Bacchae

play by Euripides

Also known as: “Bacchants”, “Bakchai”

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Also called:: Bacchants

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Bacchae, drama produced about 406 bce by Euripides. It is regarded by many as his masterpiece.

In Bacchae the god Dionysus arrives in Greece from Asia intending to introduce his orgiastic worship there. He is disguised as a charismatic young Asian holy man and is accompanied by his women votaries, who make up the play’s chorus. He expects to be accepted first in Thebes, but the Thebans reject his divinity and refuse to worship him, and the city’s young king, Pentheus, tries to arrest him. In the end Dionysus drives Pentheus insane and leads him to the mountains, where Pentheus’s own mother, Agave, and the women of Thebes in a bacchic frenzy tear him to pieces.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Kathleen Kuiper.