CADMUS
To what house wert thou brought with marriage-hymns?
AGAVE
Thou didst give me to earthborn Echion, as men call him.
CADMUS
What child was born thy husband in his halls?
AGAVE
Pentheus, of my union with his father.
CADMUS
What head is that thou barest in thy arms?
AGAVE
A lion's; at least they said so, who hunted it.
CADMUS
Consider it aright; 'tis no great task to look at it.
AGAVE
Ah! what do I see? what is this I am carrying in my hands?
CADMUS
Look closely at it; make thy knowledge more certain.
AGAVE
Ah, 'woe is me! O sight of awful sorrow!
CADMUS
Dost think it like a lion's head?
AGAVE
Ah no! 'tis Pentheus' head which I his unhappy mother hold.
CADMUS
Bemoaned by me, or ever thou didst recognize him.
AGAVE
Who slew him? How came he into my hands?
CADMUS
O piteous truth! how ill-timed thy presence here!
AGAVE
Speak; my bosom throbs at this suspense.
CADMUS
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AGAVE
Where died he? in the house or where?
CADMUS
On the very spot where hounds of yore rent Actaeon in pieces.
AGAVE
Why went he, wretched youth! to Cithaeron?
CADMUS
He would go and mock the god and thy Bacchic rites.
AGAVE
But how was it we had journeyed thither?
CADMUS
Ye were distraught; the whole city had the Bacchic frenzy.
AGAVE
'Twas Dionysus proved our ruin; now I see it all.
CADMUS
Yes, for the slight he suffered; ye would not believe in his godhead.
AGAVE
Father, where is my dear child's corpse?
CADMUS