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The Bacchae (Meridian classics)

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If, like me, you had Greek Tragedy down as an austere thing, full of parched plains, unswerving Fate and dour verse, then 'The Bacchae' might come as a pleasant surprise. It has these things of course, but the first quality that shocks is the vibrant, fervid excess of the language. The story concerns Dionysus, the God of wine, the Life Force, the Chaos of the Irrational etc., who inspires a possessed devotion in his acolytes, as they express themselves in high-flown, ecstatic rhapsodies. Not every one takes this proto-hippie's divinity seriously, in particular the family of his mortal mother, led by the impetuous teenage king Pentheus, who sees all this Bacchanalia in the woods and mountains in loose robes as so much lechery. Dionysus exacts such terrible revenge on these unbelievers that 'Bacchae' makes Shakespeare's 'Titus Andronicus' look like a Julie Andrews vehicle.
If Sophocles' 'Oedipus the King' is the first detective story, than 'Bacchae' might be the first police procedural - a central sequence sees Pentheus arrest Dionysus and interrogate him, a scene as tightly written and suspenseful as any thriller. But detection and policing, embodying the forces of reason and the Law, have no power against the Irrational or Unknowable, and Pentheus is soon made mad, his order and sense of self in tatters. The terrible grip of irony familiar from Greek Tragedy gives the play a violent momentum, but the most extraordinary scenes take place offstage, related in vivid and tumultuous monolgues by messengers - the whirlwind revenge of Dionysus' female followers on the forces of surveilling civilisation, and the cruel enactment of the God's revenge. This idea of hearing about improbable catastrophes but not being able to see them adds ot the supernatural terror that is the play's fevered life-blood.

I am a classical history major with a focus on poetry and drama. I have actually read Bacchae in Attic Greek and I have to say that I find this translation to be one of the most fluid and natural of any that I have ever read. I would highky recommend this to anyone looking for a well-written, very gory introduction to Greek theatre. This edition is also great for using as a script, wheras many translations are good only for reading. I just put up a production using this translation and my actors were very comfortable with the wonderful language Woodruff uses.

A solid translation of the fascinating and passionate story of Dionysus in Thebes, although it lacks the lyricism of other translations. Woodruff's version is meant to be performed aloud, and so it has more of the feel of a play to it. Students of literature and classics might want a different version; students of drama and theatre would be interested in this translation.

After having my eyes opened by Willaims' translation, I decided to revisit Rudall's work. While Williams is poetic and prone to flights of fancy, Rudall is more down to earth, which is appropriate for a god like Dionysus.

Yes he is a god of frenzy, but he is also a god of dying. I think this is why dance is sacred to him. Dance feels gravity's pull, leaps against it, succumbs to it, and leaps yet again. Life that is tied to the earth tries to transcend it, and struggles until it falls exhausted to the ground, only to rise and struggle again. It ain't all about exaultation, but is also about falling down.

Williams' translation sometimes flies away like a flock of pretty birds. Rudall keeps pulling us back to earth, back to the mysteries, and helps us plumb the depths of this play's truths. He doesn't let a bunch of pretties get in the way. He makes sure we see Everything.

"The Bacchae" was written by Euripides when he was living in Macedonia in virtual exile during the last years of his life. The tragedy was performed in Athens after his death. These factors are important in appreciate this particular Greek tragedy because such plays were performed at a festival that honored the Dionysus, and in "The Bacchae" he is the god who extracts a horrible vengeance. The tragedy clearly demonstrates the god's power, but it is a terrible power, which suggests less than flattering things about the deity himself.

Pentheus was the son of Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of the Royal House of Thebes. After Cadmus stepped down the throne, Pentheus took his place as king of Thebes. When the cult of Dionysus came to Thebes, Pentheus resisted the worship of the god in his kingdom. However, his mother and sisters were devotees of the god and went with women of the city to join in the Dionsysian revels on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus had Dionysus captured, but the god drove the king insane, who then shackled a bull instead of the god. When Pentheus climbed a tree to witness in secret the reverly of the Bacchic women, he was discovered and torn to pieces by his mother and sisters, who, in their Bacchic frenzy, believed him to be a wild beast. The horrific action is described in gory detail by a messenger, which is followed by the arrival of the frenzied and bloody Agave, the head of her son fixed atop her thytsus.

Unlike those stories of classical mythology which are at least mentioned in the writings of Homer, the story of Pentheus originates with Euripides. The other references in classical writing, the "Idylls" written by the Syracusean poet Theocritus and the "Metamorphoses" of the Latin poet Ovid, both post-date"The Bacchae" by centuries. On those grounds, the tragedy of Euripides would appear to be entirely his construct, which would certainly give it an inherent uniqueness over his interpretations of the stories of "Medea," "Electra," and "The Trojan Women."

