Lecture Terms and Questions

November 9, 2000

thiasos (pl. thiasoi)

maenad

bacchant

orgia

ecstasy (< ek-stasis)

1. How is the god Dionysus characterized in Euripides' Bacchants

--by the chorus' songs
--by "the stranger," and by his description of his own "initiation" into the god's rites?

2. How is Pentheus characterized? Does he remind you of any characters in anything we have previously read? Explain.