Tag Archives: Euripides

At 60, a Comfortable Old Scarecrow

By Robin Bates | Published: June 22, 2011

Having just turned 60, I’ve been thinking of Teiresias. Wise though the blind seer may be, his advice doesn’t help others that much. Aging, in other words, appears to require humility.

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Aging, Bacchae, Carl Jung, Homer, Odyssey, Oedipus, Sophocles, T. S. Eliot, Wasteland | Comments closed

When Events Defy Human Understanding

By Robin Bates | Published: March 21, 2011

As I wrote last year when the earthquake hit Haiti, all human language, even literature, comes up short when faced with disaster and death. Literature is language by humans about humans, and destruction on this scale seems to laugh narrative and image to scorn. Nevertheless, being human, we try to bring even apocalyptic disasters into a […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged "Hap", Bacchae, Bridge over San Luis Rey, death and dying, Japanese tsunami, Suffering, Thomas Hardy, Thorn Wilder | Comments closed

Mess with Dionysus and You’ll Pay

By Robin Bates | Published: January 27, 2010

Euripides’ The Bacchae was written 2500 years ago. Given the shape our environment is in, the play is more urgent than ever. The story involves the nature god Dionysus, who visits Thebes followed by a troupe of dancing women, the Maenads or Bacchae. Dionysus is the product of a union between Zeus and Semele, a […]

Posted in Uncategorized | Also tagged Bacchae, Environmentalism, Nature | Comments closed