Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/64

60 O Bacchus that dwellest in Thebes,

On whose broad and fertile glebes

Fierce warriors from the dragon’s teeth rose

Where Ismenus softly flows,

The city that Semele bare!

Oft has the torches’ glare

That flashes out bright in the air

Full of smoke from the pine-wood flame

Beheld thee in that place of fame,

High o’er the twin-crested mount,

Where the nymphs Corycian sport

In a joyous worshipful sort

Of Bacchanal frenzied dance,

And dart to and fro and glance

Hard by Castalia’s fount.

And Nysa’s murmuring rills

Her ivied slopes and hills

And the shore dark-mantled with green

Of the clustering vine hath seen

Thee in visible presence there.

Whence thou comest to visit the ways

Of Thebé the holy, while praise

Universal of mystic strains

And exalted “Evoe” refrains

Ring loud on the nocturnal air.

The city thou holdest in highest regard,

No other such love thou showest toward

As the city of Thebes, no other

So deeply loved by thy mother,

Whom the red levin smote;

And now that her people are held

By a plague most grievous, unquelled,

Bear us aid, no longer wait,

Cross thou the groaning strait,

Or down from Parnassus float.