{"id":51,"date":"2020-07-22T17:04:01","date_gmt":"2020-07-23T00:04:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2020-08-10T13:21:03","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T20:21:03","slug":"unit-7-primary-source-readings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/unit-7-primary-source-readings\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 7 Primary Source Readings: Tricksters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/h2>\n

For Unit 7 you have one primary source reading.\u00a0The Bacchae\u00a0is a tragic play written by the playwright Euripides and performed right after his death in 403 BCE. It won first prize in the tragic theatre competition at the City Dionysia, the annual, multi-day festival held in Athens for the god Dionysus. It would have been performed at the Theater of Dionysus on the Athenian acropolis (pictured below). <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In this play, Dionysus is imagined as a brand new god, the latest and last edition to the pantheon of Olympian gods, newly come from the east to his mother’s city of Thebes. His mother, Semele, had become pregnant with Dionysus by Zeus, but had subsequently been accidentally killed when she asked Zeus to display himself to her, a mortal woman, in all his divine glory.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysus has come to Thebes to show off his powers and to test the piety of his mother’s family\u2013 his grandfather, Cadmus, his cousin, Pentheus, and his aunt, Agave. With him he has brought his Bacchants, female worshipers who have left their homes and looms to dance ecstatically in the mountains and forests, donning fawnskins and ivy crowns, causing milk and honey to\u00a0 flow from the rocks, and performing gruesome, unspeakable acts.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

As you read the play, consider the following questions:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In what ways is or isn’t Dionysus a trickster figure?<\/strong><\/em>
\nWhat boundaries does Dionysus cross?<\/strong><\/em>
\nIn what ways is this a particularly appropriate play for Dionysus, the god of theatre and performance?\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

EURIPIDES\u2019 <\/strong>\u201cBACCHAE,\u201d <\/strong>First production posthumously in 403BCE At City Dionysia, 1st<\/sup> Prize.\u00a0 Translated by George Theodoridis \u00a9 2005<\/h2>\n

http:\/\/bacchicstage.wordpress.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any NON-COMMERCIAL purpose. For use by any theatrical, educational or cinematic organisation, however, including a non-commercial one, permission must be sought.
\n<\/em>Under no circumstances should any of this work be used as part of a collage, which includes the work of other writers or translators.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n

Dramatis Personae<\/u><\/strong><\/h3>\n

DIONYSOS<\/strong>[1]<\/strong><\/a>
\n(also known as Bromius, Bacchus, Evius -see Home page)<\/p>\n

TEIRESIAS<\/strong>
\n(Prophet of Thebes)<\/p>\n

KADMOS<\/strong>
\n(Founder and former king of Thebes)<\/p>\n

PENTHEUS<\/strong>
\n(King of Thebes, Kadmos\u2019 grandson)<\/p>\n

AGAVE<\/strong>
\n(Pentheus\u2019 mother)<\/p>\n

MESSENGER<\/strong><\/p>\n

SERVANT TO PENTHEUS<\/strong><\/p>\n

TWO SERVANTS TO KADMOS<\/strong><\/p>\n

CHORUS OF EASTERN BACCHANTS<\/strong>
\nTHEBAN FOLLOWERS OF AGAVE<\/strong>
\nGUARDS, ATTENDANTS TO PENTHEUS<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-
\nThe royal palace of Thebes.\u00a0<\/em>
\nTwo or three steps separate the palace from the ground.<\/em>
\nNight.\u00a0 Behind the curtains we hear flutes, tambourines and drums playing \u201ceastern\u201d (Lydian\/Persian) music.\u00a0 The percussion is made by swords banging upon drums, as we\u2019ll see later.<\/em>
\nFemale shouts of \u201cecstasy\u201d and joyful rage, the signifiers of Dionysiac festival.<\/em>
\nThunder and Lightning interrupt\u00a0 the music and the festive shouts.
\nThe Lightning briefly reveals a tomb at Stage Right and back, close to the palace wall.\u00a0 Dionysos the god is standing behind the tomb and is seen through the lightening.
\nHe has come to Earth in the guise of a human.
\nA brief silent pause before Dawn slowly lights up the stage. <\/em>
\nIn front of the tomb and with his back to the audience, stands Dionysos. <\/em>
\nThe tomb is made of stones and a thin curlicue of smoke is slowly rising from above it.<\/em>
\nHe is carefully and reverently placing some grape vines upon it and around it. <\/em>
\nIn the surrounding ground, we will see shoots of fennel.<\/em>
\nHe is holding a tall thyrsus<\/em>[2]<\/em><\/a>
\nDionysos is a young, handsome, gentle man with a boyish (if not effeminate) appearance and with long, soft, blond plaits. On his head is a garland of ivy, again fashionably and fastidiously placed, and his clothes are brightly coloured (thus showing he\u2019s a foreigner and from the east). His beard is red. <\/em>
\nThe ivy garland, I would have it, forms a long but soft drape that hangs plaited within his hair from the top of the back of his head to almost the ground. <\/em><\/p>\n

He addresses the audience.\u00a0 Gently, softly and with dignity.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:\u00a0Looks around him, examining the \u201cland\u201d<\/em>
\nSo here I am!\u00a0 Thebes!
\nI am Dionysos, son of Zeus.\u00a0 My mother was Semele and she was Kadmos\u2019 daughter.
\nZeus delivered me from my mother with one of his awesome lightening bolts.
\nIndicates the tomb behind him<\/em>.
\nUp there!
\nI have left my godly appearance and taken on that of man and so, here I am now, walking by the brooks and creeks of Dirki, through the waters of Isminos.
\nYes, I have taken the guise of a common man, me the god, Dionysos.
\nAgain turns and points at the tomb.<\/em>
\nI can see my mother\u2019s tomb back there, near the royal palace. Struck dead by Zeus\u2019 flame\u2026 and there!\u00a0 The smoke still raises from the ruins of her house, a potent sign that Hera\u2019s savage anger towards my mother will never be quenched.
\nI thank and admire old Kadmos for turning this into a sacred monument in honour of his daughter.
\nOf course, it was I who shaded the tomb with vines, full of grapes.
\nI\u2019ve left behind me the gold-rich farms of Lydia and Frygia.\u00a0 I went through the stony walls of Vaktria, and the wild and freezing lands of the Medes, the sun-washed fields of Persia, the whole of blessed Arabia and the rest of Asia.\u00a0 A land, spread far alongside the sea with cities full of sublime tall towers, full of Greeks and Barbarians all pleasantly mingled together.
\nAnd in all these lands I have shown my mysteries, taught my dances and established myself as a god.
\nThis is the first Greek city I\u2019ve visited, the first one I\u2019ve come to introduce myself and my rites.
\n23 <\/strong>
\nFirstly, I\u2019ve stirred these Theban women,\u00a0 dressed them in fawn skins and armed them with the thyrsus and its ivy crown.
\nKadmos\u2019 daughters, you see, would not accept that my father was Zeus.\u00a0 They should have known better than to behave like that towards my mother. They were accusing her of having slept with some mortal or other and then blamed Zeus for my birth. Typical Kadmos\u2019 trickery: protect the daughter\u2019s honour and you protect your own. But the sisters kept spreading the rumour that my mother had slept with a human and that she had blamed a god for her \u201cimproper\u201d pregnancy and that\u2019s why, they say, that God had killed her.
\nSo, to these Theban women, I\u2019ve delivered a little bit of madness.\u00a0 Made them leave their house and rush off all in a rage to the mountains where they now live.
\nI\u2019ve made them wear the dress of my rites and ceremonies and tore the logic out of their minds.\u00a0 The whole female population of Thebes. Then, I\u2019ve sent them off to the mountains to live with Kadmos\u2019 daughters, my mother\u2019s sisters, among the wild beasts, in a wild forest, beneath the wild firs and rocks, without roof nor shelter over their heads.
\nThis city must learn one way or another, whether it likes it or not, that it can\u2019t stay uninitiated and ignorant of my rites!
\nThis city must learn, one way or another, whether it likes it not that my mother was innocent and this city must apologise to her!
\nThis city must learn, one way or another, whether it likes it not that I am here to reveal to the whole world that I am her son, Semele\u2019s son and the son of Zeus!
\n42 <\/strong>
\nOld man Kadmos has now left his crown to his daughter\u2019s son, Pentheus.\u00a0 Now that\u2019s a man who habitually fights with gods and leaves me out of all his libations and prayers.\u00a0 So, I shall show him and all his Thebans that I am truly a god.\u00a0 After that, after I\u2019ve settled everything here and got them all to know me, I shall go elsewhere in the world, teaching the people about my strength as a god.
\nIf the people of Thebes decide to take arms against my Bacchants and pursue them from their mountain, I\u2019ll stand at the head of my Maenads and enter the battle with them.
\nThis is why I\u2019ve taken on the guise of a man.<\/p>\n

From both sides of the stage we hear the tambourines and ecstatic sounds of women. It is that of the chorus of maenads (Dionysos\u2019 followers) and, after a short pause they enter dancing\u00a0 wildly, frenzied<\/em>[3]<\/em><\/a>, noisily.<\/em>
\nThey are foreigners, \u201cOrientals.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos: (continued)<\/em>
\nAh! My darling group of followers!\u00a0 Here you are! Come, come in, my darlings!\u00a0 You, who have followed me here, all the way from Tmolos, Lydia\u2019s stronghold, that land inhabited by barbarians.\u00a0 Come, my travelling mates, my friends, play your Phrygian instruments, your drums and tambourines, the instruments that mother Rea and I discovered.
\nPlay around here, around King Pentheus\u2019 palace and let Kadmos\u2019 city hear us.\u00a0 I\u2019m off to visit the other Bacchants, the Thebans, those whom I made live in the crags, peaks and valleys of Kitheron.\u00a0 I shall join them in their dances there.<\/p>\n

Exit Dionysos
\nThe Chorus of Maenads plays for a few moments before one begins to speak.<\/em><\/p>\n

64<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nI\u2019ve left the Asian land, the wholly mount of Tmolos and worked my way here,
\nIn speed and hard labour!
\nIn speed
\nAnd
\nIn sweet labour,
\nWith a joyous exhaustion<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI\u2019ve come to you, singing ecstatic songs for Dionysos, the god who bellows thunders.
\nWho \u2013 who\u2019s there?
\nWho \u2013 who\u2019s in the road?
\nWho \u2013 who\u2019s outside their house?
\nLet them all shut themselves inside their homes!
\nLet them all shut their mouths
\nIn holy silence!<\/p>\n

70<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nO, my Lord, Dionysos!
\nMy voice will always sing your praise!
\nBlessed is he who knows the sacraments and sacred rites of the gods
\nAnd performs Dionysos\u2019 cleansing rituals high on the mountains,
\nHis soul in unison
\nWith the god\u2019s band of followers –
\nFor he lives a life pure!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nAnd blessed is he, too, who has faith in the mysteries of our Great Mother, Cybele
\nAnd wears the garland of ivy,
\nAnd waves a Bacchic staff
\nAnd bows to Dionysos
\nHe, too, is blessed indeed!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nCome, Bacchants!
\nBacchants Come!
\nLet\u2019s bring back Dionysos the god who bellows thunders strong!
\nA god born of god!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nBring him back from the mountains of Phrygia!
\nBring him back, Bacchants,
\nTo the streets of Greece
\nBring back
\nDionysos!<\/p>\n

88<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nA long while ago, at the time when his mother\u2019s stomach
\nWas full with him and with pain,
\nZeus sent his bolt of burning light at her,
\nRelieving her of the child, of the pain and of her life,
\nUntimely all, all done before time!
\nAnd immediately, Zeus snatched the child
\nAnd
\nMade a womb out of his
\nHoly thigh, then quickly sowed the wound with
\ngolden needles,
\nLest his
\nWife, Hera, sniffed out the act!<\/p>\n

