Euripides, Hippolytos 948–957:
Are you, then, the companion of the gods, as a man beyond the common? Are you the chaste one, untouched by evil? I will never be persuaded by your vauntings, never be so unintelligent as to impute folly to the gods. Continue then your confident boasting, take up a diet of greens and play the showman with your food, make Orpheus your lord and engage in mystic Bacchic rites, holding the vaporings of many books in honor. For you have been found out. To all I give the warning: avoid men like this. For they make you their prey with their high-holy-sounding words while they contrive deeds of shame.
σὺ δὴ θεοῖσιν ὡς περισσὸς ὢν ἀνὴρ ξύνει σὺ σώφρων καὶ κακῶν ἀκήρατος οὐκ ἂν πιθοίμην τοῖσι σοῖς κόμποις ἐγὼ θεοῖσι προσθεὶς ἀμαθίαν φρονεῖν κακῶς. ἤδη νυν αὔχει καὶ δι’ ἀψύχου βορᾶς σίτοις καπήλευ’ Ὀρφέα τ’ ἄνακτ’ ἔχων βάκχευε πολλῶν γραμμάτων τιμῶν καπνούς· ἐπεί γ’ ἐλήφθης. τοὺς δὲ τοιούτους ἐγὼ φεύγειν προφωνῶ πᾶσι· θηρεύουσι γὰρ σεμνοῖς λόγοισιν, αἰσχρὰ μηχανώμενοι.
Tagged: dionysos, orpheus
