Lucian of Samosata, Bacchus, Austin Morris Harmon (Translator), 5

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[5] “But what has your Dionysus to do with Dionysus?”’ someone may say.¹ This much: that in my opinion (and in the name of the Graces don’t suppose me in a corybantic frenzy or downright drunk if I compare myself to the gods!) most people are in the same state of mind as the Hindoos when they encounter literary novelties, like mine for example. Thinking that.what they hear from me will smack of Satyrs and of jokes, in short, of comedy—for that is the conviction they have formed, holding I know not what opinion of me—some of them do not come at all, believing it unseemly to come off their elephants and give their attention to the revels of women and the skippings of Satyrs, while others apparently come for something of that kind, and when they find steel instead of ivy, are even then slow to applaud, confused by the unexpectedness of the thing. But I promise confidently that if they are willing this time as they were before to look often upon the mystic rites, and if my booncompanions of old remember “the revels we shared in the days that are gone”² and do not despise my Satyrs and Sileni, but drink their fill of this bowl, they too will know the Bacchic frenzy once again, and will often join me in the “Evoe.”

Bacchus. Lucian of Samosata. Austin Morris Harmon (Translator). United States. Perseus 5.0.

Funding provided by National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Dionysus: an Introduction (English) (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.)

Editions (1)

Προλαλιά. Διόνυσος Perseus (Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, Austin Morris, editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.) — 5 focus

[5] Ἀλλὰ τί πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον ὁ Διόνυσος οὗτος; εἴποι τις ἄν. ὅτι μοι δοκοῦσι — καὶ πρὸς Χαρίτων μή με κορυβαντιᾶν ἢ τελέως μεθύειν ὑπολάβητε, εἰ τἀμὰ εἰκάζω τοῖς θεοῖς — ὅμοιόν τι πάσχειν οἱ πολλοὶ πρὸς τοὺς καινοὺς τῶν λόγων τοῖς Ἰνδοῖς ἐκείνοις, οἷον καὶ πρὸς τοὺς ἐμούς· οἰόμενοι γὰρ σατυρικὰ καὶ γελοῖά τινα καὶ κομιδῇ κωμικὰ παρʼ ἡμῶν ἀκούσεσθαι — τοιαῦτα γὰρ¹ πεπιστεύκασιν, οὐκ οἶδʼ ὅ τι δόξαν αὐτοῖς ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ—οἱ μὲν οὐδὲ τὴν ἀρχὴν ἀφικνοῦνται, ὡς οὐδὲν δέον παρέχειν τὰ ὦτα κώμοις γυναικείοις καὶ σκιρτήμασι σατυρικοῖς καταβάντας ἀπὸ τῶν ἐλεφάντων, οἱ δὲ ὡς ἐπὶ τοιοῦτό τι ἥκοντες ἀντὶ τοῦ κιττοῦ σίδηρον εὑρόντες οὐδʼ οὕτως ἐπαινεῖν τολμῶσι τῷ παραδόξῳ τοῦ πράγματος τεθορυβημένοι. ἀλλὰ θαρρῶν ἐπαγγέλλομαι αὐτοῖς, ὅτι ἢν καὶ νῦν ὡς πρότερόν ποτε τὴν τελετὴν ἐθελήσωσιν ἐπιδεῖν πολλάκις καὶ ἀναμνησθῶσιν οἱ παλαιοὶ συμπόται κώμων κοινῶν τῶν τότε καιρῶν καὶ μὴ καταφρονήσωσιν τῶν Σατύρων καὶ Σιληνῶν, πίωσι δὲ ἐς κόρον τοῦ κρατῆρος τούτου, ἔτι βακχεύσειν² καὶ αὐτοὺς καὶ πολλάκις μεθʼ ἡμῶν ἐρεῖν τὸ εὐοῖ.

Translations (1)

Dionysus, an Introductory Lecture Perseus (The Works of Lucian of Samosata, Vol. 3. Fowler, Henry Watson and Fowler, Francis George, translators. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1905.) — 5 focus

[5] But you wonder what all this is about—suspect me, possibly, of being only too fresh from the company of Bacchus. Perhaps the explanation, involving a comparison of myself with Gods, will only more convince you of my exalted or my drunken mood; it is, that ordinary people are affected by literary novelties (my own productions, for instance) much as the Indians were by that experience. They have an idea that literary satyr-dances, absurdities, pure farce, are to be expected from me, and, however they reach their conception of me, they incline to one of two attitudes. Some of them avoid my readings altogether, seeing no reason for climbing down from their elephants and paying attention to revelling women and skipping satyrs; others come with their preconceived idea, and when they find that the thyrsus-head has a steel point under it, they are too much startled by the surprise to venture approval. I confidently promise them, however, that if they will attend the rite repeatedly now as in days of yore, if my old booncompanions will call to mind the revels that once we shared, not be too shy of satyrs and Silenuses, and drink deep of the bowl I bring, the frenzy shall take hold upon them too, till their evoes vie with mine.

Notes on the current edition

Dionysus: an Introduction

1. οὐδὲν πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον· ἐπὶ τῶν τὰ μὴ προσήκοντα τοῖς ὑποκειμένοις λεγόντων. Explained by Zenobius as said in the theatre, when poets began to write about Ajax and the Centaurs and other things not in the Dionysiac legend. See Paroemiographi Graeci i. p. 137.

2. The source of the anapaest κώμων κοινῶν τῶν τότε καιρῶν is unknown.

Lucian of Samosata Bacchus 5

Austin Morris Harmon (Translator)

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