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The Bacchanals

Euripides (484 BCE - 406 BCE)
Translated by Henry Hart Milman (1791 - 1868)

Euripides' Bacchae is based on the Greek myth of King Pentheus of Thebes and his mother Agave and their punishment by the god Dionysus who proclaims that he has come to Thebes to avenge the slander that he is not the son of Zeus. He intends to introduce Dionysian rites into the city and to demonstrate to Pentheus that he was indeed born a god. At the end of the play Pentheus is torn apart by the women of Thebes and Agave bears his head on a pike to her father Cadmus. Bacchae is distinctive from most other Greek tragedies in that the chorus is an integral part of the plot and the God is not a distant presence but the main protagonist.

This translation by Henry Hart Milman, former Professor of Poetry at Oxford University, is in the form of a dramatic poem rather than a play.

(Summary by Alan Mapstone)

Cast List:

Dionysus: Greg Giordano
Pentheus: Paul
Tiresias: ToddHW
Cadmus: Jonathan Jones
Officer: David Purdy
Messenger: Anna Maria
Agave: Jenn Broda
Chorus of Bacchanals: Alan Mapstone

Genre(s): Classics (Greek & Latin Antiquity), Dramatic Readings

Language: English

Keyword(s): greek drama (17), euripides (13), bacchae (2)