Script for you!
THE BACCHAE
___________
by Euripides,
translated into English
by William Arrowsmith
Copyright © 1959, The University of Chicago Press (Chicago, Illinois); ppb 1968.
Based on the Oxford text of Gilbert Murray, supplemented by the commentary of E.R. Dodds.
Cast of Characters
Dionysos: a young god; long-haired, young/ancient, male, effeminate and frighteningly attractive; uncanny, and given to irony and mystery; god of wine, theater, madness; son of Zeus and Semele, to whom Zeus appeared as a thunderbolt, incinerating her (while she was pregnant) as well as producing Dionysos; a “friend to humanity” (bringing wine) and also deadly to humans (bringing wine-induced madness); aka Bromius, Evvius, Iacchos, Bacchus
Chorus of Bacchae: female, any age, followers of Dionysos, they live on the eerie borderline between human and animal; sweet, innocent, maidens and powerful, deadly killers by turns; may have a totem animal that is a second identity: deer, heron, eagle, rabbit, fox, swan, lion/tiger, panther, wolf, tortoise, snake, hedgehog; aka Maenads, Bacchantes
Teiresias: a very old (100s+) prophet, male/female, follower of Dionysos; has lived several normal lifetimes, as both male and female; honors the power of the gods in all forms; a strongly moral presence, if a bit mischievous and sarcastic
Cadmus: an old king (80s/90s), king of Thebes, father of Agave, Ino, & Semele (by his wife, Harmonia, who does not appear in the play), grandfather of Pentheus (and, through his daughter Semele, of Dionysos); loves Pentheus very much; has been dubious about his grandson Dionysos’ divinity in the past, but is now a believer—perhaps somewhat strategically, due to his pride of family and protective instincts about his daughters
Pentheus: a young king, (20s) king of Thebes, grandson and youthful protector of Cadmus, son of Agave and Echion, and so first cousin of Dionysos; loves and shields Cadmus; a non-believer in Dionysos’ divinity, and not willing to hold beliefs strategically, he is horrified by the Bacchae and suspects them and the “Stranger” (Dionysos himself, pretending throughout the scenes with Pentheus to be a priest or servant of the god) of sexual license & debauchery
Attendant: any age, possibly younger rather than older; impressionable, dutiful, worried
Cattle Herder: a cattle herder from Mt. Cithaeron; any age/gender, but probably older rather than younger; mature; has a poetic eye and a poetic way of speaking; not easily frightened, even in the face of authority; used to directing cattle and people; reverent toward gods and nature; open to new ideas, aware of his/her own limits; an exciting storyteller, especially when the story is true
Messenger: any age, attendant on Pentheus; trusted servant; become a believer in Dionysos’ power through fear and terrifying experience; has seen miracles, and horrible destruction
Agave (dances; sings): a middle-aged (40s/50s) queen, daughter of Cadmus, mother of Pentheus, sister of Semele and Ino; cursed to go mad, and become one of the Bacchae against her will, because she disrespected Dionysos; she takes the animal form of a swan, and dances in a trio with her sisters, INO and AUTONOË
Ino (non-speaking; dances): daughter of Cadmus, sister of Agave and Autonoë & Semele, cursed along with Agave and Autonoë to become one of the Bacchae; Ino nursed and raised her nephew, the baby Dionysos, when her sister Semele was killed by Zeus’ thunderbolt; later, she will be transformed into the sea goddess Leucothea; she takes the animal form of a seabird, and dances in a trio with AGAVE and AUTONOË
Autonoë (non-speaking; dances): daughter of Cadmus, sister of Agave, Ino, and Semele, cursed along with Agave & Ino to become one of the Bacchae; mother of Actaeon, a hunter; she takes the animal form of a seabird, and dances in a trio with AGAVE and INO
Scene
Ancient Greece.
Time
Today or tomorrow.
PROLOGUE
SETTING: Before THE ROYAL PALACE at Thebes.
Cast take places as the audience is entering. LEFT is the way to Cithaeron (a local hill); RIGHT, to the city. In the ORCHESTRA stands, still smoking, the vine-covered TOMB/SHRINE of Semele, mother of Dionysos. A group of MUSICIANS are placed generally UR. Five BACCHAE are sitting scattered through the audience; others are offstage. INO sits over tomb of Semele as guard and mourner. AUTONOË stands as a bird-statue UR, near and partially obscured by the MUSICIANS, and close to the Palace entrance.
(Enter DIONYSOS from above the audience.
We hear his voice first.)
DIONYSOS
(earthshakingly) I have returned!
I am Dionysos, the son of Zeus,
come back to Thebes, this land where I was born.
My mother was Cadmus’ daughter, Semele by name,
midwived by fire, delivered by the lightning’s blast.
And here I stand, a god incognito,
disguised as man, beside the stream of Dirce 5
and the waters of Ismenus. There before the palace
I see my lightning-married mother’s grave,
and there upon the ruins of her shattered house
the living fire of Zeus still smolders on
in deathless witness of Hera’s violence and rage
against my mother.
(pauses at the shrine, impressed)
But Cadmus wins my praise: 10
he has made this tomb a shrine, sacred to my mother.
It was I who screened her grave with the green
of the clustering vine.
Far behind me lie
those golden-rivered lands, Lydia and Phrygia,
where my journeying began. Overland I went,
across the steppes of Persia where the sun strikes hotly
down, through Bactrian fastness and the grim waste 15
of Media. Thence to rich Arabia I came;
and so, along all Asia’s swarming littoral
of towered cities where Greeks and foreign nations,
mingling, live, my progress made. There
I taught my dances to the feet of living men,
establishing my mysteries and rites
that I might be revealed on earth for what I am:
a god.
And thence to Thebes.
This city, first 20
in Hellas, now shrills and echoes to my women’s cries,
their ecstasy of joy. Here in Thebes
I bound the fawn-skin to the women’s flesh and armed
their hands with shafts of ivy. For I have come 25
to refute that slander spoken by my mother’s sisters—
those who least had right to slander her.
They said that Dionysos was no son of Zeus,
but Semele had slept beside a man in love
and fathered off her shame on Zeus—a fraud, they sneered, 30
contrived by Cadmus to protect his daughter’s name.
They said she lied, and Zeus in anger at that lie
blasted her with lightning.
Because of that offense
I have stung them with frenzy, hounded them from home
up to the mountains where they wander, crazed of mind,
and compelled to wear my orgies’ livery.
Every woman in Thebes — but the women only — 35
I drove from home, mad. There they sit,
rich and poor alike, even the daughters of Cadmus,
beneath the silver firs on the roofless rocks.
Like it or not, this city must learn its lesson:
it lacks initiation in my mysteries; 40
that I shall vindicate my mother Semele
and stand revealed to mortal eyes as the god
she bore to Zeus.
Cadmus the king has abdicated,
leaving his throne and power to his grandson Pentheus;
who now revolts against divinity, in me; 45
thrusts me from his offerings; forgets my name
in his prayers. Therefore I shall prove to him
and every man in Thebes that I am god
indeed. and when my worship is established here,
and all is well, then I shall go my way
and be revealed to other men in other lands. 50
But if the men of Thebes attempt to force
my Bacchae from the mountainside by threat of arms,
I shall marshal my Maenads and take the field.
To these ends I have laid my deity aside
and go disguised as a man.
(calling)
On, my women, 55
women who worship me, women whom I led
out of Asia where Tmolus heaves its rampart
over Lydia!
On, comrades of my progress here!
Come, and with your native Phrygian drum —
Rhea’s drum and mine — pound at the palace doors 60
of Pentheus! Let the city of Thebes behold you,
while I return among Cithaeron’s forest glens
where my Bacchae wait and join their whirling dances.
PARODOS (Chorus Entrance Dance and Song): “Blessed are the dancers”
BACCHAE
(including Agave, Ino, Autonoë, and Dionysos)
(entering from different places or standing & stretching
into formation; drumming is heard throughout, and
some of the BACCHAE carry castanets, wear ankle shakers, or use small frame drums)
Out of the land of Asia,
down from holy Tmolus,
speeding the service of god,
for Bromius we come!
Hard are the labors of god;
hard, but his service is sweet.
Sweet to serve, sweet to cry:
Bacchus! Evohé!
(calling out, spoken:)
—You on the streets!
—You on the roads!
—Make way!
—Let every mouth be hushed. Let no ill-omened words
profane your tongues.
—Make way! Fall back!
—Hush.
—For now I raise the old, old hymn to Dionysus.
—Blessèd, blessed are those who know the mysteries of god.
—Blessèd is s/he who hallows his/her life in the worship of god,
s/he whom the spirit of god possesseth, who is one
with those who belong to the holy body of god.
—Blessèd are the dancers and those who are purified,
who dance on the hill in the holy dance of god.
—Blessèd are the thyrsus-bearers, those who wield in their hands
the holy wand of god.
—Blessèd are those who wear the crown of the ivy of god.
—Blessèd, blessed are they: Dionysus is their god!
—On, Bacchae, on, you Bacchae,
bear your god in triumph home!
Bear on the god, son of god,
escort your Dionysus home!
Bear him down from Phrygian hill,
attend him through the streets of Hellas!
