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temple of Apollo of Daphne, as having a womanish mind, and busying himself with how a woman, having intercourse with a man, conceives, and how the nature of the blood is divided into bones and flesh and veins and sinews and blood, and an infant is given life and is born; which things the most wise Cephalion wrote about. For the most wise Sophocles produced a drama and said poetically that he saw Pallas bathing and became a woman; Tiresias, he says, sought to know the wisdom of the creator and was not able; wherefore the same Sophocles set forth in his writings that these things are of truth: There is one God, who fashioned the heaven and the broad earth and the grey-gleaming swell of the sea and the force of the winds; But we mortals, wandering much in heart, have established as consolations for our woes images 41 of the gods from stones and wood or figures of gold-wrought or ivory, and making sacrifices and empty festivals for these, we think we are pious. For the same Sophocles seemed to glorify monarchy. But Cadmus gave his own daughter Agave to a certain senator Echion; which Echion had from her a son named Pentheus, an intelligent man both in prudence and in all things. And Semele, his other daughter, who was very comely, was loved by someone named Polymedon, the son of the senator Aetherion, descended from the race of Picus Zeus; whom he persuaded and seduced, from whom he had a son. And while she had the child in her womb, it being winter, there were great lightnings and thunders; and the maiden Semele was frightened, and she immediately gave birth to the infant at seven months, but she, not enduring the pains, died; and Cadmus sent the infant to the Nysian land, and there it was raised; and for this reason he wrote that Zeus kept it for the remaining time of its mother's womb in his own thigh, because having been miscarried it had part of its life outside the time of its birth, as the most wise Palaephatus wrote. whom his grandfather Cadmus called Nysius, but the rest, as one performing certain wonders from a solar prayer, renamed him Dionysus, as being from his father's lineage, and they 42 deified him for having discovered nourishment for men through the vine. For he also set forth certain things about the vine and about agriculture; and he also learned certain mystical things and the same Dionysus became a man wise also in initiations, and he performed certain illusions of wonders. who also went to the Persians and to the Indians and to many lands, and while warring he showed certain illusions of wonders, also having a large