We may not dally:—to Electra's gate 780
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, 785
To endure of women that we now endure.
Dionysus.
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 790
Shouldst drive his Bacchanals from their revel-hills.
Pentheus.
School thou not me; but, having 'scaped thy bonds,
Content thee: else again I punish thee.
Dionysus.
Better slay victims unto him than rage,
Spurning the goads, a mortal 'gainst a God. 795
Pentheus.
Victims?—yea women-victims, fitly slain:
Wild work of slaughter midst Kithairon's glens!
Dionysus.
Flee shall ye all; and shame were this, that shields
Brass-forged from wands of Bacchanals turn back.
