Customer Reviews

The Bacchae of Euripides: A New Version

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While I haven't read much Greek tragedy, and this is my first Euripides play, the Bacchae is the most aweful I've yet to read. The fury of a god spurned by his family and city had me entranced in awe. I still can't quite understand it. I just had to be still and let its terrible beauty wash over me -- to experience it. I imagine that the audience at its first performance was full of fear and trembling.

These feelings of attraction and revulsion seem appropriate for a god like Dionysus, a god who seems to embrace opposites. The surging, green life of the vine which dies and is cut back, only to send forth green shoots of new life. The joys of his revels which can slip into madness. . .

The danger and messiness of life. While you don't neccessarily have to embrace this verity, it must be acknowledged or you will slip into madness and death. These are the gifts of the god to those who deny him.

"Then, at last,
he'll know; Dionysus is a god.
Dionysus is the son of Zeus.
Doinysus is, for humans, fiercest and most sweet."

After this declamation the god leaves the stage and the chorus expands upon it in some of the most beautiful and appealing language I've encountered in Greek tragedy:

"On, will I, some-
time, in the all-
night dances, dance
again, bare-
foot, rapt,
again, in
Bacchus,
again?

Will I
throw my bared
throat
back, to the cool
night back, the
way,
oh, in the green joys
of the meadow, the
way
a fawn
frisks, leaps,
throws itself
as it finds itself
safely past
the frightening
hunters, past the
nets, the
houndsmen
urging on
their straining
hounds, free
now, leaping, tasting
free wind now,
BEING wind
now as it leaps
the plain, the
stream
and river, out
at last, out from
the human,
free, back,
into the
green,
rich, dapple-
shadowed tresses of the
forest."

Freedom, joy in nature, and giving onself over to these things unreservedly are indeed most sweet for humans. I suppose the hunters who threaten these things are what bring out the fierceness of the following lines:

"What is
wisdom?
What
the fairest
gift the gods
can offer
us
below?
What
is nobler
than
to hold
a dominating
hand
above
the bent
head of
the enemy?
The fair, the
noble, how
we
cherish, how
we welcome
them."

From freedom and frisking to dominating your enemy, and this is wisdom! It is certainly fearsome. How do you contain it? Who knows. Perhaps it is not to be contained. Perhaps trying to contain it is The problem. It sure does not seem to be any way to run a civilization. And round and round we go, and I'm not sure if the play presents us with any answers except . . . maybe . . .

Don't deny the gods. Give them their due. Give them their due or you will be ripped to shreds. Whew. Hard stuff indeed.

Part of the reason for the extensive chorus quote was to show how this translation deals with the chorus lines. I first read the Nicholas Rudall translation of this play and I just went galumphing along through his chorus sections. The way Williams strings out the words forced me to slow down and really chew on the words, and I finally saw the beauty of the play's chorus in this translation.

Besides having a translation that sings to my ears, this book also features an informative and extensive introduction by Martha Nussbaum that I found to be most interesting and enlightening.

This version of The Bacchae is not only beautiful, but the printing of the words of the chorus and the style and breaks in the lines of the text catch a perfect mood and speed as well as rhythm. The pages have the text spaced nicely, and it seems to breeze quickly and chaotically because of the rate that the pages need to be turned. In this way a mood is captured that is not always seen in translations of ancient texts. Besides that, it is a compelling tragedy that raises many questions.

This is a fabulous version of The Bacchae. The feeling is completely tragic, but insightful into how the Greeks saw and explained life. Appearances are not always what they seem in The Bacchae. This book inspired me to read more Greek Tragedy and to buy the book "Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greek." I wanted to understand more theory in regards to tragedy after reading this book. Even if you just read it for fun, it will leave you awe struck in the end.