Euripides' Bacchae Study Guide Contents
Summary of Euripides' Bacchae
Characters
Study Questions
Bacchae Quiz
Terms to Know
The Bacchae (or Bacchantes) is in many ways straightforward and easy to follow, except for the lacunae -- provided you have a general background in literature. It is easily divided into acts and the characters are familiar from Greek mythology. There is a protagonist, a struggle or agon, and peripateia or sudden reversal of fortune. [See Aristotle's Tragedy Terms.] There are, however, a few terms that may not be familiar to you. Here are some of the terms that come from the play and some that come from typical discussions of the tragedy (like sparagmos).
Thebes
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The Delphic Oracle told the Phoenician Cadmus to look for a cow with a lunar sign on either side, to follow where the cow went, and to make sacrifices and establish a town where the bull lay down. This town was Thebes, in Boeotia, in Greece. Cadmus became its long-lived first king.
Maenads
Maenads, Bacchae, and Bacchant(e)s are names for the female followers of Dionysus who are inspired by the god to an ecstatic frenzy. They wear fawn or panther skins, wreaths, and carry the thyrsus, and in Euripides' version, they also handle snakes. They play music on auloi and tympana, and dance in the mountains. The god-inspired frenzy grants them superhuman strength. In The Bacchae Maenads can carry fire in their hair without harm. Nor can they be injured by the weapons of the villagers.
Reference: "Greek Maenadism Reconsidered"
Jan N. Bremmer
Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (1984).
Sparagmos
A related term is omophagia, which refers to the devouring of raw flesh.
Thyrsus (Thyrsos)
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A thyrsus is a symbol of Dionysus and his followers. It is a rod of fennel decorated with leaves and may be called an ivy spear.
Source: "The Making of a Thyrsus: The Transformation of Pentheus in Euripides' Bacchae"
Christine M. Kalke
The American Journal of Philology (1985).
Mt. Cithaeron (Kithairon)
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Oreibasia
This should be an extra credit Greek term. Oreibasia refers to the mountain-dancing performed by Dionysus' thiasos (another extra credit term referring to a group of devotees; here, Bacchantes).
Source: "Maenadism in the Bacchae"
E. R. Dodds
The Harvard Theological Review (1940).
