Considering this is a Greek book, some had to take that extra step into understanding what was being transmitted. The solo presentations on the book during class worked in helping me understand what was occurring. In this play, most of the characters are from one large royal family. We have two main characters, Dionysus and Pentheus, they are cousins. Dionysus (God of Wine) is the son of Zeus, wanted to demonstrate to society he was a God because they dough his word. Pentheus is the king of Thebes, decided by his grandfather. Then, we have other important characters: Agauë, Semele, and Cadmus. Aguaë is the mother of Pentheus. Semele is Dionysus mother; she was killed on accident by Zeus. Cadmus is the father of Agauë and Semele, and grandfather of Dionysus and Pentheus.
Throughout the book, we can see how society divides in two sections, Dionysian's and Apollian’s. Dionysian’s were the people who wanted to party, have liberty, and have men and women be equal with the help of The Bacchae’s. However, Apollian’s were the people who demanded orders, followed the rules, and wanted structure in society. As mentioned in class, there are people who relate to these groups. Small percent related to Apollian’s, a slightly larger percent related to Dionysian’s, and the rest are in between both. Personally, I am not the type of person who takes it to the limit; but neither the person who follows all the rules. As college students, we can agree most of us want to go out and party; while, completing our academics.
Moving forward, in this book they portrayed men having more authority than women. This situation has always been a social problem, and it will probably continue. Dionysus took advantage of the situation and gathered a large crowd of females to stand for his beliefs. Practically, told them if you follow me, you will have similar rights to men. Then took them to a forest where they can freely express themselves. Which was all fake because all he wanted was revenge toward his family in Thebes for not believing he was a God and the treatment his mother received by them. In my opinion, this was not an act of a God. If he wanted to demonstrate he was a God; he could have found a better solution that would not lead to a tragic. He was being stubborn because he wanted his way.
Toward the end of the play, we get to imagine how Pentheus arrests one of Dionysus follower, without noticing it was Dionysus. After an intense talk of trying to convince Pentheus to accept the terms, he refused. What he did end up accepting was going to the woods to see the maenads. When he arrived, he wanted a closer look, but got caught. His mother Aguaë was there, she became delusional to the point of killing his own son; and got punished with banning her from Thebes. At this part, we get to analyze how structure can lead to self-destruction. Overall, Dionysus got away with what he wanted. In between both groups, we get to see the pressure each one goes through. There was a social melt down because of pressure. This thought me that it is important in modern life to balance both sides. It was an interesting play that portrayed many aspects today.

(additional reference :The Bacchae: A City Sacrificed to a Jealous God by Richard Schechner, JSTOR).

According to Sandys, Euripides composed the play The Bacchae in 407 BCE in a compliment to his patron King Archelaus. The conclusion of the play was purposed to haunt the Muses of Pieria, which was part of the king’s dominions—the hallowed slope of Olympus (the most prominent object of the Pierian landscape); and to the swift stream of Axius between the Scardus and Orbelus ranges, in the primitive seat of Macedonia (xxxviii). This plain of lower Macedonia is celebrated by Euripides as “‘the land of noble horses,’ ‘fertilized by fairest waters’ “(Tozer, Geography of Greece, pp. 200-202).

The theme of The Bacchae would have found an appreciative audience in Macedonia who would have been well acquainted with the story of Lycurgus and the legend of Pentheus. The worship of Dionysus, the protagonist in The Bacchae, would also have been met with an enthusiastic reception here.

Who invented the myths of the Greek gods?

Much credit is given to Homer as the creator of the myth of Greek gods in the 8th century BCE through storytelling and oral traditions (both single-author and collective-author theorist); I have always assumed it was Homer. However, as I have just discovered, the myths of the Greek gods were not invented by a single individual but developed over centuries through a combination of cultural, religious, and literary influences. Over time, these stories evolved and were adapted by various poets, bards, and playwrights, such as Hesiod, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, who added their own interpretations and hyperboles.

The Origins of Dionysus

Euripides was not the first to write of the Greek god Dionysus. Hesiod, an early Greek poet who lived around the same time as Homer, was possibly the first playwright as he briefly refers to Dionysus in his poem “Theogony” as the son of Zeus and the mortal woman Semele.

