Euripides' second chorus

Have this beautiful chorus from Euripides’ Bacchae to enjoy on this last day of the Lenaia. It's the second chorus (370-433). Translation borrowed from here.

Sacred queen of the gods

Sacred one who flies

Over the earth on golden wing—

Did you hear these things about Pentheus?

Did you hear

Of his unholy outrage against Bromios

Semele’s son, the first of the gods

Called upon in the finely-wreathed

Feasts? He holds sway here,

To entwine us in the dances

To make us laugh with the flute

To dissolve our worries

Whenever the grape’s shine

Arrives at the feast of the gods

And in the ivy-wound banquets of men

Where the winebowl lets down its sleep.

The fate for unbridled mouths

And lawless foolishness

Is misfortune.

The life of peace

And prudence

Is unshaken and cements together

Human homes. For even though

They live far off in the sky

The gods gaze at human affairs.

Wisdom is not wit;

Nor is thinking thoughts which belong not to mortals.

Life is brief. And because of this

Whoever seeks out great accomplishments

May not grasp the things at hand.

These are the ways of madmen

And wicked fools, I think.

I wish I could travel to Cyprus

The island of Aphrodite

Where the enchanters of mortal minds live,

The Erotes, at Paphos

Where the hundred mouths

Of the barbarian river

Water fertile earth despite no rain;

I wish to go where Pieria

Looms so fair, that seat of the Muses,

The sacred slope of Mount Olympos—

Take me there, Bromios, my Bromios,

Divine master of ecstasy.

There are the Graces, there is Longing, there it is right

For the Bacchants to hold their sacred rites.

The god, the son of Zeus,

He delights in the feast,

He loves wealth-granting peace

The child-rearing goddess.

He has granted equally to the rich

And those below to have

The grief-relieving pleasure of wine.

He hates the person who has no care for these affairs.

During the day and during lovely nights

To live a good life,

To protect wisdom and thoughts and heart

From men who go too far.

Whatever the rather simple-minded mob believes

This is welcome enough belief for me.