* * * * *
And tell of Time, what gifts for thee he bears,
What griefs and wonders in the winding years.
For thou must change and be a Serpent Thing
Strange, and beside thee she whom thou didst bring
Of old to be thy bride from Heaven afar,
Harmonia, daughter of the Lord of War.
Yea, and a chariot of kine--so spake
The word of Zeus--thee and thy Queen shall take
Through many lands, Lord of a wild array
Of orient spears. And many towns shall they
Destroy beneath thee, that vast horde, until
They touch Apollo's dwelling, and fulfil
Their doom, back driven on stormy ways and steep.
Thee only and thy spouse shall Ares keep,
And save alive to the Islands of the Blest.
Thus speaketh Dionysus, Son confessed
Of no man but of Zeus!--Ah, had ye seen
Truth in the hour ye would not, all had been
Well with ye, and the Child of God your friend!
AGAVE.
Dionysus, we beseech thee! We have sinned!
DIONYSUS.
Too late! When there was time, ye knew me not!
AGAVE.
We have confessed. Yet is thine hand too hot.
DIONYSUS.
Ye mocked me, being God; this is your wage.
AGAVE.
Should God be like a proud man in his rage?
DIONYSUS.
'Tis as my sire, Zeus, willed it long ago.
AGAVE (_turning from him almost with disdain_).
Old Man, the word is spoken; we must go.
DIONYSUS.
And seeing ye must, what is it that ye wait?
CADMUS.
Child, we are come into a deadly strait,
All; thou, poor sufferer, and thy sisters twain,
And my sad self. Far off to barbarous men,
A grey-haired wanderer, I must take my road.
And then the oracle, the doom of God,
That I must lead a raging horde far-flown
To prey on Hellas; lead my spouse, mine own
Harmonia, Ares' child, discorporate
And haunting forms, dragon and dragon-mate.
Against the tombs and altar-stones of Greece,
Lance upon lance behind us; and not cease
From toils, like other men, nor dream, nor past
The foam of Acheron find my peace at last.
AGAVE.
Father! And I must wander far from thee!
CADMUS.
O Child, why wilt thou reach thine arms to me,
As yearns the milk-white swan, when old swans die?
AGAVE.
Where shall I turn me else? No home have I.
CADMUS.
I know not; I can help thee not.
AGAVE.
Farewell, O home, O ancient tower!
Lo, I am outcast from my bower,
And leave ye for a worser lot.
CADMUS.
Go forth, go forth to misery,
The way Actaeon's father went!
AGAVE.
Father, for thee my tears are spent.
CADMUS.
Nay, Child, 'tis I must weep for thee;
For thee and for thy sisters twain!
AGAVE.
On all this house, in bitter wise,
Our Lord and Master, Dionyse,
Hath poured the utter dregs of pain!
DIONYSUS.
In bitter wise, for bitter was the shame
Ye did me, when Thebes honoured not my name.
AGAVE.
Then lead me where my sisters be;
Together let our tears be shed,
Our ways be wandered; where no red
Kithaeron waits to gaze on me;
Nor I gaze back; no thyrsus stem,
Nor song, nor memory in the air.
Oh, other Bacchanals be there,
Not I, not I, to dream of them!
[AGAVE _with her group of attendants goes out on the side away from
the Mountain_. DIONYSUS _rises upon the Cloud and disappears_.
CHORUS.
There be many shapes of mystery.
And many things God makes to be,
Past hope or fear.
And the end men looked for cometh not,
And a path is there where no man thought.
So hath it fallen here. [_Exeunt._
[Illustration]
NOTES ON THE BACCHAE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The _Bacchae_, being from one point of view a religious drama, a kind of
"mystery play," is full of allusions both to the myth and to the
religion of Dionysus.
1. The Myth, as implied by Euripides. Semele, daughter of Cadmus, being
loved by Zeus, asked her divine lover to appear to her once in his full
glory; he came, a blaze of miraculous lightning, in the ecstasy of which
Semele died, giving premature birth to a son. Zeus, to save this child's
life and make him truly God as well as Man, tore open his own flesh and
therein fostered the child till in due time, by a miraculous and
mysterious Second Birth, the child of Semele came to full life as God.
2. The Religion of Dionysus is hard to formulate or even describe, both
because of its composite origins and because of its condition of
constant vitality, fluctuation, and development.
