Euripides' HERACLES Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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63 pages - You are on Page 39

Chorus: (singing) That murder wrought by the daughters of Danaus,
whereof my native Argos wots, was formerly the most famous and notorious
in Hellas; but this hath surpassed and outdone those previous horrors.
I could tell of the murder of that poor son of Zeus, whom Procne,
mother of an only child, slew and offered to the Muses; but thou hadst
three children, wretched parent, and all of them hast thou in thy
frenzy slain. What groans or wails, what funeral dirge, or chant of
death am I to raise? Alas and woe! see, the bolted doors of the lofty
palace are being rolled apart. Ah me! behold these children lying
dead before their wretched father, who is sunk in awful slumber after
shedding their blood. Round him are bonds and cords, made fast with
many a knot about the body of Heracles, and lashed to the stone columns
of his house. While he, the aged sire, like mother-bird wailing her
unfledged brood, comes hasting hither 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. Amphitryon steps
out. The following lines between Amphitryon and the Chorus are chanted
responsively.)

Amphitryon: Softly, softly! ye aged sons of Thebes, let him sleep
on and forget his sorrows.

Chorus: For thee, old friend, I weep and mourn, for the children too
and that victorious chief.

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