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Lefteris: 'Euripide's Bacchae'
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Digital story by Lefteris Christou. Created July 2011, Nicosia Cyprus, as part of activities reflecting on the Cyprus Fulbright Commission's 50th Anniversary in 2012: "Fulbright Changes Lives."
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The chance Fulbright gave me to study at a World Class University is really invaluable. It is extremely difficult for me to analyze the positive impact this had in my life. What was more important? The education I received? The friends I made? The big city experience? The knowledge I gained? The wisdom -- if any -- I accumulated? The alma mater or The Thinker in campus? I don't know.
I was an engineering student, so it may sound a bit strange that the most vivid experience I had in class was in a Literature Humanities course, during my sophomore year. I was feeling quite relaxed with that Core Curriculum course, because most of the literature works that we were supposed to study came from ancient Greece. That meant, I thought, an easy A!
That particular day we were supposed to discuss about Euripides's Bacchae -- one of the most interesting and bizarre ancient Greek tragedies. I had studied it in High School, and I had even seen it on stage once -- easy stuff!
The particular tragedy has a very dramatic ending that involves the slaughtering of a man and the appearance of his cut head on stage -- a very bloody scene. Even bloodier than this, there are hints in the play about human flesh being eaten by the Bacchae during the ceremonies devoted to Dionysus.
When we were discussing about that, I vividly remember the teacher commenting that he had heard people in Greece cook and eat lamb heads, something that he considered very relevant to the bloody ending of the play! Since I was the only Greek in class, he asked me to confirm and to share my views on this! I was speechless...
I know it sounds very bizarre for me to talk about this particular experience out of so many during my college years. However, that incident was a turning point in the way I relate to my heritage and the way I think. From that day onwards, I started to adopt a much more questioning approach about everything, trying to find hidden links between things and different eras, trying to see everything with as many different possible angles as possible...
Needless to say that the course proved not to be an easy A! I ended up with a B, but with a much broader mind...
And, by the way, I personally never ate a lamb head...
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The chance Fulbright gave me to study at a World Class University is really invaluable. It is extremely difficult for me to analyze the positive impact this had in my life. What was more important? The education I received? The friends I made? The big city experience? The knowledge I gained? The wisdom -- if any -- I accumulated? The alma mater or The Thinker in campus? I don't know.
I was an engineering student, so it may sound a bit strange that the most vivid experience I had in class was in a Literature Humanities course, during my sophomore year. I was feeling quite relaxed with that Core Curriculum course, because most of the literature works that we were supposed to study came from ancient Greece. That meant, I thought, an easy A!
That particular day we were supposed to discuss about Euripides's Bacchae -- one of the most interesting and bizarre ancient Greek tragedies. I had studied it in High School, and I had even seen it on stage once -- easy stuff!
The particular tragedy has a very dramatic ending that involves the slaughtering of a man and the appearance of his cut head on stage -- a very bloody scene. Even bloodier than this, there are hints in the play about human flesh being eaten by the Bacchae during the ceremonies devoted to Dionysus.
When we were discussing about that, I vividly remember the teacher commenting that he had heard people in Greece cook and eat lamb heads, something that he considered very relevant to the bloody ending of the play! Since I was the only Greek in class, he asked me to confirm and to share my views on this! I was speechless...
I know it sounds very bizarre for me to talk about this particular experience out of so many during my college years. However, that incident was a turning point in the way I relate to my heritage and the way I think. From that day onwards, I started to adopt a much more questioning approach about everything, trying to find hidden links between things and different eras, trying to see everything with as many different possible angles as possible...
Needless to say that the course proved not to be an easy A! I ended up with a B, but with a much broader mind...
And, by the way, I personally never ate a lamb head...
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