Jove took the infant Bacchus and gave him in charge to the Nysaean nymphs, who nourished his infancy and childhood, and for their care were rewarded by Jupiter by being placed, as the Hyades, among the stars.  When Bacchus grew up he discovered the culture of the vine and the mode of extracting its precious juice; but Juno struck him with madness, and drove him forth a wanderer through various parts of the earth.  In Phrygia the goddess Rhea cured him and taught him her religious rites, and he set out on a progress through Asia, teaching the people the cultivation of the vine.  The most famous part of his wanderings is his expedition to India, which is said to have lasted several years.  Returning in triumph, he undertook to introduce his worship into Greece, but was opposed by some princes, who dreaded its introduction on account of the disorders and madness it brought with it.

As he approached his native city Thebes, Pentheus the king, who had no respect for the new worship, forbade its rites to be performed.  But when it was known that Bacchus was advancing, men and women, but chiefly the latter, young and old, poured forth to meet him and to join his triumphal march.

Mr. Longfellow in his “Drinking Song” thus describes the march of Bacchus: 

    “Fauns with youthful Bacchus follow;
       Ivy crowns that brow, supernal
     As the forehead of Apollo,
       And possessing youth eternal.

    “Round about him fair Bacchantes,
       Bearing cymbals, flutes and thyrses,
     Wild from Naxian groves of Zante’s
       Vineyards, sing delirious verses,”

It was in vain Pentheus remonstrated, commanded, and threatened.  “Go,” said he to his attendants, “seize this vagabond leader of the rout and bring him to me.  I will soon make him confess his false claim of heavenly parentage and renounce his counterfeit worship.”  It was in vain his nearest friends and wisest counsellors remonstrated and begged him not to oppose the god.  Their remonstrances only made him more violent.

But now the attendants returned whom he had despatched to seize Bacchus.  They had been driven away by the Bacchanals, but had succeeded in taking one of them prisoner, whom, with his hands tied behind him, they brought before the king.  Pentheus, beholding him with wrathful countenance, said, “Fellow! you shall speedily be put to death, that your fate may be a warning to others; but though I grudge the delay of your punishment, speak, tell us who you are, and what are these new rites you presume to celebrate.”

The prisoner, unterrified, responded, “My name is Acetes; my country is Maeonia; my parents were poor people, who had no fields or flocks to leave me, but they left me their fishing rods and nets and their fisherman’s trade.  This I followed for some time, till growing weary of remaining in one place, I learned the pilot’s art and how to guide my course by the stars.  It happened