Before the palace of Heracles at Thebes . Nearby stands the altar of Zeus, on the steps of which
 are now seated Amphitryon, Megara 
 and her sons by Heracles. They are seeking refuge at the altar. 
 
 Amphitryon 
 What mortal has not heard of the one who shared a wife with Zeus, Amphitryon
 of Argos, whom once Alcaeus, son of Perseus, begot, Amphitryon the father of
 Heracles? Who lived here in Thebes , where from the sowing of the dragon's teeth grew up a crop of earth-born giants;
 and of these Ares saved a scanty band, and their children's children people
 the city of Cadmus. Hence sprung Creon, son of Menoeceus, king of this land;
 and Creon became the father of
 this lady Megara, whom once all Cadmus' race escorted with the glad music of
 lutes at her wedding, when the famous Heracles led her to my halls. 
 Now he, my son, left Thebes where
 I was settled, left his wife Megara and her kin, eager to make his home in Argolis , in that walled town which the Cyclopes built, from
 which I am exiled for the slaying of Electryon; so he, wishing to lighten my
 affliction and to find a home in his own land, offered Eurystheus a mighty
 price for my recall: to free the
 world of savage monsters, whether it was that Hera goaded him to submit to
 this, or that fate was leagued against him. Other toils he has accomplished,
 and last of all has he passed through the mouth of Taenarus into the halls
 of Hades to drag to the light that
 hound with three bodies, and from there he has never returned.

Now there is an ancient legend among the race of Cadmus that a certain Lycus
 in days gone by was husband to Dirce, and he was king of this city with its
 seven towers, before Amphion and Zethus, sons of Zeus, lords of the milk-white steeds, became rulers in
 the land. His son, called by the same name as his father, although no Theban
 but a stranger from Euboea , slew
 Creon, and after that seized the government, having fallen on this city when
 weakened by dissension. So this
 family connection with Creon is likely to prove to us a serious evil; for
 now that my son is in the bowels of the earth, this new monarch Lycus is
 bent on extirpating the children of Heracles, to quench one bloody feud with another, likewise his wife
 and me, if useless age like mine is to rank among men, that the boys may
 never grow up to exact a blood-penalty of their uncle's family. So I, left
 here by my son, while he is gone into the pitchy darkness of the earth,
 to tend and guard his children in
 his house, am taking my place with their mother, that the race of Heracles
 may not perish, here at the altar of Zeus the Savior, which my own gallant
 child set up to commemorate his
 glorious victory over the Minyae. And here we are careful to keep our
 station, though in need of everything, of food, drink and clothes, huddled
 together on the hard bare ground; for we are barred out from our house and
 sit here for want of any other safety. As for friends, some I see are unreliable; while others, who are staunch,
 have no power to help us further. This is what misfortune means to man; may
 it never fall to the lot of any who bears the least goodwill to me, to apply
 this never-failing test of friendship!

Megara 
 
 Old warrior, who once razed the
 citadel of the Taphians leading on the troops of Thebes to glory, how uncertain are the
 gods' dealings with man! For I, as far as concerned my father, was never an
 outcast of fortune, for he was once accounted a man of might by reason of
 his wealth, possessed as he was of
 royal power, for which long spears are launched at the lives of the
 fortunate through love of it; children too he had; and he gave me to your
 son, matching me in glorious marriage with Heracles. And now all that is
 dead and gone from us; and I and you,
 old friend, are doomed to die, and these children of Heracles, whom I am
 guarding beneath my wing as a bird keeps her tender chicks under her. And
 they one after another keep asking me: “Mother, tell us, where is our
 father gone from the land? what is he
 doing? when will he return?” Thus they inquire for their father, in
 childish perplexity; while I put them off with excuses, inventing stories;
 but still I wonder if it is he whenever a door creaks on its hinges, and up
 they all start, thinking to embrace their father's knees. What hope or way of salvation are you now devising,
 old friend? for I look to you. We can never steal beyond the boundaries of
 the land unseen, for there is too strict a watch set on us at every outlet,
 nor have we any longer hopes of safety in our friends. Whatever your scheme is, declare it, lest our death be
 made ready. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 It is by no means easy, my daughter, to give one's earnest advice on such
 matters easily, without weary thought; but let us prolong the time, since we
 are powerless to escape. 
 
 
 Megara 
 
 Do you need a further taste of grief,
 or do you cling so fast to life? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Yes, I love this life, and cling to its hopes. 
 
 
 Megara 
 So do I; but you should not expect the unexpected, old friend. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 In these delays the only cure for our evils is left. 
 
 
 Megara 
 It is the biting pain of that interval I feel so. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 Daughter, there may yet be a happy
 escape from present troubles for me and you; my son, your husband, may yet
 arrive. So calm yourself, and wipe those tears from your children's eyes,
 and soothe them with soft words, 
 inventing a tale to delude then, piteous though such fraud be. Yes, for even
 men's misfortunes often flag, and the stormy wind does not always blow so
 strong, nor are the prosperous ever so; for all things change, making way
 for each other. The bravest man is
 he who relies ever on his hopes, but despair is the mark of a coward.

The Chorus of Old Men of Thebes 
 enters. 
 
 Chorus 
 To the sheltering roof, to the old man's couch, leaning on my staff have I
 set forth, chanting a plaintive
 dirge like some bird grown grey, I that am only a voice and a fancy bred of
 the visions of sleep by night, palsied with age, yet meaning kindly. All
 hail! you orphaned children! all
 hail, old friend! you too, unhappy mother, wailing for your husband in the
 halls of Hades!

Chorus 
 Do not faint too soon upon your way, 
 or let your limbs grow weary, as a colt beneath the yoke grows weary as he
 mounts some stony hill, dragging the weight of a wheeled chariot. Take hold
 of hand or robe, who ever feels his footsteps falter. Old friend, escort another like yourself, who once
 amid his toiling peers in the days of our youth would take his place beside
 you, no blot upon his country's glorious record.

Chorus 
 
 See, how like their father's sternly
 flash these children's eyes! Misfortune has not failed his children, nor yet
 has his comeliness been denied them. 
 O Hellas ! if you lose these, of
 what allies will you rob yourself!

Chorus Leader 
 But I see Lycus, the ruler of this land, drawing near the house. 
 
 Lycus and his attendants enter. 
 
 Lycus 
 
 One question, if I may, to this
 father of Heracles and his wife; and certainly as your lord and master I
 have a right to put what questions I choose. How long do you seek to prolong
 your lives? What hope, what aid do you see to save you from death?
 Do you trust that these
 children's father, who lies dead in the halls of Hades, will return? How
 unworthily you show your sorrow at having to die, you after your idle
 boasts, scattered broadcast through Hellas , that Zeus was partner in your marriage-bed and was
 your partner in children; and you,
 after calling yourself the wife of so peerless a lord. 
 After all, what was the fine exploit your husband achieved, if he did kill a
 hydra in a marsh or that monster of Nemea ? which he caught in a snare, for all he says he
 strangled it to death in his arms. 
 Are these your weapons for the hard struggle? Is it for this then that
 Heracles' children should be spared? A man who has won a reputation for
 valor in his contests with beasts, in all else a weakling; who never buckled shield to arm nor faced the
 spear, but with a bow, that coward's weapon, was ever ready to run away.
 Archery is no test of manly bravery; no! he is a man who keeps his post in
 the ranks and steadily faces the swift wound the spear may plough.
 My policy, again, old man, shows
 no reckless cruelty, but caution; for I am well aware I slew Creon, the
 father of this woman, and am in possession of his throne. So I have no wish
 that these children should grow up and be left to take vengeance on me in
 requital for what I have done.

