The Bacchantes, By Euripides

things of God point alike the best and wisest course for all mortals who pursue them. (Exit SECOND MESSENGER.) CHORUS Come, let us exalt our Bacchic god in choral strain, let us loudly chant the fall of Pentheus from the serpent sprung, who assumed a woman's dress and took the fair Bacchic wand, sure pledge of death, with a bull to guide him to his doom. O ye Bacchanals of Thebes! glorious is the triumph ye have achieved, ending in sorrow and tears. 'Tis a noble enterprise to dabble the hand in the blood of a son till it drips. But hist! I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, with wild rolling eye hasting to the house; welcome the revellers of the Bacchic god. (Enter AGAVE.) AGAVE Ye Bacchanals from Asia CHORUS Why dost thou rouse me? why? AGAVE From the hills I am bringing to my home a tendril freshly-culled, glad guerdon-of the chase. CHORUS I see it, and I will welcome thee unto our revels. All hail! AGAVE I caught him with never a snare, this lion's whelp, as ye may see. CHORUS From what desert lair? AGAVE Cithaeron- CHORUS Yes, Cithaeron? AGAVE Was his death. CHORUS Who was it gave the first blow? AGAVE Mine that privilege; "Happy Agave!" they call me 'mid our revellers. CHORUS Who did the rest? AGAVE Cadmus- CHORUS What of him? AGAVE His daughters struck the monster after me; yes, after me. CHORUS Fortune smiled upon thy hunting here. AGAVE Come, share the banquet. CHORUS Share? ah I what?

CHORUS Share? ah I what? AGAVE 'Tis but a tender whelp, the down just sprouting on its cheek beneath a crest of failing hair. CHORUS The hair is like some wild creature's. AGAVE The Bacchic god, a hunter skilled, roused his Maenads to pursue this quarry skilfully. CHORUS Yea, our king is a hunter indeed. AGAVE Dost approve? CHORUS Of course I do. AGAVE Soon shall the race of Cadmus- CHORUS And Pentheus, her own son, shall to his mother- AGAVE Offer praise for this her quarry of the lion's brood. CHORUS Quarry strange! AGAVE And strangely caught. CHORUS Dost thou exult? AGAVE Right glad am I to have achieved a great and glorious triumph for my land that all can see. CHORUS Alas for thee! show to the folk the booty thou hast won and art bringing hither. AGAVE All ye who dwell in fair fenced Thebes, draw near that ye may see the fierce wild beast that we daughters of Cadmus made our prey, not with the thong-thrown darts of Thessaly, nor yet with snares, but with our fingers fair. Ought men idly to boast and get them armourers' weapons? when we with these our hands have caught this prey and torn the monster limb from limb? Where is my aged sire? let him approach. And where is Pentheus, my son? Let him bring a ladder and raise it against the house to nail up on the gables this lion's head, my booty from the chase. (Enter CADMUS.) CADMUS Follow me, servants to the palace-front, with your sad burden

CADMUS Follow me, servants to the palace-front, with your sad burden in your arms, ay, follow, with the corpse of Pentheus, which after long weary search I found, as ye see it, torn to pieces amid Cithaeron's glens, and am bringing hither; no two pieces did I find together, as they lay scattered through the trackless wood. For I heard what awful deeds one of my daughters had done, just as I entered the city-walls with old Teiresias returning from the Bacchanals; so I turned again unto the and bring from thence my son who was slain by Maenads. There I saw Autonoe, that bare Actaeon on a day to Aristaeus, and Ino with her, still ranging the oak-groves in their unhappy frenzy; but one told me that that Agave, was rushing wildly hither, nor was it idly said, for there I see her, sight of woe! AGAVE Father, loudly mayst thou boast, that the daughters thou hast begotten are far the best of mortal race; of one and all I speak, though chiefly of myself, who left my shuttle at the loom for nobler enterprise, even to hunt savage beasts with my hands; and in my arms I bring my prize, as thou seest, that it may be nailed up on thy palace-wall; take it, father, in thy had and proud of my hunting, call thy friends to a banquet; for blest art thou, ah! doubly blest in these our gallant exploits. CADMUS O grief that has no bounds, too cruel for mortal eye! 'tis murder ye have done with your hapless hands. Fair is the victim thou

