Bacchae

by Euripides

For the bold demagogue, powerful in speech, Is but a dangerous citizen lacking sense.

sentiments that haven't aged a day since they were written

Life is brief, the present clasp, Nor after some bright future grasp. Such were the wisdom, as I ween, Only of frantic and ill-counselled men.

DIONYSUS Who wiseliest speaks, to the fool speaks foolishness.

DIONYSUS Thou know’st not where thou art, or what thou art. PENTHEUS Pentheus, Agave’s son, my sire Echion. DIONYSUS Thou hast a name whose very sound is woe.

And swifter were the entrails torn away Than drop the lids over your royal eyeballs.

The sad Agave. And he said, her cheek Fondling, “I am thy child, thine own, my mother! Pentheus, whom in Echion’s house you bare. Have mercy on me, mother! For his sins, Whatever be his sins, kill not thy son.” She, foaming at the mouth, her rolling eyeballs Whirling around, in her unreasoning reason, By Bacchus all possessed, knew, heeded not. She caught him in her arms, seized his right hand, And, with her feet set on his shrinking side, Tore out the shoulder — not with her own strength:

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