ii
DIONYSUS
I was in Phrygia before I came here,
and Lydia, where the earth flows gold. I passed
the broiling plains of Persia, and Bactria's
walled towns. The Medes then, their freezing winters,
then opulent Arabia and down
along the bitter, salt-sea coast of Asia
where Hellenes and barbarians mingle
in teeming, beautifully towered cities.
When I had taught my dances there, established
the rituals of my mystery, making
my divinity manifest to mortals,
I came to Greece, to Thebes, the first Greek city
I've caused to shriek in ecstasy for me,
the first whose women I've clothed in fawnskin and in
whose hands I've placed my ivy spear, the thyrsus.
Why did I choose Thebes? Because my mother's sisters,
who should have been the last to even think
of saying such a thing, started rumors:
that Dionysus was not the son of Zeus,
that Semele's lover had been a mortal
and she'd imputed the disgrace to Zeus, a fraud
Cadmus had contrived. They kept whispering
that Zeus destroyed her because she'd lied and said
he was her lover. Therefore I've stung them
with madness, and goaded them raving from their houses.
They're living on the mountain now, delirious,
dressed, as I've compelled them to be dressed,
in the garments of my rituals.
And all the rest, the whole female seed of Thebes,
I've driven frenzied out of house and home.
They're with the daughters of King Cadmus now,
huddled on bare rocks beneath the pines.
This city must learn, and know, against its will or not,
that it is uninitiated in my mysteries.
As for Semele, her memory
will be vindicated when I appear
to mortal eyes as the power she bore Zeus
Cadmus has abdicated now to Pentheus,
the son of Agave, another one of his daughters,
and Pentheus is warring with divinity
by excluding me from rituals
and not invoking my name in prayers.
Because of all this, I'm going to demonstrate to him
and to all Thebes the god I really am.
When order is established, I'll go on,
revealing my identity in other lands.
But if, by rage and force of arms, the citizens
of Thebes drive the Bacchae from the mountain,
then I lead the army of my Maenads into war.
This is why I have assumed a mortal shape,
shedding my divine form for a human's.
Dionysus calls to the Chorus
Now, women, come: all you who left the ramparts
of Tmolus, who left Lydia, left barbarian lands
to follow me and worship me, my women: come.
Bring the drum we brought from Phrygia,
the drum that pulses with the beat of Mother Earth.
Surround the royal walls of Pentheus with thunder:
let the city of King Cadmus see!
I am going to the gorges of Cithaeron now;
I am going to the Bacchae, to their dances.
| Previous page on path | The Bacchae, page 2 of 127 | Next page on path |
Discussion of "ii"
Add your voice to this discussion.
Checking your signed in status ...