[12] I should read this line interrogatively, with Elmsley.

[13] Quoted by Gellius, xiii. 18.

[14] Elmsley would read [Greek:  makron to mellon].  Perhaps the true reading is [Greek:  mellein akairon] = it is no season for delay.

[15] The construction is so completely akward, that I almost feel inclined to consider this verse as an interpolation, with Dindorf.

[16] Compare Nonnus, 45. p. 765 4. [Greek:  Teiresian kai Kadmon atasthalon iache Pentheus.  Kadme, ti margaineis, tini daimoni komon egeireis; Kadme, miainomenes apokattheo kisson etheires, Kattheo kai nartheka nooplaneos Dionysou....  Nepie Teiresia stephanephore rhipson aetais Son plokamon tade phylla nothon stephos, k.t.l.]

[17] Compare the opinion of Perseus in Cicero de N.D. i. 15, with Minutius Felix, xxi.

[18] Pseud-Orpheus Hymn. l. 6. [Greek:  pausiponon thnetoisi phaneis akos.]

[19] Dindorf truly says that this passage smacks rather of Proclus, than of Euripides, and I agree with him that its spuriousness is more than probable.  Had Euripides designed an etymological quibble, he would probably have made some allusion to Merus, a mountain of India, where Bacchus is said to have been brought up.  See Curtius, viii. 10.  “Sita est sub radicibus montis, quem Meron incolae appellant.  Inde Graeci mentiendi traxere licentiam, Jovis femine liberum patrem esse celatum.”  Cf.  Eustath. on Dionys.  Perieg. 1159.  Lucian.  Dial.  Deor. ix. and Hermann on Orph.  Hymn. lii. 3.

[20] The gift of [Greek:  mantike] was supposed to follow initiation, and is often joined with the rites of this deity.  Philostratus, Heroic. p. 22, ed.  Boiss. [Greek:  hote de kai mantikes sophias emphorountai, kai to chresmodes autais prosbakcheuei.]

[21] Cf.  Hippol. 443. [Greek:  Kypris gar ou phoreton en polle rhyei].

[22] I have followed Matthiae’s interpretation of this passage.

[23] See Hermann’s note.

[24] The fate of Actaeon is often joined with that of Pentheus.

[25] i.e. over-cunning in regard to religious matters.  Cf. 200. [Greek:  ouden sophizomestha toisi daimosin].

[26] Probably a mere hyperbole to denote great fruitfulness.  See Elmsley.

[27] Cf.  Hor.  Od. iii. 21, 20.

[28] I follow Dindorf in reading [Greek:  sopha d’], but am scarcely satisfied.

[29] Hence his epithet of Bacchus [Greek:  Nyktelios].  See Herm. on Orph.  Hymn. xlix. 3.

[30] See my note on AEsch.  Choeph. 7.

[31] Cf Person Advers. p. 265.  Hor.  Ep. i. 16. 73 “Vir bonus et sapiens audebit dicere Pentheu, Rector Thebarum, quid me perferre patique Indignum coges?  Adima bona, nempe pecus, rem, Lectos, argentum:  tollas licet.  In manicis et Compedibus saevo te sub custode tenebo.  Ipse deus, simul atque volam, me solvet.  Opinor, Hoc sentit:  moriar.  Mors ultima linea rerum est.”

[32] Punning on [Greek:  penthos], grief.  Cf.  Arist.  Rhet. ii. 23, 29.