Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/424

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Hail to thee, to us the mightiest light of Evian revelry!

With what rapture, late so lonely and forlorn, I look on thee!

Ha, and did your hearts for terror fail you when I passed within,

Deeming I should sink to darkness, caught in Pentheus' dungeon-gin?

Wherefore not? What shield had I, if thou into mischance shouldst fall?

Nay, but how didst thou escape, who wast a godless tyrant's thrall?

I myself myself delivered, lightly, with nor toil nor strain.

Nay, but bound he not thine hands with coiling mesh of chain on chain?

My derision there I made him, that he deemed he fettered me,

Yet nor touched me, neither grasped me, fed on empty phantasy.

Nay, a bull beside the stalls he found where he would pen me fast:

Round the knees and round the hoofs of this he 'gan his cords to cast,