ads.

PEN. And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in the
sweet nets of beds.

BAC. You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch
them, if you be not caught first.

PEN. Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only
man of them who would dare these things.

BAC. 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.

PEN. Yes, my mother.

BAC. Being remarkable among all.

PEN. For this purpose do I come.

BAC. You will depart being borne.[52]

PEN. You allude to my delicacy.

BAC. In the hands of your mother.

PEN. And wilt thou compel me to be effeminate?

BAC. Ay, with such effeminacy.

PEN. I lay mine hands to worthy things.

BAC. You are terrible, terrible: and you go to terrible sufferings; so that
you shall find a renown reaching to heaven. Spread out, O Agave, your
hands, and ye, her sister, daughters of Cadmus! I lead this young man to a
mighty contest; and the conqueror shall be I and Bacchus! The rest the
matter itself will show.

CHOR. Go, ye fleet hounds of madness, go to the mountain where the
daughters of Cadmus hold their company; drive them raving against the
frantic spy on the Maenads,--him in woman's attire. First shall his mother
from some smooth rock or paling, behold him in ambush; and she will cry out
to the Maenads: Who is this of the Cadmeans who has come to the mountain,
the mountain, as a spy on us, who are on the mountain? Io Bacchae! Who
brought him forth? for he was not born of the blood of women: but, as to
his race, he is either born of some lion, or of the Libyan Gorgons. Let
manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying the
godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion through the
throat; who, with wicked mind and unjust rage about your orgies, O Bacchus,
and those of thy mother,[53] with raving heart and mad disposition proceeds
as about to overcome an invincible deity by force. To possess without
pretext a wise understanding in respect to the Gods, and [a disposition]
befitting mortals, is a life ever free from grief. I joyfully hunt after
wisdom, if apart from envy, but the other conduct is evidently ever great
throughout life, directing one rightly the livelong day, to reverence
things honorable.[54] Appear as a bull, or a many-headed dragon,