" This way I will cause him greater torment than anything. And you others, go through the town and track down the womanish stranger, who infects our women with his new-fangled disease and pollutes their beds. Once he is caught, bind him and bring him here to face the penalty of being stoned to death, after seeing a painful end to his revelling in Thebes."

(Bacchae, line 350-356)

The reader can see that Pentheus is a man and we can see is human side, including his desires. I will not say that he is attracted to Dionysus but I do feel that he is somewhat connected to him. I feel like he does not want feeling and desire out because that would bring chaos, so he tries no destry it, and because he has feeling toward dionysus he wants to get rid of him too

Teiresias the prophet

" When a clever man has an honest case to make, it is no great task for him to speak well. You possess a fluent tongue, as if you were a man of senses, but your words lack all judgement. The good speaker whose influence rests on self-assurance proves to be a bad citizen; for he lacks intelligence."

(Bacchae, line 267-272)

Teiresias the same prophet that tried to stop Oedipus from finding out his terrible fate, appeares in The Bacchae to do the same for Pentheus. He not only knows that Pentheus is in big trouble with the gods because of the way he talks blasphemy of them, but he also knows that Pentheus although he knows how to talk, all he talks is wrong, so he is trying to make him see that. Teiresias therefore is attaking rhetoric because he basically is saying that because someone speaks well, does not mean he is correct and it does not matter if he is the ruler of Thebes.

Hubris

"If I catch him inside the borders of this land, I'll cut his head off his shoulders and put a stop to his making his thyrsus ring and shaking his locks! This is the man who says that Dionysus is a god, this the man who says he was once sewn into the thigh of Zeus, when in fact he was destroyed by the fiery lightning bolt, he and his mother, because she falsely named Zeus as her lover!"

(Bacchae, line 233-243)

Pentheus shows that he does not believe that Dionysus is a god and he is willing to kill him. This is not only prove that he is disrespecting the gods, he also feels superior to them and therefore shows Hubris behaviour. I think he is so into his perfect controled world that he does not realize that terrible things could happened to him. He is not only disrespecting Dionysus the god but also his mother "he and his mother, because she falsely named Zeus as her lover!" and most important of all, he is insulting Zeus that is not only his father but also the god of the gods, so the reader I thing right away feels that his punishment is going to be very harsh.

Chaos is a blessing?

" This city must learn its lesson, however reluctantly, that it lacks the blessing of my rites."

(Bacchae, line 39-40)

Dionysus is the God of wine, his "power" is make people do what they would not dare to do if they were normal. Alcohol inhibits the senses therefore the way people respond to thing under the influence of alcohol is different. This spell people are in when dealing with alcohol usually cause chaos, that its not usually thought of it as a good thing. In Thebes the feeling of rejection toward chaos is the same.

Dionysus wants to bring Chaos into their lives, but I do not feel like this is a bad thing, is just like he stated "This city must learn its lesson", I feel although control and order is needed, there has to be a balance between order and chaos. I feel as he wants to show the other extreme in order to have a balance between the two.

Transition

"So great Odysseus buried himself in leaves and Athena showered sleep upon his eyes ... sleep in a swift wave delivering him from all his pains and labours, blessed sleep that sealed his eyes at last."

(Book V, Line 543-547)

Dream in the epic is very important because it represets transitions in the hero's journey. We see how Odyseeus arrives to the "real world" after all of the effort to get out of the mythological world. He rests and the next day when he wakes up he will be in a more civilized realm without all the unhuman magic surrounded him. This is very important because it means he is a step closer to the ultimate civilized place, that is his beloved Ithaca.

"Stop, old man!" Eurymachus, Polybus' son, rose up to take him on. "Go home and babble your omens to your children-

save them from some catastrophe coming soon. I'm a better hand than you at reading portents. Flocks of bird go fluttering under the sun's rays, not all are fraught with meaning. Odysseus? He's dead now, far from home-

would to god that you'd died with him too. We'd have escaped your droning prophecies then and the way you've loosed the dogs of this boy's anger-

your eyes peeled for a house-gift he might give you.

Here's my prophecy, bound to come to pass.

If you, you old codger, wise as the ages,

talk him around, incite the boy to riot,

he'll be the first to suffer, let me tell you.

