Bacchae
Euripides
Euripides. The Tragedies of Euripides. Vol. I. Buckley, Theodore Alois, translator. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1850.
- And you seem to lead me, being like a bull and horns seem to grow on your head. But were you ever before a beast? For you have certainly now become a bull.
- The god accompanies us, now at truce with us, though formerly not propitious. Now you see what you should see.
- How do I look? Don’t I have the posture of Ino, or of my mother Agave?
- Looking at you I think I see them. But this lock of your hair has come out of place, not the way I arranged it under your headband.
- I displaced it indoors, shaking my head forwards and backwards and practising my Bacchic revelry.
- But I who ought to wait on you will re-arrange it. Hold up your head.
- Here, you arrange it; for I depend on you, indeed.
- Your girdle has come loose, and the pleats of your gown do not extend regularly down around your ankles.
- At least on my right leg, I believe they don’t. But on this side the robe sits well around the back of my leg.
- You will surely consider me the best of your friends,
- when contrary to your expectation you see the Bacchae acting modestly.
- But shall I be more like a maenad holding the thyrsos in my right hand, or in my left?
- You must hold it in your right hand and raise your right foot in unison with it. I praise you for having changed your mind.
- Could I carry on my shoulders the glens of Kithairon, Bacchae and all?
- You could if you were willing. The state of mind you had before was unsound, but now you think as you ought.
- Shall we bring levers? Or shall I draw them up with my hands,
- putting a shoulder or arm under the mountain-tops?
- But don’t destroy the seats of the Nymphs and the places where Pan plays his pipes.
- Well said. The women are not to be taken by force; I will hide in the pines.
- You will hide yourself as you should be hidden, coming as a crafty spy on the Maenads.