THE BACCHAE


by Euripides


Translated by the students of Greek 115b (Catherine Baker, Sarah Fram, Hal Grossman, Jon Lewis, Tod Kulkin, Gayle McElvain, Sam Petsonk, Ben Powell, Ben Woodring) and Leonard Muellner


[NOTE: This translation is a work-in-progress. Please send any comments, corrections, or suggestions for improvement to muellner at brandeis.edu. Thank you.]


Dionysos:


[1] I have come, a child of Zeus, to this land of the Thebans,

[2] I, Dionysus, whom once the daughter of Cadmus bore;

[3] Semele she was, and her labor was induced by lightning-bearing fire.

[4] Changed out of a god's into mortal shape,

[5] I am here at the running streams of Dirce and of Ismenos.

[6] I behold a reminder of my thunder-smitten Mother,

[7] Right here, near the ruins of dwellings and of houses,

[8] smoldering with the still-living flame of the fire of Zeus,

[9] the undying violence of Hera towards my mother.

[10] But I praise Cadmus, who made this site before me taboo,

[11] the sacred enclosure of his daughter. With a grape vine I covered it

[12] all round, a vine sprouting clusters.

[13] Leaving the gold-rich lands of the Lydians

[14] and the Phrygians and the sun-struck plains of the Persians

[15] and the Baktrian walls and the dangerous land

[16] of the Medes, coming up on prosperous Arabia

[17] and all of Asia, which lies along the salty sea,

[18] with Greeks and barbarians mixed together,

[19] full cities, beautifully fortified,

[20] I came to this city-state of the Greeks first,

[21] setting up choral dances here and establishing my

[22] rituals, in order to be apparent bodily to mortals as a god.

[23] First in Thebes of this Greek land,

[24] I raised the ritual cry, attaching the fawnskin to their skin,

[25] giving the thyrsos, a weapon made of ivy leaves, into their hands.

[26] Since my mother's sisters, whom it befitted least of all,

[27] were saying that Dionysus was not born of Zeus,

[28] and that Semele, seduced by some mortal,

[29] ascribed to Zeus the error of her bed,

[30] -- that was a clever fabrication of Cadmus', because of which,

[31] they gloated, Zeus killed her, since she had lied about her marriage.

[32] So I goaded those very women out of their homes

[33] in madness, and they dwell on the mountains, frenzied, out of their minds;

[34] And I forced them to have the attire of my Bacchic rituals

[35] and all the female seed, as many

[36] of the Cadmeans as are women, I drove them raving from their households.

[37] All of them, mixed up with the daughters of Cadmus,

[38] sit under green fir trees on roofless rocks.

[39] This city-state, must learn this utterly, even if it doesn't wish to:

[40] that it is uninitiated in my Bacchic rites.

[41] and that I speak on behalf of my mother Semele,

[42] I whom she bore to Zeus, a god who made myself apparent to mortals.

[43] Cadmus gave the prize of honor and kingly power

[44] to Pentheus, his daughter's son,

[45] who opened war on my godhead, and away from the drink offerings

[46] he pushed me, and in prayers, he made mention of me nowhere.

[47] Because of these things, I will show to him that I am born a god,

[48] and I'll show the same to all Thebans. And then off to another land,

[49] in a new direction I will go and establish things there as they should be,

[50] pointing myself out; but if the city-state of the Thebans

[51] in anger, with arms, seeks to drive the Bacchae from the mountain,

[52] I, taking command of the maenads, will join battle against them.

[53] For these reasons I changed my form to a mortal's,

[54] quickly changed my form into the nature of a man.

[55] But you who left Tmolus, the bulwark of Lydia,

[56] my thiasos [= 'ritual troop'], you women from among the non-Greeks

[57] whom I brought here and have never left my side, who have always travelled with me:

[58] take up the drums made in the Phrygian city

[59] those deep drums invented by mother Rhea and me,

[60] go round both sides of this royal home

[61] of Pentheus, and raise a din so that the city-state of Cadmus may see you.

[62] I am off to the folds of Mount Kithairon,

[63] where the Bacchae are, and where I will join the dance.


Chorus:

[64] From the earth of Asia,

[65] crossing over sacred Tmolus, I move rapidly

[66] in sweet work for Bromios

[67] and in his easy toil,

[68] crying to Bacchus in celebration.

[69] Who is in the way? Who is in the way? Who?

[70] Let him go inside the halls, and let everyone

[71] keep sacred their well-speaking mouths:

[72] Always the words handed down by tradition

[73] will I sing of Dionysus.


[73] Blessed is whoever happily

[74] Knows the rites of the gods

[75] Leads a sacred life and

[75] Brings her soul into the Bacchic troop (=thiasos),

[76] In the mountains doing the Bacchic ritual

[77] With its sacred purifications,

[78] Keeping also the rituals of

[79] The great mother,

[80] Shaking high the thyrsos

[81] And crowned with ivy

[82] Serves Dionysus.


[83] Go Bacchae, go Bacchae,

[84] Bromios the god, child of a god, Dionysus,

[85] Bringing him home, down from the

[86] Mountains of Phrygia

[87] Into the broad open streets

[88] Of Hellas, Bromios;


[89] Once his mother, carrying him and then

[90] amid the childbearing throes of labor pains

[90] She expelled him from her womb

[91] When the thunderbolt of Zeus flew

[92] Leaving behind her life essence

[93] By the blow of the thunderbolt.

[94] Zeus, Kronos' son, immediately received him

[95] Into his secret recesses,

[96] Hiding him down inside his thigh,

[97] And he bound him with golden

[98] Buckles, apart from Hera.


[99] And he bore him at the time when the Fates

[100] Brought it to fulfillment, and the bull-horned god

[101] He crowned with wreaths

[102] Of snakes, and from that point on

[103] The maenads wear

[104] Their beastly catch

[105] In their braids.


[106] O Thebes, nurse of Semele,

[107] Be wreathed in ivy;

[108] Teem, teem with evergreen

[109] Creepers that bear their lovely fruit,

[109] And rave with Bacchic frenzy

[110] With branches of oak

[111] Or pine, and wrap on the skins of dappled fawns

[112] Flocked with braided white wool.

[113] In your handling of the violent wands (=thyrsoi);

[114] Be holy; immediately the whole land shall dance --

[115] Bromios is whoever leads the worshipping companies (=thiasoi) --

[116] Off to the mountain, off to the mountain, where the female

[117] Horde awaits us,

[118] Apart from the standing looms and the shuttles,

[119] Stung by Dionysus.


[120] Chamber of the Kouretes,

[121] Sacred reaches of island Crete!

[122] Where, in the cave of the birth of Zeus

[123-4] Triple-crested Korybantes

[125] Devised for me

[126] The circle of stretched hide!

[127] In the frenzy of the dance

[128] They joined this beat with the sweet

[128] Calling breath of Phrygian

[129] Pipes, they gave the drum,

[129] Pounding for the Bacchic cries

[130] Of ecstasy, to Mother Rhea.

[130] From her, the Mother Goddess,

[131-2] Ecstatic satyrs took it

[132-3] To the festivals where every other year

[134] Our Dionysos rejoices when everyone is dancing.


[134-5] How sweet he is in the mountains,

[135] When running with his worshippers he throws

[136-7] Himself to the ground, wearing his holy fawn skin

[138-9] Rapture of killing and the spilled blood, of eating

[140-1] Raw the flesh of the hunted goat!

[142-3] Racing across the mountains of Phrygia, of Lydia! Bromios leads us!

[144] Euhoi!

[144] From the earth comes flowing milk, flowing

[145] Wine, flowing nectar of bees! The Bacchic One

[146] Lifts his blazing torch high,

[146] The sweet pine smoke streams

[147] Like Syrian frankincense as he races

[148] Holding the staff of fennel

[148] Running and dancing, joyously

[149] Crying, Dionysos stirs

[149] The straggling maenads to shake

[150] With rapture and he whips

[150] His long fine hair in the air of heaven.

[151] Amidst their joyful cries

[152] He roars to them, "Onward,

[153] Bacchhai! Onward, Bacchai!

[154] You are the pride of gold-

[154] Giving Mount Tmolus,

[155] Sing of Dionysos to the thundering drumbeats,

[156] Your shouts of rapture exalt

[157] The god of joyful cry

[158] With Phrygian crying and calling,

[159] When the melodious holy

[160] Pipes with holy notes

[161-4] Resound among those

[165] Who throng to the mountain, to the mountain!"

[166] Then, like a joyful foal, when it plays

[167] Near the grazing mare, the woman

[168-169] Worshiper swiftly, nimbly leaps!


Tiresias:

[170] Who is at the house-door? Call forth Cadmus from the house,

[171] son of Agenor, who left Sidon city-state

[172] and fortified this city-state of Thebans.

[173] Someone, come and announce that Teiresias

[174] is seeking him. He knows what I've come about,

[175] and what I agreed to, an old man with one still older

[176] --to fasten together thyrsoi and wear the hides of fawns

[177] and to wreath our heads with ivy shoots.


Cadmus:

[178] O dear friend, since I recognized your voice, hearing it,

[179] a wise voice from a wise man, when I was in the palace.

[180] I have come prepared, with this apparel of the god.

[181] For we must, since he is the child borne of my daughter,

[182] Dionysus, manifest as a god to human beings --

[183] as much as is consistent with our ability, we must exalt him great as he is.

[184] Where should we dance, where set down our feet

[185] and shake our gray heads? You show me the way,

[186] one old man leading another old man, Teiresias, for you are wise.

