Bacchae (Clarendon Paperbacks) Review
The book I read had the isbn number I gave in my title. An Amazon search pulled up this page. There seems to have been a mix-up somehow because many of the other reviews seem to be referring to other translations of this work. The Dover Thrift edition states in a bibliographical note that the translation used is that of Henry Hart Milman, first published in 1865. I mention this so prospective buyers won't be misled.
This is indeed a thrift edition. There is but the briefest of introductory notes. To get an adequate background which explains the context of the action, the reader will have to look elsewhere. I found plenty of sources on the internet, but one in particular which was outstanding. That was: "Introductory Note To Euripides' Bacchae" by Ian Johnston, a retired instructor at Vancouver University. This was a very lucid, well-written introduction and commentary on the play which provided context and also considered several different interpretations of it's meaning.
This translation, though having a certain lyrical quality, seems in many places awkward, with subjects, verbs, and objects of sentences doing a cumbersome dance and sometimes getting out of order. I glanced at the beginning of a translation by the above-mentioned Ian Johnston which seemed much more direct and understandable. However, I'm not out to knock this translation, just to point out there might be desirable alternatives.
My interest in reading the 'Bacchae' was aroused by a book called 'Sexual Persona', by Camille Paglia. Paglia sees the whole of Western Civilization as achieving its successes through the suppression of Dionysian irrationality by Apollonian focus - hard, rational, and discriminating. For her, the Apollonian expression reached a high point in the production of Aeschylus' 'Oresteia', with it's concept of a rational code of justice. The 'Oresteia' appeared during a time of vigor for classical Greece. The 'Bacchae', on the other hand was written during a period of decline, and according to Paglia, parodies the idealism of Aeschylus.
She(Paglia) associates the Dionysian frenzy of the 'Bacchae' with the drugs, rock music, and rebelliousness of the 1960's. It is a "panorama of intoxication, delusion, and self-destruction". She equates the conquest by Dionysus with the repressed id erupting to wreak vengeance on the Apollonian super-ego of sharply defined form and rationality.
After reading the play, I must say I think it surely merits these colorful comparisons, for it rivals anything produced by the psychedelic '60's. Most of the time I try to give my own impressions of a book more weight in interpreting its meaning, but I think in the case of ancient Greek drama we have little choice but to pay more heed to the opinions of expert critics. We are so far removed from the cultural factors which produced these works it is impossible to penetrate very deeply without help from the experts. I'm sure there are many worthwhile commentators other than the two I mentioned, but without their help, the 'Bacchae' would have remained an interesting, but bizarre and murky mystery to me.
Bacchae (Clarendon Paperbacks) Overview
"Using to the full the last half century's great accessions to the comparative study of religion, [Dodds] has given a coherent and convincing reconstruction of the Dionysiac background--and, indeed, foreground--of the play, illustrating it with many instructive non-Greek and modern parallels.... Equally instructive and stimulating is the acute analysis of the play's dramatic elements, its characters, scenes, conflicts, actions, speeches.... This edition far surpasses its predecessors in vitality, sympathy, and scope."--W.B. Stanford, Hermathena LXV. Including a comprehensive discussion of the play's background and an incisive assessment of its dramatic structure, this edition makes an outstanding contribution to Euripides scholarship.
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Customer Reviews
No Greek text - Artemesia -
This review refers to the paperback Bryn Mawr commentary of Euripides' Bacchae by Beth Causey copyright 1995 ISBN 0-929524-85-3.
Usually, Bryn Mawr commentaries come with the Greek text. The information on Amazon says that the book is 28 pages. In fact the book I received was 21 pages and is only a commentary - it is missing the Greek text.
The poor rating in this review does not refer to the quality of commentary by Beth Causey but the fact that I expect commentaries to have a copy of the Greek text, and I expect books I order to be the same number of pages as stated in the information on Amazon.
Several of the reviews here seem to be of a different book altogether since they refer to an English translation of the text. I have never heard of a Bryn Mawr commentary that gave an English translation of the text.
Helpful Book - Steven O. Jeffries - virginia beach, va United States
I used this book as a resource for a college paper when I was a little short of time. The accompanying historical and amplifying material was very helpful as was the summary of the play in the back.
A note for a five-star book, Bacchae edited by E. R. Dodds - bukhtan - Chicago, Illinois, USA
I doubt anyone will go so far as to shell out .00 and find out the hard way, but this spectacular book:
1986 2nd ed.
English Book lix, 253 p. ; 19 cm.
Oxford : Clarendon Press ; New York : Oxford University Press.
ISBN: 0198721250 (pbk.) 9780198721253 (pbk.)
contains in fact the Greek text, with apparatus, accompanied by this great scholar's introduction and line by line commentary. I have never seen a better commentary on a Greek tragedy, and in fact the work may be of some value to Greekless readers, but it is NOT the translation referred to by the other reviewers at this site.
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