greek · literary

The Bacchae

c. 405 BCE (performed posthumously) · Classical Greece (late 5th century BCE) · Athens, Greece

Prologue — Dionysus Speaks

1I, the son of Zeus, am come to this land of Thebes—
2Dionysus, whom Semele, Cadmus' daughter,
3brought forth of old, delivered by the lightning flame.
4And I have put off the form of god,
5and taken likeness of a man,
6and here I stand beside Dirce's streams
7and Ismenus' waters.
8For Thebes must learn, though she will not learn it gently,
9what it means to be uninitiate in my mysteries.
10And for my mother Semele, Zeus' lightning made her glorious,
11now all men call this place the tomb of the thunderstruck.

First Choral Ode — The Joy of the Mysteries

12CHORUS: Blessed is he who, blest in knowing the mysteries of God,
13is pure in his life,
14and has his soul initiáte,
15and his spirit made whole in the deeps of the Mountain Service.
16He shall tread the hills of the holy.
17O what joy in the mountains!
18When after the racing revel he sinks to the earth,
19in the holy fawn-skin clad,
20the quarry slain: raw flesh to rend,
21and away to the hills of Phrygia, of Lydia!
22And the Leader is Bromios.
23Praise! Praise!
24The earth flows with milk, flows with wine,
25flows with nectar of bees;
26like smoke, like the smoke of Syrian spices,
27the torchlight of God flameth up!

The Stranger Before Pentheus

28PENTHEUS: So here you are. Well, you are not bad looking—
29for women's purposes—which is why you came to Thebes.
30Your hair is long. You have not wrestled much, I think.
31DIONYSUS: I am what I am.
32PENTHEUS: Where do you come from?
33DIONYSUS: From where Tmolus lies, flower-land of Lydia.
34PENTHEUS: And these strange rites—when did they begin?
35DIONYSUS: Dionysus brought them, the son of Zeus, who made me his follower.
36PENTHEUS: We have a Zeus here who creates new gods?
37DIONYSUS: No. 'Twas here he wedded Semele. I speak by fact, not fable.
38PENTHEUS: Was it night or day when this compulsion came on thee?
39DIONYSUS: 'Twas face to face: he gave his mysteries to me face to face.
40PENTHEUS: And these mysteries—what form do they take?
41DIONYSUS: That may not be told to men who are not mystic.

The Messenger from the Mountain

42MESSENGER: O Pentheus, lord of Thebes, I come from high Cithaeron,
43where the snow-white gleaming shafts of sleet fall never.
44PENTHEUS: Speak. What bringest thou? Thy news?
45MESSENGER: I have seen the holy women there, the Bacchanals,
46who went streaming bare-limbed from this city.
47They slept, some leaning on branches of the fir,
48some resting on the ground with heads on leaves of oak—
49all in pure modesty, not drunk with wine
50as thou sayest, nor with sound of pipes led on,
51to hunt their loves through the lone forest.
52One of them took the thyrsus and struck the rock,
53and out of it sprang a gush of water clear as dew.
54Another thrust her wand into the ground;
55and there the god sent up a spring of wine.
56And all who wished for milk had but to scratch
57the earth with gentle fingers, and there flowed
58the white streams. And honey ran from out the ivy-wands.

The Catastrophe

59AGAVE: We found Pentheus, deep hid in forest shade—
60I, first of all, began to hurl my staff against him.
61MESSENGER: And he put off his wreath and touched his cheek,
62that she might know him and not slay him, crying:
63"Mother! I am thy son! 'Tis I, Pentheus!
64Pity me! I have sinned, but slay not thine own child!"
65But she was foaming, with wide-rolling eyes,
66not thinking as she ought, being possessed of Bacchus.
67And he caught and dashed him to the ground.
68Then all together fell upon him;
69then there was lamentation—while he yet breathed they carried off his limbs.
70DIONYSUS: This was done in righteous judgment.
71For he would not give ear to god, to me—Dionysus—
72who am known as divine among the divine.
73AGAVE: O Father, thou canst see the great change come upon me—
74and I have changed. What will become of me?
75CADMUS: Learn to be wiser than thou wast, my child.
76For Dionysus hath destroyed us justly—
77but too much. For gods should not be like men in their rage.

notes

The Bacchae by Euripides (c. 480–406 BCE) was composed at the end of his life and performed posthumously in Athens around 405 BCE. It won first prize at the City Dionysia. The play dramatises the arrival of Dionysus in Thebes and the catastrophic punishment of Pentheus, who refuses to acknowledge the god's divinity. The Bacchae is one of the most troubling works of ancient tragedy. Unlike earlier tragedies where human pride (hubris) brings divine punishment from a morally authoritative Zeus, here Dionysus himself engineers Pentheus's destruction with something very like malice — while also being genuinely divine. Cadmus's closing words ("gods should not be like men in their rage") voice a discomfort that the play refuses to resolve. The play raises unresolved questions about religious ecstasy, the nature of the divine, and the cost of refusing irrationality a place in human life. Translation: Gilbert Murray, "The Bacchae of Euripides," London: George Allen, 1906. Public domain.

RitualTragedyDrama

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