Amphitryon 
 
 Let Zeus defend his his own share in
 his son; but as for me, Heracles, it is my concern on your behalf to prove
 by what I say this tyrant's ignorance; for I cannot allow you to be ill
 spoken of. First then for that which should never have been said—for
 to speak of you, Heracles, as a
 coward is, I think, outside the pale of speech—of that must I clear
 you with heaven to witness. I appeal then to the thunder of Zeus, and the
 chariot in which he rode, when he pierced the Giants, earth's brood, to the
 heart with his winged shafts, and
 with gods uplifted the glorious triumph song; or go to Pholoe and ask the
 insolent tribe of four-legged Centaurs, you craven king, ask them who they
 would judge the bravest of men; will they not say my son, who according to
 you is but a pretender? Were you to
 ask Euboean Dirphys, your native place, it would not sing your praise, for
 you have never done a single gallant deed to which your country can witness.
 Next you disparage that clever invention, an archer's weapon; come, listen to me and learn wisdom. A man
 who fights in line is a slave to his weapons, and if his fellow-comrades
 want for courage he is slain himself through the cowardice of his neighbors,
 or, if he breaks his spear, he cannot defend his body from death, having
 only one means of defence; whereas
 all who are armed with the trusty bow, though they have but one weapon, yet
 is it the best; for a man, after discharging countless arrows, still has
 others with which to defend himself from death, and standing at a distance
 keeps off the enemy, wounding them for all their watchfulness with invisible
 shafts, and never exposing himself
 to the foe, but keeping under cover; and this is by far the wisest course in
 battle, to harm the enemy and keep safe oneself, independent of chance.
 These arguments are completely opposite to yours with regard to the point at issue. Next, why are you
 desirous of slaying these children? What have they done to you? One piece of
 wisdom I credit you with, your coward terror of a brave man's descendants.
 Still it is hard on us, if for your
 cowardice we must die; a fate that ought to have overtaken you at our braver
 hands, if Zeus had been fairly disposed towards us. But, if you are so
 anxious to make yourself supreme in the land, let us go into exile;
 abstain from all violence, else
 you will suffer by it whenever the god causes fortune's breeze to veer
 round.

Ah! you land of Cadmus—for to you too will I turn, distributing my
 words of reproach—is this your defense of Heracles and his children?
 the man who faced alone all the
 Minyans in battle and allowed Thebes to see the light with free eyes. I cannot praise
 Hellas , nor will I ever keep
 silence, finding her so craven as regards my son; she should have come with
 fire and sword and warrior's arms to
 help these tender chicks, to requite him for all his labors in purging land
 and sea. Such help, my children, neither Hellas nor the city of Thebes affords you; to me a feeble friend you look, and I
 am empty sound and nothing more. For
 the vigor which once I had, has gone from me; my limbs are palsied with age,
 and my strength is decayed. If I were young and still powerful in body, I
 would have seized my spear and dabbled those flaxen locks of his with blood,
 so that the coward would now be
 flying from my spear beyond the bounds of Atlas. 
 
 
 Chorus Leader 
 Have not the brave among mankind a fair occasion for speech, although slow to
 begin? 
 
 
 Lycus 
 Say what you will of me in your exalted phrase, but I by deeds will make you
 rue those words. 
 Calling to his servants Go, some to Helicon, others to the
 glens of Parnassus , and bid woodmen
 to cut me logs of oak, and when they are brought to the town, pile up a
 stack of wood all round the altar on either side, and set fire to it and
 burn them all alive, that they may
 learn that the dead no longer rules this land, but that for the present I am
 king. angrily to the Chorus As for you, old men, since you
 thwart my views, not for the children of Heracles alone shall you lament,
 but likewise for your own 
 misfortunes, and you shall never forget you are slaves and I your
 prince.

Chorus 
 —You sons of Earth, whom Ares once sowed, when from the dragon's
 ravening jaw he had torn the teeth, up with your staves, on which you lean
 your hands, and dash out this
 villain's brains! a fellow who, without even being a Theban, but a
 foreigner, lords it shamefully over the younger men; but my master shall you
 never be to your joy. 
 —Nor shall you reap the harvest of all my toil; Go back to where you came from, in your insolence.
 For never while I live, shall you slay these sons of Heracles; not so deep
 beneath the earth has their father disappeared from his children's ken. 
 —You are in possession of this land which you have ruined, while he, its benefactor, has missed his
 just reward. 
 —And yet do I take too much upon myself because I help those I love
 after their death, when most they need a friend? 
 —Ah! right hand, how you desire to wield the spear, but your weakness
 is a death-blow to your desire. For
 then I would have stopped you calling me slave, and I would have governed
 Thebes with credit. In which
 you now rejoice; for a city sick with dissension and evil counsels does not
 think aright; otherwise it would never have accepted you as its master.

Megara 
 
 Old men, I thank you; it is right
 that friends should feel virtuous indignation on behalf of those they love;
 but do not on our account vent your anger on the tyrant to your own undoing.
 Hear my advice, Amphitryon, if there appears to you to be anything in what I
 say. I love my children; strange if
 I did not love those whom I bore, whom I labored for! Death I count a
 dreadful fate; but the man who strives against necessity I esteem a fool.
 Since we must die, let us do so 
 without being burnt alive, a source of mockery to our enemies, which to my
 mind is an evil worse than death; for much good do we owe our family. You
 have always had a warrior's fair fame, so it is not to be endured that you
 should die a coward's death; and my
 husband's reputation needs no one to witness that he would never consent to
 save these children's lives by letting them incur the stain of cowardice;
 for the noble are afflicted by disgrace on account of their children, nor
 must I shrink from following my lord's example. As to your hopes consider how I weigh them. Do you think
 your son will return from beneath the earth? And who ever has come back from
 the dead out of the halls of Hades? But would you soften this man by
 entreaty? Oh no! better to fly from one's enemy when he is so brutish,
 but yield to men of breeding and
 wisdom; for you would more easily conclude a friendly truce by accepting
 regard. True, a thought has already occurred to me that we might by entreaty
 obtain a sentence of exile for the children; yet this too is misery, to
 compass their deliverance with dire penury as the result; for it is a saying that hosts look sweetly on
 banished friends for a day and no more. Endure to die with us, for that
 awaits you after all. By your brave soul I challenge you, old friend; for
 whoever struggles hard to escape destiny sent by the gods shows zeal no doubt, but it is zeal with a taint
 of folly; for what must be, no one will ever avail to alter. 
 
 
 Chorus Leader 
 If a man had insulted you, while yet my arms were strong, there would have
 been an easy way to stop him; but now am I am nothing ; and so you
 henceforth, Amphitryon, must scheme
 how to avert misfortune.

Amphitryon 
 It is not cowardice or any longing for life that hinders my dying, but my
 wish to save my son's children, though no doubt I am longing for the
 impossible. See! here is my neck ready for the sword to pierce, to hack, to hurl from the rock; only
 one favor I crave for both of us, king; slay me and this hapless mother
 before you slay the children, that we may not see the hideous sight, as they
 gasp out their lives, calling on their mother and their father's father; for the rest work your will if
 so you are inclined; for we have no defense against death. 
 
 
 Megara 
 I too implore you add a second favor, that by your single act you may put us
 both under a double obligation; allow me to deck my children in the robes of
 death, first opening the palace
 gates, for now we are shut out, so that this at least they may obtain from
 their father's halls. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 I grant it, and bid my servants undo the bolts. Go in and deck yourselves;
 robes do not grudge. But as soon as you have clothed yourselves, I will return to you to consign you to the
 nether world. Lycus and his retinue withdraw. 
 
 
 
 Megara 
 Children, follow the footsteps of your hapless mother to your father's house,
 where others possess his substance, though his name is still
 ours. Megara and her children enter the palace. 
 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 O Zeus, in vain, it seems, did I get you to share my bride with me;
 in vain used we to call you
 partner in my son. After all you are less our friend than you pretended.
 Great god as you are, I, a mortal, surpass you in true worth. For I did not
 betray the children of Heracles; but you by stealth found your way to my
 bed, taking another's wife without
 leave given, while to save your own friends you have no skill. Either you
 are a god of little sense, or else naturally unjust. Amphitryon
 follows Megara into the palace.

