Pentheus

“ Recking nought of Pentheus: so from forth his halls I come to you.
But, methinks,—for there within the house a footfall's sound there is,—
He shall straightway come without. Ha, what shall he say unto this?
Lightly shall I bear his bluster, whatsoe'er his fury's stress; 640
For it is the wise man's part to rein his wrath in soberness.
Enter Pentheus.
Pentheus.
Foul outrage this!—the stranger hath escaped,
Though bound but now in fetters fast as fate.
Ha!
There is the man! What means this? How hast thou 645
Won forth to stand before my very halls?
Dionysus. ”

“ DIONYSUS Good beyond price, but not for thee to hear. PENTHEUS Thou trickster? Thou wouldst prick me on the more To seek them out! DIONYSUS His mysteries abhor The touch of sin-lovers. PENTHEUS And so thine eyes Saw this God plain; what guise had he? DIONYSUS What guise It liked him. 'Twas not I ordained his shape. PENTHEUS Aye, deftly turned again. An idle jape, And nothing answered! DIONYSUS Wise words being brought To blinded eyes will seem as things of nought. PENTHEUS And comest thou first to Thebes, to have thy God Established? DIONYSUS Nay; all Barbary hath trod His dance ere this. ”

“ Not more quickly are leaves, when touched by the first cold of autumn and now lightly clinging, whirled from the lofty tree by the wind than is Pentheus torn limb from limb by those impious hands. Taught by such a warning, the Thebans throng the new god's sacred rites, burn incense, and bow down before his shrines. ”

“ Lest they should kill thee, seeing thee as a man."
Here is the true irony of tragedy. Pentheus, who has derided his grandsire and the holy prophet for their unseemly attire and senile folly,—Pentheus, who has threatened to behead the Lydian wizard, and had imprisoned his attendants, is himself persuaded by the god he so abhors to put on the garb of a Bacchanal, and in that guise to pass through the streets of Thebes. ”

“ Happy is he whose bliss from day to day doth grow.
Enter Dionysus.
Dionysus.
Thou who dost burn to see forefended things,
Pentheus, O zealous with an evil zeal,
Come forth before thine halls: be seen of me
Womanlike clothed in frenzied Bacchant's garb, 915
To spy upon thy mother and her troop.
Enter Pentheus.
So!—like a daughter of Kadmus is thy form.
Pentheus.
Aha! meseemeth I behold two suns,
A twofold Thebes, our seven-gated burg!
A bull thou seem'st that leadeth on before; 920
And horns upon thine head have sprouted forth.
How, wast thou brute?—bull art thou verily now! ”

“ No man may see their mysteries. PENTHEUS Well said'— I marked thy subtle temper long ere now. DIONYSUS 'Tis Dionyse that prompteth me. PENTHEUS And how Mean'st thou the further plan? DIONYSUS First take thy way Within. I will array thee. PENTHEUS What array! The woman's? Nay, I will not. DIONYSUS Doth it change So soon, all thy desire to see this strange Adoring? PENTHEUS Wait! What garb wilt thou bestow About me? DIONYSUS First a long tress dangling low Beneath thy shoulders. PENTHEUS Aye, and next? DIONYSUS The same red Robe, falling to thy feet; and on thine head A snood. ”

“ Exit Pentheus. Dio. Strange, ah! strange is thy career, leading to scenes of woe so strange, that thou shalt achieve a fame that towers to heaven. Stretch forth thy hands, Agave, and ye her sisters, daughters of Cadmus; mighty is the strife to which I am bringing the youthful king, and the victory shall rest with me and Bromius ”

“ The punishment of Pentheus is of another kind; for they who, unmindful of their mortal state, rashly aspire to divine mysteries, by climbing the heights of nature and philosophy, here represented by climbing a tree,—their fate is perpetual inconstancy, perplexity, and instability of judgment. For as there is one light of nature, and another light that is divine, they see, as it were, two suns. ”

“ Pentheus.
Bringing what weighty tidings comest thou?
Herdman.
I have seen wild Bacchanals, who from this land
Have darted forth with white feet, frenzy-stung. 665
I come, King, fain to tell to thee and Thebes
What strange, what passing wondrous deeds they do.
Yet would I hear if freely I may tell
Things there beheld, or reef my story's sail.
For, King, I fear thy spirit's hasty mood, 670
Thy passion and thine over-royal wrath.
Pentheus.
Say on: of me shalt thou go all unscathed.
For we may not be wroth with honest men. ”