murder ye have done with your hapless hands. Fair is the victim thou hast offered to the gods, inviting me and my Thebans to the feast Ah, woe is me first for thy sorrows, then for mine. What ruin the god, the Bromian king, hath brought on us, just maybe, but too severe, seeing he is our kinsman! AGAVE How peevish old age makes men! what sullen looks! Oh, may my son follow in his mother's footsteps and be as lucky in his hunting, when he goes quest of game in company with Theban youthsl But he can do naught but wage war with gods. Father, 'tis thy duty to warn him. Who will summon him hither to my sight to witness my happiness? CADMUS Alas for you! alas! Terrible will be your grief when ye are conscious of your deeds; could ye re. for ever till life's close in your present state, ye would not, spite of ruined bliss, appear so cursed with woe. AGAVE Why? what is faulty bere? what here for sorrow? CADMUS First let thine eye look up to heaven. AGAVE See! I do so. Why dost thou suggest my looking thereupon? CADMUS Is it still the same, or dost think there's any change? AGAVE 'Tis brighter than it was, and dearer too. CADMUS Is there still that wild unrest within thy soul? AGAVE I know not what thou sayest now; yet methinks my brain is clearing, and my former frenzy passed away. CADMUS Canst understand, and give distinct replies? AGAVE Father, how completely I forget all we said before!

AGAVE Father, how completely I forget all we said before! CADMUS To what house wert thou brought with marriage-hymns? AGAVE Thou didst give me to earthborn Echion, as men call him. CADMUS What child was born thy husband in his halls? AGAVE Pentheus, of my union with his father. CADMUS What head is that thou barest in thy arms? AGAVE A lion's; at least they said so, who hunted it. CADMUS Consider it aright; 'tis no great task to look at it. AGAVE Ah! what do I see? what is this I am carrying in my hands? CADMUS Look closely at it; make thy knowledge more certain. AGAVE Ah, 'woe is me! O sight of awful sorrow! CADMUS Dost think it like a lion's head? AGAVE Ah no! 'tis Pentheus' head which I his unhappy mother hold. CADMUS Bemoaned by me, or ever thou didst recognize him. AGAVE Who slew him? How came he into my hands? CADMUS O piteous truth! how ill-timed thy presence here! AGAVE Speak; my bosom throbs at this suspense. CADMUS 'Twas thou didst slay him, thou and thy sisters. AGAVE Where died he? in the house or where? CADMUS On the very spot where hounds of yore rent Actaeon in pieces. AGAVE Why went he, wretched youth! to Cithaeron? CADMUS He would go and mock the god and thy Bacchic rites. AGAVE But how was it we had journeyed thither? CADMUS Ye were distraught; the whole city had the Bacchic frenzy. AGAVE 'Twas Dionysus proved our ruin; now I see it all. CADMUS Yes, for the slight he suffered; ye would not believe in his

CADMUS Yes, for the slight he suffered; ye would not believe in his godhead. AGAVE Father, where is my dear child's corpse? CADMUS With toil I searched it out and am bringing it myself. AGAVE Is it all fitted limb to limb in seemly wise? CADMUS (*, * One line, or maybe more, is missing) AGAVE But what had Pentheus to do with folly of mine? CADMUS He was like you in refusing homage to the god, who, therefore, hath involved you all in one common ruin, you and him alike, to destroy this house and me, forasmuch as I, that had no sons, behold this youth, the fruit of thy womb, unhappy mother! foully and most shamefully slain. To thee, my child, our house looked up, to thee my daughter's son, the stay of my palace, inspiring the city with awe; none caring to flout the old king when he saw thee by, for he would get his deserts. But now shall I be cast out dishonoured from my halls, Cadmus the great, who sowed the crop of Theban seed and reaped that goodly harvest. O beloved child! dead though thou art, thou still shalt be counted by me amongst my own dear children; no more wilt thou lay thy hand upon my chin in fond embrace, my child, and calling on thy mother's sire demand, "Who wrongs thee or dishonours thee, old sire? who vexes thy heart, a thorn within thy side? Speak, that I may punish thy oppressor, father mine!" But now am I in sorrow plunged, and woe is thee, and woe thy mother

