Lecture 3: Outline

Euripides’ Bacchae

Parodos (64-167)

•Dionysus’ conception and birth (the religious version)

•Mountains vs. city, from ‘shuttle and loom’ (118) to orgiastic dances (105-119) •Dionysus’ activities on the mountains (135-141)

First Episode (168-369)

•Wisdom vs. foolishness

•Dionysus’ gifts to mankind

•Dionysus’ threats to society

•Pentheus’ punishment of the god

Sophocles’ Antigone, ‘Ode to Man’ (332-375)

•The achievements of humankind

•Humans’ mental skills and limitations