or of Libyan Gorgons. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.

ChorusWhoever with wicked mind and unjust rage regarding your rites, Bacchus, and those of your mother, comes with raving heart and mad disposition violently to overcome by force what is invincible—death is the discipline for his purposes, accepting no excuses when the affairs of the gods are concerned; to act like a mortal—this is a life that is free from pain. The text and meaning of these and the following lines are highly uncertain. The above translation is based on the paraphrase that Murray includes in his apparatus qui iniuste etc. (v. 997), ei sententiarum castigatrix in rebus divinis indeprecabilis Mors est.I do not envy wisdom, but rejoice in hunting it. But other things are great and manifest. Oh, for life to flow towards the good, to be pure and pious day and night, and to honor the gods, banishing customs that are outside of justice. Let manifest justice go forth, let it go with sword in hand, slaying through the throat this godless, lawless, unjust, earth-born offspring of Echion.

ChorusAppear as a bull or many-headed serpent or raging lion to see. Go, Bacchus, with smiling face throw a deadly noose around the hunter of the Bacchae as he falls beneath the flock of Maenads.

Second MessengerOh house once fortunate in Hellas, house of the Sidonian old man who once sowed in the ground the earth-born harvest of the serpent Ophis, how I groan for you, though I am a slave, but still the masters’ affairs are a concern to good servants.This line is most likely interpolated from Eur. Med. 54.Chorus LeaderWhat is it? Do you bring some news from the Bacchae?MessengerPentheus, the child of Echion, is dead.sungChorus LeaderLord Bacchus, truly you appear to be a great god.MessengerWhat do you mean? Why have you said this? Do you rejoice at the misfortunes of my master, woman?sungChorus LeaderI, a foreign woman, rejoice with foreign songs; for no longer do I cower in fear of chains.MessengerDo you think Thebes so lacking in men?sungChorus LeaderDionysus, Dionysus, not Thebes, holds my allegiance.MessengerYou may be forgiven, but still it is not good to rejoice at troubles once they have actually taken place, women.sungChorus LeaderTell me, speak, what kind of a death did he die, the unjust man who did unjust things?MessengerWhen we left the dwellings of the Theban land and crossed the streams of Asopus, we began to ascend the heights of Kithairon, Pentheus and I—for I was following my master—and the stranger who was our guide to the sight. First we sat in a grassy vale, keeping our feet and voices quiet, so that we might see them without being seen. There was a little valley surounded by precipices, irrigated with streams, shaded by pine trees, where the Maenads were sitting, their hands busy with delightful labors. Some of them were crowning again the worn thyrsos, making it leafy with ivy, while some, like colts freed from the painted yoke, were singing a Bacchic melody to one another. And the unhappy Pentheus said, not seeing the crowd of women: Stranger, from where we are standing I cannot see these false Maenads. But on the hill, ascending a lofty pine, I might view properly the shameful acts of the Maenads. And then I saw the stranger perform a marvelous deed. For seizing hold of the lofty top-most branch of the pine tree, he pulled it down, pulled it, pulled it to the dark earth. It was bent just as a bow or a curved wheel, when it is marked out by a compass, describes a circular course The sense of the text here is not clear. The translation (which follows Dodds) assumes that the curved wheel is not a hollow circle connected to the hub by spokes, but a single piece of wood which has been cut into the shape of a circle. In the action described, a peg (τόρνος) is fixed into the center of the word-section. A string with a piece of chalk on one end is then attached to the peg, and the chalk, held tight against the string, is able to mark out an even circle. The bending of the tree thus resembles the circular path taken by the chalk.: in this way the stranger drew the mountain bough with his hands and bent it to the earth, doing no mortal’s deed. He sat Pentheus down on the pine branch, and let it go upright through his hands steadily, taking care not to shake him off. The pine stood firmly upright into the sky, with my master seated on its back. He was seen by the Maenads more than he saw them, for sitting on high he was all but apparent, and the stranger was no longer anywhere to be seen, when a voice, Dionysus as I guess, cried out from the air: Young women,