Study Questions: Week 2

1. What differentiates Asian barbarism from Greek civilization?

2. How does nature in the Bacchae differ from the city?

3. What is wisdom and foolishness according to Tiresias, Cadmus, and Pentheus?

4. Why do Cadmus and Tiresias claim that Dionysus should be honored as a god?

5. How does Tiresias explain D’s birth?

6. Who is D. for Pentheus?

6. What measures has P. already taken against D. and what does he intend to do from now on?

7. What miracles has D. performed in Thebes?

8. What are the main elements of the first confrontation between P. and D.?

9. How is P.’s origin reflected in his punishment of D. according to the Chorus?

10. What are humanity’s accomplishments in Antigone’s ‘Ode to Man’?

11. What are the limitations of human power?

12. In the myth of man’s creation in Plato’s Protagoras, what has Epimetheus done wrong in his distribution of ‘powers and abilities’ to humans and animals?

13. How does Prometheus fix the problem?

14. What are the advantages for humans of living in cities?

15. What are the benefits of justice and shame for civic life?