Homer: In the Iliad, Dionysus ‘son of Semele’ is described as a ‘joy to mortals’ (XIV 325). As Andromache rushes forth from her loom to learn the fate of Hector, the poet compares her to a wild maenad. The second reference is in the flute of Dionysus’ worship from the music of Ilium heard in the Grecian camp by the sleepless Agamemnon. Here Homer assigns the instrument to the Trojans only, not the Greeks. (Schechner, 125).

The Bacchae

In The Bacchae, Euripides revolves his play around the god Dionysus, the deity of wine and revelry. He is seeking vengeance upon Pentheus, king of Thebes, by unleashing a frenzy of wild women from the city into the wilderness in a display of devotion.

In Euripides’ play, Dionysus is depicted as a complex and mysterious figure who introduces his worshipers, called Bacchae or Maenads, to frenzied rituals involving wine, dance, and music which lead to a state of ecstasy with the divine.

Pentheus then attempts to suppress this Bacchaic cult. Dionysus’ manipulation of events shows his divine power of divinity and humanity. Dionysus lures Pentheus into disguising himself as a woman and observing the Bacchic rituals on Mount Cithaeron. In doing so, Dionysus manipulates Pentheus’s arrogance and curiosity, ultimately leading to the king’s demise as his mother, Agave, driven by the Bacchic frenzy, unknowingly kills him, believing him to be a lion.

Sandys’ states that Euripides is showing the revelry between the Dionysian and the Apollonian order—between the mortal and divine realms. The character of Dionysus in The Bacchae has fascinated scholars and artists for centuries due to its exploration of the interplay between ecstasy and restraint. Euripides shook the Greek world as his play represented a form of religious ecstasy and liberation that challenged the structured and established Greek pantheon. This led to discussions and reflections on the nature of divinity, the legitimacy of different religious practices, and the role of gods in human affairs (Sandys,42).


Greek gods in a time of Yahweh

As I was reflecting on the god Dionysus from Euripides’ play, I thought about the Greek world, both historical and Biblical, at that time. When the Greek gods were introduced by Hesiod, around 8th century BC, the Temple in Jerusalem had just been completed, David and Solomon had been ruling in Babylon, [this was the time before the Prophets Elija, Elisah, Joel, Isaiah], Rome was founded by Romulus (750ish BC), First Olympic games (776), and the Greeks would soon dominate the world: Sparta, Corinth, Crete, Ephesus, Troy. The Jewish people, who worshipped Yahweh, were centered in the Kingdom of Judah and Israel in the eastern Mediterranean region and the Greeks, who worshipped/recognized Zeus (?) were primarily in the Greek city-states. The Jewish people worshipped Yahweh. Hebraism vs Hellenism.

In addition, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Assyrians which led to the dispersion of the ten tribes of Israel. Some of these displaced people could have come into contact with neighboring cultures, including Greek ones. [The major period of Greek-Jewish interaction would come later, during the Hellenistic era, which began in the late 4th century BCE after the conquests of Alexander the Great, which saw the spread of Greek culture throughout the conquered lands, including the eastern Mediterranean where the Jewish communities were situated. The translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek (the Septuagint) and the establishment of Greek-influenced cities like Alexandria in Egypt are notable outcomes of this period.]

Whew. In Schechner’s, The Bacchae: A City Sacrificed to a Jealous God, he contrasts Dionysus to the God of the Old Testament:1) Dionysus recognizes other divinities—but he still requires to be first in the Pantheon, above Zeus; 2) He is a capricious god which leads to his immorality; 3) His laws are improvised; and 4) He is humiliated.

A few years back, I did a deep-dive into the gods and men of Homer and the Apostle Paul [see post] in which I looked at the pagan traditions of the Greek gods in the world in which Paul and Barnabas traveled and preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Sandys ends his critical essay with a tribute to one of the most famous Greek playwrights, even to this day. Euripides died in BC 406 at 75 years old and was buried in Arethusa at a spot where two streams meet: one with healthy water, one was death to drink. His tomb was struck by lightning. Upon hearing of his death, Sophocles put on the mourning at a public theatre where he ordered the actors and chorus to lay aside their crowns; and all the people wept.

His countrymen built a cenotaph in his honour with the following inscription:

Euripides, all Hellas is a monument to thee;

Thy bones hath Macedonia, that saw thy latter days,

And yet, thy home was Athens, the heart of Hellas she,

And thou, the Muse’s darling, hast won the meed of praise.

