13th Cho. Your trembling limbs prostrate, ye Mænads, low upon the ground.
14th Cho. Yea, for our king, the son of Zeus, is assailing and utterly confounding this house.
Dio. Are ye so stricken with terror that ye have fallen to the earth, O foreign dames? Ye saw then, it would seem, how the Bacchic god made Pentheus’ halls to quake; but arise, be of good heart, compose your trembling limbs.[1]
Cho. O chiefest splendour of our gladsome Bacchic sport, with what joy I see thee in my loneliness!
Dio. Were ye cast down when I was led into the house, to be plunged into the gloomy dungeons of Pentheus?
Cho. Indeed I was. Who was to protect me, if thou shouldst meet with mishap? But how wert thou set free from the clutches of this godless wretch?
Dio. My own hands worked out my own salvation, easily and without trouble.
Cho. But did he not lash fast thy hands with cords?
Dio. There too I mocked him; he thinks he bound me, whereas he never touched or caught hold of me, but fed himself on fancy. For at the stall, to which he brought me for a gaol, he found a bull, whose legs and hoofs he straightly tied, breathing out fury the while, the sweat trickling from his body, and he biting his lips; but I from near at hand sat calmly looking on. Meantime came the Bacchic god and made the house quake, and at his mother’s tomb relit the fire; but Pentheus, seeing this, thought his palace was ablaze, and hither and thither he rushed, bidding his servants bring water; but all in vain was every servant’s busy toil. Thereon he let this labour be awhile, and, thinking maybe that I had escaped, rushed into the palace with his murderous sword unsheathed. Then did Bromius,—so at least it seemed to me; I only tell you what
- ↑ Lines 606 and 607 are regarded as suspicious by Nauck.
