BOOK XLIV

The forty-fourth web I have woven, where you may see maddened women and the heavy threat Already he had passed the Daulantian " tribe of lUyrian soil, and the plain of Haimonia and the Pelion peak, and was nearing Hellas ; there he established dances on the Aonian plain. The shepherd hearing the tune of the drooning pipes formed congregations for Pan at Tanagra. A fountain bubbled on the spot where the horse's wet hoof scratched the surface of the ground and made a hollow for the water which took its name from him. Asopos danced breathing fiery streams, as he swept his floods along and twirled his waters. Dirce danced, spouting her whirling waters along with her father Ismenos. At times a Hamadryad shot out of her clustering foliage and half showed herself high in a tree, and praised the name of Dionysos cluster-laden ; and the unshod nymph of the spring sang in tune with her. mountains, and reached the ears of irreconcilable Pentheus. The impious king was angry with winegod Bacchos, and he armed a hostile host, calling to the cf oT€ KOipavirjv naTpwiov rjp7TaG€ nci lci , SO people to bar the portals of the sevenway city. One by one they were shut, but the locks of the gates suddenly opened of themselves ; in vain the servants resisted the winds of heaven and set the long bars at each gate. Then no gate warden could check a Bacchant if he saw her ; but shielded spearmen often the threats of their clamouring king, they danced with singlethroated acclaim ; with their wellmade oxhides they danced the round in shieldshaking leaps, the very picture of the noisy Corybants.

Terrible bears growled madly in the hills, the panther gnashed her teeth and leapt high in the air, the lion in playful sport gave a gentle roar to his comrade tremble and quake, and started from its immovable foundations all about ; the gatehouse quivered and sprang up with earthshaking throbs, foretelHng the trouble to come. The stone altar of Oncaian Athena tottered of itself, that which Cadmos had built, when with slow-convincing movement the heifer's hoof sank, to bid him build a wall and found a city ; over the divine image of the cityholding goddess, godsent sweat beaded in drops of itself, bringing fear to the people — from head to foot the statue of Ares ran with gore, telling of things to come. of boastful Pentheus quivered with fear, mad with anxiety, remembering that bloody dream of old with its prophecy of bitterness ; how once, after Pentheus had seized his father's sovereignty, Agaue slumber- Bvpaov €Xatftpi oirra teal od aicijwrpoto Of4fa' atfuxAcoi' Bi Kaprjvov €Kov uny dpwoyt Topoy to ing on her bed had been terrified all night in her sleep, when the unreal phantom of a dream had leapt through the Gate of Horn which never deceives," and whispered in her sleepy ear. For she thought she saw Pentheus a dainty dancer on the road, his manly form dressed up in a woman's robe, throwing to the ground the purple robe of kings, bearing the sceptre no longer but holding a thyrsus. Again, Cadmeian Agaue thought she saw him perched high up in a shady tree ; round the lofty trunk where sat bold Pentheus was a circle of wild beasts, furiously pushing to root up the tree with the dangerous teeth of their hard jaws. The tree shook, and Pentheus came tumbling over and over of himself, and when he dumped down, mad she-bears tore him ; a wild lioness leapt in his face and tore out an arm from the joint — then the mad raging monster set one paw on the throat of Pentheus cut in two, and tore through his gullet with her sharp claws, and lifted the bloody head in her ferocious paw piteously lacerated, and showed it to Cadmos, who saw it all, swinging it about as she spoke in human voice these wicked beasts ! I am the mother of Pentheus, happiest of men, your Agaue, the loving mother ! See what a beast I have killed ! Accept this head, the firstfruits of my valour, after victorious slaughter of the lion.

