Group Work on The Bacchae: Assign 4 roles: a recorder (who will turn in a typed or ink answer with names/roles of group members listed at the top); a presenter; a responder/facilitator; an idea-person-question-asker. Question-askers must ask at least 3 questions of other groups to get credit. People not present during class on the 9^th will not get credit. Prepare to present your findings to the class on Tuesday, Sept. 9. At the beginning of class on the 9^th turn in your report with all group names and roles.

Choose which question your group will answer from the list below. Support answers with evidence from the text and explain why that evidence makes the point you say it does. The class will vote on which group gave most in-depth insight (10 pts possible + 2 for voted best).

1. What is meant by "those who look for filth can find it at the height of noon" (p. 98)? What evidence from the play suggests that Pentheus and other men in the play do this? Give a modern example of our doing this today (as individuals or culturally). (Some examples may be controversial; try to explain enough so that those who do not agree can see your reasoning.)

2. Pentheus strangles a part of himself because of his hierarchy of values. What values/characteristics do women represent to him, judging by the evidence? In trying to "control women" he is trying to control those characteristics in himself (trying to control what he sees as "weak" or decadent in himself). In denying Dionysus, he is denying that he himself has characteristics represented by Dionysus. Find quotes that illustrate what Dionysus represents, and then find evidence that Pentheus rejects these qualities in himself. (Lines by the chorus provide evidence as to what Dionysus represents.)

3. (2 groups) Force does not work well in solving some kinds of problems (see quote p. 95). A. What kinds? Use your findings to define "power" vs. "force" (distinguishing the difference). B. Why is the way Pentheus treats the women in the play an example of a kind of case where force doesn't work well? C. Give examples (2 at the individual level and 2 at the cultural level) of our mistaking the rule of force for "true power"-- situations where force does not work well.

(The word "recognize" works as a pun. One meaning is "to recognize visually," as in "I recognized that man because I had seen him before." A second meaning is "to acknowledge the legitimacy and power of," as in "The U.S. recognized the Chinese government." If one were to really "see" what Dionysus is, one would then automatically also see and acknowledge his power.)

5. Explain the quote on p. 112: If all law were "unnatural," civilization would not be possible, so what kind of law is "unnatural" and how does this kind of law cause harm? 3 groups, one on A-B, one on C, one on D. The second and third groups will need to figure out the answers to A and B in order to find modern examples, but only A-B needs to present the definition of "natural" vs. "unnatural" orders and examples

A. What is meant by "unnatural" (all order is not "unnatural"-- consider the kind of order in Nature)

B. Explain what is meant by "strangling you in the roots of their own nature"? Show that P. does so.

C. Give two modern examples of someone "strangling Dionysus in the roots of his/her own nature" (and therefore being both oppressed and oppressor)? For instance, consider parents?

D. Give a modern example at the cultural level of strangling ourselves (in the U.S.).

6. (If enough groups) Dionysus breaks the stereotypic categories of "masculine" and "feminine." In doing so, he seems somehow to be a union of opposites, and there are many phrases in the play that seem to internally fight each other, making us ask if they can somehow both be true at once (like "I am bound to Bacchus with freedom""). Find more such phrases and then explain several (how both opposites can somehow be "true").

Here are two good introductions (written by students from a previous class) in response to an essay assignment on Euripides' The Bacchae. They might help you think about the play in productive ways:

I. Sometimes a person will unconsciously suppress his true nature, or inner being. Perhaps this occurs because he has a set of ideal characteristics for the perfect man he desires to be. He can become so obsessed with these ideas, that he may not recognize his own (imperfect) nature. Many times, a person will see his own qualities in other people and find them offensive. Euripides' character Pentheus, from The Bacchae, portrays this situation well. Pentheus sees his rival, Dionysus, as blasphemous and immoral, barbaric and feminine, overly ambitious yet weak. These qualities he rejects in Dionysus because he feels they are so totally opposite from his own. Pentheus prides himself on his morality, civility, rationality, and strength. But these are mere illusions that Pentheus has about himself, when in fact, he is much the type of person that he rejects in Dionysus. Because he rejects the constitution of Dionysus, and does not recognize that those same characteristics are suppressed within him, Pentheus becomes responsible for his own destruction.

II. Pentheus presents himself as being representative of the "civilized" aspects of life. To him, nature represents things that are wild, uncontrollable, or frivolous, whereas civilization consists of order, control, and sanity (practicality). He sees nature as being aligned with the darker side of man's nature, and civilization as a part of man's nobler side. He believes that there exists a distinct division between nature and civilization, and that the two should be separated entirely. It is in this extremity of conviction that Pentheus betrays himself. The very things which he loathes in Dionysus, we see in him, but surprisingly enough, we never see them, at least not to the same degree, in Dionysus.