THE ARGUMENT.

TIRESIAS having declared that heavy judgments would fall on Creon, King of Thebes, for his treatment of Antigone, the Chorus, in the following Ode, entreat Bacchus to come either from Parnassus or Euboea to the aid of Thebes, the country of Semele his mother.

SOPH. ΑNTIG. 1102.

Ο THOU, by many a name adored,
Thy Theban mother's glory,

Son of the Thunderer! Guardian lord
Of bright Italia famed in story!

King of the Eleusinian vale,

Where Ceres' bounties never fail,1

(1) Bacchus is frequently associated with the mysteries of Ceres. See Eurip. Ion. 1074.

αἰσχύνομαι τὸν πολύϋμνον

θεὸν, εἰ περὶ καλλιχόροισι παγαῖς

λαμπάδα θεωρὸν εἰκάδων

ὄψεται ἐννύχιος ἄϋπνος ἂν,

ὅτε καὶ Διὸς ἀστερωπός

ἀνεχόρευσεν αἰθὴρ,

χορεύει δὲ Σελάνα

καὶ πεντήκοντα κόραι

Νηρέος, αἱ κατὰ πόντον

ἀεννάων τε ποταμῶν
δίνας χορευόμεναι

τὰν χρυσοστέφανον κόραν

καὶ ματέρα σεμνάν.

I blush

Bacchus! throned mid Thebe's walls,

Mother of thy bacchanals,

Where the pure Ismenus flows,
Where the dragon-race arose !
Oft, on the doubly-crested height,
Where nymphs of Corycus delight

Where flows Castalia's sacred stream,

The smouldering fires, that nightly gleam,2
Thy Godlike form have seen:

I blush lest Bacchus mark our throng;
Bacchus, theme of many a song;
When maids in mystic ring are dancing,
When, on the sacred day advancing,
Our torches round the well are glancing.
For fixed are aye his wakeful eyes

On Ceres' midnight mysteries.

When the moon, beside the waters,

Dances with the starry air;

When speed in troops old Nereus' daughters,

To tread a choral measure there;

They who, deep in ocean's caves,

Or amid the restless waves

Of streams that roll their chafing tide,

By some perennial fount supplied,

Whirling oft in dances wild,

The giddy torrent stem,

For hallowed Ceres and her child,

Queen of the golden diadem!

(2) Compare Eurip. Phon. 226.

ὦ λάμπουσα πέτρα πυρὸς
δικόρυφον σέλας ὑπὲρ ἄκρων
Βακχείων, Διονύσου

οἴνα θ', ἃ καθαμέριον

στάξεις

SOPH. ANTIG.

And Nysa's verdant banks, where twine3
The ivy and the clustering vine,

στάζεις τὸν πολύκαρπον οἰ

νάνθας ἱεῖσα βότρυν,

ξάθεά τ' ἄντρα δράκοντος, οὔ-
ρειαί τε σκοπιαί θεῶν,
νιφόβολόν τ ̓ ὄρος ἱερὸν, εἱ-

$3.50

Anstice, Joseph. (1808-1836)

135

able for the is probably alluded

Bacchus throned mid Thebe's walls,

Mother of thy bacchanals,

Where the pure Ismenus flows,
Where the dragon-race arose !

Oft, on the doubly-crested height,
W

W

TI

(2) Col

στάζεις