And you, old man, we'll clap some fine on you

you'll weep to pay, a fine to crush your spirit!"

(Book II, line 198-215)

This is a perfect example of the behavior of the suitors, they are everything except heroic. They take all the goods from the king's house and they also are not civilized. When the old man is warning them with a prophecy that he got from the Gods, the suitors simply ignored what he had to say and treat him badly. An old man in the classical world is viewed as full of wisdom and more if he is a prophet. We see not only that the suitors are unjustce (no Dike), they also don't respect their elders resulting in chaos. I consider them as hubris as well, because they are mocking the prophecies that ultimately comes from the gods, so if they mock the gods they think they are supperior to them.

From Boy to Man

" And Athena lavished a marvelous splendor on the prince so the people all gazed in wonder as he came forward, the elders making way as he took his father's seat"

(Book II, line 12-14)

For me this part of the epic is very important because is when the boy is showing signs that he is going to become the man that we are all expecting to see. Telemachus needs to take action against the suitors but he still does not know how. I think the conversation with Athena is a Catalyst for him to understand that the next step is leaving Ithaca in order to become a man and come back again as a hero and inherit the Kleos from his father. When he takes his father's seat in the council of Ithaca and he is the one who calls the meating, we can say that he is taking charge as the prince and future king. We can also say that although he does try he is not ready yet because after he explains his concerns to the council he starts to cry, letting us know in a way that he is not ready yet and that he needs to undergo the rite of passage.

“It is easier to stay out than get out.” -Mark Twain

I thought this quote was really cool, because it makes a lot of sense. For example, if people stayed out of trouble, they did not had to go through problems to try to get out of it.

“The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.” - Oscar Wilde

“Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It is not truth but opinion that can travel the world without a passport" - Sir Walter Raleigh



I really like this quote I found in The Ancient Mediterranean World book because, it reminded me of something Mr. Baker said in history class one time, that everything is biased and maybe a text it does not look like is bias but it still is a bit biased because everything is written with an opinion. I this is really clever how Sir Walter Raleigh says that is the opinion that travels, not truth, because maybe your opinion in something is a very good opinion and it may have perfect sense to you, but that does not make it true. Foe example you could think that the reason why when you throw a rock up to the sky and then comes down, its not gravety, and that is your opinion, but the truth is that it is because of gravety and you cannot change the truth.

"Who controls history, and how is written, controls the past, and who controls the past controls the present"
(page IX, The Ancient Mediterranean World)

I really believe this statement is true. History, is the study of the human past, therefore if we know it we can control it, but that does not mean that the information we recolected by study it, just apply to the past. Human will always be humans, being from this era or from 2,000 years ago. We will always have questions that we cannot answer, but looking back at man with more experience that strugled with questions as well or that got to answer them could and will help us, and therefore you will have control of your present studying the past.

Heroes

" The average is the borderline that keeps mere men in place. Those who step over the line are heroes by the very act. Go."-Henry Rollins



I really like this quote because it encourge the idea of average people being heroes. The hero we all know its the one that is special, stronger and looking for glory. Heracles was a hero but different then the rest because he was not looking for glory, he wanted to be saved after killing all his family so he went on a journey looking for redemption. Henry Rolling is not talk about does heroes, he is saying that anyone, can be a hero, anyone can be a "Working class Hero". He supports this idea because maybe society needs more heroes, maybe instead of waiting for someone to step that line and do something, the one who should be doing something its the one waiting, because maybe he does not know it yet but he can also be a hero, they just need to take action.

Midas

does anyone deserve to be punished for being ignorant or stupid?





In my opinion the fact that someone is ignorant does not gives the right for other people to punished this person, I think that others should look at this person and offer themselves to teach and to make that human a better person and a better thinker. Midas was a foolish king, so ignorant that when he had the chance to ask for anything he asked for the golden touch, realizing later that it was a curse. He was later forgiven for his foolishness and he washed the gift away. He then later was eternally punished because he did not had good taste in music and he thought the nymph's music was better than the God's music. I realize that the God's were the most important figures in their society, but I think instead of punishemnt with donkey's ears forever, why not teach him about what he does not know, that way he would learn much more.