This is an accessible introduction to the ancient tragedy of discuss the main themes of Euripides' Bacchae, and the central developments in modern criticism, whilst also addressing the play's historical context and the history of its performance and adaptation.

References to Dionysus in popular culture focus on the god as the incarnation of wild and decadent behaviour, by which humans are intrigued and appalled. The god as he is portrayed in Euripides' Bacchae is, however, more complex, paradoxically transcending straightforward notions of the Dionysiac. Euripides' Dionysus blurs the dividing line between many of the fundamental categories of ancient Greek life - male and female, Greek and barbarian, divine and human. This book explores his place in Athenian religion, what Euripides makes of him in the play, and the views of later writers and scholars.