Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/397



Enter Dionysus.

this land of Thebes have come, Zeus' Son

Dionysus, born erstwhile of Kadmus' child

Semelê, brought by levin-brand to travail.

My shape from God to mortal semblance changed,

I stand by Dirkê's springs, Ismenus' flood.

I see my thunder-blasted mother's tomb

Here nigh the halls: the ruins of her home

Smoulder with Zeus's flame that liveth yet—

Hera's undying outrage on my mother.

Kadmus doth well, that he ordains this close,

His child's grave, hallowed: with the clustering green

Of vines I, even I, embowered it round.

Leaving the gold-abounding Lydian meads

And Phrygian, o'er the Persian's sun-smit tracts,

By Bactrian strongholds, Media's storm-swept land,

Still pressing on, by Araby the Blest,

And through all Asia, by the briny sea

Lying with stately-towered cities thronged,

Peopled with Hellenes blent with aliens,

To this of Hellene cities first I come.

My dances there and rites have I ordained

That I might be God manifest to men.