Epeisodion 3
Dionysus
within
Io! Hear my voice, hear it, Io Bacchae, Io Bacchae!
Chorus
Who is here, who? From what quarter did the voice of the Joyful one summon me?
Dionysus
Io! Io! I say again; it is I, the child of Zeus and Semele.
580
Chorus
Io! Io! Master, master! Come now to our company, Bromius.
Dionysus
Shake the world’s plain, lady Earthquake!
585
Chorus
Oh! Oh! Soon the palace of Pentheus will be shaken in ruin.
The following lines are probably delivered by individual chorus members.
—Dionysus is in the halls.
Revere him.
—We revere him!
—Did you see these stone lintels on the pillars falling apart? Bromius cries out in victory indoors.
590
Dionysus
Light the fiery lamp of lightning!
Burn, burn Pentheus’ home!
595
Chorus
Oh! Oh! Do you not see the the fire, do you not perceive, about the sacred tomb of Semele, the flame that Zeus’ thunderbolt left?
Cast on the ground your trembling bodies, Maenads, cast them down, for our lord, Zeus’ son, is coming against this palace, turning everything upside down.
600
Dionysus
Barbarian women, have you fallen on the ground
so stricken with fear? You have, so it seems, felt Bacchus shaking the house of Pentheus. But get up and take courage, putting a stop to your trembling.
605
Chorus Leader
Oh greatest light for us in our joyful revelry, how happy I am to see you—I who was alone and desolate before.
Dionysus
Did you despair when I was sent to fall into Pentheus’ dark dungeon?
610
Chorus Leader
How not? Who was my guardian, if you met with misfortune? But how were you freed, having met with an impious man?
Dionysus
By myself I saved myself easily, without trouble.
Chorus Leader
Did he not tie your hands in binding knots?
615
Dionysus
In this too I mocked him, for, thinking to bind me, he neither touched nor handled me, but fed on hope. He found a bull by the stable where he took and shut me up, and threw shackles around its knees and hooves,
breathing out fury, dripping sweat from his body, gnashing his teeth in his lips. But I, being near, sitting quietly, looked on. Meanwhile, Bacchus came and shook the house and kindled a flame on his mother’s tomb. When Pentheus saw this, thinking that the house was burning,
620
