Bacchae - Key Quotations, Critical Quotations and Facts

Dionysus’ first line affirming his godly descent and power

‘I, Dionysus, son of Zeus’

What has Dionysus done to the women of Thebes?

‘driven (them) in madness from their homes’

Dionysus as a teacher

‘This city must learn its lesson well, even against its will’

Pentheus’ hubris

‘fights with gods’

How does Dionysus appear in the National Theatre Production?

Centre stage, wearing a gold bull mask

What does Dionysus call the bacchants in his opening speech?

‘my holy band of worshippers’

2 fun descriptions the Chorus give of Dionysiac worship

‘joyful labours’, ‘dance of ecstasy’

Euripides teaching the lesson ‘revere the sacred’ in his parodos

‘Blessed is he who (…) leads a life of reverence’

Masculine and feminine imagery being intertwined in the story of Dionysus’ birth

‘Concealing the baby within his thigh’

Patriarchal fear of the ‘underloving mother’ (Griffin)

‘Hidden away from Hera’

Dionysus as strong and phallic

‘A god with the horns of a bull’

Shocking image of women not weaving in the oikos like they should be (contradicts paradigms of womanhood like Penelope)

‘women (…) Far from their shuttles and looms’

The Chorus presenting Dionysiac worship as savage

‘The joy of eating raw flesh’

Oreibasia meaning

Mountain dancing

The Chorus associating Dionysiac worship with fertility

‘The ground flows with milk’

Contrasting depictions of Dionysus’ genitals in Bacchae and Frogs

‘(flame) stream from the shaft’ / ‘buffing my chick-pea’

Chorus hinting at Agave mistaking Pentheus for a mountain lion and murdering him

‘like a foal with its grazing mother’

Rejuvenating effect of Dionysiac worship on Cadmus and Tiresias

‘it is so sweet to forget that we are old!’

Pentheus’ first damning line about Dionysus having ‘stung to madness’ the women of Thebes to abandon their homes and

‘take part in fake Bacchic revels’

Pentheus falsely slut shaming the Maenads

‘they put Aphrodite before the Bacchic god’

Pentheus’ declaration of what he will do to the maenads on the mountains

‘I will hunt (them) from the mountains’

2 feminine, titillating descriptions Pentheus gives of Dionysus

‘a magical enchanter’, ‘with the charms of Aphrodite in his eyes’

Masturbatory imagery Pentheus uses to describe Dionysus 

‘pounding his thyrsus’

Pentheus accuses Cadmus of

‘playing the bacchant’

Tiresias’ prophetic and metatheatrical line about how powerful Dionysus will be (bearing in mind this play was staged at the City Dionysia play festival)

‘I cannot begin to tell you how great he will be’

Pentheus’ first impious action = commanding his men to go to the seat where Tiresias practises prophecy and

‘Throw everything into utter confusion’

What the Chorus calls Pentheus’ impiety

‘his unholy insult’

2 lines suggesting Pentheus is attracted to Dionysus

‘you are not bad looking’, ‘very seductive’

Dionysus disguising Pentheus as a woman

‘I will hang long hair from your head’

Pentheus’ loss of autonomy to Dionysus - Dionysus as ‘director of the play’ (Easterling)

‘I am in your hands now’

What Dionysus did to the palace

‘turned it upside down’

Quote encapsulating Pentheus’ untameable anger against Dionysus

‘He rages, how he rages’

Image of the Maenads emasculating the male soldiers: the women’s phallic thyrsi

‘wounded the men’

Quote which encapsulates the peripeteia of Pentheus from a powerful king to a defenceless boy

‘from a great height was Pentheus hurled down’

Aristotle says anagnorisis (recognition) is one of the key elements of tragedy

‘do not kill me (…) for my mistakes’

What does Agave see Pentheus as?

‘young cub of a wild lion’

‘Terrible myths call men to the worship of the gods’

‘If anyone despise divinity, let him look on this man’s death’

The Chorus justifying Pentheus’ violent death

‘your grandson has received the punishment he deserved’

What does Dover say the punishments of the gods are?

‘extravagant and undiscriminating’

What animal will Dionysus turn Cadmus into (after the play’s end)?

‘savage serpent’

Jasper Griffin on women not acting like women

‘the reversal of female nature … is the ultimate nightmare’