100<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nThen, when the Fates weaved whole his time in the womb, Zeus brought forth Bull-horned Dionysos and placed a garland of writhing snakes amidst his tresses, a cause for Beast-eating Maenads to do the same with their wild hair.
\nA garland of snakes upon the head of a god
\nA garland of snakes upon the heads of his Maenads!<\/p>\n

105<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nO Thebes! Garland yourself with ivy!
\nThebes! You who nurtured Semele,
\nAdorn yourselves richly with branches of bryony
\nAnd dance wildly with branches of fir and oak!<\/p>\n

111 <\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nPut on the dappled fawn skins on your back and crown your heads with soft curls of white wool.
\nWrap holy ivy around the rebellious wand of our god and hold it with reverence –
\nAnd when our god, Dionysos, the god who bellows thunders, arrives with his ecstatic band \u2013there, high upon the mountain, Upon the mountain, to where the women have escaped from their loom and their shuttlecock-\u00a0 all those women, made wild by the frenzy Dionysos sent them, that\u2019s when the whole of Thebes shall dance, shall dance wildly, ecstatically!
\nWhen Dionysos arrives upon the mountain.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\n120 <\/strong>
\nHome of the Kouretes!
\nmost sacred land of Zeus!
\nCrete\u2019s deepest valley!
\nThere the three crested Corybantes invented this drum!
\nA piece of skin tightly drawn over a circle,
\nWhich when in frenzy they bring together its loud beat with that of the soft breath of the Phrygian Flutes.
\nThis drum they\u2019ve put in mother Rhea\u2019s hands for her to accompany the wild cries of the Bacchants.<\/p>\n

130 <\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nAh, but the sly Satyrs stole it from her hands and straightaway united it with the crazy dances of Dionysos that come every second year.
\nA splendid joy for the god.
\nHappy is that Satyr who runs freely in the valley, dressed in the soft, holy skin of a deer, seeking the blood of a slaughtered stag and the joy of eating raw flesh as he charges deep into the mountains of the Phrygians and the Lydians.<\/p>\n

140 <\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nFirst among the blessings, Thunderous Dionysos!
\nIn the valley flows the milk and the sweet wine.
\nIn the valley the nectar from the bees runs freely and so do the smoky smells that are like Syrian incense.
\nAnd
\nThere the god, holding a fennel torch, lit high, jumps and runs, jumps and runs until he urges his maenads into the mystic dance and with his cries makes them wild.
\nLook there how he lets his curly tresses loose to the whims of the wind\u2019s breath.
\nAnd
\nThen, triumphantly he shouts:<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nBlessings, blessings!
\nSing for Dionysos with the heavy sounds of the drum.
\nBlessings, blessings to the blessed God, with Phrygian shouts and cries, when the sweet-voiced sacred flute plays loud songs in harmony as they travel up the mountain, that mountain.
\nJoyfully then, like the filly follows her mare, the maenad kicks her legs high.<\/p>\n

Enter Teiresias, a blind seer, holding the hand of a boy-guide with one hand and a thyrsus with the other. <\/em>
\nAlmost totally bald and with a thin long grey beard.\u00a0 The ivy garland around his bald head, precariously situated and askew, make him a comical figure.\u00a0 He is wearing a fawn-skin jacket. <\/em>
\nHis body is bent by his many years.<\/em><\/p>\n

170<\/strong>
\nTeiresias:
\nWho keeps the gate?
\nThe boy goes and knocks at the door.<\/em>
\nCall Kadmos out here. Kadmos, Aginorus\u2019 son, who left the city of Sidon and came here to build this towering city, Thebes.
\nLet someone go in and tell him that I, Teiresias is looking for him. He knows why I\u2019m here and what we\u2019ve agreed on. An old man, me, with an even older man, him.\u00a0 We\u2019ll light up fennel reeds and dress in soft deer leather.\u00a0 We\u2019ll cover our heads with garlands of ivy.<\/p>\n

The boy goes through the gate to inform Kadmos.\u00a0 He does not come back.
\nSmall Pause
\nEnter Kadmos, already dressed in fawn skin and ivy garland and carrying a long thyrsus.\u00a0 He is older then Teiresias and looks much like him, though we see a bit more evidence of \u201c joie de vivre\u201d about his demeanour and behaviour.\u00a0 We need to show this extra bit of jovial behaviour so that we can create a sharper contrast with his demeanour towards the end of the play.
\nHis ivy garland is well placed and he\u2019s often running his hand over it, taking care that it\u2019s not out of place.
\nHe greets Teiresias with enthusiasm.<\/em><\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nO, my friend!\u00a0 What joy the sound of your voice gives me.\u00a0 I heard it inside the palace and thought, now, there\u2019s a wise voice from a wise man!
\nHere I am, Teiresias, dressed the way the god wants us to dress.\u00a0 We must obey everyone of Dionysos\u2019 wishes, in every way possible.\u00a0 He is my daughter\u2019s son and he proved to all the mortals that he is indeed a god\u00a0\u00a0 Let\u2019s show him our respect as much as we can.
\nHe hops about excitedly and checks out his \u201cdancing\u201d feet.
\nI have no idea where we should dance, where we should place our foot, where we should bend our aged head.
\n185 <\/strong>
\nGuide me, old Teiresias, me a poor old man.\u00a0 At least you are a wise man.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be thrashing the earth with this thyrsus.\u00a0 What a great thing it is, ey?\u00a0 We\u2019ve forgotten our years with all this happiness.<\/p>\n

Teiresias:
\nYou feel exactly as I feel, my friend, because I, too, feel young and I, too, shall have a go at this mystic dancing.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nWell then, shall we take a carriage to the mountain?<\/p>\n

Teiresias:
\nNo!\u00a0 No, no, no!\u00a0 This is not how one shows reverence to a god!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nWell then, here we are: I, an old man will guide you, another old man.<\/p>\n

Teiresias:
\nNothing to worry about.\u00a0 The god will guide us both there without the slightest effort on our part.\u00a0\u00a0 No fatigue whatsoever, Kadmos!<\/p>\n

195<\/strong>
\nKadmos: Looks around him with some concern.<\/em>
\nHey, Teiresias? Are we going to be the only two doing Dionysos\u2019 holy dance?<\/p>\n

They begin a very slow advance towards exit SL.\u00a0 They stop near the curtain when they sense Pentheus coming from the other end.<\/em><\/p>\n

Teiresias:
\nYes, Kadmos because we are the only ones who can think straight.\u00a0 The rest of them?\u00a0 They are all wrong!<\/p>\n

Kadmos
\nCome on, old man. We\u2019ll be late.\u00a0 Hold onto my hand, now.<\/p>\n

Teiresias:
\nHere you are.\u00a0 Grab my hand.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nA mortal should never treat the gods with disdain.<\/p>\n

Teiresias:
\nNo point in playing around with subtle words.\u00a0 All our traditions, all those things handed down to us by our ancestors from many years back will not be dislodged, no matter how subtle the thinking.
\nO, I can hear them say, \u201caren\u2019t you ashamed of your years?\u00a0 Going dancing at your age, your head wrapped in ivy?\u201d\u00a0 No, I am not ashamed.\u00a0\u00a0 God shows no prejudice in age.\u00a0 He wants reverence from all\u2026 he is not interested in numbers.<\/p>\n

210<\/strong>
\nKadmos: Looking deep into behind the curtains SR<\/em>
\nTeiresias, old friend, seeing that the sun\u2019s rays don\u2019t help your eyesight I\u2019ll tell you what I see with mine.\u00a0 I can see Pentheus coming towards the palace.\u00a0 Ehion\u2019s son. I\u2019ve handed Thebes\u2019 throne to him.\u00a0\u00a0 He looks quite disturbed. I wonder what news he\u2019s about to bring us.<\/p>\n

They hide behind the tomb
\nEnter Pentheus SR. with two armed guards.\u00a0 He is a young man, full of anger.
\nHe wears a short tunic and a sword.\u00a0 His hair is long but tied neatly in a \u201cpony tail\u201d
\nHe enters the stage not having noticed the two men and addresses his guards.<\/em><\/p>\n

215<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nAll I\u2019ve done is to go away from Thebes for just a short while and what happens?\u00a0\u00a0 My ears are buzzing with dreadful and bizarre disasters, hitting my beloved country.
\nI heard that our women have left their homes and gone off to the mountains dancing the Bacchic dances! Some new, young god!\u00a0 Utter rubbish!\u00a0 There they are, placing great tubs full of wine in the centre of their group, in the middle of nowhere and off they go, one here, another there, rolling around with any man they come across and giving the excuse that they are maenads; but what are they doing?
\n225 <\/strong>
\nServing Dionysos?\u00a0\u00a0 No way!\u00a0 They\u2019re serving Aphrodite!
\nI\u2019ve caught some of them, tied their hands and locked them up in various public buildings. The rest, those who escaped, I\u2019ll catch from the mountains. Ino, for example and Agave, she who with Ehion gave birth to me, as well as Aktaion\u2019s mother, I mean Aftonoe.\u00a0 I\u2019ll shut them up behind bars as well so that I can stop this scoundrel\u2019s bacchic rites.
\nI\u2019m told that he is some young foreign smooth talker, some magician from somewhere in Lydia, with blond and scented plaits, and they say also that one can see in his wine-coloured eyes the charms of Aphrodite.\u00a0 And this man hangs around all the young girls and offers them entry to the \u201cmystic rites!\u201d
\nIf I get to catch this crook anywhere near this palace I\u2019ll make sure I\u2019ll stop his thyrsus-thrashing and his hair-waving once and for all, by separating his torso from his head.
\n241<\/strong>
\nHa!\u00a0\u00a0 Apparently, this fool says that Dionysos is a true god.\u00a0 He says that Dionysos was sown up inside Zeus\u2019 thigh!\u00a0 How stupid! The true fact of the matter was that Zeus burned him, along with his mother with flaming lightning.
\nWell, when some stranger comes and gives you all these lies and insolence, what do you do?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t all this stuff worthy of the hangman\u2019s rope?
\nHe notices Teiresias and Kadmos<\/em>
\nHa! O, my God! Now there\u2019s a real sight to behold! Is this some sort of madman\u2019s apparition?\u00a0 Our good old prophet, Teiresias, the seer of the guts of beasts! There he is, dressed with delightful skins of deer and, with him, my mother\u2019s father \u2013what a laugh- off for his bit of bacchic revelry with his own thyrsus at the ready.
\nNo, no, no, grandfather, seeing you like this, I just can\u2019t believe that your old age has filled your head with wisdom.
\nUnwind that ivy from your thyrsus, relieve your hands of them grandfather. They do not suit you.\u00a0 Did you persuade him to do this, Teiresias?\u00a0\u00a0 Is it you who wants to bring to our city this new god only so that you can make more money with more new waffly oracles from birds and fires?
\nYour grey hair saved you old man.\u00a0 Otherwise, I\u2019d tie you up and place you in the very centre of these wild women.\u00a0 That would teach you to bring to our good city treacherous new rites.\u00a0 I\u2019m telling you both, no good comes out of drunk women.
\nWine wisdom and orgies are dangerous.<\/p>\n

263<\/strong>
\nChorus: To Pentheus (Shocked)<\/em>
\nO, what disrespect! What awful disrespect you show to our gods, friend!\u00a0 Not even towards Kadmos who sowed here the earth-born seed from which your race of men was born and you, Ehion\u2019s son!\u00a0 How can you shame you own race like this?<\/p>\n

Teiresias:<\/p>\n

When a wise man is given the opportunity to speak, it\u2019s no big problem to speak the truth.\u00a0 You, Pentheus, you are, of course an articulate man, or so you think, but your words lack logic.\u00a0 Audacity, strength and eloquence all on their own, make for a bad citizen \u2013 a stupid one.<\/p>\n

