Groovy Park Instrument Players Led by a Singing and Dancing Kybele

Some male devotees accompany their chain-wielding goddess:

Below are some fit lines from Euripides’ Bakkhai  (from scene 1) describing Korybantes—ecstatic drumming and pipe-playing young men devoted to the Phrygian mother-goddess Kybele:

Triple-crested Korybantes

Devised for me

The circle of stretched hide!

In the frenzy of the dance

They joined this beat with the sweet

Calling breath of Phrygian

Pipes, they gave the drum,

Pounding for the Bakkhic cries

Of ecstasy, to Mother Rhea.

About Santi Tafarella

I teach writing and literature at Antelope Valley College in California.
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