Bacchae

By Euripides

The youngest of the three great Greek tragedians, following Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides (ca. 484–406 B.C.) is reputed to have written ninety-two plays, nineteen of which survive. The Bacchae, a late play staged posthumously, concerns the cult of Dionysus, god of wine, whose worship hinged largely on orgiastic and frenzied nature rites.
When Dionysus (in disguise) attempts to spread his cult among the people (especially the women) of Thebes, their king, Pentheus, imprisons Dionysus and tries to suppress his cult. The king's misguided attempt to thwart the will of a god leads to catastrophe. Full of striking scenes, frenzied emotion, and choral songs of great power and beauty, the play is a fine example of Euripides' ability to exploit and manipulate traditional Greek myth to serve his own ends in probing man's psychological makeup and understanding of himself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Jul 13, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486157412

Euripides

Euripides was a tragedian of classical Athens. He was born on Salamis Island around 480 BC to his mother, Cleito, and father, Mnesarchus, a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. He had two disastrous marriages, and both his wives—Melite and Choerine (the latter bearing him three sons)—were unfaithful. He became a recluse, making a home for himself in a cave on Salamis. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. He became, in the Hellenistic Age, a cornerstone of ancient literary education. The details of his death are uncertain.

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DOVER THRIFT EDITION PLAYS

THE ORESTEIA TRILOGY: AGAMEMNON, THE LIBATION-BEARERS AND THE FURIES, Aeschylus. (0-486-29242-8)

PROMETHEUS BOUND, Aeschylus. (0-486-28762-9)

EVERYMAN, Anonymous. (0-486-28726-2)

LYSISTRATA, Aristophanes. (0-486-28225-2)

R.U.R., Karel Capek. (0-486-41926-6)

FIVE COMIC ONE-ACT PLAYS, Anton Chekhov. (0-486-40887-6)

FOUR GREAT RUSSIAN PLAYS, Anton Chekhov, Nikolai Gogol, Maxim Gorky, and Ivan Turgenev. (0-486-43472-9)

THE CHERRY ORCHARD. Anton Chekhov. (0-486-26682-6)

MEDEA. Euripides. (0-486-27548-5)

THE BEGGAR’S OPERA, John Gay. (0-486-40888-4)

SHE STOOPS To CONQUER, Oliver Goldsmith. (0-486-26867-5)

GHOSTS, Henrik Ibsen. (0-486-29852-3)

THE Wild DUCK, Henrik Ibsen. (0-486-41116-8)

HEDDA GABLER, Henrik Ibsen. (0-486-26469-6)

A DOLL’S HOUSE, Henrik Ibsen. (0-486-27062-9)

DR FAUSTUS, Christopher Marlowe. (0-486-28208-2)

TARTUFFE. Molière. (0-486-41117-6)

CYRANO DE BERGERAC, Edmond Rostand. (0-486-41119-2)

FIVE GREAT COMEDIES: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, TWELFTH NIGHT, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, AS YOU LIKE IT AND THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, William Shakespeare. (0-486-44086-9)

OTHELLO, William Shakespeare. (0-486-29097-2)

HENRY V, William Shakespeare. (0-486-42887-7)

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, William Shakespeare. (0-486-28272-4)

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, William Shakespeare. (0-486-27067-X)

3 BY SHAKESPEARE : A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM, ROMEO AND JULIET AND RICHARD III, William Shakespeare. (0-486-44721-9)

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, William Shakespeare. (0-486-28492-1)

HAMLET, William Shakespeare. (0-486-27278-8)

FOUR GREAT TRAGEDIES: HAMLET, MACBETH, OTHELLO, AND ROMEO AND JULIET, William Shakespeare. (0-486-44083-4)

THE WINTER’S TALE, William Shakespeare. (0-486-41118-4)

MACBETH, William Shakespeare. (0-486-27802-6)

LOVE’S LABOUR’S LOST, William Shakespeare. (0-486-41929-0)

KING LEAR, William Shakespeare. (0-486-28058-6)

FOUR GREAT HISTORIES: HENRY IV PART I, HENRY IV PART II, HENRY V, AND RICHARD III, William Shakespeare. (0-486-44629-8)

THE TEMPEST, William Shakespeare. (0-486-40658-X)

JULIUS CAESAR. William Shakespeare. (0-486-26876-4)

TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, WHAT YOU WILL, William Shakespeare. (0-486-29290-8)

RICHARD III, William Shakespeare. (0-486-28747-5)

THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, William Shakespeare. (0-486-29765-9)

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS, William Shakespeare. (0-486-42461-8)

ROMEO AND JULIET, William Shakespeare. (0-486-27557-4)

As You LIKE IT, William Shakespeare. (0-486-40432-3)

PYGMALION, George Bernard Shaw. (0-486-28222-8)

ARMS AND THE MAN, George Bernard Shaw. (0-486-26476-9)

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DOVER THRIFT EDITIONS

GENERAL EDITOR: STANLEY APPELBAUM

Copyright

Copyright © 1997 by Dover Publications, Inc.

All rights reserved.

Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 1997, is an unabridged, unaltered republication of the work translated by Henry Hart Milman as The Bacchanals, in The Plays of Euripides, volume two, originally published in 1908 by J. M. Dent, London, as part of Everyman’s Library. (Milman’s translation was first published in 1865.) A new Note has been written specially for the Dover edition.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Euripides.

[Bacchae. English]

Bacchae / Euripides.

p. - cm. — (Dover thrift editions)

An unabridged, unaltered republication of the work translated by Henry Hart Milman . . . originally published in 1908 — T.p. verso.

9780486157412

1. Pentheus (Greek mythology) — Drama. 2. Dionysus (Greek deity) — Drama. 3. Bacchantes-Drama. I. Milman, Henry Hart, 1791-1868. II. Tittle. III. Series.

PA3975.B2M55 1997

882’.O1- dc21

96-40062

CIP

Manufactured in the United States by Courier Corporation

29580X05

www.doverpublications.com

Table of Contents

DOVER THRIFT EDITION PLAYS

Copyright Page

Title Page

Note

Dramatis Personae

DOVER • THRIFT • EDITIONS

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Note

THE YOUNGEST OF the three great Greek dramatists, Euripides (ca. 485 to ca. 406 B.C.) is represented by the largest number of extant plays (19, as compared with seven each for Aeschylus and Sophocles). He is, in the opinion of many scholars, the cruelest of the three in his view of the indifference or vindictiveness of the gods. Certainly, the Bacchae demonstrates this bleak outlook in the horrible vengeance Bacchus wreaks on Pentheus.

The legend as related in the play has a historic basis. The cult of Dionysus (Bacchus), who represents