This new god, whom you mock\u2026 I can\u2019t tell how strong he is here in Greece but there are two things, young man that are most important to people: It is. goddess Demetre (call her by whatever other name you want) who feeds the folk on Earth and who IS Earth; and her counterpart, Dionysos, the son of Semele, this god, the god who discovered the juice of the grape and which he brought to us mortals.
\n280 <\/strong>
\nThis liquid holds back the pain of the tortured soul, gives soft sleep to folk and lets them forget their daily suffering.\u00a0 There\u2019s truly no better medicine for pain or fatigue.
\nHe is truly a god and he is revered as much as the other gods so that mortals may enjoy his offerings.
\nYou laugh at the fact that he was sown into Zeus\u2019 thigh?\u00a0 Well, let me show you exactly how that happened.
\nYou see, as soon as Zeus grabbed the newborn Dionysos from the fire of the lightning bolt, he took him to Mt Olympus and presented him to all the gods there as another god.\u00a0 Hera, however, his wife, would have none of this and wanted him thrown out of the Heavens, so Zeus, the great god that he is, thought of this clever idea to protect the child.\u00a0 He opened up a small pocket in the sky, in the ether, that surrounds our earth and placed him in there.\u00a0 This, it seems calmed Hera\u2019s anger and he too, was able to avoid Hera\u2019s constant whining.\u00a0 In time, the words, \u201cether\u201d and \u201cthigh\u201d were mingled in the minds of men and so the myth has been spun how Dionysos was sown in Zeus\u2019 thigh.
\n295 <\/strong>
\nMoreover, this god is also a teller of oracles. He\u2019s a prophet.\u00a0 You see, the Bacchic rites and the ecstasy which comes with it, have a potent prophetic strength because when the god takes over the body of his followers completely and utterly, when he enters himself in their body, and therein he blossoms to his full, those lucky people are given the abilities of the prophets. It\u2019s called\u00a0 Prophecy through frenzy.
\nYet, he also possesses much of Ares\u2019 art of war, as well. You can visualise a whole army, standing in line, ready for attack, spears, shields and bows at the ready. Suddenly, even before a spear has been thrown, a panic, an incomprehensible frenzy takes over the whole army.\u00a0 This frenzy is the work of Dionysos.
\nYou\u2019ll also see him around Delphi, jumping about its stones, over the two-peaked mountains of pine, shaking the huge Bacchic branches.
\nDionysos is a great god, loved and revered throughout the whole of Greece!
\n310 <\/strong>
\nBut believe me, young Pentheus!\u00a0 Don\u2019t ever think that great authority over men, like the one you hold, means great strength!\u00a0 Don\u2019t be too proud of such a throne.\u00a0 Nor be proud of a faulty opinion.\u00a0 There\u2019s no wisdom in pride of such things.\u00a0\u00a0 Think a little better and accept this god on earth, participate in his rites and put the ivy garland around your head.
\nIt\u2019s not Dionysos who forces women to submit to lust.\u00a0 Wisdom is all things natural. A wise woman will not abuse her chastity even during the Bacchic rites. This you have to see.
\n320 <\/strong>
\nYou know how you enjoy it when there are many people at these gates and Pentheus\u2019 name is exalted throughout Thebes?\u00a0 Well,\u00a0 I think that that\u2019s how Dionysos feels also when we revere him.
\nYou laugh at poor Kadmos here, your kind grandfather but he and I, with the ivy on our heads will go dancing the Bacchic dances!\u00a0 You see our grey hair and you think we must be mad but we shall dance!\u00a0 We shall dance! (kicks his heels high)<\/em>.
\nWe\u2019re not going to stand here and argue theology with you and use your type of sacrilegious words.
\nPentheus, you\u2019re incurably insane!
\nThere\u2019s no medicine for that and no matter which medicine you take, you\u2019ll still be mad!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nOld man, Teiresias, your words certainly don\u2019t offend Apollo.\u00a0 By respecting the Bellowing Dionysos you show yourself a wise individual.<\/p>\n

330<\/strong>
\nKadmos:<\/p>\n

Come, my child.\u00a0 Teiresias is right.\u00a0 Believe as we do.\u00a0 Don\u2019t try and move away from our Laws.\u00a0 Your mind is a bit\u2026 flighty at the moment and so, no matter what you put your mind to, you comprehend nothing.\u00a0 Even if by your calculation, Dionysos is no god so what?\u00a0 It would be best for you to lie. Lie so that Semele believes that she gave birth to a god.\u00a0 That way, even we and our whole race, would receive honours.<\/p>\n

You saw Aktaion\u2019s gruesome death. Torn to shreds by flesh-eating hounds, the very ones he was nurturing.\u00a0 That\u2019s the Fate that visited him when he boasted that he was a better hunter than Artemis.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the same happen to you.\u00a0 Come, let me make you an ivy crown and pay your respects to the god as we do.<\/p>\n

343<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nForget it!\u00a0 No, don\u2019t come near me!\u00a0 Off you go!\u00a0 Go on, off to your Bacchic rites you go!\u00a0 Don\u2019t try and corrupt me with your idiocy.\u00a0 I\u2019ll have this teacher of yours, this teacher of madness and frenzy, arrested.
\nTo his attendants<\/em>
\nOne of you go quickly to this god\u2019s \u201cthrone,\u201d where he does all his prophesying and with iron picks toss everything upside-down, break down walls, throw all the garlands to the four winds.\u00a0 Toss them all to the storms.
\nThis ought to hurt him a bit.\u00a0 And let some others search the city for this effeminate stranger, this idiot who brought this new sickness to our women and has polluted their bed. And when you catch him, tie him up and bring him here to me.\u00a0 Then he\u2019ll see a merciless trial.\u00a0 He\u2019ll see a bitter celebration of his religion here in Thebes.<\/p>\n

Exit guards hurriedly SL.<\/em>
\nExit Pentheus angrily into the palace, centre gate.<\/em><\/p>\n

358<\/strong>
\nTeiresias:
\nIrrational, impetuous youth!\u00a0 Fire in the head! He can\u2019t see where his words are leading him.\u00a0 Out of his wits one moment, thoroughly insane the next!
\nCome, Kadmos, come, my old friend. Let\u2019s go.\u00a0 At least we can pray to the god for him. He\u2019s a madman that grandson of yours and I wouldn\u2019t be at all surprised if he brought some new disaster to Thebes.
\nRight, now you follow me with your thyrsus and I\u2019ll try and keep my body straight. You do the same with yours.\u00a0 It\u2019d be a great shame for two old men to tumble over.\u00a0 Come on, we have to hurry.\u00a0 Dionysos, Zeus\u2019 son is waiting.
\nDo you think Mister Mournful in there (indicating Pentheus) <\/em>will bring into your palace something to really mourn about, Kadmos?\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m not giving you a prophesy now, though I am a seer; I\u2019m just talking: hollow words from a hollow-headed old man.<\/p>\n

Exit both<\/em><\/p>\n

370<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nMost revered of all gods, holy goddess!
\nHoly goddess who gently hovers over earth with her golden wings!
\nDo you see what Pentheus is up to?<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nCan you feel the unholy insult he sent to our Dionysos, Semele\u2019s son, the god who\u2019s first among the blessed gods, the gods whose wreaths are most brilliant, the gods of joy?
\nThis our god\u2019s domain: Rites with dancing, rites that unite our laughter with the sounds of the flute, rites that allow us to forget our everyday cares.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nAh!\u00a0 And that\u2019s when the shiny grape \u2013 when we\u2019re having our supper among the gods \u2013 that\u2019s when the shiny grape, I say, lets the garlanded, hearty men be overtaken by sleep.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nThe folk whose mouths are unreined, unlawful and unwise come to a bad end.\u00a0 Calm life and circumspection are the unassailable foundations of a good home because the inhabitants of the heavens look down and inspect our work from above.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nThe wise are not wise if they don\u2019t consider a human\u2019s lot.
\nLife is short.
\nHe who constantly pursues great achievements in this life, won\u2019t have time to enjoy those he already has achieved.<\/p>\n

400<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nSo far as I can tell, these are the doings of madmen and evil minds.
\nHow I\u2019d love to be in Cyprus, Aphrodite\u2019s island where sublime love is spread evenly among the folk.\u00a0 Take me to Pafos, Dionysos, Bellowing god, take me to Pafos, where one hundred fountains rage in the barbarous torrent of a river, though it never rains; and to Pieria where the beautifully crowned seat of the Muses is and the revered chambers of Olympus!\u00a0 Guide me there, god, leader of the Bacchants.\u00a0\u00a0 There the Graces, there the Passion, there the Bacchants usually hold their celebrations.
\nDionysos, Zeus\u2019 son enjoys the wearing of flowers.<\/p>\n

420 <\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nHe loves Peace, the goddess who gives joy and feeds children.\u00a0 He gave equally to rich and poor the happiness of his wine, the liquid that sends away all sadness. He despises those who hate this joy, those who do not enjoy their lives sitting with friends by the light of the night sky.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWisdom?\u00a0\u00a0 It is wise for men to distance themselves from illogical, far fetched emotions and fruitless thoughts.\u00a0 Give me the thoughts and deeds of the common folk.\u00a0 Now those, I\u2019ll accept far easier.<\/p>\n

Enter the guards who Pentheus has sent earlier, with Dionysos in chains. Dionysos is carrying his thyrsus. One of the guards walks over to the palace and bangs at the gate with his spear. <\/em>
\nThe gate opens and Pentheus enters.<\/em><\/p>\n

433<\/strong>
\nGuard 1:
\nPentheus, my Lord, here we are with the prey you\u2019ve asked us to hunt for.\u00a0 We\u2019ve sat and we\u2019ve waited and, true enough, we\u2019ve caught him.\u00a0\u00a0 Our watch was not wasted.
\nNow this\u2026 \u201cbeast\u201d was quite tame with me, my Lord .\u00a0 Never shook his legs or anything, trying to escape, like, but gave his hands to me without the slightest hesitation.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t become pale or lose the deep blush of his cheeks.\u00a0 He just let himself be taken easily, laughed even and wondered where we\u2019d be taking him.\u00a0\u00a0 Towards me, in any case, this man was a proper gentleman and I felt a bit ashamed about tying him up, see, so I said to him, \u201cStranger,\u201d I said, \u201cI ain\u2019t doin\u2019 this out of my own accord, it\u2019s \u2018cause of Pentheus\u2019 orders.\u00a0 He sent us to do it,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n

Guard 2:
\nAnd as for all them women, me Lord, them that follow that god, my Lord, the Bacchants, those whom you grabbed and locked up with chains and all in all the city\u2019s buildings, well, sir,\u00a0 they\u2019re all loose, sir.\u00a0 Running about all over the countryside, sir, all ready for their orgiasums sir, and they\u2019re all calling out for their Bellowing God, Dionysos.\u00a0\u00a0 All their chains fell apart all by themselves, letting their legs free.\u00a0 So did all the padlocks of the gates.\u00a0 They\u2019ve all gone and opened themselves right up without even one human hand touching them!\u00a0 This man here has a great many tricks up his sneaky sleeves.
\nIt\u2019s your call now, my Lord.<\/p>\n

451<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nMove away from him.\u00a0 He\u2019s no bother while he\u2019s chained like that. He\u2019s not that fast that he\u2019ll escape me.
\nHe examines Dionysos thoroughly.<\/em>
\nHmmm. Physically, you\u2019re not unattractive, stranger.\u00a0 Just like the women for whom you came here, in Thebes. Nice, long plaits, hair that hasn\u2019t felt hard work, and, for a greater sexual effect, it\u2019s spilled all around your beard.\u00a0\u00a0 Your skin is lovely and white because you take good care of it, I see.\u00a0 You don\u2019t expose it to the sun\u2019s rays and you stay in the shade all day, hunting Aphrodite\u2019s beauty.
\nBut first, tell me, what is your race?\u00a0 Where are you from?<\/p>\n

