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Labdacus and grandfather of Oedipus ; Semele married Zeus and conceived Dionysos; [00 married Athamas and both were struck with madness by Hera as a revenge on Ino for her care of the infant Dionysos; Autonce married Aristeus and had a son Acteon who was tom to pieces by his carnivorous hounds on Mount Cithaeron ; Agave married Echion, a descendant of Cadmus , and she disme mbered her son, Pentheus. Euripides incorporates into the /Jat:ch.ae several aspects of the aetiological myths of the ancien t Greeks and gives prominence to their histori cal significance. By having the Cho rus call Dionysos, Zagreus, Eurip ides ide ntifies him with yet anoth er myth that is crucial to the theme of the play. Legend has it that Zeus impregnated his sister , Demeter. who gave birth to Persephone; bodl are regarded as fertility goddesses. The unionbetweenZeus and Persephone resulted in his 5OD., zagrecs. Hen. as usual . jealous of the affair arousedthe TItans who att3Cked the child zagreus. cut him to pieces with knives and ate his dismem bered parts . 18 Athena saved the child' s heart and brought it to Zeus who swallowed the heart and implanted it through sexual union with Semele. Zeus in anger destroyed me Titans with his thunder and lightning but ou t of their ashes the human race wascreated. The aetiologi cal significance of this myth lies in the idea that being createdout of the ashes of the monstrous . evil Titans. humans have the dual nature of evil and good , as well as the capacity for divine attributes. Dionysos' relationship to Demeter and Persephone qualify him as a fertili ty deity and accounts for similarities between the EIeusinian and Bacchic Mysteries. 19 123
In the prologue of Euripides ' lJacchae. Dionysos emphasizes his divine and mortal parentage and his reasons for being in Thebes . His mother 's sisters deny his biological connection with Zeus and clai m that his mother wasconsumed because she lied about her relationship with Zeus. There fore. be basdisgui.sed himself as a mortal in order to exact reven ge on the perpetrators (1-4; 26-31). Part of Dion ysos ' mission is to defend his mother's reputation by the revelation of his divinity as proo f that his mother's story is true ; he is the product of the union betweenSemele and Zeus . the father of gods and men . He also intends to introduce the Bacchic rites and Dionysian ritual to me Theban s becausethey. through the arrogance of Penlbeus, have neglected to worship him as god . Dionysos makesthis clear in the prologue that he stung the Theban women with madness. driving them from their homes. Dressed in Bacchic costume, they have gone to Mount Cilhaeron to participate in Dionysian rites (32-36) . The irony is that Dion ysos takeson mortal form but uses his supernatural powers to entice and excite the Theban women into Bacchic worship and perfonn numerous miracles . While the Theban women , compelled to perform in Dionysian rites . are out on Mount Cithaeron, the group of Lydian women , who willin gly followed Dionysos fro m Asia Minor. form the Chorus on stage. As the title suggests. the Baccnae is also a play about women . The Greek word transliterated as bacchae, is the nominative, feminine , plural of the masculine singular noun , bacdua, meaning women possessed/inspired by the god , Bacchus. Euripides makes reference to several mytho logical women. Dionysos comes to honour the 124
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51. 101m'S RImlINKING GREEK TRAGEDY
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to th
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and Caribbean descen t, remain ed a
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CHAPTER 1 • INTRODUCTION Postc ol
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Postcolonial theory comprises the d
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colonial process . 3 The use of the
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Even mough postcolonial theory inte
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wickedness, that the very idea of i
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linguistic groups . The people who
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that is our nig1'i1utU •...• Fo
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Africans in Ivory Coast have beenqu
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how me West dealt with the Orien t
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presence show s. aim relentlessly t
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women by the natives. In "Caliban A
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privileged the aite above those wit
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CHAPfERl 11re Gods An Nol To BI4mr.
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hindered communication with the dif
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Banhamcites the production notes an
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he founded the on Olokun theatre gr
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In the legend, against the advice o
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also happens to be the household se
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human features and interact with me
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From the moment a child is conceive
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Having heard about their predicamen
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older brother rightfull y occupies
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two daughters are introduced on sta
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Page 87 and 88: tragic flaw, his sin of hubris . br
Page 89 and 90: occur does leave room for the possi
Page 91 and 92: accepting it; the gods themselves c
Page 93 and 94: doing : you bl ed down andreceive i
Page 95: of the Townspeople: [The] old. and
Page 98 and 99: De-lfe to inquire of the gods the r
Page 100 and 101: his household. Rotimi has a dual pu
Page 102 and 103: the place where three footpaths mee
Page 105 and 106: off against the old myths, the supe
Page 107 and 108: on Odewale that he should kill his
Page 109: in the first place••..(foreign
Page 115: communication is limited to only th
Page 121: entity under the colonial system. I
Page 126 and 127: the illusion that all would be well
Page 128 and 129: Letterario Internarionale Mondello
Page 133 and 134: imaginatively recreates the plot an
Page 135: in his thigh and sewed it up so tha
Page 141 and 142: trim not only lhe bi- sexual nature
Page 143 and 144: forged fro m the ore of mountain-wo
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Page 153 and 154: of the old household slave who is t
Page 155 and 156: conflict betweenthe oppressed and t
Page 157 and 158: continues. transformed beyond the p
Page 160 and 161: into the realm of communal ritual .
Page 162 and 163: and drinks from the wine that spurt
Page 164 and 165: From orgas mic moans the surrogate
Page 166 and 167: "those gods . who yearly mus t be r
Page 168 and 169: By making the audience or a membero
Page 170: minute of his speech, he utters the
Page 174 and 175: which he turned water in to wine at
Page 176: itual . As Tiresias says, Dionysos
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African mythological worldview on t
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Booth, James. "Human Sacrifice in L
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