—So his mother bore him once
in labor bitter; lightning-struck,
forced by fire that flared from Zeus,
consumed, she died, untimely torn,
in childbed dead by blow of light!
Of light the son was born!
—Zeus it was who saved his son;
with speed outrunning mortal eye,
bore him to a private place,
bound the boy with clasps of gold;
in his thigh as in a womb,
concealed his son from Hera’s eyes.
—And when the weaving Fates fulfilled the time,
the bull-horned god was born of Zeus. In joy
he crowned his son, set serpents on his head—
wherefrom, in piety, descends to us
the Maenad’s writhing crown, her chevelure of snakes.
—O Thebes, nurse of Semele,
crown your hair with ivy!
Grow green with bryony!
Redden with berries! O city,
with boughs of oak and fir,
come dance the dance of god!
Fringe your skins of dappled fawn
with tufts of twisted wool!
Handle with holy care
the violent wand of god!
And let the dance begin!
He is Bromius who runs
to the mountain!
to the mountain!
where the throng of women waits,
driven from shuttle and loom,
possessed by Dionysus!
—And I praise the holies of Crete,
the caves of the dancing Curetes,
there where Zeus was born,
where helmed in triple tier
around the primal drum
the Corybantes danced. They,
they were the first of all
whose whirling feet kept time
to the strict beat of the taut hide
and the squeal of the wailing flute.
Then from them to Rhea’s hands
the holy drum was handed down;
but, stolen by the raving Satyrs,
fell at last to me and now
accompanies the dance
which every other year
celebrates your name:
Dionysus!
—He is sweet upon the mountains. He drops to the earth
from the running packs.
He wears the holy fawn-skin. He hunts the wild goat
and kills it.
He delights in the raw flesh.
He runs to the mountains of Phrygia, to the mountains
of Lydia he runs!
He is Bromius who leads us! Evohé!
—With milk the earth flows! It flows with wine!
It runs with the nectar of bees!
—Like frankincense in its fragrance
is the blaze of the torch he bears.
Flames float out from his trailing wand
as he runs, as he dances,
kindling the stragglers,
spurring with cries,
and his long curls stream to the wind!
—And he cries, as they cry, Evohé! —
On, Bacchae!
On, Bacchae!
Follow, glory of golden Tmolus,
hymning god
with a rumble of drums,
with a cry, Evohé! to the Evian god,
with a cry of Phrygian cries,
when the holy flute like honey plays
the sacred song of those who go
to the mountain!
to the mountain!
—Then, in ecstasy, like a colt by its grazing mother,
the Bacchante runs with flying feet, she leaps!
EPISODE I
(Enter TEIRESIAS L, from the MOUNTAIN, dressed
in fawn-skin and crowned with ivy. He is blind, and uses his thyrsus as a staff.)
TEIRESIAS
Ho there, who keeps the gates?
Summon Cadmus – 170
Cadmus, Agenor’s son, the stranger from Sidon
who built the towers of our Thebes.
Go, someone.
Say Teiresias wants him. He will know what errand
brings me, that agreement, age with age, we made 175
to deck our wands, to dress in skins of fawn
and crown our heads with ivy.
(Enter CADMUS from the PALACE, UC, dressed
in fawn-skin also and crowned with ivy. He also uses his
thyrsus as a staff.)
CADMUS
My old friend,
I knew it must be you when I heard your summons.
For “there’s a wisdom in his voice that makes
the man of wisdom known.”
But here I am,
dressed in the costume of the god, prepared to go. 180
Insofar as we are able, Teiresias, we must
do honor to this god, for he was born
my daughter’s son, who has been revealed to men,
the god, Dionysos.
Where shall we go, where
shall we tread the dance, tossing our white heads
in the dances of god?
Expound to me, Teiresias. 185
For in such matters you are wise.
Surely
I could dance night and day, untiringly
beating the earth with my thyrsus! And how sweet it is
to forget my old age.
TEIRESIAS
It is the same with me.
I too feel young, young enough to dance. 190
CADMUS
Good. Shall we take our chariots to the mountain?
TEIRESIAS
Walking would be better. It shows more honor
to the god.
CADMUS
So be it. I shall lead, my old age
conducting yours.
TEIRESIAS
The god will guide us there
with no effort on our part.
CADMUS
Are we the only men 195
who will dance for Bacchus?
TEIRESIAS
They are all blind.
Only we can see.
CADMUS
But we delay too long.
Here, take my arm.
TEIRESIAS
Link my hand in yours.
CADMUS
I am a man, nothing more. I do not scoff
at heaven.
TEIRESIAS
We do not trifle with divinity. 200
No, we are the heirs of customs and traditions
hallowed by age and handed down to us
by our fathers. No quibbling logic can topple them,
whatever subtleties this clever age invents.
People may say: “Aren’t you ashamed? At your age,
going dancing, wreathing your head with ivy?” 205
Well, I am not ashamed. Did the god declare
that just the young or just the old should dance?
No, he desires his honor from all mankind.
He wants no one excluded from his worship.
CADMUS
Because you cannot see, Teiresias, let me be 210
interpreter for you this once. Here comes
the man to whom I left my throne, Echion’s son,
Pentheus, hastening toward the palace. He seems
excited and disturbed. Yes, listen to him.
(Enter PENTHEUS with ATTENDANTS, from the CITY, R)
PENTHEUS
I happened to be away, out of the city, 215
but reports reached me of some strange mischief here,
stories of our women leaving home to frisk
in mock ecstasies among the thickets on the mountain,
dancing in honor of the latest divinity,
a certain Dionysos, whoever he may be! 220
In their midst stand bowls brimming with wine.
And then, one by one, the women wander off
to hidden nooks where they serve the lusts of men.
Priestesses of Bacchus they claim they are,
but it’s really Aphrodite they adore. 225
I have captured some of them; my jailers
have locked them away in the safety of our prison.
Those who run at large shall be hunted down
out of the mountains like the animals they are –
yes, my own mother Agave, and Ino
and Autonoë, the mother of Actaeon. 230
In no time at all I shall have them trapped
in iron nets and stop this obscene disorder.
I am also told a foreigner has come to Thebes
from Lydia, one of those charlatan magicians,
with long soft curls smelling of perfumes, 235
with flushed cheeks and the spells of Aphrodite
in his eyes. His days and nights he spends
with women and girls, dangling before them the joys
of initiation in his mysteries.
But let me bring him underneath that roof
and I’ll stop his pounding with his wand and tossing 240
his head. By god, I’ll have his head cut off!
And this is the man who claims that Dionysos
is a god and was sewn into the thigh of Zeus,
when, in point of fact, that same blast of lightning
consumed him and his mother both for her lie 245
that she had lain with Zeus in love. Whoever
this stranger is, aren’t such impostures,
such unruliness, worthy of hanging?
(suddenly sees TEIRESIAS and CADMUS)
What!
But this is incredible! Teiresias the seer
tricked out in a dappled fawn-skin!
And you,
you, my own grandfather, playing at the bacchant 250
with a wand!
Sir, I shrink to see your old age
so foolish. Shake that ivy off, grandfather!
Now drop that wand. Drop it, I say.
(to TEIRESIAS)
Aha,
I see: this is your doing, Teiresias. 255
Yes, you want still another god revealed to men
so you can pocket the profits from burnt offerings
and bird-watching. By heaven, only your age
restrains me now from sending you to prison
with those Bacchic women for importing here to Thebes
these filthy mysteries. When once you see 260
the glint of wine shining at the feasts of women,
then you may be sure the festival is rotten.
CHORUS MEMBER
What blasphemy! Stranger, have you no respect
for heaven? For Cadmus who sowed the dragon teeth?
Will the son of Echion disgrace his house? 265
TEIRESIAS
Give a wise man an honest brief to plead
and his eloquence is no remarkable achievement.
But you are glib; your phrases come rolling out
smoothly on the tongue, as though your words were wise
instead of foolish. The man whose glibness flows
from his conceit of speech declares the thing he is: 270
a worthless and a stupid citizen.
I tell you,
this god whom you ridicule shall someday have
enormous power and prestige throughout Hellas.
Mankind, young man, possesses two supreme blessings.
First of these is the goddess Demeter, or Earth – 275
whichever name you choose to call her by.
It was she who gave to man the nourishing grain.
But after her there came the son of Semele,
who matched her present by inventing liquid wine
as his gift to man. For filled with that good gift,
suffering mankind forgets its grief; from it 280
comes sleep; with it oblivion of the troubles
of the day. There is no other medicine
for misery. And when we pour libations
to the gods, we pour the god of wine himself
that through his intercession man may win 285
the favor of heaven.
Moreover, Dionysos is a god of prophecy. His worshippers,
like madmen, are endowed with mantic powers.
For when the god enters the body of a man 300
he fills him with the breath of prophecy.
Someday 305
you shall even see him bounding with his torches
among the crags at Delphi, leaping the pastures
that stretch between the peaks, whirling and waving
his thyrsus: great throughout Hellas.
Mark my words,
Pentheus. Do not be so certain that power 310
is what matters in the life of man; do not mistake
for wisdom the fantasies of your sick mind.