(_a_) The first datum, apparently, is the introduction from Thrace of
the characteristic God of the wild northern mountains, a God of
Intoxication, of Inspiration, a giver of superhuman or immortal life.
His worship is superposed upon that of divers old Tree or Vegetation
Gods, already worshipped in Greece. He becomes specially the God of the
Vine. Originally a god of the common folk, despised and unauthorised, he
is eventually so strong as to be adopted into the Olympian hierarchy as
the "youngest" of the Gods, son of Zeus. His "Olympian" name, so to
speak, is Dionysus, but in his worship he is addressed by numbers of
names, more or less mystic and secret--Bromios, Bacchios or Baccheus,
Iacchos, Eleuthercus, Zagreus, Sabazios, &c. Some of these may be the
names of old spirits whom he has displaced; some are his own Thracian
names. Bromos and Sabaja, for instance, seem to have been Thracian names
for two kinds of intoxicating drink. Bacchos means a "wand." Together
with his many names, he has many shapes, especially appearing as a Bull
and a Serpent.
(_b_) This religion, very primitive and barbarous, but possessing a
strong hold over the emotions of the common people, was seized upon and
transfigured by the great wave of religious reform, known under the name
of Orphism, which swept over Greece and South Italy in the sixth century
B.C., and influenced the teachings of such philosophers as Pythagoras,
Aristeas, Empedocles, and the many writers on purification and the world
after death. Orphism may very possibly represent an ancient Cretan
religion in clash or fusion with one from Thrace. At any rate, it was
grafted straight upon the Dionysus-worship, and, without rationalising,
spiritualised and reformed it. Ascetic, mystical, ritualistic, and
emotional, Orphism easily excited both enthusiasm and ridicule. It lent
itself both to inspired saintliness and to imposture. In doctrine it
laid especial stress upon sin, and the sacerdotal purification of sin;
on the eternal reward due beyond the grave to the pure and the impure,
the pure living in an eternal ecstasy--"perpetual intoxication," as
Plato satirically calls it--the impure toiling through long ages to wash
out their stains. It recast in various ways the myth of Dionysus, and
especially the story of his Second Birth. All true worshippers become in
a mystical sense one with the God; they are born again and are
"Bacchoi." Dionysus being the God within, the perfectly pure soul is
possessed by the God wholly, and becomes nothing but the God.
Based on very primitive rites and feelings, on the religion of men who
made their gods in the image of snakes and bulls and fawns, because they
hardly felt any difference of kind between themselves and the animals,
the worship of Dionysus kept always this feeling of kinship with wild
things. The beautiful side of this feeling is vividly conspicuous in
_The Bacchae_. And the horrible side is not in the least concealed.
A curious relic of primitive superstition and cruelty remained firmly
imbedded in Orphism--a doctrine irrational and unintelligible, and for
that very reason wrapped in the deepest and most sacred mystery: a
belief in the sacrifice of Dionysus himself, and the purification of man
by his blood.
It seems possible that the savage Thracians, in the fury of their
worship on the mountains, when they were possessed by the God and became
"wild beasts," actually tore with their teeth and hands any hares,
goats, fawns, or the like that they came across. There survives a
constant tradition of inspired Bacchanals in their miraculous strength
tearing even bulls asunder--a feat, happily, beyond the bounds of human
possibility. The wild beast that tore was, of course, the savage God
himself. And by one of those curious confusions of thought, which seem
so inconceivable to us and so absolutely natural and obvious to
primitive men, the beast torn was also the God! The Orphic congregations
of later times, in their most holy gatherings, solemnly partook of the
blood of a bull, which was, by a mystery, the blood of Dionysus-Zagreus
himself, the "Bull of God," slain in sacrifice for the purification of
man. And the Maenads of poetry and myth, among more beautiful proofs of
their superhuman or infra-human character, have always to tear bulls in
pieces and taste of the blood. It is noteworthy, and throws much light
on the spirit of Orphism, that apart from this sacramental tasting of
the blood, the Orphic worshipper held it an abomination to eat the flesh
of animals at all. The same religious fervour and zeal for purity which
made him reject the pollution of animal food, made him at the same time
cling to a ceremonial which would utterly disgust the ordinary hardened
flesh-eater. It fascinated him just because it was so incredibly
primitive and uncanny; because it was a mystery which transcended
reason!
