BOOK III.

Agenor commands his son Cadmus to seek his sister Europa. While he is

doing this, he slays a dragon in Bœotia; and having sowed its teeth in

the earth, men are produced, with whose assistance he builds the walls

of Thebes. His first cause of grief is the fate of his grandson Actæon,

who, being changed into a stag, is torn to pieces by his own hounds.

This, however, gives pleasure to Juno, who hates not only Semele, the

daughter of Cadmus, and the favourite of Jupiter, but all the house of

Agenor as well. Assuming the form of Beroë, she contrives the

destruction of Semele by the lightnings of Jupiter; while Bacchus, being

saved alive from his mother’s womb, is brought up on the earth. Jupiter

has a discussion with Juno on the relative pleasures of the sexes, and

they agree to refer the question to Tiresias, who has been of both

sexes. He gives his decision in favour of Jupiter, on which Juno

deprives him of sight; and, by way of recompense, Jupiter bestows on him

the gift of prophesy. His first prediction is fulfilled in the case of

Narcissus, who, despising the advances of all females (in whose number

is Echo, who has been transformed into a sound), at last pines away with

love for himself, and is changed into a flower which bears his name.

Pentheus, however, derides the prophet; who predicts his fate, and his

predictions are soon verified; for, on the celebration of the orgies,

Bacchus having assumed a disguise, is brought before him; and having

related to Pentheus the story of the transformation of the Etrurian

sailors into dolphins, he is thrown into prison. On this, Pentheus is

torn in pieces by the Bacchanals, and great respect is afterwards paid

to the rites of Bacchus.