Chorus: I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment
of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.
Agave: O father, for you see how I am changed ...
BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a
beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the
daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal. And as the oracle of Jove
says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over
barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and
when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable return,
but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your life in the
islands of the blessed. I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a mortal
father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye would not,
ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your ally.
Cadmus: Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.
Bacchus: Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew it
not.
Cadmus: I knew it, but you press on us too severely.
Studies
