Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/448

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420
EURIPIDES.

Messenger.

When, from the homesteads of this Theban land
Departing, we had crossed Asopus' streams,
Then we began to breast Kithairon's steep, 1045
Pentheus and I,—for to my lord I clave,—
And he who ushered us unto the scene.
First in a grassy dell we sat us down
With footfall hushed and tongues refrained from speech,
That so we might behold, all unbeheld. 1050
There was a glen crag-walled, with rills o'erstreamed,
Closed in with pine-shade, where the Maenad girls
Sat with hands busied with their blithesome toils.
The faded thyrsus some with ivy-sprays
Twined, till its tendril-tresses waved again: 1055
Others, like colts from carven wain-yokes loosed,
Re-echoed each to each the Bacchic chant.
But hapless Pentheus, seeing ill the throng
Of women, spake thus: "Stranger, where we stand,
Are these mock-maenad maids beyond my ken. 1060
Some knoll or pine high-crested let me climb,
And I shall see the Maenads' lewdness well."
A marvel then I saw the stranger do.
A soaring pine-branch by the top he caught,
And dragged down—down—still down to the dark earth. 1065
Arched as a bow it grew, or curving wheel
That on the lathe sweeps out its circle's round:
So bowed the stranger's hands that mountain-branch,
And bent to earth—a deed past mortal might!
Then Pentheus on the pine-boughs seated he, 1070
And let the branch rise, sliding through his hands
Gently, with heedful care to unseat him not.