Bacchae

Euripides

Euripides. The Tragedies of Euripides. Vol. I. Buckley, Theodore Alois, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850.

  1. these are the ways of mad and ill-advised men.
Chorus
  1. Would that I could go to Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite, where the Loves, who soothe
  2. mortals’ hearts, dwell, and to Paphos, fertilized without rain by the streams of a foreign river flowing with a hundred mouths. Lead me there, Bromius, Bromius, god of joy who leads the Bacchae,
  3. to Pieria, beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy slope of Olympus. There are the Graces, there is Desire; there it is
  4. lawful for the Bacchae to celebrate their rites.
Chorus
  1. The god, the son of Zeus, delights in banquets, and loves Peace, giver of riches,
  2. goddess who nourishes youths. To the blessed and to the less fortunate, he gives an equal pleasure from wine that banishes grief. He hates the one who does not care about this:
  3. to lead a happy life by day and friendly [*](Because the Dionysiac ἱερά take place νύκτωρ τὰ πολλά (486) Dodds, ad loc.) night and to keep his wise mind and intellect away from over-curious men.
  4. What the common people think and adopt, that would I accept.
Enter a servant
Servant
  1. Pentheus, we are here, having caught this prey
  2. for which you sent us, nor have we set out in vain. This beast was docile in our hands and did not withdraw in flight, but yielded not unwillingly. He did not turn pale or change the wine-dark complexion of his cheek, but laughed and allowed us to bind him and lead him away.
  3. He remained still, making my work easy, and I in shame said: Stranger, I do not lead you away willingly, but by order of Pentheus, who sent me. And the Bacchae whom you shut up, whom you carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison,
  4. are set loose and gone, and are gamboling in the meadows, invoking Bromius as their god. Of their own accord, the chains were loosed from their feet and keys opened the doors without human hand. This man has come to Thebes
  5. full of many wonders. You must take care of the rest.
Pentheus
  1. Release his hands, for caught in the nets he is not so swift as to escape me. But your body is not ill-formed, stranger, for women’s purposes, for which reason you have come to Thebes.
  2. For your hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of desire; and you have a white skin from careful preparation, hunting after Aphrodite by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but beneath the shade.
  3. First then tell me who your family is.
Dionysus
  1. I can tell you this easily, without boasting. I suppose you are familiar with flowery Tmolus.
Pentheus
  1. I know of it; it surrounds the city of Sardis.
Dionysus
  1. I am from there, and Lydia is my fatherland.