AG.  O father! you may boast a great boast, that you of mortals have begotten by far the best daughters; I mean all, but particularly myself, who, leaving my shuttle at the loom, have come to greater things, to catch wild beasts with my hands.  And having taken him, I bear in my arms, as you see, these spoils of my valor, that they may be suspended against your house.  And do you, O father, receive them in your hands; and rejoicing over my successful capture, invite your friends to a feast; for you are blessed, blessed since I have done such deeds.

CAD.  O, woe! and not to be seen, of those who have accomplished a slaughter not to be measured by wretched hands; having stricken down a glorious victim for the Gods, you invite Thebes and me to a banquet.  Alas me, first for thy ills, then for mine own; how justly, but how severely, has king Bromius destroyed us, being one of our own family!

AG.  How morose is old age in men! and sullen to the eye; would that my son may be fond of hunting, resembling the disposition of his mother, when with the Theban youths he would strive after the beasts—­but he is only fit to contend with Gods.  He is to be admonished, O father, by you and me, not to rejoice in clever evil.  Where is he?  Who will summon him hither to my sight, that he may see me, that happy woman?

CAD.  Alas, alas! knowing what ye have done, ye will grieve a sad grief; but if forever ye remain in the condition in which ye are, not fortunate, you will seem not to be unfortunate.

AG.  But what of these matters is not well, or what is grievous?

CAD.  First cast your eyes up to this sky.

AG.  Well; why do you bid me look at it?

CAD.  Is it still the same, or think you it is changed?

AG.  It is brighter than formerly, and more divine.

CAD.  Is then this fluttering still present to your soul?

AG.  I understand not your word; but I become somehow sobered, changing from my former mind.

CAD.  Can you then hear any thing, and answer clearly?

AG.  How I forget what we said before, O father!

CAD.  To what house did you come in marriage?

AG.  You gave me, as they say, to the sown Echion.

CAD.  What son then was born in your house to your husband?

AG.  Pentheus, by the association of myself and his father.

CAD.  Whose head then have you in your arms?

AG.  That of a lion, as those who hunted him said.

CAD.  Look now rightly; short is the toil to see.

AG.  Ah! what do I see? what is this I bear in my hands?

CAD.  Look at it, and learn more clearly.

AG.  I see the greatest grief, wretch that I am!

CAD.  Does it seem to you to be like a lion?

AG.  No:  but I, wretched, hold the head of Pentheus.

CAD.  Ay, much lamented before you recognized him.

AG.  Who slew him, how came he into my hands?