Wednesday March 21

The Bacchae

Elvis' dancing (for a video of this, refer to Dustin's blog)

grace: a gift from God "we are saved by grace" ~ Ephesians 2:8, it also shows us God's presence in the world, although we are usually blind to it

Dionysus:

• patron god of drama- died, yet still lives on like Jesus
• you must be ready to see him like Hamlet said: "If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all: since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is't to leave betimes?" ~Act 5, Scene 2
• born of Zeus' thigh because his mother was killed
• his followers are called 'the Bacchantes' or 'maenads' these are the women who danced for him, they honor him because he gave them wine, they carried a thyrsus
• Orlando Bloom would be a good Dionysus, because he is a 'pretty boy'
• he had long hair, and looked like a woman (other men that had power in their long hair: Samson, Elvis, etc)
• made the women riot, salivate, swoon, and sometimes even fall down
• he wasn't interested in smart women, he only wanted them to do what comes naturally
• drove many people out of their minds
• he was very passive, would take no for an answer, but saying no inevitably meant death
• believed that nonviolence was more effective than violence
• he wanted you to dance for him, even if you can't (like in Hocus Pocus, when she wanted them to 'dance, dance until you die!!")
• his name means 'liberator' he wanted to free you from oppression and domesticity
• he was an environmentalist, and back then 'it's not easy being green' ~Kermit
• brought people ecstasy: "standing outside of yourself"
• he was also considered a libel which means 'liberal,' someone who believes in freedom
• he strips you of who you are
• caused much omophagia like Hannibal

Pentheus: name means 'grief, sorrow, mourning, sadness' he was a 'man of constant sorrow'

I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW

I am a man of constant sorrow

I've seen trouble all my day.

I bid farewell to old Kentucky

The place where I was born and raised.

(The place where he was born and raised)

For six long years I've been in trouble

No pleasures here on earth I found

For in this world I'm bound to ramble

I have no friends to help me now.

[chorus] He has no friends to help him now

It's fare thee well my old lover

I never expect to see you again

For I'm bound to ride that northern railroad

Perhaps I'll die upon this train.

[chorus] Perhaps he'll die upon this train.

You can bury me in some deep valley

For many years where I may lay

Then you may learn to love another

While I am sleeping in my grave.

[chorus] While he is sleeping in his grave.

Maybe your friends think I'm just a stranger

My face you'll never see no more.

But there is one promise that is given

I'll meet you on God's golden shore.

[chorus] He'll meet you on God's golden shore.

Orpheus: the singer who bewitched women

Apollo: he was not good with women

Thebes: not to be confused with Thebes, Egypt (which is what I did at first)

Tiresias: experienced life as both a man and a woman

Cademus and Harmonia had 4 daughters:

1. Agave
2. Autonoe
3. Semele
4. Ino

Iris Murdoch: also a film about her life starring Judy Dench and Kate Winslet called Iris

Marsyas: the satyr who died horribly by Apollo

Arachne: was turned into a spider by Minerva

Ovid: he changed horror into art

tragedy: often occurs when there is a huge gap between the crime committed and the punishment given (the injustice)

Sex, lies, and Videotape is a more recent reenactment of Dionysus

"We are not searching for the man behind the myth, we are looking for the myth behind the man" ~Dr. Sexson