TI. The God will without trouble guide us thither.
CA. But shall we alone of the city dance in honor of Bacchus?
TI. [Ay,] for we alone think rightly, but the rest ill.
CA. We are long in delaying;[14] but take hold of my hand.
TI. See, take hold, and join your hand to mine.
CA. I do not despise the Gods, being a mortal.
TI. We do not show too much wiseness about the Gods. Our ancestral
traditions, and those which we have kept throughout our life, no argument
will overturn them; not if any one were to find out wisdom with the highest
genius. Some one will say that I do not respect old age, being about to
dance, having crowned my head with ivy; for the God has made no distinction
as to whether it becomes the young man to dance, or the elder; but wishes
to have common honors from all; but does not at all wish to be extolled by
a few.
CA. Since you, O Tiresias, do not see this light, I will be to you an
interpreter of things. Hither is Pentheus coming to the house in haste, the
son of Echion, to whom I give power over the land. How fluttered he is!
what strange thing will he say?
PENTHEUS. I happened to be at a distance from this land, and I hear of
strange evils in this city, that the women have left our palace in
mad-wandering Bacchic rites; and that they are rushing about in the shady
mountains, honoring with dances this new God Bacchus, whoever he is; and
that full goblets stand in the middle of their assemblies, and that flying
each different ways into secrecy, they yield to the embraces of men, on
pretence, indeed, as [being] worshiping Mænads; but that they consider
Venus before Bacchus. As many then as I have taken, the servants keep them
bound as to their hands in the public strong-holds, and as many as are
absent I will hunt from the mountain, Ino, and Agave who bore me to Echion,
and the mother of Actæon, I mean Autonoe; and having bound them in iron
fetters, I will soon stop them from this ill-working revelry. And they say
that some stranger has come hither, a juggler, a charmer, from the Lydian
land, fragrant in hair with golden curls, florid, having in his eyes the
graces of Venus, who days and nights is with them, alluring the young
maidens with Bacchic mysteries--but if I catch him under this roof, I will
stop him from making a noise with the thyrsus, and waving his hair, by
cutting off his neck from his body. He says he is the God Bacchus, [He was
once on a time sown in the thigh of Jove,[15] ] who was burned in the flame
of lightning, together with his mother, because she falsely claimed
nuptials with Jove. Are not these things deserving of a terrible halter,
for a stranger to insult us with these insults, whoever he be? But here is
another marvel--I see Tiresias the soothsayer, in dappled deer-skins, and
the father of my mother, most great absurdity, raging about with a
thyrsus--I deprecate it, O father, seeing your old age destitute of sense;
will you not dash away the ivy?[16] will you not, O father of my mother,
put down your hand empty of the thyrsus? Have you persuaded him to this, O
Tiresias? do you wish, introducing this new God among men, to examine birds
and to receive rewards for fiery omens? If your hoary old age did not
defend you, you should sit as a prisoner in the midst of the Bacchæ, for
introducing these wicked rites; for where the joy of the grape-cluster is
present at a feast of women, I no longer say any thing good of their
mysteries.
CHOR. Alas for his impiety! O host, do you not reverence the Gods! and
being son of Echion, do you disgrace your race and Cadmus, who sowed the
earth-born crop?
TI. When any wise man takes a good occasion for his speech, it is not a
great task to speak well; but you have a rapid tongue, as if wise, but in
your words there is no wisdom; but a powerful man, when bold, and able to
speak, is a bad citizen if he has not sense. And this new God, whom you
ridicule, I am unable to express how great he will be in Greece. For, O
young man, two things are first among men; Ceres, the goddess, and she is
the earth, call her whichever name you will.[17] She nourishes mortals with
dry food; but he who is come as a match to her, the son of Semele, has
invented the liquid drink of the grape, and introduced it among mortals,
which delivers miserable mortals from grief,[18] when they are filled with
the stream of the vine; and gives sleep an oblivion of daily evils: nor is
there any other medicine for troubles. He who is a God is poured out in
libations to the Gods, that by his means men may have good things--and you
laugh at him, as to how he was sewn up in the thigh of Jove; I will teach
you that this is well--when Jove snatched him out of the lightning flame,
and bore him, a young infant, up to Olympus, Juno wished to cast him down
from heaven; but Jove had a counter contrivance, as being a God. Having
broken a part of the air which surrounds the earth, he placed in it, giving
him as a pledge, Bacchus, safe from Juno's enmity; and in time, mortals
say, that he was nourished in the thigh of Jove; changing his name, because
a God gave him formerly as a pledge to a Goddess, they having made
agreement.[19] But this God is a prophet--for Bacchanal excitement and
frenzy have much divination in them.[20] For when the God comes violent[21]
into the body, he makes the frantic to foretell the future; and he also
possesses some quality of Mars; for terror flutters sometimes an army under
arms and in its ranks, before they touch the spear; and this also is a
frenzy from Bacchus. Then you shall see him also on the Delphic rocks,
bounding with torches along the double-pointed district, tossing about, and
shaking the Bacchic branch, mighty through Greece. But be persuaded by me,
O Pentheus; do not boast that sovereignty has power among men, nor, even if
you think so, and your mind is disordered, believe that you are at all
wise. But receive the God into the land, and sacrifice to him, and play the
Bacchanal, and crown your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be
modest[22] with regard to Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is
ever innate. This you must needs consider, for she who is modest will not
be corrupted by being at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when
many stand at thy gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he,
I ween, is pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to
scorn, will crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we
must dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
words--for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure from
medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.[23]
CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.
CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away from
the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in naught; for
although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by you that he
is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to have borne a
God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the hapless fate
of Actæon,[24] whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he had reared up, tore
to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was superior in the chase
to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may crown thy head with
ivy, with us give honor to the God--
PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the Bacchanal,
and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with punishment
this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as possible, and
going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and overthrow it with
levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his crowns to the winds
and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most. And some of you going
along the city, track out this effeminate stranger, who brings this new
disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you catch him, convey him
hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of stoning he may die, having
seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in Thebes.
TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are mad
now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and entreat
the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of the city,
to do him no ill: but follow me with the ivy-clad staff, and try to support
my body, and I will yours; for it would be shameful for two old men to fall
down: but let that pass, for we must serve Bacchus, the son of Jove; but
beware lest Pentheus bring grief into thy house, O Cadmus. I do not speak
in prophecy, but judging from the state of things, for a foolish man says
foolish things.
CHOR. O holy venerable Goddess! holy, who bearest thy golden pinions along
the earth, hearest thou these words of Pentheus? Hearest thou his unholy
insolence against Bromius, the son of Semele, the first deity of the Gods,
at the banquets where the guests wear beautiful chaplets! who has this
office, to join in dances, and to laugh with the flute, and to put an end
to cares, when the juice of the grape comes at the feast of the Gods, and
in the ivy-bearing banquets the goblet sheds sleep over man? Of unbridled
mouths and lawless folly misery is the end, but the life of quiet and
wisdom remains unshaken, and supports a house; for the heavenly powers are
afar indeed, but still inhabiting the air, they behold the deeds of
mortals. But cleverness[25] is not wisdom, nor is the thinking on things
unfit for mortals. Life is short; and in it who, pursuing great things,
would not enjoy the present? These are the manners of maniacs; and of
ill-disposed men, in my opinion. Would that I could go to Cyprus, the
island of Venus, where the Loves dwell, soothing the minds of mortals, and
to Paphos, which the waters of a foreign river flowing with an hundred[26]
mouths, fertilize without rain--and to the land of Pieria, where is the
beautiful seat of the Muses, the holy hill of Olympus. Lead me thither, O
Bromius, Bromius, O master thou of Bacchanals! There are the Graces, and
there is Love, and there is it lawful for the Bacchæ to celebrate their
orgies; the God, the son of Jove, delights in banquets, and loves Peace,
giver of riches, the Goddess the nourisher of youths. And both to the rich
and the poor[27] has she granted to enjoy an equal delight from wine,
banishing grief; and he who does not care for these things, hates to lead a
happy life by day and by friendly night--but it is wise[28] to keep away
the mind and intellect proceeding from over-curious men; what the baser
multitude thinks and adopts, that will I say.
SERVANT. Pentheus, we are here; having caught this prey, for which you sent
us: nor have we gone in vain; but the beast was docile in our hands, nor
did he withdraw his foot in flight, but yielded not unwillingly; nor did he
[turn] pale nor change his wine-complexioned cheek, but laughing, allowed
us to bind and lead him away; and remained still, making my work easy; and
I for shame said, O stranger, I do not take you of my own will, but by
order of Pentheus who sent me. And the Bacchæ whom you shut up, whom you
carried off and bound in the chains of the public prison, they being set
loose are escaped, and are dancing in the meadows, invoking Bromius as
their God, and of their own accord the fetters were loosed from their feet,
and the keys opened the doors without mortal hand, and full of many wonders
is this man come to Thebes; but the rest must be thy care.
PEN. Take hold of him by the hands; for being in the toils, he is not so
swift as to escape me: but in your body you are not ill-formed, O stranger,
for women's purposes, on which account you have come to Thebes. For your
hair is long, not through wrestling, scattered over your cheeks, full of
desire, and you have a white skin from careful preparation; hunting after
Venus by your beauty not exposed to strokes of the sun, but [kept] beneath
the shade. First then tell me who thou art in family.
BAC. There is no boast; but this is easy to say; thou knowest by hearsay of
the flowery Tmolus?
PEN. I know, [the hill] which surrounds the city of Sardis.
BAC. Thence am I; and Lydia is my country.
PEN. And whence do you bring these rites into Greece?
BAC. Bacchus persuaded us, the son of Jove.
PEN. Is Jove then one who begets new Gods?