I showed Pentheus how foolish he is. His...

I showed Pentheus how foolish he is. His mind was full of hope instead of reality and so, in his delusion, he thought that he had tied me up but, the fool, he had neither touched me nor hurt me in the slightest.

He took me to the stall of a bull and instead of tying the ropes around my hands he tied them around the bull’s knees and hooves, all the while fuming with rage, his body covered in sweat and biting at his lips. I watched him from nearby in utter comfort.

It was then that Dionysus came and lit the flame on my mother’s tomb. As soon as he saw that he thought that the palace was burning and so he was jumping all around the place, shouting for someone to bring Aheloos in there. All the slaves got down to work but – all in vain! I left then and he, too, gave up on trying to save the palace, found his black sword and rushed out into all the rooms.

But I think that Dionysos created an apparition in the court and Pentheus charged at it, fighting it as if he was fighting me. More than that, Dionysos, seeing my awful fetters, gave Pentheus something else to think about: He shook the palace from the foundations up, smashed everything! Stupid boy, he was so exhausted now, he dropped his sword and gave up. Irrational man! A mortal trying to fight it out with a god! So, I quietly got out of the palace, forgot about the fool and, here I am, among you!

Euripides, The Bacchae. https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Bacchae.php

Full text of the play:

• http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/e-bacch.html
• https://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Greek/Bacchae.php