she seized his left arm at the wrist; then, planting

her foot upon his chest, she pulled, wrenching away

the arm at the shoulder—not by her own strength,

for the god had put inhuman power in her hands.

Ino, meanwhile, on the other side, was scratching off

his flesh. Then Autonoë and the whole horde

of Bacchae swarmed upon him. Shouts everywhere,

he screaming with what little breath was left,

they shrieking in triumph. One tore off an arm,

another a foot still warm in its shoe. His ribs

were clawed clean of flesh and every hand

was smeared with blood as they played ball with scraps

of Pentheus’ body.

The pitiful remains lie scattered,

one piece among the sharp rocks, others

lying lost among the leaves in the depths

of the forest. His mother, picking up his head,

impaled it on her wand. She seems to think it is

some mountain lion’s head which she carries in triumph

through the thick of Cithaeron. Leaving her sisters

at the Maenad dances, she is coming here, gloating

over her grisly prize. She calls upon Bacchus:

he is her “fellow-huntsman,” “comrade of the chase,

crowned with victory.” But all the victory

she carries home is her own grief.

Now,

before Agave returns, let me leave

this scene of sorrow. Humility,

a sense of reverence before the sons of heaven

of all the prizes that a mortal man might win,

these, I say, are wisest; these are best.                    [Exit MESSENGER.]

HIPPOLYTUS AND HIS HORSES

Hippolytus

Euripides

Translated by Anne Carson, 2006

Euripides’ Hippolytus – first performed in 428 BC, more than two decades before his Bacchae – also explores the conflict between different aspects of the human spirit. The love goddess Aphrodite is furious because a young man named Hippolytos repudiates her while worshipping Artemis, the goddess of the hunt. In this story from Euripides’ tragedy, which is set in the town of Troezen in the Peloponnese, Aphrodite determines to punish him for his unfailing chastity. Hippolytos’ father is Theseus, the founding king of Athens, who is now married to Phaidra. A daughter of King Minos and Pasiphaë, who conceived the Minotaur when she fell in love with a bull (see Story 44), poor Phaidra succumbs to the family curse. Aphrodite (‘Cypris’) is nothing if not vengeful. Seneca’s Phaedra (first century AD) and Jean Racine’s neoclassical tragedy Phèdre (1677) would draw on the same myth. Anne Carson is a celebrated Canadian poet and classicist and her translation is wonderfully rich.

HIPPOLYTOS.

For you

this crown

from a field uncut

O queen I wove and bring—

from a virgin field where no shepherd dares to graze his animal,

no knife comes near it—

field uncut,

just a bee dozing by in spring.

And Shame

waters it with river dews.

No one can cut a flower there

except those who have

purity absolute in their nature,

untaught, all the time.

The bad are kept out.

But O

beloved queen

for your golden hair