The Bacchae of Euripides

About the book

Dionysus arrives in Thebes to establish recognition of his divine status, while Pentheus resists the worship spreading among the city's women. The conflict joins political authority to religious experience, with the mountain celebrations becoming an object of both condemnation and fascination. Euripides allows each assertion of control to reveal another vulnerability, especially as Pentheus's curiosity begins to undermine his apparent certainty. The chorus's devotion does not make the god's purposes simple or comforting. Reports, disguises, and altered perceptions give the drama a disturbing instability between what is witnessed and what is understood. The play asks what happens when a society denies forces it cannot comfortably accommodate, while also refusing to present submission to those forces as a guarantee of moderation, safety, or moral clarity.

• Authority and belief
• Control and desire
• Perception

Why read it

For a tragedy whose confrontation between divine power and civic authority unsettles easy confidence in either side.

English verse translation by Gilbert Murray