With pine-brands leaping o'er the cloven crest,
Tossing on high and waving Bacchus' bough,—
Yea, great through Hellas. Pentheus, heed thou me:
Boast not that naked force hath power o'er men; 310
Nor, if it seem so to thy jaundiced eye,
Deem thyself wise. The God into thy land
Welcome: spill wine, be bacchant, wreathe thine head.
Dionysus upon women will not thrust
Chastity: in true womanhood inborn 315
Dwells temperance touching all things evermore.
This must thou heed; for in his Bacchic rites
The virtuous-hearted shall not be undone.
Lo, thou art glad when thousands throng thy gates,
And all Thebes magnifieth Pentheus' name: 320
He too, I wot, in homage taketh joy.
I then, and Kadmus, whom thou laugh'st to scorn,
Will wreathe our heads with ivy, and will dance—
A greybeard pair, yet cannot we but dance.
Not at thy suasion will I war with Gods; 325
For grievous is thy madness, and no spell
May medicine thee, though spells have made thee mad.[1]
Chorus.
Old sire, thou sham'st not Phœbus in thy speech,
And wisely honourest Bromius, mighty God.[2]
- ↑ This riddling utterance receives perhaps the simplest explanation if we refer the "spells" in l. 327 to the judicial madness, the "possession" inflicted by Bacchus, which could not be removed by any such "spells" (326) as were commonly employed by human exorcists. Pentheus is the Pharaoh of Greek legend, and his heart is represented here as hardened in punishment for his unbelief.
- ↑ Implying that Teiresias shows due reverence to the new god without dishonouring the old deity whose prophet he is (Sandys).
