A Presentation of

1
A Presentation of
Dionysus Theater
Mans benefactor -- Man's destroyer
Le Qi March 20, 2000
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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
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Split personality/Binary Opposition

• Male vs. female
• Joy from freedom vs. savage brutality
• Mans blessing vs. Mans ruin

Because his product wine can make you both
happy and sad
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The Great Dionysia
-- To purify emotions

• 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 (?????)

The greatest poetry in Greece was written in
tragic plays and was never equaled except by
Shakespeare. -- http//www.dl.ket.org/latin1/myth
ology/1deities/gods/lesser/dionysus.htm
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The Theater

• Developed from the ceremonial worship
• Public in nature
• The focal pointlevel, 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/12780AncientG
reece.html
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But, butwhy Dionysus??

• Most plays don't contain too much reference to
  Dionysus except the Bacchae!!

Theater had nothing to do with Dionysus."
--Some Ignorant Athenian
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Spheres of influence
Lets revisit
God of wine
God of wild nature
God of ecstatic possession
God of dance
God of mask and illusions
God of pleasurable afterlives

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Also
Showed mostly
Which meant
Theater
Goat Song
Tragedies
And goats
That were
Sacrificed in his cult
were the sacred animals to Dionysus
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
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http//web.uvic.ca/grs/bowman/myth/images/haifa/h4
5.jpg
10
http//www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/images/Bacchusb
yCaraglia1771.jpg
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http//www.belinus.co.uk/mythology/images/Bacchusb
yCaraglia1771.jpg
12
http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/image?arch19
90.01.0377typevase
13
http//ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/perlman/myth/images/pen
thprts.jpg
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AND Finally
http//www.dionysuskitchen.com/