unhappy mother! foully and most shamefully slain. To thee, my child, our house looked up, to thee my daughter’s son, the stay of my palace, inspiring the city with awe; none caring to flout the old king when he saw thee by, for he would get[1] his deserts. But now shall I be cast out dishonoured from my halls, Cadmus the great, who sowed the crop of Theban seed and reaped that goodly harvest. O beloved child! dead though thou art, thou still shalt be counted by me amongst my own dear children; no more wilt thou lay thy hand upon my chin in fond embrace, my child, and calling on thy mother’s sire demand, “Who wrongs thee or dishonours thee, old sire? who vexes thy heart, a thorn within thy side? Speak, that I may punish thy oppressor, father mine!”
But now am I in sorrow plunged, and woe is thee, and woe thy mother and her suffering sisters too! Ah! if there be any man that scorns the gods, let him well mark this prince’s death and then believe in them.
Cho. Cadmus, I am sorry for thy fate; for though thy daughter’s child hath met but his deserts, ’tis bitter grief to thee.
Aga. O father, thou seest how sadly my fortune is changed.[2]
* * * * *
Dio. * * * * *
Thou shalt be changed into a serpent; and thy wife Harmonia, Ares’ child, whom thou in thy human life didst wed, shall change her nature for a snake’s, and take its form. With her shalt thou, as leader of barbarian tribes,[3] drive thy
- ↑ ἐλάμβανεν is the MS. reading, but ἐλάμβανες = “thou wouldst exact vengeance” (Hermann) is preferable.
- ↑ After this line a very large lacuna occurs in the MS., which Kirchhoff has endeavoured to piece together from the “Christus Patiens.” (Cf. Sandys ad loc.)
- ↑ Cadmus led the Encheleis (snake-tribe) against the Illyrians, driving in a chariot drawn by oxen.
