Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1898) v3.djvu/406

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Ino, Agavê, who bare me to Echion,
Autonoê withal, Aktaion's mother. 230
In toils of iron trapped, full soon shall they
Cease from this pestilent Bacchic revelling.
Men say a stranger to the land hath come,
A juggling sorcerer from Lydia-land,
With essenced hair in golden tresses tossed, 235
Wine-flushed, Love's witching graces in his eyes,
Who with the damsels day and night consorts,
Making pretence of^[1] Evian mysteries.
If I within these walls but prison him,
Farewell to thyrsus-taboring,^[2] and to locks 240
Free-tossed; for neck from shoulders will I hew.
He saith that Dionysus is a God!
Saith, he was once sewn up in Zeus's thigh—
Who, with his mother, was by lightning-flames
Blasted, because she lied of Zeus's love. 245
Is not this worthy hanging's awful doom,
Thus to blaspheme, whoe'er the stranger be?
But lo, another marvel this—the seer
Teiresias, in dappled fawnskins clad!
Yea, and my mother's sire—O sight for laughter!— 250
Tossing the reed-wand! Father, I take shame
Beholding these grey hairs so sense-bereft.
Fling off the ivy; let the thyrsus fall,
And set thine hand free, O my mother's sire.
Thou didst,^[3] Teiresias, draw him on to this: 255
'Tis thou wouldst foist this new God upon men^[4]

1. Or, "Tempting them with the—" (Paley).
2. Drumming on the timbrels with the wand tipped with the pine-cone.
3. Or, "Didst thou . . . and wouldst thou . . . ?" (Paley).
4. Insinuating that priests and diviners had an interest in