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 Maenads.

PEN.  And, indeed, I think to catch them in the thickets, like birds in the sweet nets of beds.

BAC.  You go then as a watch for this very thing; and perhaps you will catch them, if you be not caught first.

PEN.  Conduct me through the middle of the Theban land, for I am the only man of them who would dare these things.

BAC.  You alone labor for this city, you alone; therefore the labors, which are meet,[51] await you.  But follow me, I am your saving guide, some one else will guide you away from thence.

PEN.  Yes, my mother.

BAC.  Being remarkable among all.

PEN.  For this purpose do I come.

BAC.  You will depart being borne.[52]

PEN.  You allude to my delicacy.

BAC.  In the hands of your mother.