Works Cited

John Edwin Sandys LITT.D. Ευριπίδης Βάκχες The Bacchae of Euripides. Fellow and Tutor of St John’s College and Public Orator in the University of Cambridge, Hon. LITT.D. Dublin Examiner in Greek in the Victoria University and in the University of London. Cambridge University Press, 1900. PA3973.B2 1900.

Richard Schechner. The Bacchae: A City Sacrificed to a Jealous God: The Tulane Drama Review , Jun., 1961, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Jun., 1961), pp. 124-134 Published by: The MIT Press Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1124822

Obviously plays are better performed and viewed as an audience-member than read silently alone, so it was difficult to know how many stars to give this collection. I think it’s three or four.

Helen was a difficult play to fully appreciate as it is a comic parody full of allusions to things with which I am not familiar. It is fun, if odd.

I first read these plays as an undergraduate, at which time it was only really The Bacchae which I responded to. This time, though, I was most taken with The Women of Troy. It’s a strong denunciation of the way in which women become passive victims when the politicians of the states where they live conduct wars. All the characters feel very rounded and complex. It has some great, emotional speeches.

Reading all of these plays together gave me a good sense for the conventions of Greek drama (which I only had a vague, theoretical understanding of before) and therefore of the decisions Euripides had made within those, and also the significance of when he chose to bend or break them.

I’m still keen on The Bacchae. There are an awful lot of themes in that play and even the inconsistencies provoke thought and make it interesting. The characters are obviously representing types, choices, behaviours, but they also feel like full, real people (having accepted that they speak in verse, make speeches etc).

I can’t really comment on the quality of the translation yet. It feels unobtrusive enough. I plan to read another couple of versions of The Bacchae, though, after which I’ll have a better perspective on Vellacott’s prose etc

- There's a subtle difference between rational hatred and irrational hatred. The latter leads directly to fanaticism- and one definition of a fanatic is "a person who redoubles his efforts after having forgotten his aim".


Science Fiction Quarterly November 1951. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copy right on this publication was renewed.

The Black Alarm- Feature Novel- George O. Smith
Steve Hagen was determined to live his own life, and he chose the dangerous career of the Guardians. But was he as free as he imagined himself to be?

Confusingly, Goodreads has two different books registered under the same name of The Bacchae and Other Plays: one containing The Phoenician Women, Orestes, The Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, and Rhesus; the other containing Ion, Women of Troy, Helen, and The Bacchae. I will review the former here.

I absolutely loved these plays by Euripides. He was an incredible writer. All of these plays have mythological subject matter, and cover some very dark episodes involving parricide, violent deaths, and human sacrifice. But Euripides never gets caught up in just describing action and epic battles; his main focus is how the dark events affect the people in the stories. He evokes great pathos for all of his main characters, and shows that people tragically get caught in the crossfire. The delicate balance between action and psychological exploration makes these plays brilliant, in my opinion.

You might be surprised to learn, then, that I struggled to decide whether I should give this four or five stars. This is because of one problem with the first three plays: their endings. The aim of ancient Greek plays (and indeed a lot of modern media) is catharsis, and to do this the built-up tension has to decrease. I prefer a gradual winding-down of tension, but Euripides ends the tension almost instantly in these three plays. I don't like this, and it seems to me to be a bit of a damp squib. This flaw is particularly noticeable as this comes at the very end of the plays, and so my final impression was of being slightly underwhelmed.

This problem does not apply to the last two plays though - I absolutely loved the ending of Rhesus for how much of a Homeric callback it is, and Iphigenia at Aulis didn't have the aforementioned problem. I also think that the rest of the plays definitely make up for the endings. I also acknowledge that my dislike of that style is probably a very personal thing, and other people may enjoy it.

Regarding this specific Penguin Classics translation by John Davie, I cannot recommend it enough. The translation is entirely in prose, and it was very easy to read - across the entire book, I don't think I had to re-read any phrases to understand them. This edition has copious notes: there is a general introduction, introductions to the specific plays, and footnotes for each play. These were incredibly useful, especially as they gave a great deal of background information for ancient Greece.

In conclusion, I would strongly recommend this collection of plays to anyone interested in theatre, mythology, or just good literature. A very small part wasn't to my taste, but the rest was incredible.