[187] Since I wouldn't tire by night or by day

[188] of striking the earth with my thyrsos. We will gladly forget

[189] that we are old.


Tiresias:

[189] These things you feel just as do I -- imagine!

[190] For I, too, am in the prime of youth and shall try my hand at the dances.


Cadmus:

[191] Surely we should drive a chariot right to the mountain?


Tiresias:

[192] But that way the god might not have the same honor.


Cadmus:

[193] Old man that I am, I will lead you, old man, like a child.


Tiresias:

[194] The god will lead the two of us there without effort.


Cadmus:

[195] Alone of the city-state shall we dance for Bacchus?


Tiresias:

[196] For we alone are thinking well, the others badly.

Cadmus:

[197] The wait is too long; come, take my hand.

Tiresias:

[198] Here, unite and yoke together our two hands.

Cadmus:

[199] For my part, I do not look down upon gods, being born a mortal.

Tiresias:

[200] We use no subtleties against the gods.

[201] The hereditary customs of our fathers, which were as old as time itself

[202] when we acquired them, not one argument will overturn them,

[203] not even if some clever turn of logic has been discovered by sharp minds.

[204] Will someone say that I do not respect old age,

[205] since I am about to dance with ivy on my head?

[206] For the god hasn't made any distinction, whether the young

[207] must dance or the older,

[208] but from all alike he wishes to have honor

[209] in common and he wishes to be exalted with no one counted out, no one.

Cadmus:

[210] Since you do not see this light, Tiresias,

[211] I shall become a speaker of words for you.

[212] Pentheus is crossing right through to the palace in haste,

[213] Child of Echion, to whom I ceded my power over the land.

[214] How riled up he has become! what in the world will he be telling us that's news?

Pentheus:

[215] I happened to be out of town,

[216] and I hear of strange, bad things all through this city-state

[217] that our women have left our homes

[218] for phony Bacchic rites, and in the shady

[219] mountains they are assembled,

[220] honoring some novel god, this Dionysus, whoever he is, with dances;

[221] they've set up full mixing bowls in the middle of their thiasoi,

[222] with women in various desolate places

[223] slinking off to serve the beds of males,

[224] alleging that they are sacrificing maenads,

[225] though in fact they rank Aphrodite before the Bacchic one.

[226] All the women that I have caught,

[227] my men are holding them, hands bound, in the public prisons.

[228] Those who are still out and about, I will hunt from the mountain,

[229] Ino, and Agave, who gave bore me to Echion,

[230] and the mother of Actaeon, I mean Autonoe.

[231] Fitting them in iron nets,

[232] I shall soon stop them from this evil Bacchic frenzy.

[233] They say that some stranger has come,

[234] an enchanter, a sorcerer from Lydian lands,

[235] his chestnut locks wafting perfume,

[236] the wine-dark charms of Aphrodite in his eyes,

[237] day and night he keeps company with

[238] young maidens, dangling before them those joyful mysteries.

[239] If I capture him under this roof,

[240] I will stop him from beating the thyrsos and tossing

[241] His hair. I'll sever his body at the neck.

[242] The stranger there says that Dionysus is a god,

[243] that he was once sown up in the thigh of Zeus!

[244] In point of fact he was burned to a crisp by the thunderbolt

[245] along with his mother, because she had lied about her marriage to Zeus.

[246] Are these things not worthy of the terrible noose,

[247] committing such violent acts, whoever the stranger is?

[248] Ugh! Yet another wonder here before me -- the seer

[249] Tiresias I see, in dappled fawnskins,

[250] and my mother's father - what a laugh --

[251] doing the Bacchic thing with a fennel stalk. I refuse, grandfather,

[252] to see you senseless in your old age.

[253] Will you not shake off this ivy? Will you not free your hand

[254] from the thyrsos, father of my mother?

[255] You persuaded him to do these things Tiresias; you want this

[256] god in addition, introducing him to men, a new one,

[257] to bring in payments for observing birds and sacrifices.

[258] If old age had not saved you,

[259] you would be sitting tied up among the Bacchae,

[260] for introducing wicked rites; for women,

[261] whenever the gleam of the grape cluster is in the feast,

[262] I say there is nothing healthy in connection with the rite.

Chorus:

[263] What impiety! [text seem messed up here] Oh stranger, are you not ashamed before the gods

[264] And before Cadmus, he who sowed the earthborn crop,

[265] and you, child of Echion, don't you feel shame before your family?

Tiresias:

[266] Whenever some wise man takes for his words

[267] a good starting point, it is no great thing to speak well.

[268] But you have a tongue that rolls well, as though you were wise,

[269] yet in these words of yours there is no sense.

[270] A man who is strong in confidence and able to speak

[271] Is a bad citizen when he lacks good sense.

[272] This god, the new one, whom you ridicule completely,

[273] I could not even express how great

[274] he will be throughout Hellas. For there are two divinities above all, young man,

[275] who are first among human beings: the goddess Demeter;

[276] she is the earth, call her by whatever name you wish,

[277] she nourishes mortals even in harsh times;

[278] And then he came, the offspring of Semele, a counterpoise,

[279] who discovered the moist drink of the grape and introduced it

[280] to mortals, the drink that makes long-suffering men cease

[281] from pain, whenever they are filled with the stream from the vine,

[282] and it gives them sleep and forgetfulness of the daily evils

[283] and there is no other cure for suffering.

[284] this one, born a god, receives drink-offerings as a god

[285] so that through him, men may have good things.

[286] And do you ridicule him, that he was sewn up in Zeus'

[287] thigh? I will teach you how this is well and good:

[288] When Zeus snatched him from the fire of the thunderbolt

[289] and led the babe as a god up to Olympus,

[290] Hera wished to cast him from Heaven,

[291] but Zeus fought against it, god that he was.

[292] Breaking off a portion of the air that rotates about the earth,

[293] he gave this piece as a substitute hostage (homeros).

***[??He saved?? text dropped out here apparently]***

[294] Dionysus from the abuse of Hera. But in time

[295] mortal men declared that he was stitched into Zeus' thigh (meros)

[296] Changing around the name and saying that the god once

[297] Gave him as a hostage (homereuse) to the goddess Hera, making up this story.

[298] But this divinity is also a seer - for the Bacchic frenzy

[299] And the madness of maenads have much of the soothsayer's art.

[300] For whenever much of the god comes into a body,

[301] He makes the possessed person speak the future.

[302] He also has a part that he shares with Ares:

[303] a band of men in arms and at their stations,

[304] fear can send them into panic without their even touching a spear,

[305] and this madness also is from Dionysus.

[306] You will see him on the rocks of Delphi

[307] Leaping with pine torches across the two peaks,

[308] swaying and shaking the Bacchic wand,

[309] a god great throughout Hellas. But be persuaded by me, Pentheus;

[310] do not be so sure that might has power over humans,

[311] and if you think something is good, and your thinking is off,

[312] don't think that you're smart; accept the god into the land

[313] and pour a libation and dance the Bacchic dance and wreath your head.

[314] Dionysus will not force women to be prudent

[315] when it comes to sex. That is in their nature,

[316] if they are prudent for all things always,

[317] and that's what to look for: actually, in the Bacchic rites

[318] the woman who is prudent will not be corrupted.

[319] Consider this: you are grateful whenever, at the gates of Thebes,

[320] crowds gawk, and the city-state exalts the name of Pentheus;

[321] Likewise that god, I think, delights in being honored.

[322] So Kadmos, whom you mock, and I

[323] will crown our heads with ivy and we will dance,

[324] a yoked pair of greys, but still we must dance,

[325] and I will not contend with the god and be persuaded by your words.

[326] You couldn't be more grievously ill, and neither will any drug

[327] cure you, nor would you be so sick in the first place without some drug's poison.


Chorus:

[328] Old sir, you bring no disgrace to Apollo with your words,

[329] and in honoring Bromios, a great god, you are prudent yourself.


Cadmus:

[330] My boy, Teiresias advised you well.

[331] Stick with us, do not veer away from tradition.

[332] You've taken wing, and you think without thinking.

[333] And even if this god does not exist, as you say he doesn't,

[334] it's for you to say that he does: just lie for a good cause

[335] that he is real, so that Semele may seem to have born a god,

[336] and that way there will be honor to us and our whole family.

[337] Consider the wretched death of Actaeon --

[338] his own dogs, ones that he raised himself,

[339] tore him to pieces -- "I'm better in the hunts

[340] in the mountain glades than Artemis," he boasted.

[341] May it not happen to you! Here, let me wreath your head

[342] with ivy; give honor to the god with us.


Pentheus:

[343] Do not lay a hand on me -- won't you just go off and dance your Bacchic dance,

[344] and not smear your folly on me?

[345] This man, this tutor of yours in foolishness,

[346] him I will bring to justice. You, anyone, go quickly

[347] to his haunts, to the place where he marks the birds,

[348] and with crowbars heave it all up and over,

[349] annihilating everything high and low at once,

[350] and toss his woolen headbands to the winds and the storm blasts.

[351] If I do these things, I will bite him where it hurts the most.

[352] And you who are marching to the city-state, track down

[353] the effeminate stranger, the one who brings disease,

[354] this new disease for women, who defiles our marriage beds.

[355] And if you catch him, bind him and bring

[356] him here, so that he may get the stoning he deserves

[357] and then die, seeing his Bacchic rite turn bitter in Thebes.


Teiresias:

[358] Pitiless man, since you do not know where you and your words really are.

[359] You are already far gone; even before you were out of your mind.

