THE BACCHANALS.
Enter Dionysus.
Dionysus.
I to this land of Thebes have come, Zeus' Son
Dionysus, born erstwhile of Kadmus' child
Semelê, brought by levin-brand to travail.
My shape from God to mortal semblance changed,
I stand by Dirkê's springs, Ismenus' flood. 5
I see my thunder-blasted mother's tomb
Here nigh the halls: the ruins of her home
Smoulder with Zeus's flame that liveth yet—
Hera's undying outrage on my mother.
Kadmus doth well, that he ordains this close, 10
His child's grave, hallowed: with the clustering green
Of vines I, even I, embowered it round.
Leaving the gold-abounding Lydian meads
And Phrygian, o'er the Persian's sun-smit tracts,
By Bactrian strongholds, Media's storm-swept land, 15
Still pressing on, by Araby the Blest,
And through all Asia, by the briny sea
Lying with stately-towered cities thronged,
Peopled with Hellenes blent with aliens,
To this of Hellene cities first I come. 20
My dances there and rites have I ordained
That I might be God manifest to men.
