yself and his father.

CAD. Whose head then have you in your arms?

AG. That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.

CAD. Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.

AG. Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?

CAD. Look at it, and learn more clearly.

AG. I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!

CAD. Does it seem to you to be like a lion?

AG. No: but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.

CAD. Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.

AG. Who slew him, how came he into my hands?

CAD. O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!

AG. Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.

CAD. You and your sisters slew him.

AG. And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?

CAD. Where formerly the dogs tore Actaeon to pieces.

AG. But why did he, unhappy, go to Cithaeron?

CAD. He went deriding the God 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 God.

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 God, 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 harasses 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 desp