But now am I in sorrow plunged, and woe is thee, and woe thy mother and her suffering sisters too! Ah! if there be any man that scorns the gods, let him well mark this prince's death and then believe in them. CHORUS Cadmus, I am sorry for thy fate; for though thy daughter's child hath met but his deserts, 'tis bitter grief to thee. AGAVE O father, thou seest how sadly my fortune is changed.(*, * After this a very large lacuna occurs in the MS.) DIONYSUS Thou shalt be changed into a serpent; and thy wife Harmonia, Ares' child, whom thou in thy human life didst wed, shall change her nature for a snake's, and take its form. With her shalt thou, as leader of barbarian tribes, drive thy team of steers, so saith an oracle of Zeus; and many a city shalt thou sack with an army numberless; but in the day they plunder the oracle of Loxias, shall they rue their homeward march; but thee and Harmonia will Ares rescue, and set thee to live henceforth in the land of the blessed. This do I declare, I Dionysus, son of no mortal father but of Zeus. Had ye learnt wisdom when ye would not, ye would now be happy with the son of Zeus for your ally. AGAVE O Dionysus! we have sinned; thy pardon we implore. DIONYSUS Too late have ye learnt to know me; ye knew me not at the proper time. AGAVE We recognize our error; but thou art too revengeful. DIONYSUS Yea, for I, though a god, was slighted by you. AGAVE Gods should not let their passion sink to man's level.

AGAVE Gods should not let their passion sink to man's level. DIONYSUS Long ago my father Zeus ordained it thus. AGAVE Alas! my aged sire, our doom is fixed; 'tis woful exile. DIONYSUS Why then delay the inevitable? Exit. CADMUS Daughter, to what an awful pass are we now come, thou too, poor child, and thy sisters, while I alas! in my old age must seek barbarian shores, to sojourn there; but the oracle declares that I shall yet lead an army, half-barbarian, half-Hellene, to Hellas; and in serpent's shape shall I carry my wife Harmonia, the daughter of Ares, transformed like me to a savage snake, against the altars and tombs of Hellas at the head of my troops; nor shall I ever cease from my woes, ah me! nor ever cross the downward stream of Acheron and be at rest. AGAVE Father, I shall be parted from thee and exiled. CADMUS Alas! my child, why fling thy arms around me, as a snowy cygnet folds its wings about the frail old swan? AGAVE Whither can I turn, an exile from my country? CADMUS I know not, my daughter; small help is thy father now. AGAVE Farewell, my home! farewell, my native city! with sorrow I am leaving thee, an exile from my bridal bower. CADMUS Go, daughter, to the house of Aristaeus,(*, * Another large lacuna follows.) AGAVE Father, I mourn for thee. CADMUS And I for thee, my child; for thy sisters too I shed a tear. AGAVE Ah! terribly was king Dionysus bringing this outrage on thy

house. CADMUS Yea, for he suffered insults dire from you, his name receiving no meed of honour in Thebes. AGAVE Farewell, father mine! CADMUS Farewell, my hapless daughter and yet thou scarce canst reach that bourn. AGAVE Oh! lead me, guide me to the place where I shall find my sisters, sharers in my exile to their sorrow! Oh! to reach a spot where cursed Cithaeron ne'er shall see me more nor I Cithaeron with mine eyes; where no memorial of the thyrsus is set up! Be they to other Bacchantes dear! CHORUS Many are the forms the heavenly will assumes, and many a thing the gods fulfil contrary to all hope; that which was expected is not brought to pass, while for the unlooked-for Heaven finds out a way. E'en such hath been the issue here. (Exeunt OMNES.) THE END