Welcome the god to Thebes; crown your head;
pour him libations and join his revels.
You are pleased when men stand outside your doors
and the city glorifies the name of Pentheus. 320
And so the god: he too delights in glory.
But Cadmus and I, whom you ridicule, will crown
our heads with ivy and join the dances of the god –
an ancient foolish pair perhaps, but dance
we must. Nothing you have said would make me
change my mind or flout the will of heaven. 325
You are mad, grievously mad, beyond the power
of any drugs to cure, for you are drugged
with madness.
CHORUS MEMBER
Apollo would approve your words.
Wisely you honor Bromius: a great god.
CADMUS
My boy,
Teiresias advises well. Your home is here 330
with us, with our customs and traditions, not
outside, alone. Your mind is distracted now,
and what you think is sheer delirium.
Even if this Dionysos is no god,
as you assert, persuade yourself that he is.
The fiction is a noble one, for Semele will seem 335
to be the mother of a god, and this confers
no small distinction on our family.
You saw
that dreadful death your cousin Actaeon died
when those man-eating hounds he had raised himself
savaged him and tore his body limb from limb
because he boasted that his prowess in the hunt surpassed 340
the skill of Artemis.
Do not let his fate be yours.
Here let me wreathe your head with leaves of ivy.
Then come with us and glorify the god.
PENTHEUS
Take your hands off me! Go worship your Bacchus,
but do not wipe your madness off on me.
By god, I’ll make him pay, the man who taught you 345
this folly of yours.
(to ATTENDANTS)
Go, someone, this instant,
to the place where this prophet prophesies.
Pry it up with crowbars, heave it over,
upside down; demolish everything you see.
Throw his fillets out to wind and weather. 350
That will provoke him more than anything.
As for the rest of you, go and scour the city
for that effeminate stranger, the man who infects our women
with this strange disease and pollutes our beds.
And when you take him, clap him in chains 355
and march him here. He shall die as he deserves –
by being stoned to death. He shall come to rue
his merrymaking here in Thebes.
(ATTENDANTS go to search – L, R, and
in the wings; they remain stage side, quietly searching
even through the audience during the CHORUS’ PEACE SONG; exit PENTHEUS into PALACE UC, finishing sending ATTENDANTS out, dismissing TEIRESIAS and CADMUS with angry gestures, and walking into PALACE over the next lines of TEIRESIAS)
(Meanwhile, TEIRESIAS and CADMUS are moving slowly
DL toward SHRINE)
TEIRESIAS
Reckless fool,
you do not know the consequences of your words.
You talked madness before, but this is raving
lunacy!
Cadmus, let us go and pray 360
for this raving fool and for this city too,
pray to the god that no awful vengeance strike
from heaven.
Take your staff and follow me.
Support me with your hands, and I shall help you too
lest we stumble and fall, a sight of shame,
two old men together.
But go we must, 365
acknowledging the service that we owe to god,
Bacchus, the son of Zeus.
And yet take care
lest someday your house repent of Pentheus
in its sufferings. I speak not prophecy
but fact. The words of fools finish in folly.
(Exit TEIRESIAS and CADMUS L to the MOUNTAIN)
(ATTENDANTS continue their search through the space
during the DANCE, and finally locate DIONYSOS and take him into custody by end of DANCE; he goes willingly)
CHORUS : SONG AND DANCE I
“Peace Song” (lines 370-432)
(gently; gracefully; lyrically)
—Holiness, queen of heaven,
Holiness on golden wing
who hover over earth,
do you hear what Pentheus says?
Do you hear his blasphemy
against the prince of the blessed,
the god of garlands and banquets,
Bromius, Semele’s son?
These blessings he gave:
laughter to the flute
and the loosing of cares
when the shining wine is spilled
at the feast of the gods,
and the wine-bowl casts its sleep
on feasters crowned with ivy.
—A tongue without reins,
defiance, unwisdom—
their end is disaster.
But the life of quiet good,
the wisdom that accepts—
these abide unshaken,
preserving, sustaining
the houses of men.
Far in the air of heaven,
the sons of heaven live.
But they watch the lives of men.
And what passes for wisdom is not;
unwise are those who aspire,
who outrange the limits of man.
Briefly, we live. Briefly,
then die. Wherefore, I say,
he who hunts a glory, he who tracks
some boundless, superhuman dream,
may lose his harvest here and now
and garner death. Such men are mad,
their counsels evil.
—O let me come to Cyprus,
island of Aphrodite,
homes of the loves that cast
their spells on the hearts of men!
Or Paphos where the hundred-
mouthed barbarian river
brings ripeness without rain!
To Pieria, haunt of the Muses,
and the holy hill of Olympus!
O Bromius, leader, god of joy,
Bromius, take me there!
There the lovely Graces go,
and there Desire, and there
the right is mine to worship
as I please.
—The deity, the son of Zeus,
in feast, in festival, delights.
He loves the goddess Peace,
generous of good,
preserver of the young.
To rich and poor he gives
the simple gift of wine,
the gladness of the grape.
But him who scoffs he hates,
and him who mocks his life,
the happiness of those
for whom the day is blessed
but doubly blessed the night;
whose simple wisdom shuns the thoughts
of proud uncommon men and all
their god-encroaching dreams.
But what the common people do,
the things that simple men believe,
I too believe and do.
EPISODE II
(2 ATTENDANTS lead DIONYSOS DR; 1 ATTENDANT goes UC to PALACE, finds PENTHEUS entering, points DR to DIONYSOS CHAINED)
ATTENDANT
Pentheus, here we are; not empty-handed, either.
We captured the quarry you sent us out to catch. 435
But our prey here was tame: refused to run
or hide, held out his hands as willing as you please,
completely unafraid. His ruddy cheeks were flushed
as though with wine, and he stood there smiling,
making no objection when we roped his hands 440
and marched him here. It made me feel ashamed.
“Listen, stranger,” I said, “I am not to blame.
We act under orders from Pentheus. He ordered
your arrest.”
As for those women you clapped in chains
and sent to the dungeon, they’re gone, clean away, 445
went skipping off to the fields crying on their god
Bromius. The chains on their legs snapped apart
by themselves. Untouched by any human hand,
the doors swung wide, opening of their own accord.
Sir, this stranger who has come to Thebes is full 450
of many miracles. I know no more than that.
The rest is your affair.
PENTHEUS
Untie his hands.
We have him in our net. He may be quick,
but he cannot escape us now, I think.
(ATTENDANTS untie DIONYSOS)
So,
you are attractive, stranger, at least to women –
which explains, I think, your presence here in Thebes.
Your curls are long. You do not wrestle, I take it. 455
And what fair skin you have – you must take care of it –
no daylight complexion; no, it comes from the night
when you hunt Aphrodite with your beauty.
Now then,
who are you and from where?
DIONYSOS
It is nothing 460
to boast of and easily told. You have heard, I suppose,
of Mount Tmolus and her flowers?
PENTHEUS
I know the place.
It rings the city of Sardis.
DIONYSOS
I come from there.
My country is Lydia.
PENTHEUS
Who is this god whose worship
you have imported into Hellas?
DIONYSOS
Dionysus, the son of Zeus. 465
He initiated me.
PENTHEUS
You have some local Zeus
who spawns new gods?
DIONYSOS
He is the same as yours—
the Zeus who married Semele.
PENTHEUS
How did you see him?
In a dream or face to face?
DIONYSOS
Face to face.
He gave me his rites.
PENTHEUS
What form do they take, 470
these mysteries of yours?
DIONYSOS
It is forbidden
to tell the uninitiated.
PENTHEUS
Tell me the benefits
that those who know your mysteries enjoy.
DIONYSOS
I am forbidden to say. But they are worth knowing.
PENTHEUS
Your answers are designed to make me curious.
DIONYSOS
No: 475
our mysteries abhor an unbelieving man.
PENTHEUS
You say you saw the god. What form did he assume?
DIONYSOS
Whatever form he wished. The choice was his,
not mine.
PENTHEUS
You evade the question.
DIONYSOS
“Talk sense to a fool
and he calls you foolish.”
PENTHEUS
Have you introduced your rites 480
to other cities too? Or is Thebes the first?
DIONYSOS
Foreigners everywhere now dance for Dionysos.
PENTHEUS
They are more ignorant than Greeks.
DIONYSOS
In this matter
they are not. Customs differ.
PENTHEUS
Do you hold your rites
during the day or night?
DIONYSOS
Mostly by night. 485
The darkness is well suited to devotion.
PENTHEUS
Better suited to lechery and seducing women.
DIONYSOS
You can find debauchery by daylight too.
PENTHEUS
You shall regret these clever answers.
DIONYSOS
And you,
your stupid blasphemies.
PENTHEUS
What a bold bacchant! 490
You wrestle well – when it comes to words.
DIONYSOS
Tell me,
what punishment do you propose?
PENTHEUS
First of all,
I shall cut off your girlish curls.
DIONYSOS
My hair is holy.
My curls belong to god.
(PENTHEUS shears off DIONYSOS’ curls)
PENTHEUS
Second, you will surrender
your wand.