Chorus 
 Phoebus is singing a dirge, after his happier strains, for Linus dead in his beauty, striking his lyre
 with key of gold; but I wish to sing a song of praise, a crown to all his
 toil, on the one who has gone to the gloom beneath the nether world,
 whether I am to call him son of
 Zeus or of Amphitryon. For the virtue of noble toils is a glory to the
 dead.

Chorus 
 First he cleared the grove of Zeus of
 a lion, and put its skin upon his back, hiding his yellow hair in its
 fearful tawny gaping jaws.

Chorus 
 And then one day with murderous bow he wounded the race of wild Centaurs, that range the hills, slaying
 them with winged shafts. Peneus, the river of fair eddies, knows him well,
 and those far fields unharvested, 
 and the steadings on Pelion and
 neighboring caves of Homole, from where the Centaurs rode forth to conquer
 Thessaly , arming themselves
 with pines.

Chorus 
 
 And he slew that dappled deer with
 horns of gold, that preyed upon the country-folk, glorifying Artemis,
 huntress queen of Oenoe.

Chorus 
 
 Next he mounted on a chariot and
 tamed with the bit the horses of Diomedes, that greedily champed their
 bloody food at gory mangers with unbridled jaws, devouring with hideous joy
 the flesh of men; then crossing the
 heights of Hebrus that flow with
 silver, he still toiled on for the tyrant of Mycenae .

Chorus 
 And at the strand of the Pelian gulf 
 by the streams of Anaurus, he slew with his arrows Cycnus, murderer of his
 guests, the savage wretch who dwelt in Amphanae.

Chorus 
 And he came to those minstrel maids, 
 to their orchard in the west, to pluck from golden leaves the apple-bearing
 fruit, when he had slain the tawny dragon, whose terrible coils were twined
 all round to guard it; and he made
 his way into ocean's lairs, bringing calm to men that use the oar.

Chorus 
 And he stretched out his hands to uphold the firmament, seeking the home of Atlas, and on his manly
 shoulders took the starry mansions of the gods.

Chorus 
 Then he went through the waves of heaving Euxine against the mounted host of
 Amazons dwelling round Maeotis, the
 lake that is fed by many a stream, having gathered to his standard all his
 friends from Hellas , to fetch the
 gold-embroidered raiment of the warrior queen, a deadly quest for a girdle. Hellas won those glorious spoils of the barbarian maid, and
 they are safe in Mycenae .

Chorus 
 He burned to ashes Lerna 's
 murderous hound, the many-headed
 hydra, and smeared its venom on his darts, with which he slew the shepherd
 of Erytheia, a monster with three bodies.

Chorus 
 
 And many another glorious achievement
 he brought to a happy issue; to Hades' house of tears has he now sailed, the
 goal of his labors, where he is ending his career of toil, nor does he come
 back again. Now your house is left
 without a friend, and Charon's boat awaits your children to bear them on
 that journey out of life, without return, contrary to the gods' law and
 man's justice; and it is to your prowess that your house is looking although you are not here.

Chorus 
 Had I been strong and lusty, able to brandish the spear in battle's onset,
 and my Theban companions too, I would have stood by your children to champion them; but now my happy youth is
 gone and I am left.

Chorus Leader 
 But look! I see the children of Heracles who was once so great, wearing the
 clothes of the dead, and his loving
 wife dragging her babes along at her side, and Heracles' aged father. Ah!
 woe is me! no longer can I stem the flood of tears that spring to my old eyes.

Megara, Amphitryon, and the children enter from the palace. 
 
 Megara 
 Come now, who is to sacrifice or butcher these poor children? [or rob me
 of my wretched life?] These victims are ready to be led to Hades'
 halls. O my children! an ill-matched company are we hurried off to die,
 old men and young ones and
 mothers, all together. Alas! for my sad fate and my children's, whom these
 eyes now for the last time behold. So I gave you birth and reared you only
 for our foes to mock, to jeer at, and slay. Ah me! how bitterly my hopes have disappointed me in the
 expectation I once formed from the words of your father. Addressing
 each of her sons in turn To you your dead father was for giving
 Argos ; and you were to dwell
 in the halls of Eurystheus, lording it over the fair fruitful land of
 Argolis ; and over your head would he throw that lion's skin
 with which he himself was armed. And you were to be king of Thebes , famed for its chariots,
 receiving as your heritage my broad lands, for so you coaxed your dear
 father; and to your hand he used to
 resign the carved club, his sure defence, pretending to give it to you. And
 to you he promised to give Oechalia , which once his archery had wasted. Thus with
 three principalities would your
 father exalt you, his three sons, proud of your manliness; while I was
 choosing the best brides for you, scheming to link you by marriage to
 Athens , Thebes , and Sparta , that you might live a happy
 life with a fast sheet-anchor to hold by. And now that is all vanished; fortune's breeze has veered
 and given to you for brides the maidens of death in their stead, and my
 tears will be the marriage bath; woe is me for my foolish thoughts! and your
 grandfather here is celebrating your marriage-feast, the cares of a father,
 accepting Hades as the father of your brides. Ah me! which of you shall I first press to my bosom, which
 last? on which bestow my kiss, or clasp close to me? Oh! would that like the
 bee with russet wing, I could collect from every source my sighs in one,
 and, blending them together, shed them in one copious flood! O my dearest Heracles, to you I call, if
 perhaps mortal voice can make itself heard in Hades' halls; your father and
 children are dying, and I am doomed, I who once because of you was counted
 blessed as men count bliss. Come to our rescue; appear, I pray, if only as a
 phantom, since your arrival, even as
 a dream, would be enough, for they are cowards who are slaying your
 children.

Amphitryon 
 Lady, prepare the funeral rites; but I, O Zeus, stretching out my hand to
 heaven, call on you to help these children, if such is your intention; for soon any aid of yours will
 be unavailing; and yet you have been often invoked; my toil is in vain;
 death seems inevitable. You aged friends, the joys of life are few; so take
 heed that you pass through it as gladly as you may, without a thought of sorrow from morning until
 night; for time takes little heed of preserving our hopes; and, when he has
 busied himself on his own business, away he flies. Look at me, a man who had
 made a mark among his fellows by deeds of note; yet fortune in a single day
 has robbed me of it as of a
 feather that floats away toward the sky. I know not any whose plenteous
 wealth and high reputation is fixed and sure; fare you well, for now you
 have seen the last of your old friend, my comrades. 
 
 Megara catches sight of Heracles approaching. 
 
 Megara 
 Ah! Old friend, is it my own, my dearest I see? or what am I to say? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 I do not know, my daughter; I too am
 struck dumb. 
 
 
 Megara 
 Is this he who they told us was beneath the earth?It is, unless some
 day-dream mocks our sight. What am I saying? What visions do these anxious
 eyes behold? Old man, this is no one other than your own son. Come here, my children, cling to your
 father's robe, hurry, never loose your hold, for here is one to help you,
 not at all behind our savior Zeus. 
 
 Heracles enters. 
 
 Heracles 
 All hail! my house and gates of my home, how glad I am to emerge to the light
 and see you. Ah! what is this? I see
 my children before the house in the robes of death, with chaplets on their
 heads and my wife amid a throng of men, and my father weeping—what
 misfortune? Let me draw near to them and inquire; lady, what strange stroke of fate has fallen on the
 house? 
 
 
 Megara 
 Dearest of all mankind to me! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 O ray of light appearing to your father! 
 
 
 Megara 
 Are you safe and is your coming just in time to help your dear ones? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 What do you mean? What is this confusion I find on my arrival, father?

Megara 
 We are being ruined; forgive me, old friend, if I have anticipated that to which you had a right to
 tell him; for women's nature is perhaps more prone to grief than men's and
 they are my children that were being led to death, which was my own lot
 too. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Apollo! what a prelude to your story! 
 
 
 Megara 
 My brothers are dead, and my old father. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 How so? what did he do? whose spear
 did he meet? 
 
 
 Megara 
 Lycus, our new monarch, slew him. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Did he meet him in fair fight, or was the land sick and weak? 
 
