Dionysus

"Dionysus mingles in the wine new powers, Sending high adventure to the thoughts of men;"

"For were it not Dionysus to whom they institute a procession and sing songs in honor of the pudenda, it would be the most shameful action. But Dionysus, in whose honor they rave in bacchic frenzy, and Hades are the same."

"Chorus: Him a sad mother, in compulsive woe, Untimely gave to birth, Then perished mid the lightning’s dazzling glow, And mid the thunder’s mirth. The Babe, to his bright chamber in the sky Did Zeus immediate bear, Enclosed with golden cinctures in his thigh, And hid from Here there. And when the destined months had past away, He gave him to the light, An antlered God, more beautiful than Day, More marvellously bright. With braided serpents were his brows entwin’d, And thence the Mænads fair, The thyrsus-bearing Bacchanals still bind Wreathed serpents in their hair."

"Behold, Gods Son is come unto this land Of Thebes, even I, Dionysus, whom the brand Of heavens hot splendour lit to life, when she Who bore me, Cadmus daughter Semele, Died here. So, changed in shape from God to man, I walk again by Dirces streams and scan Ismenus shore. There by the castle side I see her place, the Tomb of the Lightnings Bride, The wreck of smouldering chambers, and the great Faint wreaths of fire undying—as the hate Dies not, that Hera held for Semele."

"To the grape-giver Bacchants shout all hail;"

"Frogs and Dionysus: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. Dionysus: Go, hang yourselves; for what care I? Frogs: All the same well shout and cry, Stretching all our throats with song, Shouting, crying, all day long, Frogs and Dionysus: Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. Frogs: In this youll never, never win. This you shall not beat us in. Dionysus: No, nor ye prevail o’er me. Never! never! Ill my song Shout, if need be, all day long, Until I’ve learned to master your ko-ax. Brekekekex, ko-ax, ko-ax. I thought I’d put a stop to your ko-ax."

"O Lord with whom playeth Love the subduer and the dark-eyed Nymphs and rosy Aphrodite as thou wanderest the tops of the lofty hills, to thee I kneel; do thou come unto me kind and lending ear unto a prayer that is acceptable, and give Cleobulus good counsel, O Dionysus, to receive my love."

"When Dionysus leads his jocund quire, And wingèd songsters tune their various lay, And bees go labouring on and never tire, Why shall the singer only not be gay?"

"The olive-trees belong to Pallas and the vines round them to Dionysus."

"Crowne ye God Bacchus with a coronall,"

"And cup-like Twillpants, stroude in Bacchus Bowres."

"Wild I am now with heat: O Bacchus, cool thy rays! Or frantic I shall eat Thy thyrse and bite the bays."