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This study analyzes how two recent productions of the Bacchae in the USA-by the SITI Company and the Classical Theatre of Harlem-activated Euripidean themes that confront the politics and rhetoric of Donald Trump. Through various interventions and adaptations, the ancient tragedy yields contemporary resonances: patriarchal control and authoritarianism are constructed and sustained by manufacturing threats posed by marauding bands of foreigners, even as the haunting denouement reveals that the most destructive perils reside within. In the drama as in Trump's ascendency, political domination is pursued through performances that reorient illusion and reality., Author(s): Courtney J. P. Friesen [sup.1] Author Affiliations: (1) grid.134563.6, 0000 0001 2168 186X, Department of Religious Studies and Classics, University of Arizona, , PO Box 210105, Learning Services Building [...]

The Old Greek of 1 Sam. 1:11 includes a component of Hannah's vow lacking in the MT: 'wine and strong drink [Samuel] shall not drink'. The status of this phrase in the translator's Vorlage is ultimately inconclusive: on the one hand, it is plausible that the translator inserted it under the influence of Hannah's later assertion of her own sobriety (1:15) or in conformity to the Nazirite vow (e.g. Num. 6:2-5); on the other, its probable attestation in 4QSam provides an early Hebrew witness. This essay explores the implications of this 'plus' as it relates to the moral and religious entailments of alcohol in ancient Judaism and Christianity, with particular attention to Philo of Alexandria and the Gospel of Luke. The former takes this text as a test case in treating the ethical question of whether the sage will get drunk. In the latter, it provides a model for the asceticism of John the Baptist. In both, however, abstinence from alcohol is subordinated to a higher spiritual ideal: 'sober inebriation' for Philo and the messianic banquet in Luke. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]