It was not to practice self-control that the wife of Zeus sent you here.

MadnessI call the sun-god to witness that here I am acting against my will; but if indeed I must at once serve you and Hera and follow you in full cry as hounds follow the huntsman, then I will go; neither ocean with its fiercely groaning waves, nor the earthquake, nor the thunderbolt with blast of agony shall be like the headlong rush I will make into the breast of Heracles; through his roof will I burst my way and swoop upon his house, after first slaying his children; nor shall their murderer know that he is killing the children he begot, till he is released from my madness. Behold him! see how even now he is wildly tossing his head at the outset, and rolling his eyes fiercely from side to side without a word; nor can he control his panting breath, like a fearful bull in act to charge; he bellows, calling on the goddesses of nether hell. Soon will I rouse you to yet wilder dancing and pipe a note of terror in your ear. Soar away, O Iris, to Olympus on your honored course; while I unseen will steal into the halls of Heracles.

ChorusAlas alas! lament; the son of Zeus, flower of your city, is being cut down. Woe to you, Hellas! that will cast from you your benefactor, and destroy him as he dances in the shrill frenzy of Madness.She is mounted on her chariot, the queen of sorrow and sighing, and is goading on her steeds, as if for outrage, the Gorgon child of Night, with a hundred hissing serpent-heads, Madness of the flashing eyes.Soon has the god changed his good fortune; soon will his children breathe their last, slain by a father’s hand.

AmphitryonAh me! alas!

ChorusO Zeus, unjust Vengeance, mad, relentless, will soon give your childless son up to misery.

AmphitryonAlas, O house!

ChorusThe dance begins without the cymbals’ crash, with no glad waving of the wine-god’s staff—

AmphitryonWoe to these halls!

ChorusToward bloodshed, and not to pour libations of Dionysus’ grape.

AmphitryonO children, make haste to fly!

ChorusThat is the chant of death, of death, to the music of pipes.Ah, yes! he is hunting the children down. Never will Madness lead her revel rout in vain.

AmphitryonAh misery!