end. The female costume worn by Pentheus further illustrates his subjugation to the god as the audience is supposed to understand it as an outward sign of worship of Dionysus. Besides, Pentheus’s theatrical disguise further signals Dionysus’s control over him as the god acts like a theatre director instructing him how he should best impersonate a maenad. The scene also reflects Euripides’s mastery because its comic potential is ironically undercut by our awareness that Pentheus is walking out to his sacrificial death. Euripides also managed to craft the scene as a cross-textual reference to Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria in which a man (Euripides’ own brother-in-law, actually, Mnesilochus) is dressed up as a woman to secretly join a gathering of women (at the women’s festival Thesmophoria). In Aristophanes’ comedy, Mnesilochus is found out but he is finally saved (by Euripides himself) and the comedy ends well, whereas Euripides’s The Bacchae remains deadly serious and Pentheus cannot be saved. The cross-textual reference thus enabled Euripides to assert the power of tragedy (in cathartically eliciting pity and terror) and thus answer back to Aristophanes who had lampooned79 him and his tragic writing in Women at the Thesmophoria. XI) The final Sparagmos 23’57”26’52” 74 Give in (verbe à particule) = yield ji:ld (céder) 75 To come round to an idea = be persuaded to accept an idea 76 sF)maqz Assume, suppose 77 )mezmFraqzd hypnotized 78 )fc:bFxdz Foreshadows, is a forerunner of 79 )lAmpu:nd Mocked and ridiculed / satirized him Fill in the gaps: Melvyn Bragg: “Edith, this leads to the most dreadful scene in the play. The messenger tells us about this appalling80 scene, which leads to the death of Pentheus. Can you erm tell us about that?” Edith Hall: “Yes, it is one of the most extraordinary messenger speeches in Greek tragedy. The Greeks liked to have the worst violence in the Greek tragedies recounted to them verbally by an anonymous eyewitness rather than see it. They actually really believed that it had more of an effect if you put the pictures together in your mind. This chap81 is actually some kind of a cowherd82. He was actually pasturing his cows on this eerie83, eerie mountain between Athens and Thebes on the Cithaeron mountains where he came across84 the maenads who were quite peaceably doing things like mending85 their thyrsuses and doing up86 the laces on their fawn-skin87 bodices88. But once they begin to realize that Pentheus is there then they begin their dreadful acts of destruction.” Melvyn Bragg: “Why does his presence – his spotted89 presence as it were90 – provoke that?” Edith Hall: “This is an absolutely all-female festival, apart from the priest and the presence of the god, who’s male. And there was a very stern91 division of all male festivals for Herakles at Olympia, at the Olympic games, and of all female ones. These were policed very, very strongly – the penalties for some, for infringement at some, was actually death. It was a very important part – there was a homosocial – I call it homosocial92 cultic practices in ancient Greece. And this is played out – of course this is in the world of myth, even for the Athenians, but when the maenads realize that there is a man in disguise who Dionysus has actually put up, so that he couldn’t be seen, at the top of a pine tree in a very dramatic description – we’re told how Dionysus bent the pine tree down, placed Pentheus in his Bacchic, maenadic female robes on it and let the tree go boing93 back up again – he’s up there but the maenads see him and they try everything to get him down, they throw their thyrsuses up at him, they try to climb the tree, they try to pull the branches but they can’t and in the end they’re all together, all 80 F)pc:lqC Causing shock and anger (CD) (révoltante) 81 tHAp Man (type) 82 )kaxzhE:d Vacher, bouvier 83 i:rq Strange and slightly frightening. (CD) 84 Tomber sur qqn/qqch, rencontrer par hasard 85 Fix sth, repair, fix a hole in a piece of clothing. 86 Fixing, mending 87 fc:n skqn En (peau de) daim 88 )bodqsqz Bustier, guêpière, corsage 89 )spotqd Located 90 apparently 91 stE :n Rigid, rigorous => a stern teacher = un professeur sévère 92 (hFxmF)sFxHFl Related to a homogeneous social group : here, Edith Hall is referring to all-male or all- female cultic practices in Ancient Greece. 93 Onomatopoeia referring to the noise of the tree suddenly straightening up like a spring. of them – there’re hundreds of them – uproot94 this pine tree by hand and then they go for him. And first it’s his mother pulls an arm off, and then she says to her sisters, you have a bit and he is split into hundreds of different pieces. And the gobbets95 of flesh – which Cadmus later tells us he had to – great problems in actually finding underneath rocks and so on – and the blood are spread over this beautiful pastureland of Cithaeron. XII) Interpreting Dionysiac sparagmos. 