Page:The Plays of Euripides Vol. 2- Edward P. Coleridge (1913).djvu/140

 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.

. O Dionysus! we have sinned; thy pardon we implore.

. Too late have ye learnt to know me; ye knew me not at the proper time.

. We recognize our error; but thou art too revengeful.

. Yea, for I, though a god, was slighted by you.

. Gods should not let their passion sink to man’s level.

. Long ago my father Zeus ordained it thus.

. Alas! my aged sire, our doom is fixed; ’tis woful exile.

. Why then delay the inevitable?

. 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.