O ye Theban Bacchanals!
Attune ye now the hymn victorious,
The hymn all-glorious,
To the tear, and to the groan:
O game of glory!
To bathe the hands besprent and gory
In the blood of her own son."
Believing that she is bringing a lion's head to affix to the walls of the temple, she bears in her arms that of Pentheus, and in concert with the Chorus celebrates in song her ghastly triumph:—
"mmmmmAgavè.O ye Asian Bacchanals!
mmmmmChorus.Who is she on us who calls?
mmmmmAgavè.From the mountains, lo! we bear
To the palace gate
Our new-slain quarry fair.
mmmmmChorus.I see, I see, and on thy joy I wait.
mmmmmAgavè.Without a net, without a snare,
The lion's cub, I took him there."
But Cadmus soon undeceives her. He has been to Cithæron to collect the remains of his grandson which, the Bacchanals had left behind; and Agavè, restored to her senses, discerns in her gory burden the head of Pentheus her son. At the close of this fearful story Bacchus appears and informs Cadmus of his doom:—
"Thou, father of this earth-born race,
A dragon shalt become; thy wife shall take
A brutish form at last."
However, after cycles of time have gone by, Cadmus and his wife Harmonia shall resume their human forms, and be borne by Mars to the Isles of the Blest.
