[To Hyllus.]

This woe, my son, is of thy mother's gift.

Oh, that I might crush out her guilty life

With my great club, as once the Amazons1450

I smote upon the snowy Caucasus.

O well-loved Megara, to think that thou

Wast wife of mine when in that fit I fell

Of maddened rage! Give me my club and bow;

Let my hand be disgraced, and with a blot

Let me destroy the luster of my praise—