Act III
PENTHEUS: Are we going to take some levers with us? Or shall I rip the forests up by hand, putting
arm and shoulder under mountain peaks? … You mention a good point. I'll use no force to get the better of
these women. I'll conceal myself
there in the pine trees. … That's good. I
can picture them right now, in the woods, going at it like rutting birds,
clutching each other as they make sweet love. … Lead on— through the centre of
our
DIONYSUS: Now you must leave— abandon your city for barbarian
lands. Agave, too, that polluted creature, must go into perpetual banishment. And
Cadmus, you too must endure your lot. Your form will change, so you become a
dragon. Your wife, Harmonia, Ares' daughter, whom you, though mortal, took in
marriage, will be transformed, changing to a snake. As
Zeus' oracle declares, you and she will drive a chariot drawn by heifers.
You'll rule barbarians. With your armies, too large to count, you'll raze many
cities. Once they despoil Apollo's oracle, they'll have a painful journey back
again. But Ares will guard you and Harmonia. In lands of the blessed he'll
transform your lives. That's what I
proclaim—I, Dionysus, born from no
mortal father, but from Zeus. If you had understood how to behave as you should
have when you were unwilling, you'd now be fortunate, with Zeus' child among
your allies.
From The Bacchae, by Euripides