Antiochus of Seleucia Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 We were reading Sophocles' Antigone in world liturature class, and this line caught my eye. O thou of many names, glory of the Cadmeian bride, offspring of loud-thundering Zeus! thou who watchest over famed Italia, and reignest, where all guests are welcomed, in the sheltered plain of Eleusinian Deo! O Bacchus, dweller in Thebe, mother-city of Bacchants, by the softly-gliding stream of Ismenus, on the soil where the fierce dragon's teeth were sown! Sophocles wrote this in 442 B.C, so what exactly is he talking about? The Greek colonies? It's all Greek to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Porcius Cato Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 This is a choral ode to Dionysus (aka Bacchus). Is it the Italia that's throwing you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaius Octavius Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Is it the Italia that's throwing you? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted September 21, 2006 Report Share Posted September 21, 2006 Remember, the Greeks had been in Italy for hundreds of years at this point and were definitely aquainted with it for longer than that. Even in Dionysian lore the God was captured as a youth by Tyrrhenian (Etruscan/Italian) pirates then turned their mast into a grapvine and they all jumped into the sea and turned into dolphins. Sophocles is just giving dramatic effect to the widespread glory of Dionysus by saying that he's celebrated as far as Italy as well as close to home in Eleusis. Now the mention of the Cadmeian bride of course is to Harmony who married Cadmus the Phoenician, founder of Thebes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antiochus of Seleucia Posted September 22, 2006 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2006 Ok, thankees all. Greek drama is really hard to understand when it describes historical events I'm not familiar with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pantagathus Posted September 22, 2006 Report Share Posted September 22, 2006 Ok, thankees all. Greek drama is really hard to understand when it describes historical events I'm not familiar with. But most deal with less than a few general mythic cycles. Focus on understanding the cycles and it's all gravy from there... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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