[360] Let us go, Cadmus, and let us beg,

[361] on behalf of this man, however wild he is,

[362] and on behalf of the city-state, that the god

[363] does nothing sinister. But follow me with your ivy-wrapped staff,

[364] try to keep my body upright, and I will do the same with yours;

[365] it would be shameful for two old men to fall down; but still, let it come,

[366] we must serve Bacchus the son of Zeus.

[367] If only Pentheus would not bring grief [=penthos], his namesake, upon the house,

[368] on your house, Cadmus: I am not speaking as a seer,

[369] but about what he's doing: a foolish man says foolish things.


Chorus:

[370] Purity, mistress of the gods,

[371] dear Purity, as you spread over the earth

[372] your golden wing,

[373] do you hear what Pentheus is saying?

[374] do you hear his defiling

[375] assault on Bromios, the son of

[376] Semele? Amid

[377] the lovely garlands and the high spirits

[378] of the blessed gods, Dionysus stands forth, because these things are his:

[379] troops who dance and

[380] laugh to the sound of the pipe,

[381] winning mortals respite from distress

[382] whenever the joy of the grape enters

[383] the feast of the gods and

[384] ivy-wreathed mortal banqueters

[385] are clothed

[386] in sleep by the communal bowl of wine,


[387] Of unbridled mouths

[388] and lawless folly

[389] misfortune is the end result.

[390] But Dionysus is the essence of serenity,

[391] and his thinking remains firm

[392] and holds homes together. For although they are far off

[393] and dwell in the upper-air

[394] The heaven-dwellers do see the deeds of mortal men.

[395] Now that which is clever is not wisdom and

[396] neither is not thinking mortal thoughts.

[397] Life is short, and given that,

[398] Anyone who pursues great

[399] Things could miss what is at hand now.

[400] Such traits belong to those who are mad

[401] And who think poorly, to my mind.


[402] I wish I could come to Cyprus,

[403] The island of Aphrodite,

[404] Where the mortal-mind-beguiling

[405] gods of desire dwell;

[406] and to Paphos, which the hundred-mouthed

[407] streams of the foreign river

[408] make fruitful even without rain;

[409] and to most beautiful

[410] Pieria, where the muses dwell,

[411] a holy slope of Olympus,

[412] Lead me there, Bromios, Bromios

[413] god of joy,

[414] who leads the Bacchae!

[415] There are the Graces;

[416] there is desire; there it is

[417] proper for the Bacchae to practice their rituals.


[418] The god, son of Zeus,

[419] Delights in festivals

[420] And loves Peace, giver of wealth,

[421] a goddess who nurtures young boys.

[422] Equal to the blessed man and

[423] The less fortunate, he gives enjoyment

[424] Of wine that possesses the absence of pain.

[425] He hates those who lack concern for these:

[426] By day and beloved nights

[427] To live the life of blessedness,

[428] And to keep his wise heart and mind

[429] Away from the side of extreme men.

[430] That which the common man

[431] Considers normal and enjoys,

[432] This I would accept.


Servant:

[433] Pentheus, we are here, having caught this prey

[434] For which you sent us, we did not set out for nothing.

[435] The beast was gentle for us and did not slip away

[436] In flight, and surrendered his hands not unwillingly,

[437] And not pale, nor did he change his wine colored cheek.

[438] But laughing he permitted us to tie and lead him away,

[439] And he remained put, making my job easily done.

[440] And I in shame said: "O Stranger, not of my will

[441] I lead you away, but by command of Pentheus who sent me."

[442] And the Bacchae whom you locked up, whom you seized

[443] And bound in the fetters under public prison.

[444] At any rate, they are gone, having been set free, they leap

[445] Across the meadows, calling up their god Bromios.

[446] The bounds, of their own will, were loosened for them from their feet

[447] And keys loosened the doors without mortal hand.

[448] This man has come to Thebes full of many marvels.

[449] The other things must become a concern to you.


Pentheus:

[450] Let go of these hands since he is in the nets

[451] He is not so swift as to escape me.

[452] But you are not mishapen in body, stranger,

[453] At least from a woman's perspective, the very thing for which you came to Thebes.

[454] For your braid is stretched not because of wrestling,

[455] Streaming down beside your cheek, full of desire

[456] And you have light skin on purpose

[457] Not by rays of the sun, but from the shade,

[458] Hunting Aphrodite with beauty.

[459] First then tell me who you are by birth.


Dionysus:

[460] Nothing to boast: It is easy to tell you this

[461] You've heard and know of flowery Mt. Tmolus.


Pentheus:

[462] I know it, it goes around the city of Sardis in a circle.


Dionysus:

[463] I am from there, Lydia is fatherland to me.


Pentheus:

[464] For what then do you bring these rites to Hellas?


Dionysus:

[465] Dionysus, son of Zeus, marched us here


Pentheus:

[466] Is there a Zeus there, who sires new Gods?


Dionysus:

[467] No, but he who put Semele here under the yoke in marriage.


Pentheus:

[468] By night or by looking you in the eye did he compel you


Dionysus:

[469] He saw me seeing him, he gives me the sacred rites


Pentheus:

[470] Having what form are your rites?


Dionysus:

[471] They are unspeakable to Mortals uninitiated in Bacchic rites to know about.


Pentheus:

[472] And do they have any profit for those who sacrifice?


Dionysus:

[473] It is not lawful for you to hear, but they are worthwhile to know.


Pentheus:

[474] You avoided that well, so that I wish to hear it


Dionysus:

[475] One who practices impeity, the rites of the god hate


Pentheus:

[476] Are you saying you saw clearly of what sort the god was


Dionysus:

[477] He was as he wished, I did not order this


Pentheus:

[478] Again you diverted this one well


Dionysus:

[479] To an ignorant person, someone saying wise things will seem not to be thinking well.


Pentheus:

[480] Did you come here first bringing the god?


Dionysos:

[482] Every one of the barbarians is performing these ritual dances.


Pentheus:

[483] That's because they think much worse than the Greeks.


Dionysos:

[484] In this at least they think pretty well; their customs are different.


Pentheus:

[485] Do you perform these rites by night or by day?


Dionysos:

[486] Mostly by night; darkness has majesty.



Pentheus:

[487] Nighttime is good for deceiving and corrupting women.


Dionysos:

[488] Even by day one can find what is shameful.


Pentheus:

[489] You must pay the penalty for these evil sophistries!


Dionysos:

[490] And you for ignorance and impiety towards the god.


Pentheus:

[491] The Bacchic one is indeed bold and not unpracticed with words.


Dionysos:

[492] Say what must be suffered. What terrible thing will you do to me?


Pentheus:

[493] First of all, I will cut your lovely head of hair.


Dionysos:

[494] The tress is sacred; I grow it out for the god.


Pentheus:

[495] Next, hand over this thyrsos.


Dionysos:

[496] Take it away yourself; this wand I carry is the god's.


Pentheus:

[497] We will keep your body confined within.


Dionysos:

[498] The god himself will free me, whenever I wish.


Pentheus:

[499] You mean, whenever you call him having started up the rite with the maenads.


Dionysos:

[500] Even now he sees what I suffer, he is present close by.


Pentheus:

[501] Where is he? He is invisible -- at least to my eyes.


Dionysos:

[502] He is beside me. You do not see him because you are impious.


Pentheus:

[503] All of you, grab him. This person looks down on me and Thebes.


Dionysos:

[504] I tell you not to bind me -- a wise one speaking to those who are not wise.


Pentheus:

[505] I say to bind him, and I have it over you.


Dionysos:

[506] You do not know what you are living, nor what you are doing, nor who you are.


Pentheus:

[507] Pentheus I am, child of Agave and of my father Echion.


Dionysos:

[508] You are fit to be unlucky, as your name suggests.


Pentheus:

[509] Go: shut him up in the horse stables nearby

[510] in order that he may look upon the dusky darkness.

[511] Go dance in _there_. These women you are leading here,

[512] your accomplices in evil, we will sell them into slavery,

[513] or I will stay their hands from the pounding of the drum

[514] and keep them as household slaves at the looms.


Dionysos:

[515] Let's go then. Whatever is not fated, I am not fated

[516] to suffer. But for ransom in return for these outrages

[517] Dionysos will pursue you -- he whom you say does not exist.

[518] For in doing wrong to me, you are putting him into bonds.


Chorus:

[519] Daughter of Acheloos,

[520] well-maidened mistress Dirke,

[521] you once took the babe of Zeus

[521] into your running streams

[522] when Zeus who sired him

[523] snatched him from the immortal fire

[524] into his thigh,

[525] and he cried out these things:

[526] "Go, Dithyrambos, go

[527] Into this male womb of mine.

[528] I bring you to light here, oh

[529] Bacchic one, one for Thebes to name."

[530] But you, oh blessed Dirke,

[531] You push me away when I have

[532] groups of wreath-bearing revelers on your banks.

[533] Why do you spurn me? Why do you flee me?

[534] Yet in the name of the clustering grace

[535] of the vine of Dionysos, I swear

[536] Bromios will indeed become a concern to you.


[537] What terrible anger

[538] Pentheus reveals!

[539] Pentheus, offspring of the earth,

[540] sprung long ago from a serpent, he whom

[541] earthly Echion begot,

[542] a savage monster to look at, not

[543] a mortal man, but like a bloody giant

[544] wrestling against the gods.

[545] He who soon will bind me,

[546] the woman of Bromios, in chains,

[547] he holds within the house already

[548] the leader of the Bacchai,

[549] hidden in his dark prison.

[550] Do you view these things, child of Zeus,

[551] Dionysos, do you see those who speak on your behalf

[552] contending with suppression?

