The Voice.
Unveil the Lightning's eye; arouse
The fire that sleeps, against this house!
[Fire leaps up on 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.