461<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nThat\u2019s an easy question to answer.\u00a0 You\u2019ve heard of Tmolos of the many blooms?<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYes, I\u2019ve heard of Tmolos.\u00a0 That\u2019s the place that surrounds Sardis.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThat\u2019s where I\u2019m from.\u00a0 Lydia is my home.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWhere did you get all these \u201cmysteries\u201d from?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nDionysos, Zeus\u2019 son, initiated me into them.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nIs there a Zeus in Lydia who gives birth to new gods?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nNo, just the one here, who slept in marriage with Semele<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nDid he initiate you in darkness or in light?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nFace-to-face. In the light of day.<\/p>\n

470<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nWhat are these mysteries? What is your view of them?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThey are secret to the uninitiated mortals.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nIs there some benefit for those who participate in these mysteries of yours?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nIt is not right for you to know this but it would be good for you to see those mysteries.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYou\u2019re making them sound great so that I can be persuaded to go on listening to you.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHe who practices disrespect to the gods earns their wrath.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nTell me clearly what your god looks like \u2013if you ever saw him!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHe looked as he pleased. That was not something which I could determine.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nAll the words that came out of your mouth so far meant nothing to me.<\/p>\n

480<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nIt is not wise for someone to say anything wise to the ignorant.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYou came here, to Thebes, to introduce this god of yours first?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThe rest of the world dances to these dances.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nThat\u2019s why when it comes to wisdom, they\u2019re far worse than the Greeks.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nIn that too, they are better; it\u2019s just that their laws are different.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nThese\u2026 holy orgies of yours\u2026 do you perform them during the day or in the night?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nMost of them during the night.\u00a0 Darkness adds a certain modesty.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nThat\u2019s quite a dubious thing for the women\u2026 and rather lecherous, I\u2019d say.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nShame, of course can be seen during the day, too, if it exists and if one were to look for it.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWe must take you to court for your evil philosophies.<\/p>\n

490<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nAnd you, too, for your ignorance and your disrespect for the god.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHow bold this Bacchic initiate is!\u00a0 His tongue is not at all trained in speech.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nShow me, then what terrible fate you have in store for me.\u00a0 What am I about to suffer?<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nFirst, I\u2019ll chop off this long plait of yours.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThe plait is sacred.\u00a0 I nurture it for the god.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nThen your Thyrsus.\u00a0 Give it to me!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou come and take it away from me yourself. I\u2019m holding it for Dionysos.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nAnd then we\u2019ll be guarding your body in jail day and night.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nGod himself will free me when I ask him.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nOf course, you\u2019ll be praying to him only when you\u2019re among all those women followers of yours, all those Bacchants.\u00a0 You\u2019d all be working together to accomplish your escape.<\/p>\n

500<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nGod is present even now, next to me and he sees all that I\u2019m going through.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWhere is he?\u00a0 I can\u2019t see him.\u00a0 Not with my eyes.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHe\u2019s right beside me but you couldn\u2019t possibly see him because you are disrespectful of him.<\/p>\n

Pentheus: To his guards<\/em>
\nGuards, arrest this stranger!\u00a0 He mocks me as well as Thebes!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nLet me tell you calmly: you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re doing -don\u2019t tie me!<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nBut, you see, I must, because I have the greater power of us two.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou don\u2019t even know that you\u2019re alive, nor what it is you\u2019re doing, Pentheus, let alone who you are!<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWho me?\u00a0 I am Pentheus, Agave\u2019s and Ehion\u2019s son.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nPentheus!\u00a0 Your name means grief. Very well qualified to bring it upon yourself!\u00a0\u00a0 Just as your name suggests.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nOff you go! Guards, lock him up in the stables, near the horses\u2019 stalls.\u00a0 Let him enjoy the darkness in there.\u00a0 Dance in there all you like. As for all those women you\u2019ve brought with you, your partners in crime, either we\u2019ll sell them all or I\u2019ll be putting an end to their drum-beating by holding them here, to be my prisoners and to work my looms<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nI\u2019m going; even though I cannot be forced, nor do I have to suffer any pain.\u00a0 For al these uncalled for insults and for saying he does not exist, Dionysos himself will extract his own punishment.\u00a0 By being disrespectful to us, you invoke his anger.<\/p>\n

Exit\u00a0 Dionysos, guards and Pentheus<\/em><\/p>\n

519<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nGracious virgin, Dirke, Aheloo\u2019s daughter, you who once received into your clear waters Zeus\u2019 child when the great god snatched it from the immortal fire and sown it into his thigh. And when the right time came Zeus shouted, to you, \u201cCome, child!\u00a0 Come, you who has knocked at the door of birth twice, come into my deep, male womb!\u00a0 Here I\u2019ll present you to the world and say that, here in Thebes they\u2019ll call you, Dionysos!\u201d<\/p>\n

530 <\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nYet you, blessed Dirke, now send away the garlanded band of dancers which I\u2019ve brought for you.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Why do you fight me still? Why evade me?\u00a0\u00a0 Your turn will come though when you\u2019ll think about Dionysos.\u00a0\u00a0 I swear by the joy of the full-grape wine that the time will come when you\u2019ll think most respectfully of this bellowing god.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nO what anger, what anger the earthly race and Pentheus has shown towards us!\u00a0 He was the child of a serpent which Ehion has sown into the soil. The dragon who bore a human form, a murderous giant, enemy to the gods.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nThis here Pentheus will send us to the gallows, us Dionysos\u2019 followers and Dionysos himself, our leader, he wants to lock him in some hidden room, in some dark jail.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nCan you see all this, Dionysos?\u00a0 Can you see how they torture your prophets?\u00a0 Come to us.\u00a0 Come, shake your golden thyrsus high towards Olympus and stop the rain of insult sent by this murderer.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI wonder where you are, Dionysos. Are you at the peaks of Nyssa where the wild animals graze, with your thyrsus leading your trusty bands?\u00a0 Or are you at the twin Korykian peaks?<\/p>\n

560 <\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nSoon you\u2019ll come to the bushy caverns of Olympus, where once Orpheus with his lyre used to gather the Muses and the wild animals beneath the trees.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nO, blessed greens of Pieria, Dionysos adores you and he\u2019ll come to dance leading his swift-footed Maenads.\u00a0 They\u2019ll pass the rushing waters of the river Axios and then they\u2019ll pass the father of all rivers, the river Lydias, that with his sparkling waters, gives the joy of comfort in living to all the mortals and quenches the thirst of the wonderful horses and of their land.<\/p>\n

From within the palace we hear the crashing and smashing of a building and the voice of Dionysos calling his followers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nIo!\u00a0\u00a0 Io!\u00a0 Hear my voice!\u00a0 Hear my voice, my followers!\u00a0 Bacchants!\u00a0 Bacchants!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWho\u2019s there? Who\u2019s there? I heard the voice of Dionysos.\u00a0 Where did he call me from?<\/p>\n

580<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nIo!\u00a0 Io!\u00a0 I call again! It is I, the son of Zeus and Semele.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nIo!\u00a0 Io! My Lord!\u00a0 My Lord!\u00a0 Come to us, Dionysos, my Lord!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nMove Earth, move!\u00a0 Shake, our beloved Earth!<\/p>\n

More collapsing of the building<\/em><\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nQuick! Pentheus\u2019 palace is being turned into ruins.
\nDionysos is in those ruins!\u00a0 Pray for him!
\nAhhhh!\u00a0 I\u2019m praying for Dionysos!
\nLook, the stone pillars and those logs!\u00a0 See how they rolled out of their position!\u00a0 Dionysos is calling out from in there somewhere, under the palace\u2019s roof.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nLightning strike!\u00a0 Light up your burning torches!\u00a0 Put Pentheus\u2019 chambers to the torch!<\/p>\n

The light on Semele\u2019s tomb shoots up for a second.<\/em><\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nAh! Did you see the flame on Semele\u2019s holy tomb? Once the flame of lightning extinguished it with Zeus\u2019 thunder.
\nThrow your shaken bodies to the ground, maenads! Throw them!<\/p>\n

The chorus falls around the tomb in supplication.
\nAfter a short pause:
\nThe palace door opens and Dionysos enters, barely touched by the disaster inside.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nMy dear Lydians, are you so frightened that you fell prostrate to the ground?\u00a0 Looks like you realised that Dionysos has destroyed Pentheus\u2019 house.\u00a0 Come on, get up now and show some courage.\u00a0 Shed away your body\u2019s terror.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHow bright is the light of our joy!
\nHow happy we are to see you!
\nWe despair no longer!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWe are no longer unprotected!<\/p>\n

610<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nWere you saddened when they took me and threw me in Pentheus\u2019 dark jails, my dears?<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHow could we not be sad?\u00a0 Who would be our protector if you fell into some terrible misfortune?\u00a0 But how did you manage to free yourself from the grips of that irreverent man?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nEasily. I freed myself with ease.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nBut didn\u2019t he have your hands tied up with thick knotted ropes?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nAnd that\u2019s exactly where I showed him how foolish he is.\u00a0 His mind was full of hope instead of reality and so, in his delusion, he thought that he had tied me up but, the fool, he had neither touched me nor hurt me in the slightest.
\nHe took me to the stall of a bull and instead of tying the ropes around my hands he tied them around the bull\u2019s knees and hooves, all the while fuming with rage, his body covered in sweat and biting at his lips.\u00a0 I watched him from nearby in utter comfort.
\nIt was then that Dionysos came and lit the flame on my mother\u2019s tomb.\u00a0 As soon as he saw that he thought that the palace was burning and so he was jumping all around the place, shouting for someone to bring Aheloos in there.\u00a0 All the slaves got down to work but \u2013 all in vain!
\nI left then and he, too, gave up on trying to save the palace, found his black sword and rushed out into all the rooms.
\n630 <\/strong>
\nBut I think that Dionysos created an apparition in the court and Pentheus charged at it, fighting it as if he was fighting me.\u00a0 More than that, Dionysos, seeing my awful fetters, gave Pentheus something else to think about:\u00a0 He shook the palace from the foundations up, smashed everything!\u00a0 Stupid boy, he was so exhausted now, he dropped his sword and gave up.\u00a0 Irrational man!\u00a0 A mortal trying to fight it out with a god!\u00a0 So, I quietly got out of the palace, forgot about the fool and, here I am, among you!
\nSounds of heavy footsteps from within.<\/em>
\nAh! I think I can hear the heavy footsteps of army boots. I\u2019m sure he is coming out here.\u00a0 I wonder what he\u2019ll say about all this.\u00a0 This will be an easy job for me.\u00a0 Let him be as furious as he wants. I shall meet him calmly because that is how wise people work, calmly.<\/p>\n

640<\/strong>
\nEnter Pentheus with his guards. <\/em>
\nHe is furiously waving his black sword<\/em><\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWhat terrible things I\u2019ve suffered!\u00a0 The foreigner has escaped me even though not long ago he was a tightly secured prisoner.
\nA!\u00a0 There he is!\u00a0 There\u2019s that man!
\nWhat is all this? How did you escape and came out here?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHold it! Calm down!<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHow did you manage to escape the ropes?\u00a0 How did you get out?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nDid I not tell you that someone would untie me?\u00a0\u00a0 Or had you not heard me?<\/p>\n

650<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nWho?\u00a0\u00a0 You\u2019re always coming out with some new excuse.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHe who nurtures the vine for the mortals!<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nAnd who is that? Some vine god who gives up on every law of order amongst the mortals?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou mock those things that Dionysos does for the good of the people.<\/p>\n

Pentheus: To his guards<\/em>
\nGuards, give everyone my orders to surround the palace!<\/p>\n

