Euripides

“ Whose white feet glance as sweeps the dance round Leto's scion's portal, 690
So will I raise the pagan-lay,
Swan-song of singer hoary-grey:
The portals of thine halls to-day shall hear the old lips chanting.
Proud theme hath minstrelsy, to sing mine hero's high achieving:
He is Zeus' son, but deeds hath done whose glory mounts, far-leaving
The praise of birth divine behind,
Whose toils gave peace to humankind,
Slaying dread shapes that filled man's mind with terrors ceaseless-haunting. 700
Enter Lykus, attended. ”

“ The grey sire, and the yokemate of his life.
Amphitryon.
Son, worthy of thee it is to love thy friends, 585
To hate thy foes: yet be not over rash.
Herakles.
Herein what showeth, father, haste unmeet?
Amphitryon.
The king hath many an ally, lackland knaves,
Fellows that have a name that they are rich,
Who sowed sedition, ruining the land, 590
To plunder neighbours, since their own estates,
Squandered by wasteful idleness, were gone.
Thou wast seen entering Thebes: since thou wast seen,
Let not foes gather, and thou fall unwares.
Herakles. ”

“ Herakles.
I from Thebes to Athens will bring thee.
Bear in my babes—this curse that loads the earth! [13]
I, who have wasted by my shame mine house,
Like wreck in tow will trail in Theseus' wake.
Whoso would fain possess or wealth or strength 1425
Rather than loyal friends, is sense-bereft.
Chorus.
With mourning and weeping sore do we pass away,
Who have lost the chiefest of all our friends this day. ”

“ Megara.
Forlorn of friends, we heard that thou hadst died.
Herakles.
Wherefore came on you this despair of me?
Megara.
The heralds of Eurystheus published this.
Herakles.
But why did ye forsake mine home and hearth?
Megara.
By force: thy father from his bed was flung. 555
Herakles.
Had he no shame to outrage these grey hairs?
Megara.
Shame?—from that Goddess far his dwelling is!
Herakles.
So poor of friends am I when far away!
Megara.
Friends!—what friends hath a man unfortunate?
Herakles.
Scorned they the fights with Minyans I endured? 560
Megara. ”

“ Sits suppliant at the holy altar-steps,— 715
Lykus.
With bootless prayer to heaven to save her life!
Amphitryon.
And vainly calleth on a husband dead.
Lykus.
Not here is he; nor shall he ever come. ”

“ Devisest thou?—for unto thee I look.
We cannot quit the land's bounds unperceived,
For at all outlets guards too strong are set:
Nor linger hopes of safety any more
In friends. What counsel then thou hast soe'er, 85
Now speak it out, lest death be at the door,
And we, who are helpless, do but peize the time.
Amphitryon.
Daughter, not easily, without deep thought,
May one, though ne'er so earnest, counsel here. [4]
Megara. ”

“ XII.Unto Hades, hath sailed for his last toil-strife;
And there hath he quenched his light of life
Utterly—woe for the unreturning! 430
And of friends forlorn doth thy dwelling stand;
And waits for thy children Charon's oar
By the river that none may repass any more,
Whither godless wrong hath sped them: and yearning
We strain our eyes for a vanished hand.
But if mine were the youth and the might
Of old—were mine old friends here,
Might my spear but in battle be shaken,
I had championed thy children in fight:—
But mid desolate days and drear 440
I am left, of my youth forsaken! ”

“ Take vengeance for their mother's father's blood.
And I—for me he left his halls within
To ward his sons and foster, with their mother, 45
When down into the earth's black darkness passed
My son, that Herakles' children might not die—
Here at the altar sit of Saviour Zeus,
Which, in thanksgiving for the victory won
O'er Minyan foes, mine hero-scion reared. 50
And, lacking all things, raiment, meat, and drink,
Here keep we session, on the bare hard ground
Laying our limbs; for desperate of life
Here sit we, barred from homes whose doors are sealed. ”

“ Nor that which I have gotten by toil of hand
Shalt thou have! Hence with curses whence thou cam'st! 260
There outrage! Whilst I live, thou ne'er shalt slay
Herakles' sons! Not hidden in earth too deep
For help is he, though he hath left his babes.
Thou, ruin of this land, possessest her;
And he, her saviour, faileth of his due! 265
Am I a busy meddler then, who aid
Dead friends in plight where friends are needed most?
Ah right hand, how thou yearn'st to grip the spear,
But in thy weakness know'st thy yearning vain! ”

“ A scoff, a glee, a thing to be destroyed.
Woe and alas!
Ah for my shattered dreams, my broken hopes, 450
Hopes that I once built on your father's words!
Argos to thee [8] thy dead sire would allot:
Thou in Eurystheus' palace wast to dwell
In fair and rich Pelasgia's sceptred sway.
That beast's fell o'er thine head he wont to throw, 450
The lion's skin wherein himself went clad.
Thou [9] shouldst be king of chariot-loving Thebes,
And hold the champaigns of mine heritage ”

“ I am no winged thing, nor would I fly my friends.
Ha!
These let not go, but hang upon my cloak
Only the more! Was doom so imminent then? 630
E'en must I lead them clinging to mine hands,
As ship that tows her boats. Not I reject
Care of my sons. Men's hearts be all like-framed:
They love their babes, as well the nobler sort,
As they that are but naught. In wealth they differ; 635
These have, those lack: their children all men love. ”

“ The dastard's tool, was ever at point to flee!
Bows be no test of manhood's valiancy.
Who bideth steadfast in the ranks, calm-eyed
Facing the spear's swift furrow—a man is he!
Greybeard, no ruthlessness hath this my part, 165
But heedfulness: well know I that 1 slew
Kreon, this woman's sire, and hold his throne.
Therefore I would not these should grow to man,
Left to avenge them on me for my deeds.
Amphitryon.
For Zeus's part—his own son's birth let Zeus 170
Defend: but, Herakles, to me it falls
Pleading thy cause to show this fellow's folly. ”

“ Their one inheritance from their father's halls.
Lykus.
So be it: I bid my men throw wide the doors.
Pass in; adorn you: I begrudge no robes.
But, when ye have cast the arraying round your limbs,
I come, to give you to the nether world. ”

“ Ere he departed, he committed Amphitryon his father, with Megara his wife, and his sons, to the keeping of Kreon, king of Thebes, and so went down into the Land of Darkness. Now when he was long time absent, so that men doubted whether he would ever return, a man of Eubœa, named Lykus, was brought into Thebes by evil-hearted and discontented men, and with these conspired against Kreon, and slew him, and reigned in his stead. Then he sought further to slay all that remained of the house of Herakles, lest any should in days to come avenge Kreon's murder. ”

“ Fearful: yet—yet—against the inevitable
Who strives, I hold him but a foolish man.
Since we must needs die, better 'tis to die
Not with fire roasted, yielding laughter-scoff 285
To foes, an evil worse than death to me. ”