 
 Megara 
 Yes, from faction; now he is master of the city of Cadmus with its seven
 gates. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Why has panic fallen on you and my aged father? 
 
 
 Megara 
 
 He meant to kill your father, me, and
 my children. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 What are you saying? What did he have to fear from my orphan babes? 
 
 
 Megara 
 He was afraid they might some day avenge Creon's death. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 What is this dress they wear, suited to the dead? 
 
 
 Megara 
 It is the garb of death we have already put on. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 And were you being forced to die? O
 woe is me! 
 
 
 Megara 
 Yes, deserted by every friend, and informed that you were dead. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 What put such desperate thoughts into your heads? 
 
 
 Megara 
 That was what the heralds of Eurystheus kept proclaiming. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Why did you leave my hearth and home? 
 
 
 Megara 
 
 He forced us; your father was dragged
 from his bed. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Had he no shame, to ill-use the old man so? 
 
 
 Megara 
 Shame indeed! that goddess and he dwell far enough apart. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Was I so poor in friends in my absence? 
 
 
 Megara 
 Who are the friends of a man in misfortune? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 Do they make so light of my hard
 warring with the Minyans? 
 
 
 Megara 
 Misfortune, to repeat it to you, has no friends.

Heracles 
 Cast from your heads these chaplets of death, look up to the light, for
 instead of the darkness below your eyes behold the welcome sun. I, meanwhile, since here is work for my
 hand, will first go raze this upstart tyrant's halls, and when I have
 beheaded the villain, I will throw him to dogs to tear; and every Theban who
 I find has played the traitor after my kindness, will I destroy with this victorious club; the rest will I
 tear apart with my feathered shafts and fill Ismenus full of bloody corpses,
 and Dirce's clear stream shall run red with gore. For whom ought I to help
 rather than wife and children and
 aged father? Farewell my labors! for it was in vain I accomplished them
 rather than helping these. And yet I ought to die in their defence, since
 they for their father were doomed; or what shall we find so noble in having
 fought a hydra and a lion at the
 commands of Eurystheus, if I make no effort to save my own children from
 death? No longer then, as before, shall I be called Heracles the victor. 
 
 
 Chorus Leader 
 It is only right that parents should help their children, their aged fathers,
 and the partners of their marriage. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 My son, it is like you to show your
 love for your dear ones and your hate for your enemies; only curb excessive
 hastiness. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 How, father, am I now showing more than fitting haste? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 The king has a host of allies, needy villains though pretending to be rich,
 who sowed dissension and
 overthrew the state with a view to plundering their neighbors; for the
 wealth they had in their houses was all spent, dissipated by their sloth.
 You were seen entering the city; and, that being so, beware that you do not
 bring your enemies together and be slain unawares. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 Little I care if the whole city saw
 me; but chancing to see a bird perched in an ill-omened spot, from it I
 learned that some trouble had befallen my house; so on purpose I made my
 entry to the land by stealth.

Amphitryon 
 Well done; now, on your arrival, go salute your household altar, and let your father's halls behold your
 face. For soon the king will be here in person to drag away your wife and
 children and murder them, and to add me to the bloody list. But if you
 remain on the spot all will go well, and you will profit by this security;
 but do not rouse your city before
 you have these matters well in train, my son. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 I will do so; your advice is good; I will enter my house. After my return at
 length from the sunless den of Hades and the maiden queen of hell, I will
 not neglect to greet first of all the gods beneath my roof. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 Did you really go to the house of
 Hades, my son? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Yes, and brought to the light that three-headed monster. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Did you conquer him in fight, or receive him from the goddess? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 In fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of the
 initiated. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 The grove of Demeter and the city of
 Hermione have him now. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Eurystheus does not know that you have returned to the upper world? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 He does not; I came here first to learn your news. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 How is it you were so long beneath the earth? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 I stayed awhile attempting to bring back Theseus from Hades, father. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 Where is he? gone to his native
 land? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 He set out for Athens , glad to
 have escaped from the lower world. Come now, children, attend your father to
 the house. My entering in is fairer in your eyes, I think, than my going
 out. Oh, take heart, and no more let
 the tears stream from your eyes; you too, my wife, collect your courage,
 cease from fear; let go my robe; for I cannot fly away, nor have I any wish
 to flee from those I love. Ah! they do not loose their hold, but cling to my
 garments all the more; were you on
 the razor's edge of danger? Well, I must lead them, taking them by the hand
 to draw them after me, my little boats, like a ship when towing; for I too
 do not reject the care of my children; here all mankind are equal; all love
 their children, both those of high estate and those who are nothing; it is wealth that makes
 distinctions among them; some have, others want; but all the human race
 loves its offspring. Heracles, Megara, Amphitryon and the children
 enter the palace.

Chorus 
 Dear to me is youth always, but old age is hanging over my head, a burden
 heavier than Aetna 's crags, casting its pall of gloom
 upon my eyes. Oh! never may the wealth of Asia 's kings tempt me to barter for houses stored with gold my happy youth, which is in wealth
 and poverty alike most fair! But old age is gloomy and deadly; I hate it; let it sink beneath the waves!
 Would it had never found its way to the homes and towns of mortal men, but
 were still drifting on for ever down the wind.

Chorus 
 
 Had the gods shown discernment and
 wisdom, as mortals count these things, men would have won youth twice over,
 a visible mark of worth among
 whomever found, and after death these would have run a double course once
 more to the sun-light, while the low born would have had a single portion of
 life; and thus would it have been
 possible to distinguish the good and the bad, just as sailors know the
 number of the stars amid the clouds. But, as it is, the gods have set no
 certain boundary between good and
 bad, but time's onward roll brings increase only to man's wealth.

Chorus 
 Never will I cease to link in one the Graces and the Muses, sweetest union. Never may I live among uneducated
 boors, but ever may I find a place among the crowned! Yes, still the aged singer lifts up his voice of
 bygone memories: still is my song of the triumphs of Heracles, whether
 Bromius the giver of wine is near, or the strains of the seven-stringed lyre
 and the Libyan pipe are rising; not
 yet will I cease to sing the Muses' praise, my patrons in the dance.

Chorus 
 The maids of Delos raise their
 song of joy, circling round the temple gates in honor of Leto's fair son,
 the graceful dancer; so I with
 my old lips will cry aloud songs of joy at your palace-doors, like the swan,
 aged singer; for there is a good 
 theme for minstrelsy; he is the son of Zeus; yet high above his noble birth
 tower his deeds of prowess, for his toil secured this life of calm for man,
 having destroyed all fearsome
 beasts.

Amphitryon comes out of the palace as Lycus and his retinue enter. 
 
 Lycus 
 Amphitryon, it is high time you came forth from the palace; you have been too
 long arraying yourselves in the robes and trappings of the dead. Come, bid
 the wife and children of Heracles 
 show themselves outside the house, to die on the conditions you yourselves
 offered. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Lord, you persecute me in my misery and heap insult upon me over and above
 the loss of my son; you should have been more moderate in your zeal, though
 you are my lord and master. But
 since you impose death's necessity on me, I must acquiesce; what you wish
 must be done. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 Now, where is Megara? where are the children of Alcmena's son? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 She, I believe, so far as I can guess from outside— 
 
 
 Lycus 
 What grounds do you have to base your fancy on? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 Is sitting as a suppliant on the
 altar's hallowed steps— 
 
 
 Lycus 
 Imploring them quite uselessly to save her life. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 And calling on her dead husband, in vain. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 He is nowhere near, and he certainly will never come. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 No, unless perhaps a god should raise him from the dead. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 
 Go to her and bring her from the
 palace. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 By doing so I should become an accomplice in her murder. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 Since you have this scruple, I, who have left fear behind, will myself bring
 out the mother and her children. Follow me, servants, that we may joyfully put an end to this delay of
 our work. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Then go your way along the path of fate; for what remains, maybe another will
 provide. Expect for your evil deeds to find some ill yourself. Lycus
 and his servants enter the palace. Ah! my aged friends, he is
 marching fairly to his doom; soon will he lie entangled in the snare
 of the sword, thinking to slay
 his neighbors, the villain! I will go, to see him fall dead; for the sight
 of a foe being slain and paying the penalty of his misdeeds gives
 pleasure. Amphitryon follows Lycus into the palace.