I see "The Bacchae" as being Euripides' severest indictment of religion and not as the recantation of his earlier rationalism in his old age. The dramatic conflicts of the play stem from religious issues, and without understanding the opposition on Appollonian grounds of Pentheus to the new cult readers miss the ultimate significance of the tragedy. This is not an indictment of Appollonian rationalism, but rather a dramatic argument that, essentially, it is irrational to ignore the irrational. As the fate of Pentheus amply points out, it is not only stupid to do so, it is fatal.

The book I read had the isbn number I gave in my title. An Amazon search pulled up this page. There seems to have been a mix-up somehow because many of the other reviews seem to be referring to other translations of this work. The Dover Thrift edition states in a bibliographical note that the translation used is that of Henry Hart Milman, first published in 1865. I mention this so prospective buyers won't be misled.

This is indeed a thrift edition. There is but the briefest of introductory notes. To get an adequate background which explains the context of the action, the reader will have to look elsewhere. I found plenty of sources on the internet, but one in particular which was outstanding. That was: "Introductory Note To Euripides' Bacchae" by Ian Johnston, a retired instructor at Vancouver University. This was a very lucid, well-written introduction and commentary on the play which provided context and also considered several different interpretations of it's meaning.

This translation, though having a certain lyrical quality, seems in many places awkward, with subjects, verbs, and objects of sentences doing a cumbersome dance and sometimes getting out of order. I glanced at the beginning of a translation by the above-mentioned Ian Johnston which seemed much more direct and understandable. However, I'm not out to knock this translation, just to point out there might be desirable alternatives.

My interest in reading the 'Bacchae' was aroused by a book called 'Sexual Persona', by Camille Paglia. Paglia sees the whole of Western Civilization as achieving its successes through the suppression of Dionysian irrationality by Apollonian focus - hard, rational, and discriminating. For her, the Apollonian expression reached a high point in the production of Aeschylus' 'Oresteia', with it's concept of a rational code of justice. The 'Oresteia' appeared during a time of vigor for classical Greece. The 'Bacchae', on the other hand was written during a period of decline, and according to Paglia, parodies the idealism of Aeschylus.

She(Paglia) associates the Dionysian frenzy of the 'Bacchae' with the drugs, rock music, and rebelliousness of the 1960's. It is a "panorama of intoxication, delusion, and self-destruction". She equates the conquest by Dionysus with the repressed id erupting to wreak vengeance on the Apollonian super-ego of sharply defined form and rationality.

After reading the play, I must say I think it surely merits these colorful comparisons, for it rivals anything produced by the psychedelic '60's. Most of the time I try to give my own impressions of a book more weight in interpreting its meaning, but I think in the case of ancient Greek drama we have little choice but to pay more heed to the opinions of expert critics. We are so far removed from the cultural factors which produced these works it is impossible to penetrate very deeply without help from the experts. I'm sure there are many worthwhile commentators other than the two I mentioned, but without their help, the 'Bacchae' would have remained an interesting, but bizarre and murky mystery to me.

Great drama. I'm not a huge "classics" fan and yet I enjoyed this. If you're into Greek mythology and like flowery language and prose (and lots of melodrama) you will enjoy this. HINT: don't read these plays line-by-line like a poem - I find that it's more difficult to follow them that way. Read this like you would a novel.

I doubt anyone will go so far as to shell out $65.00 and find out the hard way, but this spectacular book:

1986 2nd ed.
English Book lix, 253 p. ; 19 cm.
Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press.
ISBN: 0198721250 (pbk.) 9780198721253 (pbk.)

contains in fact the Greek text, with apparatus, accompanied by this great scholar's introduction and line by line commentary. I have never seen a better commentary on a Greek tragedy, and in fact the work may be of some value to Greekless readers, but it is NOT the translation referred to by the other reviewers at this site.

No translator is credited for this text - the incredible story of Dionysus' entry into Greece which has interesting hints of hidden rituals and about which Nietzsche wrote extensively. Dodds, the Greek scholar, has also concentrated on it. The text here, published by Classicbooksamerica, uses a mock-Biblical English ("doths" and "canst thous"), making it dreary for the contemporary reader. . .lacks clarity, lacks soul.

I used this book as a resource for a college paper when I was a little short of time. The accompanying historical and amplifying material was very helpful as was the summary of the play in the back.