Mary-Kay Gamel, University of California, Santa Cruz
"An excellent translation which captures Bacchae's combination of colloquial and lyric language. The Notes and Introduction are also very helpful."


Charles Segal, Harvard University
[Woodruff's translation] is clear, fluent, and vigorous, well thought out, readable and forceful. The rhythms are right, ever present but not too insistent or obvious. it can be spoken instead of read and so is viable as an acting version: and it keeps the lines of the plot well focused. The Introduction offers a good survey of critical approaches. The notes at the foot of the page are suitably brief and non-intrusive and give basic information for the non-specialist.





Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek


The Merriam-Webster Encylopedia of Literature
also called Bacchants (Greek plural Bakchai) Drama produced about 406 BC by Euripides. It is regarded by many as his masterpiece. In Bacchae the god Dionysus arrives in Greece from Asia intending to introduce his orgiastic worship there. He is disguised as a charismatic young Asian holy man and is accompanied by his women votaries, who make up the play's chorus. He expects to be accepted first in Thebes, but the Thebans reject his divinity and refuse to worship him, and the city's young king, Pentheus, tries to arrest him. In the end Dionysus drives Pentheus insane and leads him to the mountains, where Pentheus' own mother, Agave, and the women of Thebes in a bacchic frenzy tear him to pieces.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Classic Greek tragedy concerns the catastrophe that ensues when the King of Thebes, Pentheus, imprisons Dionysus and attempts to suppress his cult. Full of striking scenes, frenzied emotion and choral songs of great power and beauty, the play is a fine example of Euripides' ability to exploit Greek myth to probe man's psychological makeup.

SYNOPSIS

When temporal authority tries to restrict the rites of the followers of Bacchus, the results are tragic. A classical tale of the rule of law verses the rule of heaven.

FROM THE CRITICS

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