The guards run off.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nWhat?\u00a0 Do you think that walls can hinder gods?<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nO, you\u2019re a wise man, all right!\u00a0 Wise only about the things that suit you!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nPrecisely.\u00a0 I am wise about all the things that matter in the world.\u00a0 But do listen to the words of him who is coming down from the mountains. He has something to announce to you.
\nDon\u2019t worry, we\u2019ll stay here with you.\u00a0 We won\u2019t be escaping.<\/p>\n

Enter Herald\u00a0 (He is a herdsman and holds a rough, wooden shepherd\u2019s crook)<\/em><\/p>\n

660<\/strong>
\nHerald:
\nLord Pentheus, I left Mount Kitheron -the place which is forever sparkling with the constant fall of snowflakes- to come to you, ruler of our Thebes.<\/p>\n

Pentheus: (Impatiently)<\/em>
\nYes, yes, you came, and what new disaster has your coming brought to us?<\/p>\n

Herald:
\nLord, I saw the frenzied Bacchants up on the mountain, rushing out of their house as if stung hard by a gad fly.\u00a0 They were rushing wildly up towards the mountain,\u00a0 showing their white thighs as they did. Seeing all this I immediately came to tell you about it; but I saw them doing awful things in the city, too, Lord.\u00a0 Should I tell you freely what I saw, my Lord or should I watch my words?\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t want to cop the wrong end of your wrath, my Lord because I know you can be a bit sharp with it and you do have the royal power.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nSpeak! You\u2019re excused of everything you\u2019re about to say.\u00a0 We have no right to be angry at the just.\u00a0 In any case the more awful things you can tell us about the Bacchants, the more I\u2019d be able condemn their instructor.<\/p>\n

677<\/strong>
\nHerald:
\nJust a short while ago, when the sun\u2019s rays were breaking out and getting ready to warm the earth, I took my herd of young cattle to graze over to the mountain side.\u00a0 Just then, I saw three groups of dancing women.\u00a0 The leader of the first was Aftino\u00ade, then your mother, Agave, of the second and of the third group was Ino.
\nTheir bodies looked relaxed, asleep and some were rested with their backs against the pine trees, others rested on fir leaves, their heads bowed modestly towards the ground, to all intents and purposes looking as if they were one with Nature; not the way you said, my Lord, drunk with wine and with the sweet sounds of flutes, chasing lust in the dark solitude of the night.
\nWhen my horned herd neared them and made their usual bellowing noises, your mother woke up, jumped into the centre of the other Bacchants and yelled loudly.
\nThe others, too, threw the sweet sleep from their eyes and stood up straight!\u00a0\u00a0 What a sight for sore eyes, my Lord!\u00a0 Very pleasant indeed! Young virgins, older women, young women, married or unmarried!
\nFirst they let their hair fall to their shoulders, fixed all the clasps and pins of their fawn skin dresses that have become loose and then tied around their waist snakes whose heads came up and licked their beautiful cheeks.
\nOthers, who had babies back home and their breasts were bursting with milk held gently in their arms young deer or young wild wolves which they suckled with their own white milk.
\n700 <\/strong>
\nOthers were making garlands of ivy, fir branches and bryony.\u00a0 One of them hit a rock with her thyrsus and the rock became a spring of gushing clear water. Another digs her reed into the ground and right on that spot the god opens up a spring from where wine rushes out.\u00a0 Those who wanted a drink of milk, all they had to do is scratch the ground with their fingernails and out it would come, all bubbly and white.\u00a0 Sweet honey dripped from the ivy around their thyrsus.
\nSo, my Lord, if you were there just at that very minute and saw all them things, you\u2019d be praising the god who you now condemn.
\nWell, we herdsmen gathered together and began to argue about what them women were doing.\u00a0 Some of that stuff was damned awesome, horrible!
\n720<\/strong>
\nThen one of us, a traveller from the city and good with his words, says to the rest of us, \u201cHey, you folk who live along the gentle mountain slopes, would you like us to grab Agave, Pentheus\u2019 mother, out of all this mystic Bacchic stuff and take her to the King?\u00a0 He\u2019ll be very pleased with us.\u201d
\nWe all thought it was a good idea, so we hid behind shrubs, ready for the ambush.\u00a0 But, I can tell you, Lord, we was also fearing for our lives.\u00a0 The women, though, suddenly began to shake their thyrsus as if they were entering into a bacchic ceremony and, at the same time, all of them with one voice, began to cry out for Zeus\u2019 son, Dionysos.
\nEverything around them joined in the ceremony, the mountain, the beasts, everything swayed in its spot.
\nAgave was also doing like the others and she was heading in my direction.\u00a0 Suddenly, I leapt out of my hiding place and jumped at her, hoping to catch her.
\n730 <\/strong>
\nBut just then she shouted, \u201cHey, my speedy bitches, there are some men here who are hunting us.\u00a0 They want our submission. Come, run with me.\u00a0 Arm yourselves with your thyrsus and come with me! Let\u2019s get them\u201d
\nWe just managed to run away and escape the slaughter but they threw themselves, with no spear nor sword, at the calves that were quietly grazing nearby.\u00a0 One of those women tore a poor, tiny calf away from its mother\u2019s udder and others ripped calves to bloody pieces with their bare hands and then they began eating them raw.
\nMy Lord, you could see bits of flesh strewn all around the place. Whole sides of animals, legs, other chunks of animal flesh hanging from the fir trees, dripping blood.\u00a0 Huge bulls, my Lord which only a few minutes earlier stood tall and proud, the sort that if one got them angry they\u2019d tear everything apart with their massive horns, well, now they dropped their bodies to the ground and straightaway countless girls dragged them about with their bare hands and\u2026 and by the time you blinked your royal eye, my Lord, they\u2019d have the skin torn off those massive carcasses of them bulls.
\nAnd then they went flying about like the wild birds that ruin the proud wheat stalks of Thebes, the ones that fly low next to the rushing waters of Asopos river.\u00a0 Then off them women rushed to the villages of Erythres, near Ysies, at the foot of Mount Kitheron and just like an invading army they turned everything upside down, ripping children out of their houses and taking all sorts of goods from there, which they just threw carelessly over their shoulder without tying anything together; still nothing fell to the dark soil, not even bronze or iron, my Lord!
\nAnd, o, my Lord Pentheus, around their hair there was this brilliant fire that had no effect on them. Didn\u2019t burn them one bit.
\nThen all the men came out fuming with anger and fully armed, wanting to bring these Bacchants into submission, but then, my Lord, if only you could have seen this most awesome thing!\u00a0 Most terrible thing to see.
\n760 <\/strong>
\nOur sharp spears and arrows drew no blood from them yet they threw their thyrsus at us and wound us so we quickly turned and ran off.\u00a0 Now I\u2019m certain, my Lord that that lot had some god helping them.
\nThen they went back to the peak of the mountain where their god produced springs of clear water for them from the earth.\u00a0 Snakes rose up to their cheeks and with their tongues washed away the blood until their skin once again became bright white.
\n770 <\/strong>
\nMy Lord, you\u2019d better let this god, whoever he is come into the city because he has many other great powers.\u00a0 They also say -and I agree with this meself- that he\u2019s the god who brought the wine to the mortals.\u00a0 Great stuff that. It stops all sadness.\u00a0 Truth is, my Lord, when the wine is missing so does love and then\u2026 well, there\u2019s nothing sweet left for us mortals then.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI\u2019m reluctant to utter my words openly to the king but they must be uttered.\u00a0 Dionysos is lesser to no God.<\/p>\n

Exit Herald<\/em>
\nEnter guards running and puffed out, returning from the first command.<\/em><\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nThis stranger is so close that the fire of these outrageous Bacchants is touching us. It is a great shame for all the Greeks.\u00a0 There is no time to waste.
\nTo his guards<\/em>
\nMen, run quickly to the Elektran gates.\u00a0 Call together all the shieldsmen, all the riders of our fast horses, all the catapult drivers and all the sharp arrow shooters.\u00a0 Tell them we must prepare for an attack against the Bacchants. This matter must end. Fancy suffering all this in the hands of mere women!<\/p>\n

Guards run off again.<\/em>
\nDionysos:
\nMy words have convinced you of nothing, Pentheus.\u00a0 Still, even though you\u2019ve treated me badly, I ask you to calm down.\u00a0 You mustn\u2019t raise arms against the god.\u00a0 Dionysos will not take kindly to you sending his Bacchants away from the mountains where they hold their rites.<\/p>\n

792<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nI\u2019m not here to receive your advice. You\u2019ve escaped the fetters, isn\u2019t that enough?\u00a0 Or should I repeat the punishment?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nIf I were you I\u2019d do what all folk do to gods: offer a sacrifice, instead of getting angry.\u00a0 It\u2019s like kicking at thorns.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHa!\u00a0 For him, I\u2019ll sacrifice a lot of women.\u00a0 That will teach them, disturbing all the valleys of Kitheron.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou\u2019ll all be chased away; and what a shameful sight that would be!\u00a0 All these bright bronze shields turned to flight by the thyrsuses of the Bacchants!<\/p>\n

800<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nHow on earth have I got mixed up with this stranger?\u00a0 Whether tied up or loose he won\u2019t shut up!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThere\u2019s still time, Pentheus! There\u2019s still time for you to make things right again.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHow?\u00a0 By becoming a slave to my women slaves?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nI\u2019ll bring all the women here for you\u2026 using no weapons at all.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nO, sure!\u00a0 What a nice little trap that would be for me, ey?\u00a0 Very clever!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nWhat would be the point of such a trap?\u00a0 To save you with my cleverness?<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYou\u2019ve had all this arranged with them earlier so that you can convert the whole city into believing in your god.<\/p>\n

Enter the guards again\u2026 puffing<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYes!\u00a0 You\u2019re quite right, Pentheus! You\u2019re quite right!\u00a0 I\u2019ve discussed it with Dionysos.\u00a0 You\u2019re absolutely right.\u00a0 That\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n

Pentheus: To the guards<\/em>
\nBring my weapons out here \u2013 and you (Dionysos)<\/em> shut your mouth!<\/p>\n

Guards rush off again, this time into the palace.<\/em><\/p>\n

810<\/strong>
\nDionysos: He has just thought of something<\/em>
\nHold on! Pentheus, would you like to see them yourself, up on the mountains, all of those\u2026 women together?<\/p>\n

Pentheus: Enthusiastically<\/em>
\nSure.\u00a0 Of course, of course!\u00a0 I\u2019d give an awful lot of gold for the privilege.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nOh, yes? Why so eager?<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nI want to see these poor, wretched women drunk.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nBut these things would be hard for your eye.\u00a0 What sort of pleasure would you gain from it?<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nAbsolute! I\u2019d be sitting quietly beneath the fir trees\u2026<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nA, but even if you go there quietly, they\u2019ll still know you\u2019re there.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHmm.\u00a0 You\u2019re right.\u00a0 Then I\u2019ll go quite openly.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nAll right then, let\u2019s go\u2026 Will you really try to do this exercise?<\/p>\n

820<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nGet me there, quickly.\u00a0 I\u2019d hate to lose any more time because of you.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou\u2019ll have to change your clothes first, Pentheus.\u00a0 You need to wear fine linen.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWhat\u2019s all this?\u00a0 You want to dress me up as a woman?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nBecause if you show yourself there as a man, they\u2019ll kill you.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYou\u2019re right again. I can see you\u2019re an old hand at this sort of trickery.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThe god Dionysos taught us all this.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWell, then, my wise counsellor, how do we do all this?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nLet\u2019s go into the palace and I\u2019ll dress you up.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nDress me up with what?\u00a0 Women\u2019s clothes?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nDon\u2019t you want to watch the Maenads then?<\/p>\n

830<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nWell\u2026 tell me everything you\u2019re going to do to me.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nI\u2019ll let your hair fall all over your back.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nAll right. Then?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThen I\u2019ll dress you up with long robes, right down to your feet and on your head you\u2019ll wear a ribbon.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nAnd after all this?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou\u2019ll carry a thyrsus in one hand and you\u2019ll wear a dappled fawn skin around your body.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nNo, no, no!\u00a0 I just can\u2019t wear women\u2019s clothes.\u00a0 I just can\u2019t do it!<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nWell then, if you end up in a fight with the Bacchants it\u2019ll be your blood on the ground, not mine!<\/p>\n