army with him. But Cadmus, having grown old, yielded the administration of the kingdom of the Boeotians to the son of Echion, to Pentheus, his grandson; who was praised by the senators and by all. But Cadmus, taking Tiresias, spent much time in the land of Boeotia on Mount Cithaeron. And Dionysus, hearing this, that his grandfather had grown old, came to the Cadmean city with great rank and arms, being due to be king. And seeing him performing certain illusions and having hoplites, and summoning all his kin, and teaching his kinswomen the initiations of solar Bacchic rites, whom they called Bacchantes, and likewise also teaching the citizens the rituals of certain solar prayers in order to persuade the Boeotians that he was able to lay claim 43 to the kingdom, being adorned with arms and an army, whom, he says, he called skirtoi, as being nimble and leaping; for they were from the Bessian land, and educated in mystical wisdom; Pentheus, knowing these things, was jealous of him, hearing that he also desired the kingdom of the Boeotians. And becoming enemies, they joined in war in the city; and Pentheus, having conquered him, took him, and having bound him, guarded him on account of the presence of Cadmus, their grandfather. But Agave, as his aunt and the mother of Pentheus, persuading her own son, made him release him. who, having been released

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ἱερὸν ∆αφναίου Ἀπόλλωνος, ὡς γυναικώδεις ἔχων φρένας, καὶ πολυπραγμονοῦντα πῶς μιγνυμένη γυνὴ μετὰ ἀνδρὸς συλλαμβάνει, καὶ ἡ φύσις τοῦ αἵματος μερίζεται εἰς ὀστέα καὶ σάρκας καὶ φλέβας καὶ νεῦρα καὶ αἷμα, καὶ ζωογονεῖται βρέφος καὶ τίκτεται· ἅτινα ὁ σοφώτατος Κεφαλίων συνεγράψατο. ὁ γὰρ σοφώτατος Σοφοκλῆς δρᾶμα ἐξέθετο καὶ ποιητικῶς εἶπεν ὅτι τὴν Παλλάδα εἶδε λουομένην καὶ γυνὴ ἐγένετο· ὁ Τειρεσίας, φησί, τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ δημιουργοῦ ἐζήτησε γνῶναι καὶ οὐκ ἠδυνήθη· ὅθεν ἐξέθετο ὁ αὐτὸς Σοφοκλῆς ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῦ συγγράμμασι ταῦτα ἀληθείας εἶναι· εἷς ἐστιν ὁ θεός, ὃς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἔτευξε καὶ γαῖαν μακρὰν πόντου τε χαροποῦ οἶδμα καὶ ἀνέμων βίας· θνητοὶ δὲ πολὺ καρδίᾳ πλανώμενοι, ἱδρυσάμεθα πημάτων παραψυχὰς θεῶν ἀγάλ 41 ματα ἐκ λίθων καὶ ξύλων ἢ χρυσοτεύκτων ἢ ἐλεφαντίνων τύπους, θυσίας τε τούτοις καὶ κενὰς πανηγύρεις τεύχοντες εὐσεβεῖν νομίζομεν. μοναρχίαν γὰρ ἐδόκει δοξάζειν ὁ αὐτὸς Σοφοκλῆς. Ὁ δὲ Κάδμος ἐξέδωκε τὴν ἑαυτοῦ θυγατέρα τὴν Ἀγαύην Ἐχίονί τινι συγκλητικῷ· ὅστις Ἐχίων ἔσχεν ἐξ αὐτῆς υἱὸν ὀνόματι Πενθέα, ἄνδρα συνετὸν καὶ ἐν φρονήσει καὶ ἐν πᾶσι. τὴν δὲ Σεμέλην, τὴν ἄλλην αὐτοῦ θυγατέρα, εὐπρεπεστάτην οὖσαν πάνυ, ἐφίλησέ τις ὀνόματι Πολυμήδων, υἱὸς Αἰθερίωνος συγκλητικοῦ, ἐκ τοῦ γένους καταγομένου τοῦ Πίκου ∆ιός· ἣν προτρεψάμενος ἔφθειρεν, ἀφ' ἧς ἔσχεν υἱόν. καὶ ἐν τῷ ἔχειν αὐτὴν ἐν γαστρὶ τὸν παῖδα χειμῶνος ὄντος ἐγένοντο ἀστραπαὶ μεγάλαι καὶ βρονταί· καὶ ἐθροήθη ἡ κόρη Σεμέλη, καὶ τὸ μὲν βρέφος παρευθὺς ἐγέννησε μηνῶν ἑπτά, αὐτὴ δὲ μὴ ὑπενέγκασα τοὺς πόνους ἐτελεύτησε· καὶ ἔπεμψεν ὁ Κάδμος τὸ βρέφος εἰς τὴν Νυσίαν χώραν, κἀκεῖ ἐτράφη· διὰ τοῦτο δὲ συνεγράψατο ὅτι ὁ Ζεὺς τὸν λοιπὸν χρόνον τῆς μητρικῆς αὐτοῦ γαστρὸς ἐν τῷ ἰδίῳ κόλπῳ ἐφύλαξε, διότι μέρος ζωῆς ἔσχε παρὰ τὸν χρόνον τῆς γεννήσεως αὐτοῦ ἐκτρωθείς, καθὼς Παλαίφατος ὁ σοφώτατος συνεγράψατο. ὅντινα ὁ αὐτοῦ πάππος Κάδμος Νύσιον ἐκάλεσεν, ἀλλ' οἱ λοιποὶ ὡς θαύματά τινα ποιοῦντα ἐκ τῆς ἡλιακῆς εὐχῆς ∆ιόνυσον μετεκάλεσαν, ὡς ἐκ γένους ὄντα πατρῴου, καὶ ἀπε 42 θέωσαν αὐτὸν εὑρηκότα δι' ἀμπέλου τροφὴν ἀνθρώποις. ἐξέθετο γὰρ καὶ περὶ τῆς ἀμπέλου καὶ τῆς γεωργικῆς τινα· ἔμαθε δὲ καὶ μυστικά τινα καὶ ἐγένετο ἀνὴρ σοφὸς καὶ ἐν μυσταγωγίαις ὁ αὐτὸς ∆ιόνυσος, καὶ ἐποίει φαντασίας τινὰς θαυμάτων. ὅστις καὶ πρὸς Πέρσας καὶ πρὸς Ἰνδοὺς καὶ εἰς πολλὰς χώρας ἀπῆλθε, καὶ πολεμῶν φαντασίας τινὰς θαυμάτων ἐδείκνυεν, ἔχων καὶ στρατὸν μεθ' ἑαυτοῦ πολύν. ὁ δὲ Κάδμος γεγηρακὼς παρεχώρησε τῆς διοικήσεως τῆς βασιλείας τῶν Βοιωτῶν τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ Ἐχίονος, τῷ Πενθεῖ, τῷ ἐκγόνῳ αὐτοῦ· ὅστις ἐπῃνεῖτο παρὰ τῶν συγκλητικῶν καὶ παρὰ πάντων. ὁ Κάδμος δὲ λαβὼν τὸν Τειρεσίαν διῆγεν ἐν τῇ χώρᾳ τῆς Βοιωτίας ἐπὶ τὸ Κιθαιρώνιον ὄρος τὸν πολὺν χρόνον. τοῦτο δὲ ἀκούσας ὁ ∆ιόνυσος, ὅτι ἐγήρασεν ὁ αὐτοῦ πάππος, ἦλθεν ἐπὶ τὴν Καδμείαν πόλιν μετὰ πολλῆς ἀξίας καὶ ὅπλων, ὀφείλων βασιλεῦσαι. καὶ ἑωρακὼς αὐτὸν φαντασίας τινὰς ποιοῦντα καὶ ὁπλίτας ἔχοντα, καὶ προσκαλούμενον πᾶσαν τὴν συγγένειαν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὰς συγγενίδας διδάσκοντα μυσταγωγίας ἡλιακῶν βακχευμάτων, ἃς ἔλεγον βάκχας, ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ τοὺς πολίτας καὶ τελετάς τινων εὐχῶν διδάσκοντα ἡλιακῶν πρὸς τὸ πεῖσαι τοὺς Βοιωτοὺς δύνασθαι αὐτὸν ἀντέχεσθαι 43 τῆς βασιλείας, κεκοσμημένον ὅπλῳ καὶ στρατῷ, οὕς, φησί, σκίρτους ἐκάλει, ὡς γοργοὺς καὶ ἐξαλλομένους· ἦσαν γὰρ ἐκ τῆς Βεσσικῆς χώρας, καὶ σοφίᾳ μυστικῇ πεπαιδευμένοι· ταῦτα γνοὺς ὁ Πενθεὺς ἐφθόνει αὐτῷ, ἀκούσας ὅτι καὶ τῆς βασιλείας τῶν Βοιωτῶν ἐπιθυμεῖ. καὶ γενόμενοι ἐχθροὶ συνέβαλον πόλεμον ἐν τῇ πόλει· καὶ ὁ Πενθεὺς νικήσας αὐτὸν παρέλαβεν αὐτόν, καὶ δήσας ἐφύλαξεν αὐτὸν διὰ τὴν παρουσίαν τοῦ Κάδμου, τοῦ πάππου αὐτῶν. ἡ δὲ Ἀγαύη, ὡς θεία αὐτοῦ καὶ μήτηρ τοῦ Πενθέως, πείσασα τὸν ἴδιον υἱὸν ἐποίησεν αὐτὸν ἀπολῦσαι αὐτόν. ὅστις ἀπολυθεὶς