182 SOPHOCLES
Go forth in Bacchic dance, And by the flowery stream of Castaly, And Thee, the ivied slopes of Nysa's hills,^
And vine-clad promontory, 1215
(While words of more than mortal melody
Shout out the well-known name,)
Send forth, the guardian lord
Of the wide streets of Thebes.
Strophe II.
Above all cities Thou, 1220
With her, thy mother whom the thunder slew,
Dost look on it with love ; And now, since all the city bendeth low
Beneath the sullen plague,
Come Thou with cleansing tread 1225
O'er the Parnassian slopes,
Or o'er the moaning straits.^
AXTISTROPHE II.
Ο Thou, who lead'st the band, The choral band of stars still breathing fire,^
Lord of the hymns of night, 1230
The child of highest Zeus ; appear, Ο king, •
With Thyian maidens wild,
Who all night long in dance.
With frenzied chorus sing
Thy praise, their lord, lacchos. 1235
1 The " ivied slopes " are those of the Euboean Nysa.
^ The " moaning straits " of the Euripus, If the God is thong-ht of as coming from Nysa ; the " slopes," if he comes from Parnassus.
3 The imagery of the Bacchic thiasos, with its torch-bearers moving in rhythmic order, is transferred to the heavens, and the stars them- selves are thought of as a choral band led by the Lord of life and joy.
