Alcmena
Your voice has in it the power of new command
To pierce my secret.
Zeus
Naught is hid from me.
Alcmena
My soul is weak with longing for your counsel.
Zeus
When Semele, with lightning-darted flame
Engirdled, woke with knowledge she must die,
Having aspired to touch the majesty
Of the omnipotent, in no wise dismayed
Was she consumed with that unquenchable fire
Which burns all veils that overspread the flesh.
Alcmena
Whence came the thought of Semele to you?
And why this chain of words now coiled on me
As a predestined victim?