Bacchen-des-Euripides-zu-erneuern': The 'Pentheus' project of Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Hofmannsthal's Nachlass contains a series of notes for an adaptation or rew riting of Euripides' Bacchae, notes written in three phases (1892-3, 1904, 1905-18). Working from the new standard Hofmannsthal edition, this article seeks to make sense of these fragments by re-arranging each group into a co herent sequence, based on Hofmannsthal's outline scenario and on the struct ure of the model, Euripides' play. The result is a skeletal text of a two a ct drama, radically different from previously published versions, which may aid future scholarship in the appreciation of this hitherto confusing mate rial. The article sets three targets: to assess what attracted Hofmannsthal to th e subject, what he attempted to make of it, and why he did not succeed. It begins with an introduction to the main characteristics of Hofmannsthal's H ellenism and its historical-critical context (Nietzsche, Rohde, etc.) Eurip ides' Bacchae is briefly interpreted in terms that provide a basis for asse ssing Hofmannsthal's project. There then follows a summary of each newly co nstituted scene at the three stages of interest, drawing attention to princ ipal themes and points of congruence with or divergence from Euripides' dra ma. After sections on the influence of Nietzsche and Pater, the article con cludes with reflections on why Hofmannsthal was unable to complete the proj ect.