_A Maiden_ Oh, where art thou? In thine own Nysa, thou our help alone? O'er fierce beasts in orient lands Doth thy thronging thyrsus wave, By the high Corycian Cave, Or where stern Olympus stands; In the elm-woods and the oaken, There where Orpheus harped of old, And the trees awoke and knew him, And the wild things gathered to him, As he sang amid the broken Glens his music manifold? Dionysus loveth thee; Blessed Land of Piërie, He will come to thee with dancing, Come with joy and mystery; With the Maenads at his hest Winding, winding to the West; Cross the flood of swiftly glancing Axios in majesty; Cross the Lydias, the giver Of good gifts and waving green; Cross that Father-Stream of story, Through a land of steeds and glory Rolling, bravest, fairest River E'er of mortals seen! A VOICE WITHIN Io! Io! Awake, ye damsels; hear my cry, Calling my Chosen; hearken ye! A MAIDEN Who speaketh? Oh, what echoes thus? ANOTHER A Voice, a Voice, that calleth us! THE VOICE Be of good cheer! Lo, it is I, The Child of Zeus and Semelê. A MAIDEN O Master, Master, it is Thou! ANOTHER O Holy Voice, be with us now! THE VOICE Spirit of the Chained Earthquake, Hear my word; awake, awake! [_An Earthquake suddenly shakes the pillars of the Castle._] A MAIDEN Ha! what is coming? Shall the hall Of Pentheus racked in ruin fall? LEADER Our God is in the house! Ye maids adore Him! CHORUS We adore Him all! THE VOICE Unveil the Lightning's eye; arouse The fire that sleeps, against this house! [_Fire leaps upon the Tomb of Semelê._] A MAIDEN Ah, saw ye, marked ye there the flame From Semelê's enhallowed sod Awakened? Yea, the Death that came Ablaze from heaven of old, the same Hot splendour of the shaft of God? LEADER Oh cast ye, cast ye, to the earth! The Lord Cometh against this house! Oh, cast ye down, Ye trembling damsels; He, our own adored, God's Child hath come, and all is overthrown! [_The Maidens cast themselves upon the ground, their eyes earthward._ DIONYSUS, _alone and unbound, enters from the Castle._] DIONYSUS Ye Damsels of the Morning Hills, why lie ye thus dismayed? Ye marked him, then, our Master, and the mighty hand he laid On tower and rock, shaking the house of Pentheus?--But arise, And cast the trembling from your flesh, and lift untroubled eyes. LEADER O Light in Darkness, is it thou? O Priest, is this thy face? My heart leaps out to greet thee from the deep of loneliness. DIONYSUS Fell ye so quick despairing, when beneath the Gate I passed? Should the gates of Pentheus quell me, or his darkness make me fast?