[553] Come! waving your golden

[554] thyrsos, lord, down Olympus,

[555] and stop the heinous attack of a man of blood.


[556] Where on Nysa, then, your mountain nurse,

[557] do you wield your thyrsos and lead

[558] your troops, Dionysos, or are you

[559] on the Corycian peaks?

[560] And soon in the leafy

[561] thickets of Olympus, where

[562] Orpheus once playing his lyre

[563] moved trees and

[564] wild beasts with song.

[565] Blessed Pieria,

[566] The Euian god reveres you, he will come

[567] to set you dancing with Bacchic rites,

[568] across the swift-flowing

[569] Axios he will bring

[570] his twirling maenads,

[571] and across Lydias, father

[572] of well-being for mortals,

[573] giver of wealth, whom, so I hear,

[574] anoints a land rich in horses

[575] with the loveliest of waters.


Dionysos (singing with the chorus from within the palace):

[576] Io!

[576] Hear my hear my voice,

[577] io Bacchae, io Bacchae!


Chorus:

[578] Who is this? Who is he, from whom comes the shout

[579] of the Euian one that summoned me?


Dionysos:

[580] Io, io, I speak once again,

[581] I, the son of Semele, the child of Zeus.


Chorus:

[582] Io io master master,

[583] come now to our

[584] troops, Bromios Bromios.


Dionysos:

[585] Shake the floor of the earth, mistress Shaker!


Chorus:

[586] Ah, ah,

[587] soon the halls of Pentheus will be

[588] shaken from top to bottom, to their downfall.

[589] Dionysos is in the halls;

[590] All of you, revere him! We revere him!

[591] Did you see how the marble lintels resting on the pillars

[592] there were shaking? Here Bromios cries

[593] out within the palace.


Dionysos:

[594] Light the blazing fire of the thunderbolt,

[595] burn, burn the halls of Pentheus!


Chorus:

[596] Ah, ah,

[596] don't you see the fire, don't you notice it,

[597] around the sacred tomb of Semele,

[598] the flame of the thunder of Zeus

[599] that the thunder-hurler once left here?

[600] Cast your trembling bodies to the ground,

[601] cast them down, maenads! The lord

[602] who puts up what's down and down what's up approaches

[603] these halls, the scion of Zeus.


Dionysos (no longer singing, but in a high-energy spoken meter):

[604] Eastern women, are you so overwhelmed by fear

[605] that you have fallen to the ground? You noticed, it seems,

[606] when the Bacchic one shook hard the halls of Pentheus. But stand up,

[607] take courage, and rid your flesh of its shaking.


Chorus:

[608] Supreme light to us of the joyful Bacchic rite,

[609] how gladly I look upon you - I was so alone before.


Dionysos:

[610] You got discouraged when I was escorted inside,

[611] worried that I would fall into the dark dungeons of Pentheus?


Chorus:

[612] And why not? Who would be my protector if harm should befall you?

[613] But in fact how did you manage to get free from that unholy man?


Dionysos:

[614] I saved myself with ease, on my own, without travail.


Chorus:

[615] But didn't he attach your hands with binding snares?


Dionysos:

[616] That was just the laugh I had on him - when he seemed to bind me

[617] he neither touched nor tied me up, but he was feeding on hopes.

[618] He found a bull at the manger and brought it to where he had locked me up,

[619] and he kept trying to put chains around the animal's knees and

[620] hooves, breathing hard, the sweat pouring down his body,

[621] biting his lips; I was present right near by,

[622] calmly looking at him, seated. At just that moment

[623] Bacchus came and shook the house from top to bottom, and on his mother's grave

[624] he lit a fire; and when Pentheus saw it, he thought that the palace was on fire,

[625] and he rushed hither and thither, and then gave an order to the servants to bring river water.

[626] Every slave was on the job, toiling in vain.

[627] Then he gave up the effort when he saw that I had escaped,

[628] and he went off inside the house to grab his black sword.

[629] Then Bromios - or so it seems to me, I'm telling you my best guess -

[630] made a phantom appear in the courtyard, and he set out after it

[631] darting and stabbing the air as though he was slaughtering me.

[632] In addition to these things, the Bacchic god brought other grief upon him:

[633] The house is broken, down to the ground; everything is shattered to pieces,

[634] the bitterest end for him to my imprisonment; because of the beating

[635] he let go of his sword and collapsed, a man who had dared

[636] to go into battle against a god. As for me, I strolled out calmly

[637] from the palace and have come to you, without a care for Pentheus.


[638] It seems to me - and there's the sound of a footfall in the palace -

[639] soon enough he'll come out front. And what will he say about all this?

[640] I'll have no trouble putting up with him, even if he blows very hard.

[641] A prudent person practices prudent gentleness.


Pentheus (the meter changes back to the normal rhythm for spoken verse):

[642] I have suffered terrible things; the stranger has escaped without a trace,

[643] and a few moments ago he was bound in chains.

[644] Whoa!

[645] Here he is! What is this? How are you out front,

[646] showing up before my home, walking around outside it?


Dionysos:

[647] Stop right there, and go easy with your anger.


Pentheus:

[648] How did you escape your bonds and get outside?


Dionysos:

[649] Didn't I say - or didn't you hear it? - that someone would set me free?


Pentheus:

[650] Who? You're always referring to strange stories...


Dionysos:

[651] He who makes the clustering grapevine sprout for mortal men.


Pentheus

[line(s) lost here]


Dionysos:

[652] You insulted that which is beautiful to Dionysos.


Pentheus:

[653] I give the order to lock down every battlement in the perimeter.


Dionysos:

[654] What will that do? Don't gods just leap over walls?


Pentheus:

[655] Wise, very wise you are, except for the things in which you should be wise.


Dionysos:(sees a man approaching from the 'wild' entrance side)

[656] In especially the things in which I should be wise, those are the things in which I at least was born wise.

[657] First listen and learn the words of that man there,

[658] the one who has come from the mountainside to tell you something.

[659] You will find me waiting. I won't flee.


Messenger:(speaks grandiosely, as messengers often do)

[660] Pentheus who rules this Theban land,

[661] I am here from the slopes of Kithairon, where never

[662] do the glistening shafts of white snow let up.


Pentheus:

[663] And what weighty message do you bring?


Messenger:

[664] I have looked upon the bacchants possessed, those women who from this land

[665] in madness launched their white limbs like spears,

[666] I have come desiring to tell you and the city-state, my lord,

[667] that they are doing things terrible and more than wondrous.

[668] I wish you to hear, whether without restraint

[669] I may tell you what happens there, or whether I should curtail my speech.

[670] For the swiftness of your mind, my lord, I fear it,

[671] both your quickness to anger and your all too royal temper.


Pentheus:

[672] Speak, since you will go utterly unpunished by me;

[673] there is no need to be angry at just men.

[674] But the more terrible the things you say about the bacchants,

[675] by that much more will we pursue the man who suggested these arts

[676] to our women, this one here, and with justice on our side.


Messenger:

[677] Our feeding herds of cattle were just climbing

[678] above the treeline when the sun

[679] sent forth its rays to warm the earth.

[680] I see three troops of female choruses,

[681] one of which Autonoe was leading, the second

[682] your mother Agave, and the third chorus Ino.

[683] All the women were sleeping, their bodies stretched out, relaxed;

[684] some were leaning their backs on fir boughs,

[685] others were in oak leaves, their heads

[686] randomly but discreetly disposed on the ground, not, as you say,

[687] drunk at the mixing bowl and to the sound of the flute,

[688] hunting for sex in the woods, hunkering down in the desolate wilderness.

[689] Then your mother shouted "Ololu!" in the midst

[690] of the bacchants, standing up, to stir their bodies from sleep,

[691] once she heard the mooing of our horned cattle.

[692] And they cast the swollen sleep from their eyes

[693] and jumped straight up, a wonder to see for their good order,

[694] young women and old women, among them maidens as yet unyoked.

[695] First they let their hair down onto their shoulders,

[696] then they tied on their fawnskins, at least those whose knots'

[697] bonds had been loosened, and around their waists they tied

[698] the dappled skins, the snakes on them licking their cheeks.

[699] Others in their cradling arms held fawns or wolf cubs,

[700] wild ones, and gave them their own white milk,

[701] as many of them whose breasts were still swelling for their own newborns,

[702] children whom they had left behind; on their heads they placed

[703] wreaths of ivy, of oak, and of flowering yew.

[704] One took her thyrsos and struck it on a rock,

[705] and the dewy moisture of water leaped out of it.

[706] Another shoved her fennel stalk into the ground,

[707] and there the god shot up a well of wine.

[708] And for those who yearned for a white beverage,

[709] by scratching the ground with the tips of their fingers

[710] they had streams of milk; from the ivy

[711] thyrsoi sweet flows of honey were dripping,

[712] so that if you had been there, the god whom you now revile

[713] you would pursue with prayers when you saw these things.

[714] We got together, cowboys and shepherds,

[715] to share our views with one another

[716] about the strange and amazing things they were doing.

[717] Some fellow, a man about town who had a way with words,

[718] said to all of us together: "These majestic mountain slopes --

[719] you who dwell in them, shall we hunt

[720] Pentheus' mother Agave, roust her out of the bacchants,

[721] and do our king a favor?" To us he seemed

[722] to be speaking well, so we set an ambush in the shrubs of a thicket,

[723] where we hid ourselves. Then the women at the appointed

[724] hour began to wield the thyrsos for the Bacchic rites,

[725] summoning Iacchus, scion of Zeus, in unison,

[726] Bromios they called him; and the whole mountain joined in the rite,

[727] including the wild beasts, and there was stillness nowhere.

