Chapter 8 Chapter Eight Pentheus

Bacchus, also known as Dionysus, is the son of Zeus and Semele and the grandson of Cadmus. He was named the god of fruit and the god who first planted grapes. Dionysus was raised in India.Soon, he left the fairies who raised and protected him, traveled around, taught the world the technology of growing grapes, and asked people to build temples to worship him.He was generous to his friends, but often cruelly punished those who did not believe in him as a god.Soon, the fame of Dionysus spread throughout Greece and to his hometown Thebes.At that time, Cadmus had passed the kingdom to Pentheus.Pentheus was the son of Echaon and Agaue, born of the earth.Agaue was the sister of the mother of Bacchus, the god of wine.Pentheus insulted the gods, and especially hated his relative Dionysus.Therefore, when Bacchus, the god of wine, came there with a group of fanatical believers, and was about to explain the gods to the king of Thebes, Pentheus stubbornly refused to listen to the warning of the old blind fortune teller Tiresias. and persuasion.When he was told that many men, women, and girls in Thebes followed and praised the new god, Pentheus was furious.

"What drives you mad, that you follow him in droves? Cowardly fools and mad women, have you forgotten your hero's ancestors? Are you willing to let a pampered boy conquer the world?" Bees? A vain coward, with a garland of vines on his head, and a robe of purple and gold instead of armor. He can't ride a horse, and a coward who flees every battle. When you wake up Come here, and you will see that he is as much a mortal as we are. I am his cousin, and Zeus is not his father. His great ordinances are all false!" he swore.Then he turned his face away again, and ordered the servants to arrest the Protestant leader and put him in chains and shackles.

The relatives and friends of Pentheus were taken aback and terrified by his haughty language and orders.His grandfather, Cadmus, also shook his gray-haired head in disapproval.But all persuasion enraged Pentheus still more. At this time, all the servants sent to carry out the mission fled back with a bloody head. "Where did you find Bacchus?" cried Pentheus angrily. "We didn't see Bacchus at all. We captured one of his followers. He doesn't seem to have been with him for long." The servants answered truthfully. Pentheus glared at the captured man with hatred, and said loudly: "Damn thing, what's your name? Who are your parents and where do you live? Why do you believe in the new ordinance?" The captured man was fearless and calm. He replied: "My name is Aktes, and my hometown is Meonian. My parents are ordinary people, and they have neither livestock nor land. My father only taught me to fish with a rod, because he Later, I learned how to sail a boat, familiarize myself with the sky, observe the wind direction, and know where the best port is. I became a navigator. Once, when the boat was sailing to the island of Tyros in the Aegean Sea, it came to an unknown place. The famous Shawei. I jumped off the boat and spent the night alone on the shore. The next day, I climbed up a mountain in the morning glow to try the wind force and direction. At this time, our partners on the boat also followed suit Go ashore. I met them on the way back to the boat, but they were still leading a boy. They subdued the boy on the deserted beach. The boy was handsome, as beautiful as a girl, and he seemed thirsty After drinking, he staggered when he walked, as if he had fallen asleep, and it was difficult to keep up with everyone.

"'Which god is hidden in this child's heart?' I asked the crowd. "'Don't know, we're sure he's a god.' "'Whoever you are,' I went on, 'I ask that we all be well! Forgive those who have taken you!' "'What are you muttering about?' cried one of the crew. 'Don't pray to him!' "Others laughed at me, and I couldn't fight them at all. One of the youngest and strongest boys among them was actually a vicious murderer. After committing the crime, he escaped. He grabbed me by the collar and threw me into the water. Throw it away. If I hadn't caught a rope on the boat by chance, I would have drowned. At this time, everyone hurriedly dragged the boy aboard the big boat, where he lay as if asleep. Later, he was Everyone woke up, and came among the crew, and asked aloud: 'Why are you making such a noise? How did I come here? Where are you sending me?'

"'You need not be afraid,' replied one of the sinister sailors, 'tell us the port you wish to go to, and we will carry you there as far as you wish.' "'Well,' said the boy, 'please sail to the island of Naxos, which is my homeland!' "The deceitful sailors promised him falsely, and told me to set sail and get ready to sail. Naxos was on our right. But when I hoisted, they winked at me and whispered:' You idiot, what are you doing? Are you crazy? Go left!' "'I don't understand, then please find someone else to carry out the order!' and I stepped back.

"'As if sailing really depends on you!' jeered a gruff man, stepping forward and hoisting the sails. And just like that, Naxos was on the right, and the ship was heading in the opposite direction. The boy seemed to have discovered their deception at this time. With a sneer on the corner of his mouth, he looked out at the sea from the after deck. He feigned despair and begged: "Oh, sailors, you promised to send me to Naxo Well, you're going in the wrong direction now! There's no sense in you people deceiving a child.' The sailors just looked at him and me mockingly, and kept paddling without changing direction. Suddenly, The ship was thrown on the sea, motionless, as if stranded, no matter how the sailors rowed with the oars, they could not move forward. After a while, the vines entangled the oars, and the vines climbed up the mast.