The Bacchae written by Euripides, is a play written with the intent of making people aware of how a society cannot be constricted and controlled. Specifically the female population of society. Euripides wrote this play to question the status quo. Using Dionysus and Pentheus as the two opposing forces of society. Having them battle it out, with one being very controlling and the other being very laid back and just wanting to have fun. These opposing forces show how in order for society to flourish you can't be too much of both. Rather have a bit of both a balance. If you are too controlling eventually people are going to be fed up and if you are too laid back people are going to go do whatever they want and nothing will get done. Both end with a socially that falls. I believe Euripides was trying to show his greek people we have to have some flexibility in our lives. How being flexible is okay, and especially for women to be able to let off some steam and have fun rather than be stuck being controlled. When Euripides wrote this play, I doubt that he expected it to be relative to our present day society as it was to his. What shocked me about this play was how relevant it is to modern day society. Especially how society is structured. How we have laws and rules in place to control people from going out of control but we give people enough wiggle room to be able to have fun and let off some steam. I think that was very important to recognize and something to take away from the play that we as a society have a balance and try to have a little bit of both. Equally we all as individually have to have a balance or we will go crazy. The perfect example of this is Agave. At the end of the play Agave was so impower with the idea she is able to do whatever she wants after not being able to she broke. This is a very important part of the play to acknowledge because it shows you that partying and having no control at all will make people do crazy things. Reinforcing the fact that we all need to have a balance in our lives. But that it is okay to have fun and go blow off some steam from time to time. Highlighting the fact that we need to let women do that as much as men do, because if we don't nothing good will happen and eventually the inflexibility of the society will break. At first glance this play could just seem boring and have no point, I thought this at first but really analyzing and looking at the way it is written, how the characters are perceived and displayed. You come to understand how complex this play is and how throughout it really was. How Euripides put in hidden messages in the play to make people question the status quo.

Read:
-The Bacchae

A seductive and disturbing inquiry into becoming caught up in the crowd can lead to savagery and degradation.

Pentheus could never be Oedipus

The Bacchae is a family tragedy, but as any audience will attest, it is more singularly Agaue's tragedy, which is all the more remarkable given that the queen only appears on stage for one scene. In fact, besides Pentheus, the Cadmus family (Cadmus and Agaue) only appears in the first and last scenes, while the core of the drama exclusively involves Dionysus and Pentheus. By keeping the Cadmus family at the periphery of the main action, Euripides uses them as background, frame and context. They amplify and filter the core events, but have no part in those events as physical characters on the stage. They also serve as commentators and critics (in theatrical terms they are an audience) on the core events and it is largely in the last scene that they get to flesh out various themes. Both members do accept responsibility for what happened to Pentheus, but in two different ways they also criticize Dionysus's justice. Agaue's heart- wrenching grief and murderous guilt testifies to Dionysus's excessive, harsh and cruel revenge. Cadmus reproaches Dionysus twice, directly saying that the god's retributive justice did not fit the offense. However, the god merely brushes these two laments aside with the fatalistic comment that Zeus set up a world of harsh gods.

While Euripides follows a number of formal classical traditions in The Bacchae, such as a complicated chorus and the use of messenger, he diverges quite starkly from Aristotle's ideal of drama. In classical Greek drama, and as defined by Aristotle in his Poetics, there is also a moment of recognition at the very end when our hero, full of hubris, realizes his error and passes from ignorance to knowledge. This is tied to the moment of catharsis for the audience, or the moment of the release of the emotions that had been built up before. Finally, there is a hearty lament. Pentheus does not truly repent and re-evaluate his mistake, nor indulge in metaphysical musings. He merely uses the word "error" in the one line where he begs his mother not to kill him. Importantly, too, the audience does not explicitly learn anything about Dionysus except that he wants Pentheus to show deference toward him. And the main "secret" of the play, Dionysus's disguise, is known from the start. Instead, Euripides writes a shocking, long, and pathos-filled lament. This disproportionate (in classical terms) emphasis on the lament signals two things: both the excessive cruelty and the absolute power of Dionysus.

One of the reasons that the last scene—depicting a demented Agaue proudly brandishing the head of her son—is effective because it is a acted out on the main stage instead of being relayed by messengers. Previously, all the gory, disturbing and violent actions of the play, such as the killing of the cattle and the palace miracles, had taken place offstage and were subsequently retold to the audience as a story. When this scene is actually played out, the audience is still fresh and able to be deeply shocked. Euripides does not flinch from gruesome touches such as having Agaue piece together the son she tore apart. Moreover, in this last gesture, the audience realizes that it is not just Pentheus's body that must be reconstructed but also the moral of the story and the future of both Cadmus and Agaue. Tragically, some pieces will always be missing.

