Amphitryon, or Jupiter in Disguise (1125-1135)

if I am allowed to take my half of a blessing in partnership with Jupiter. Go home, and bid the sacred vessels to be at once prepared for me, that with many victims I may seek my peace with supreme Jove. I will apply to Tiresias [*] the soothsayer, and consult him what he considers ought to be done; at the same time I’ll relate to him this matter just as it has happened. (It thunders.)

But what means this? How dreadfully it thunders! Ye Gods, your mercy, I do entreat.

Be of good cheer, Amphitryon; I am come to thy aid: thou hast nothing to fear; all diviners and soothsayers let alone. What is to be, and what has past, I will tell thee; and so much better than they can, inasmuch as I am Jupiter.

First of all, I have made loan of the person of Alcmena, and have caused her to be pregnant with a son. Thou, too, didst cause her to be pregnant, when thou didst set out upon the expedition; at one birth has she brought forth the two together. One of these, the one that is sprung from my parentage,