Such a beast Ino my sister never slew, Autonoe never slew. Hang up before your hall this keepsake from Agaue your doughty daughter." saw. Then after she had shaken off sleep's wing, Ziyvi Kai 'ASpvdb aat dau (iWow VlMi' 1 A trembling with terror, in the morning she called in the seer, Chariclo's son, and revealed to him her dream, the bloody prophecy of things to come. Teireisias the diviner bade her sacrifice a male bull to help against the bloody dream, at the altar where men call upon Zeus the Protector, beside the trunk of a tall pinetree where Cithairon spreads his lofty head ; he told her to offer a female sheep to the Hamadryad Nymphs in the thicket. He knew the beast as human, he knew Agaue hunting the fruit of her own womb, the struggle that killed her son, the head of Pentheus ; but he concealed in wordless silence the deceptive vision of victory in the dream, that he might not provoke the heavy wrath of Pentheus his king. Agaue the tender mother obeyed the wise old man, and went to the lofty hill together with Cadmos while Pentheus followed. At the horns of the altar Cadmos Agenorides made one common sacrifice to Zeus and the Hadryads, female and male together, sheep and horned bull, where stood the grove of Zeus full of mountain trees ; he lit the fire on the altar to do pleasure to the gods, and did sacrifice to both. When the flame was kindled, the rich savour was spread abroad with the smoke in fragrant rings.

When the bull was slaughtered, a jet of bloody dew spouted straight up of itself and stained the hands of Agaue with red blood. ... A serpent crept with its coils, surrounding the throat of Cadmos like a garland, twining and trailing a crooked swollen collar about it in a lacing circle but doing no harm — the gentle creature crept round his head like a trailing chaplet, and his tongue licked his chin all over dribbling the friendly poison from open mouth, quite harmless ; a female snake girdled the temples of Harmonialike a wreath of IloIov iScv iroTc Ofxa, tcai 6it4f fwrfH imlfou 119 of yia K-qpvaaovaa xopcmXtrndot AiomIoov clusters in her yellow hair. Then Cronion turned the bodies of both snakes into stone," because Harmonia and Cadmos were destined to change their appearance and to assume the form of stone snakes, at the mouth of the snakebreeding Illyrian gulf. Then Agaue returned home with her son and her father, having a new fear besides the fear of the dream. remembering this ominous dream the fond mother was shaken with fear.

gated city proclaiming the rites of danceweaving Dionysos. No one there was throughout the city who would not dance. The streets were garlanded with spring leafage by the country people. The chamber of Semele, still breathing sparks of the marriage thunders, was shaded by selfgrowing bunches of green leaves which intoxicated the place with sweet odours. King Pentheus swelled with arrogance and jealousy to see the terrible wonders of Bacchos in so many shapes. Then Pentheus uttered proud boasts and empty threats to his servants in these insulting words : vagabond, to serve the table of Pentheus at his dinner ; let him fill his winebeaker with some other drink, milk or some sweet hquor ; I will flog my mother's sister Autonoe with retributive strokes of my hands, and we will crop the uncropt locks of Dionysos. Throw to the winds his tinkling cymbals, and the Berecyntian din and Euian tambourines of Rheia. Drag hither the mad Bassarids, drag the Bacchants hither, the handmaids who attend on Bromios — hurl them into the watery beds of Ismenos here in Thebes, mingle the Naiads with the Aonian rivernymphs their mates, let old Cithairon receive Hadryads to join his own Hadryads instead of Lyaios. Bring fire, men, for by the law of vengeance I will throw Bacchos into the fire, if he came out of the fire : Zeus tamed Semele, I will destroy Dionysos ! If he would like to try my thunder also, he shall learn what fire I have from earth ! " For my fire has hotter sparks to match the heavenly fire. To-day I will make the viny one a scorchy one ! If he lift his thyrsus and give battle, he shall learn what kind of a spear I have from earth. I will destroy him without a wound in foot or flank, breast or belly ! I will not cut off the two crooked horns from his bullhorned head with a poleaxe, I will not cut through his neck : I will pierce the fork of his thigh with a blow from a spear of bronze, because of his lies about the thigh of great Zeus, and heaven as his home. Instead of the palace of Zeus, instead of his gatehouse, I will send him down to Hades, or make him roll himself helpless into the waves of Ismenos to hide — we can do without the sea !

