Scholars
Tragedy:
Taplin: argues that there is nothing intrinsically Dionysiac about tragedy
Cartledge: All Athenian Tragedy was performed within the context of religious rituals in honour of
Dionysus
Dodds: even if you didn’t intend, you are still culpable (Oedipus)
Rutherford: double determination (‘the divine power and the human agent are working together,
hardly separable’)
Garvie: fate and Oedipus' character are responsible for his fall
Knox: fate is inescapable but within it there is choice and freedom of action SO Oedipus’ own
character leads him to finding the truth: “What causes his ruin is his own strength and courage, his
loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth”
Hodgkinson: the difference between Oedipus and Pentheus is that Pentheus was given a clear
warning and Oedipus was not
Knox: the Sophoclean hero has an inability to hear and understand
Garvie: “Tiresias is physically blind, while Oedipus, the physically sighted, knows nothing.”
Seaford: In tragedy the tyrannical families destroy themselves or the gods destroy them (or both) –
the gods help them destroy themselves I.e Bacchae
Garvie: The most striking paradox is that the god who throughout the play promised joy will at the
end produce ones suffering and horror
Roisman: (Pentheus) he is neither completely good nor completely bad, he has enough of the
positive in him to arouse our sympathy when he is torn to pieces
Wyles; the appearance of Pentheus cross dressed w/ bacchic accessories offers a visual
representation of Dionysus’ full control over him
Carey: We have the uncanny sense that the god is simultaneously beside him and within him. (P and
D)
Dodds: Euripides celebrates uninhibited Dionysian passion and pleasure. Pentheus suffers because
he is a puritan, supressing his emotions and feelings
Roisman: Agave's recognition scene is one of the most painful and harrowing scenes in Greek
tragedy
Stuttard: one of Euripidies’ most disturbing plays
Morwood: a figure who is both terrifying and gentle to mortals (D)
Tragedy:
Taplin: argues that there is nothing intrinsically Dionysiac about tragedy
Cartledge: All Athenian Tragedy was performed within the context of religious rituals in honour of
Dionysus
Dodds: even if you didn’t intend, you are still culpable (Oedipus)
Rutherford: double determination (‘the divine power and the human agent are working together,
hardly separable’)
Garvie: fate and Oedipus' character are responsible for his fall
Knox: fate is inescapable but within it there is choice and freedom of action SO Oedipus’ own
character leads him to finding the truth: “What causes his ruin is his own strength and courage, his
loyalty to Thebes, and his loyalty to the truth”
Hodgkinson: the difference between Oedipus and Pentheus is that Pentheus was given a clear
warning and Oedipus was not
Knox: the Sophoclean hero has an inability to hear and understand
Garvie: “Tiresias is physically blind, while Oedipus, the physically sighted, knows nothing.”
Seaford: In tragedy the tyrannical families destroy themselves or the gods destroy them (or both) –
the gods help them destroy themselves I.e Bacchae
Garvie: The most striking paradox is that the god who throughout the play promised joy will at the
end produce ones suffering and horror
Roisman: (Pentheus) he is neither completely good nor completely bad, he has enough of the
positive in him to arouse our sympathy when he is torn to pieces
Wyles; the appearance of Pentheus cross dressed w/ bacchic accessories offers a visual
representation of Dionysus’ full control over him
Carey: We have the uncanny sense that the god is simultaneously beside him and within him. (P and
D)
Dodds: Euripides celebrates uninhibited Dionysian passion and pleasure. Pentheus suffers because
he is a puritan, supressing his emotions and feelings
Roisman: Agave's recognition scene is one of the most painful and harrowing scenes in Greek
tragedy
Stuttard: one of Euripidies’ most disturbing plays
Morwood: a figure who is both terrifying and gentle to mortals (D)