Chorus 
 sung 
 
 Evil has changed sides; he who was
 once a mighty king is now turning his life backward into the road to Hades.
 Hail to you! Justice and heavenly retribution. 
 spoken 
 
 At last have you reached the goal
 where your death will pay the penalty, for your insults against your
 betters. 
 sung 
 Joy makes my tears burst forth. He has come back— which I never once thought in my heart would
 happen—the prince of the land. 
 spoken 
 Come, old friends, let us look within to see if someone has met the fate I
 hope. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 within 
 
 Ah me! ah me!

Chorus 
 sung 
 Ha! how sweet to hear that opening note of his within the house; death is not
 far off him now. The prince cries out, wailing a prelude of death. 
 
 
 Lycus 
 spoken within 
 O kingdom of Cadmus, I am perishing by treachery! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 spoken 
 
 You were yourself for making others
 perish; endure your retribution; it is only the penalty of your own deeds
 you are paying. 
 sung 
 Who was he, only a mortal, that aimed his silly saying at the blessed gods of
 heaven with impious blasphemy, maintaining that they are weaklings after
 all? 
 spoken 
 
 Old friends, our godless foe is now
 no more. 
 The house is still; let us turn to the dance. 
 Yes, for fortune smiles upon my friends as I desire.

Chorus 
 Dances, dances and banquets now prevail throughout the holy town of
 Thebes . For change from tears, change from sorrow give
 birth to song. The new king is gone; our former monarch rules, having made his way even from the harbor of
 Acheron . Hope beyond all
 expectation is fulfilled.

Chorus 
 The gods, the gods take care to heed the right and wrong. It is their gold
 and their good luck that lead men's
 hearts astray, bringing in their train unjust power. For no man ever had the
 courage to reflect what reverses Time might bring; but, disregarding law to
 gratify lawlessness, he shatters the
 black chariot of prosperity.

Chorus 
 O Ismenus, deck yourself with garlands! Break forth into dancing, you paved
 streets of our seven-gated city! come Dirce, fount of waters fair;
 and joined with her you nymphs
 of Asopus, come from your father's waves to add your voices to our hymn, the
 victor's prize that Heracles has won. O Pythian rock with forests crowned, and haunts of the Muses on Helicon!
 you will come to my city and her walls with cries of joy; where the
 earth-born crop sprang to view, a
 warrior-host with shields of brass, who are handing on their realm to
 children's children, a divine light to Thebes .

Chorus 
 All hail the marriage! in which two bridegrooms shared; the one, a mortal;
 the other, Zeus, who came to wed
 the bride sprung from Perseus; for that marriage of yours, O Zeus, in days
 gone by has been proved to me a true story beyond all expectation;
 and time has shown the
 brightness of Heracles' strength; for he emerged from caverns beneath the
 earth after leaving Pluto's halls below. To me you are a worthier lord
 than that base-born king, who
 now lets it be plainly seen in this struggle between armed warriors, whether
 justice still finds favor in heaven.

The spectres of Madness and Iris appear from above. The Chorus sees
 them. 
 
 Chorus 
 
 —Ha! see there, my old
 comrades! is the same wild panic fallen on us all; what phantom is this I
 see hovering over the house? 
 —Fly, fly, bestir your tardy steps! begone! away! 
 
 —O savior prince, avert
 calamity from me!

Iris 
 Courage, old men! she, whom you see, is Madness, daughter of Night, and I am
 Iris, the handmaid of the gods. We have not come to do your city any hurt,
 but our warfare is against the
 house of one man only, against him whom they call the son of Zeus and
 Alcmena. For until he had finished all his grievous labors, Destiny was
 preserving him, nor would father Zeus ever suffer me or Hera to harm him.
 But now that he has accomplished
 the labors of Eurystheus, Hera wishes to brand him with the guilt of
 shedding kindred blood by slaying his own children, and I wish it also. Come
 then, unwed maid, child of black Night, harden your heart relentlessly,
 send forth frenzy upon this man,
 confound his mind even to the slaying of his children, drive him, goad him
 wildly on his mad career, shake out the sails of death, that when he has
 conveyed over Acheron 's ferry that
 fair group of children by his own murderous hand, he may learn to know how fiercely against him the wrath of
 Hera burns and may also experience mine; otherwise, if he should escape
 punishment, the gods will become as nothing, while man's power will
 grow. 
 
 
 Madness 
 Of noble parents was I born, the daughter of Night, sprung from the blood of
 Ouranos; and these prerogatives I
 hold, not to use them in anger against friends, nor do I have any joy in
 visiting the homes of men; and I wish to counsel Hera, before I see her err,
 and you too, if you will hearken to my words. This man, against whose house
 you are sending me, has made himself a name alike in heaven and earth; for, after taming pathless wilds
 and raging sea, he by his single might raised up again the honors of the
 gods when sinking before man's impiety; . . . wherefore I counsel you, do
 not wish him dire mishaps.

Iris 
 
 Spare us your advice on Hera's and my
 schemes. 
 
 
 Madness 
 I seek to turn your steps into the best path instead of into this one of
 evil. 
 
 
 Iris 
 It was not to practice self-control that the wife of Zeus sent you here. 
 
 
 Madness 
 I call the sun-god to witness that here I am acting against my will; but if
 indeed I must at once serve you and Hera and follow you in full cry as hounds follow the huntsman,
 then I will go; neither ocean with its fiercely groaning waves, nor the
 earthquake, nor the thunderbolt with blast of agony shall be like the
 headlong rush I will make into the breast of Heracles; through his roof will
 I burst my way and swoop upon his house, after first slaying his children; nor shall their murderer
 know that he is killing the children he begot, till he is released from my
 madness. Behold him! see how even now he is wildly tossing his head at the
 outset, and rolling his eyes fiercely from side to side without a word; nor
 can he control his panting breath, like a fearful bull in act to charge; he
 bellows, calling on the goddesses of
 nether hell. Soon will I rouse you to yet wilder dancing and pipe a note of
 terror in your ear. Soar away, O Iris, to Olympus on your honored course; while I unseen will steal
 into the halls of Heracles.

Chorus 
 
 Alas alas! lament; the son of Zeus,
 flower of your city, is being cut down. Woe to you, Hellas ! that will cast from you your
 benefactor, and destroy him as he dances in the shrill frenzy of
 Madness. 
 
 She is mounted on her chariot, the
 queen of sorrow and sighing, and is goading on her steeds, as if for
 outrage, the Gorgon child of Night, with a hundred hissing serpent-heads,
 Madness of the flashing eyes. 
 
 Soon has the god changed his good
 fortune; soon will his children breathe their last, slain by a father's
 hand. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 within 
 Ah me! alas! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 O Zeus, unjust Vengeance, mad, relentless, will soon give your childless son
 up to misery. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 within 
 Alas, O house! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 The dance begins without the cymbals' crash, with no glad waving of the
 wine-god's staff— 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 within 
 Woe to these halls! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 Toward bloodshed, and not to pour
 libations of Dionysus' grape. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 within 
 O children, make haste to fly! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 That is the chant of death, of death, to the music of pipes. 
 Ah, yes! he is hunting the children down. Never will Madness lead her revel
 rout in vain. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 within 
 
 Ah misery! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 Ah me! how I lament that aged father, that mother too that bore his children
 in vain. 
 Look! look! A tempest rocks the
 house; the roof is falling with it. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 within 
 Oh, oh! what are you doing, Pallas, child of Zeus, to the house? You are
 sending hell's confusion against the halls, as once you did on
 Enceladus. 
 

 
 A messenger enters from the palace. 
 
 Messenger 
 O white-haired old men! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 sung 
 Why this loud address to me? 
 
 
 Messenger 
 It is dreadful within! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 sung 
 No need for me to call another prophet for that. 
 
