Torn, rent asunder, scattered, cast abroad!

O thou hard god! was there no other way

To visit us? Oh! if the son must die,

Must it be by the hand of his own mother?

If the impious mother must atone her sin,

Must it be but by murdering her own son?

DIONYSUS

Now hear ye all, Thebes’ founders, what is woven

By the dread shuttle of the unerring Fates.

Thou, Cadmus, father of this earth-born race,

A dragon shalt become; thy wife shalt take

A brutish form, and sink into a serpent,

Harmonia, Ares’ daughter, whom thou wedd’st,

Though mortal, as Jove’s oracle declares.

Thou in a car by heifers drawn shalt ride,

And with thy wife, at the Barbarians’ head:

And many cities with their countless host

Shall they destroy, but when they dare destroy

The shrine of Loxias, back shall they return

In shameful flight; but Ares guards Harmonia

And thee, and bears you to the Isles of the Blest.

This say I, of no mortal father born,

Dionysus, son of Jove. Had ye but known

To have been pious when ye might, Jove’s son

Had been your friend; ye had been happy still.

AGAVE

Dionysus, we implore thee! We have sinned!

DIONYSUS

Too late ye say so; when ye should, ye would not.

AGAVE

That know we now; but thou’rt extreme in vengeance.

DIONYSUS

Was I not outraged, being a god, by you?

AGAVE

The gods should not be like to men in wrath.

DIONYSUS

This Jove, my father, long hath granted me.

AGAVE

Alas, old man! Our exile is decreed.

DIONYSUS

Why then delay ye the inevitable?

CADMUS

O child, to what a depth of woe we have fallen!

Most wretched thou, and all thy kin beloved!

I too to the Barbarians must depart,

An aged denizen. For there’s a prophecy,

’Gainst Hellas a Barbaric mingled host

Harmonia leads, my wife, daughter of Ares.

A dragon I, with dragon nature fierce,

Shall lead the stranger spearmen ’gainst the altars

And tombs of Hellas, nor shall cease my woes —

Sad wretch! — not even when I have ferried o’er

Dark Acheron, shall I repose in peace.

AGAVE

Father! to exile go I without thee?

CADMUS

Why dost thou clasp me in thine arms, sad child,

A drone among the bees, a swan worn out?

AGAVE

Where shall I go, an exile from my country?

CADMUS

I know not, child; thy sire is a feeble aid.

AGAVE

Farewell, mine home! Farewell, my native Thebes!

My bridal chamber! Banished, I go forth.

CADMUS

To the house of Aristæus go, my child.

AGAVE

I wait for thee, my father!

CADMUS

I for thee!

And for thy sisters.

AGAVE

Fearfully, fearfully, this deep disgrace,

Hath Dionysus brought upon our race.

DIONYSUS

Fearful on me the wrong that ye had done;

Unhonoured was my name in Thebes alone.

AGAVE

Father, farewell!

CADMUS

Farewell, my wretched daughter!

AGAVE

So lead me forth — my sisters now to meet,

Sad fallen exiles.

Let me, let me go