Bacchus: You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch
them, if you be not caught first.
Pentheus: Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only
man of them who would dare these things.
Bacchus: You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors, which
are meet,[51] await you. But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one
else will guide you away from thence.
Pentheus: Yes, my mother.
Bacchus: Being remarkable among all.
Pentheus: For this purpose do I come.
Bacchus: You will depart being borne.[52]
[51] An obscure hint at the impending fate of Pentheus. Nonnus has led the way to the catastrophe by a graphic description of Agave's dream. Dionys. 45. p. 751.
[52] φερομενος may mean either "carried in a litter," or "carried to burial." There is a somewhat similar play in the epigram of Ausonius, xxiii. "Mater Lacaena clypeo obarmans filium, cum hoc, inquit, aut in hoc, redi."
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