‘Green vines on the slag of ruin’?

The Choir in Euripides’ Bacchae

Authors

  • Enno Friedrich University of Graz

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14232/suc.2022.3.87-110

Keywords:

Euripides, Bacchae, bacchants, slaves, class, Wole Soyinka, Athens, Thebes

Abstract

In this paper, I am examining the social role of the choir in Euripides’ Bacchae. I am arguing that Wole Soyinka’s adaptation The Bacchae of Euripides. A Communion Rite presents a viable model to understand the social relevance of the characterisation of the bacchants in Bacchae better. Also Euripides’ choir, like Soyinka’s slave choir, is affected by the expectation of the role of rural, foreign slaves. The exceptionality and the dramatic conflict of the bacchants lies in the fact that they are free followers of Dionysus while the other protagonists in the play expect them to be slaves. An understanding of the choir along these lines affects the interpretation of the entire Bacchae: the play becomes, thus, also a social drama about potential class conflict and class hatred, a problem that Attic tragedy is able to negotiate in the mirrorreality of mythical Thebes.

Author Biography

Enno Friedrich, University of Graz

has studied Latin, English, French, Italian and Greek at the universities of Potsdam (Germany) and Graz (Austria). He completed a combined PhD in Latin and Religious Studies at the universities of Graz and Erfurt in 2020 with a dissertation on the religious poetry of Venantius Fortunatus. He is working at the University of Graz as a project coordinator of the IGS Resonant Self-World Relations in Ancient and Modern Socio-Religious Practices since November 2021.

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Published

2023-05-22

How to Cite

Friedrich, E. (2023). ‘Green vines on the slag of ruin’? The Choir in Euripides’ Bacchae. Sapiens Ubique Civis, 3, 87–110. https://doi.org/10.14232/suc.2022.3.87-110

Issue

Vol. 3 (2022): Sapiens ubique civis III

Section

Articles