Abstract: Soyinka learns the concept of tragedy from Nietzsche. But Soyinka also makes great efforts to introduce local cultural sources to his tragic idea when he draws lessons from Nietzsche's idea. The final goal of Soyinka's tragedy aesthetics is the psychic health of community which is interweaved with his constant focus on political health of community. That makes Soyinka's concept of tragedy own a complicated quality consisting of metaphysics, mythical thinking and realistic concern. The main purpose of the adaptation of The Bacchae is to express Soyinka's own thinking about national drama by means of the old story in Europe. So Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides:A Communion Rite is a creative rewriting.

Key words: Wole Soyinka, The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite, culture of Yoruba, Nietzsche, creative adaptation