The plays - scholarship

Garvie (Tiresias & delusion)

Everyone except Tiresias is stuck in a world of delusion

Garvie (Tiresias & tragedians)

Tragedians treat Tiresias with great respect, and those who question his wisdom tend to regret it

Garvie (fate & Oedipus)

Both fate and Oedipus are responsible for his fall

Garvie (sight)

Tiresias is physically blind, while Oedipus, the physically sighted knows nothing

Garvie (fall)

In one sense, Oedipus does not fall at all. He set out to uncover the truth and by the end of the play he has succeeded in his quest

Garvie (Oedipus & knowledge)

He has gained what he values most - knowledge, no matter what it costs

Fagles (Oedipus)

Oedipus is his own destroyer, not fate

Morales (Oedipus)

Oedipus' play is concerned with identity

Goldhill (Oedipus)

He is a monster and a saviour

Garvie (Dionysus in Bacchae)

The god who throughout the play promises joy will at the end produce only suffering and horror

Roisman (Pentheus)

He has enough of the positive in him to arouse our sympathy when he is torn to pieces

Roisman (Agave)

Agave's recognition scene is one of the most painful and harrowing scenes in Greek tragedy. No parent can watch it and not sympathise

Morales (Pentheus)

The feminization of Pentheus is indicative of his downfall

Goldhill (Dionysus)

He is a figure who confuses the boundaries of who we are. He is human and god. Male and female.

Morwood (Dionysus)

Dionysus has profoundly disrupted the city's social structure

Mills (Pentheus)

Pentheus is manipulated into the mistake of believing that he is dealing with an equal

Hall (Frogs)

Ultimately serious when discussing political matters

Bettendorf (Frogs)

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

Redfield (Aeschylus winning)

Aeschylus' victory is a rejection of the new lifestyle and a return to the old moral centre

Cartledge (comedy)

Comedy tends to take normal life situations and suspend them and subvert them