Pentheus: Thinks for a minute, then<\/em>
\nYes!\u00a0 Right! When we get there we must first spy on them.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nIt\u2019s far wiser to hunt the dangerous without putting yourself in danger.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHow will I be able to walk through the street without being seen by all the Kadmeians?<\/p>\n

840<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nWe\u2019ll take the deserted roads.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll guide you.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWe must do what\u2019s necessary so that the Bacchants don\u2019t get a whiff of all of this.\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019m going inside to think about it all.<\/p>\n

The guards come out of the palace bearing weapons for the king. <\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nSure.\u00a0 Go, I\u2019m ready to help you with everything.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nI\u2019m going and I\u2019ll either take up my weapons or I\u2019ll take up your advice.<\/p>\n

Guards and Pentheus exit into the palace, guards despondent.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nWomen, we have trapped our man! He will go to the Bacchants and, with his death, justice will be achieved.\u00a0 Dionysos, it is up to you now to get revenge.\u00a0 You are not very far.\u00a0 First of all, take away his mind.
\n850<\/strong>
\nGive him a slight dose of madness, enough for him to wear women\u2019s clothes; otherwise, if his mind is clear he won\u2019t wear them.\u00a0 Then I\u2019ve got to make a fool of him, parading him through Thebes, dressed as a woman.\u00a0 That will teach him to make those dreadful threats of his.
\nI\u2019m off now, to dress him up in his funeral clothes.\u00a0 The clothes with which he will be meeting Hades, once his mother slaughters him with her bare hands. Only then will he learn that the son of Zeus, Dionysos, is a god of peace for the good folk but he is also a fearsome god who those who don\u2019t respect him.<\/p>\n

862<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nI wish!
\nI wish that one day I\u2019d be able to take part in the Bacchic dances, those all night dances of joy!
\nI wish that one day I\u2019d be able to see my white feet kick high to the rhythm of those dances!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nAnd
\nI wish that one day I could rush with my fawn skin through the cool breeze like a fawn does, like a fawn that while playing in the soft grass is chased by a hunter and jumps over his clever traps and fences while the hunter blows his whistle to quicken the pace of his hounds.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nPanting hard now, I see the little deer turning towards the river beds and valleys, swift as the high wind, happy to have escaped the men and happy to be among the lush growth of the forest.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWhat better, what wiser gift a god could give to men than to hold their hand high above their head as a sign of victory over their enemy?<\/p>\n

880<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nI always admire the good.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nGod\u2019s justice might be late arriving but it does arrive and it does punish those who, because of their stupidity and madness, don\u2019t bow their heads to the gods.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nThe gods wait. They wait and hide in many ways within Time\u2019s huge steps and within those steps they hunt the irreverent man.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nNo man can be more powerful than God\u2019s laws.\u00a0 Man must study them well and know them fully.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nIt is a waste of time to search for the answer of the question \u201cwhat is god,\u201d since that answer has been established a long time ago.\u00a0 God was there just as Nature was, from the beginning.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWhat is wisdom?\u00a0 What is good advice?
\nWhat is good?
\nWhat is more wonderful than a god lifting your hand high as a sign of victory over your enemy?
\nI love the beautiful.\u00a0 Always!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHappy is the man who has escaped the storms of life\u2019s angry seas and found a harbour; and happy is the man who have endured those storms.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nMen are infinite in number and their hopes have no end and some of these hopes bring joy to some and nothing to others.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI say blessed is the man whose life has been happy \u2013 so far.
\nThese are useful pieces of advice.\u00a0 True wisdom.
\nDirecting the following to Pentheus who is still inside the palace.<\/em>
\nYou, Pentheus!\u00a0 It is you, I mean.\u00a0 You who\u2019s anxious to see things you really don\u2019t need to see, it is enough for you to look to find what can be found.<\/p>\n

Shouting<\/em><\/p>\n

Pentheus!\u00a0 Come out of the palace.\u00a0 Let me see you dressed in your new clothes as a Maenad, a Bacchant. You who\u2019s anxious to spy on your mother and on the Bacchic rituals.<\/p>\n

Enter Pentheus and his servant.<\/em>
\nPentheus is dressed as a Bacchant.\u00a0 Long curls, long white robe, garlands, thyrsus.<\/em>
\nHe enjoys his new get up and enthusiastically accepts Dionysos\u2019 suggestions.<\/em>
\nHe is in a daze.<\/em><\/p>\n

918<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nI\u2026 I think I can see two suns\u2026 and our city of seven gates, Thebes\u2026 there are two of them also.\u00a0\u00a0 And you, stranger, you act as my guide, I see you\u2019ve turned into a great bull and two huge horns have sprouted out of your head!\u00a0 Were you ever before a beast?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nAh, yes!\u00a0 Your eyes have been restored now, Pentheus.\u00a0 Now you can see properly.\u00a0 You see? God is with us now, not like before when he fought us.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nSo, how do I look? Look at my face.\u00a0 Is it more similar to my mother\u2019s Agave\u2019s or to Ino\u2019s?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHmm\u2026 to tell you the truth, when I look at you carefully\u2026 I think I can see both of them in you.\u00a0 O, look at this curl, you\u2019ve messed it up.\u00a0 Not at all like I did it inside.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYes, I had a bit of a dance inside and as I whirled my head around a bit, like the Bacchants, I threw it out of its place.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nHere, let me fix it for you.\u00a0 Lift your head a bit.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nCome, I\u2019m in your hands.\u00a0 Tidy me up a bit.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nLook here!\u00a0 Your girdle is very loose and the folds of your robe don\u2019t fall straight, all the way to your ankles.<\/p>\n

936<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nYes, I thought so!\u00a0 It\u2019s all right with the left leg though, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou\u2019ll see, Pentheus.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be your best friend once you see how wise and properly behaved the Bacchants are.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHow do I hold the thyrsus so that I can look more like a Bacchant?\u00a0 Right hand or left?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou hold it with your right hand and move your right foot forward at the same time.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you\u2019ve changed your mind about all this.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nDo you think I\u2019d be able to lift the whole mountain, its valleys and all the Bacchants on my back?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nOf course you will!\u00a0 Now that you have your mind back, you can do whatever you like.\u00a0 Not like before.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nWell, should I bring great levers and pulleys for the job or could I do it with my bare hands, arms and shoulders?\u00a0 I mean tear up the whole mountain.<\/p>\n

950<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nYou\u2019d have to be careful not to destroy the Bacchants\u2019 haunts and the dens of Pan!\u00a0 You know how Pan loves to play his pipes around there.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nQuite right, quite right.\u00a0 It\u2019s not proper to use my strength to defeat mere women. I\u2019ll hide among the fir trees.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nAbsolutely!\u00a0 You must hide yourself well, since you\u2019re going there secretly, to spy upon them.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nHe, he!\u00a0 I think I\u2019ll be catching these women as one catches the little birds: inside their little love nests.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nWell, that\u2019s what you\u2019re going there for, to spy on them and catch them\u2026 that is\u2026 if they don\u2019t catch you first!<\/p>\n

960<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nTake me right through the centre of Thebes, stranger! Because I want to show them that I\u2019m the only one among them who dares do such a thing.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou are the only one who cares for your city, enough to undergo such trials, Pentheus.\u00a0\u00a0 The trails are worthy of just such a brave man as you.\u00a0 Follow me.\u00a0 I\u2019ll be your guide and your saviour.
\nOnce we\u2019re there, others will take over from me\u2026<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nMy mother, yes.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nYou\u2019re a revered symbol to them all, Pentheus.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nThat\u2019s why I\u2019m coming.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\n\u2026take you from me and deliver you to\u2026<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nTake me from you\u2026 like a spoilt child, you mean?<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\n\u2026your mother.<\/p>\n

Pentheus:
\nYou are giving me such a big head with all your compliments.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nAnd what a big head!<\/p>\n

970<\/strong>
\nPentheus:
\nI do deserve it, of course!<\/p>\n

While Pentheus is absorbed in his clothes.<\/em>
\nDionysos:
\nYou\u2019re a mighty man, Pentheus!\u00a0 Mightier than the mighty and there are mighty battles waiting for you, mighty enough for your glory to reach the heavens!
\nOh, Agave and all of you, daughters of Kadmos, open your arms, get ready for the man I\u2019m bringing you.\u00a0 Receive him and offer him this mighty battle \u2013 a battle of which I\u2019ll be the winner.\u00a0 I and Dionysos.\u00a0 The battle will disclose whatever else is necessary.<\/p>\n

Exit Pentheus, Dionysos and Pentheus\u2019 servant.<\/em><\/p>\n

977<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nRun, frenzied bitches, run to the mountain where Kadmos\u2019 daughters are gathered for their rites!
\nRaise them all!\u00a0 Raise those women against this man who\u2019s put on women\u2019s clothes and has gone to spy on the Maenads.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHis mother will see him first, either from a high crag or from behind a woody hiding place.\u00a0 She will see him and she will shout, \u201cWho is that who\u2019s come to spy upon Kadmos\u2019 mountain-loving daughters? Who is his mother? Because surely, a woman\u2019s blood has not given birth to him, rather some lioness or some gorgon from Libya has given him life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nLet Justice come, let Justice appear, let Justice carry a sword, slashing the heathen\u2019s throat from end to end, Ehion\u2019s son, the unjust, the mortal who treats our laws with disdain.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHe comes to you, Dionysos, with evil intent, with an unjust mind, there he comes to your mystic rites and to those of your mother.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWith a madness in the heart
\nAnd a madness in the mind,<\/p>\n

1000<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nTo conquer the unconquerable with might but no mind. Death will put his mind on a straight path. The wise minds are the minds that obey the gods and stay within the bounds of their mortality and so long as they live, they\u2019ll feel no sorrow.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI feel no envy for the wise.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI love to hunt other great things, great and obvious and I lead a life with reverence, shedding unjust views and, day and night, with joy I honour the mortals.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nLet Justice come, let Justice appear, let Justice carry a sword, slashing the heathen\u2019s throat from end to end, Ehion\u2019s son, the unjust, the mortal, who treats our laws with disdain.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nCome, Dionysos, appear, like a bull or like a many-headed dragon, or like a lion full of flame and fire!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nCome, Dionysos, come and smile and entangle the wild hunter of the maenads in your nets, while he\u2019s fallen in the fatal hands of the Bacchants.<\/p>\n

Short pause of utter silence.<\/em>
\nEnter Pentheus\u2019 servant.\u00a0 Horrified.<\/em><\/p>\n

Servant:
\nGlorious palace of old Sidon, the man who had sown the snake\u2019s teeth into the ground and harvested earthly being!\u00a0 Most excellent palace in the whole of Greece.\u00a0 How deep a hurt I feel for you even though I am but a mere slave here.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWhat\u2019s up?\u00a0 Are you bringing us some bad news from the Bacchants?<\/p>\n

1030<\/strong>
\nServant:
\nPentheus, Ehion\u2019s son is dead.<\/p>\n

Chorus: Exuberantly.<\/em>
\nO Lord Dionysos!\u00a0 You are indeed a great god!<\/p>\n

Servant:
\nWhat?\u00a0 What did you say? What did you say, woman?\u00a0 You are happy with our Lord\u2019s misfortune?<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHa! I\u2019m a foreigner! I shout with joy with a foreigner\u2019s voice.\u00a0 There\u2019s no need for me to cower from the fear that they\u2019ll lock me up.<\/p>\n

Servant:
\nDo you think the Thebans are such cowards?<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI get my orders from Dionysos, not from the Thebans.<\/p>\n