“ CHOR. Let us dance in honor of Bacchus; let us raise a shout for what has befallen Pentheus, the descendant of the dragon, who assumed female attire and the wand with the beautiful thyrsus,—a certain death, having a bull [61] as his leader to calamity. Ye Cadmean Bacchants, ye have accomplished a glorious victory, illustrious, yet for woe and tears. It is a glorious contest to plunge one's dripping hand in the blood of one's son. But—for I see Agave, the mother of Pentheus, coining to the house with starting eyes; receive the revel of the Evian God.
AGAVE. O Asiatic Bacchæ! ”

“ Bitter ruing our imprisonment, With toil forespent he threw
On earth his useless weapon. Mortal, he had dared to do
'Gainst a god unholy battle. But I, in quiet state,
Unheeding Pentheus' anger, Came through the palace gate.
It seems even now his sandal Is sounding on its way;
Soon is he here before us, And what now will he say?
With ease will I confront him, Ire-breathing though he stand.
'Tis easy to a wise man To practice self-command. {651}
Blank verse is resumed as Pentheus enters, and meets his escaped prisoner who calmly confronts him. ”

“ Thou hast thy joy, when the Gate Stands thronged, and Pentheus' name is lifted great And high by Thebes in clamour; shall not He Rejoice in his due meed of majesty? Howbeit, this Cadmus whom thou scorn'st and I Will wear His crown, and tread His dances! Aye, Our hairs are white, yet shall that dance be trod! I will not lift mine arm to war with God For thee nor all thy words. Madness most fell Is on thee, madness wrought by some dread spell, But not by spell nor leechcraft to be cured! Chorus. ”

“ Thou yet shalt see him leaping with his train Of fire across the twin-peaked mountain-plain, Flaming the darkness with his mystic wand, And great in Hellas.—List and understand, King Pentheus! Dream not thou that force is power; Nor, if thou hast a thought, and that thought sour And sick, oh, dream not thought is wisdom!—Up, Receive this God to Thebes; pour forth the cup Of sacrifice, and pray, and wreathe thy brow. Thou fearest for the damsels? Think thee now; How toucheth this the part of Dionyse To hold maids pure perforce? In them it lies, And their own hearts ”

“ Here the rash Pentheus, with unhallowed eyes,
The howling dames and mystic orgies spies.
His mother sternly viewed him where he stood,
And kindled into madness as she viewed:
Her leafy javelin at her son she cast,
And cries, 'The boar that lays our country waste!
The boar, my sisters! aim the fatal dart,
And strike the brindled monster to the heart.'
Pentheus astonished heard the dismal sound,
And sees the yelling matrons gathering round:
_20
He sees, and weeps at his approaching fate,
And begs for mercy, and repents too late.
'Help, help! my aunt Autonöe,' he cried ”

“ Pentheus.
This thyrsus—shall I hold it in this hand,
Or this, the more to seem true Bacchanal.
Dionysus.
In the right hand, and with the right foot timed
Bear it:—all praise to thy converted heart!
Pentheus.
Could I upon my shoulders raise the glens [22] 945
Of Mount Kithairon, yea, and the Bacchanals?
Dionysus.
Thou mightest, an thou wouldst: erewhile thy soul
Was warped; but now 'tis even as befits.
Pentheus.
With levers?—or shall mine hands tear it up
With arm or shoulder thrust beneath its crests? 950
Dionysus. ”

“ And now his sword is fallen, and he lies outworn and wan Who dared to rise against his God in wrath, being but man. And I uprose and left him, and in all peace took my path Forth to my Chosen, recking light of Pentheus and his wrath. But soft, methinks a footstep sounds even now within the hall; [Pg 40] 'Tis he; how think ye he will stand, and what words speak withal? I will endure him gently, though he come in fury hot. For still are the ways of Wisdom, and her temper trembleth not! Enter Pentheus in fury. ”

“ His mother Agave having joined the revellers on Mount Cithaeron, Pentheus followed and climbed a lofty pine to watch the proceedings. Being discovered he was torn to pieces by Agave and others, who mistook him for some wild beast. His head was carried back to Thebes in triumph by his mother. Labdacus and Lycurgus, who offered a similar resistance, met with a like fearful end. Some identify Pentheus with Dionysus himself in his character as the god of the vine, torn to pieces by the violence of winter. The fate of Pentheus was the subject of lost tragedies by Thespis and Pacuvius. ”

“ Forth will we march; for this should pass all bounds, 785
To endure of women that we now endure.
Dionysus.
No whit thou yieldest, though thou hear'st my words,
Pentheus. Yet, though thou dost despite to me,
I warn thee—bear not arms against a God;
But bide still. Bromius will not brook that thou 790
Shouldst drive his Bacchanals from their revel-hills.
Pentheus.
School thou not me; but, having 'scaped thy bonds,
Content thee: else again I punish thee.
Dionysus.
Better slay victims unto him than rage,
Spurning the goads, a mortal 'gainst a God. 795
Pentheus. ”