[728] Agave happened to be leaping right near me,

[729] and wanting to grab hold of her, I jumped up,

[730] I jumped clear out of the thicket where I was hiding.

[731] But she cried out, "My roaming dogs,

[732] we are being hunted by these men here, so follow me,

[733] follow me armed with the thyrsos in your hands."

[734] Now we got out of there fast, escaping

[735] the ritual sparagmos [ripping-apart]; the cows pasturing on shoots

[736] were set upon by the women with their bare hands.

[737] First you would see a suckling calf

[738] mooing, then being wrenched into pieces by two hands,

[739] while other women were tearing heifers to bits.

[740] You'd see ribs or a cloven hoof

[741] being hurled up and down the mountain, and hanging

[742] pieces smeared with blood were dripping on the lower pine branches.

[743] Savage bulls snorting violence with their horns

[744] were wrestled to the ground on their front haunches

[745] driven down by the hands of hordes of young women.

[746] Its wrapping of flesh was ripped off more quickly

[747] than the royal girls' eyelids could wink.

[748] They descended like birds taking off at speed

[749] toward the plains stretched out below, the ones beside the streams of Asopus,

[750] that produce rich ears of wheat for Thebans;

[751] swooping down on Hysiae and Erythrae, towns on the lower slopes

[752] of Kithairon, like an enemy

[753] they set upon everything high and low

[754] and were tearing it up. They stole children from homes;

[755] as many things as they put on their shoulders, no strings attached,

[756] clung to them and did not fall to the ground,

[757] not even bronze or iron pots; they even carried braziers on their heads,

[758] and it did not burn them; but in their anger

[759] the villagers, the men being plundered, turned to arms,

[760] and a dreadful sight to see was the result, my lord:

[761] not a drop of blood on their spearpoints,

[762] but launching thyrsoi from their hands

[763] the women were wounding them and making them flee in terror,

[764] women overwhelming men, not without some god.

[765] Then the women made their way back to where they had started,

[766] to the very springs that gushed up for them at the god's bidding.

[767] There they washed the blood from their hands; as for what dripped from their cheeks,

[768] serpents licked their skin clean of it with their tongues.

[769] So whoever this god is, master,

[770] welcome him in this city-state; as he is great in other things,

[771] so also they say he is great for this -- or so I hear --

[772] that he gave the pain-stopping vine to mortals;

[773] and if there is no more wine, there is no sex

[774] or any other pleasure at all left for mortals.


Chorus:

[775] I tremble to make my speech free

[776] before a tyrant, but it will be said even so:

[777] Dionysus is by nature less than none of the gods.


Pentheus:

[778] Already at hand and now blazing up like wildfire

[779] is this outrage of Bacchae, a huge insult to us Hellenes.

[780] But now's not the time to hesitate; off to the Electran

[781] Gates; give the order to all the spear-carrying men

[782] to meet those mounted on horses that are swift of foot

[783] and all the light-armed men and those who with their hands

[784] make bowstrings twang, so that we can mount a campaign

[785] against the Bacchae; it is far past bearable

[786] for us to suffer what we've suffered at the hands of women.


Dionysus:

[787] You are not persuaded at all when you hear my words,

[788] Pentheus; but even though I myself was badly treated by you,

[789] I will tell you: do not lift up arms against the god,

[790] but be serene; Bromios will not allow you

[791] to move his Bacchae from the mountainside that echoes with his cries.


Pentheus:

[792] Won't you stop instructing me? You escaped once --

[793] do you want to keep your freedom? Or shall I punish you again?


Dionysus:

[794] I'd sacrifice to him instead of getting excited

[795] and kicking against the pricks when I'm a mortal and he's a god.


Pentheus:

[796] I'll sacrifice alright, a butchering of women, who deserve it;

[797] I'll do my own rampaging over the dells of Mt. Kithairon.


Dionysus:

[798] If so, you will all be put to flight; and that is shameful, for shields

[799] of hammered bronze to turn tail before the thyrsos.


Pentheus:

[800] Ugh! I'm totally stuck with this impossible person

[801] who won't shut up whether he's victim or victor.


Dionysus:

[802] Friend, there is still a way to put these things aright.


Pentheus:

[803] How so? by being enslaved to my own servants?


Dionysus:

[804] I'll take you there to the women, no weapons needed.


Pentheus:

[805] Good grief! Now he's setting a trap for me.


Dionysus:

[806] What kind of trap is it if I'm willing use my talents to save you?


Pentheus:

[807] You all are in this together, so that you can dance the bacchic dance forever


Dionysus:

[808] I sure am joined up with the god, that much is true.


Pentheus:

[809] You -- bring on the weapons, and you -- stop talking.


Dionysus:

[810] Wait a minute!

[811] Do you want to see them seated together up there in the mountains?


Pentheus:

[812] Yes I do, I'd even give a ton of gold for the chance.


Dionysus:

[813] So, you've really conceived a great desire for that!


Pentheus:

[814] I should say that I would be sorry to see them drunk.


Dionysus:

[815] But you would still be glad to see things that sadden you.


Pentheus:

[816] Mind you, I'd sit quietly under the pine trees.


Dionysus:

[817] But they will track you down even if you go there secretly.


Pentheus:

[818] Well then, I'll go in plain view; that at least is well said.


Dionysus:

[819] So should I lead you, take you by the hand up the road?


Pentheus:

[820] Yes, and quickly. I'll begrudge you any time wasted.


Dioysus:

[821] Alright; then drape these linen sheets over your skin.


Pentheus:

[822] Really? why that? Am I to start as a man and end up a woman?


Dionysus:

[823] To keep them from killing you, which they'd do if you showed up there as a man


Pentheus:

[824] Well-said; you always were a clever fellow.


Dionysus:

[825] It's Dionysus who taught me these things so well.


Pentheus:

[826] So would you be my teacher? so I can do it well?


Dionysus:

[827] Come into the house and I'll set you up.


Pentheus:

[828] How? Like a woman? I feel shy about that...


Dionysus:

[829] You're not still eager to be a viewer of maenads?


Pentheus:

[830] What clothing do you say I should put on my skin?


Dionysus:

[831] I'll put a flowing wig on your head.


Pentheus:

[832] And what's the next part of my costume?


Dionysus:

[833] Long, trailing robes, and on your head a mitra (sacred head band).


Pentheus:

[834] And after that, is there anything else that you would have me wear?


Dionysus:

[835] A thyrsos in your hand and a dappled fawn skin.


Pentheus:

[836] I couldn't put on a woman's robe.


Dionysus:

[837] But you'll shed blood if you join battle with the maenads.


Pentheus:

[838] You're right. First I must go spy on them.


Dionysus:

[839] At least it's wiser than to hunt down violence with violence.


Pentheus:

[840] But, how can I travel through Cadmus' city-state without being seen?


Dionysus:

[841] We'll go on deserted roads. I'll lead the way.


Pentheus:

[842] Anything is better than the maenads mocking me.

[843] I'll go inside the palace -- and deliberate on this.


Dionysus:

[844] So be it. I'm delighted no matter what your decision.


Pentheus:

[845] Now I'll go inside; and then either I'll go there armed

[846]-- or I'll follow your advice.


Dionysus:

[848] Women, the man is settling into the net.

[847] He will come to the Bacchae, where his punishment will be to die.

[849] Dionysus, now the job is yours; you are not far off;

[850] vengeance is ours. First, put him out of his mind [ekstasis], and

[851] breathe into him a fickle illusion. While he is in his right mind,

[852] he would not be willing to wear women's clothing,

[853] but once you have made him veer off from straight thinking, he will put them on.

[854] I need to see him the laughingstock of Thebes

[855] being lead through town looking like a woman

[856] after his earlier threats, in which he was so terrifying.

[857] Now I shall go and get his adornment for Hades,

[858] what he will go off to be butchered in at the hands of his mother,

[859] to dress Pentheus in it. He shall know that the son of Zeus,

[860] Dionysus, was born a true god,

[861] most terrifying and most gentle to humankind.


Chorus:


[862] All throughout the night-long dances

[863] shall I move my flashing foot,

[864] all frenzied up, tossing round my head

[865] toward the dewey sky?

[866] Like a fawn who plays amid

[867] the green delights of a grassy meadow

[868] when it flees a fearful

[869] chase, away from the ring of watchers

[870] over the well-woven nets,

[871] and the braying hunter

[872] spurs the speed of his dogs;

[873] but the fawn, with bursts of effort and swift-running

[874] blasts, leaps over to the plain along the river,

[875] rejoicing alone, away from men,

[875] off into the shady-tressed saplings of the forest.


[876] What is wisdom? or what is a more beautiful

[877] gift from gods to mortals than

[878] to have a strong hand

[879-880] over the head of one's foes?

[881] That which is beautiful is always dear.


[882] It moves with difficulty

[883] but still the strength of the divine is something sure;

[884] it chastizes men who honor ruthlessness

[885] and do not intend to increase the gods

[886] with ecstatic belief.

[887-888] The gods cunningly conceal

[889] the long foot of time

[890] and they chase down the unholy one.

[891] For nothing mightier than traditions

[892] should one learn and attend to,

[893] since it is cheap and easy to believe

[894] that this at least is valid:

[895] whatever in the end the divine is,

[896] it is that which is customary over a long time,

[897] and what always has always existed by nature.


[898] What is wisdom? or what is a more beautiful

[899] gift from gods to mortals than

[900] to have a strong hand

[900] over the head of ones' foes?

[901] That which is beautiful is always dear.


