Euripides himself, towards the end of his life, propounded the question of the value and significance of this tendency to his contemporaries in a myth.
在晚年时代，欧里庇德斯自己，在一部神话剧中，向他同代人大力提出关于这种倾向的价值和意义的问题。
Has the Dionysian spirit any right at all to exist?
酒神文化毕竟有没有存在的价值呢？
Should it not, rather, be brutally uprooted from the Hellenic soil?
是不是应该用暴力把它从希腊地土上连根拔除呢？
Yes, it should, the poet tells us, if only it were possible, but the god Dionysus is too powerful: even the most intelligent opponent, like Pentheus in the Bacchae, is unexpectedly enchanted by him, and in his enchantment runs headlong to destruction.
诗人告诉我们：要是可能的话，当然要拔除；但是酒神太顽强了，他的最聪明的敌手，有如“酒神伴侣”一剧中的潘透斯，在无意中也着了他的迷，后来就在迷惑中奔赴自己的末运。
The opinion of the two old men in the play--Cadmus and Tiresias--seems to echo the opinion of the aged poet himself:
老先知卡德谟斯（Kadmua）和 提列西亚（Tiresia）的判断，也好象是这位老诗人的判断：
that the cleverest individual cannot by his reasoning overturn an ancient popular tradition like the worship of Dionysus, and that it is the proper part of diplomacy in the face of miraculous powers to make at least a prudent show of sympathy;
即使最聪明的人的考虑，也不能推翻古老的民间传统，以及这种不断传播的酒神崇拜，其实对这样神奇的力量，最好是采用至少一些外交性的慎重措施，
that it is even possible that the god may still take exception to such tepid interest and--as happened in the case of Cadmus--turn the diplomat into a dragon.
虽则酒神对如此冷淡的顶礼，往往有可能勃然大怒，结果会把这外交使节化为龙，正象剧中人卡德谟斯所遭遇的那样。
We are told this by a poet who all his life had resisted Dionysus heroically, only to end his career with a glorification of his opponent and with suicide--like a man who throws himself from a tower in order to put an end to the unbearable sensation of vertigo.
这就是诗人告诉我们的话。他毕生在悠长的岁月里，以英勇的魄力反抗酒神，而到头来还是颂扬他的敌手，并且以自杀来结束自己的事业之历程，正象一个眼花缭乱的人，只为了避开可怕的、再也不能忍受的眩晕，反而从高塔上失足堕地那样。
The Bacchae acknowledges the failure of Euripides' dramatic intentions when, in fact, these had already succeeded: Dionysus had already been driven from the tragic stage by a daemonic power speaking through Euripides.
这个悲剧“酒神伴侣”，就是对他的倾向的实行之一种抗议，可是呵，他的倾向业已付诸实行！惊人的事件发生了：当诗人要收回成命时，他的倾向已经取得胜利。酒神已经被斥逐出悲剧舞台，一种魔力，借欧里庇德斯为喉舌把他斥退了。
For in a certain sense Euripides was but a mask, while the divinity which spoke through him was neither Dionysus nor Apollo but a brand new daemon called Socrates.
因为，甚至欧里庇德斯，在某种意义上，也不过是一个伪装人物，通过他来发言的那位神，不是酒神，也不是梦神，而是一个崭新的灵物，名叫苏格拉底。
Thenceforward the real antagonism was to be between Dionysian spirit and the Socratic, and tragedy was to perish in the conflict.
这是一种新的对立。酒神倾向与苏格拉底倾向的对立，希腊悲剧艺术作品就在这一对立上碰得粉碎了。
Try as he may to comfort us with his recantation, Euripides fails.
现在，欧里庇德斯妄想以他的后悔来安慰我们，他没有成功。
The marvelous temple lies in ruins; of what avail is the destroyer's lament that it was the most beautiful of all temples?
堂皇的庙宇已成废墟，破坏者的悲叹对我们有甚么用处呢？即使他承认这间是最华丽的庙宇，又有甚么用处呢？
And though, by way of punishment, Euripides has been turned into a dragon by all later critics, who can really regard this as adequate compensation?
即使世世代代的艺术批评把欧里庇德斯化为龙，以示惩罚，可是这样可怜的赔偿能使谁满意呢？