The Bacchae, by Euripides

This talk looks at one of the most frightening and unsettling tragedies to survive from classical Athens. It turns on the consequences of the arrival in Thebes of the new god Dionysus, uncanny and androgynous deity of the vine and ecstasy, personifcation of nature’s indifference to all human categories. It is a play about nature, the divine, theatre, gender, and madness, and the purpose of this talk is to unpack some of its many meanings and its relevance for today’s world.

Euripides, The Bacchae and Other Plays, trans. John Davie and Richard Rutherford

Bio

Dr Mark Williams is Fellow and Tutor in English at St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford. He is a specialist in the medieval languages and literatures of Wales and Ireland, and the author of Ireland’s Immortals: A History of the Gods of Irish Myth (Princeton, 2016), and The Celtic Myths that Shaped the Way We Think (Thames & Hudson, 2021). He is in training as a Jungian psychoanalyst

don’t worry if you miss it – we will send you a recording valid for two weeks the next day

Jun 24th 2024 8:00 pm - 09:30 pm

£6 - £10 & By Donation

Thank you for your support