Day 21 - The Bacchae - by Euripides

Gods win every time, don't they?  Our myths and legends and even religions retell this common theme.  Gods are vengeful, powerful, and demand worship - at least the Greek gods do.  I'm reading The Bacchae for part of a Greek Mythology course where Dionysus exacts his sweet and wicked revenge on Pentheus and Thebes.  We fall, humble, before these powerful deities.

Yet, I wonder if the ritual of Dionysus is carried forward in the Druid rituals for fertility, or other Pagan rituals steeped in mysticism and mystery.  What purpose is this gluttony of rage and wrath and lust and libations? Like falling off a diet for a day, then getting back on track, a release of pent up stress?  Was the purpose simply to blow off steam?

My poem today is an excerpt from The Bacchae.
https://soundcloud.com/raindrop-11/the-bacchae 

********************************************
The Bacchae - by Euripides (excerpt from Chorus, The Maidens:)

Will they ever come to me, ever again,
The long long dances,
On through the dark till the dim stars wane?
Shall I feel the dew on my throat, and the stream
Of wind in my hair? Shall our white feet gleam
In the dim expanses?
Oh, feet of a fawn to the greenwood fled,
Alone in the grass and the loveliness;
Leap of the hunted, no more in dread,
Beyond the snares and the deadly press:
Yet a voice still in the distance sounds,
A voice and a fear and a haste of hounds;
O wildly labouring, fiercely fleet,
Onward yet by river and glen …
Is it joy or terror, ye storm-swift feet? …
To the dear lone lands untroubled of men,
Where no voice sounds, and amid the shadowy green
The little things of the woodland live unseen.
What else is Wisdom? What of man’s endeavour
Or God’s high grace, so lovely and so great?
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait;
To hold a hand uplifted over Hate;
And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever?

*******************************************

The whole poem is worth reading, you can find many versions but this is the one I used:
http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/jmanis/euripides/Euripides-Bacchae.pdf