[902] Blessed is he who from the sea

[903] has escaped the storm and reached the harbor;

[904] blessed is he who has gotten beyond distress;

[905] one gets past another in different ways

[906-7] in wealth or in strength.

[907] There are countless hopes for countless men

[908] and some end up in wealth

[909] for mortals and some are gone to ruin;

[910] but on the other hand, the person for whom day after day

[911] life is happy, I deem that one blessed.


Dionysus:


[912] You who desires to see sights that are forbidden,

[913] desiring to do things you are forbidden to do, Pentheus, I mean --

[914] come out in front of the palace, be seen by me

[915] wearing the robe of a maenad woman in Bacchic frenzy,

[916] prepared to spy upon your mother and her troop.

[917] You look just like one of the daughters of Cadmus!


Pentheus:

[918] I seem to see in front of me two suns

[919] And Thebes and its citadel with its seven gates have twinned.

[920] And to me you seem a bull leading the way in front,

[921] and to have sprouted horns on your head.

[922] Were you once an animal? Because now you have become a bull.


Dionysos:

[923] The god attends -- he who was at first not well-disposed towards us

[924] is now our ally. Now you see what you need to see.


Pentheus:

[925] How do I look? Don't I hold myself just like Ino

[926] or have a stance like Agave, my mother?


Dionysos:

[927] I seem to see those very women looking at you.

[928] But a lock of your hair has fallen from its place,


Pentheus:

[930] When I was in the house swaying back and forth

[931] like a bacchant, I detached it from its mooring.


Dionysos:

[932] I'm the one who should attend you, so

[933] I'll put it back in order again. Put your head straight back.


Pentheus:

[934] Sure, fix it! I'm all yours.


Dionysos:

[935] Your belt has gone slack, and the pleats of your robe are not

[936] hanging properly below your ankles.


Pentheus:

[937] I think they're clumped up by my right foot;

[938] on that side the robe hangs straight along my heel.


Dionysos:

[939] I suppose you will consider me the first of your friends

[940] when you see the modesty of the Bacchae that I told you about.


Pentheus:

[941] Should I take the thyrsos in my right hand or

[942] my left -- which way is more like the Bacchae?


Dionysos:

[943] It is correct to hold it in your right hand and, with your right foot up,

[944] to raise the thyrsos as well. I do approve the way you have changed your mind.


Pentheus:

[945] Would I be able to carry the glens of Mount Kithairon,

[946] Bacchae and all, on my shoulders?


Dionysos:

[947] You could if you wanted to. Before, your mind was

[948] not healthy, but now you are as you ought to be.


Pentheus:

[949] Should I bring crowbars? Or should I pull it up with my bare hands,

[950] putting my shoulder or my arm to the peaks?


Dionysos:

[951] You better not destroy the shrines of the Nymphs

[952] and the temple of Pan, where he keeps his pipes.


Pentheus:

[953] What you said is good. We must not defeat the women

[954] by force. I will hide my body in the pine trees.


Dionysos:

[955] You will surely hide as you must be hidden

[956] on your cunning mission to spy on the maenads.


Pentheus:

[957] I can imagine them in the thickets, like birds

[958] in their lairs, locked in the embraces of love.


Dionysos:

[959] You are being dispatched to watch out for this very thing;

[960] And maybe you will catch them at it, unless you are caught beforehand.


Pentheus:

[961] Conduct me through the midst of the land of Thebes:

[962] I am the only man among them to have such daring.


Dionysos:

[963] Alone you take on this burden for the city-state, all alone.

[964] Accordingly, the contest that is right for you awaits.

[965] So follow me. I will go there as your savior,

[966] but once there, another will lead you away.


Pentheus:

       Yes, she who gave birth to me.


Dionysos:


[967] To be conspicuous for all..


Pentheus:

       Yes, that is why I am going.


Dionysos:

[968] You will be carried home...


Pentheus:

       You speak of a luxury for me...


Dionysos:

[969] in your mother's arms.


Pentheus:

       And you will force me to luxuriate in them.


Dionysos:

[970] Luxuries of a certain kind, yes...


Pentheus:

       I am in reach of what I deserve.


[At this point, apparently Pentheus leaves for the mountainside, without his guide...)


Dionysos:

[971] You terrible, terrible man, you are on your way to terrible suffering,

[972] where you will find fame towering up to heaven.

[973] Stretch out your arms, Agave, you and your kin,

[974] Daughters of Cadmus. I lead a young man,

[975] this one, to a great contest; Bromios and I

[976] will be the victors. And the event will show other things as well.


Chorus:

[977] Go, you running dogs of Madness, go to the mountain,

[978] where Cadmus' girls have their troop [thiasos],

[979] goad it to madness

[980] against the man in a dress mimicking a woman,

[981] a madman spying on the maenads.

[982] His mother will be the first to spy him from a smooth rock

[983] or a peak

[984] peering out, and she will call out to the maenads:

[985] "Who is this man, tracker of the mountain-dancers,

[986] this Cadmean tracker come to the mountain to the mountain

[987] come, o Bacchae? Who was it who gave him birth, then?

[988] Since not from the blood

[989] of women was he sprung, but from some lioness

[990] is this one, offspring of the Libyan Gorgons.


[991-2] Let Justice come clear, and let her come bearing a sword

[993] slashing clean through the throat

[994-5] the godless lawless unjust son of Echion,

[996] earth-born offspring.


[997] And he who, with unjust intent and lawless rage,

[998] o Bacchic one, over your rites and those of your mother,

[999] with crazed intentions

[1000] and frantic purpose sets out

[1001] to overpower the unconquerable by force,

[1002] for him, death corrects his intentions;

[1003] to accept without question in matters of the gods

[1004] is a way for a human to live life free from pain and sorrow.

[1005] I do not begrudge the wise their wisdom,

[1006] I rejoice in pursuing it; but other things are grand

[1007] and clear. If only life would flow towards beauty,

[1008] that all day and into the night one could be pure and reverent,

[1009] and that casting out all things that are beyond what is just,

[1010] we could honor the gods.


[1011-2] Let Justice come clear, and let her come bearing a sword

[1013] slashing clean through the throat

[1014-5] the godless, lawless, unjust son of Echion,

[1016] earth-born child.


[1017-8] Appear as a bull or, many-headed to behold,

[1019] as a serpent, or be seen as a lion flaming with fire.

[1020] Onward, o Bacchus, around the savage hunter of the Bacchae

[1021] with your smiling face throw a noose,

[1022] a deadly one, let him fall under a herd

[1023] of maenads.


Second Messenger:

[1024] Home that once before was prosperous throughout Hellas,

[1025] home of the old man from Sidon, who sowed the earthborn

[1026] crop of the serpent, the snake, in the ground,

[1027] how deeply I grieve for you, slave that I am, but even so...


Chorus:

[1029] What is it? Are you going to reveal some news from the Bacchae?


Second Messenger:

[1030] Pentheus has perished, the child of father Echion.


Chorus:

[1031] O lord Bromios, you are brought to light as a great god!


Second Messenger:

[1032] What was that? What did you say? Are you actually

[1033] rejoicing over the misery of my masters?


Chorus:

[1034] I, a guest, cry "Euoe!" to Bacchus, in a stranger's strains:

[1035] I am no longer cringeing in fear of bondage.


Second Messenger:

[1036] Do you consider Thebes so weak [that you will not be punished?]...[line(s) lost here]


Chorus:

[1037] Dionysos, Dionysos, and not Thebes,

[1038] is the one with power over me!


Second Messenger:

[1039] These things are pardonable in your case, but to rejoice in bad things

[1040] that have been done and cannot be undone, O women, is not good.


Chorus:

[1041] Tell me please, make plain to me, by what destiny did he die,

[1042] the unjust man who also imposed injustice on others?


Second Messenger:

[1043] After we left the farms of this Theban land

[1044] and came out at the streams of Asopos,

[1045] we struck out towards Kithairon's peak,

[1046] Pentheus and I -- I right behind my master --

[1047] and the stranger, escorting us on our pilgrimage to the spectacle.

[1048] To start with, we found a place to sit in a grassy glen,

[1049] keeping our feet and our toungues silent

[1050] so that we might see without being seen.

[1051] There was a ravine with cliffs on both sides and a stream running through it,

[1052] all shaded by pines, where the maenads

[1053] were sitting, their hands busy with pleasant tasks.

[1054] Some of them took up a fallen thyrsos and

[1055] were crowning it, pluming the fennel stalk with ivy leaves;

[1056] and some, like foals set free from a painted yoke,

[1057] were singing a Bacchic song, one group answering the other.

[1058] Poor Pentheus, since he wasn't seeing a horde of wild women,

[1059] spoke words like these: "Stranger, from where we are standing,

[1060] I can't seem to reach these phony maenads with my eyes.

[1061] But up on the banks, if I climb up a long-necked pine,

[1062] I might get a proper view of their shameless conduct."

[1063] And right then and there I saw the stranger do a miraculous thing:

[1064] he grabbed the topmost branch of the pinetree, way up in the sky,

[1065] and brought it down, down, down to the black earth.

[1066] It was rounded just like a bow or a curved wheel

[1067] traced with a compass that follows a circular course.

[1068] That's the way the stranger was bending the tree on the mountainside,

[1069] bending it down to the earth, acting the way no mortal man can.

[1070] He sat Pentheus down on the pine branches,

[1071] then he let the straight trunk go up

[1072] gently, watching out that it didn't rear and throw him,

[1073] and it towered right up into the high heaven,

[1074] a steed with my master sitting on its back.

