lesh.

CHOR. O thou most mighty light to us of Evian Bacchic rites, how gladly do
I see thee, being before alone and desolate!

BAC. Ye came to despair, when I was sent in, as about to fall into the dark
prison of Pentheus.

CHOR. How not?--who was my guardian if you met with misfortune? but how
were you liberated, having met with an impious man?

BAC. I delivered myself easily without trouble.

CHOR. And did he not bind your hands in links of chains?

BAC. 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.

PEN. 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?

BAC. Stay your foot; and substitute calm steps for anger.

PEN. How come you out, having escaped your chains?

BAC. Did I not say, or did you not hear, that some one would deliver me?

PEN. Who? for you are always introducing strange things.

BAC. He who produces