Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/432

404 We may not dally:—to Electra's gate

Go thou; bid all my warriors that bear shield

To meet me, and all riders of fleet steeds,

And all that shake the buckler, all who twang

The bowstring; for against the Bacchanals

Forth will we march; for this should pass all bounds,

To endure of women that we now endure.

No whit thou yieldest, though thou hear'st my words,

Pentheus. Yet, though thou dost despite to me,

I warn thee—bear not arms against a God;

But bide still. Bromius will not brook that thou

Shouldst drive his Bacchanals from their revel-hills.

School thou not me; but, having 'scaped thy bonds,

Content thee: else again I punish thee.

Better slay victims unto him than rage,

Spurning the goads, a mortal 'gainst a God.

Victims?—yea women-victims, fitly slain:

Wild work of slaughter midst Kithairon's glens!

Flee shall ye all; and shame were this, that shields

Brass-forged from wands of Bacchanals turn back.