[1075] Yet instead of spying the maenads, he was a sight for them:

[1076] just as he was becoming visible sitting up there,

[1077] and the stranger was nowhere to be seen,

[1078] from the upper air a voice, one would guess

[1079] Dionysus', shouted out: "Young women,

[1080] I bring you to the one who takes you and me and my rituals

[1081] for a joke: wreak vengeance upon him."

[1082] At the same time as the voice was speaking, between heaven

[1083] and earth the light of an awesome fire blazed;

[1084] the upper air was hushed, the forest glade kept

[1085] its leaves from rustling, and you couldn't even hear a sound from the wild creatures.

[1086] yet the women, who had not heard the divine voice clearly,

[1087] stood still and gazed all around them.

[1088] So he commanded them again, and once they understood

[1089] the clear command of the Bacchic one, Cadmus's daughters,

[1090] started no less quickly than doves,

[1091] they ran tight footraces one against the other,

[1092] both Mother Agave and her kin, her sisters,

[1093] and all the Bacchae. Through the ravine with its torrent

[1094] and over the crags and cliffs they leapt, crazed by the god who was breathing in them.

[1095] When they saw my master perched on the pinetree,

[1096] first of all they started throwing stones with all their might

[1097] at him from a tall rock across the way that they had climbed,

[1098] and they also tried throwing pine branches at him like javelins.

[1099] Others let loose their thyrsoi through the air

[1100] at Pentheus, but their aim was off, they missed him.

[1101] Their zeal, great as it was, was not up to his height on the tree,

[1102] so the poor man just sat there, caught in a hopeless trap.

[1103] Finally, the women succeeded in shattering the tree's branches,

[1104] but then they tried to rip up the tree's roots with crowbars made of wood, not iron.

[1105] Since they still did not achieve the goal of their toils,

[1106] Agave said to them: "Come, stand round in a circle,

[1107] and grab the trunk, Maenads, so that we can capture the climber,

[1108] the beast, and keep him from reporting the secret

[1109] dances of the god." So the women put their countless

[1110] hands to the pine and wrenched it out and up from the ground.

[1111] From his seat high up plummeting all the way

[1112] to the ground, to the sound of countless wails,

[1113] Pentheus fell, aware that evil was at hand.

[1114] His mother, a priestess, first to start the slaughter,

[1115] attacked him: he ripped the headband

[1116] from his hair so that she would recognize him and not kill him,

[1117] poor Agave, and he spoke to her,

[1118] touching her cheek, "It's me, mother, your child

[1119] Pentheus, the one whom you brought into the world in Echion's house.

[1120] Pity me, mother, and do not, for all my

[1121] mistakes, murder me, your own child!"

[1122] But she was spitting foam and rolling and

[1123] twisting her eyeballs, not thinking what she ought to think,

[1124] held [by energy] from the Bacchic god: no way Pentheus was persuading her.

[1125] Taking Pentheus' left arm from the elbow downwards

[1126] and stepping on the ribs of that ill-fated man

[1127] she ripped out his shoulder, not from her own strength,

[1128] but the god put ease into her hands.

[1129] Ino had finished off the other side,

[1130] tearing the flesh, and Autonoe and the whole throng

[1131] of Bacchae set upon him; everyone was shouting at once,

[1132] he, screamming with whatever last breath he had,

[1133] while the women shouted in triumph. One woman was carrying an arm up to the elbow,

[1134] another a foot, boot and all; his ribs

[1135] were stripped to the bone by their ritual tearing and ripping; everyone, hands

[1136] stained with blood, was playing catch with Pentheus' flesh.

[1137] The body lay scattered about, one piece down on the rugged

[1138] rocks, another in the thick foliage of the trees,

[1139] so a search would not be easy; the miserable head,

[1140] which his own mother happened to take in her hands,

[1141] fixing it to the top of her thyrsos like the head of

[1142] a mountain lion, she's carrying it right down Kithairon.

[1143] abandoning her sisters to the dances of the maenads.

[1144] And she is coming here, exulting in her ill-fated hunt,

[1145] here within these very walls, invoking her Bacchic

[1146] hunting companion, he who joins in finishing off the prey,

[1147] he of the fair victory, for whom she wins the prize of...tears.

[1148] As for me, and this disaster,

[1149] I'm leaving before Agave comes to the palace.

[1150] Being prudent and showing respect for things related to gods

[1151] is the fairest thing; it is also, I think, the wisest

[1152] thing for those mortals who have it and use it.

            

Chorus:

            

[1153] All, start up the Bacchic dance,

[1154] all, shout out about the fall

[1155] of Pentheus, offspring of a serpent!

[1156] He took up women's clothes

[1157] and the fennel stalk made into a fine thyrsos

[1158] and along with them, he took up certain death,

[1159] with a bull to lead him there.

[1160] Cadmean Bacchae,

[1161] you turned the famous song of fair victory

[1162] into a lament, into tears.

[1163] A fine contest, to plunge

[1164] a dripping hand

[1164] into the blood of one's child!

            

[1165] Hah! I see her marching toward the palace

[1166] Agave, the mother of Pentheus, with rolling

[1167] eyes. All of you, welcome the joyful revel of the Bacchic god!

            

Agave:

[1168] Asian Bacchae -


Chorus:

       What are you stirring me up about?

            

Agave:

[1169] I bring from the mountains

[1170] to the palace a freshly cut tendril,

[1171] a blessed catch.


Chorus:

[1172] Ah, I see it and will welcome you to join my revel.


Agave:

[1173] Without a trap I grabbed this

[1174] youthful son of a wild lion,

[1175] You can see it yourself.


Chorus:

[1176] From what wilderness did you come?


Agave:

[1177] Kithairon.


Chorus:

       Kithairon?


Agave:

[1178] One slew him.


Chorus:

       Who was the one who hit him?


Agave:

[1179] The prize of honor belongs to me first of all.

[1180] I am called blessed Agave in the Bacchic troops.


Chorus:

[1181] Who else was with you?


Agave:

[1182] Cadmus' ...

Chorus:

[1183] Cadmus' what?


Agave:

[1183] His descendants

[1183] after me, way after me

[1183] they touched this wild beast: the hunting was good today, and lucky.


Chorus:

[line(s) lost here]


Agave:

[1184] Now partake of the feast.


Chorus:

           What am to partake of, you poor thing?


Agave:

[1185] The calf is young;

[1186] the cheek below his soft-haired crest

[1187] is just beginning to get fuzzy...


Chorus:

[1188] It does look like a wild beast, at least in its hair.


Agave:

[1189] Bacchus, a skilled hunter,

[1190] cunningly roused up the maenads

[1191] against this beast.

            

Chorus:

[1192] Yes, our lord is a hunter!

            

Agave:

[1193] Do you applaud?


Chorus:

       I do applaud.


Agave:

[1194] Soon the Cadmeans...

            

Chorus:

[1195] and your child Pentheus...


Agave:

       ...will applaud his mother for catching this lionhearted prey

            

Chorus:

[1197] Extreme creature...


Agave:

       And caught in an extreme way...

            

Chorus:

[1198] Are you rejoicing?


Agave:

       I am joyful,

[1199] great, great things

[1199] clearly have been accomplished on this hunt.


Chorus:

[1200] Show now, poor woman, your prize-winning

[1201] catch to the citizens, the one that you brought here.

            

Agave:

[1202] O city-state of the Theban land with its fair towers,

[1203] you who dwell here came to see this catch of mine,

[1204] the beast that we daughters of Cadmus hunted down,

[1205] not by slinging Thessalian javelins,

[1206] not with casting-nets, but with the white-armed

[1207] blades of our hands. After that should hunters brag

[1208] when they use the tools of spearmakers -- for what?

[1209] But with our bare hands we got this creature,

[1210] and we tore him to pieces, limb from limb.

[1211] Where is the old man, my father? Let him come near.

[1212] And Pentheus, my child, where is he? He should get

[1213] some solid ladders set up on the side of the palace

[1214] so he can climb up and hang this head on the façade,

[1215] this lion's head that I hunted and brought here.


Cadmus:

[1216] Those of you who are carrying the awful burden

[1217] of Pentheus, my attendants, follow me to the front of the palace,

[1218] where, all weary from endless searching,

[1219] I bring this body, found in the ravines of Kithairon,

[1220] scattered everywhere, no piece in the same place

[1221] as any other, each one lying somewhere in the trackless forest.

[1222] I did this because I heard of the shameless deeds of my daughters

[1223] when I had already come inside the city walls

[1224] with old Teiresias, just back from the Bacchae;

[1225] so returning again to the mountain, now I am bringing back

[1226] my grandson, killed by the maenads.

[1227] I also saw there the one who once bore Actaeon to Aristaeus,

[1228] Autonoe, and Ino along with her,

[1229] wretched women still going wild among the copses and thickets,

[1230] but someone told me that she had come here, the walking possessed,

[1231] Agave, and what I heard is not incorrect:

[1232] now I see her, and it is not a happy sight.


Agave:

[1233] Father, now you can make the biggest boast,

[1234] that you sired by far the best daughters of all

[1235] mortals: I mention all of us, but especially me --

[1236] I have put behind me the shuttles and the looms, and

[1237] I have risen to greater things, to hunting wild beasts with my hands.

[1238] As you see, I am bringing these things in my arms,

[1239] the prize for best that I won, to your palace,

[1240] so that it could be hung up here. So you, father, take it in hand;

[1241] exult in my hunting exploits,

[1242] summon the near and dear to a feast, since you are blessed,

[1243] blessed I say, in the feats that I have accomplished.


