Bacchus here personates Acoetes, the pilot of a ship which carried away the infant Bacchus from the Isle of Naxos—The crew were changed into sea monsters, but Acaetes was preserved.
Him Pentheus view’d with fury in his look, And scarce withheld his hands while thus he spoke: “Vile slave! whom speedy vengeance shall pursue, And terrify thy base seditious crew, Thy country and thy parentage reveal, And why thou join’st in these mad orgies tell.”
The captive views him with undaunted eyes, And, arm’d with inward innocence, replies: