ANTHROPOLIS I

About the show

Prologue The story of the city of Thebes begins with a double murder. After Cadmus searches the continent in vain for his sister Europa—abducted by Zeus—he turns to the Oracle of Delphi. "Forget your sister," comes the reply; "drive a cow before you, and found a city where she lies down to rest." Cadmus drives the cow onward until it collapses and dies near a spring—a spring guarded by a dragon. Cadmus slays the beast, tears out its teeth, and sows them in the earth. Armed dragon-men—warriors—instantly sprout from the teeth and slaughter one another; only five survive the massacre. With them, Cadmus founds the city of Cadmea, later known as seven-gated Thebes. Violence is inscribed in the history of civilization from the very start. The initial acts of civilization required to found this primal city of the Western world manifest as acts of killing. The destruction of the animal—and of the animal nature itself—is effectively the prerequisite for a society to exist within an urban space. Yet how can one halt the acts of violence that repeatedly shake the foundations of the human city, generation after generation? Dionysus The tale of Dionysus’s birth from the thigh of Zeus sounds more than bizarre. It is no wonder that no one in Thebes believes it, given the shameful death by fire suffered by Dionysus’s mortal mother, Semele—a daughter of Cadmus. Legend has it that his father, Zeus, rescued the fetus from the flames and carried it to term within his own leg. In the meantime, Thebes has grown into a wealthy city, and Cadmus has ceded the throne to his grandson, Pentheus. Then Dionysus appears, claiming the right to religious veneration. Yet Pentheus—a man defined by moderation and adherence to rules—refuses to acknowledge his divinity. In response, Dionysus plunges the patriarch’s established order into a profound political and moral crisis. He sends the women on a wild journey, spreading madness and frenzy among them.