Her little children closely pressing round;
And with her, with the tardy step of age,
The sire of Hercules, Amphitryon.
ACT II
Megara: O mighty ruler of Olympus' heights, 205
Thou judge of all the world, now set at length
A limit to my cares, and make an end
Of my disasters. No untroubled day
Doth dawn for me; but one misfortune's end
Marks but the starting-point of future woes.
Fresh foes are ready for my Hercules
Straightway on his return; ere he can reach 210
His happy home, another warfare bids
That he set forth again. No time for rest
Is given, save while he waits a fresh command.
'Twas ever thus: from earliest infancy
Unfriendly Juno follows on his track.
Was e'en his cradle free from her assaults?
He conquered monsters ere he learned to know 215
What monsters were. Two crested serpents huge
Against him reared their heads; the dauntless child
Crawled forth to meet them, and, with placid gaze
Intently fixed upon their fiery eyes,
With fearless look he raised their close-coiled folds, 220
And crushed their swollen necks with tender hand.
And thus he practiced for the hydra's death.
He caught the nimble stag of Maenalus,
Its beauteous head adorned with horns of gold.
The lion, terror of Nemean woods,
Groaned out his life beneath the mighty arms 225
Of Hercules. Why should I call to mind
The stables dire of that Bistonian herd,
And the king as food to his own horses given?
The rough Maenalian boar, which, from his lair
On Erymanthus' thickly wooded heights,
Filled all the groves of Arcady with dread?
Or that fell Cretan bull whose terror filled 230
A hundred towns? Among his herds remote,
