d, and sacrifice to him, and play the
Bacchanal, and crown your head. Bacchus will not compel women to be
modest[22] with regard to Venus, but in his nature modesty in all things is
ever innate. This you must needs consider, for she who is modest will not
be corrupted by being at Bacchanalian revels. Dost see? Thou rejoicest when
many stand at thy gates, and the city extols the name of Pentheus; and he,
I ween, is pleased, when honored. I, then, and Cadmus whom you laugh to
scorn, will crown ourselves with ivy, and dance, a hoary pair; but still we
must dance; and I will not contend against the Gods, persuaded by your
words--for you rave most grievously; nor can you procure any cure from
medicine, nor are you now afflicted beyond their power.[23]

CHOR. O old man, thou dost not shame Apollo by thy words, and honoring
Bromius, the mighty God, thou art wise.

CAD. My son, well has Tiresias advised you; dwell with us, not away from
the laws. For now you flit about, and though wise are wise in naught; for
although this may not be a God, as you say, let it be said by you that he
is; and tell a glorious falsehood, that Semele may seem to have borne a
God, and that honor may redound to all our race. You see the hapless fate
of Actaeon,[24] whom his blood-thirsty hounds, whom he had reared up, tore
to pieces in the meadows, having boasted that he was superior in the chase
to Diana. This may you not suffer; come, that I may crown thy head with
ivy, with us give honor to the God--

PEN. Do not bring your hand toward me; but departing, play the Bacchanal,
and wipe not off your folly on me; but I will follow up with punishment
this teacher of your madness; let some one go as quickly as possible, and
going to his seat where he watches the birds, upset and overthrow it with
levers, turning every thing upside down; and commit his crowns to the winds
and storms; for doing this, I shall gnaw him most. And some of you going
along the city, track out this effeminate stranger, who brings this new
disease upon women, and pollutes our beds. And if you catch him, convey him
hither bound; that meeting with a judgment of stoning he may die, having
seen a bitter revelry of Bacchus in Thebes.

TI. O wretched man! how little knowest thou what thou sayest! You are mad
now, and before you was out of your mind. Let us go, O Cadmus, and entreat
the God, on behalf of him, savage though he be, and on behalf of the city,
to do him no ill: but follow me