To your sire's halls, where others' mastery holds
His substance, but his name yet lingereth ours.
Amphitryon.
Zeus, for my couch-mate gained I thee in vain:
For nought I named thee father of my son. 340
Less than thou seemest art thou friend to us.
Mortal, in worth thy godhead I outdo:
Herakles' sons have I abandoned not.
Cunning wast thou to steal unto my couch,—
To filch another's right none tendered thee,— 345
Yet know'st not how to save thy dear ones now!
Thine is unwisdom, or injustice thine.
Chorus.[1]
(Str. 1)
Hard on the paean triumphant-ringing
Oft Phœbus outpealeth a mourning-song,
O'er the strings of his harp of the voice sweet-singing 350
Sweeping the plectrum of gold along.
I also of him who hath passed to the places
Of underworld gloom—be it Zeus' son's story,
- ↑ The Lay of the "Labours of Herakles":—I. The Nemean Lion; II. The Centaurs; III. The golden-antlered Hind; IV The horses of Diomede; V. Kyknus the Robber; VI. The Golden Apples; VII. Extirpation of Pirates; VIII. Supporting the Pillars of Heaven; IX. The girdle of the Amazon Queen; X. The Hydra; XI. Geryon the three-bodied giant; XII. Cerberus. For II, V, VII, VIII, later writers substitute the Erymanthian Boar, the Augean Stables, the Stymphalian Birds, and the Cretan Bull.
