Will you indeed give me the honest truth?LichasYes, be great Zeus my witness—in anything that I know.DeianeiraWho is the woman, then, whom you escorted here?LichasShe is Euboean. But whose offspring, I cannot say.MessengerYou there, look at me. To whom do you think you speak?LichasAnd you, to what end have you asked me such a question?MessengerDare to answer my question, if you are sensible.LichasI speak to the royal Deianeira, daughter of Oeneus, wife of Heracles and, unless my eyes deceive me, my mistress.MessengerThe very word that I wished to hear from you—you admit that she is your mistress?LichasYes, it is only right to do so.MessengerWell, then, what penalty would you think it right to pay, if you should be found to be behaving wrongly towards her?LichasWrongly? What fiction have you created?MessengerNone. Rather it is you, to be sure, who do this.LichasI am leaving—I was foolish to listen to you so long.MessengerNo, not until you have answered a small question.LichasSpeak, if you require something. You are not the silent type.MessengerThat captive, whom you escorted into the house, you know whom I mean?LichasYes. But why do you ask?MessengerDid you not avow that she, on whom you look as if in ignorance,was Iole, the seed of Eurytus, your captive?