Be thou my safeguard from the woeful thing!

Iris. Courage, old men! beholding here—Night's birth—

Madness, and me the handmaid of the gods,

Iris: since to your town we come, no plague—

Wage war against the house of but one man

From Zeus and from Alkmené sprung, they say.

Now, till he made an end of bitter toils,

Fate kept him safe, nor did his father Zeus

Let us once hurt him, Heré nor myself.

But, since he has toiled through Eurustheus' task,