Chorus.
Hail to thee, to us the mightiest light of Evian revelry!
With what rapture, late so lonely and forlorn, I look on thee!
Dionysus.
Ha, and did your hearts for terror fail you when I passed within, 610
Deeming I should sink to darkness, caught in Pentheus' dungeon-gin?
Chorus.
Wherefore not? What shield had I, if thou into mischance shouldst fall?
Nay, but how didst thou escape, who wast a godless tyrant's thrall?
Dionysus.
I myself myself delivered, lightly, with nor toil nor strain.
Chorus.
Nay, but bound he not thine hands with coiling mesh of chain on chain? 615
Dionysus.
My derision there I made him, that he deemed he fettered me,
Yet nor touched me, neither grasped me, fed on empty phantasy.
Nay, a bull beside the stalls he found where he would pen me fast:
Round the knees and round the hoofs of this he 'gan his cords to cast,
