Table of Contents

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
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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

Chapter 4 Textual Sparagmoi: Receiving Euripides Bacchae 57

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
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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
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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
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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

Index of References... 311

Index of Subjects 328