“ Pentheus.
How hast thou 'scaped thy bonds and comest forth?
Dionysus.
Said I not—or didst hear not?—"One will free me?" 650
Pentheus.
Who?—Strange and ever strange thine answers are.
Dionysus.
He who makes grow for men the clustered vine.
Pentheus.
[Ay—who drives women frenzied from the home!] [18]
Dionysus.
'Tis Dionysus' glory, this thy scoff.
Pentheus (to attendants) .
I bid ye bar all towers round about.
Dionysus.
Why? Cannot Gods pass even over walls?
Pentheus.
Wise art thou, wise—save where thou shouldst be wise. 655
Dionysus. ”

“ Now nay—the shrines of Nymphs destroy not thou,
And haunts of Pan that with his piping ring.
Pentheus.
True—true: we must not overcome by force
The women. I will hide me midst the pines.
Dionysus.
Such hiding shall be thine as fate ordains, [23] 955
Who com'st with guile, a spy on Bacchanals.
Pentheus.
Methinks I see them mid the copses caught,
Like birds, in toils of their sweet dalliance.
Dionysus.
To this end then art thou appointed watchman:
Perchance shalt catch them—if they catch not thee. 960
Pentheus. ”

“ The artist did not allow himself the licence of placing Pentheus in the tree, for this had been too grotesque a sight for the fourth-century painter. The frequent references to the thicket [176] and the protection it was or the inconvenience it caused, is happily brought out in the picture, but the poet has not been followed in details. Pentheus does not appear with the thyrsos, talaric chiton, and dishevelled hair, for the simple reason that he would have been indistinguishable from the maenads. As he appears in the painting the contrast is striking and the eye at once grasps the situation. ”

“ Dwells temperance touching all things evermore.
This must thou heed; for in his Bacchic rites
The virtuous-hearted shall not be undone.
Lo, thou art glad when thousands throng thy gates,
And all Thebes magnifieth Pentheus' name: 320
He too, I wot, in homage taketh joy.
I then, and Kadmus, whom thou laugh'st to scorn,
Will wreathe our heads with ivy, and will dance—
A greybeard pair, yet cannot we but dance.
Not at thy suasion will I war with Gods; 325
For grievous is thy madness, and no spell
May medicine thee, though spells have made thee mad. [10]
Chorus. ”

“ Pentheus is dead: Echion's son is dead.
Chorus.
Bromius my King! thou hast made thy godhead plain!
Messenger.
How, what is this thou say'st? Dost thou exult,
Woman, upon my lord's calamities?
Chorus.
An alien I, I chant glad outland strain, 1035
Who cower no more in terror of the chain.
Messenger.
Deemest thou Thebes so void of men— [24]
Chorus.
Dionysus it is, 'tis the King of the Vine
That hath lordship o'er me, no Thebes of thine!
Messenger.
This might be pardoned, save that base it is,
Women, to joy o'er evils past recall. 1040
Chorus. ”

“ His mother Agavê, with her sisters, and a large body of other women from Thêbes, had gone out from Thêbes to Mount Kithærôn to celebrate their solemnities under the influence of the Bacchic frenzy. Thither Pentheus followed to watch them, and there the punishment due to his impiety overtook him. The avenging touch of the god having robbed him of his senses, he climbed a tall pine for the purpose of overlooking the feminine multitude, who detected him in this position, pulled down the tree, and tore him in pieces. ”

“ The God encouraged me, frightened and chilled with my body all trembling, and scarcely myself, saying, ‘Shake off thy fear, and make for Dia.’ Arriving there, I attended upon the sacred rites of Bacchus, at the kindled altars.”
“We have lent ear to a long story,”95 says Pentheus, “that our anger might consume its strength in its tediousness. Servants! drag him headlong, and send to Stygian night his body, racked with dreadful tortures.” ”

“ Bacchus subsequently landed in Bœotia and repaired to Thebes, the city of initiation, where he found that Pentheus had usurped the supreme power. The latter in his turn attempted to imprison the god, but the dungeon opened of itself and the captive came forth triumphant. Pentheus was enraged and the daughters of Cadmus, transformed into Bacchantes, tore him in pieces, thinking that they were immolating a young bull. [108]
Pantheism can never form a synthesis, but must be disintegrated by the sciences, which the daughters of [Pg 149] Cadmus typify. ”