Epeisodion 3
Dionysus
within
Io! Hear my voice, hear it, Io Bacchae, Io Bacchae!
Chorus
Who is here, who? From what quarter did the voice of the Joyful one summon me?
Dionysus
Io! Io! I say again; it is I, the child of Zeus and Semele.
580
Chorus
Io! Io! Master, master! Come now to our company, Bromius.
Dionysus
Shake the world’s plain, lady Earthquake!
585
Chorus
Oh! Oh! Soon the palace of Pentheus will be shaken in ruin.
The following lines are probably delivered by individual chorus members.
—Dionysus is in the halls.
Revere him.
—We revere him!
—Did you see these stone lintels on the pillars falling apart? Bromius cries out in victory indoors.
590
Dionysus
Light the fiery lamp of lightning!
Burn, burn Pentheus’ home!
595
Chorus
Oh! Oh! Do you not see the the fire, do you not perceive, about the sacred tomb of Semele, the flame that Zeus’ thunderbolt left?
Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, Maenads, cast them down, for our lord, Zeus’ son, is coming against this palace, turning everything upside down.
600
Dionysus
Barbarian women, have you fallen on the ground
so stricken with fear? You have, so it seems, felt Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus. But get up and take courage, putting a stop to your trembling.
605
Chorus Leader
Oh greatest light for us in our joyful revelry, how happy I am to see you—I who was alone and desolate before.
Dionysus
Did you despair when I was sent to fall into Pentheus’ dark dungeon?
610
Chorus Leader
How not? Who was my guardian, if you met with misfortune? But how were you freed, having met with an impious man?
Dionysus
By myself I saved myself easily, without trouble.
Chorus Leader
Did he not tie your hands in binding knots?
615
Dionysus
In this too I mocked him, for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched nor handled me, but fed on hope. He found a bull by the stable where he took and shut me up, and threw shackles around its knees and hooves,
breathing out fury, dripping sweat from his body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly, looked on. Meanwhile, Bacchus came and shook the house and kindled a flame on his mother’s tomb. When Pentheus saw this, thinking that the house was burning,
620
he ran here and there, calling to the slaves to bring water, and every servant was at work, toiling in vain.
Then he let this labor drop, as I had escaped, and snatching a dark sword rushed into the house. Then Bromius, so it seems to me—I speak my opinion—
625
created a phantom in the courtyard. Pentheus rushed at it headlong, stabbing at the shining air, as though slaughtering me. Besides this, Bacchus inflicted other damage on him: he knocked his house to the ground, and everything was shattered into pieces, while he saw my bitter chains. From fatigue,
630
dropping his sword, he is exhausted. For he, a man, dared to join battle with a god. Now I have quietly left the house and come to you, with no thought of Pentheus.
But I think—at any rate I hear the tramping of feet inside—he will soon come to the front of the house. What will he say after this?
635
I shall easily bear him, even if he comes boasting greatly. For it is the part of a wise man to practice restrained good temper.
640
Pentheus
I have suffered terrible things; the stranger, who was recently constrained in bonds, has escaped me. Ah!
Here is the man. What is this? How do you appear in front of my house, having come out?
645
Dionysus
Stop, and put a stop to your anger.
Pentheus
How have you escaped your chains and come outside?
Dionysus
Did I not say—or did you not hear—that some one would deliver me?
Pentheus
Who? You are always introducing strange explanations.
650