26’53”27’59” Tick the statements matching what Emily Wilson says in this passage and correct the wrong ones: a- Pentheus dies mainly because the maenads mistake him for an animal. (False: Pentheus is sacrificed for unclear reasons – we don’t know whether he is killed because the maenads take him for a man, an animal or just because he happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Emily Wilson suggests it may be for all those reasons at once.) b- In the first messenger speech, the maenads are described as closely related to nature. (True.) c- Before ripping him apart, the maenads breast-feed Pentheus, mistaking him for a young wild animal. (False: They are used to breast-feeding wild animals because they are closely related to nature, as explained in the first messenger speech, but they do not breast-feed Pentheus – they kill him straight away.) d-The maenads are depicted by the messenger as being fed by fluids leaping up from the earth. (True. Again this is meant to illustrate how closely related to nature they are.) e- In his first speech, the messenger describes the maenads being attacked by a herd of cattle that rip the clothing of flesh around their bones. (False. It is the maenads who attack the cattle and rip them apart. They are shown to be used to performing such Dionysiac sacrifices.) f- Pentheus’s sacrifice emphasizes how Dionysiac worship confuses identity boundaries. (True. He may be killed because the maenads see him as several things at once – a man, an animal, a spy or a mere interloper. Dionysiac worship and sparagmos confuse boundaries.) XIII) Climactic horror and catharsis. 28’00”29’36” 1- True or false? Justify. a- Rosie Wyles explains not showing the sparagmos on stage is a stroke of genius on the part of the author. (True. She says that by sticking to verbal description exclusively, 94 )ypru:t Elles déracinent le pin … 95 )gobqts Cf. cut, hack, chop sth into gobbets (= fragments, pieces of flesh) Euripides compelled the audience to imagine the scene and see it in their mind’s eye, which is all the more striking and shocking as the imagination, unlike a theatre stage and acting, cannot be restrained in revealing horror, frenzied violence and suffering.) b- Rosie Wyles explains that only the result of the sparagmos is shown graphically on stage. (True. Pentheus’s head, represented by the mask the actor was wearing, is brought on stage held up on a spike.) c- The actor’s mask on a spike could effectively create the illusion that Pentheus’s head was paraded on stage. (True. As masks covered the actors’ faces entirely the Greeks would use the same word – prosopon – to designate both a face and a mask. Hence, Pentheus’s mask held up on a spike, possibly stained with blood, would have quite realistically represented the head of the character.) d- As she is under the influence of Dionysus, Agave first mistakes Pentheus for a corn cob with a cough. (False. While she is under the influence of Dionysus, Agave mistakes her son for a lion cub or a calf96 to be ritualistically ripped apart.) e- Horror climaxes when Agave pulls an arm off her own son. (False. According to Rosie Wyles, horror reaches a climax when Agave suddenly realizes she is holding her own son’s head up the spike.) 2- Answer the following question: To what extent can the moment when Agave recognizes her son contribute to catharsis? The moment of recognition causes terror and can be characterized as horrific and the climax of horror in the play, as Rosie Wyles explains. But as the audience already knew that Agave had killed her son, when her realization aligns with the audience’s prior knowledge of what happened, they are not simply seized by terror and horror but also possibly by pity for the mother discovering what she has been led to do against her will. Catharsis stems from this intermingling of terror and pity, two conflicting passions that can be purged by defusing each other through the contradictory movement of distancing and identification they involve. XIV) Dionysiac delusion scrutinized 29’37’’31’52” True or false? Justify. a- Edith Hall explains both Pentheus and Agave are lured into a state of psychotic delusional state by the maenads. (False: they are put into psychotic delusion by Dionysus.) b- The exact nature of Dionysiac delusion remains a moot97 point among researchers. (True – many different theories about the cause and nature of the psychic state of the maenads or Agave and Pentheus have been bandied about.) 96 ka:f Offspring of the cow (veau) 97 mu:t Undecided, controversial, open to debate c- Some scientists have argued that Dionysiac delusion was induced by an overdose of vitamin C. (False: Dionysiac delusion has been linked to the effects of alcohol or psychotropic drugs such as cannabis or magic mushrooms.) d- Some scientists have compared Dionysiac delusion to trance-like states or manic states. (True) e- Greek literature and theatre shows that most mythical heroes and heroines – Cassandra or Orestes, for instance – are lured into the same kind of Dionysiac delusion and trance. (False: although many Greek heroes and heroines experience trance-like states or states of psychotic delusion, these states vary and the Greeks seemed to have made many subtle distinctions between the different states.) f- Cassandra’s trance in Agamemnon closely resembles Orestes’s madness. (False: Cassandra’s trance is prophetic as it enables her to become clairvoyant and see the future. As for Orestes, he is maddened by the Erinyes, who were the agents of vengeance, turning people into murderers crazed with blood lust, anger and bereavement.) 2- Fill in the gaps: Edith Hall: “So the Greeks had very many different – very subtle98 distinctions for - between different kinds of being out of it and the way they would distinguish them were not as a clinician would today but as under the influence of different kinds of gods. So a trance99 from Pan100 is different from a trance from Dionysus. What we do know is that within the cult of Dionysus, which was one of the most widespread of the Greek cults across the two thousand city-states in which ancient Greeks lived at this time, that some kind of delusion101 was normal and I suspect it was fostered102 by psychotropic substances103.” XV) Deus ex machina 31’52”33’15” Answer the following questions: a- How does Agave come out of her delusion? She comes out of her delusion very gradually, through a careful unpicking104 of what she believes. She gradually comes to her senses and realizes she is not a wild hunter but a mother with a son whose head she is now holding in her hands. 