men with solid food; and as her counterpart[1] came this god, the son of Semele, who discovered the juice of the grape and introduced it to mankind, stilling thereby each grief that mortals suffer from, soon as e’er they are filled with the juice of the vine; and sleep also he giveth, sleep that brings forgetfulness of daily ills, the sovereign charm for all our woe. God[2] though he is, he serves all other gods for libations, so that through him mankind is blest. He it is whom thou dost mock, because he was sewn up in the thigh of Zeus. But I will show thee this fair mystery. When Zeus had snatched him from the lightning’s blaze, and to Olympus borne the tender babe, Hera would have cast him forth from heaven, but Zeus, as such a god well might, devised a counterplot. He broke off a fragment of the ether which surrounds the world, and made thereof a hostage against Hera’s bitterness, while he gave out Dionysus into other hands; hence, in time, men said that he was reared[3] in the thigh of Zeus, having changed[4] the word and invented a legend, because the god was once a hostage to the goddess Hera. This god too hath prophetic power, for there is no small prophecy inspired by Bacchic frenzy; for whenever the god in his full might enters the human frame, he makes his frantic votaries foretell the future. Likewise[5] he hath some share in Ares’ rights; for oft, or ever a weapon is touched, a panic seizes an army when it is marshalled in array; and this too is a frenzy sent by Dionysus. Yet shalt thou behold him e’en on Delphi’s rocks leaping o’er the cloven height, torch
- ↑ ὁ δ’ ἤλθεν ἐπι τἀντιπαλον, for which Badham proposed ὁ δ’ ἡδονὴν ἀντίπαλον. Sandys suggests παυσίπονον for the latter word.
- ↑ Dindorf regards lines 284-297 as spurious. On this whole obscure passage, Sandys’ note may be consulted with advantage.
- ↑ Pierson reads ῥαφῆναι.
- ↑ i.e. changing ὅμηρον into μηρόν.
- ↑ Lines 302-305 are suspected by Nauck, 305 also by Pierson and Wecklein.