god. If I dare say it, I will deny my ow breeding, like Dionysos. I have not in me the blood of mortal Cadmos, but my father is the chief of stars — Helios begat me, not Echion ; Selene brought me forth, not Agaue ; I am the offspring of Cronides and a citizen of heaven, the sky with its wandering stars is my home — so forgive me, Thebes ! Pallas is my concubine, immortal Hebe my consort. Queen Hera gave me the " He is " from earth " as being descended from the earth, and Moon ( ArteinU-Selenc) arc nrrcr togrtbcr: jnrmafviwli stories, see A. H. Krappe, U Gtmim dst mpthmlFth. PkfoL breast after Ares, divine Leto brought me forth after Phoibos. I will woo Artemis, who wants me — she does not run from me as she did from Phoibos, the wooer of her maidenhood, because she feared blame for wedding with a brother. And if the heavenlyflame did not bum your Semele, Cadmos did burn his house for his daughter's shame, and gave the name of lightning to the earthly fire he kindled, called the flame of torches the spark of the thunderbolt." mustered in arms to fight the empty winds ; there was an infinite host in the pinewood, seeking the tracks of Lyaios ever unseen.

the people, Dionysos waited for darksome night, and appealed in these words to the circHng Moon in nurse of all ! O Selene, driver of the silver car ! If thou art Hecate of many names, if in the night thou dost shake thy mystic torch in brandcarrying hand, come night wanderer, nurse of puppies because the nightly sound of the hurrying dogs is thy delight with their mournful whimpering. If thou art staghunter Artemis, if on the hills thou dost eagerly hunt with fawnkilling Dionysos, be thy brother's helper now ! For I have in me the blood of ancient Cadmos, and I am being chased out of Thebes, out of my mother Semele 's home. A mortal man, a creature quickly perishing, an enemy of god, persecutes me. As a the scholiast there says it comes in " Aeschylus and others of the more scientific (f vaiKa T€poi) .writers." It is indeed more astronomical than mythological, since the moon's light is from the sun. Usually she is the sun's sister.

dSpai'caiv, of; kov act i oof, cur «rai (MyK being of the night, help Dionysos of the night, when they pursue me ! If thou art Persephoneia, whipperin of the dead, and yours are the ghosts which are subservient to the throne of Tartaros, let me see Pentheus a dead man, and let Hermes thy musterer of ghosts lull to sleep the tears of Dionysos in his grief. With the Tartarean whip of thy Tisiphone, or furious Megaira, stop the foolish threats of Pentheus, this son of earth," since implacable Hera has armed a lateborn Titan against Lyaios. I pray thee, master this impious creature, to honour the Dionysos who revived the name of primeval Zagreus. Lord Zeus, do thou also look upon the threat of this madman. Hear me, father and mother! Lyaios is contemned: let thy marriage lightning be the avenger of Semele ! " comrade of Mene, look to your grapes ; my concern is the mystic rites of Bacchos, for the earth ripens the offspring of your plants when it receives the dewy sparkles of unresting Selene. Then do you, dancing Bacchos, stretch out your thyrsus and look to your offspring ; and you need not fear a race of puny men, whose mind is light, whose threats the whips of the furies repress perforce. With you I mil attack your enemies. Equally with Bacchos , I rule distracted madness. I am the Bacchic Mene, not alone because in heaven I turn the months, but because I command madness and excite lunacy. I will not leave unthis is astrology, not myth.

