Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 2- Edward P. Coleridge (1913).djvu/134

. 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.

. Ye Bacchanals from Asia! . Why dost thou rouse me? why?

. From the hills I am bringing to my home a tendril freshly-culled, glad guerdon of the chase.

. I see it, and I will welcome thee unto our revels. All hail!

. I caught him with never a snare, this lion’s whelp, as ye may see.

. From what desert lair?

. Cithæron—— . Yes, Cithæaeron?

. Was his death.

. Who was it gave the first blow?

. Mine that privilege; “Happy Agave!” they call me ’mid our revellers.

. Who did the rest?

. Cadmus——

. What of him?

. His daughters struck the monster after me; yes, after me.