Euripides' BACCHAE Complete

Translated, with notes, by Th. Buckley.

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Bacchus: In this too I mocked him; for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched
nor handled me, but fed on hope; and finding a bull in the stable, where
having taken me, he confined me, he cast halters round the knees of that,
and the hoofs of its feet;[36] breathing out fury, stilling sweat from his
body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly,
looked on; and, in the mean time, Bacchus coming, shook the house, and
kindled flame on the tomb of his mother; and he, when he saw it, thinking
the house was burning, rushed to and fro, calling to the servants to bring
water,[37] and every servant was at work toiling in vain; and letting go
this labor, I having escaped, seizing a dark sword he rushes into the
house, and then Bromius, as it seems to me, I speak my opinion, made an
appearance in the palace, and he rushing toward it, rushed on and stabbed
at the bright air,[38] as if slaying me; and besides this, Bacchus afflicts
him with these other things; and threw down his house to the ground, and
every thing was shivered in pieces, while he beheld my bitter chains; and
from fatigue dropping his sword, he falls exhausted--for he being a man,
dared to join battle with a God: and I quietly getting out of the house am
come to you, not regarding Pentheus. But, as it seems to me, a shoe sounds
in the house; he will soon come out in front of the house. What will he say
after this? I shall easily bear him, even if he comes vaunting greatly, for
it is the part of a wise man to practice prudent moderation.

Pentheus: I have suffered terrible things, the stranger has escaped me, who was
lately coerced in bonds. Hollo! here is the man; what is this? how do you
appear near my house, having come out?

[36] The madness of Ajax led to a similar delusion. Cf. Soph. Aj. 56 sqq.

[37] Compare a fragment of Didymus apud Macrob. Sat. v. 18, who states Αχελωον παν υδωρ Ευριπιδης φησιν εν Υψιπυληι. See also comm. on Virg. Georg. i. 9.

[38] The reader of Scott will call to mind the fine description of Ireton lunging at the air, in a paroxysm of fanatic raving. See "Woodstock." So also Orestes in Iph. Taur. 296 sqq.

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