DIONYSOS
You take it. It belongs to Dionysos. 495
(PENTHEUS takes the thyrsus)
PENTHEUS
Last, I shall place you under guard and confine you
in the palace.
DIONYSOS
The god himself will set me free
whenever I wish.
PENTHEUS
You will be with your women in prison
when you call on him for help.
DIONYSOS
He is here now
and sees what I endure from you.
PENTHEUS
Where is he? 500
I cannot see him.
DIONYSOS
With me. Your blasphemies
have made you blind.
PENTHEUS
(to ATTENDANTS)
Seize him. He is mocking me
and Thebes.
DIONYSOS
I give you sober warning, fools:
place no chains on me.
PENTHEUS
But I say: chain him.
And I am the stronger here.
DIONYSOS
(while he speaks, the BACCHAE begin to drum, and
continue through the end of the episode)
You do not know 505
the limits of your strength. You do not know
what you do. You do not know who you are.
PENTHEUS
I am Pentheus, the son of Echion and Agave.
DIONYSOS
Pentheus: you shall repent that name.
PENTHEUS
Off with him.
Chain his hands; lock him in the stables by the palace.
Since he desires the darkness, give him what he wants. 510
Let him dance down there in the dark.
(As attendants bind DIONYSOS, the drumming becomes louder
and more agitated)
As for these women,
your accomplices in making trouble here,
I shall have them sold as slaves or put to work
at my looms. That will silence their drums.
(Exit PENTHEUS UC into PALACE)
DIONYSOS
I go, 515
though not to suffer, since that cannot be.
But Dionysos whom you outrage by your acts,
who you deny is god, will call you to account.
When you set chains on me, you manacle the god.
(Exit DIONYSOS and ATTENDANTS UC into PALACE;
the BACCHAE sweep through the stage, from wings and sides
where they have been drumming, leaving drums; percussion is picked up by musicians)
CHORUS DANCE and SONG II:
“Song to Break the Chains”
(lines 520-575)
—O Dirce, holy river,
child of Achelöus’ water,
yours the springs that welcomed once
divinity, the son of Zeus!
For Zeus the father snatched his son
from deathless flame, crying:
Dithyrambus, come!
Enter my male womb.
I name you Bacchus and to Thebes
proclaim you by that name.
But now, O blessed Dirce,
you banish me when to your banks I come,
crowned with ivy, bringing revels.
O Dirce, why am I rejected?
By the clustered grapes I swear,
by Dionysus’ wine,
someday you shall come to know
the name of Bromius!
—With fury, with fury, he rages,
Pentheus, son of Echion,
born of the breed of Earth,
spawned by the dragon, whelped by Earth!
Inhuman, a rabid beast,
a giant in wildness raging,
storming, defying the children of heaven.
He has threatened me with bonds
though my body is bound to god.
He cages my comrades with chains;
he has cast them in prison darkness.
O lord, son of Zeus, do you see?
O Dionysus, do you see
how in shackles we are held
unbreakably, in the bonds of oppressors?
Descend from Olympus, lord!
Come, whirl your wand of gold
and quell with death this beast of blood
whose violence abuses man and god
outrageously.
—O lord, where do you wave your wand
among the running companies of god?
There on Nysa, mother of beasts?
There on the ridges of Corycia?
Or there among the forests of Olympus
where Orpheus fingered his lyre
and mustered with music the trees,
mustered the wilderness beasts?
O Pieria, you are blessed!
Evvius honors you. He comes to dance,
bringing his Bacchae, fording the race
where Axios runs, bringing his Maenads
whirling over Lydia,
generous father of rivers
and famed for his lovely waters
that fatten a land of good horses.
EPISODE III
(Thunder & lightning; earth tremors; the PALACE shakes)
DIONYSOS
(from within PALACE)
Ho!
Hear me! Ho, Bacchae!
Ho, Bacchae! Hear my cry!
BACCHAE
Who cries?
Who calls me with that cry
of Evvius? Where are you, lord?
DIONYSOS
Ho! Again I cry – 580
the son of Zeus and Semele!
BACCHAE
O lord, lord Bromius!
Bromius, come to us now!
DIONYSOS
Let the earthquake come! Shatter the floor of the world! 585
BACCHAE
Look there, how the palace of Pentheus totters!
Look, the palace is collapsing!
Dionysos is within. Adore him!
We adore him!
Look there!
Above the pillars, how the great stones
gape and crack!
Listen. Bromius cries his victory!
DIONYSOS
Launch the blazing thunderbolt of god! O lightnings,
come! Consume with flame the palace of Pentheus! 595
(A burst of lightning flares, flames leap up from the tomb of Semele; thunder crashes)
BACCHAE
(sings, dances, and falls down prostrate
at end of the following short, rhythmic/percussion song)
Ah,
look how the fire leaps up
on the holy tomb of Semele,
the flame of Zeus of Thunders,
his lightnings, still alive,
blazing where they fell!
Down, Maenads,
fall to the ground in awe! He walks
among the ruins he has made!
He has brought the high house low!
He comes, our god, the son of Zeus!
(Enter DIONYSOS from UC, through rubble of PALACE)
DIONYSOS
What, women of Asia? Were you so overcome with fright
you fell to the ground? I think then you must have seen 605
how Bacchus jostled the palace of Pentheus. But come, rise.
Do not be afraid.
BACCHAE
O greatest light of our holy revels,
how glad I am to see your face! Without you I was lost.
DIONYSOS
Did you despair when they led me away to cast me down 610
in the darkness of Pentheus’ prison?
BACCHAE
What else could I do?
Where would I turn for help if something happened to you?
But how did you escape that godless man?
DIONYSOS
With ease.
No effort was required.
BACCHAE
But the manacles on your wrists? 615
DIONYSOS
There I, in turn, humiliated him, outrage for outrage.
He seemed to think that he was chaining me but never once
so much as touched my hanbds. He fed on his desires.
Inside the stable he intended as my jail, instead of me,
he found a bull and tried to rope its knees and hooves.
He was panting desperately, biting his lips with his teeth, 620
his whole body drenched with sweat, while I sat nearby,
quietly watching. But at that moment Bacchus came,
shook the palace and touched his mother’s grave with tongues
of fire. Imagining the palace was in flames,
Pentheus went rushing here and there, shouting to his slaves 625
to bring him water. Every hand was put to work: in vain.
Then, afraid I might escape, he suddenly stopped short,
drew his sword and rushed to the palace. There, it seems,
Bromius had made a shape, a phantom which resembled me, 630
within the court. Bursting in, Pentheus thrust and stabbed
at that thing of gleaming air as though he thought it me.
And then, once again, the god humiliated him.
He razed the palace to the ground where it lies, shattered
in utter ruin – his reward for my imprisonment.
At that bitter sight, Pentheus dropped his sword, exhausted 635
by the struggle. A man, a man, and nothing more,
yet he presumed to wage a war with god.
For my part,
I left the palace quietly and made my way outside.
For Pentheus I care nothing.
(inside the palace, stomping and kicking sounds are heard)
But judging from the sound
of tramping feet inside the court, I think our man
will soon be here. What, I wonder, will he have to say? 640
But let him bluster. I shall not be touched to rage.
Wise men know constraint: our passions are controlled.
(Enter PENTHEUS from PALACE UC)
PENTHEUS
But this is mortifying. That stranger, that man
I clapped in irons, has escaped.
(sees DIONYSOS)
What! You? 645
Well, what do you have to say for yourself?
How did you escape? Answer me.
DIONYSOS
Your anger
walks too heavily. Tread lightly here.
PENTHEUS
How did you escape?
DIONYSOS
Don’t you remember?
Someone, I said, would set me free.
PENTHEUS
Someone? 650
But who? Who is this mysterious someone?
DIONYSOS
He who makes the grape grow its clusters for mankind.
PENTHEUS
A splendid contribution, that.
DIONYSOS
You disparage the gift that is his chiefest glory.
PENTHEUS
If I catch him here, he will not escape my anger.
I shall order every gate in every tower
to be bolted tight.
DIONYSOS
And so? Could not a god
hurdle your city walls?
PENTHEUS
You are clever – very – 655
but not where it counts.
DIONYSOS
Where it counts the most,
there I am clever.
(Enter a CATTLE HERDER from Mount Cithaeron, L)
But hear this messenger
who brings you news from the mountain of Cithaeron.
We shall remain where we are. Do not fear:
we will not run away.
CATTLE HERDER
Pentheus, king of Thebes, 660
I come from Cithaeron where the gleaming flakes of snow
fall on and on forever –
PENTHEUS
Get to the point.
What is your message, man?
CATTLE HERDER
Sir, I have seen
the holy Maenads, the women who ran barefoot 665
and crazy from the city, and I wanted to report
to you and Thebes what weird fantastic things,
what miracles and more than miracles,
these women do. But may I speak freely
in my own way and words, or should I make it short?
I fear the harsh impatience of your nature, sire, 670
too kingly and too quick to anger.
PENTHEUS
Speak freely.
You have my promise: I shall not punish you.
Displeasure with a man who speaks the truth is wrong.
However, the more terrible this tale of yours,
that much more terrible will the punishment 675
I impose upon that man who taught our womenfolk
this strange new magic.
