Tag Archives: Bacchae

Climate Change, Fairies Fighting

By Robin Bates | Published: March 6, 2017

Some of the extreme climate events we are currently experiencing are described in “Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where they are the result of fairy infighting

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged climate change, Donald Trump, Euripides, Midsummer Night's Dream, pollution, William Shakespeare | Comments closed

Teaching Euripides in the Age of Title IX

By Robin Bates | Published: February 14, 2017

Recently a student reported me for using sexist language in the classroom. (This while teaching a Kingsolver novel and Euripides’s “The Bacchae.”) The language did not reflect my own views, but the complaint made me realize that I need to be more careful with this generation of students.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Alexander Pope, Barbara Kingsolver, Donald Trump, Euripides, Flight Behavior, Maxine Hong Kingston, Rape of the Lock, Sexism, sexual harassment, Title IX, Woman Warrior | Comments closed

Euripides Explains Anti-LGBTQ Votes

By Robin Bates | Published: April 26, 2016

The North Carolina state legislature recently passed anti-LBGTQ legislation which, among other things, forbids transgender individuals from using the bathrooms of their chosen gender identity. Euripides provides some insight into hostility against crossdressers in “The Bacchae.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged discrimination, Euripides, homophobia, LBGTQ, North Carolina LBGTQ laws | Comments closed

Justice Scalia, Blind Like Pentheus

By Robin Bates | Published: June 30, 2015

Scalia attacking his fellow SCOTUS justices sounds like Pentheus excoriating Teiresias and Cadmus in “The Bacchae.” Unlike Scalia’s fellow justices, Teiresias gives as good as he gets.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Antonin Scalia, Euripides, Same Sex Marriage, Supreme Court | Comments closed

Worshipping the Gods of Fermented Fruit

By Robin Bates | Published: June 12, 2015

The way Peruvian farmers use corn be gives insight into Teiresias’ encomium on wine in Euripides’ “The Bacchae.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged chica, Euripides, Feast of Corpus Christi, Incas, Pachamama, syncretism | Comments closed

Jesus as the New Dionysus

By Robin Bates | Published: May 3, 2015

Parallels between Dionysus and Christ are clearly drawn in Michael Cacoyannis’s translation of “The Bacchae.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged eucharist, Euripides, wine | Comments closed

How Fantasy Saves Our Souls

By Robin Bates | Published: April 13, 2015

Great fantasy can always be seen as oppositional, pushing against prevailing modes of thought and opening up portals into new human possibilities.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Age of Reason, Don Quixote, Enlightenment, Euripides, fantasy, Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, Miguel de Cervantes, Scientific Revolution, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tracks | Comments closed

The Peace of Wild Things

By Robin Bates | Published: December 21, 2014

My Intro to Literature class explored how a disconnect from nature leads to existential anguish while opening themselves up to nature provides spiritual nourishment.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Ancient Mariner, "Egrets", "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud", "Killing the Trees", "Peace of Wild Things", All the Pretty Horses, Barbara Kingsolver, Ceremony, Cormac McCarthy, Euripides, Flight Behavior, Leslie Marmon Silko, Lucille Clifton, Mary Oliver, Midsummer Night's Dream, Nature, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, spiritual healing, Wendell Berry, William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth | Comments closed

Sexual Misconduct in the Classics

By Robin Bates | Published: November 3, 2014

A sexual misconduct course required of all employees got me thinking of problematic situations in the books that I teach.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "The Lover: A Ballad", "Written in a Lady's Prayer Book", Aphra Behn, Charlotte Bronte, Euripides, Henry Fielding, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, John Wilmot, Lucille Clifton, Rape, Rover, Sense and Sensibility, sexual assault, sexual harassment, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Tom Jones | Comments closed