Dionysus, thiasus and a sacrophagus *

Behold  and watch the procession
Of men, women, drunken lot
How they had come out
Whence to dreams thine
They are brought,

Thou holding thyrsus
Led the way towards a fest,
And Maeneds chanting verse
With Silenus found the jest,
Had they been all out of town
Then what that thiasus for
Had they gathered for the crown
Thence why there's no splendour?

Or was it thy supreme state
In which thou held the earth
Was it thy heavenly bless
That thou gave all thy mirth?

They say thou art the guardian of the gate
They say thou hold pride of lions as fate,
They say if thou arrive, men turn faint
They say by thy declare, vines are sent
To mortal kinds who have nothing else to cheer
They say thou art that whom Gods even fear,

I just look at sacrophagus so kept for sages,
I just find in that carved Beauty pious for ages.

(* note : this is written on a marble scarophagus , picture of which is attached, with carved figures of Dionysus and Maeneds)