(during the following speech, the BACCHAE perform
the “Strange New Magic Dance” around the CATTLE HERDER; drums/percussion is supplied by musicians)
CATTLE HERDER
About that hour
when the sun lets loose its light to warm the earth,
our grazing herds of cows had just begun to climb
the path along the mountain ridge. Suddenly
I saw three companies of dancing women, 680
one led by Autonoë, the second captained
by your mother Agave, while Ino led the third.
There they lay in the deep sleep of exhaustion,
some resting on boughs of fir, others sleeping
where they fell, here and there among the oak leaves — 685
but all modestly and soberly, not, as you think,
drunk with wine, nor wandering, led astray
by the music of the flute, to hunt their Aphrodite
through the woods.
But your mother heard the lowing
of our hornèd herds, and springing to her feet, 690
gave a great cry to waken them from sleep.
And they too, rubbing the bloom of soft sleep
from their eyes, rose up lightly and straight –
a lovely sight to see: all as one,
the old women and the young and the unmarried girls.
First they let their hair fall loose, down 695
over their shoulders, and those whose straps had slipped
fastened their skins of fawn with writhing snakes
that licked their cheeks. Breasts swollen with milk,
new mothers who had left their babies behind at home
nestled gazelles and young wolves in their arms, 700
suckling them. Then they crowned their hair with leaves,
ivy and oak and flowering bryony. One woman
struck her thyrsus against a rock and a fountain
of cool water came bubbling up. Another drove 705
her fennel in the ground, and where it struck the earth,
at the touch of god, a spring of wine poured out.
Those who wanted milk scratched at the soil
with bare fingers and the white milk came welling up. 710
Pure honey spurted, streaming, from their wands.
If you had been there and seen these wonders for yourself,
you would have gone down on your knees and prayed
to the god you now deny.
We cowherds and shepherds
gathered in small groups, wondering and arguing 715
among ourselves at these fantastic things,
the awful miracles those women did.
But then a city fellow with the knack of words
rose to his feet and said: “All you who live
upon the pastures of the mountain, what do you say?
Shall we earn a little favor with King Pentheus 720
by hunting his mother Agave out of the revels?”
Falling in with his suggestion, we withdrew
and set ourselves in ambush, hidden by the leaves
among the undergrowth. Then at a signal
all the Bacchae whirled their wands for the revels
to begin. With one voice they cried aloud:
“O Iacchus! Son of Zeus!” “O Bromius!” they cried 725
until the beasts and all the mountain seemed
wild with divinity. And when they ran,
everything ran with them.
It happened, however,
that Agave ran near the ambush where I lay
concealed. leaping up, I tried to seize her, 730
but she gave a cry: “Hounds who run with me,
men are hunting us down! Follow, follow me!
Use your wands for weapons.”
At this we fled
and barely missed being torn to pieces by the women.
Unarmed, they swooped down upon the herds of cattle 735
grazing there on the green of the meadow. And then
you could have seen a single woman with bare hands
tear a fat calf, still bellowing with fright,
in two, while others clawed the heifers to pieces.
There were ribs and cloven hooves scattered everywhere, 740
and scraps smeared with blood hung from the fir trees.
And bulls, their raging fury gathered in their horns,
lowered their heads to charge, then fell, stumbling
to the earth, pulled down by hordes of women 745
and stripped of flesh and skin more quickly, sire,
than you could blink your royal eyes. Then,
carried up by their own speed, they flew like birds
across the spreading fields along Asopus’ stream
where most of all the ground is good for harvesting. 750
Like invaders they swooped on Hysiae
and on Erythrae in the foothills of Cithaeron.
Everything in sight they pillaged and destroyed.
They snatched the children from their homes. And when
they piled their plunder on their backs, it stayed in place, 755
untied. Nothing, neither bronze nor iron,
fell to the dark earth. Flames flickered
in their curls and did not burn them. Then the villagers,
furious at what the women did, took to arms.
And there, sire, was something terrible to see. 760
For the men’s spears were pointed and sharp, and yet
drew no blood, whereas the wands the women threw
inflicted wounds. And then the men ran,
routed by women! Some god, I say, was with them.
The Bacchae then returned where they had started, 765
by the springs the god had made, and washed their hands
while the snakes licked away the drops of blood
that dabbled their cheeks.
Whoever this god may be,
sire, welcome him to Thebes. For he is great. 769
(Exit CATTLE HERDER)
BACCHAE
I tremble 775
to speak the words of freedom before the tyrant.
But let the truth be told: there is no god
greater than Dionysos.
PENTHEUS
Like a blazing fire
this Bacchic violence spreads. It comes too close.
We are disgraced, humiliated in the eyes
of Hellas. This is no time for hesitation. 780
(turning to an ATTENDANT)
You there. Go down quickly to the Electran gates
and order out all heavy-armored infantry;
call up the fastest troops among our cavalry,
the mobile squadrons and the archers. We march
against the Bacchae! Affairs are out of hand 785
when we tamely endure such conduct in our women.
(Exit ATTENDANT)
DIONYSOS
(extremely and disturbingly quietly)
Pentheus, you do not hear, or else you disregard
my words of warning. You have done me wrong,
and yet, in spite of that, I warn you once
again: do not take arms against a god.
Stay quiet here. Bromius will not let you 790
drive his women from their revels on the mountain.
PENTHEUS
Don’t you lecture me. You escaped from prison.
Or shall I punish you again?
DIONYSOS
If I were you,
I would offer him a sacrifice, not rage
and kick against necessity, a man defying 795
god.
PENTHEUS
I shall give your god the sacrifice
that he deserves. His victims will be his women.
I shall make a great slaughter in the woods of Cithaeron.
DIONYSOS
You will all be routed, shamefully defeated,
when their wands of ivy turn back your shields
of bronze.
PENTHEUS
It is hopeless to wrestle with this man. 800
Nothing on earth will make him hold his tongue.
DIONYSOS
Friend,
you can still save the situation.
PENTHEUS
How?
By accepting orders from my own slaves?
DIONYSOS
No.
I undertake to lead the women back to Thebes.
Without bloodshed.
PENTHEUS
This is some trap.
DIONYSOS
A trap? 805
How so, if I save you by my own devices?
PENTHEUS
I know.
You and they have conspired to establish your rites
forever.
DIONYSOS
True, I have conspired — with god.
PENTHEUS
Bring my armor, someone. And you stop talking. 810
(PENTHEUS strides L toward the MOUNTAIN, but
stops as if by magic when DIONYSOS commands him; a “new idea”)
DIONYSOS
Wait!
Would you like to see their revels on the mountain?
PENTHEUS
I would pay a great sum to see that sight.
DIONYSOS
Why are you so passionately curious?
PENTHEUS
Of course
I’d be sorry to see them drunk –
DIONYSOS
But for all your sorrow, 815
you’d like very much to see them?
PENTHEUS
Yes, very much.
I could crouch beneath the fir trees, out of sight.
DIONYSOS
But if you try to hide, they may track you down.
PENTHEUS
Your point is well taken. I will go openly.
DIONYSOS
Shall I lead you there now? Are you ready to go?
PENTHEUS
The sooner the better. The loss of even a moment 820
would be disappointing now.
DIONYSOS
First, however,
you must dress yourself in women’s clothes.
PENTHEUS
What?
You want me, a man, to wear a woman’s dress. But why?
DIONYSOS
If they knew you were a man, they would kill you instantly.
PENTHEUS
True. You are an old hand at cunning, I see.
DIONYSOS
Dionysos taught me everything I know. 825
PENTHEUS
Your advice is to the point. What I fail to see
is what we do.
DIONYSOS
I shall go inside with you
and help you dress.
PENTHEUS
Dress? In a woman’s dress,
you mean? I would die of shame.
DIONYSOS
Very well.
Then you no longer hanker to see the Maenads?
PENTHEUS
What is this costume I must wear?
DIONYSOS
On your head 830
I shall set a wig with long curls.
PENTHEUS
And then?
DIONYSOS
Next, robes to your feet and a net for your hair.
PENTHEUS
Yes? Go on.
DIONYSOS
Then a thyrsus for your hand
and a skin of dappled fawn.
PENTHEUS
I could not bear it. 835
I cannot bring myself to dress in women’s clothes.
DIONYSOS
Then you must fight the Bacchae. That means bloodshed.
PENTHEUS
Right. First we must go and reconnoiter.
DIONYSOS
Surely a wiser course than that of hunting bad
with worse.
PENTHEUS
But how can we pass through the city
without being seen?
DIONYSOS
We shall take deserted streets. 840
I will lead the way.
PENTHEUS
Any way you like,
provided those women of Bacchus don’t jeer at me.
First, however, I shall ponder your advice,
whether to go or not.
DIONYSOS
Do as you please.
I am ready, whatever you decide.
PENTHEUS
(as in a trance)
Yes.
Either I shall marchwith my army to the mountain 845
or act on your advice.
(Exit PENTHEUS into the palace UC)
DIONYSOS
Women, our prey now thrashes
in the net we threw. He shall see the Bacchae
and pay the price with death.
O Dionysos,
now action rests with you. And you are near.
