Why does Euripides' The Bacchae use the "Roman" name of the god as its title?

by lobobricord

I have only ever seen the title of this play given as some variation on Bacchus like The Bacchae, The Bacchantes, etc. I've always understood Bacchus to be the name of the similar but separate Roman god. And often in the text of the play the name is given as Dionysos. Did Euripides and Greeks of the time Bacchae for the god, his followers, and the play? Or was this a later change or addition, perhaps in Roman-dominated times?

XenophonTheAthenian

Bacchus is not a Latin word--the "ch" consonant does not exist in native Latin. Bacchus is from Greek Βάκχος, in use certainly by the fifth century if not earlier. LSJ suggests an etymology from *ϝάκχος, which would mean that this title is cognate with Ἴακχος, another of Dionysus' alternate titles. How that relates to ἰάχω, "to shout in revelry," which appears in Homer I couldn't really tell you, since the verb seems to predate the noun (in the written record at least, discounting the mentions of Dionysus in Linear B). But that's what LSJ says. The title of the play is exactly what it says in English and Latin: a Βάκχη is a Bacchante