 
 Messenger 
 The children are dead. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 sung 
 Alas! 
 
 
 Messenger 
 Ah weep! for here is cause for weeping. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 sung 
 A cruel murder, cruel parents'
 hands! 
 
 
 Messenger 
 No words can utter more than we have suffered. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 sung 
 How came the ruin you reveal, the ruin that must be lamented, from a father
 to his children? Tell me how these heaven-sent woes came rushing on the house; say how the children
 met their sad mischance.

Messenger 
 Victims to purify the house were stationed before the altar of Zeus, for
 Heracles had slain and cast from his halls the king of the land. There stood his group of lovely children,
 with his father and Megara; and already the basket was being passed round
 the altar, and we were keeping holy silence. But just as Alcmena's son was
 bringing the torch in his right hand to dip it in the holy water, he stopped without a word. And as their
 father lingered, his children looked at him; he was no longer himself; his
 eyes were rolling; he was distraught; his eyeballs were bloodshot, and foam
 was oozing down his bearded cheek. 
 He spoke with a madman's laugh: “Father, why should I offer the
 purifying flame before I have slain Eurystheus, and have the toil twice
 over? It is the work of my unaided arm to settle these things well; as soon
 as I have brought the head of Eurystheus here, I will cleanse my hands for those already slain. Spill the
 water, cast the baskets from your hands. Ho! give me now my bow and club! To
 Mycenae will I go; I must
 take crow-bars and pick-axes, for I will shatter again with iron levers those city-walls which the
 Cyclopes squared with red plumb-line and mason's tools.” Then he set
 out, and though he had no chariot there, he thought he had, and was for
 mounting to its seat, and using a goad as though his fingers really held
 one.

A twofold feeling filled his
 servants' breasts, amusement and fear at once; and one looking to his
 neighbor said: “Is our master making sport for us, or is he
 mad?” But he was pacing to and fro in his house; and, rushing into the
 men's chamber, he said he had reached the city of Nisus; and going into the house, he threw himself upon
 the floor, as he was, and made ready to feast. But after waiting a brief
 space he began saying he was on his way to the plains amid the valleys of
 the Isthmus; and then stripping himself of his mantle, he fell to competing with no one, and he
 proclaimed himself victor with his own voice, calling on no one to listen.
 Next, fancy carrying him to Mycenae, he was uttering fearful threats against
 Eurystheus. Meantime his father caught him by his stalwart arm, and thus
 addressed him: “My son, what
 do you mean by this? What strange doings are these? Can it be that the blood
 of your late victims has driven you frantic?” But he, supposing it was
 the father of Eurystheus striving in abject supplication to touch his hand:
 thrust him aside, and then against his own children aimed his bow and made ready his quiver, thinking to slay
 the sons of Eurystheus. And they in wild fright darted here and there, one
 to his hapless mother's skirts, another to the shadow of a pillar, while a
 third cowered beneath the altar like a bird. Then cried their mother: “O you who begot them, what
 are you doing? do you mean to slay your children?” Likewise his aged
 father and all the gathered servants cried aloud.

But he, hunting the child round and round the column, in dreadful circles,
 and coming face to face with him shot him to the heart; and he fell upon his
 back, sprinkling the stone pillars
 with blood as he gasped out his life. Then Heracles shouted in triumph and
 boasted loud: “Here lies one of Eurystheus' brood dead at my feet,
 atoning for his father's hatred.” Then he aimed his bow against a
 second, who had crouched at the
 altar's foot thinking to escape unseen. But before he fired, the poor child
 threw himself at his father's knees, and, flinging his hand to reach his
 beard or neck, cried: “Oh! hear me, dearest father, do not kill me! I
 am your child, your own; it is no son of Eurystheus you will
 slay.” 
 
 But that other, with savage
 Gorgon-scowl, as the child now stood in range of his baleful archery, smote
 him on the head, as a smith strikes his molten iron, bringing down his club
 upon the fair-haired boy, and crushed the bones. The second caught,
 away he goes to add a third
 victim to the other two. But before he could, the poor mother caught up her
 child and carried him within the house and shut the doors. But he, as though
 he really were at the Cyclopean walls, prized open the doors with levers,
 and, hurling down their posts, with
 one shaft laid low his wife and child. Then in wild gallop he starts to slay
 his aged father; but there came a phantom, as it seemed to us on-lookers, of
 Pallas, with plumed helm, brandishing a spear; and she hurled a rock against
 the breast of Heracles, which held
 him from his frenzied thirst for blood and plunged him into sleep; to the
 ground he fell, striking his back against a column that had fallen on the
 floor shattered in two when the roof fell in. Then we rallied from our flight, and with the old man's
 aid bound him fast with knotted cords to the pillar, so that on his
 awakening he might do no further evil. So there he sleeps, poor wretch! a
 sleep that is not blessed, having murdered wife and children; no, for my
 part I do not know any mortal more
 miserable than he. The messenger withdraws.

Chorus 
 That murder wrought by the daughters of Danaus, which the rock of Argos keeps, was once the most famous
 and notorious in Hellas ; but this
 has surpassed, has outrun those
 former horrors . . . for the unhappy son of Zeus. 
 I could tell of the murder done by Procne, mother of an only child, offered
 to the Muses; but you had three children, wretched parent, and all of them
 have you in your frenzy slain. 
 
 Alas! What groans or wails, what
 funeral dirge, or dance of death am I to raise? 
 Ah, ah! see, the bolted doors of the
 lofty palace are being rolled apart. 
 Ah me! see the wretched children lying before their unhappy father, who is
 sunk in dreadful slumber after shedding their blood. 
 
 Round him are bonds and cords, made
 fast with many knots about the body of Heracles, and lashed to the stone
 columns of his house.

Chorus Leader 
 But he, the aged father, like mother-bird wailing her unfledged brood, comes hastening here with halting
 steps on his bitter journey.

The central doors of the palace have opened and have disclosed Heracles lying
 asleep, bound to a shattered column. Amphtryon steps out. The following lines
 between Amphitryon and the Chorus are chanted responsively. 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Softly, softly! you aged sons of Thebes , let him sleep on and forget his sorrows. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 
 For you, old friend, I weep and
 mourn, for the children too and that victorious chief. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Stand further off, make no noise nor outcry, do not rouse him from his calm
 deep slumber. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 O horrible! all this blood— 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Hush, hush! you will be my ruin. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 That he has spilled is rising up against him. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Gently raise your dirge of woe, old friends; or he will wake, and, bursting his bonds, destroy the
 city, rend his father, and dash his house to pieces. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 I cannot, cannot! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Hush! let me note his breathing; 
 come, let me put my ear close. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 Is he sleeping? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Yes, he is sleeping, a deadly sleepless sleep, having slain wife and children
 with the arrows of his twanging bow. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 
 Ah! mourn— 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 I am mourning. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 The children's death— 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Ah me! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 And your own son's doom. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Alas! 
 
 
 Chorus 
 Old friend— 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Hush! hush! he is turning, he is waking! Oh! let me hide myself, concealed beneath the roof. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 Courage! darkness still holds your son's eye. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Oh beware! it is not that I shrink from leaving the light after my miseries,
 poor wretch! but if should he slay me, his father, then he will be devising woe on woe, and to the
 avenging curse will add a parent's blood. 
 
 
 Chorus 
 Well for you if you had died in that day, when, for your wife, you went forth
 to exact vengeance for her slain brothers by sacking the Taphians' sea-beat town. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Fly, fly, my aged friends, from before the palace, escape his waking fury. Or
 soon he will heap up fresh slaughter on the old, ranging wildly once more through the streets of Thebes .