Punish this man. But first distract his wits; 850
bewilder him with madness. For sane of mind
this man would never wear a woman’s dress;
but obsess his soul and he will not refuse.
After those threats with which he was so fierce,
I want him made the laughingstock of Thebes,
paraded through the streets, a woman.
Now
I shall go and costume Pentheus in the clothes
which he must wear to Hades when he dies, butchered
by the hands of his mother. He shall come to know
Dionysos, son of Zeus, consummate god,
most terrible, and yet most gentle, to mankind.
(Exit DIONYSOS into the palace UC)
CHORUS SONG & DANCE III:
“Dance like a fawn”
(aka “Live day by day”)
(lines 862-916)
—When shall I dance once more
with bare feet the all-night dances,
tossing my head for joy
in the damp air, in the dew,
as a running fawn might frisk
for the green joy of the wide fields,
free from fear of the hunt,
free from the circling beaters
and the nets of woven mesh
and the hunters hallooing on
their yelping packs? And then, hard pressed,
she sprints with the quickness of wind,
bounding over the marsh, leaping
to frisk, leaping for joy,
gay with the green of the leaves,
to dance for joy in the forest,
to dance where the darkness is deepest,
where no man is.
—What is wisdom? What gift of the gods
is held in honor like this:
to hold your hand victorious
over the heads of those you hate?
Honor is precious forever.
—Slow but unmistakable
the might of the gods moves on.
It punishes that man,
infatuate of soul
and hardened in his pride,
who disregards the gods.
The gods are crafty:
they lie in ambush
a long step of time
to hunt the unholy.
Beyond the old beliefs,
no thought, no act shall go.
Small, small is the cost
to believe in this:
whatever is god is strong;
whatever long time has sanctioned,
that is a law forever;
the law tradition makes
is the law of nature.
—What is wisdom? What gift of the gods
is held in honor like this:
to hold your hand victorious
over the heads of those you hate?
Honor is precious forever.
—Blessèd is he who escapes a storm at sea,
who comes home to his harbor.
—Blessèd is he who emerges from under affliction.
—In various ways one man outraces another in the race for wealth and power.
—Ten thousand men possess ten thousand hopes.
—A few bear fruit in happiness; the others go awry.
—But he who garners day by day the good of life,
he is happiest. Blessèd is he.
(re-enter UC DIONYSOS through the palace gate; stops and calls)
DIONYSOS
Pentheus if you are still so curious to see
forbidden sights, so bent on evil still,
come out. Let us see you in your woman’s dress,
disguised in Maenad clothes to you may go and spy 915
upon your mother and her company.
(Enter PENTHEUS UC through the palace gate, wearing a long linen dress, a fawn-skin beneath; carrying a thyrsus in his hand; on his head, a wig with long curls bound by a snood.
He is possessed by the god.)
DIONYSOS
Why,
you look exactly like one of the daughters of Cadmus.
PENTHEUS
I seem to see two suns blazing in the heavens.
And now two Thebes, two cities, and each
with seven gates. And you – you are a bull 920
who walks before me there. Horns have sprouted
from your head. Have you always been a beast?
But now I see a bull.
DIONYSOS
It is the god you see.
Though hostile formerly, he now declares a truce
and goes with us. You see what you could not
when you were blind.
PENTHEUS
(coyly)
Do I look like anyone? 925
Like Ino or my mother Agave?
DIONYSOS
So much alike
I almost might be seeing one of them. But look:
one of your curls has come loose from under the snood
where I tucked it.
PENTHEUS
It must have worked loose 930
when I was dancing for joy and shaking my head.
DIONYSOS
Then let me be your maid and tuck it back.
Hold still.
PENTHEUS
Arrange it. I am in your hands
completely.
(DIONYSOS tucks the curl back in)
DIONYSOS
And now your strap has slipped. Yes, 935
and your robe hangs askew at the ankles.
PENTHEUS
I think so.
At least on my right leg. But on the left the hem
lies straight.
DIONYSOS
You will think me the best of friends
when you see to your surprise how chaste the Bacchae are. 940
PENTHEUS
But to be a real Bacchante, should I hold
the wand in my right hand? Or this way?
DIONYSOS
No.
In your right hand. And raise it as you raise
your right foot. I commend your change of heart.
PENTHEUS
Could I lift Cithaeron up, do you think?
Shoulder the cliffs, Bacchae and all?
DIONYSOS
If you wanted.
Your mind was once unsound, but now you think
as sane men do.
PENTHEUS
Should we take crowbars with us?
Or should I put my shoulder to the cliffs
and heave them up?
DIONYSOS
What? And destroy the haunts
of the nymphs, the holy groves where Pan plays
his woodland pipe?
PENTHEUS
You are right. In any case,
women should not be mastered by brute strength.
I will hide myself beneath the firs instead.
DIONYSOS
You will find all the ambush you deserve, 955
creeping up to spy on the Maenads.
PENTHEUS
Think.
I can see them already, there among the bushes,
mating like birds, caught in the toils of love.
DIONYSOS
Exactly. This is your mission: you go to watch.
You may surprise them – or they may surprise you. 960
PENTHEUS
Then lead me through the very heart of Thebes,
since I, alone of all this city, dare to go.
DIONYSOS
You and you alone will suffer for your city.
A great ordeal awaits you. But you are worthy
of your fate. I shall lead you safely there; 965
someone else shall bring you back.
PENTHEUS
(still trance-like)
Yes, my mother.
DIONYSOS
An example to all men.
PENTHEUS
It is for that I go.
DIONYSOS
You will be carried home –
PENTHEUS
O luxury!
DIONYSOS
cradled in your mother’s arms.
PENTHEUS
You will spoil me.
DIONYSOS
I mean to spoil you.
PENTHEUS
I go to my reward. 970
DIONYSOS
You are an extraordinary young man, and you go
to an extraordinary experience. You shall win
a glory towering to heaven and usurping
god’s.
Agave and you daughters of Cadmus,
reach out your hands! I bring this young man
to a great ordeal. The victor? Bromius. 975
Bromius – and I. The rest the event shall show.
(Exit PENTHEUS. Exit DIONYSOS.)
CHORUS: SONG and DANCE IV:
“I hunt another game”
(lines 977-1021)
—Run to the mountain, fleet hounds of madness!
Run, run to the revels of Cadmus’ daughters!
Sting them against the man in women’s clothes,
the madman who spies on the Maenads, who peers
from behind the rocks, who spies from a vantage!
His mother shall see him first. She will cry
to the Maenads: “Who is this spy who has come
to the mountains to peer at the mountain-revels
of the women of Thebes? What bore him, Bacchae?
This man was born of no woman. Some lioness
gave him birth, some one of the Libyan gorgons!”
—O Justice, principle of order, spirit of custom,
come! Be manifest; reveal yourself with a sword!
Stab through the throat that godless man,
the mocker who goes, flouting custom and outraging god!
O Justice, stab the evil earth-born spawn of Echion!
—Uncontrollable, the unbeliever goes,
in spitting rage, rebellious and amok,
madly assaulting the mysteries of god,
profaning the rites of the mother of god.
Against the unassailable he runs, with rage
obsessed. Headlong he runs to death.
For death the gods exact, curbing by that bit
the mouths of men. They humble us with death
that we remember what we are who are not god,
but men. We run to death. Wherefore, I say,
accept, accept:
humility is wise; humility is blest.
But what the world calls wise I do not want.
Elsewhere the chase. I hunt another game,
those great, those manifest, those certain goals,
achieving which, our mortal lives are blest.
Let these things be the quarry of my chase:
purity, humility; an unrebellious soul,
accepting all. Let me go the customary way,
the timeless, honored, beaten path of those who walk
with reverence and awe beneath the sons of heaven.
—O Justice, principle of order, spirit of custom,
come! Be manifest; reveal yourself with a sword!
Stab through the throat that godless man,
the mocker who goes, flouting custom and outraging god!
O Justice, stab the evil earth-born spawn of Echion!
—O Dionysus, reveal yourself a bull! Be manifest,
a snake with darting heads, a lion breathing fire!
O Bacchus, come! Come with your smile!
Cast your noose about this man who hunts
your Bacchae! Bring him down, trampled
underfoot by the murderous herd of your Maenads!
(Enter a MESSENGER L from the MOUNTAIN)
MESSENGER
How prosperous in Hellas these halls once were,
this house founded by Cadmus, the stranger from Sidon 1025
who sowed the dragon seed in the land of the snake!
I am a slave and nothing more, yet even so
I mourn the fortunes of this fallen house.
BACCHAE
What is it?
Is there news of the Bacchae?
MESSENGER
This is my news:
Pentheus, the son of Echion, is dead. 1030
BACCHAE
All hail to Bromius! Our god is a great god!
MESSENGER
What is this you say, women? You dare to rejoice
at these disasters which destroy this house?
BACCHAE
I am no Greek. I hail my god
in my own way. No longer need I
shrink with fear of prison. 1035
MESSENGER
If you suppose this city is so short of men –
BACCHAE
Dionysos, Dionysos, not Thebes,
has power over me.
MESSENGER
Your feelings might be forgiven, then. But this,
this exultation in disaster – it is not right. 1040
BACCHAE
Tell us how the mocker died.
