The Equinox (Volume I, Number VI)

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 ! 37