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With steps unsteady, clad in trailing robes
Bright with barbaric gold. 'Tis virtue's right 475
In foolishness to ease the strain of toil.
Lycus: 'Twas for this cause the house of Eurytus
Was overthrown, and troops of maidens slain
Like helpless sheep! No Juno ordered this,
Nor yet Eurystheus: these his works alone. 480
Amphitr.: Thou know'st not all his deeds: it was his work
That Eryx fell, by his own gauntlets slain;
That in his death Antaeus, too, was joined;
That those foul altars, dripping with the blood
Of hapless strangers, drank the blood at last
Of murderous Busiris. 'Twas his work
That Cycnus, proof against the sword, was slain, 485
Though still unwounded; by his hand alone
The threefold Geryon fell. And thou shalt be
As one of these, though they ne'er basely sinned
Against the rites of marriage.
Lycus: What to Jove
Is lawful, is my kingly right as well.
A wife thou gav'st to him; so for thy king
Shalt thou a mate provide. Now Megara 490
From thine example shall the lesson learn,
Not new, that wives may yield to better men,
When husbands give consent. But if, self-willed,
She still refuse to take me for her lord,
I'll force her will to bear me noble seed.
Megara: Ye shades of Creon, and ye household gods 495
Of Labdacus, ye impious nuptial fires
Of Oedipus, your wonted fortune give
To this our union! O ye savage wives
Of king Aegyptus' sons, be present now,
With blood-stained hands. Your count is incomplete.
I gladly will that impious number fill. 500
Lycus: Since thou dost stubbornly refuse my suit,
And striv'st to fright the king, now shalt thou feel
The strength of royal power. Cling as thou mayst
To altar horns: no god shall save thee now
From me; not though the earth itself be rent,