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A Presentation of
Dionysus & Dionysus & TheaterTheater
Man’s benefactor -- Man's destroyer
Le QiMarch 20, 2000
Spheres of Influence:
• God of wine
• God of wild nature
• God of ecstatic possession
• God of dance
• God of mask and illusions
• God of “pleasurable” afterlives
Source: A Show for Dionysus
Split personality/Binary Opposition
• Male vs. female
• Joy from freedom vs. savage brutality
• Man’s blessing vs. Man’s ruin
Because his “product” wine can make Because his “product” wine can make you both happy and sadyou both happy and sad
The Great Dionysia
• The poets were the prophets and priests
• Actors and singers took part in the sacred performances
• All ordinary business was stopped
• No one could be put into prison (?????)
-- To purify emotions
The greatest poetry in Greece was written in tragic plays and was never equaled except by Shakespeare.
-- http://www.dl.ket.org/latin1/mythology/1deities/gods/lesser/dionysus.htm
The Theater
• Developed from the ceremonial worship• Public in nature• The focal point:level, circular space at the foot of
a hill • Orchstra: auditorium raised in a large semicircle • Skne(SP?):A building where actors change custom• Proskenion: Between Orchstra & Skne, the stage
http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/12780AncientGreece.html
But, but…why Dionysus??
• Most plays don't contain too much reference to Dionysus – except the Bacchae!!
““Theater had nothing to do with Dionysus." Theater had nothing to do with Dionysus."
--Some Ignorant Athenian--Some Ignorant Athenian
Spheres of influence
Let’s revisit…
God of wine
God of wild nature
God of ecstatic possession
God of danceGod of mask and illusions
God of “pleasurable” afterlives
Also…
Theater “Goat Song”Showed mostly Tragedies Which meant
And goats
were the sacred animals to DionysusThat wereSacrificed in his cult
Thus, tragedy theater could have been originated with the song sung during the sacrifices to Dionysus.
--http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dilorenz/myth/dionysus.html