CAD.  O wretched truth, how unseasonably art thou come!

AG.  Tell me, since delay causes a quivering at my heart.

CAD.  You and your sisters slew him.

AG.  And where did he die, in the house, or in what place?

CAD.  Where formerly the dogs tore Actaeon to pieces.

AG.  But why did he, unhappy, go to Cithaeron?

CAD.  He went deriding the God and your Bacchic revels.

AG.  But on what account did we go thither?

CAD.  Ye were mad, and the whole city was frantic with Bacchus.[64]

AG.  Bacchus undid us—­now I perceive.

CAD.  Being insulted with insolence—­for ye thought him not a God.

AG.  But the dear body of my child, O father!

CAD.  I having with difficulty traced it, bring it all.

AG.  What! rightly united in its joints? * * * *

AG.  But what part had Pentheus in my folly?[65]

CAD.  He was like you, not reverencing the God, therefore he joined all in one ruin, both ye and this one, so as to ruin the house, and me, who being childless of male children, see this branch of thy womb, O unhappy woman! most miserably and shamefully slain—­whom the house respected; you, O child, who supported my house, born of my daughter, and was an object of fear to the city; and no one wished to insult the old man, seeing you; for he would have received a worthy punishment.  But now I shall be cast out of my house dishonored, I, the mighty Cadmus, who sowed the Theban race, and reaped a most glorious crop; O dearest of men, for although no longer in being, still thou shalt be counted by me as dearest of my children; no longer touching this, my chin, with thy hand, addressing me, your mother’s father, wilt thou embrace me, my son, saying, Who injures, who insults you, O father, who harasses your heart, being troublesome I say, that I may punish him who does you wrong, O father.  But now I am miserable, and thou art wretched, and thy mother is pitiable, and thy relations are wretched.  But if there is any one who despises the Gods, looking on this man’s death, let him acknowledge the Gods.

CHOR.  I grieve for thy state, O Cadmus; but your child has the punishment of your daughter, deserved indeed, but grievous to you.

AG.  O father, for you see how I am changed ...

BAC ... changing, you shall become a dragon, and your wife becoming a beast, shall receive in exchange the form of a serpent, Harmonia, the daughter of Mars, whom you had, being a mortal.  And as the oracle of Jove says, you shall drive with your wife a chariot of heifers, ruling over barbarians; and with an innumerable army you shall sack many cities; and when they plunder the temple of Apollo, they shall have a miserable return, but Mars shall defend you and Harmonia, and shall settle your life in the islands of the blessed.  I say this, I, Bacchus, not born of a mortal father, but of Jove; and if ye had known how to be wise when ye would not, ye would have been happy, having the son of Jupiter for your ally.