TJSrf yap KvKOOpyo an€iXrmf AmmSv punished earthly violence against you. For already Lycurgos who threatened Dionysos, so quick of knee once, who sharply harried the Mainads, is a bUnd vagabond who needs a guide. Already over the stretches of Erythraian reedbeds a crowd of Indians lie dead here and there, dumb witnesses to your valour, and foolish Deriades has been swallowed up in the unwilling stream of his father Hydaspes, pierced with an ivy spear — yes, he fled and fell into the sad stream of his despondent father. The Tyrsenians learnt your strength, when the standing mast of their ship was changed, and turned into a vinestock of itself, the sail spread into a shady canopy of leaves of gardenvine and rich bunches of grapes, the forest ays whistled with clumps of serpents hissing poison, your enemies threw off their human shape and intelligent mind and changed their looks to senseless dolphins wallowing in the sea — still they make revel for Dionysos even in the surge, skipping like tumblers in the calm water. Indian Orontes also is dead, struck by your sharp thyrsus, and drowned in the Assyrian floods, still fearing the name of Bacchos even under the Bromios. But while Bacchos yet conversed with circling Mene, even then Persephone was arming her Furies for the pleasure of Dionysos Zagreus, and in wrath helping Dionysos his later born brother.

Furies assailed the palace of Pentheus. One leapt out of the gloomy pit swinging her Tartarean whip of vipers ; she drew a stream from Cocytos and KojKVTov Be pifBpov apvtro ical £ruyof Att , KoX x ovijj paBdiuyyt Sofuwf ipotuvtv A wkfg . • • ota TrpoQeaTrl omu yoov Ktd ooKoua Of pffg' iropi vp€at9 txpiot Aifiwrriin hMptm idotmne, got to Attica« even though the two water from Styx, and drenched Agaue's rooms with the infernal drops as if with a prophecy of tears and groanings for Thebes ; and the deity brought that Attic knife from Attica, which long before murdered Itylos, when his mother Procne with heart Hke a lioness, helped by murderous Philomele, cut with steel the throat of the beloved child of her womb, and served up his own son for cannibal Tereus to eat.« This knife, the channel of bloodshed, the Fury held, and scratching up the dust with her pernicious fingernails she buried the Attic blade among the hillgrown roots of a tall fir, among the Mainads, where Pentheus was to die headless.

She brought the blood of Gorgon Medusa, scraped off into a shell fresh when she was newly slain, and smeared the tree with the crimson Libyan drops. This is what the mad Fury did in the Dionysos entered the palace of Cadmos, wearing the head of a bull, cracking Pan's Cronian whip of madness, and put madness into the unbridled wife of Aristaios. He called Autonoe and cried in your son's late marriage you can rival Olympos itself! You have seized the honours of the skies, now Artemis has got Actaion for her dainty leman, and Selene Endymion ! Actaion never died, he never took the shape of a wild creature, he had no antlered horn of a dappled deer, no bastard shape, no false body, he saw no hounds hunting and killing him. No, these were all herdsmen's lies, emptyminded fables of malicious tongues about your son's fate, because they hated the bridegroom of an unwedded goddess. I know where this invention came from : women are jealous about marriage and love in others. Come, leap up with stormy shoe ! Make haste, speed into the mountains ! There you shall see Actaion beside Lyaios on the hunt, with Artemis not far off, woven nets in his hands and hunting-boots on his feet, fingering his quiver. Happier far than Semele, Autonoe ! for a goddess came to you for marriage, a goddess became your gooddaughter, the Archeress herself ! More blessed than that mother Ino proud of her son, for your son got the bed of a goddess, which proud Otos never got. Bold Orion was never bridegroom of the Archeress. Your Cadmos is young again with joy for your son's bride, and holds revel beside their bridal bed in the mountains, with his snowy hair fluttering in the airy breeze.

Wake up, and make one in the marriage company, happy mother ! This is a proper love, for holy Artemis has a brother's son for bridegroom, not a stranger husband. And when the goddess who hated marriage brings forth a child, you shall dandle the son of the chaste Archeress in your cherishing arms and make Agaue jealous at the sight ! Why should not the huntress be pleased to bear a son in her bridal chamber, a hunter himself and a marksman, like Actaion, or Cyrene who loved the mountains, and let him ride behind his mother's team of swift deer .'' "