Translator: Philip Vellacott

This was such a fascinating read, particularly after rereading The Secret History not too long ago, where the Bacchae plays a pretty important role. If you know, you know. Vellacott's translation was beautifully written and easy to read, too. Dark, compulsive, frightening.

Totally insane story.

For those who believe that videogames, TV shows and films are making us all a little more violent -- I present to you this classic play written somewhere between 485 and 406 BC. It contains unapologetic and gratuitous violence. Just for shits n giggles. This is open to interpretation, but I find that the point of this play is to reveal two messages: (1) "Don't mess with higher powers" or you'll die. And (2) humans are bloodthirsty (yes, this is a pessimistic and unpopular view). This terrifying play was written to satiate the audience's hunger for violence. Humanity hasn't become more violent or more crass or more debauched or more filthy through the centuries (or...millenia).

It's actually uncanny how human nature has managed to sustain the same level of awful all throughout the years.

Dionysus is the true God of Tits and Wine and there is a lot of that in here. Also madness, death, orgies, cross dressing and suckling wildlife. Imagine reading the script to some x-rated and campy, 80's video-nasty, but you can feel smugly pretentious about it.

Story wise, this is one of vengeance, with the debauched God returning to his late mother's homeland to avenge himself on his maternal family, those who dared deny both his greatness and his mother's story that her boyfriend was an Olypmian God.

Since extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, Dionysus proves his divinity by sending a bunch of women stark raving bonkers, and most of the play concerns Dionysus (disguised as a Dionysian priest) and Pentheus (King of Thebes and the God's cousin) having an argument about the former's divinity and spread of his worship. There's also voyuerism, house destruction, 'sparagmos' (move over defenestration, I've a new favourite word for an oddly specific murder technique) and a slightly Lovecraftian breakdown of sanity when faced with the divine, ultimately ending with Pentheus paying badly for his disrespect. The whole thing is gory and silly, and Dionysus is wonderfully sarcastic and cryptic throughout.

The play seems to have only one sole moral: do not piss off the Pantheon because they are an arrogant and vengeful bunch. As messages go it's brutally simple and brutally played out, and the simplicity of it manages to be a strength, with the play feeling more stupidly fun and gruesome than tragedy.

İçinde Dionysos olunca okuması da ayrı bir zevk veriyor.