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Chorus
Go to the mountain, go, fleet hounds of Madness, where the daughters of Kadmos hold their company, and drive them raving
against the mad spy on the Maenads, the one dressed in women’s attire. His mother will be the first to see him from a smooth rock or crag, as he lies in ambush, and she will cry out to the maenads:
980
Who is this seeker of the mountain-going Kadmeans who has come to the mountain, to the mountain, Bacchae? Who bore him? For he was not born from a woman’s blood, but is the offspring of some lioness
985
or of Libyan Gorgons. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat
990
this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.
995
Go to the mountain, go, fleet hounds of Madness, where the daughters of Kadmos hold their company, and drive them raving
against the mad spy on the Maenads, the one dressed in women’s attire. His mother will be the first to see him from a smooth rock or crag, as he lies in ambush, and she will cry out to the maenads:
980
Who is this seeker of the mountain-going Kadmeans who has come to the mountain, to the mountain, Bacchae? Who bore him? For he was not born from a woman’s blood, but is the offspring of some lioness
985
or of Libyan Gorgons. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat
990
this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.
995
Chorus
Whoever with wicked mind and unjust rage regarding your rites, Bacchus, and those of your mother, comes with raving heart
and mad disposition violently to overcome by force what is invincible—death is the discipline for his purposes, accepting no excuses when the affairs of the gods are concerned; to act like a mortal—this is a life that is free from pain.
1
1000
I do not envy wisdom, but rejoice in hunting it. But other things are great and manifest. Oh, for life to flow towards the good, to be pure and pious day and night, and to honor the gods,
1005
banishing customs that are outside of justice. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat
1010
this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.
1015
Whoever with wicked mind and unjust rage regarding your rites, Bacchus, and those of your mother, comes with raving heart
and mad disposition violently to overcome by force what is invincible—death is the discipline for his purposes, accepting no excuses when the affairs of the gods are concerned; to act like a mortal—this is a life that is free from pain.
1
1000
I do not envy wisdom, but rejoice in hunting it. But other things are great and manifest. Oh, for life to flow towards the good, to be pure and pious day and night, and to honor the gods,
1005
banishing customs that are outside of justice. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat
1010
this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.
1015
Chorus
Appear as a bull or many-headed serpent or raging lion to see.
Go, Bacchus, with smiling face throw a deadly noose around the hunter of the Bacchae as he falls beneath the flock of Maenads.
1020
Appear as a bull or many-headed serpent or raging lion to see.
Go, Bacchus, with smiling face throw a deadly noose around the hunter of the Bacchae as he falls beneath the flock of Maenads.
1020
Bacchae. Euripides. T. A. Buckley (Translator). London. 1850.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.