Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/158

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Or does some empty shadow mock my joy?
And art thou be indeed? I recognize
Thy arms and shoulders and the mighty club 625
Within thy hands renowned.
Hercules: ⁠O father, whence
These marks of grief, and why do I behold
My wife in dusky mourning garments clad,
My children garbed in these vile signs of woe?
What fell disaster hath o'erwhelmed my house?
Amphitr.: Thy father-in-law is slain, his kingdom gone,
For Lycus hath usurped it; now he seeks
Thy children, father, wife, to bring to death. 630
Hercules: Ungrateful land! did no one come to aid
The home of Hercules? Did all the world,
Defended by my arm, look on this deed
And suffer it? But why waste time in grief?
My enemy must die.
Theseus [seeking to detain him]: O Hercules,
Let not thy mighty courage bear this stain,
And such a foe as Lycus be thy last. 635
I go myself to drink his hateful blood.
Hercules: My Theseus, stay thou here, lest violence
From some new source arise. This war is mine.
Let thy embraces wait awhile, my sire,
And thine, my wife. Let Lycus first announce
To Dis that I have safe returned to earth. 640
⁠[Exit.]
Theseus: Now let thy face give o'er its grief, my queen;
And thou, O father, check thy falling tears,
Since this thy son is safe returned to thee.
If I know Hercules, for Creon's death
This Lycus soon shall pay the penalty.
"Shall pay" is slow; he pays; nay more, has paid.
Amphitr.: Now may some favoring god our prayers fulfil, 645
And help us in our need. O trusty friend
Of our great son, his deeds in order tell:
How long the way that leads to the sorrowing shades;
How bore the dog of hell his heavy chains.
Theseus: Thou bid'st me call to memory such deeds 650