The Bacchae

I doubt anyone will go so far as to shell out $65.00 and find out the hard way, but this spectacular book: 1986 2nd ed. English Book lix, 253 p. ; 19 cm. Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press. ISBN: 0198721250 (pbk.) 9780198721253 (pbk.) contains in fact the Greek text, with apparatus, accompanied by this great scholar's introduction and line by line commentary. I have never seen a better commentary on a Greek tragedy, and in fact the work may be of some value to Greekless readers, but it is NOT the translation referred to by the other reviewers at this site.

Robert Bagg's translation of this classic Euripides tragedy is exciting and vigorous. It is a translation that lends itself particularly well to being played on stage, with forceful, stripped down dialogue and choruses that are exquisitely poetic but also very simply presented. An excellent translation for students and actors.

"Bakkhai" ("The Bacchae") was written by Euripides when he was living in Macedonia in virtual exile during the last years of his life. The tragedy was performed in Athens after his death as part of a trilogy that included one extant play, "Iphigenia at Aulis," and one which is lost, "Alcaeon in Corinth." These factors are important in appreciating this particular Greek tragedy because such plays were performed at a festival that honored the Dionysus, and in "Bakkhai" he is the god who extracts a horrible vengeance. The tragedy clearly demonstrates the god's power, but it is a terrible power, which suggests less than flattering things about the deity himself. Pentheus was the son of Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of the Royal House of Thebes. After Cadmus stepped down the throne, Pentheus took his place as king of Thebes. When the cult of Dionysus came to Thebes, Pentheus resisted the worship of the god in his kingdom. However, his mother and sisters were devotees of the god and went with women of the city to join in the Dionsysian revels on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus had Dionysus captured, but the god drove the king insane, who then shackled a bull instead of the god. When Pentheus climbed a tree to witness in secret the reverly of the Bacchic women, he was discovered and torn to pieces by his mother and sisters, who, in their Bacchic frenzy, believed him to be a wild beast. The horrific action is described in gory detail by a messenger, which is followed by the arrival of the frenzied and bloody Agave, the head of her son fixed atop her thytsus. Unlike those stories of classical mythology which are at least mentioned in the writings of Homer, the story of Pentheus originates with Euripides. The other references in classical writing, the "Idylls" written by the Syracusean poet Theocritus and the "Metamorphoses" of the Latin poet Ovid, both post-date "Bakkhai" by centuries. On those grounds, the tragedy of Euripides would appear to be entirely his construct, which would certainly give it an inherent uniqueness over his interpretations of the stories of "Medea," "Electra," and "The Trojan Women." I see "Bakkhai" as being Euripides' severest indictment of religion and not as the recantation of his earlier rationalism in his old age. The dramatic conflicts of the play stem from religious issues, and without understanding the opposition on Appollonian grounds of Pentheus to the new cult readers miss the ultimate significance of the tragedy. This is not an indictment of Appollonian rationalism, but rather a dramatic argument that, essentially, it is irrational to ignore the irrational. As the fate of Pentheus amply points out, it is not only stupid to do so, it is fatal. Consequently, "Bakkhai" is one of the most important of Greek tragedies.

"The Bacchae" was written by Euripides when he was living in Macedonia in virtual exile during the last years of his life. The tragedy was performed in Athens after his death. These factors are important in appreciate this particular Greek tragedy because such plays were performed at a festival that honored the Dionysus, and in "The Bacchae" he is the god who extracts a horrible vengeance. The tragedy clearly demonstrates the god's power, but it is a terrible power, which suggests less than flattering things about the deity himself.Pentheus was the son of Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of the Royal House of Thebes. After Cadmus stepped down the throne, Pentheus took his place as king of Thebes. When the cult of Dionysus came to Thebes, Pentheus resisted the worship of the god in his kingdom. However, his mother and sisters were devotees of the god and went with women of the city to join in the Dionsysian revels on Mount Cithaeron. Pentheus had Dionysus captured, but the god drove the king insane, who then shackled a bull instead of the god. When Pentheus climbed a tree to witness in secret the reverly of the Bacchic women, he was discovered and torn to pieces by his mother and sisters, who, in their Bacchic frenzy, believed him to be a wild beast. The horrific action is described in gory detail by a messenger, which is followed by the arrival of the frenzied and bloody Agave, the head of her son fixed atop her thytsus.Unlike those stories of classical mythology which are at least mentioned in the writings of Homer, the story of Pentheus originates with Euripides. The other references in classical writing, the "Idylls" written by the Syracusean poet Theocritus and the "Metamorphoses" of the Latin poet Ovid, both post-date"The Bacchae" by centuries. On those grounds, the tragedy of Euripides would appear to be entirely his construct, which would certainly give it an inherent uniqueness over his interpretations of the stories of "Medea," "Electra," and "The Trojan Women." I see "The Bacchae" as being Euripides' severest indictment of religion and not as the recantation of his earlier rationalism in his old age. The dramatic conflicts of the play stem from religious issues, and without understanding the opposition on Appollonian grounds of Pentheus to the new cult readers miss the ultimate significance of the tragedy. This is not an indictment of Appollonian rationalism, but rather a dramatic argument that, essentially, it is irrational to ignore the irrational. As the fate of Pentheus amply points out, it is not only stupid to do so, it is fatal. Consequently, "The Bacchae" is one of the most important of Greek tragedies.

As a conscript to the universal workings of myth as means to replenish the psychic and physical energies of the social group- Wole Soyinka's Bacchae was a satisfying read. This man of universal letters revised Euripides' drama only in so far as he infused it with his tribal, i.e. Yoruban flavor for the congruent deity of Orgun. The Dionysian trail throughout history haunted Solyinka as it has audiences and adherents. The playwright is not alone in ascribing the immortality of the piece to a universal need to purge the soul and soil with blood and excess. (Some say cannibalism. others, communion.) If not cyclically honored, if not worshipped and given this praise, the God will avenge mankind in horror and misery. Jung, after all, believed that Nazism was Orgun's revenge. The Bacchae and other rituals of excess, blood sacrifices and orphic trance are reenacted in every culture and as May Day, have become vastly diluted to the point of being hardly recognizable. Without the order of the religious, the encoded structure, the excess is uncontained and works against the social good. (60's idealists to Weathermen, deaths, etc.) When it was first written, it reflected a socio-economic condition in Greece. Many of the towns had imported slave labor and left the lower classes without income. Further, the cheap labor allowed for expansion of the mercantile and industrial centers so that these people's lands were being lost. Then as in the rest of its rebirths, the cult of Dionysius came to life during economic displacement and forced migrations. In other words the return to the earth and the mad episodes of discontrol provided massive antidotes and a new source of power to the earthly loss of the same. As this has been a retrograde force througout history and touches the human need to rejoin the natural forces and cycles, to sacrifice and re-enact the drama of the 'scapegoat' the force of the drama collapses time and culture. Themes are rewoven throughout the continents and the social rituals. May Day is one, as are Mardi Gras and the other 'secret' and excessive- bloody- banquets that serve some unique human and social function- a blood letting, and a rebellion against the enforced 'mysteries' or 'laws' from the state system.A brilliant playwright and literary lion. The play is a tour de force and will touch the repressed or forgotten in all of us.