Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD   Dramatis Personæ

Euripides (480 or 485–406 B.C.). The Bacchæ.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Dramatis Personæ

Dionysus, The God; son of Zeus and of the Theban princess Semelê.

Cadmus, formerly King of Thebes, father of Semelê.

Pentheus, King of Thebes, grandson of Cadmus.

Agâvê, daughter of Cadmus, mother of Pentheus.

Teiresias, an aged Theban prophet.

A Soldier of Pentheus’ Guard.

Two Messengers.

A Chorus of Inspired Damsels, following Dionysus from the East.

“The play was first produced after the death of Euripides by his son, who bore the same name, together with the Iphigenia in Aulis and the Alcmaeon, probably in the year 405 B.C.”

The background represents the front of the Castle of PENTHEUS, King of Thebes. At one side is visible the sacred Tomb of Semelê, a little enclosure overgrown with wild vines, with a cleft in the rocky floor of it from which there issues at times steam or smoke. The God DIONYSUS is discovered alone.