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The Madmen of the Greek Theatre

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 February 2018

J. R. Gasquet
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Extract

The tale of Pentheus had long been familiar to the Greeks, and had been already handled by æschylus, when Euripides was led to undertake it. Towards the end of his life he resided at the court of Archelaus of Macedon, and was evidently greatly impressed by the fresh scenery and customs which came before him; like a true poet, he was inspired by these to choose a theme in which he might best represent his newly gained experience, and produce one of the most striking and beautiful of his plays, in which both the subject itself and his mode of treating it are to my purpose.

Type
Part I.—Original Articles
Information
Journal of Mental Science , Volume 19 , Issue 85 , April 1873 , pp. 47 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1873 

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References

* “Studies on Homer,” vol. ii., p. 265, sqq. Juventus Mundi, cap. 8, sec. 16.Google Scholar
† Döllinger, . “Gentile and Jew,” vol. i., p. 400.Google Scholar
‡ Paley. Introduction to Bacchæ. Horace, Carm. ii., 19, iii., 25.Google Scholar
* Plato, , Phædrus, Leges, ii. Aristotle, viii. Pol. 6.Google Scholar
† Hispalas' speech, in Livy's account of the suppression of the Bacchanalia in Rome, is well worth notice; so, too, Tacitus' casual remark, “Bacchæ sacrificantes vel insanientes” (xi., Ann., 31).Google Scholar
‡ Especially remarkable are the words of St. Clement of Alexandria (Cohort: ad Gentes, cap. 2), Δóióvuσov μaóivóλην ὀργi#x1F70;ζou∂i Báκχoi ὠμoϕαγía τἠν 'i∊ρoμavìav #x1F03;γovτ∊ç. See, too, St. Augustine, Civ. Dei, vi. 9, vii. 21, xviii. 14.Google Scholar
* J. H. Newman's Callista, chap. 17.Google Scholar
* The beginning of Teiresias' reply; μ#x1F73;μηvaç ἠδη, κài πρíν ∊̓ξ̓#x1F73;στηç ϕρ∊νῶν. “You are mad now, and before you were out of your mind,” is curious, as being so closely similar to our English phrase.Google Scholar
* H δ‘àϕρòν #x1F73;ξι∊ȋσa, κái δiaστρ'óϕouç κóρaç #x1F73;λiσσouσ’. Euripides noted this symptom before, it will be remembered, in Orestes.Google Scholar
† Paley quotes a passage from Dr. Wordsworth's “Athens and Attica,” which is to my purpose. “The marble lion-head antefixa, which still terminate the northern angles of the western pediments of the Parthenon, indicate that Euripides has not neglected, in the delineation of her character, one of the most natural and pathetic elements of madness, viz., its partial saneness and sense of propriety.” Google Scholar
* I do not find the same difficulty in this reply as Mr. Paley: it seems to me simply to imply that she sees more clearly as consciousness returns.Google Scholar
† “He wishes truth had come at any moment than the present, when the shock may retard her recovery from madness.”—Paley.Google Scholar
* The two functions of Bacchus, first as the inventor of wine, and then as the sender of madness upon men, are well put in Teiresias' apology, vv. 298–308.Google Scholar
† Phædrus, cap. 48.Google Scholar
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