Euripides' HERACLES Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

Euripides Bilingual Anthology  Studies  Euripides in Print

63 pages - You are on Page 36

Chorus: What, canst thou prove this piteous ruin was a father's outrage
on 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 sire
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; and lo! he was changed; his eyes were rolling; he was distraught;
his eyeballs were bloodshot and starting from their sockets, and foam
was oozing down his bearded cheek. Anon he spoke, laughing the while
a madman's laugh, "Father, why should I sacrifice before I have slain
Eurystheus, why kindle the purifying flame and have the toil twice
over, when I might at one stroke so fairly end it all? Soon as I have
brought the head of Eurystheus hither, 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 famed Mycenae will I go; crow-bars
and pick-axes must I take, for I will heave from their very base with
iron levers those city-walls which the Cyclopes squared with red plumb-line
and mason's tools."

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