It will be observed that Euripides, though certainly familiar with
Orphism--which he mentions in _The Hippolytus_ and treated at length in
_The Cretans_ (see Appendix)--has in _The Bacchae_ gone back behind
Orphism to the more primitive stuff from which it was made. He has
little reference to any specially Orphic doctrine; not a word, for
instance, about the immortality of the soul. And his idealisation or
spiritualisation of Dionysus-worship proceeds along the lines of his
own thought, not on those already fixed by the Orphic teachers.
* * * * *
P. 80, l. 17, Asia all that by the salt sea lies, &c.], _i.e._ the
coasts of Asia Minor inhabited by Greeks, Ionia, Aeolis, and Doris.
P. 80, l. 27, From Dian seed.]--Dian=belonging to Zeus. The name
Dionysus seemed to be derived from [Greek: Dios], the genitive of
"Zeus."
P. 81, l. 50, Should this Theban town essay with wrath and battle,
&c.]--This suggestion of a possibility which is never realised or
approached is perhaps a mark of the unrevised condition of the play. The
same may be said of the repetitions in the Prologue.
Pp. 82-86, ll. 64-169.--This first song of the Chorus covers a great
deal of Bacchic doctrine and myth. The first strophe, "Oh blessed he in
all wise," &c., describes the bliss of Bacchic purity; the antistrophe
gives the two births of Dionysus, from Semele and from the body of Zeus,
mentioning his mystic epiphanies as Bull and as Serpent. The next
strophe is an appeal to Thebes, the birthplace or "nurse" of the God's
mother, Semele; the antistrophe, an appeal to the cavern in Crete, the
birthplace of Zeus, the God's father, and the original home of the
mystic Timbrel. The Epode, or closing song, is full, not of doctrine,
but of the pure poetry of the worship.
Pp. 86-95, ll. 170-369, Teiresias and Cadmus.]--Teiresias seems to be
not a spokesman of the poet's own views--far from it--but a type of the
more cultured sort of Dionysiac priest, not very enlightened, but ready
to abate some of the extreme dogmas of his creed if he may keep the
rest. Cadmus, quite a different character, takes a very human and
earthly point of view: the God is probably a true God; but even if he is
false, there is no great harm done, and the worship will bring renown to
Thebes and the royal family. It is noteworthy how full of pity Cadmus
is--the sympathetic kindliness of the sons of this world as contrasted
with the pitilessness of gods and their devotees. See especially the
last scenes of the play. Even his final outburst of despair at not dying
like other men (p. 152), shows the same sympathetic humanity.
Pp. 89 ff., ll. 215-262.--Pentheus, though his case against the new
worship is so good, and he might so easily have been made into a fine
martyr, like Hippolytus, is left harsh and unpleasant, and very close in
type to the ordinary "tyrant" of Greek tragedy (cf. p. 118). It is also
noteworthy, I think, that he is, as it were, out of tone with the other
characters. He belongs to a different atmosphere, like, to take a recent
instance, Golaud in _Pelleas et Melisande_.
P. 91, l. 263, Injurious King, &c.]--It is a mark of a certain yielding
to stage convention in Euripides' later style, that he allows the Chorus
Leader to make remarks which are not "asides," but are yet not heard or
noticed by anybody.
P. 91, l. 264, Sower of the Giants' sod.]--Cadmus, by divine guidance,
slew a dragon and sowed the teeth of it like seed in the "Field of
Ares." From the teeth rose a harvest of Earth-born, or "Giant" warriors,
of whom Echion was one.
P. 92, l. 287, Learn the truth of it, cleared from the false.]--This
timid essay in rationalism reminds one of similar efforts in Pindar
(e.g. _Ol._ i.). It is the product of a religious and unspeculative
mind, not feeling difficulties itself, but troubled by other people's
questions and objections. (See above on Teiresias.)
P. 92, l. 292, The world-encircling Fire.]--This fire, or ether, was the
ordinary material of which phantoms or apparitions were made.
Pp. 93-95, ll. 330-369.--These three speeches are very clearly
contrasted. Cadmus, thoroughly human, thinking of sympathy and
expediency, and vividly remembering the fate of his other grandson,
Actaeon; Pentheus, angry and "tyrannical"; Teiresias speaking like a
Christian priest of the Middle Ages, almost like Tennyson's Becket.
