Euripides' HERACLES Complete

Translated by E. Coleridge.

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63 pages - You are on Page 58

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 fetters on parents' 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 fictions 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 whoso
schooleth not his frail mortal nature to bear fate's buffets as he
ought, will never be able to withstand even a man's weapon. I will
harden my heart against death and seek thy city, with grateful thanks
for all thou offerest me. (He weeps.) Of countless troubles have
I tasted, God knows, but never yet did faint at any or shed a single
tear; nay, nor ever dreamt 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; old father mine, thou seest me go forth to exile, and
in me beholdest 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 pledges of our union, whom I, alas! unwittingly did
slay. And when thou hast buried these dead, live on here still, in
bitternes maybe, but still constrain thy soul to share my sorrows.
O children! he who begat you, your own father, hath been your destroyer,
and ye have had no profit of my triumphs, all my restless toil to
win you a fair name in life, a glorious guerdon from a sire.

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