"Bacchus—so it was the boy, standing there radiantly, with a headband made of grape leaves on his forehead, holding a scepter wrapped with vines in his hand, and around him were tigers, lynxes, and lynxes. Leopard. The smell of sweet wine spread throughout the ship. The sailors jumped up in fright. The first man was about to cry out, but found that his lips and nose had joined together and became the mouth of a fish. Before the others had time to utter screamed, and met the same fate: blue scales grew on their bodies, their backs were bent, their arms were shrunk into fins, and their feet had long been turned into tails. All of them became fish , jumped into the sea from the deck, and floated up and down. There were 20 people on board, and I was the only one left unharmed. But my limbs were trembling, and I was waiting to lose my human shape at any time. However, Bacchus came forward friendly, because I did not hurt him, so he said: 'Don't be afraid, send me to Naxos.' When we got there, he pulled me by the altar and made me a servant to the gods." We are tired of hearing your nonsense," cried King Pentheus; "come, seize him, and make him suffer a thousand tortures, and put him in the dungeon!" The servants obeyed and bound him. Locked in a dungeon.But an invisible hand let him go.

The king was very angry and began to persecute the believers of Bacchus on a large scale.Pentheus's biological mother, Agauer, and several sisters all participated in the lively worship activities.The king sent someone to capture them and put all the believers of Bacchus in prison. However, without anyone's help, their handcuffs and shackles fell off by themselves, and the prison door opened wide.With admiration for Bacchus, they returned to the woods.The servant sent to capture Dionysus also came back in confusion, because Bacchus smiled and willingly let him put on the shackles.Bacchus stood before the king, who, though he did not want to look, was amazed at the youthful beauty of Dionysus.But he remains stubborn, and regards Dionysus as a liar who has stolen Bacchus' name.The king had Bacchus put in heavy fetters, and locked him in a cave near the stables.But Dionysus gave an order, and the mountains shook immediately.

The brick wall at the entrance of the cave was shaken down, and the shackles on the hands and feet were also loosened.He came out safe and sound, and returned to his followers, looking even more handsome and handsome than ever. Another herald came to King Pentheus and reported to him the miracles performed in the wood by the fanatical women of whom his mother and sisters were the leaders.They only need to tap the rock wall with their sticks, and immediately clear springs and wine will flow from the cracks in the stones, milk will flow in the streams, and honey will drip from the hollow trunks.

"Yes," added an inquirer, "if you had been there and seen the deity yourself, you would have knelt before him!" Pentheus was still more enraged, and he ordered heavily armed infantry and cavalry to disperse the large number of believers.Unexpectedly, Bacchus came to the king himself, and he promised to bring the female believers with him, but the king had to wear women's clothes, because he was a man, and he was not yet a Christian, and the women would tear him to pieces.King Pentheus accepted the proposal with great reluctance and suspicion, and he followed Dionysus outside the city, when he was suddenly bewitched, which was a lesson given to him by the Almighty God.

It seemed to him that there were two suns before his eyes, a city of Thebes double in size, with every gate twice as high, and Bacchus looked to him like a bull with a pair of huge horns on his head .Filled with passion for Bacchus, he begged for a scepter, which he took and ran forward excitedly. They came to a deep valley surrounded by pine trees.The female followers of Bacchus gathered and sang praises to their gods, and they wrapped their scepters with fresh vines, but Pentheus was blind, perhaps Bacchus deliberately led him in a detour Road, so he did not see the women frantically gathering.Now Dionysus stretched out a hand to the sky, and a miracle occurred, and the hand reached as far as the top of the pine tree he had grasped, bent it down like a willow branch, and let Pentheus Sit on it and let the pine slowly return to its previous position.The strange thing is that Pentheus didn't fall down, he sat firmly on the high canopy.Many women of Bacchus in the valley saw the king, but the king could not see them.At this time, Dionysus, the god of wine, shouted towards the valley: "Women, he is the one who mocks our sacred ordinances, punish him!" Not a leaf trembled in the forest, not a living creature was heard.The believers of Bacchus raised their heads, and when they heard the voice of the leader calling, they ran quickly.As if sent by the gods, in the carnival they passed through the rushing river and the dense jungle, and finally approached and saw their enemy, their king, sitting on the top of the tree.They started by throwing stones, broken branches and wands.But none of these things could be thrown on the canopy where the king was.They then used strong oak sticks to dig the soil around the pine tree and dug out the roots.The big tree fell down with a bang, and Pentheus fell to the ground with the trunk of the tree.Dionysus drew charms on the eyes of Pentheus's mother, Agaue, so that she could not recognize her son.Now she bears the brunt, making a punishing gesture.At this moment, the king turned pale with fright, and suddenly regained consciousness, shouted "Mother", and wanted to throw himself into his mother's arms. "Do you still know your son? I am Pentheus, the son you gave birth to when you were in Echon's house. Have pity on me, and don't punish your child!" But this fanatical female follower of Bacchus, But foaming at the mouth, squinting at him, did not recognize him as her own son, all she saw was a ferocious wild lion.She grabbed her son by the shoulders and snapped his right arm.Her sisters swarmed up and pulled down the king's right arm.A group of women rushed forward frantically, tearing off a piece of flesh from his body.Agauer stretched out her bloody hands again, tightly twisted her son's head, and put it on her scepter, still thinking it was a huge lion's head, and carried it excitedly through Chitheron woods.