“Dionysus had already been scared form the tragic stage, by a demonic power speaking through Euripides. Even Euripides was, in a sense, only a mask: the deity that spoke through him was neither Dionysus nor Apollo, but an altogether newborn demon, called Socrates.”

“He who has perceived the material out of which the Promethean tragic writers prior to Euripides formed their heroes, and how remote from their purpose it was to bring the faithful mask of reality onto the stage, will also be aware of the utterly opposite tendency of Euripides. Through him the everyday man forced his way from the spectators' seats onto the stage; the mirror in which formerly only grand and bold traits were represented now showed the painful fidelity that conscientiously reproduces even the botched outlines of nature.”

“Dionysus, as the God of Wine, suggested that the occasion should be turned into a magnificent orgiastic event, with the Muses & the Graces dancing to the music of Apollo, Hermes & Pan as well as that of the Maenads & Bacchantes.So the venue that Dionysus suggested was agreed upon even before the main players, the King of the Gods & the Goddess of Love, had agreed to mate.”

“He who is neither human nor demon is not the dawn nor the dusk.”

“Cleopatra stood at one of the most dangerous intersections in history; that of women and power. Clever women, Euripides had warned hundreds of years earlier, were dangerous.”

“What was Dionysus going to go? Send him back to his hellish isolation? He’d been there, done that, and had the Ozzy T-shirt to prove it.’ (Styxx)”