It's like telephone, only with Greek tragedies...

I read two different versions of Bacchae. And let me tell you, they were very different. Besides the reading that was sent to us to read, I have the version that was translated by Paul Woodruff. I never knew different people could translate the same story so differently. I have seen it happen with the Electra story, but these translations are even set up differently.
In the Woodruff version, the lines are written in paragraph form, yet in the other version, they are in a poem format. The choruses are also different. Woodruff has the chorus parts written as antistrophe and strophe. And he uses half of the chorus in scene 3. I think this makes it more confusing, at least for me it did. I had absolutely no idea what was going on when I read the Woodruff version. In the version that was sent to us, it was a lot easier to understand what was going on. I think that also has a lot to do with the actual translations.
When reading both of them, the lines are almost completely different. The God’s names are different. Even the first part of the prologue is completely different. Woodruff’s version starts out with Dionysus exclaiming who he is, yet he only states that he is Dionysus, and never continues on to say that he is “Bacchus. / Bromius and Iacchus. / Dithyrambus and Evius,” like in the version that was sent to us. The book just makes it more difficult to illustrate the power of this God and the capabilities he has. I can’t get the real side of Dionysus from the short paragraph explaining who he is.
The two versions did, however, have the same general understanding of the events and occurrences. For example, both versions have the mother and the other women pulling apart Pentheus limb from limb and the mother carrying the head around with her. In woodruff’s version, she actually had it mounted on her thyrsus (which I still haven’t figured out just what it is yet).
I don’t think I like Woodruff’s version. His translation is very confusing, and not straight forward like the other one. Plus, the cover of the book has a picture of Elvis on the front. What is that about?