THE BACCHAE Essay Example For Students

THE BACCHAE Essay A monologue from the play by Euripides NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from The Plays of Euripides in English, vol. ii. Trans. Shelley Dean Milman. London: J.M. Dent Sons, 1922. TIRESIAS: Tis easy to be eloquent, for himThats skilled in speech, and hath a stirring theme.Thou hast the flowing tongue as of a wise man,But theres no wisdom in thy fluent words;For the bold demagogue, powerful in speech,Is but a dangerous citizen lacking sense.This the new deity thou laughst to scorn,I may not say how mighty he will beThroughout all Hellas. Youth! there are two thingsMans primal need, Demeter, the boon Goddess(Or rather will ye call her Mother Earth?),With solid food maintains the race of man.He, on the other hand, the son of Semele,Found out the grapes rich juice, and taught us mortalsThat which beguiles the miserable of mankindOf sorrow, when they quaff the vines rich stream.Sleep too, and drowsy oblivion of careHe gives, all-healing medicine of our woes.He mong the gods is worshipped a great god,Author confessed to man of such rich blessingsHim dost thou love to scorn, as in Joves thighSewn up. This truth profound will I unfold:When Jove had snatched him from t he lightning fire,He to Olympus bore the new-born babe.Stern Here strove to thrust him out of heaven,But Jove encountered her with wiles divine:He clove off part of th earth-encircling air,There Dionysus placed the pleasing hostage,Aloof from jealous Here. So men saidHereafter he was cradled in Joves thigh(From the assonance of words in our old tongueFor thigh and hostage the wild fable grew).A prophet is our god, for BacchanalismAnd madness are alike prophetical.And when the god comes down in all his power,He makes the mad to rave of things to come.Of Ares he hath attributes: he the hostIn all its firm array and serried arms,With panic fear scatters, ere lance cross lance:From Dionysus springs this frenzy too.And him shall we behold on Delphis cragsLeaping, with his pine torches lighting upThe rifts of the twin-headed rock; and shoutingAnd shaking all around his Bacchic wandGreat through all Hellas. Pentheus, be advised!Vaunt not thy power oer man, even if thou thinkestThat thou ar t wise (it is diseased, thy thought),Think it not! In the land receive the god.Pour wine, and join the dance, and crown thy brows.Dionysus does not force our modest matronsTo the soft Cyprian rites; the chaste by natureAre not so cheated of their chastity.Think well of this, for in the Bacchic choirThe holy woman will not be less holy.Thourt proud, when men to greet thee throng the gates,And the glad city welcomes Pentheus name;He too, I ween, delights in being honoured.I, therefore, and old Cadmus whom thou mockst,Will crown our heads with ivy, dance alongAn hoary pairfor dance perforce we must;I war not with the gods. Follow my counsel;Thourt at the height of madness, theres no medicineCan minister to disease so deep as thine. We will write a custom essay on THE BACCHAE specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now