THE BACCHANTIC FEAST AS A DUALISM
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24310/Raphisa.2018.v0i4.7383Keywords:
DUALISM, IDEALITY, EURIPIDESAbstract
The bacchantic feast, especially as it is described in Euripides’s Bacchae, is a powerful example of what may be thought of as the most essential cornerstone of Wes- tern culture: the dualism between the dimension of reality (represented by Pentheus) and the dimension of ideality (represented by the bacchantic feast). In particular, why must the former die after having seen the latter? That is, why the dimension of idea- lity (as well as the dimension of the sacred) can be essential, and even a saviour, for the dimension of reality (as well as for the dimension of the profane) if and only if the dualism between them is rigorously respected? I shall try to answer this question, and to use my answer as a clue to start investigating another essential structure of the dualism between reality and ideality which founds Western culture, by passing from its religious meaning to its epistemological meaning.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Chiodo, S., Apologia del dualismo. Un’indagine sul pensiero occidenta- le, Roma: Carocci, 2013.
Durkheim, É., The elementary forms of religious life, ed. by M.S. Cladis, tr. by C. Cosman, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
– 33 –
Eliade, M., Patterns in comparative religion, tr. by R. Sheed, New York: New American Library, 1974.
Euripides, The Bacchae, tr. by G. Murray, London: Allen, 1906.
Otto, R., The idea of the holy. An inquiry into the non-rational factor in the idea of the divine and its relation to the rational, London: Oxford University Press, 1976.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
License permitted by the journal: Public Domain. Authors retain the copyright and full publishing rights without restrictions.
