Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/409

Rh With pine-brands leaping o'er the cloven crest,

Tossing on high and waving Bacchus' bough,—

Yea, great through Hellas. Pentheus, heed thou me:

Boast not that naked force hath power o'er men;

Nor, if it seem so to thy jaundiced eye,

Deem thyself wise. The God into thy land

Welcome: spill wine, be bacchant, wreathe thine head.

Dionysus upon women will not thrust

Chastity: in true womanhood inborn

Dwells temperance touching all things evermore.

This must thou heed; for in his Bacchic rites

The virtuous-hearted shall not be undone.

Lo, thou art glad when thousands throng thy gates,

And all Thebes magnifieth Pentheus' name:

He too, I wot, in homage taketh joy.

I then, and Kadmus, whom thou laugh'st to scorn,

Will wreathe our heads with ivy, and will dance—

A greybeard pair, yet cannot we but dance.

Not at thy suasion will I war with Gods;

For grievous is thy madness, and no spell

May medicine thee, though spells have made thee mad.

Old sire, thou sham'st not Phœbus in thy speech,

And wisely honourest Bromius, mighty God.