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.
1
—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
Bacchae. Euripides. T. A. Buckley (Translator). London. 1850.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The Annenberg CPB/Project.