"He is welcome in the mountain he falls to the ground from the running companies, dressed in the holy fawnskins, in the hunt for the blood of the killed goat, for the joy of eating raw flesh, as he hurries to the mountains of Phrygia, Lydia- Bromius, leading the way. Euoi! The soil flows with milk, it flows with wine, it flows with the nectar of bees. The Bacchic god, holding on high the blazing flame of the pine torch like the smoke of Syrian frankincense, lets it stream from his wands as he spurs on the stragglers while they run and dance, and rouses them with his joyous cries, finging his delicate locks into the air. And amid the Bacchic shouts of joy he roars forth those words:' On, bacchae, oh, on, bacchae, glittering pride of Tmolus, its river awash with gold, celebrate Dionysus in your song to the beat of the loud-roaring drums! With the joyful shouts glorify the god of joyful shouting in Phrygian cries and calls, when the tuneful sacred pipe peals forth its sacred merriment, in harmony with your wild journeying to the mountain, to the mountain!' Happily then, like a foal beside its grazing mother, the bacchant skips with quick feet as she runs."

'Bacchae' is a play that's the most enthralling and capturing among others; it's a pure portrayal of frenzy or alter-consciousness with a tone of neutrality, they depict madness without the barrier of decency. The Greeks has well comprehended the power that's beyond sanity, the part of humanity that's uncontrollable and undisciplined. It's devoid of rationality, because the essence of that intimidating dominance is itself an absence of ego. They hail the influence as a god's interruption, as was so usual with other tragedies that envisage our inner conflicts as foreign than as our own emotion, and was enslaved of them. 'Bacchae' is wrote in the consideration that it acts as a worshiping of the God; imagine actors sings the lyrics in the theater while hundreds of audience admire it. Sang in honor of Dionysus, insanity is depicted as not an indulgence but with certain respect for its power, it was hold an image of nobleness, dignity and splendor among the haze of gaiety and celebration, while the sweep of Dionysus's dominance unleash its senseless sanguinary and barbarity among men. To say, it is a classic that's so bygone that a literature without moral value like this is almost unacceptable and dismissed as a incoherent rambling. But back then was the days: it has manifest itself clearly that the tenacity of human mind is so weak that it can always be accommodated by its age and social norm.

"What is wisdom? Or what god-given prize is nobler in men's eyes than to hold one's hand in mastery over the head of one's enemies? What is noble is precious- that ever holds true."

It's always interesting of how Euripides appendage choruses and echo of repetitions for its plot, as with a lot other Greek poems like Homer, "When Dawn appears with her rosy fingers appearing..." in Odyssey. As its play is often piled with other myth-telling and description, the repetition serves as reminding the wholeness of the story and it knocks as subtle as to the core of its message while the tragedy unfolds. The trailed-off sentences is very symbolic of Euripides, as he use to portray the sense of dizziness when the influence of Dionysus starts to interrupt a man's control over its mind.

"DIONYSUS. You alone bear the burden for this city, you alone. That is why the destined contests lie in store for you. Follow me. I am your guide and shall bring you safely to that place. But another will take you back from there... PENTHEUS. Yes, my mother.
DIONYSUS. ...for all to see. PENTHEUS. That is why I am going.
DIONYSUS. You will return on foot... PENTHEUS. You want to pamper me.
DIONYSUS. In your mother's arms... PENTHEUS. You are determined to spoil me.
DIONYSUS. Yes, spoil you in my fashion. PENTHEUS. I lay hold on what I deserve.
DIONYSUS. You are an amazing man, truly amazing, and you go to amazing sufferings. Through these you will find a glory that towers to heaven. Stretch out your hands, Agave, and Agave's sisters too, you daughters of Cadmus. I am leading this young man to a great contest and the winner will be Brominus and myself. Everything else the event will show."

I always assumed that ancient literature would be really dry and impenetrable but this translation makes these plays easy to digest, and it was a good surprise to me just how engaging these plays are! I guess it helps that it sparks my memories of being into mythology when I was a kid, but regardless of that the plotting is well done and Euripides is able to draw a whole range of emotions out while reading...there were parts of these plays that I couldn't put down, and it's encouraged me to hunt down some other classic literature now. Recommended! :)

“Therefore we ask, Monarch of all that lives,
Firm in your heavenly throne,
While the destroying Fury gives
Our homes to ashes and our flesh to worms~
We ask, and ask: What does this mean to You?”
Chorus in “The Women of Troy”, p. 125