Cadmus:

[1244] Grief impossible to measure and to look upon,

[1245] what slaughter you and your wretched hands have accomplished!

[1246] A lovely victim you have struck down for the gods,

[1247] and then you invite Thebes here and me to a feast.

[1248] Alas, first for your evils, then for mine;

[1249] the god born here, Lord Bromios, has destroyed

[1250] us justly, but too well.


Agave:

[1251] Old age is naturally ill-tempered for humans,

[1252] and with scowling eyes as well. If only my son

[1253] would take after his mother and be good at hunting

[1254] when he goes out with the youth of Thebes

[1255] and takes aim at wild things -- but instead fighting with gods

[1256] is the only thing that boy is able at. Father, you really should

[1257] have him punished. Would someone please call him here into my sight,

[1258] so that he can see how happy I am?


Cadmus:

[1259] Ugh! If you all understood the kind of doings you have done

[1260] how terrible would be your pain! But if in the end

[1261] you remain forever in the state you are now in,

[1262] I wouldn't think you fortunate, but you will escape misfortune.


Agave:

[1263] What is happening here that is not good or is, as you say, grievous?


Cadmus:

[1264] First direct your eyes up into the sky.


Agave:

[1265] There. Now why did you suggest that I look at it?


Cadmus:

[1266] Does it look the same to you, or has it changed?


Agave:

[1267] Yes, it's brighter and more translucent than before.


Cadmus:

[1268] Is there still that fluttering in your mind?


Agave:

[1269] I don't know what you're talking about. But I'm becoming somehow

[1270] 'in my mind,' changed from my mind before.


Cadmus:

[1271] So could you hear something and answer it clearly?


Agave:

[1272] Yes, in fact I've forgotten what we've said before, father.


Cadmus:

[1273] To what sort of home did you come after your wedding?


Agave:

[1274] You gave me to one of the sown men, as they say, to Echion.


Cadmus:

[1275] So what child was born to your husband there?


Agave:

[1276] Pentheus, born to me and his father together.


Cadmus:

[1277] Whose face, then, are you holding in your arms?

            

Agave:

[1278] A lion's, as those women who hunted it kept saying.

            

Cadmus:

[1279] Now look straight at it: it won't take long.

            

Agave:

[1280] Ah, what do I behold? What is this thing I am carrying in my hands?

            

Cadmus:

[1281] Look at it and understand more clearly.

            

Agave:

[1282] I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am.

            

Cadmus:

[1283] It does not seem to you to resemble a lion, does it?

            

Agave:

[1284] No, alas, I am holding the head of Pentheus.

            

Cadmus:

[1285] A head mourned by me before you recognized it...

            

Agave:

[1286] Who killed him? How did it come into my hands?

            

Cadmus:

[1287] Miserable Truth, how you are always here at the wrong moment!

            

Agave:

[1288] Say it, since my heart leaps at what is about to pass.

            

Cadmus:

[1289] You and you sisters killed him.

            

Agave:

[1290] Where did he perish? Was it at home? In what kind of place was it?

            

Cadmus:

[1291] Right where dogs once tore apart Actaeon.

            

Agave:

[1292] Why did this unhappy man go there, to Kithairon?

            

Cadmus:

[1293] He went there to sneer at the god and your Bacchic rituals.

            

Agave:

[1294] How did we come down there?

            

Cadmus:

[1295] You were all driven mad, and the whole city-state was filled with Bacchic frenzy.

            

Agave:

[1296] Dionysus destroyed us, I understand now.

            

Cadmus:

[1297] He was outraged at the outrage you did him, since you did not regard him as a god.

            

Agave:

[1298] Father, the beloved body of my child, where is it?

            

Cadmus:

[1299] I searched with great difficulty, and here is what I found.

            

Agave:

[1300] Do all the pieces fit well together?


            

Cadmus:

[unknown number of lines missing]

            

Agave:

[1301] What part in my foolishness did Pentheus deserve?

            

Cadmus:

[1302] He became like you all, not respecting the god,

[1303] so he brought all of us together into one single hurt,

[1304] you all and this one here, so as to destroy my house

[1305] and me; I, being without male children,

[1306] this sprout of your womb, oh wretched woman,

[1307] whom I see has died most shamefully and in the worst way,

[1308] by whom the family had recovered its future -- you, child, who was holding together

[1309] my household, child of my daughter,

[1310] you were a terror to the city-state, and no one

[1311] was willing to act insolently towards me, the old man, if they saw your

[1312] head, since you exacted proper punishment for that.

[1313] But now, dishonored, disenfranchised, I will be an exile from my home,

[1314] the great Cadmus, I who sowed and reaped

[1315] a most beautiful crop, the family of Thebans.

[1316] Dearest of men - even if you are no longer living,

[1317] I number (you) among the dearest to me, child --

[1318] no longer touching this beard with your hand,

[1319] calling me 'mother's father,' no longer will you embrace me

[1320] and say: "Who does you wrong, who dishonors you, old man?

[1321] Who stirs up your heart and annoys you?

[1322] Tell me, so that I may chastize the one who does you wrong, father."

[1323] But now I am miserable, you are so sad,

[1324] your mother is pitiable, and the ones related to you by birth are also wretched.

[1325] If there is anyone who thinks little of the gods,

[1326] let him look upon this man's death and think of them again.

            

Chorus:

[1327] I grieve for your pain, Cadmus; he has the punishment he deserved,

[1328] the child of your child, but it is a grievous punishment for you.

            

Agave:

[1329] O father, since you see by how much my life has been changed...


[[According to secondary sources, Agave mourned over each of the pieces of
the body of Pentheus in this play, one by one; the text is missing some 50 lines
here, and scholars think that that pitiful scene took place at this point.
Then Dionysus appears as the deus ex machina and pronounces the speech that
continues here:]]

            

Dionysus:

[1330] You will change shape and become a serpent, and your wife

[1331] will become a beast and exchange her shape for a snake's,

[1332] Harmonia, daughter of Ares, whom you, a mortal, took in marriage.

[1333] A chariot pulled by bulls, so says the oracle of Zeus,

[1334] will be driven by you and your wife, accompanied by a foreign people.

[1335] With an army of numberless men you will overthrow many

[1336] cities; and once they plunder the oracle of

[1337] Loxias Apollo, they will win a return home for you,

[1338] but it will be hard; Ares will save you and Harmonia,

[1339] he will translate you alive to the Elysian fields.


[1340] I who was born of no mortal father say these things,

[1341] Dionysus, son of Zeus; if you all had known how to be

[1342] wise when you were unwilling to be so, you would be happy

[1343] in me, the offspring of Zeus, and in the ally that you all had gained.


Cadmus:

[1344] Dionysus, we beg of you, we have done wrong.


Dionysus:

[1345] You learned too late; when you should have, you did not understand.


Cadmus:

[1346] We have understood these things; you go too far.


Dionysus:

[1347] In fact I, who was born divine, was treated outrageously by you all.


Cadmus:

[1348] It is not fitting for gods to resemble humans in their temperament.


Dionysus:

[1349] Yet Zeus my father long ago assented to these things.


Agave:

[1350] Alas, old man, it has been decided, we are wretched exiles.


Dionysus:

[1351] Why then are you delaying the inevitable?


Cadmus:

[1352] Dear child, what fearful evil we have come to,

[1353] all of us -- you, poor thing, and your sisters,

[1354] and poor me as well; I will go to foreign lands

[1355] an old man, living in exile; and in addition it is fated for me

[1356] to lead a ragtag army of foreigners against Hellas.

[1357] And my spouse, the child of Ares, Harmonia,

[1358] both she and I having a serpent's wild nature,

[1359] we will come to the altars and tombs of Greeks,

[1360] leading an army of spears: and I will not even win an

[1361] end to my woe, I will not sail in peace

[1362] across the Acheron that goes below.


Agave:

[1363] O father, I will go into exile without you.


Cadmus:

[1364] Why throw your hands around me, poor child,

[1365] like a young swan, its white feathers sheltering an old bird?


Agave:

[1366] Then where should I turn, an exile from my fatherlands?


Cadmus:

[1367] I don't know, my child. Your father is but little help.


Agave:

[1368] Farewell, palace, farewell, my fatherland,

[1369] my city-state; I leave you in misery,

[1370] an exile from my home.


Cadmus:

[1371] Go now, o child, to the Aristaeus'...

            

[unknown number of lines missing here, but probably not many; when the text
resumes, all those present are singing, not speaking, rehearsing the feelings
that they earlier spoke of in another register]


Agave:

[1372] I weep for you, father.


Cadmus:

       And I for you, child,

[1373] and I shed tears for your sisters, too...


Agave:

[1374] since the outrage against him

[1375] and against your house Lord Dionysus

[1376] has born so terribly.


Dionysus:

[1377] In fact I suffered terrible things at your hands, all of you,

[1378] my name disrespected in Thebes, my home.


Agave:

[1379] Farewell, my father.


Cadmus:

       Farewell to you, my poor

[1380] daughter, how hard it is to have come to this!


Agave:

[1381] Lead me, attendants,

[1382] to where my sisters and I shall find our fellow exiles.

[1383] May I go where

[1384] neither Kithairon, defiled with blood, might see me,

[1385] nor I Kithairon with my eyes,

[1386] nor where the memory of a thyrsos is stored;

[1387] let those things concern the other Bacchae.


Chorus:

[1388] Many are the shapes of divine things,

[1389] and many things do the gods accomplish in ways not hoped for.

[1390] What was expected was not fulfilled,

[1391] and the god found a way to what was unexpected.

[1392] That was the way the action here turned out.