Justice for Pentheus He is stripped of his authority. He isn’t in his right mind. He watches his palace go up in flames. He is ripped apart by his own mother. Poor Pentheus is toyed and tinkered with until his very last breath by none other than his own cousin, Dionysus. His choice, as king of Thebes, to repress the all-powerful god not only lost him his kingdom but ultimately his life. The Bacchae of Euripides is a battle between the strength of a king and the power of a god, but it also reveals the great lengths that family rivalries can go to. Dionysus sought revenge, and revenge he obtained. He announces to the city of Thebes, “Your lives will wear away like sand” (83). Cruelty and suffering came barreling at Pentheus and his family faster …show more content…
As ruler of the city, Pentheus is only fulfilling his duties and tries to protect his people from danger. He does not want his laws and traditions to go to hell because of a stranger who showed up out of nowhere and wreaked havoc on the city. Pentheus is rightful to say, “I don’t know who this stranger is, / but doesn’t such insulting outrage deserve hanging?” (20). Appearing unannounced and unwelcome and brainwashing all the women of Thebes does not help Dionysus’ argument that he is a god or help convince Pentheus and his …show more content…
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He lashes out at Pentheus to subdue his embarrassment and drives all the women mad and running to the mountainside.
Who is Dionysus’ reprisal really meant for? I presume that this hate is directed towards his own mother, yet Pentheus and his family are the target. Pentheus is wise to not trust Dionysus. Dionysus messes with him repeatedly and torments him, while Pentheus stays completely blind to his near fate. Dionysus leaves Pentheus weak, confused, and gullible. Dionysus confesses part of his plan,
Make him insane. Give him ecstasy, and madness.
In his right mind, he’d never wear that woman’s dress, but driven from his sense, he’ll slide right into it.
I want him to be the laughingstock of Thebes, led through the streets, costumed as a woman, after all the bragging that made him seem so fearsome.
Odysseus returns home and seeks revenge on the suitors that plague his wife. In order for him to be successful with the revenge he must use his cunning, knowledge of battle and his desire to be with his wife Penelope.
...lts of the insolent suitors in his own home. The anger of Odysseus is only matched by Telemachus whose restraint is forcefully elevated in order to hamper his new mature instinct of defending his father. Meanwhile, Odysseus is forced to couple this with control over holding his love, Penelope, in his arms. Yet, both characters are able to avoid the impediments and at last battle side by side against their foes.
Dionysus in both stories manages to get away from Pentheus either through escaping his chains in Euripides to killing his men in Ovid’s. Dionysus in Euripides can seem forgiving with the amount of opportunities he gives to Pentheus to admit and respect his presence. In Ovid’s story when Pentheus sends his guards to kill Bacchus they come back bloody and claim to have never seen him. They do however manage to return with just one of Bacchus “devotees” (Ovid Pg.83). Dionysus seems much more wrathful in Ovid’s version having killed Pentheus guards while in Euripides he allows multiple chances for Pentheus and in the end only ends up killing Pentheus.
His pride forces him to find the traitor who murdered Laius. He eventually finds out that he is the sinner and gouges his eyes out to prove that he is not worthy of sight.
'So, Pentheus listen to me. Do not mistake the rule of force for true power. Men are not shaped by force. Nor should you boast of wisdom, when everyone but you can see how sick your thoughts are. Instead, welcome this God to Thebes. Exalt him with wine, garland your head and join the Bacchic revels'(19).
... those phaeacians who have helped Odysseus to return home. And for Calypso, she tried to offer Odysseus the immortal life and promising him to be his eternal wife, but Odysseus’s love for his wife Penelope pushes him to fight for his return
... she make an exception for Hippolytus. But by the end of the play she vows revenge against Aphrodite. “Cypris shall find the angry shafts she hurled against you for piety and innocence shall cost her dear. I’ll wait until she loves a mortal next time and with this hand-with these unerring arrows i’ll punish him.”
The play's plot, in a nutshell, develops like this. After solving the riddle of the Sphynx, who had kept Thebes under a curse of some kind, Oedipus is invited to become king of the city. He marries Jocasta, the widow of the previous king, and they have two children. When the play begins, Thebes is again under some sort of curse, and Oedipus tries to find out its cause so that he can rescue the city. He is told that the cause of the curse is that the murderer of the previous king is still in the city and has gone unpunished. In the process of searching for the murderer, Oedipus discovers that it is he, himself, who is responsible and that he is actually the son of Jocasta and her previous husband. Horrified by his sins of incest and murder, Oedipus claws out his eyes. Jocasta commits suicide because she is so disgraced.
