Dionysos, from The Bacchae, read by Benjamin Evett

Bust of Dionysos

Euripides’ play The Bacchae opens with the appearance of the god Dionysos alone on stage. Hear him introduce himself in Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones’s translation, read by Benjamin Evett.

I am Dionysos, son of the king of the gods

I have come a long way. From Lydia and Phrygia,

The lands of the golden rivers,

Across the sun-baked steppes of Persia,

Through the cities of Bactria

Smiling Arabia, and all the Anatolia coast,

Where the salt seas beat on turreted strongholds

Of Greek and Turk. I have set them all dancing;

They have learned to worship me

And know me for what I am;

A god.

And now,

I have come to Greece.