Servant:
\nI don\u2019t begrudge you that but it\u2019s not right for you to rejoice over these sad events.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nTell me, how did this unjust man who loved injustice die?<\/p>\n

1043<\/strong>
\nServant:
\nI was following my master and the stranger and, after we walked past all the Theban houses, we went through the murky waters of Asepos and the three of us climbed the peaks of Kitheron.\u00a0 The stranger was first, then my master and finally me.\u00a0 The stranger was leading us to the place where we could see the mystic rites performed by the Bacchants.
\nWe walked and talked softly so that we could see them but they couldn\u2019t see us.
\nWe eventually came to a grassy spot and there we spread ourselves flat on the ground.\u00a0 All around us were deep crags and precipices and the river\u2019s waters rushed mightily and the pine trees with their huge shades cooled us.
\nThe maenads were sitting nearby and enjoyed themselves with pleasant deeds, fixing the ivy that fell off their thyrsus or, just like the happy young fillies that had just been released from their cart\u2019s handsome yoke, sang sacred songs to each other.
\nPoor Pentheus could sense the presence of the crowd of Maenads but he couldn\u2019t see them so he said to the stranger,\u00a0 \u201cstranger, my eyes can\u2019t see these rotten Bacchants from here.\u00a0 Let me climb high up onto the tip of that fir tree so that I can see better their lecherous deeds.\u201d
\nAnd it\u2019s from that moment on that I truly saw the stranger\u2019s miracles.
\nHe grabs a branch which was very high up on the tree, bends it and brings it down all the way to the black soil.\u00a0 All the way down from the depths of the sky.
\nThe branch made a perfect and beautiful circle, like the ring of a wheel, drawn and made by a compass.\u00a0 Something no mortal could have done. Then he places Pentheus onto the branch and slowly, carefully, lets it rise, so that he won\u2019t fall down.\u00a0 The king then sat on that branch and waited.\u00a0 Suddenly though, the Maenads saw him better than he saw them himself.
\n1075<\/strong>
\nNo one could see the stranger any more and it was only a minute later that Dionysos \u2013I\u2019m sure it was he- called out loudly:
\n\u201cMaenads!\u00a0 I\u2019ve brought you the man who mocks you and mocks my rites also.\u00a0 Come, he\u2019s yours, punish him!\u201d
\nAnd with these words, heaven and earth were filled with sacred fires.\u00a0 Then a great silence filled the air.\u00a0 A silence which bound all the trees of the valley, all the shrubs and one could not hear the voices of the beasts.
\nThe women didn\u2019t seem to have heard Dionysos\u2019 voice so they stood and, aloof and with their eyes wide open they waited.
\nDionysos yelled again and this time Kadmos\u2019 daughters recognised Dionysos\u2019 voice and rushed quickly and like doves attacked.
\nAgave, his mother, his sisters and all the other Bacchants, wild with the god\u2019s spirit, jumped over huge torrents of valleys and caves and when they saw the king sitting on the fir tree, first they began throwing rocks at him. Then they climbed a rock and from there threw at him long branches of fir, made like spears.\u00a0 Others again sent their thyrsus flying at poor Pentheus but they too, kept missing him.
\n1100<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s because he was far too high for them.\u00a0 The poor king sat there not knowing what to do.\u00a0 The Maenads then tore great big branches from the tree, made wooden levers out of them and then tried to rip out Pentheus\u2019 tree from the roots.\u00a0 Those efforts also amounted to nothing.\u00a0 Then Agave shouted, \u201cCome, Maenads, come stand around it, grab the branches of the tree with your hands and climb up to the beast.\u00a0 Kill it so he won\u2019t reveal our mystic rites to the world.\u201d
\nThe Maenads surrounded the tree and with a thousand hands tore the fir from its roots.\u00a0 Down came Pentheus, crashing to the ground, the fear cutting his breath.\u00a0 He knew he was near his death.
\nFirst it was his mother, Dionysos\u2019 priestess.\u00a0 She started the slaughter.\u00a0 She jumped upon him with anger and he took the ribbon from his head so that his mother would recognise him and spare him and patted her cheek softly. \u201cIt\u2019s me, mother,\u201d he said, \u201cyour son, Pentheus.\u00a0 You gave birth to me, mother, in Ehion\u2019s palace!\u00a0 Have pity on me, mother!\u00a0 Don\u2019t kill me, don\u2019t kill your son just because he\u2019s made a mistake.\u201d
\n1120<\/strong>
\nBut he couldn\u2019t convince her.\u00a0 She was frothing at the mouth and her eyes rolled wildly in their sockets.\u00a0 Dionysos\u2019 spirit had made her crazy.\u00a0 Mad.\u00a0 Seized by the spirit of her god.
\nShe then grabbed her son\u2019s arm, stepped on his shoulder blade and ripped his arm clean off his body.\u00a0 The strength was not her own but her god\u2019s.\u00a0 On the other side Ino was doing her part, tearing his flesh.\u00a0 So did Aftinoe.\u00a0 The whole population of Maenads stopped and gazed at the spectacle.\u00a0 The whole place echoed with screams and he was groaning with pain while he was still alive.\u00a0\u00a0 Then the Maenads began a war cry and each carried some part of Pentheus\u2019 body.\u00a0 One carried a hand another a foot with its shoe still attached on it, others tore at his ribs showing them bare and others with bloody hands tossed parts of his flesh to each other.
\nBits of his flesh were strewn about everywhere. Some up against the rough rocks others so deep in the shrubs of the forest that it was impossible to find them all.
\nAnd his poor head! His mother happened to take a hold of it. She stuck it at the end of her thyrsus and now carries it around the mountain\u2019s paths, yelling, \u201cit\u2019s the head of a mountain lion! It\u2019s the head of a mountain lion.\u201d
\nShe left behind her sisters and the rest of the Maenads and she is heading this way proudly carrying the poor prey, calling Dionysos her \u201cfellow hunter\u201d and \u201cpartner in the hunt\u201d and \u201cmost victorious.\u201d
\nWith this victory, Agave gained only a black tear.
\nI don\u2019t want to witness her misery when she comes to the palace so, I\u2019ll leave now in case we\u2019re both here at the same time.
\nWisdom and respect for the gods is a great virtue and a possession most worthy for the mortals to have.<\/p>\n

Exit Pentheus\u2019 servant.<\/em><\/p>\n

1153<\/strong>
\nChorus: Joyful<\/em>
\nAh, let us rejoice the victory of our Lord, Dionysos and let us mourn the death of dragon-born Pentheus, who put on women\u2019s clothes and looking for a reason to die, took a weighty thyrsus with him.\u00a0 A bull guided him to his death.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWomen of Kadmos, you\u2019ve turned a glorious victory into a lament full of tears.
\nWhat a delightful victory it is, really, holding in your arms your child\u2019s blood-dripping hand.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHa!\u00a0 I can see Pentheus\u2019 mother Agave rushing towards the palace.
\nWhat a dreadful sight! How wild her eyes!
\nReceive her, receive her you group of Dionysos\u2019 followers!<\/p>\n

Enter Agave, wild, bloodstained, with Pentheus\u2019 head stuck on her thyrsus.\u00a0 Ecstatic.<\/em>
\nShe is followed by two or three other blood stained Bacchants.<\/em><\/p>\n

1168<\/strong>
\nAgave:
\nBacchants of Asia!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nO, how I shudder when I look at you!<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nLook! I bring from the mountain a branch, freshly cut, a jewel to my thyrsus.\u00a0 It\u2019s for the palace.\u00a0 Oh, what stunning hunt!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI see it, Agave and I shall accept it. We will celebrate together.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nI caught it with my own hands. I caught this lion with my own hands, no traps, nothing.\u00a0 Come!\u00a0 Come and look!<\/p>\n

She shows them the head but they withdraw in fear<\/em><\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWhere did you catch it?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nAt Kitheron.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWhat\u2019s Kitheron?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nA mountain. That\u2019s where we killed this lion.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWhich of you struck first?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nI was honoured to be the first. I am honoured and famous also for my dancing.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nWho was next?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nKadmos\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nYes?\u00a0 Kadmos\u2019 what?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nKadmos\u2019 daughters next.\u00a0\u00a0 They threw themselves at the beast straight after me.\u00a0 O, what a happy hunt!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\n\u2026.
\n(Text lost)<\/em><\/p>\n

Agave:
\nCome, join the celebrations!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nHow can I, poor woman?<\/p>\n

Agave pets Pentheus\u2019 head<\/em>
\nAgave:
\nWhat a delightful little lamb!\u00a0 How silky and thick the dawn on his cheek.\u00a0 Soft and barely visible beneath his hair.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nIt looks like the mane of a wild beast that lives deep in the forest.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nDionysos is wise and wise was his act to throw his maenads at this hunt.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nDionysos is an excellent hunter.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nAn excellent hunter, yes.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nExcellent, indeed!<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nThe Thebans, too will praise me!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nYour son, too, Pentheus.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nEveryone will praise me for catching this lovely lion.\u00a0 What a great catch!<\/p>\n

1196<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nA rich reward!<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nRichly rewarded<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nAnd you\u2019re happy then?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nAm I happy?\u00a0 I am happy and totally elated, because I achieved great, wondrous things through this hunt.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nAgave, go and show your catch to the locals.\u00a0 Show them all what a good hunter you are.<\/p>\n

Agave: To the audience<\/em>
\nCome near, people of this land, this Thebes with her splendid towers.\u00a0 Come and see the catch we, Kadmos\u2019 daughters caught without traps or nets or with Thessalian spears but with our own bare hands.
\nNo need for people to try so hard with their javelins. Here we are, with these bare hands alone we caught and tore the beast to shreds.
\nWhere is my old father?\u00a0 Where is that old man?\u00a0 Someone tell him to come out here.\u00a0 Pentheus, too, my son. Where is he?\u00a0 Let him take the high ladder and putting it safely against the palace wall, let him nail onto the sculptures this lion\u2019s head which I, yes I, hunted and caught.<\/p>\n

She runs enthusiastically behind the curtain, SL.<\/em>
\nEnter Kadmos in mourning.<\/em>
\nHe is followed by two servants who are carrying the remainder of Pentheus\u2019 body on a bier.<\/em><\/p>\n

1216<\/strong>
\nKadmos:
\nCome, servants, follow me with your most melancholy burden.\u00a0 Follow me to the palace with Pentheus\u2019 corpse.\u00a0 I had to search for it all over the crags of Kitheron.\u00a0 Miserable Fate. Miserable work to find all his body in slaughtered and bloody pieces, lying here and there, among the shrubs, impossible to find.
\nI was returning from the rites with old Teiresias when I overheard one of my daughters talking about their incredible and dire deeds, so I quickly turned back to find the child the Maenads killed. And here he is.
\nI met Aftonoe who, together with Aristaios gave birth to Aktaion.\u00a0 Ino was with her.\u00a0\u00a0 I saw them running wildly, half crazed all around the forests.
\nThey told me that Agave was heading this way, her step crazy as her mind\u2026 Here she is. I see she\u2019s looking sad.<\/p>\n

Enter Agave still carrying the head of Pentheus and still full of blood.<\/em>
\nHer friends are still with her, as before.<\/em><\/p>\n

