Messenger.
When, from the homesteads of this Theban land
Departing, we had crossed Asopus' streams,
Then we began to breast Kithairon's steep, 1045
Pentheus and I,—for to my lord I clave,—
And he who ushered us unto the scene.
First in a grassy dell we sat us down
With footfall hushed and tongues refrained from speech,
That so we might behold, all unbeheld. 1050
There was a glen crag-walled, with rills o'erstreamed,
Closed in with pine-shade, where the Maenad girls
Sat with hands busied with their blithesome toils.
The faded thyrsus some with ivy-sprays
Twined, till its tendril-tresses waved again: 1055
Others, like colts from carven wain-yokes loosed,
Re-echoed each to each the Bacchic chant.
But hapless Pentheus, seeing ill the throng
Of women, spake thus: "Stranger, where we stand,
Are these mock-maenad maids beyond my ken. 1060
Some knoll or pine high-crested let me climb,
And I shall see the Maenads' lewdness well."
A marvel then I saw the stranger do.
A soaring pine-branch by the top he caught,
And dragged down—down—still down to the dark earth. 1065
Arched as a bow it grew, or curving wheel
That on the lathe sweeps out its circle's round:
So bowed the stranger's hands that mountain-branch,
And bent to earth—a deed past mortal might!
Then Pentheus on the pine-boughs seated he, 1070
And let the branch rise, sliding through his hands
Gently, with heedful care to unseat him not.
