THE RITE OF JUPITER
AUTONOE.
Us, maidens now
And then and ever afterwards!
AGAVE.
Chaste, chaste
I
Our madness hath no touch of bitterness,
No taste of foulness in the morning mouth.
AUTONOE. 0 mouth of ripe red sunny grapes! God! God!
Evoel Dwell! Abide!
AGAVE.
I feel the wings
Of love, of mystery; they waft soft streams
Of night air to my heated breast and brow.
M/ENADS. He comes! He comes!
AGAVE.
Silence, 0 girls, and peace!
The God's most holy presence asks the hymn,
The solemn hymn, the hymn of agony,
Lest, in the air of glory that surrounds
The child of Semelé, we lose the earth
And corporal presence of the Zeus-begot.
AUTONOE. Yea, sisters, raise the chant of riotl
Lift
Your wine-sweetvoices, move your wine-stained limbs
In joyful invocation
!
MAENADS.
Ay, we sing.
AGAVE.
Hail, child of Semele!
To her as unto thee
Be reverence, be deity, be immortality
!
Shame! treachery of the spouse
or the Olympian house,
Hera ! thy grim device against the sweet carouse !
L0! in red roar and flame
Did Zeus descend!
What claim
To feel the immortal fire had then the Theban dame
!
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