Many years ago, on the slopes of a mountain range overlooking Sparta, I wrote a musical version of the Greek play “The Bacchae” by Euripides. Here are a few choice lines!
Chorus:
Feet flood past
We dance the Asian dervish
Never last to praise the fruit we service!
Fruit we seize to squeeze into wine.
Mine, an idle idyl passing the time.
The night is brighter
For the fighter downs the sword
To down a jug of wine
And praise the Bacchic lord
Come, join the praises
Of the legend of the ages –
Dionysos.
Pentheus:
Why have you come here
You insolent man in a dress?
Too freely festive, your hair in a mess.
If there is a message from this play, it must surely be that the gods are greater than we are, and laugh at them or love them, we should still be respectful of them. Isn’t that how we should treat the media?
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