Demosthenes wrote this speech against Meidias because he had been abused by him and because of the lack of respect Meidias had during the religious festival which Demosthenes was in charge of putting together. According to the speech, Demosthenes had volunteered to produce the men’s chorus for his tribe at the city of Dionysia, the annual festival in honor of Dionysus, which included tragic and comic performances as well as choral songs. Demosthenes is longstanding enemy, Meidias, allegedly tried to stop Demosthenes is chorus from winning the competition through various means including, trying to prevent the chorus from receiving the typical exemption from
Altogether, Euripides’ narrative, along with the three pieces
Born to King Laius and Queen Jocasta in the city of Thebes, Oedipus is surrounded with controversy after a prophecy shows that Oedipus will be destined to murder his father and marry his mother. Fearing the potential consequences of the prophecy, Oedipus’ parents made the decision to abandon their baby at the top of a mountain to die using one of their servants. The servant’s consciousness, however, causes him to instead deliver the baby to a shepherd, who in turn sends him to King Polybius and Queen Merope of the kingdom Corinth. After raising the child as their own, Oedipus becomes suspicious that these weren’t his biological parents and leaves Corinth upon hearing the prophecy by the oracle Delphi. As he unknowingly travels to his birth city, Thebes, Oedipus murdered a man along with his servants after a dispute between them. Before entering Thebes, Oedipus is confronted by the guardian of the city’s Gates, the Sphinx who presents him with a riddle. If he solves the riddle, he will be able to pass. If he doesn’t, he’ll die. Oedipus’s superior intelligence and cleverness allows him to easily solve the riddle, however unbeknownst to him will be a foreshadowing of his tragic downfall. The citizens of Thebes praise Oedipus and Queen Jocasta offers to marry him since her husband was mysteriously murdered. Upon marry Jocasta and becoming the King of Thebes, a powerful plague decimates the citizens of
The myth offers an anecdote on the bridling of such a strong power as seen through the encounter of a seemingly captured Dionysus in the court of Pentheus. Despite how hard Pentheus tries to have his prisoner tied up, he finds it impossible to do so. Finally, resorting to hitting Dionysus with a knife, unleashes an earthquake that shakes the palace leaving Pentheus in a stupor. This highlights the old saying of the tighter a gripping one is to have, the more sand he loses. In this case, the more restricted a society gets, the more people will be rebellious.
In this essay, I hope to provide answers to how the actions of Hippolytus and Phaedra relate to the gods, whether or not the characters concern themselves with the reaction of the gods to their behavior, what the characters expect from the gods, how the gods treat the humans, and whether or not the gods gain anything from making the humans suffer. Before we can discuss the play, however, a few terms need to be defined. Most important would be the nature of the gods. They have divine powers, but what exactly makes the Greek gods unique should be explored. The Greek gods, since they are anthropomorphic, have many of the same characteristics as humans.
“Gods can be evil sometimes.” In the play “Oedipus the King”, Sophocles defamed the gods’ reputation, and lowered their status by making them look harmful and evil. It is known that all gods should be perfect and infallible, and should represent justice and equity, but with Oedipus, the gods decided to destroy him and his family for no reason. It might be hard to believe that gods can have humanistic traits, but in fact they do. The gods, especially Apollo, are considered evil by the reader because they destroyed an innocent man’s life and his family. They destroyed Oedipus by controlling his fate, granting people the power of prophecy, telling Oedipus about his fate through the oracle of Apollo, and finally afflicting the people of Thebes with a dreadful plague. Fundamentally, by utilizing fate, prophecies, the oracle of Apollo, and the plague, the gods played a significant role in the destruction of Oedipus and his family.
There is a copious amount of major characters in the story. Some of them include Odysseus, the main character, who is a soldier and returns home after a twenty-year absence. Some of his family includes Laertes, his father, Penelope, his wife, and Telemachus, his son. There are many gods that Odysseus must battle on his journey home, including Zeus, who is said to be father of all gods, and Poseidon, the god of the ocean who punishes Odysseus and his crew by giving them a very difficult trip home after they blind his son, Polyphemus, or the Cyclops by blinding him after stabbing him in the eye. Another major character is Calypso, a sea goddess who is in love with Odysseus.