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Vandiver Lecture Twenty - The Last Plays of Euripides
Iphigenia at Aulis and Bacchae were both written at the end of Euripides' life, and were performed
posthumously. The difference between these two tragedies should warn us against
Iphigenia at Aulis focuses on the _________________________ and ______________________
of the main characters in the family.
Agamemnon is simply a father _____________________________________________________.
As the play opens, he is ___________________________________________________________.
Euripides recasts Clytemnestra from the frightening "man-hearted" figure of early tragedy to
One of Euripides' startling innovations is that Clytemnestra says to Agamemnon that he killed
________________________________________ and married ___________________________.
But she forgave him.
She begs him, "Do not make me into an ___________________________________."
In the case of Iphigenia herself, Euripides alters the story by giving her a change of heart; she
willingly offers
Aristotle says this change of heart makes Iphigenia an inconsistent character but Vandiver
disagrees because
Iphigenia sacrifices her life for _____________________________________________________.
Most scholars think that the messenger speech at the end, describing Iphigenia's last-minute rescue
by __________________________, is a _____________________________________________.
Iphigenia at Aulis is less connected with the Peloponnesian War than Hecuba or The Trojan
Women, but it shares similar themes:
1. It highlights the suffering that war causes
2. As in Hecuba, a young unmarried girl takes on attributes
Bacchae is also unique, in that it's the only surviving tragedy in which Dionysus
The play describes Dionysus's
In the prologos, Dionysos tells us that he is disguised as __________________________________.
This is important because
Semele's sisters think that
This would mean there is no such god as ____________________________________.
In Bacchae, Dionysus's worship and worshippers appear in two separate forms, marked by two
contrasted bands of female worshippers.
1. The ____________________________________________________, or "Asian Bacchae"
2. The ____________________________________________________, or "Theban Bacchae"
The Asian Bacchae enjoy _______________________________________________________;
the (unwilling) Theban Bacchae enjoy _____________________________________________
but
This contrast marks the ___________________________________________nature of Dionysus.
Cadmus was the grandfather of both Pentheus and ___________________________________.
Pentheus does not believe in _______________________________; thus, in his eyes the disguised
"priest" has to be ____________________________________________________. Therefore, it is
his duty as King of Thebes to
The scene where Pentheus cuts off Dionysus's curls and takes away his thyrsus must have been
chilling to the audience because
The earthquake scene is one of the most discussed scenes in Greek tragedy in terms of
Usually when something is described in great detail by the chorus or a messenger, it is described
that way because
Pentheus's continued disbelief after the earthquake and __________________________________
is not necessarily implausible. In his world view, he cannot accept a new god because
He also can't accept the idea that a god could be born from a _____________________________.
Even harder to accept is the fact that Semele was Pentheus's own _________________________.
By the time Pentheus is ready to go into the mountains to spy on the Bacchae, he is already in
Dionysus's power. He is dressed _______________________________________________,
seeing _________________________________, and ___________________________________.
This scene, Vandiver points out, is very reminiscent of ___________________________________
and reminds us of Dionysus's connection with ____________________. Most people access
Dionysus's mood-altering side through the medium of _______________________. Pentheus is in
contact with ___________________________________________________________.
The Greek convention of ______________________________ makes Agave's entrance with the
head-on-a-stick much more effective because
Cadmus tells Agave that the reason for their sufferings is