BOOK IV
But not Minyas' daughter Alcithoë; she will not have the god's holy revels admitted; nay, so bold is she that she denies Bacchus to be Jove's son! And her sisters are with her in the impious deed. The priest had bidden the people to celebrate a Bacchic festival: all serving-women must be excused from toil; with their mistresses they must cover their breasts with the skins of beasts, they must loosen the ribands of their hair, and with garlands upon their heads they must hold in their hands the vine-wreathed thyrsus. And he had prophesied that the wrath of the god would be merciless if he were disregarded. The matrons and young wives all obey, put by weaving and work-baskets, leave their tasks unfinished; they burn incense, calling on Bacchus, naming him also Bromius,[1] Lyaeus,[2] son of the thunderbolt, twice born, child of two mothers; they hail him as Nyseus[3] also, Thyoneus[4] of the unshorn locks, Lenaeus,[5] planter of the joy-giving vine, Nyctelius,[6] father Eleleus,[7] Iacchus,[8] and Euhan, and all the many names besides by which thou art known, O Liber,[9] throughout the towns of Greece
- ↑ "The noisy one."
- ↑ "The deliverer from care."
- ↑ "Of Nysa," a city in India, connected traditionally with the infancy of Bacchus.
- ↑ "Son of Thyone," the name given to his mother, Semele, after her translation to the skies.
- ↑ "God of the wine-press."
- ↑ So named from the fact that his orgies were celebrated in the night.
- ↑ From the wild cries uttered by his worshippers in theorgies.
- ↑ A name identified with Bacchus.
- ↑ Either from liber, " the free," or from libo, "he to whom libations of wine are poured."
