Euripides, Bacchae

David Kovacs (University of Virginia)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.1.1: Greek Writing and Culture: Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic and Imperial, -800--100.
Vol. editors: Jonathan Burgess (University of Toronto), Giacomo Fedeli (University of Exeter), Emily Kneebone (University of Nottingham), Vaios Liapis (Open University of Cyprus), Elodie Paillard (University of Sydney), Mali Skotheim (Ashoka University), Laura Swift (The Open University)

Dates

First circulation or publication -407

Places

Ancient Greece (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

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According to several ancient reports Euripides spent the last two years of his life as a guest in the court of Archelaus, the king of Macedonia, who invited a number of literary and artistic figures to his capital at Pella. (The visit is doubted by Scullion 2003, but the evidence against it does not convince me that the story is without foundation.) When Euripides died in 407/6, he left behind three last tragedies,

Iphigenia in Aulis, Alcmaeon,

and

Bacchae

. These were produced in Athens by Euripides the Younger (the poet’s son or nephew), probably in 405. The second play is lost, but the first and third have come down to us,

Iphigenia

in a text marred by many later additions (see Page 1938 and Kovacs 2003) and

Bacchae

, better preserved but with two lacunae at the end.

Bacchae (the name

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1791 words

Citation: Kovacs, David. "Bacchae". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 September 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=13357, accessed 23 April 2024.]

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