Greek Theatre quotes and critics

Waggoner

Oedipus seeks out knowledge beyond the scope of what is prudent or necessary

Kitto

No poet speaks more than Sophocles of the need for reverence

Pope

ruling passion

Faber

Oedipus' 'initial tendency to discharge his aggressive impulses on someone else'

Barstow

proud and overconfident

Bloom

a man of action, swift and vigorous action

Dodds

what causes his ruin is his own strength and courage, his loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth.

Gould

Oedipus acting freely, who brought on the catastrophe, not gods, not fate

Nietzsche

the main message of the play is that "wisdom [...] is an abomination"

Knox

Oedipus is "the epitome of Athenian values"

Easterling

Dionysus is 'the director of the play'

Griffin

the reversal of female nature... is the ultimate nightmare

Dover

That the women of a city should sever all their domestic ties and behave without restraint as if they were part of the natural world is profoundly shocking to a Greek world.

Dover

if anyone despises divinity let them look on this man's death and believe in the gods!

Richard Seaford

the destruction (or self-destruction) of the Theban royal family is, however pitiful, no disaster for Thebes

Jones

Soldiers and politicians are as viciously vilified as anyone

Bakola

Aeschylus and Euripides are presented as caricatures of what their art represented in the minds of the audience

Bakola

Aeschylus only deals with noble things... natural inspiration

Bakola

Euripides as the poet of clever craft... subversive

Bettendorf

The primary function of the play, however, is not literary criticism but political action

Platter

Aristophanic comedy appears to be intimately connected with the democratic institutions of Athens

Hubbard

Aristophanes may have structured the play as he did precisely to make a point about the relation of the comic and the serious...and the necessity of approaching the serious through the comic

Rosemary Harriott

Dionysus is 'Sometimes acting the fool and always foolish'

Affleck and Letchford

Frogs was 'written and produced at a time of extreme uncertainty'.

Griffin

Myths exemplify the anxieties people feel about family relationships

Dover

punishment of mortals by gods is extravagant and undiscriminating

Nietzsche

the will to power

Aristotle, Poetics

tragedy presents men as 'better than in actual life'

Aristotle

pity is evoked by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves

Lord Acton

Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely

Shakespeare, King Lear

As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport

Dover

Civilised life demands periods of release, reversal, even explosion

Dover

empowerment of the little man

Dover

The humour of excretion belongs to all cultures

Jones

comedy is not an effective medium for political intervention

Compton

Political satire is the 'hallmark of Old Comedy'.

Dover

The chorus 'express the moral and religious lessons to be drawn'

Fagles

it is the function of great art to purge and give meaning to human suffering

Carey

the drama festivals were 'an exercise in propaganda'

Freud

Oedipus 'submission to the divine'

Religious context

1 in 3 Athenian calendar days are religious festivals

Pentheus on Dionysian religion

'debased rites'

Cadmus to Pentheus

'tell a lie in a good cause' and 'honour' Dionysus due to the 'fame of mothering a god'

Sommerstein

Cadmus is 'only glorifying Dionysus because he is his grandson'

Dover

Civilised life required 'period release'

Charon to Dionysus

'Fatty' and told to 'take the strain and row'

Dover

'empowerment of the little man'

Xanthias

'Dionysus is the most cowardly of all gods - and men'

Comedic wordplay

'Craprifice' escalation from 'Little yellow number'

Xanthias to Dionysus

'Swap places with me' to avoid being hit by Aeacus

Harriott

Dionysus is 'sometimes acting the fool, and always foolish'

Bacchae - Dionysus and Agave

Dionysus provides Agave with 'divine power' and 'madness' to kill O

Elektra

'terrible myths call men to the worship of the gods'

Agave

'Dionysus destroyed us - now I understand'

Context - Athenian punishment of impiety

'Importance of punishment to discourage impiety, reflects Socrates executed via hemlock for charges of impiety in 399 BC'

Frogs - structure

Second half - Dio is the judge of the 'contest of cleverness'

Dionysus to Aeschylus

'tells Aeschylus to shut up'

Aristophanes' message of impiety

Dio is still derided as a 'lousy shit'

Aeschylus and Euripides contest theme

'saving the city'

Stagecraft

Suspended above the ruling family via a mechane

Dover

Dionysus is 'vindictive, cruel and unjust'

Context - political success

Both Frogs and Bacchae also provide important political and democratic messages, contributing to their success at the play festival.

Pentheus on Dionysus and Bacchants

'obscene revelry'

Messenger in Bacchae

'I am afraid to speak freely in front of the king'

Pericles

'power lies not in the hand of the minority, but the whole people'

Ruffell

Pentheus 'models aggressive authority'

Hall

'comedy was intimately tied with democracy'

Frogs Chorus

'it is right for a holy chorus to instruct and guide the city in what's good for it'

Political satire - coin metaphor

current politicians as 'bronze base things'

Historical context - oligarchic coup

'Oligarchic coup'

Alcibiades context

Athens unable to use its silver mines due to Spartan usurpation in Peloponnesian War, likely involving Alcibiades; this subtle reference allowed Athenians to 'cathartically process their trauma and anxieties about the war'

Bacchae - divine punishment

Dio has Pentheus 'hurled down' from 'great heights'

Cadmus' punishment

Cadmus degraded to a 'serpent'

Maenads imagery

Serpents washed blood off the Maenads' faces

Easterling

Dionysus is 'the director of the play'

Theme - patriarchal fear

Both Frogs and Bacchae explore patriarchal fears of women

Greek marriage custom

Engue

Agave

'first to start the killing' of Pentheus

Maenads

'abandon their babies' to 'suckle wolves with white milk'

Xenophon

'disorderliness'

Griffin

'reversal of female nature is the ultimate nightmare'

Pentheus' view of Maenads

Maenads and mob reduced to a 'herd' and Pentheus threatening to 'hunt' and 'catch them'

Frogs - feminine representation

more positive on femininity - 'a little booby peeped out'

Female body imagery

The personification of female body titillated the male members of the audience

Chorus description

Initiates come from 'flowering folds of meadows'

Chorus symbols

They hold 'garlands of myrtle' and are 'bursting with ripe berries'

Lysistrata imagery

Clitoris is the 'wee berry' and 'breasts are rounded like apples'

Dover

allows a release of usually repressed 'excess sexuality'

Maenads' violence

'ripping apart a young, bellowing, full-uddered heifer' evokes their unnatural perversion of feminine duties

Ritual violence

Anticipates violent sparagmos

Griffin

'underloving mother'

Maenads

'stung to madness'

Oedipus

'Apollo's champion'

Oedipus

'submit to the gods'

Chorus

'I worship you in dread'

Lauren Silberman

'the tragedy of Oedipus Rex demonstrates the supremacy of the divine over human action'

Freud

'submission to the divine'

Pentheus

'debased rites'

Cadmus

'tell a lie in a good cause'

Cadmus

'honour Dionysus due to the fame of mothering a god'