I was intrigued by the intensity of Dionysus’s revenge. Although most Greek plays are extremely dramatic as this one, it made me wonder of the moral of the play. Clearly one way to look at it is that one should never anger or displease the gods; but perhaps also that only gods were capable of carrying out their revenge successfully, and humans shouldn’t try such things.

I really like the way Dionysus comes about and introduces himself. You can see his bravado just by his word choice and he lets the reader know who he is and what he is made of.

The chorus in ancient greek plays is such an incredible tool. With so many plays being based on historical/what they believed to be historical events, and with too many gods and goddess to even name (as well as each of them having multiple names), its so helpful to have the chorus give a background for what is going on. Along with the chorus, it was interesting to see some mortal mythical figures that reoccur in other plays. Such as the blind prophet Tiresias, who before reading The Bacchae, I have encountered in the Opedius Rex triology and The Odyssey.

I would like to talk about structure of story. The Baccae talks about revenge of disrespected god,Dionysus. I thought that the God is represented e a person in power and  Pentheus and his family are represented people under the control of ruling class. So, it seems to me it is about a lesson that makes people do not disrespect or against to the ruling class.

This was really interesting to read. I could feel how dramatic the roles were just through reading it word by word. It almost sounded like an opera in my head when reading it. Every role’s point of view is intense and has a neediness of being heard.

The Bacchae was a depiction of a tragic Greek play centered around Dionysus. There are various themes of comedy and duality; the strive for freedom in society. This dramatic play  was created to portray the relation between Greek Theater and society. From reading The Bacchae I noticed the aspects of balance and opposition in society, and the verbalization of the text was quite interesting.

Oh Greek Theater! The theatrics of it all. Dionysus, possesses a multitude of powers and can take a variety of forms. Dionysus’s gifts allow humans to let go of their troubles through wine, to let go of their identities through theater, and to let go of their individuality through cult worship. This is the beauty within the story.  There is this underlying darkness in the play associated with Dionysus and the idea of letting go. It seems as though his powers drive people to this place of no return, there was no self-control and ultimately leads to insanity. People are driven to let go of their judgement, and ultimately their grasp of humanity.

This story pegs the god Dionysus as the god of fun, wine, and madness while an underlying theme also seemed to be following tradition and just blindly performing rituals to respect the gods. Dionysus punishes Pentheus gravely for questioning and refusing to just blindly carry on in a manner that he thought was improper. Even the characters at the end mention that the punishment was really disproportionate to the crime, especially in my opinion since even though he was a god they were his relatives on his mothers side. He had his cousin murdered on a matter of pride, which even though a good portion of the dialogue stated over and over that he was a god that eased men’s suffering for those that believed he caused Cadmus so much pain and then banished him. I feel like this story is meant to inspire a great amount of fear about disrespecting even the gods that one might have considered minor, but in the case of Dionysus in particular if you’re supposed tone about having fun and loving and living i’m not sure how much of that can be genuine if you are essentially feeling a grave pressure to enjoy yourself and party.

From reading The Bacchae, I picked up on a few stylistic trademarks of Greek theatre.  Immediately noticeable are the long soliloquies that tell the audience exactly what that particular character is doing there, and what they want.  Having recently seen a production of Ben Hur, these speeches, though The Bacchae is tragic in nature, seem comical to me.  However, I also picked up on a few comical elements as well.  For example, it is visible in the exchange between Pentheus and Dionysus.  There are indentations in the lines indicating quick-witted sharp delivery of the lines that is largely seen in comedy.  I am curious as to when this technique began to be written into plays.

When it comes to personal preference, I’ve always been attracted to more modern or contemporary plays. After reading  The Bacchae, I think I know why. The drama, which follows traditional formats of ancient Greek plays and early theatre, is very verbose and ornate in its language. And while I enjoy reading the stylistic intricacies, I don’t enjoy watching the words on stage nearly as much. When reading these ancient plays, I have time to re-read, digest and ponder the elaborate text. But on stage, everything happens so quickly there’s barely enough time to process the words flying out of the actors’ mouths. Even in contemporary abridged versions, I find that much of the words are obscured, the complexities and details that give the play its color lost in the translation from paper to stage. I imagine the sentiment would have been even stronger in fifth century Greece, with no microphones or projector screens to amplify and clarify the actor’s voices and intentions.