The Tragedies of Euripides Part 61

CAD. He went deriding the G.o.d and your Bacchic revels.

AG. But on what account did we go thither?

CAD. Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.[64]

AG. Bacchus undid us--now I perceive.

CAD. Being insulted with insolence--for ye thought him not a G.o.d.

AG. But the dear body of my child, O father!

CAD. I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.

AG. What! rightly united in its joints? * * * *

AG. But what part had Pentheus in my folly?[65]

CAD. He was like you, not reverencing the G.o.d, therefore he joined all in one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who being childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy woman!

most miserably and shamefully slain--whom the house respected; you, O child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and was an object of fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old man, seeing you; for he would have received a worthy punishment. But now I shall be cast out of my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who sowed the Theban race, and reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men, for although no longer in being, still thou shalt be counted by me as dearest of my children; no longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand, addressing me, your mother's father, wilt thou embrace me, my son, saying, Who injures, who insults you, O father, who hara.s.ses your heart, being troublesome I say, that I may punish him who does you wrong, O father. But now I am miserable, and thou art wretched, and thy mother is pitiable, and thy relations are wretched.

But if there is any one who despises the G.o.ds, looking on this man's death, let him acknowledge the G.o.ds.

CHOR. I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.

AG. 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.

CAD. Bacchus, we beseech thee, we have erred.

BAC. Ye have learned it too late; but when it behooved you, you knew it not.

CAD. I knew it, but you press on us too severely.

BAC. [Ay,] for I, being a G.o.d, was insulted by you.

CAD. It is not right for G.o.ds to resemble mortals in anger.[66]

BAC. My father, Jove, long ago decreed this.

AG. Alas! a miserable banishment is the decree[67] [for us,] old man.

BAC. Why do ye then delay what must needs be?

CAD. 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.

AG. O, my father! and I being deprived of you shall be banished.

CAD. Why do you embrace me with your hands, O unhappy child, as a white swan does its exhausted[69] parent?

AG. For whither can I turn, cast out from my country?

CAD. I know not, my child; your father is a poor ally.

AG. Farewell, O house! farewell, O ancestral city! I leave you in misfortune a fugitive from my chamber.

CAD. Go then, my child, to the land of Aristaeus * * * *.

AG. I bemoan thee, O father!

CAD. And I thee, my child; and I lament your sisters.

AG. Terribly indeed has king Bacchus brought this misery upon thy house.

BAC. [Ay,] for I have suffered terrible things from ye, having a name unhonored in Thebes.

AG. Farewell, my father.

CAD. And you farewell, O miserable daughter; yet you can not easily arrive at this.

AG. Lead me, O guides, where I may take my miserable sisters as the companions of my flight; and may I go where neither accursed Cithaeron may see me, nor I may see Cithaeron with my eyes, and where there is no memory of the thyrsus hallowed, but they may be a care to other Bacchae.

CHOR. There are many forms of divine things; and the G.o.ds bring to pa.s.s many in an unexpected manner: both what has been expected has not been accomplished, and G.o.d has found out a means for doing things unthought of.

So, too, has this event turned out.[70]

NOTES ON THE BACCHae

[1] For ill.u.s.trations of the fable of this play, compare Hyginus, Fab.

clx.x.xiv., who evidently has a view to Euripides. Ovid, Metam. iii. fab. v.

Oppian, Cyneg. iv. 241 sqq. Nonnus, 45, p. 765 sq. and 46, p. 783 sqq., some of whose imitations I shall mention in my notes. With the opening speech of this play compare the similar one of Venus in the Hippolytus.

[2] Cf. vs. 176; and for the musical instruments employed in the Baccha.n.a.lian rites, vs. 125 sqq. Oppian, Cyn. iv. 243. ?e??s? d'

afea???t?, ?a? este?a?t? ???????, ?? spe?, ?a? pe?? pa?da t? ?st????

????sa?t?. ??pa?a d' e?t?pe??, ?a? ??a?a ?e?s? ???ta????. Compare Gorius, Monum. Libert. et Serv. ad Tab. vii. p. 15 sq.

[3] Such is the sense of s??a??a?, a??? being understood. See Matthiae.

[4] Drums and cymbals were invented by the G.o.ddess in order to drown the cries of the infant Jupiter. Minutius Felix, xxi. "Avido patri subtrahitur infans ne voretur, et Corybantum cymbalis, ne pater audiat, vagitus initus eliditur" (read _audiat vagitus, tinnitus illi editur_, from the _vestigia_ of Cod. Reg.). Cf. Lactant. i. 13.

[5] Cf. Homer, Hymn. in Cerer. 485. ?????, ??? tad' ?p?pe? ep????????

a????p??: ??? d' ate???, ??e??? ??st' a????, ??p??' ?????? ??sa? e?e?, f??e??? pe?, ??p? ??f?? e???e?t?. See Ruhnken's note, and Valck. on Eur.

Hippol.

[6] This pa.s.sage is extremely difficult. ????a?? seems decidedly corrupt.

Reiske would read p??ad??, Musgrave ?e???t????? p???a??? a????. Elmsley would subst.i.tute p??at??, "si p??at?? apud Euripidem exstaret." This seems the most probable view as yet expressed. The e???stept?? ??ad?? are learnedly explained by Lobeck on Ag. p. 375 sq., quoted by Dindorf. The a???s?? or insertion of spots of party-colored fur upon the plain skin of animals, was a favorite ornament of the wealthy. The spots of ermine similarly used now are the clearest ill.u.s.tration to which I can point.

Lobeck also observes, "?ata a?????s?a? non bacchari significat, sed coronari."