Euripides' HERACLEIDAE Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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47 pages - You are on Page 19

Leader of the Chorus: Can it be that heaven forbids this city to help
strangers, when it hath the will and longing so to do?

Iolaus: My children, we are even as those mariners, who have escaped
the storm's relentless rage, and have the land almost within their
reach, but after all are driven back from shore by tempests to the
deep again. Even so we, just as we reach the shore in seeming safety,
are being thrust back from this land. Ah me! Why, cruel hope, didst
thou then cheer my heart, though thou didst not mean to make the boon
complete? The king may well be pardoned, if he will not slay his subjects'
children; and with my treatment here I am content; if indeed 'tis
heaven's will, I thus should fare, still is my gratitude to thee in
no wise lost. Children, I know not what to do for you. Whither shall
we turn? for what god's altar have we left uncrowned? to what fenced
city have we failed to go? Ruin and surrender are our instant lot,
poor children! If I must die, 'tis naught to me, save that thereby
I give those foes of mine some cause for joy. But you, children, I
lament and pity, and that aged mother of your sire, Alcmena. Ah, woe
is thee for thy long span of life! and woe is me for all my idle toil!
'Twas after all our destined doom to fall into the hands of our hated
foe, and die a death of shame and misery. But lend me thine aid, thou
knowest how; for all hope of these children's safety has not yet left
me. Give me up instead of them to the Argives, O king; run no risk,
but let me save the children; to love my life becomes me not; let
it pass. Me will Eurystheus be most glad to take and treat despitefully,
as I was Heracles' companion; for the man is but a boor; wherefore
wise men ought to pray to get a wise man for their foe, and not a
proud senseless fool; for so, even if by fortune flouted, one would
meet with much consideration.

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