Agavê, stretch forth hands; ye sisters, stretch,
Daughters of Kadmus! To a mighty strife
I bring this prince. The victor I shall be 975
And Bromius. All else shall the issue show. [Exit.
Chorus.
(Str.)
Up, ye swift hell-hounds of Madness! Away to the mountain-glens, where
Kadmus's daughters hold revel, and sting them to fury, to tear
Him who hath come woman-vestured to spy on the Bacchanals there,
Frenzy-struck fool that he is!—for his mother shall foremost descry 980
Him, as from water-worn scaur or from storm-riven tree he would spy
That which they do, and her shout to the Maenads shall peal from on high:—
"Who hath come hither, hath trodden the paths to the mountain that lead,
Spying on Kadmus's daughters, the maids o'er the mountains that speed,
Bacchanal-sisters?—what mother hath brought to the birth such a seed?
Who was it?—who?—for I ween he was born not of womankind's blood:
Rather he sprang from the womb of a lioness, scourge of the wood;
Haply is spawn of the Gorgons of Libya, the demon-brood." 990
