The forty-fourth web I have woven, where you may see maddened women and the heavy threat of Pentheus.
Already he had passed the Daulantian tribe of Illyrian soil, and the plain of Haimonia and the Pelion peak, and was nearing Hellas ; there he established dances on the Aonian plain. The shepherd hearing the tune of the drooning pipes formed congregations for Pan at Tanagra. A fountain bubbled on the spot where the horse’s wet hoof scratched the surface of the ground and made a hollow for the water which took its name from him. Asopos danced breathing fiery streams, as he swept his floods along and twirled his waters. Dirce danced, spouting her whirling waters along with her father Ismenos. At times a Hamadryad shot out of her clustering foliage and half showed herself high in a tree, and praised the name of Dionysos cluster-laden ; and the unshod nymph of the spring sang in tune with her.
The noise of the raw cowhide resounded over the mountains, and reached the ears of irreconcilable Pentheus. The impious king was angry with winegod Bacchos, and he armed a hostile host, calling to the people to bar the portals of the sevenway city. One by one they were shut, but the locks of the gates suddenly opened of themselves ; in vain the servants resisted the winds of heaven and set the long bars at each gate. Then no gate warden could check a Bacchant if he saw her ; but shielded spearmen trembled before old Seilenoi unarmed — disregarding often the threats of their clamouring king, they danced with singlethroated acclaim ; with their wellmade oxhides they danced the round in shieldshaking leaps, the very picture of the noisy Corybants. Terrible bears growled madly in the hills, the panther gnashed her teeth and leapt high in the air, the lion in playful sport gave a gentle roar to his comrade lioness.
Already the palace of Pentheus began of itself to tremble and quake, and started from its immovable foundations all about ; the gatehouse quivered and sprang up with earthshaking throbs, foretelling the trouble to come. The stone altar of Oncaian Athena tottered of itself, that which Cadmos had built, when with slow-convincing movement the heifer’s hoof sank, to bid him build a wall and found a city ; over the divine image of the cityholding goddess, godsent sweat beaded in drops of itself, bringing fear to the people — from head to foot the statue of Ares ran with gore, telling of things to come.
The inhabitants also were shaken. The mother of boastful Pentheus quivered with fear, mad with anxiety, remembering that bloody dream of old with its prophecy of bitterness ; how once, after Pentheus had seized his father’s sovereignty, Agaue slumbering on her bed had been terrified all night in her sleep, when the unreal phantom of a dream had leapt through the Gate of Horn which never deceives, and whispered in her sleepy ear. For she thought she saw Pentheus a dainty dancer on the road, his manly form dressed up in a woman’s robe, throwing to the ground the purple robe of kings, bearing the sceptre no longer but holding a thyrsus. Again, Cadmeian Agaue thought she saw him perched high up in a shady tree ; round the lofty trunk where sat bold Pentheus was a circle of wild beasts, furiously pushing to root up the tree with the dangerous teeth of their hard jaws. The tree shook, and Pentheus came tumbling over and over of himself, and when he dumped down, mad she-bears tore him ; a wild lioness leapt in his face and tore out an arm from the joint — then the mad raging monster set one paw on the throat of Pentheus cut in two, and tore through his gullet with her sharp claws, and lifted the bloody head in her ferocious paw piteously lacerated, and showed it to Cadmos, who saw it all, swinging it about as she spoke in human voice these wicked words :
I am your daughter, the slayer of wild beasts ! I am the mother of Pentheus, happiest of men, your Agaue, the loving mother ! See what a beast I have killed ! Accept this head, the firstfruits of my valour, after victorious slaughter of the lion. Such a beast Ino my sister never slew, Autonoe never slew. Hang up before your hall this keepsake from Agaue your doughty daughter.”
Cite This Text