What is the message of Bacchae?

The Bacchae depicts a struggle to the death between the twin forces of control (restraint) and freedom (release), and permits Dionysus to provide an answer to this question.

What did Agave and her sisters do wrong?

Thinking that she and the other women had just killed a lion—for Dionysus had driven them mad—Agave carried her son’s head on a stick back to Thebes, only realizing the truth when confronted by her father, Cadmus. This murder also served as Dionysus’ vengeance on Agave (and her sisters Ino and Autonoë).

Who is Agave In the Bacchae?

The most tragic figure in the play, Agave is Pentheus’ mother and Cadmus’s daughter. She is entranced by Dionysus and becomes one of his followers, known as the Bacchae. The herdsman witnesses her killing and eating animals raw, and using her thyrsus to draw milk, honey, and wine from the ground.

What role does the prophet Tiresias play in Euripides Bacchae?

Tiresias. A famous Theban seer and friend of Cadmus. Tiresias persuades Cadmus to worship Dionysus.

What does Dionysus represent in the Bacchae?

Dionysus, the protagonist of the play, is the Greek god of wine, fertility, ritual madness, and theater. He inspires the kind of devotion in his followers, the Bacchae, that Pentheus can only dream of as king.

What was the Bacchae about?

At the end of the play, Pentheus is torn apart by the women of Thebes and his mother Agave bears his head on a pike to her father Cadmus. The Bacchae is considered to be not only one of Euripides’s greatest tragedies, but also one of the greatest ever written, modern or ancient….

The Bacchae
Genre Tragedy
Setting Thebes

What is The Bacchae about in Euripides?

The only Greek drama to feature the god Dionysus as a central character, the Bacchae is a drama about belief and faith, expressed with Euripides’ characteristic willingness to complicate easy answers. It has been interpreted as both Euripides’ approval of Dionysian nature worship and his condemnation of its excesses.

Who are the main characters in the Bacchae?

Character List Dionysus – Originator, protagonist and central axis of The Bacchae, this god of wine, theater and group ecstasy appears mostly in disguise as a beautiful, longhaired, wine-flushed Lydian, the Stranger. Pentheus – Pentheus is the king of Thebes, son of Agaue, grandson of Cadmus and the first cousin of Dionysus.

Who is The Bacchae in Greek mythology?

Originator, protagonist and central axis of The Bacchae, this god of wine, theater and group ecstasy appears mostly in disguise as a beautiful, longhaired, wine-flushed Lydian, the Stranger.

What is the main idea of Bacchae?

A play of great poetry and suggestiveness, the Bacchae is in many ways Euripides’ most provocative work. The only Greek drama to feature the god Dionysus as a central character, the Bacchae is a drama about belief and faith, expressed with Euripides’ characteristic willingness to complicate easy answers.