Euripides Bacchae | Quotes,
Summaries & Scholarship
Dionysus Quotes (others)
"most terrible and yet most gentle"
"you punish too severely"
"fully a god"
"the foreigner" "effeminate stranger"
"Dionysus is as great as any of the gods"
'he has destroyed us; with justice, yes, but excessively hard"
Dionysus Quotes (self)
"one who speaks wisdom will seem foolish to the ignorant"
"when you wrong me, you are imprisoning the god"
"you do not know what your life is, nor what you are doing, nor who
you are."
Pentheus Quotes (others)
"unholy man"
"i fear the swiftness of your moods"
"temper...excessively kinglike"
"Pentheus was the terror of the city"
"the man who desires to see what should not be seen"
"The enemy of the gods"
Pentheus Quotes (self)
"bring him here in chains to be punished by stoning and so die"
"he is not so quick that he will get away from me" (arrogance/hubris)
"I have more authority"
"force must not be used to defeat women"
"I will sacrifice a great slaughter of women, as they deserve"
Maenad Quotes
"bodies relaxed"
"marvel of decency and grace"
"carelessly but decently"
"Bacchic revelry"
"foaming at the mouth and rolling her eyes in all directions."
"deadly herd"
"not in her right mind"
"howling in triumph"
Tiresias Quotes (others)
, "I recognised the voice of a wise old man" "you are wise"
Tiresias Quotes (self)
"we alone have sense"
"the God has made no distinction as to whether young or something old
should dance"
When an intelligent man takes a strong basis for his arguments, it is
no great effort to make a good speech"
"Do not be too sure that force dominates mankind"
Parados (entry of the chorus 49-142)
"From the land of Asia"
> Dionysus is the other, a foreigner.
"Blessed is he... who leads a life of reverence... who dances in the
mountains in holy rituals" "garlands of snakes" "staff of wildness"
> nature god, like the old chthonic deities ((the oracle of Delphi
used to be sacred to Gaia (earth god))
First Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 292-346)
"though they dwell far away in the sky, the heavenly ones see what
mortals do."
"wisdom is not cleverness"
"He [Dionysus] gives the pleasure of wine that cures grief, To rich
and poor alike... he hates the one who does not care for this"
> rich and poor - democratic, asserting the values of 5th century
Athens as a democracy
Second Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 434-78)
"The time will come when you care about Bromios!"
"how he rages, Pentheus, born of the earth... the son of earth-born
Echion! A savage, unnatural creature, inhuman, a giant so bloody he
threatens the gods!"
> reference to the Gigantomachy, where the giants fought against the
Olympians, and lost (foreshadow)
"your profits in the struggle of oppression"
"come down from Olympus , Shaking your golden thyrsus, And end the
crimes of this murderous man!"
Third Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 728-70)
"hunting down the unholy man"
> references to Actaeon, Pentheus' cousin, who gets torn apart by his
own hunting hounds after spying on Artemis as she was bathing.
"What is wisdom?"
> philosophical and current in Greek thought
"Divine power is certain. It corrects mortals who worship arrogance"
Fourth Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 838-80)
Summaries & Scholarship
Dionysus Quotes (others)
"most terrible and yet most gentle"
"you punish too severely"
"fully a god"
"the foreigner" "effeminate stranger"
"Dionysus is as great as any of the gods"
'he has destroyed us; with justice, yes, but excessively hard"
Dionysus Quotes (self)
"one who speaks wisdom will seem foolish to the ignorant"
"when you wrong me, you are imprisoning the god"
"you do not know what your life is, nor what you are doing, nor who
you are."
Pentheus Quotes (others)
"unholy man"
"i fear the swiftness of your moods"
"temper...excessively kinglike"
"Pentheus was the terror of the city"
"the man who desires to see what should not be seen"
"The enemy of the gods"
Pentheus Quotes (self)
"bring him here in chains to be punished by stoning and so die"
"he is not so quick that he will get away from me" (arrogance/hubris)
"I have more authority"
"force must not be used to defeat women"
"I will sacrifice a great slaughter of women, as they deserve"
Maenad Quotes
"bodies relaxed"
"marvel of decency and grace"
"carelessly but decently"
"Bacchic revelry"
"foaming at the mouth and rolling her eyes in all directions."
"deadly herd"
"not in her right mind"
"howling in triumph"
Tiresias Quotes (others)
, "I recognised the voice of a wise old man" "you are wise"
Tiresias Quotes (self)
"we alone have sense"
"the God has made no distinction as to whether young or something old
should dance"
When an intelligent man takes a strong basis for his arguments, it is
no great effort to make a good speech"
"Do not be too sure that force dominates mankind"
Parados (entry of the chorus 49-142)
"From the land of Asia"
> Dionysus is the other, a foreigner.
"Blessed is he... who leads a life of reverence... who dances in the
mountains in holy rituals" "garlands of snakes" "staff of wildness"
> nature god, like the old chthonic deities ((the oracle of Delphi
used to be sacred to Gaia (earth god))
First Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 292-346)
"though they dwell far away in the sky, the heavenly ones see what
mortals do."
"wisdom is not cleverness"
"He [Dionysus] gives the pleasure of wine that cures grief, To rich
and poor alike... he hates the one who does not care for this"
> rich and poor - democratic, asserting the values of 5th century
Athens as a democracy
Second Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 434-78)
"The time will come when you care about Bromios!"
"how he rages, Pentheus, born of the earth... the son of earth-born
Echion! A savage, unnatural creature, inhuman, a giant so bloody he
threatens the gods!"
> reference to the Gigantomachy, where the giants fought against the
Olympians, and lost (foreshadow)
"your profits in the struggle of oppression"
"come down from Olympus , Shaking your golden thyrsus, And end the
crimes of this murderous man!"
Third Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 728-70)
"hunting down the unholy man"
> references to Actaeon, Pentheus' cousin, who gets torn apart by his
own hunting hounds after spying on Artemis as she was bathing.
"What is wisdom?"
> philosophical and current in Greek thought
"Divine power is certain. It corrects mortals who worship arrogance"
Fourth Stasimon Quotes (choral ode 838-80)
