Justice, draw nigh us, draw nigh, with the sword of avenging appear:
Slay the unrighteous, the seed of Echion the earth-born, and shear
Clean through his throat; for he feareth not God, neither law doth he fear.
(Epode)
O Dionysus, reveal thee!—appear as a bull to behold,
Or be thou seen as a dragon, a monster of heads manifold,
Or as a lion, with splendours of flame round the limbs of him rolled.
Come to us, Bacchus, and smiling in mockery compass him round 1020
Now with the toils of destruction, and so shall the hunter be bound,
Trapped mid the throng of the Maenads, the quarry his questing hath found.
Enter Messenger.
Messenger.
O house of old through Hellas prosperous 1025
Of that Sidonian patriarch, who sowed
The earth-born serpent's dragon-teeth in earth,
How I bemoan thee! What though thrall I be,
Their lords' calamities touch loyal thralls.
Chorus.
What now?—hast tidings of the Bacchanals? 1030
Messenger.
Pentheus is dead: Echion's son is dead.
