Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/423

Rh

Kindle the torch of the levin lurid-red:

Let the compassing flames round the palace of Pentheus spread.

Ha! dost thou see not the wildfire enwreathed

Round the holy tomb—

Lo, dost thou mark it not well?—

Which Semelê thunder-blasted bequeathed,

Her memorial of doom

By the lightning from Zeus that fell?

Fling to the earth, ye Maenads, fling

Your bodies that tremble with sore dismay!

For he cometh, our King, Zeus' scion, to bring

Yon halls to confusion and disarray.

Ho, ye Asian women, are ye so distraught with sheer affright

That ye thus to earth be fallen? Ye beheld, meseems, the sight

When the house of Pentheus reeled as Bacchus shook it. Nay, upraise

From the earth your limbs, and banish from your bodies fear's amaze.