re innumerable hopes to
innumerable men, some result in wealth to mortals, and some fail, but I
call him happy whose life is happy day by day.

BAC. You, who are eager to see what you ought not, and hasty to do a deed
not of haste, I mean Pentheus, come forth before the house, be seen by me,
having the costume of a woman, of a frantic Bacchant, as a spy upon your
mother and her company! In appearance, you are like one of the daughters of
Cadmus.

PEN. And indeed I think I see two suns,[50] and twin Thebes, and
seven-gated city; and you seem to guide me, being like a bull, and horns
seem to grow on your head. But were you ever a beast? for you look like a
bull.

BAC. The God accompanies us, not propitious formerly, but now at truce with
us. You see what you should see.

PEN. How do I look? Does not my standing seem like that of Ino, or of
Agave, my mother?

BAC. I seem to see them as I behold you; but this lock of hair of yours is
out of its place, not as I dressed it beneath the turban.

PEN. Moving it within doors backward and forward, and practicing Bacchic
revelry, I disarranged it.

BAC. But we who ought to wait upon you will again rearrange it. But hold up
your head.

PEN. Look, do you arrange it, for we depend on you.

BAC. And your girdle is loosened, and the fringes of your garments do not
extend regularly round your legs.

PEN. They seem so to me, too, about the right foot at least; but on this
side the robe sits well along the leg.

BAC. Will you not think me the first of your friends when, contrary to your
expectation, you see the Bacchae acting modestly?

PEN. But shall I be more like a Bacchant holding the thyrsus in my right
hand, or in this?

BAC. You should [hold it in] your right hand, and raise it at the same time
with your right foot; and I praise you for having changed your mind.

PEN. Could I bear on my shoulders the glens of Cithaeron, Bacchae and all?

BAC. You could if you were willing; but you had your mind unsound before;
but now you have such as you ought.

PEN. Shall we bring levers, or shall I tear them up with my hands, putting
my shoulder or arm under the summits?

BAC. No, lest you ruin the habitations of the Nymphs, and the seats of Pan
where he plays his pipes.

PEN. You speak well,--it is not with strength we should conquer women; but
I will hide my body among the pines.

BAC. Hide you the hiding in which you should be hidden, coming as a crafty
spy on the Maen