Chorus Leader 
 O Zeus, why have you shown such savage hate against your own son and plunged
 him in this sea of troubles? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 waking 
 Aha! I am alive and breathing; and my eyes see what they should, the sky and earth and the sun's darting
 beam; but how my senses reel! in what strange turmoil am I plunged! my
 fevered breath in quick spasmodic gasps escapes my lungs. How now? why am I
 lying here, my brawny chest and arms made fast with cables like a ship,
 beside a half-shattered piece
 of masonry, with corpses for my neighbors; while over the floor my bow and
 arrows are scattered, that once like trusty squires to my arm both kept me safe and were kept safe by
 me? Surely I have not come a second time to Hades' halls, having just
 returned from there for Eurystheus? To Hades? From where? No, I do not see
 Sisyphus with his stone, or Pluto, or his queen, Demeter's child. Surely I am distraught; where am I, so
 helpless? Ho, there! which of my friends is near or far to cure me in my
 ignorance? For I have no clear knowledge of things once familiar. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 My aged friends, shall I approach the scene of my sorrow? 
 
 
 Chorus Leader 
 
 Yes, and let me go with you, not
 desert you in your trouble. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Father, why do you weep and veil your eyes, standing far from your beloved
 son? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 My child! mine still, for all your misery. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Why, what is there so sad in my case that you weep? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 That which might make any of the
 gods weep, if he were to learn it. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 A bold assertion that, but you are not yet explaining what has happened. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Your own eyes see that, if by this time you are restored to your senses. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Fill in your sketch if any change awaits my life. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 I will explain, if you are no longer mad as a fiend of hell. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 Oh! what suspicions these dark hints
 of yours again excite! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 I am still doubtful whether you are in your sober senses. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 I have no recollection of being mad. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Am I to loose my son, old friends, or what shall I do? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Loose me, yes, and say who bound me; for I feel shame at this. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 Rest content with what you know of
 your woes; the rest forego. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 No. for is silence sufficient to learn what I wish? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 O Zeus, do you behold these deeds proceeding from the throne of Hera? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 What! have I suffered something from her enmity? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 A truce to the goddess! attend to your own troubles. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 I am undone; you will tell me some
 mischance.

Amphitryon 
 See here the corpses of your children. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 O horror! what sight is here? ah me! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 My son, against your children you have waged unnatural war. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 War! what do you mean? who killed these? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 You and your bow and some god,
 whoever is to blame. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 What are you saying? what have I done? Speak, father, you messenger of
 evil! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 You were insane; it is a sad explanation you are asking. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Was it I that slew my wife also? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Your own unaided arm has done all this. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 Alas! a cloud of mourning wraps me
 round. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 For this reason I lament your fate. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Did I dash my house to pieces in my frenzy? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 I know nothing but this, that you are utterly undone. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Where did the madness seize me? where did it destroy me? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 When you were purifying yourself
 with fire at the altar. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Ah me! why do I spare my own life when I have become the murderer of my dear
 children? Shall I not hasten to leap from some sheer rock, or aim the sword
 against my heart and avenge my
 children's blood, or burn my body, which she drove mad, in the fire and so
 avert from my life the infamy which now awaits me? 
 But here I see Theseus coming to check my deadly counsels, my kinsman and
 friend. Now shall I stand revealed,
 and the dearest of my friends will see the pollution I have incurred by my
 children's murder. Ah, woe is me! what am I to do? Where can I find freedom
 from my sorrows? shall I take wings or plunge beneath the earth? Come, let
 me veil my head in darkness; for I
 am ashamed of the evil I have done, and, since for these I have incurred
 fresh blood-guiltiness, I do not want to harm the innocent. 
 
 Theseus and his retinue enter. 
 
 Theseus 
 I have come, and others with me, young warriors from the land of Athens , encamped by the streams of
 Asopus, to bring an allied army to
 your son, old friend. For a rumour reached the city of the Erechtheidae,
 that Lycus had usurped the scepter of this land and had become your enemy
 even to battle. Wherefore I came making recompense for the former kindness
 of Heracles in saving me from the
 world below, if you have any need of such aid as I or my allies can give,
 old man. 
 Ha! why this heap of dead upon the floor? Surely I have not delayed too long
 and come too late to check new ills? Who slew these children? whose wife is this I see? Boys do not go
 to battle; no, it must be some other strange mischance I here discover.

In the following lines, Amphitryon makes sung responses to Theseus' spoken
 questions. 
 
 Amphitryon 
 O king, whose home is that olive-clad hill! 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Why this piteous prelude in addressing me? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 The gods have afflicted us with
 grievous suffering. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Whose are these children, over whom you weep? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 My own son's children, woe to him! he was their father and butcher both,
 hardening his heart to the bloody deed. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Hush! good words only! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 I would I could obey! 
 
 
 Theseus 
 What dreadful words! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Fortune has spread her wings, and we are ruined, ruined. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 What do you mean? what has he done? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Slain them in a wild fit of frenzy 
 with arrows dipped in the venom of the hundred-headed hydra. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 This is Hera's work; but who lies there among the dead, old man? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 My son, my own enduring son, that marched with gods to Phlegra's plain, there
 to battle with giants and slay them, warrior that he was. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 
 Ah, ah! whose fortune was ever so
 cursed as his? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Never will you find another mortal that has suffered more or been driven
 harder. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Why does he veil his head, poor wretch, in his robe? 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 He is ashamed to meet your eye; his
 kinsman's kind intent and his children's blood make him abashed. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 But I come to sympathize; uncover him. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 My son, remove that mantle from your
 eyes, throw it from you, show your face to the sun. As a counterweight,
 fighting along with my tears, I entreat you as a suppliant, as I grasp your
 beard, your knees, your hands, and let fall the tear from my old eyes. O my child! restrain your
 savage lion-like temper, for you are rushing forth on an unholy course of
 bloodshed, eager to join woe to woe, child.

Theseus 
 Enough! To you I call who are huddled there in your misery, show to your friends your face; for no darkness
 is black enough to hide your sad mischance. Why do you wave your hand at me,
 signifying murder? is it that I may not be polluted by speaking with you?
 If I share your misfortune,
 what is that to me? For once I had good fortune with you. I must refer to
 the time when you brought me safe from the dead to the light of life. I hate
 a friend whose gratitude grows old; one who is ready to enjoy his friends'
 prosperity but unwilling to sail in
 the same ship with them when they are unfortunate. Arise, unveil your head,
 poor wretch! and look on me. The gallant soul endures such blows as heaven
 deals and does not refuse them. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 O Theseus, did you see this struggle with my children? 
 
 
 Theseus 
 
 I heard of it, and now I see the
 horrors you mean. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Why then have you unveiled my head to the sun? 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Why have I? you, a mortal, can not pollute what is of the gods. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Try to escape, luckless wretch, from my unholy taint. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 The avenging fiend does not go forth from friend to friend. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 For this I thank you; I do not
 regret the service I did you. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 While I, for kindness then received, now show my pity for you. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Ah yes! I am piteous, a murderer of my sons. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 I weep for you in your changed fortunes. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Did you ever find another more afflicted? 
 
 
 Theseus 
 
 Your misfortunes reach from earth to
 heaven. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Therefore I am resolved on death. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Do you suppose the gods attend to your threats? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 The god has been remorseless to me; so I will be the same to the gods. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Hush! lest your presumption add to your sufferings. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 My ship is freighted full with
 sorrow; there is no room to stow anything further. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 What will you do? Where is your fury drifting you? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 I will die and return to that world below from which I have just come. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Such language is fit for any common fellow. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Ah! yours is the advice of one outside sorrow. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 
 Are these indeed the words of
 Heracles, the much-enduring? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Though never so much as this. Endurance must have a limit. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Is this the benefactor and great friend to mortals? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Mortals bring no help to me; no! Hera has her way. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Never would Hellas allow you to die
 through sheer perversity.

