Preface... V Note on Abbreviations and Translations...... XII Introduction.... 1
Part I Preliminaries: Themes and Trajectories .... 5
Chapter 1 Characterizing an Uncharacteristic God..... 6
1.1 Maenadism and Other Forms of Madness............. 8 1.2 Liberation in Life and Death..... 10 1.3 Religious Violence and Imperial Conquest.. 12 1.4 Dionysus between Religious Liberty and Political Authority in Alexandria and Rome ...... 14 1.5 Dionysus and the Jews: Conflicts and Conflations.. 17 1.6 Dionysus and the Christians: Sharing Sacred Wine. 19 1.7 Conclusions 23
Chapter 2 Tragic Texts and Contexts... 25
2.1 The Theater and Its God... 25 2.2 Tragedy as Political Discourse from Polis to Empire.. 29 2.3 The Theater among Jews and Christians: Patterns of Resistance and Ambivalence..... 32 2.4 Tragic Imitations: Jewish and Christian Experiments with Exodus and Passion.. 36 2.5 Conclusions 39
Chapter 3 Reading Euripides Bacchae: Some Meanings and Effects 40
3.1 The Bacchae as Metatragedy: Theorizing a Strangers Identity.. 40 3.1.1 A Divine Disguise... 41 3.1.2 Pentheus as Spectator . 44 3.2 Religious Reversals: Problematizing Myth and Ritual 46 3.2.1 Dionysiac Lusis .. 47 Table of Contents
3.2.2 The Divine Madness of Maenads and Prophets . 50
3.2.3 Violence and Sacrifice 53 3.3 Foreign as Indigenous: Introducing New Gods and Constructing Others.. 55 3.4 Conclusions... 56
4.1 Reception and Dialogues of Difference 57 4.2 Receiving Euripides: Cultural and Ideological Factors 59 4.3 The Bacchaes Ancient Audience. 62 4.4 Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Reception... 66 4.5 Conclusions 69
Part II Identifying with Dionysus:
Effects of Imperial Self-Representation.......... 71
Chapter 5 Dionysus as a Ptolemaic Gentleman in Theocritus, Idyll 26. 72
5.1 Ptolemy II Philadelphus: Patron of Dionysus and the Theater 72 5.2 Theocritus: The Poet and His Patron.....75 5.3 Idyll 26: Euripides Bacchae Revisited or Revised?........................... 76 5.4 Theocritean Maenads as Imperial Subjects.. 81 5.5 Conclusions.. 84
Chapter 6 Philos Legatio ad Gaium: Imitating Dionysus
and (En)acting Tragedy......... 86 6.1 Being Jewish and Greek in Roman Alexandria....... 87 6.2 Dionysus: A Benevolent or Vindictive God?..................................... 88 6.3 Gaius as Tragic Actor 90 6.4 Conclusions... 93
Part III Resisting Death: Ambivalence and Afterlife . 95
Chapter 7 Bacchus as Tragic Hero and Stoic Sage
in Horace, Epistles 1.16 96 7.1 Dionysus at Rome 97 7.2 Euripides Bacchae on the Roman Stage and in Imperial Epic.... 98 7.3 Horace: The Poet, the Emperor, and Bacchus 101 Table of Contents
7.4 Horaces Epistles Book 1: Beyond Rome... 106
7.5 From Cithaeron to Sabine Estate: Changing Dramatic Identities in Epistles 1.16... 108 7.6 The Bacchae and Ritual Death from the Gold Tablets to Plutarch and Epictetus.... 114 7.7 Conclusions.. 116
Chapter 8 Clement of Alexandria on Pleasure and Dying
with Euripides Bacchae 118 8.1 Clement and the Appropriation of Paideia. 120 8.2 Dangerous Pleasures: Poetry and Dionysus 123 8.3 Christ as Dionysiac Mystagogue in Stromateis 4... 128 8.4 Conclusions.. 132
Part IV Staging Deliverance:
Dionysiac Escape and Divine Vindication ... 135
Chapter 9 Eluding the Tyrant in Artapanus Moses Fragment
and Euripides Bacchae... 136 9.1 Artapanus between Judaism and Hellenism 137 9.2 Getting Moses out of Jail with Euripides Bacchae ...... 141 9.3 Conclusions. 147
Chapter 10 A God Dismembered or Dismembering?