P. 95, l. 370.--The goddess [Greek: Hosia], "Purity," seems to be one of
the many abstractions which were half personified by philosophy and by
Orphism. It is possible that the word is really adjectival, "Immaculate
One," and originally an epithet of some more definite goddess, _e.g._ as
Miss Harrison suggests, of Nemesis.
In this and other choruses it is very uncertain how the lines should be
distributed between the whole chorus, the two semi-choruses, and the
various individual choreutae.
Pp. 97-98, ll. 402-430.--For the meaning of these lines, see
Introduction, pp. lxi, lxii.
P. 100, l. 471, These emblems.]--There were generally associated with
mysteries, or special forms of worship, certain relics or sacred
implements, without which the rites could not be performed. Cf. Hdt.
vii. 153, where Telines of Gela stole the sacred implements or emblems
of the nether gods, so that no worship could be performed, and the town
was, as it were, excommunicated.
P. 103, ll. 493 ff., _The soldiers cut off the tress._]--The stage
directions here are difficult. It is conceivable that none of Pentheus'
threats are carried out at all; that the God mysteriously paralyses the
hand that is lifted to take his rod without Pentheus himself knowing it.
But I think it more likely that the humiliation of Dionysus is made, as
far as externals go, complete, and that it is not till later that he
begins to show his superhuman powers.
P. 104, l. 508, So let it be.]--The name Pentheus suggests 'mourner,'
from _penthos_, 'mourning.'
P. 105, l. 519, Acheloues' roaming daughter.]--Acheloues was the Father of
all Rivers.
P. 107, l. 556, In thine own Nysa.]--An unknown divine mountain, formed
apparently to account for the second part of the name Dionysus.
P. 107, l. 571, Cross the Lydias, &c.]--These are rivers of Thrace which
Dionysus must cross in his passage from the East, the Lydias, the Axios,
and some other, perhaps the Haliacmon, which is called "the
father-stream of story."
P. 108, l. 579, A Voice, a Voice.]--Bromios, the God of Many
Voices--for, whatever the real derivation, the fifth-century Greeks
certainly associated the name with [Greek: bremo], 'to roar'--manifests
himself as a voice here and below (p. 136).
Pp. 109-112, ll. 602-641, Ye Damsels of the Morning Hills, &c.]--This
scene in longer metre always strikes me as a little unlike the style of
Euripides, and inferior. It may mark one of the parts left unfinished
by the poet, and written in by his son. But it may be that I have not
understood it.
P. 118, ll. 781 ff., Call all who spur the charger, &c.]--The typical
'Ercles vein' of the tragic tyrant.
Pp. 120-124, ll. 810 ff.--This scene of the 'hypnotising'--if one may
use the word--of Pentheus probably depends much on the action, which,
however, I have not ventured to prescribe. Pentheus seems to struggle
against the process all through, to be amazed at himself for consenting,
while constantly finding fresh reasons for doing so.
P. 121, l. 822, Am I a woman, then?]--The robe and coif were, in the
original legend, marks of the Thracian dress worn by the Thracian
followers of Dionysus, and notably by Orpheus. The tradition became
fixed that Pentheus wore such a robe and coif; and to the Greeks of
Euripides' time such a dress seemed to be a woman's. Hence this turn of
the story (cf. above, p. 167).
P. 125, ll. 877-881.--The refrain of this chorus about the fawn is
difficult to interpret. I have practically interpolated the third line
("To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait"), in order (1) to
show the connection of ideas; (2) to make clearer the meaning (as I
understand it) of the two Orphic formulae, "What is beautiful is beloved
for ever," and "A hand uplifted over the head of Hate." If I am wrong,
the refrain is probably a mere cry for revenge, in the tone of the
refrain, "Hither for doom and deed," on p. 132. It is one of the many
passages where there is a sharp antagonism between the two spirits of
the Chorus, first, as furious Bacchanals, and, secondly, as exponents of
the idealised Bacchic religion of Euripides, which is so strongly
expressed in the rest of this wonderful lyric.
P. 127, l. 920, Is it a Wild Bull, this?]--Pentheus, in his Bacchic
possession, sees fitfully the mystic shapes of the God beneath the human
disguise. This second-sight, the exaltation of spirit, and the feeling
of supernatural strength come to Pentheus as they came to the two Old
Men. But to them the change came peacefully and for good; to Pentheus it
comes by force, stormily and for evil, because his will was against the
God.
