XANTHIAS. Lose no time and attack the door with vigour, if you have the courage of Heracles as well as his costume.
DIONYSUS. Ho! there! Slave!
AEACUS. Who's there?
DIONYSUS. Heracles, the bold.
AEACUS. Ah! wretched, impudent, shameless, threefold rascal, the most rascally of rascals. Ah! 'tis you who hunted out our dog Cerberus, whose keeper I was! But I have got you to-day; and the black stones of Styx, the rocks of Acheron, from which the blood is dripping, and the roaming dogs of Cocytus shall account to me for you; the hundred-headed Hydra shall tear your sides to pieces; the Tartessian Muraena[438] shall fasten itself on your lungs and the Tithrasian[439] Gorgons shall tear your kidneys and your gory entrails to shreds; I will go and fetch them as quickly as possible.
XANTHIAS. Eh! what are you doing there?
DIONYSUS (stooping down). I have just shit myself! Invoke the god.[440]
XANTHIAS. Get up at once. How a stranger would laugh, if he saw you.
DIONYSUS. Ah! I'm fainting. Place a sponge on my heart.
XANTHIAS. Here, take it.