How was he killed?
MESSENGER
(hesitantly beginning, still unsure of their good will)
There were three of us in all: Pentheus and I,
attending my master, and that stranger who volunteered
his services as guide. Leaving behind us
the last outlying farms of Thebes, we forded
the Asopus and struck into the barren scrubland 1045
of Cithaeron.
There in a grassy glen we halted,
unmoving, silent, without a word,
so we might see but not be seen. From that vantage, 1050
in a hollow cut from the sheer rock of the cliffs,
a place where water ran and the pines grew dense
with shade, we saw the Maenads sitting, their hands
busily moving at their happy tasks. Some
wound the stalks of their tattered wands with tendrils 1055
of fresh ivy; others, frisking like fillies
newly freed from the painted bridles, chanted
in Bacchic songs, responsively.
But Pentheus –
unhappy man – could not quite see the companies
of women. “Stranger,” he said, “from where I stand,
I cannot see these counterfeited Maenads. 1060
But if I climbed that towering fir that overhangs
the banks, then I could see their shameless orgies
better.”
And now the stranger worked a miracle.
Reaching for the highest branch of a great fir,
he bent it down, down, down to the dark earth, 1065
till it was curved the way a taut bow bends
or like a rim of wood when forced about the circle
of a wheel. Like that he forced that mountain fir
down to the ground. No mortal could have done it.
Then he seated Pentheus at the highest tip 1070
and with his hands let the trunk rise straightly up,
slowly and gently, lest it throw its rider.
And the tree rose, towering to heaven, with my master
huddled at the top. And now the Maenads saw him
more clearly than he saw them. But barely had they seen, 1075
when the stranger vanished and there came a great voice
out of heaven – Dionysos’, it must have been –
crying: “Women, I bring you the man who has mocked
at you and me and at our holy mysteries. 1080
Take vengeance upon him.” And as he spoke
a flash of awful fire bound earth and heaven.
The high air hushed, and along the forest glen
the leaves hung still; you could hear no cry of beasts. 1085
(all noise, including WOODLAND SOUNDS, has stopped)
The Bacchae heard that voice but missed its words,
and leaping up, they stared, peering everywhere.
Again that voice.
(playback of DIONYSOS’ voice, quote 1079-1081,
in deep, echoing sound, behind following sentences)
And now they knew his cry,
the clear command of god. And breaking loose
like startled doves, through grove and torrent, 1090
over jagged rocks, they flew, their feet maddened
by the breath of god. And when they saw my master
perching in his tree, they climbed a great stone 1095
that towered opposite his perch andshowered him
with stones and javelins of fir, while the others
hurled their wands. And yet they missed their target,
poor Pentheus in his perch, barely out of reach 1100
of their eager hands, treed, unable to escape.
Finally they splintered branches from the oaks
and with those bars of wood tried to lever up the tree
by prying at the roots. But every effort failed. 1105
Then Agave cried out: “Maenads, make a circle
about the trunk and grip it with your hands.
Unless we take this climbing beast, he will reveal
the secrets of the god.” With that, thousands of hands
tore the fir tree from the earth,
(SOUNDS of falling tree, tearing of branches)
and down, down 1110
from his high perch fell Pentheus, tumbling
to the ground, sobbing and screaming as he fell,
for he knew his end was near. His own mother,
like a priestess with her victim, fell upon him
first. But snatching off his wig and snood 1115
so she would recognize his face, he touched her cheeks,
screaming, “No, no Mother! I am Pentheus,
your own son, the child you bore to Echion!
Pity me, spare me, Mother! I have done a wrong, 1120
but do not kill your own son for my offense.”
But she was foaming at the mouth, and her crazed eyes
rolling with frenzy. She was mad, stark mad,
possessed by Bacchus. Ignoring his cries of pity,
she seized his left arm at the wrist; then, planting 1125
her foot upon his chest, she pulled, wrenching away
the arm at the shoulder – not by her own strength,
for the god had put inhuman power in her hands.
Ino, meanwhile, on the other side, was scratching off
his flesh. Then Autonoë and the whole horde 1130
of Bacchae swarmed upon him. Shouts everywhere,
he screaming with what little breath was left,
they shrieking in triumph. One tore off an arm,
another a foot still warm in its shoe. His ribs
were clawed clean of flesh and every hand 1135
was smeared with blood as they played ball with scraps
of Pentheus’ body.
The pitiful remains lie scattered,
one piece among the sharp rocks, others
lying lost among the leaves in the depths
of the forest. His mother, picking up his head, 1140
impaled it on her wand. She seems to think it is
some mountain lion’s head which she carries in triumph
through the thick of Cithaeron. Leaving her sisters
at the Maenad dances, she is coming here, gloating
over her grisly prize. She calls upon Bacchus: 1145
he is her “fellow-huntsman,” “comrade of the chase,
crowned with victory.” But all the victory
she carries home is her own grief.
Now,
before Agave returns, let me leave
this scene of sorrow. Humility,
a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven –
of all the prizes that a mortal man might win,
these, I say, are wisest; these are best.
(Exit MESSENGER R)
CHORUS DANCE & SONG:
“Glorious the Game”
(lines 1152-1168)
—We dance to the glory of Bacchus!
We dance to the death of Pentheus,
the death of the spawn of the dragon!
He dressed in a women’s dress;
he took the lovely thyrsus;
it waved him down to death,
led by a bull to Hades.
Hail, Bacchae! Hail, women of Thebes!
Your victory is fair, fair the prize,
this famous prize of grief!
Glorious the game! To fold your child
in your arms, streaming with his blood!
KOMMOS (SHARED SONG)
AGAVE and CHORUS
(lines 1168-1199)
AGAVE
Bacchae of Asia –
We bring this branch to the palace,
this fresh-cut spray from the mountains,
Happy was the hunting.
The whelp of a wild mountain lion,
and snared by me without a noose.
Look, look at the prize I bring.
On Cithaeron –
Our prize was killed.
I struck him first.
The Maenads call me “Agave the blest.”
Cadmus’ –
Daughters.
After me, they reached the prey.
After me.
Happy was the hunting.
BACCHAE
Speak, speak!
I see.
I welcome our fellow-reveler of god.
Where was he caught?
On Cithaeron?
Who killed him?
And then?
Cadmus’?
Happy indeed.
KOMMOS CONT’D: SHARED SONG
AGAVE and the BACCHAE
AGAVE
Then share my glory,
share the feast.
See, the whelp is young and tender.
Beneath the soft mane of its hair,
the down is blooming on the cheeks.
Our god is wise. Cunningly, cleverly,
Bacchus the hunter lashed the Maenads
against his prey.
You praise me now?
The men of Thebes –
Will praise his mother. She caught
a great quarry, this lion’s cub.
Extraordinary skill.
Proud and happy.
I have won the trophy of the chase, a great prize, manifest to all.
Happy was the hunting.
BACCHAE
Share, unhappy woman?
With that mane, he looks a beast.
Our king is a hunter.
I praise you.
And Pentheus, your son?
Extraordinary catch.
You are proud?
Happy was the hunting.
BACCHAE
Then, poor woman, show the citizens of Thebes 1200
this great prize, this trophy you have won
in the hunt.
(AGAVE exhibits her thyrsus with the head of Pentheus impaled upon the point)
AGAVE
You citizens of this towered city,
men of Thebes, behold the trophy of your women’s
hunting! This is the quarry of our chase, taken
not with nets nor spears of bronze but by the white
and delicate hands of women. What are they worth,
your boastings now and all that uselessness
your armor is, since we, with our bare hands,
captured this quarry and tore its bleeding body
limb from limb?
— But where is my father Cadmus? 1210
He should come. And my son. Where is Pentheus?
Fetch him. I will have him set his ladder up
against the wall and, there upon the beam,
nail the head of this wild lion I have killed
as a trophy of my hunt.
(Enter CADMUS, with ATTENDANTS bearing the dismembered body of PENTHEUS on a bier)
CADMUS
Follow me, attendants.
Bear your dreadful burden in and set it down,
there before the palace.
This was Pentheus
whose body, after long and weary searchings
I painfully assembled from Cithaeron’s glens
where it lay, scattered in shreds, dismembered
throughout the forest, no two pieces 1220
in a single place.
Old Teiresias and I
had returned to Thebes from the orgies on the mountain
before I learned of this atrocious crime
my daughters did. And so I hurried back
to the mountain to recover the body of this boy
murdered by the Maenads. There among the oaks
I found Aristaeus’ wife, the mother of Actaeon,
Autonoë, and with her Ino, both
still stung with madness. But Agave, they said
was on her way to Thebes, still possessed. 1230
And what they said was true, for there she is,
and not a happy sight.
AGAVE
(raving)
Now, Father,
yours can be the proudest boast of living men.
For you are now the father of the bravest daughters
in the world. All of your daughters are brave, 1235
but I above the rest. I have left my shuttle
at the loom; I raised my sight to higher things—
to hunting animals with my bare hands.
You see?
Here in my hands I hold the quarry of my chase,
a trophy for our house. Take it, Father, take it. 1240
Glory in my kill and invite your friends to share
the feast of triumph. For you are blest, Father,
by this great deed I have done.