Heracles 
 
 Hear me a moment, that I may enter
 the contest with words in answer to your admonitions; and I will unfold to
 you why life now as well as formerly has been unbearable to me. First I am
 the son of a man who incurred the guilt of blood, before he married my
 mother Alcmena, by slaying her aged
 father. Now when the foundation is badly laid at birth, it is necessary for
 the race to be cursed with woe; and Zeus, whoever this Zeus may be, begot me
 as an enemy to Hera; yet do not be vexed, old man; for you rather than Zeus I regard as my father.
 Then while I was being suckled, that bedfellow of Zeus foisted into my
 cradle fearsome snakes to cause my death. After I took on a cloak of
 youthful flesh, of all the toils I
 then endured what need to tell? what did I not destroy, whether lions, or
 triple-bodied Typhons, or giants or the battle against the hosts of
 four-legged Centaurs? or how when I had killed the hydra, that monster with a ring of heads with power to
 grow again, I passed through a herd of countless other toils besides and
 came to the dead to fetch to the light at the bidding of Eurystheus the
 three-headed hound, hell's porter. Last, ah, woe is me! I have dared this
 labor, to crown the sorrows of my
 house with my children's murder. I have come to this point of necessity; no
 longer may I dwell in Thebes ,
 the city that I love; for suppose I stay, to what temple or gathering of
 friends shall I go? For mine is no curse that invites greetings. Shall I go to Argos ? how can I, when I am an exile
 from my country? Well, is there a single other city I can rush to? Am I then
 to be looked at askance as a marked man, held by cruel stabbing tongues:
 “Is not this the son of Zeus that once murdered children and wife? Plague take him from the
 land!” Now to one who was once called happy, such changes are a
 grievous thing; though he who is always unfortunate feels no such pain, for
 sorrow is his birthright.

This, I think, is the piteous pass I shall one day come to; for earth will cry out forbidding me to touch
 her, the sea and the river-springs will refuse me a crossing, and I shall
 become like Ixion who revolves in chains upon that wheel. And so this is
 best, that I should be seen by no one of the Hellenes, among whom in happier days I lived in bliss. What
 right have I to live? what profit can I have in the possession of a useless,
 impious life? So let that noble wife of Zeus dance, beating her foot in its
 shoe; for now has she worked her
 heart's desire in utterly confounding the first of Hellas ' sons. Who would pray to such a
 goddess? Her jealousy of Zeus for his love of a woman has destroyed
 the benefactors of Hellas , guiltless though they were. 
 
 
 Chorus Leader 
 This is the work of none other of the gods than the wife of Zeus; you are
 right in that surmise. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 I cannot counsel you . . . rather than to go on suffering. There is not a man
 alive that has wholly escaped misfortune's taint, nor any god either, if what poets sing is true. Have they
 not intermarried in ways that law forbids? Have they not thrown fathers into
 ignominious chains to gain the sovereign power? Still they inhabit
 Olympus and brave the issue of
 their crimes. And yet what shall
 you say in your defence, if you, a child of man, take your fate excessively
 hard, while they, as gods, do not? No, then, leave Thebes in compliance with the law, and
 come with me to the city of Pallas. There, when I have purified you of your
 pollution, I will give you homes
 and the half of all I have. Yes, I will give you all those presents I
 received from the citizens for saving their fourteen children, when I slew
 the bull of Crete ; for I have plots
 of land assigned me throughout the country; these shall henceforth
 be called after you by men,
 while you live; and at your death, when you have gone to Hades' halls, the
 whole city of Athens shall exalt
 your honor with sacrifices and a monument of stone. For it is a noble crown
 of a good reputation for citizens
 to win from Hellas , by helping a
 man of worth. This is the return that I will make you for saving me, for now
 you are in need of friends. But when the gods honor a man, he has no need of
 friends; for the god's aid, when he chooses to give it, is enough.

Heracles 
 
 Alas! this is quite beside the
 question of my troubles. For my part, I do not believe that the gods indulge
 in unholy unions; and as for putting bonds on hands, I have never thought
 that worthy of belief, nor will I now be so persuaded, nor again that one
 god is naturally lord and master of another. For the deity, if he be really such, has no wants; these
 are miserable tales of the poets. But I, for all my piteous plight,
 reflected whether I should let myself be branded as a coward for giving up
 my life. For whoever does not withstand disasters will never be able to withstand even a man's weapon. I
 will be steadfast in living; I will go to your city, with grateful thanks
 for all you offer me. He weeps. But I have tasted of
 countless troubles, as is well known; never yet did I faint at any or shed a
 single tear; no, nor did I ever think that I should come to this, to let the tear-drop fall. But now, it seems,
 I must be fortune's slave. 
 Well, let it pass; my old father, you see me go forth to exile, and in me you
 see my own children's murderer. 
 Give them burial, and lay them out in death with the tribute of a tear, for
 the law forbids my doing so. Rest their heads upon their mother's bosom and
 fold them in her arms, sad fellowship, which I, alas! unwittingly did slay.
 And when you have buried these dead, live on here still, in bitterness maybe, but still constrain your soul to
 share my sorrows. O children! he who begot you, your own father, has been
 your destroyer, and you have had no profit of my triumphs, all my restless
 toil to win for you by force a fair
 name, a glorious advantage from a father. You too, unhappy wife, this hand
 has slain, a poor return to make you for preserving the honor of my bed so
 safely, for all the weary watch you long have kept within my house. Alas for
 you, my wife, my sons! alas for me, 
 how sad my lot, cut off from wife and child! Ah! these kisses, bitter-sweet!
 these weapons which it is pain to own! I am not sure whether to keep or let
 them go; dangling at my side they thus will say, “With us you destroyed children and wife; we are
 your children's slayers, and you keep us.” Shall I carry them after
 that? what answer can I make? Yet, am I to strip myself of these weapons,
 the comrades of my glorious career in Hellas , and put myself in the power of my foes, to die a
 death of shame? No! I must not let
 them go, but keep them, though it grieves me. In one thing, Theseus, help my
 misery; come to Argos and help me
 to manage the conveyance of the wretched dog; lest, if I go all alone, my
 sorrow for my sons may do me some hurt.

O land of Cadmus, and all you people of Thebes ! cut off
 your hair, and mourn with me; go to my children's burial, and with one dirge
 lament us all, the dead and me; for on all of us has Hera inflicted the same
 cruel blow of destruction. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Rise, unhappy man! you have had your fill of tears. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 I cannot rise; my limbs are rooted
 here. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Yes, even the strong are overthrown by misfortunes. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Ah! Would I could become a stone upon this spot, oblivious of trouble. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Peace! give your hand to a friend and helper. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 No, let me not wipe off the blood upon your robe. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 
 Wipe it off and spare not; I will
 not refuse you. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Bereft of my own sons, I find you as a son to me. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Throw your arm about my neck; I will be your guide. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 A pair of friends indeed, but one a man of sorrows. Ah! aged father, this is
 the kind of man to make a friend. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 
 Blessed in her sons, the country
 that gave him birth! 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Theseus, turn me back again to see my children. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 What for? Do you think to find a drug in this to soothe your soul? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 I long to do so, and would embrace my father. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Here am I, my son; your wish is no less dear to me. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 
 Have you so short a memory for your
 troubles? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 All that I endured before was easier to bear than this. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 If anyone sees you play the woman, they will scoff. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Have I by living grown so abject in your sight? It was not so once, I
 think. 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Yes, too much so; in your sickness you are not the glorious Heracles. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 What about you? What kind of hero
 were you when in trouble in the world below? 
 
 
 Theseus 
 I was worse than anyone as far as courage went. 
 
 
 Heracles 
 How then can you say of me, that I am abased by my troubles? 
 
 
 Theseus 
 Forward! 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Farewell, my aged father! 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 Farewell to you, my son! 
 
 
 Heracles 
 Bury my children as I said. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 But who will bury me, my son? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 
 I will. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 When wil you come? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 After you have buried my children. 
 
 
 Amphitryon 
 How? 
 
 
 Heracles 
 I will fetch you from Thebes to
 Athens . But carry my
 children within, a grievous burden to the earth. And I, after ruining my
 house by deeds of shame, will follow as a little boat in the wake of
 Theseus, totally destroyed. Whoever
 prefers wealth or might to the possession of good friends, thinks
 wrongly. Theseus and his attendants lead Heracles
 away.

Chorus 
 With grief and many a bitter tear we go our way, robbed of all we prized most
 dearly.