Bacchus: [Ay,] for I, being a God, was insulted by you.
Cadmus: It is not right for Gods to resemble mortals in anger.[66]
Bacchus: My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.
Agave: Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree[67] [for us,] old man.
Bacchus: Why do ye then delay what must needs be?
Cadmus: O child, into what terrible evil have we come; both you wretched and
your * * * * sisters,[68] and I miserable, shall go, an aged sojourner, to
foreigners. Still it is foretold that I shall bring into Greece a motley
barbarian army, and leading their spears, I, a dragon, shall lead the
daughter of Mars, Harmonia, my wife, having the fierce nature of a dragon,
to the altars and tombs of the Greeks. Nor shall I, wretched, rest from
ills, nor even sailing over the Acheron below shall I be at rest.
Agave: O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.
[66] See the commentators on Virg. AEn. i. 11. "Tantaene animis cœlestibus irae?"
[67] After τλημονες φυγαι supply μενουσιν. Elmsley.
Studies
