Our Saviour Dionysos: Humanism and Theology in Gilbert Murray's Bakkhai

Abstract

This article analyses the 1902 translation of Euripides’ Bakkhai by the renowned scholar, internationalist, and popularizer of Greek drama, Gilbert Murray. In particular, Murray's syncretistic use of religious diction in the translation is contrasted with his secular humanist reading of the play: throughout the translation, pagan, Olympian polytheism is described in Christian terminology. I conclude that this apparent contradiction reflects the early twentieth-century literary-historical context in which Murray operated, and his own idiosyncratic, ritualist reading of the play and of Greek tragedy in general. Murray interpreted Bakkhai as a ‘secular mystery play’ in celebration of humanism, but he lacked the poetic resources to express this in verse without recourse to Christian phraseology. Within Murray's overall project of popularizing Greek drama, this translation stands as a significant, influential experiment in post-Victorian secular-mystical verse drama.