CADMUS
O gods,
how terribly I pity you and then myself.
Justly – too, too justly – has lord Bromius,
this god of our own blood, destroyed us all, 1250
every one.
[woods SOUNDS fade back in slowly during next speech]
AGAVE
How scowling and crabbed is old age
in men. I hope my son takes after his mother
and wins, as she has done, the laurels of the chase
when he goes hunting with the younger men of Thebes.
But all my son can do is quarrel with god. 1255
He should be scolded, Father, and you are the one
who should scold him. Yes, someone call him out
so he can see his mother’s triumph.
CADMUS
Enough. No more.
When you realize the horror you have done,
you shall suffer terribly. But if, with luck, 1260
your present madness lasts until you die,
you will think you are happy — even though you are not.
AGAVE
Why do you reproach me? Is there something wrong?
CADMUS
First raise your eyes to the heavens.
AGAVE
There. 1265
But why?
CADMUS
Does it look the same as it did before?
Or has it changed?
AGAVE
It seems – somehow – clearer,
brighter than it was before.
CADMUS
Do you still feel
the same flurry inside you?
AGAVE
The same – flurry?
No, I feel – somehow – calmer. I feel as though – 1270
my mind were somehow – changing.
CADMUS
Can you still hear me?
Can you answer clearly?
AGAVE
No. I have forgotten
what we were saying, Father.
CADMUS
Who was your husband?
AGAVE
Echion – a man, they said, born of the dragon seed.
CADMUS
What was the name of the child you bore your husband? 1275
AGAVE
Pentheus.
CADMUS
And whose head do you hold in your hands?
AGAVE
A lion’s head – or so the hunters told me.
CADMUS
Look directly at it. Just a quick glance.
AGAVE
What is it? What am I holding in my hands? 1280
CADMUS
Look more closely still. Study it carefully.
AGAVE
No! O gods, I see the greatest grief there is.
CADMUS
Does it look like a lion now?
AGAVE
No, no. It is –
Pentheus’ head – I hold –
CADMUS
And mourned by me 1285
before you ever knew.
AGAVE
But who killed him?
Why am I holding him?
CADMUS
O savage truth,
what a time to come!
AGAVE
For god’s sake, speak.
My heart is beating with terror.
CADMUS
You killed him.
You and your sisters.
AGAVE
But where was he killed?
Here at home? Where?
CADMUS
He was killed on Cithaeron,
there where the hounds tore Actaeon to pieces.
AGAVE
But why? Why had Pentheus gone to Cithaeron?
CADMUS
He went to your revels to mock the god.
AGAVE
But we –
what were we doing on the mountain?
CADMUS
You were mad. 1295
The whole city was possessed.
AGAVE
Now, now I see:
Dionysos has destroyed us all.
CADMUS
You outraged him.
You denied that he was truly god.
AGAVE
Father,
where is my poor boy’s body now?
CADMUS
There it is.
I gathered the pieces with great difficulty.
AGAVE
(pause to consider the dismembered body piece by piece)
But why should Pentheus suffer for my crime?
CADMUS
He, like you, blasphemed the god. And so
the god has brought us all to ruin at one blow,
you, your sisters, and this boy. All our house
the god as utterly destroyed and, with it,
- For I have no sons left, no male heir; 1305
and I have lived only to see this boy,
this branch of your own body, most horribly
and foully killed.
(to the corpse)
To you my house looked up.
Child, you were the stay of my house; you were
my daughter’s son. Of you this city stood in awe. 1310
No one who once had seen your face dared outrage
the old man, or if he did, you punished him.
Now I must go, a banished and dishonored man –
I, Cadmus the great, who sowed the soldiery
of Thebes and harvested a great harvest. My son, 1315
dearest to me of all men – for even dead,
I count you still the man I love the most –
never again will your hand touch my chin;
no more, child, will you hug me and call me
“Grandfather” and say, “Who is wronging you? 1320
Does anyone trouble you or vex your heart, old man?
Tell me, Grandfather, and I will punish him.”
No, now there is no grief for me, the mourning
for you; pity for your mother; and for her sisters,
sorrow.
If there is still any mortal man 1325
who despises or defies the gods, let him look
on this boy’s death and believe in the gods.
BACCHAE
Cadmus, I pity you. Your daughter’s son
has died as he deserved, and yet his death
bears hard on you.
AGAVE
O Father, now you can see
how everything has changed. I am in anguish now,
tormented, who walked in triumph minutes past,
exulting in my kill. And that prize I carried home
with such pride was my own curse. Upon these hands
I bear the curse of my son’s blood. How then
with these accursed hands may I touch his body?
How can I, accursed with such a curse, hold him
to my breast? O gods, what dirge can I sing?
Where is a shroud to cover up his corpse?
O my child, what hands will give you proper care
unless with my own hands I lift my curse?
As best we can, we shall make him whole again.
(she slowly lifts up and arranges the pieces of
the body brought in by CADMUS on the bier,
lamenting– the head is the last, and she
lifts it up, shows it to the audience,
then begins a procession, with the
ATTENDANTS carrying the bier;
music is Greek lament
music something like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xotPWR5I8RY ;
the BACCHAE accompany her on her procession around the space, into the cavea and back)
(speaking final benediction)
O dearest, dearest face!
Pretty boyish mouth! Now with this veil
I shroud your head, gathering with loving care
these mangled bloody limbs, this flesh I brought
to birth.
BACCHAE
Let this scene teach those who see these things:
Dionysos is the son of Zeus.
(DIONYSOS appears in epiphany)
DIONYSOS
I am Dionysos,
the son of Zeus, returned to Thebes, revealed,
a god to men. But the men of Thebes blasphemed me.
They slandered me; they said I came of mortal man,
and not content with speaking blasphemies,
they dared to threaten my person with violence.
These crimes this people whom I cherished well
did from malice to their benefactor. Therefore,
I now disclose the sufferings in store for them.
Like enemies, they shall be driven from this city
to other lands; there, submitting to the yoke
of slavery, they shall wear out wretched lives,
captives of war, enduring much indignity.
(indicating the corpse of PENTHEUS)
This man has found the death which he deserved,
torn to pieces among the jagged rocks.
You are my witnesses: he came with outrage;
he attempted to chain my hands, abusing me
and therefore he has rightly perished by the hands
of those who should the least of all have murdered him.
What he suffers, he suffers justly.
Upon you,
Agave, and on your sisters I pronounce this doom:
you shall leave this city in expiation
of the murder you have done. You are unclean,
and it would be a sacrilege that murderers
should remain at peace beside the graves of those
whom they have killed.
(turning to CADMUS)
Next I shall disclose the trials
which await this man. You, Cadmus, shall be changed 1330
to a serpent, and your wife, the child of Ares,
immortal Harmonia, shall undergo your doom,
a serpent too. With her, it is your fate
to go a journey in a car drawn on by oxen,
leading behind you a great barbarian host.
For thus decrees the oracle of Zeus.
With a host so huge its numbers cannot be counted, 1335
you shall ravage many cities; but when your army
plunders the shrine of Apollo, its homecoming
shall be perilous and hard. Yet in the end
the god Ares shall save Harmonia and you
and bring you both to live among the blest.
So say I, born of no mortal father,
Dionysos, true son of Zeus.
If then,
when you would not, you had muzzled your madness,
you should have an ally now in the son of Zeus.
CADMUS
We implore you, Dionysos. We have done wrong.
DIONYSOS
Too late. When there was time, you did not know me. 1345
CADMUS
We have learned. But your sentence is too harsh.
DIONYSOS
I am a god. I was blasphemed by you.
CADMUS
Gods should be exempt from human passions.
DIONYSOS
Long ago my father Zeus ordained these things.
(for remainder, DIONYSOS watches scenes, wandering from
group to group on stage, heading generally for the
Cavea, and exiting slowly up into
the audience, and disappears)
AGAVE
It is fated, father. We must go.
(embracing CADMUS)
O Father,
to be banished, to live without you!
CADMUS
Poor child,
like a white swan warding its weak old father, 1365
why do you clasp those white arms about my neck?
AGAVE
Banished! Where shall I go?
CADMUS
I do not know,
my child. Your father can no longer help you.
AGAVE
Farewell, father.
CADMUS
Farewell to you, unhappy child.
Fare well. But you shall find your faring hard.
AGAVE
Lead me, guides, where my sisters wait,
poor sisters of my exile. Let me go
where I shall never see Cithaeron more,
where that accursed hill may not see me,
where I shall find no trace of thyrsus!
That I leave to other Bacchae.
(Exit AGAVE with ATTENDANTS;
CADMUS exits into Palace; BACCHAE sing their
final song as they exit L toward the MOUNTAIN;
the bier with PENTHEUS’ body is left DR,
as a parallel to the Tomb of Semele DL;
the MUSICIANS remain onstage alone)
CHORUS: FINAL SONG
“The gods have many shapes”
(lines 1388-1394)
chanting – exit song/dance
The gods have many shapes.
The gods bring many things
to their accomplishment.
And what was most expected
has not been accomplished.
But god has found his way
for what no man expected.
So ends the play.