Agave:
\nFather, be proud of your daughters.\u00a0 You, more than all the other mortals gave birth to the best of them.\u00a0 Of course, they\u2019re not only talking about me but about all of us, but more so about me because I\u2019ve left my shuttle cock next to my loom and took up the greater deeds.\u00a0 Now I hunt beasts which I catch with my bare hands and bring here in my arms.\u00a0\u00a0 This one for example, this trophy you see here is to be hung onto the palace walls.
\nCome, father.\u00a0 Hold it yourself.\u00a0 Hold it proudly, father, it\u2019s a worthy catch.\u00a0 Invite your friends and have a feast because my achievements make you happy.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nO, what a black, black, immeasurable, intolerable, misery this is for an old man\u2019s eyes!
\nWhat awful murder you have done with your bare hands!\u00a0 What a beautiful sacrifice you have offered to the gods, Agave!
\nO, Agave!\u00a0 And you want to invite Thebes and me to feasts!\u00a0\u00a0 O, what an ill Fate, first for you and then for me.\u00a0 How utterly Dionysos has destroyed us.
\nHe was right in doing so, of course but he was so hard!\u00a0 A true god of our race.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nHow joyless old age makes people!\u00a0 How miserable it turns their face.\u00a0\u00a0 I wish my son will be as good a hunter as his mother when he\u2019ll be going off on hunts with the rest of Thebes\u2019 youth!\u00a0 But he only knows how to do one thing only and that is how to fight against the gods!\u00a0\u00a0 Counsel him father.\u00a0 He listens to you.
\nIs there no one who can go and bring him here to see me so ecstatic?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nO, unfortunate woman!\u00a0 How terribly you will suffer when you\u2019ve discovered what you\u2019ve actually done!\u00a0 I hope you stay as you are, ignorant of the deed.\u00a0 You might not be the happiest of human beings but you\u2019ll also be free of suffering!<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nFather, what is it that you see and don\u2019t like?\u00a0 What makes you so sad?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nDaughter, turn your eyes to this part of the heavens.<\/p>\n

Agave: obeys<\/em>
\nHere you are.\u00a0 What\u2019s there that you think I should be seeing?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nIs it the same sky or do you think it has changed in some way?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nIt\u2019s more\u2026 translucent\u2026 brighter!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nNow look into your soul.\u00a0 Is it as turbulent as before?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nI\u2026 don\u2019t know how this happened but I\u2026 I feel different, as if I\u2019m coming to, recovering from something\u2026 my old thoughts have been replaced.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nAgave, if you can understand me answer my questions.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nBut\u2026 I forgot what we were talking about, father.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nTell me, daughter.\u00a0 With whom did you enter the wedding chamber?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nYou gave me to the \u201csown one,\u201d the one who, they say, sprung out of the dragon\u2019s seed.\u00a0 Ehion.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nAnd what child sprung from your union in that house?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nPentheus. I am his mother and Ehion his father.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nNow look, daughter, look into your arms.\u00a0 Whose head are you holding?<\/p>\n

Agave: answers without looking<\/em>
\nThe lion\u2019s, of course.\u00a0 Just like the huntresses said\u2026<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nThink now, Agave.\u00a0 It\u2019s a small effort to look at it.<\/p>\n

1280<\/strong>
\nAgave:
\nAhhhh!\u00a0\u00a0 What is this?\u00a0 What do I see?\u00a0 What is this in my arms?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nConcentrate, daughter. Look more closely.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nAhhh!\u00a0\u00a0 I can see the greatest of pains!\u00a0 Oh, my darling! O, miserable Fate!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nDoes it look like the head of a lion to you any more?<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nNo, no!\u00a0 It\u2019s the head of my Pentheus I\u2019m holding in my arms!\u00a0 Pentheus!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nYes\u2026 mourned by me, Agave, before you recognised it!<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nWho killed him?\u00a0 How did he come to be in my hands?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nO bitter truth!\u00a0 How belated you come!<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nTell me.\u00a0 I can\u2019t wait any more.\u00a0 My heart is breaking.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nYou and your sisters have killed him, Agave.<\/p>\n

1290<\/strong>
\nAgave:
\nBut where did it happen?\u00a0 Here in the palace or elsewhere?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nAt the same place where the wild bitches once killed Aktaion.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nBut why did Pentheus come to Kitheron, the poor boy?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nHe came to mock Dionysos and your Bacchic rites.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nBut how did we get up there?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nYou were driven by the Bacchic Frenzy!\u00a0 The whole city was at it.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nNow I understand.\u00a0 Dionysos has destroyed us.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nOf course he did and quite rightly too. He was insulted most arrogantly; you had no respect for this god.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nFather, where is my beautiful son\u2019s body?<\/p>\n

Kadmos: He points at the bier.<\/em>
\nI\u2019ve looked all around the forest and slowly gathered the pieces.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nHave you joined all the pieces together well?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\n\u2026\u2026
\n(Text missing)<\/em><\/p>\n

Agave:
\nBut what role did Pentheus play in our disrespect for the god?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nHe had become just like you. He didn\u2019t respect Dionysos either. The god threw us all into a common disaster: you, Pentheus and me.\u00a0 My household is utterly destroyed.\u00a0 What a horrible shame, what a dreadful misfortune to see the only male fruit of your womb dead!\u00a0 I have no other heir!
\nDirecting his words to Pentheus\u2019 head in Agave\u2019s arms<\/em>
\nO, Pentheus! You were the pride of the palace, son of my son, strength of our city.\u00a0 Your proud stature would frighten anyone who dared to hurt me, an old man.\u00a0 He\u2019d get his just rewards if he had tried anything against me.
\nNow, I, I the great Kadmos, who has sown the great race of Thebans and took the great harvest, I must be thrown out of this palace with no honour.
\nMy only son!\u00a0 Even dead I will love you more than all the men on earth.
\nYou\u2019ll never again run your hands through my beard, nor will you ever call me your mother\u2019s father ever again.\u00a0 You used to say, \u201cWho\u2019s being unjust to you, who hurts your honour?\u00a0 Who hurt your heart, grand-father and made you feel so bitter?\u00a0 Just tell me, grand-father and I\u2019ll put him straight!\u201d
\nAll this is gone now, my child. Wretched am I and you are dead.\u00a0 Your poor, hapless mother, our whole race doomed.
\nTo the other Bacchants (friends of Agave)<\/em>
\nIf there\u2019s anyone who insults the gods let him turn his eyes to this and let him believe.<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nI too, feel your pain, Kadmos but your grandson was punished justly.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nAh, father! Look at me and how I\u2019ve changed!
\n(Looking at the corpse of Pentheus)<\/em>
\nWhat is this corpse I\u2019m holding in my hands, and how can I, a pitiful woman, hold him tightly, lovingly into my chest?
\nOh, child!\u00a0 How can I possibly mourn and farewell all these mangled parts of yours, my son?\u00a0 I used to adore and kiss your whole body once \u2013 I raised it with my own two hands.
\nOld man, bring here the head of this unfortunate child.\u00a0 Let\u2019s try and bring it as close to the rest of his powerful body as we can.
\n(Kadmos obeys)<\/em>
\nOh, my beloved face, cheeks of youth! Look, my son, with this cloth I cover your head and the other blood-drenched parts of your body.
\nWith what shroud should I cover you?
\nWhich hands will bury you my son?<\/p>\n

Dionysos appears at the parapet of the palace.<\/em><\/p>\n

1330<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nThis man has fallen into the traps of the Theban Maenads because he mocked me.\u00a0 As for them, they must leave this city because with equal arrogance they committed his murder.\u00a0 They must never see their country again because it is a sacrilege for murderers to stay around the tombs of their victims.
\nYou, now Kadmus!\u00a0 You will take the shape of a snake and so will your wife, Armonia will also become a snake because you, a mortal, dared to marry Ares\u2019 daughter.\u00a0 Zeus\u2019 oracle has said it and you will obey it:\u00a0 You and your wife will yoke a cattle cart and with it lead an army of foreigners.\u00a0 Your army would be countless and with it you\u2019ll conquer many cities but after you\u2019ve destroyed Apollo\u2019s shrine, you and your armies will have a terrible homecoming.
\nYou, however, and Armonia will be saved by Ares and he will dictate that you should live in the land of the blessed.
\nThese are my words, the words not of a mortal but of the son of Zeus, Dionysos.\u00a0 If, instead of refusing me you had accepted this fact, you\u2019d now be very happy, indeed and you\u2019d have me as your ally.<\/p>\n

Kadmus:
\nForgive us, Dionysos!\u00a0 Forgive us.\u00a0 We have treated you unjustly.<\/p>\n

1345<\/strong>
\nDionysos:
\nThis you\u2019ve understood far too late and not when it was important.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nYes, we have only just understood this but your punishment is harsh.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nI, too, though a god, felt the insults.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nGods should not be the same as the mortals in their anger.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nThese are things which Zeus, my father has declared a long time ago.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nPitiful beings, father, our exile is our Fate.<\/p>\n

Dionysos:
\nWhy then delay the things that cannot be changed?<\/p>\n

Exit Dionysos<\/em><\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nWhat a black calamity we all fell into, my daughter! A dismal luck to you and to your sisters, your son and your father!\u00a0\u00a0 A heart broken man, an old man, I must now go and live among foreigners.\u00a0 And the despair continues.\u00a0 Once there I must lead an army of those foreigners against my own Greece.
\nAnd then how can I, with Armonia, Are\u2019s daughter, my wife, snakes both of us, allow such an army of spearmen crawl all over the tombs and altars of Greece?\u00a0 And my dismal Fate won\u2019t end there and I won\u2019t rest even after I cross the streams of Aheron.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nAnd I, too, father, will leave you.\u00a0 I too, will go to exile.\u00a0 How I will miss you!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nBecause my darling child, when you hug me, when you hug this old man; when you throw your arms around me, around this wretched and disabled man with his hair all grey, I feel as if a swan is covering me.<\/p>\n

1366<\/strong>
\nAgave:
\nWhere should I turn to now, father? Thrown out of my own country like this?<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nI don\u2019t know, child.\u00a0 I just don\u2019t know.\u00a0 How little can be the help that a parent can offer to his child!<\/p>\n

Agave: Addressing the palace<\/em>
\nFarewell palace.\u00a0\u00a0 Farewell land of my parents.\u00a0 Desolate and thrice cursed, I\u2019m exiled from the house I entered as a bride.<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nGo to the house of Aristaios my child, Aftonoe\u2019s husband. Perhaps there you\u2019ll find your sisters also.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nFather, I will miss you!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nAnd I you, my daughter.\u00a0 I cry for you and for your sisters.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nHow cruel is this god, King Dionysos.\u00a0 What brutal punishment to send you from your palace!<\/p>\n

Chorus:
\nPeople all over Thebes defied this god.<\/p>\n

Agave:
\nI\u2019m leaving now, father.\u00a0 Good bye!<\/p>\n

Kadmos:
\nGood bye my sweet daughter.\u00a0 May good only come your way.<\/p>\n

Agave: To the Theban Bacchants<\/em>
\nCome, let\u2019s go my friends.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go and find my grief-stricken sisters who left before us.\u00a0 Let us go to a place so far from Kitheron that neither it can look upon me nor I upon it, lest the memory of the thyrsus is called upon again.\u00a0 Let other Bacchants look after such things from now on.<\/p>\n

Exit Agave and the Theban Bacchants<\/em><\/p>\n

1388<\/strong>
\nChorus:
\nThe Fates have many guises and the gods bring about many things unexpected by mortals.\u00a0 Those things we expect do not necessarily happen.
\nSo ends this play.<\/p>\n

Exit All<\/em><\/p>\n

End of <\/strong><\/p>\n

Euripides\u2019<\/strong>
\n\u201cBacchae\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/h3>\n

[1]<\/a> To avoid confusion I\u2019ve used only the name Dionysos.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> A tall staff or spear (emblem of Dionysos and his followers) wrapped round with ivy and vine branches and often with a pine cone at the top<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> The\u00a0 words, \u201cfrenzy\u201d and \u201cmania\u201d are interchangeable in meaning for the purposes of this translation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction: For Unit 7 you have one primary source reading.\u00a0The Bacchae\u00a0is a tragic play written by the playwright Euripides and performed right after his death in 403 BCE. It won first prize in the tragic theatre competition at the City Dionysia, the annual, multi-day festival held in Athens for the god Dionysus. It would have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72230,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-51","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/72230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/51\/revisions\/100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/grmyth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}