Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/398

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So, of all Hellas, Thebes with my acclaim
I first thrilled, there with fawn-skin girt her limbs,
And gave her hand the ivied thyrsus-spear, 25
Because my mother's sisters—shame on them!—
Proclaimed Dionysus never born of Zeus;
But Semelê by a man undone, said they,
Charged upon Zeus her sin of wantonness—
A subtle wile of Kadmus! Hence, they vaunted, 30
Zeus slew the liar who named him paramour.
These therefore frenzy-stung I have driven from home,
And mid the hills with soul distraught they dwell,
The vesture of my revels forced to wear;
And all the woman-seed of Kadmus' folk, 35
Yea all, I drave forth raving from their homes:
And, mingled with the sons of Kadmus, these
'Neath green pines sit on crags all shelterless.
For this Thebes needs must learn, how loth soe'er,
What means it not to be in my great rites 40
Initiate, and that Semelê's cause I plead,
To men God manifest, whom she bare to Zeus.
Now Kadmus gave his crown and royal estate
To Pentheus, of another daughter born,
Who wars with Heaven in me, and from libations 45
Thrusts, nor makes mention of me in his prayers.
Therefore to him my godhead will I prove,
And to all Thebans. To another land
Then, after triumph here, will I depart,
And manifest myself. If Thebes in wrath 50
Take arms to chase her Bacchants from the hills,
Leading my Maenads I will clash in fight.
For this cause have I taken mortal form,
And changed my shape to fashion of a man.
Ho, ye who Lydia's rock-wall, Tmolus, left, 55