Looking at Bacchae

246 Pages·2016·1.771 MB·English

by  David Stuttard

Looking at Bacchae
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ii
Looking at Bacchae
Edited by David Stuttard
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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iii
Bloomsbury Academic
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury
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First published 2016
© David Stuttard and Contributors, 2016
David Stuttard has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as Editor of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
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accepted by Bloomsbury or the authors.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN : H B : 978-1-47422-148-1
PB : 978-1-47422-147-4
e PDF : 978-1-47422-150-4
ePub: 978-1-47422-149-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Refi neCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

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To Mark Katz and Tamsin Shasha
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Contents
List of Contributors viii
Preface ix
Acknowledgements x
Introduction – Bacchae in Context David Stuttard 1
1 Perspectives on the Impact of B acchae at its Original
Performance E dith Hall 11
2 Bacchae and Earlier Tragedy A lan H. Sommerstein 29
3 Family Reunion or Household Disaster? Exploring Plot
Diversity in Euripides’ Last Production Ioanna Karamanou 43
4 Staging in B acchae Rosie Wyles 59
5 Looking at the Bacchae in Bacchae Chris Carey 71
6 Mysteries and Politics in B acchae Richard Seaford 83
7 ‘A Big Laugh’: Horrid Laughter in Euripides’
Bacchae James Morwood 91
8 New Religion and Old in Euripides’ B acchae David Kovacs 97
9 Paradoxes and Th emes in B acchae Alex Garvie 109
10 Euripides’ B acchae – A Revenge Play Hanna M. Roisman 121
11 Th e Grandsons of Cadmus S ophie Mills 133
12 Bacchae in the Modern World B etine van Zyl Smit 147
Euripides’ Bacchae , translated by D avid Stuttard 163
Bibliography 221
Index 229
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List of Contributors
David Stuttard is a freelance writer, classical historian, dramatist and founder
of the theatre company, Actors of Dionysus
Edith Hall is Professor of Classics at King’s College, London
Alan H. Sommerstein is Emeritus Professor of Greek at the University of
Nottingham
Ioanna Karamanou is Assistant Professor of Greek Drama at the University
of the Peloponnese
Rosie Wyles is Lecturer in Classical History and Literature at the University
of Kent
Chris Carey is a Professor of Greek at University College London
Richard Seaford is Emeritus Professor of Ancient Greek at the University of
Exeter
James Morwood is Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford
David Kovacs is Hugh H. Obear Professor of Classics, University of Virginia
Alex Garvie is Honorary Professorial Research Fellow at the University of
Glasgow
Hanna M. Roisman is Professor of Classics, Arnold Bernhard Professor in
Arts and Humanities at Colby College, Maine
Sophie Mills is Professor of Classics at the University of North Carolina at
Asheville
Betine van Zyl Smit is Associate Professor of Classics at the University of
Nottingham
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Preface
Bacchae is at once exciting, terrifying, and intensely dramatic. Performances can
still provoke a devastating eff ect on modern audiences. A story of power, it
explores what happens when Dionysus, an implacable god, meets Pentheus, a
mortal king, who refuses to recognize his divinity and resists the introduction of
his worship. Th us, although some of its themes are universal, with Greek religion
playing such an important role in its plot, B acchae is fi rmly rooted in the beliefs
and values of the fi ft h century B C , when it was written and fi rst performed.
Th is collection of new essays by twelve international authorities on not
only Greek drama in general but on B acchae in particular sets the play fi rmly
within its historical context, teases out many of the issues which it raises, and
examines some of the ways in which it has been received in more recent
times. It covers areas such as B acchae ’s dramatic antecedents, the other two
plays with which it perhaps formed a trilogy, its performance context and
how the fi rst production may have been staged; it looks at the play’s themes,
including religion and revenge; it examines the bacchic chorus; and it
considers some productions of the play in modern times.
As has been the case in other volumes in this series, I have allowed authors
great latitude to choose those aspects of B acchae on which they wished to
write, and most were relatively unaware of the content of each other’s essays.
Th e collection, therefore, provides a useful overview of some of the issues
surrounding the play which concern scholars in the second decade of the
twenty- fi rst century. As before, there is the occasional small overlap between
some essays, with which I have not interfered, as well as some healthy
disagreement in emphasis and interpretation. While I suggested that authors
use the forms ‘ BC ’ and ‘ AD ’, I respected the wishes of one, for whom it was
important to use ‘ BCE ’ and ‘ CE ’. Line numbering within the essays refers to the
standard editions of the Greek text.
Many of the quotations from Bacchae are taken from my own translation,
which is printed aft er the essays. It dates from 1999, was supported by the
Arts Council of England, and was originally written for a production, which
I directed for Actors of Dionysus, and which featured Tamsin Shasha as an
extraordinarily androgynous and aerial Dionysus. Readers wishing to use the
translation for productions of their own can contact me through my website,
www.davidstuttard.com , where applications for performance should be made
before the commencement of any rehearsals.
David Stuttard
Brighton, 2015
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