98 )sytFl subtil 99 trAns transe 100 God of wild nature, shepherds, flocks of sheep, rustic music, fields and groves. Like Dionysus and Demeter, Pan was linked to fertility and seasonal rites. 101 dq)lu:GFn Deception, illusion 102 )fostFd sustained 103 saqkF)tropqk )sybstansqz 104 Here: analysis, careful examination. => to unpick sth : a- cut or remove the stitches from a line of sewing (CD) b- examine and analyse sth carefully c- destroy sth (sbdy’s work or achievement) gradually b- Why can Dionysus be defined as a Deus ex machina at the end of the play? Dionysus is explicitly revealed as a god to the characters and the audience through a final apparition in which he is shown descending upon the earth and hanging above the mortals – magically hovering in the sky, in a kind of Peter-Pan fashion. In performance this meant that the actor impersonating the magical god was literally pulleyed down above the stage area and held up in the air by a system of ropes and pulleys, which was part of the “machina”, that is the stage machinery105 of the theatre, located in the wings106 or backstage and therefore unseen by the audience. XVI) Women in The Bacchae 33’15’’35’26” Answer the following questions: a- According to Rosie Wyles, what difference should be drawn between the Greek women in the play and the chorus women? She explains that the chorus women, a group of maenads, are emphatically barbarian and come across107 as cruel108 at times. The messenger also rebukes109 them for being outrageously outspoken110 – they are joyful at Pentheus’s death, for instance. The chorus women thus appear as completely outside the framework of authority, Thebes and its hierarchy is nothing to them as the only authority they recognize is that of Dionysus. Whereas the Greek women who have been under the influence of Dionysus are transgressive – they have gone out on the mountains, left their homes and left their looms111 behind and their appropriate traditional activity of weaving112. But they are explicitly under the influence of Dionysus when they do that. b- What difference should be made between Agave and Medea, according to Rosie Wyles? Agave kills her son while she is in a trance induced by Dionysus, unconsciously therefore, whereas Medea kills her children consciously as a deliberate and well planned act of revenge against her patriarchal husband Jason. c- In what way could The Bacchae partly be interpreted as Euripides’ answer to Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria? In Aristophanes’ play, women gather at the thesmophoria (a Greek women’s festival) to condemn Euripides for the way he slanders113 women in his tragedies, according to 105 steidG mF)Hi :nFrq La machinerie (théâtrale) 106 wqngz Les coulisses 107 Appear as 108 kru:Fl 109 rq)bju:ks Criticizes, reprimands 110 Axt)reqdGFslq axt)spFxkFn scandaleusement franches / il les réprimande pour leur scandaleux franc- parler. 111 lu:mz Métiers à tisser 112 )wi:vqC Weave, wove, woven => tisser 113 )slAndFz insults them. In The Bacchae, Pentheus keeps insisting on how women should behave appropriately and a clear line is drawn between the barbarian maenads and the Greek women who act barbarically in spite of themselves. The play thus shows that women can be just as transgressive and savage as men but that they can and should act differently as civilized beings according to their proper social roles (mainly as mothers and housewives working on their looms, apparently though.) Wyles explains that the audience would have had Aristophanes’ play in mind while watching The Bacchae and would have been very sensitive to114 that issue and the way Euripides dealt with it. XVII) Critical reception in modern times 35’26”37’56” Answer the following questions: a- According to Edith Hall, did F. Nietzsche’s famous work, Birth of Tragedy (1872), have an impact on the critical reception of Euripides’ The Bacchae? Explain. Hall explains that at the time of its first printing The Bacchae was reviled115 and denounced in the 18th century in Western Europe, so that it had to wait till the 19 th century to be staged. But renewed interest in The Bacchae came mainly after Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy (1872) which extolled116 the Dionysian spirit of tragedy through a dichotomy between the Dionysiac and the Apollonian – though they couldn’t really be opposed as Nietzsche did. b- What was James Frazer’s thesis about the Greeks and Greek cultural traditions in his 1890 book The Golden Bough? Explain. In his work of anthropology, James Frazer emphasized that the Greeks were not all white sages intoning internal truths out of white pillars - they weren’t entirely rational and philosophical – they had blood-smeared117 rites, initiation and fertility rites, they had cannibalism. And ritualism became the great trend118 in classics and in theatre. In 1908, English director Harley Granville-Barker put on the first important production of the play, a ritualistic one, translated by Oxford professor Gilbert Murray. It was very avant-garde in its conflation119 of Dionysian and Welsh ritualism. 114 Be sensitive to an issue => être sensible à (un problème, une question) 115 rq)vaql Vilify, criticize strongly 116 Glorified, lauded, highly praised 117 )blydsmiFd maculés de sang 118 mode, tendance, vogue 119 amalgame