P. 131, l. 976, O hounds raging and blind.]--_i.e._ Spirits of Madness.
This lyric prepares us for what follows, especially for Agave's
delusion, which otherwise might have been hard to understand. I have
tried to keep the peculiar metre of the original, the dochmiac, with a
few simple licences. The scheme is based on u-- --u-- or --uu --u-- the
latter being much commoner.
P. 133, ll. 997-1011.--The greater part of this chorus is generally
abandoned as unintelligible and corrupt. The last ten lines ("Knowledge,
we are not foes," &c.) will, I think, make sense if we accept a very
slight conjecture of my own, [Greek: aenton], "let them blow", instead
of the impossible [Greek: aei ton]. The four lines before that ("A
strait pitiless mind," &c.) are an almost literal translation of the MS.
reading, which, however, is incorrect in metre, and therefore cannot be
exactly what Euripides wrote.
P. 134, l. 1036, And deem'st thou Thebes so beggared.]--The couplet is
incomplete in the MS. But the sense needed is obvious.
P. 137, l. 1120, Let it not befall through sin of mine, &c.]--This note
of unselfish feeling, of pity and humanity, becomes increasingly marked
in all the victims of Dionysus towards the end of the play, and
contrasts the more vividly with the God's pitilessness. Cadmus is always
gentle, and always thinking of the sufferings of others; and, indeed, so
is Agave, after her return to reason, though with more resentment
against the oppressor.
Pp. 139-143, ll. 1165-1200.--This marvellous scene defies comment. But I
may be excused for remarking (1) that the psychological change of the
chorus is, to my mind, proved by the words of the original, and does not
in the least depend on my interpolated stage directions; (2) the
extraordinary exultation of Agave is part of her Bacchic possession. It
is not to be supposed that, if she had really killed a lion, such joy
would be the natural thing.
P. 141, _after_ l. 1183, _The Leader tries to speak_, &c.]--It is also
possible that by some error of a scribe two lines have been omitted in
the MS. But I think the explanation given in the text more probable and
more dramatic.
P. 142, l. 1195, And Pentheus, O Mother?]--The Leader mentions Pentheus,
I suppose, in order deliberately to test Agave's delusion, to see if she
is indeed utterly unconscious of the truth.
P. 146, l. 1267, More shining than before, &c.]--The sight of the pure
heaven brings back light to her mind--that is clear. But does she mean
that the sky is brighter because of her madness which still remains, or
that it is brighter now, after having been darkened in her madness?
P. 149, l. 1313, And now I fare forth in dishonour.]--He has not yet
been sentenced to exile, though he might well judge that after such
pollution all his family would be banished. But probably this is another
mark of the unrevised state of the play.
P. 151, l. 1330, For thou must change and be a Serpent Thing, &c.]--A
prophecy like this is a very common occurrence in the last scenes of
Euripides' tragedies. "The subject of the play is really a long chain of
events. The poet fixes on some portion of it--the action of one day,
generally speaking--and treats it as a piece of vivid concrete life, led
up to by a merely narrative introduction (the Prologue), and melting
away into a merely narrative close. The method is to our taste
undramatic, but it is explicable enough. It falls in with the tendency
of Greek art to finish, not with a climax, but with a lessening of
strain" (_Greek Literature_, p. 267).
The prophecy was that Cadmus and Harmonia should be changed into
serpents and should lead a host of barbarian invaders--identified with
an Illyrian tribe, the Encheleis--against Hellas; they should prosper
until they laid hands on the treasures of Delphi, and then be destroyed.
Herodotus says that the Persians were influenced by this prophecy when
they refrained from attacking Delphi (Hdt. ix. 42).
Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
Edinburgh & London
_BY THE SAME AUTHOR_
HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE.
ANDROMACHE: A Play.
CARLYON SAHIB: A Play.
THE EXPLOITATION OF INFERIOR RACES, IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES:
An Essay in "Liberalism and the Empire."
EURIPIDIS FABULAE: Brevi Adnotatione Critica Instructae,
Vols. I. and II.
EURIPIDES: The Trojan Women.
Electra.
_Translated into English Verse._
[Illustration]
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE
The dochmiacs (poetic metres) on page 92 express extreme agitation or
distress. The u refers to an unstressed syllable and the m-dash refers
to a long or stressed syllable. In the text version they have been
replaced with u-- --u-- and --uu --u-- whereas in the HTML version
images of the original have been used.
Minor variations in spelling and punctuation have been preserved.