wear the ivy-spray. The end of all unbridled speech and lawless senselessness is misery; but the life of calm repose and the rule of reason abide unshaken and support the home; for far away in heaven though they dwell, the powers divine behold man’s state. Sophistry is not wisdom, and to indulge in thoughts beyond man’s ken is to shorten life;[1] and if a man on such poor terms[2] should aim too high, he may miss the pleasures in his reach. These, to my mind, are the ways of madmen and idiots. Oh! to make my way to Cyprus, isle of Aphrodite, where dwell the love-gods strong to soothe man’s soul, or to Paphos,[3] which that foreign river, never fed by rain, enriches with its hundred mouths! Oh! lead me, Bromian god, celestial guide of Bacchic pilgrims, to the hallowed slopes of Olympus, where Pierian Muses have their haunt most fair. There dwell the Graces; there is soft desire; there thy votaries may hold their revels freely. The joy of our god, the son of Zeus, is in banquets, his delight is in peace, that giver of riches and nurse divine of youth. Both to rich and poor alike hath he granted the delight of wine, that makes all pain to cease; hateful to him is every one who careth not to live the life of bliss, that lasts through days and nights of joy. True wisdom[4] is to keep the heart and soul aloof from over-subtle wits. That which the less enlightened crowd approves and practises, will I accept.[5]
Ser. [Dionysus is led in bound.] We are come, Pentheus, having hunted down this prey, for which thou didst send us forth; not in vain hath been our quest. We found our quarry
- ↑ Following Hermann who adopts the Aldine punctuation, i.e., no stop after φρονεῖν.
- ↑ ἐπὶ τούτῳ, Paley reads τούτου “in the time of this life.”
- ↑ Countless attempts, all unconvincing, have been made to explain or emend this word. What has Paphos to do with the Nile? Meineke suggests χθόνα θ’.
- ↑ σοφὸν δ’, Aldus.
- ↑ τόδ’ ἂν δεχοίμαν, Kirchhoff.