Divine Retribution between Celsus and Origen. 149 10.1 Celsus Argument from Euripides Bacchae ... 150 10.1.1 Christianity and the Roman Empire: The Problem of Cultural Subversion. 152 10.1.2 Jesus among Gods and Heroes: The Problem of Incarnation, Death, and Miracles. 154 10.1.3 Celsus on Jesus and Euripides Bacchae... 161 10.2 Origens Response: Death as Divine Virtue.... 164 10.2.1 Origen on Dionysus, Noble Deeds, and Noble Deaths 167 10.2.2 Origen on Jesus and Euripides Bacchae.. 169 10.3 Conclusions 172 Table of Contents
Part V Polemicizing the Other:
Euripides Bacchae and the Ideological Imagination ..175
Chapter 11 The Wisdom of Solomon and the Canaanite Dionysus... 176
11.1 Situating the Wisdom of Solomon 176 11.2 The Tragic Rituals of the Canaanites 178 11.3 Conclusions... 185
Chapter 12 Dio Chrysostom, the Alexandrian Mob,
and Euripidean Maenads.187 12.1 Dio Chrysostom: Orator and Empire 187 12.2 The Alexandrian Oration: On Performances and Mobs.. 190 12.3 Alexandrians and the Credibility of Euripides Mythology. 192 12.4 Conclusions 196
Part VI Modifying Madness:
Dionysiac Reversals in Judaism and Christianity.. 197
Chapter 13 Philo of Alexandrias Religious Ambivalences:
(Anti-)Dionysiac Hermeneutics in De ebrietate.... 198 13.1 Moses on Wine, Gender, and Dionysus in De ebrietate. 199 13.2 Interrogating Hannahs Sobriety and Femininity. 202 13.3 Conclusions 205
Chapter 14 The Acts of the Apostles and the Rationalization
of Inspired Speech. 207 14.1 Acts and the Bacchae: Status quaestionis 208 14.2 Narrating Madness and Moderation in Acts 26.. 213 14.2.1 A Greek Proverb in Hebrew Dialect: Authenticating Divine Discourse in Acts 26:14 213 14.2.2 Persecution and Conversion in Acts 26: Undoing a Dionysiac Paradox.......... 218 14.3 Each in Their Own Dialect: Dionysus and Inspired Speech in Acts 2......... 221 14.3.1 Drinking Early? Intoxication as Divine Inspiration..... 222 14.3.2 The Politics of Pentecost: Language and Power in Acts 2 228 14.4 Conclusions 234 Table of Contents
Part VII Converting Dionysus:
Euripides Bacchae beyond Antiquity. 237
Chapter 15 Dionysus between Paganism and Christianity
in Nonnus Dionysiaca.... 238 15.1 Dionysus and the Religious and Literary World of Nonnus 239 15.2 Nonnus Dionysiaca and the Redemption of Euripides Bacchae... 244 15.3 Conclusions....................... 249
Chapter 16 Towards a Pious Poetics: New Euripidean Masks
in Pseudo-Gregorys Christus patiens................... 251 16.1 Placing the Christus patiens between Euripides and Byzantium 251 16.2 The Passion and the Possibilities of Christian Tragedy 253 16.3 Conclusions... 259
Conclusions: Gathering up the Scattered Limbs.......... 261
Bibliography.. 267 Literary Sources.... 267 Other Ancient Sources...... 271 Scholarly Works Cited..... 272
(Phoenix Supplementary Volumes 37) R. A. Hazzard - Imagination of A Monarchy - Studies in Ptolemaic Propaganda (2000, University of Toronto Press) - Libgen - Li