The Trachiniae

thee: else thou canst not learn how vain is thy desire for vengeance, and how causeless thy resentment. HERACLES Say what thou wilt, and cease; in this my pain I understand nought of all thy riddling words. HYLLUS I come to tell thee of my mother,- how it is now with her, and how she sinned unwittingly. HERACLES Villain! What- hast thou dared to breathe her name again in my hearing,- the name of the mother who hath slain thy sire? HYLLUS Yea, such is her state that silence is unmeet. HERACLES Unmeet, truly, in view of her past crimes. HYLLUS And also of her deeds this day,- as thou wilt own. HERACLES Speak,- but give heed that thou be not found a traitor. HYLLUS These are my tidings. She is dead, lately slain. HERACLES By whose hand? A wondrous message, from a prophet of ill-omened voice! HYLLUS By her own hand, and no stranger's. HERACLES Alas, ere she died by mine, as she deserved! HYLLUS Even thy wrath would be turned, couldst thou hear all. HERACLES A strange preamble; but unfold thy meaning. HYLLUS The sum is this;- she erred, with a good intent. HERACLES Is it a good deed, thou wretch, to have slain thy sire? HYLLUS Nay, she thought to use a love-charm for thy heart, when she saw the new bride in the house; but missed her aim. HERACLES And what Trachinian deals in spells so potent? HYLLUS Nessus the Centaur persuaded her of old to inflame thy desire with such a charm. HERACLES Alas, alas, miserable that I am! Woe is me, I am lost,-

HERACLES Alas, alas, miserable that I am! Woe is me, I am lost,- undone, undone! No more for me the light of day! Alas, now I see in what a plight stand! Go, my son,- for thy father's end hath come,- summon, I pray thee, all thy brethren; summon, too, the hapless Alcmena, in vain the bride of Zeus,- that ye may learn from my dying lips what oracles know. HYLLUS Nay, thy mother is not here; as it chances, she hath her abode at Tiryns by the sea. Some of thy children she hath taken to live with her there, and others, thou wilt find, are dwelling in Thebe's town. But we who are with thee, my father, will render all service that is needed, at thy bidding. HERACLES Hear, then, thy task: now is the time to show what stuff is in thee, who art called my son. It was foreshown to me by my Sire of old that I should perish by no creature that had the breath of life, but by one that had passed to dwell with Hades. So I have been slain by this savage Centaur, the living by the dead, even as the divine will had been foretold. And I will show thee how later oracles tally therewith, confirming the old prophecy. I wrote them down in the grove of the Selli, dwellers on the hills, whose couch is on the ground; they were given by my Father's oak of many tongues; which said that, at the time which liveth and now is, my release from the toils laid upon me should be accomplished. And I looked for prosperous days; but the meaning, it seems, was only

And I looked for prosperous days; but the meaning, it seems, was only that should die; for toil comes no more to the dead. Since, then, my son, those words are clearly finding their fulfilment, thou, on thy part, must lend me thine aid. Thou must not delay, and so provoke me to bitter speech: thou must consent and help with a good grace, as one who hath learned that best of laws, obedience to a sire. HYLLUS Yea, father,- though I fear the issue to which our talk hath brought me,- I will do thy good pleasure. HERACLES First of all, lay thy right hand in mine. HYLLUS For what purpose dost thou insist upon his pledge? HERACLES Give thy hand at once- disobey me not! HYLLUS Lo, there it is: thou shalt not be gainsaid. HERACLES Now, swear by the head of Zeus my sire! HYLLUS To do what deed? May this also be told? HERACLES To perform for me the task that I shall enjoin. HYLLUS I swear it, with Zeus for witness of the oath. HERACLES And pray that, if thou break this oath, thou mayest suffer. HYLLUS I shall not suffer, for I shall keep it:- yet so I pray. HERACLES Well, thou knowest the summit of Oeta, sacred to Zeus? HYLLUS Ay; I have often stood at his altar on that height. HERACLES Thither, then, thou must carry me up with thine own hands, aided by what friends thou wilt; thou shalt lop many a branch from the deep-rooted oak, and hew many a faggot also from the sturdy stock of the wild-olive; thou shalt lay my body thereupon, and kindle it

of the wild-olive; thou shalt lay my body thereupon, and kindle it with flaming pine-torch. And let no tear of mourning be seen there; no, do this without lament and without weeping, if thou art indeed my son. But if thou do it not, even from the world below my curse and my wrath shall wait on thee for ever. HYLLUS Alas, my father, what hast thou spoken? How hast thou dealt with me! HERACLES I have spoken that which thou must perform; if thou wilt not, then get thee some other sire, and be called my son no more! HYLLUS Woe, woe is me! What a deed dost thou require of me, my father,-that I should become thy murderer, guilty of thy blood! HERACLES Not so, in truth, but healer of my sufferings, sole physician of my pain! HYLLUS And how, by enkindling thy body, shall I heal it? HERACLES Nay, if that thought dismay thee, at least perform the rest. HYLLUS The service of carrying thee shall not be refused. HERACLES And the heaping of the pyre, as I have bidden? HYLLUS Yea, save that I will not touch it with mine own hand. All else will I do, and thou shalt have no hindrance on my part. HERACLES Well, so much shall be enough.- But add one small boon to thy large benefits. HYLLUS Be the boon never so large, it shall be granted. HERACLES Knowest thou, then, the girl whose sire was Eurytus? HYLLUS It is of Iole that thou speakest, if I mistake not. HERACLES Even so. This, in brief, is the charge that I give thee,

HERACLES Even so. This, in brief, is the charge that I give thee, my son. When am dead, if thou wouldest show a pious remembrance of thine oath unto thy father, disobey me not, but take this woman to be thy wife. Let no other espouse her who hath lain at my side, but do thou, O my son, make that marriage-bond thine own. Consent: after loyalty in great matters, to rebel in less is to cancel the grace that bad been won. HYLLUS Ah me, it is not well to be angry with a sick man: but who could bear to see him in such a mind? HERACLES Thy words show no desire to do my bidding. HYLLUS What! When she alone is to blame for my mother's death, and for thy present plight besides? Lives there the man who would make such choice, unless he were maddened by avenging fiends? Better were it, father, that I too should die, rather than live united to the worst of our foes! HERACLES He will render no reverence, it seems, to my dying prayer.- Nay, be sure that the curse of the gods will attend thee for disobedience to my voice. HYLLUS Ah, thou wilt soon show, methinks, how distempered thou art! HERACLES Yea, for thou art breaking the slumber of my plague. HYLLUS Hapless that I am! What perplexities surround me! HERACLES Yea, since thou deignest not to hear thy sire. HYLLUS But must I learn, then, to be impious, my father? HERACLES 'Tis not impiety, if thou shalt gladden my heart. HYLLUS Dost thou command me, then, to do this deed, as a clear duty?

HYLLUS Dost thou command me, then, to do this deed, as a clear duty? HERACLES I command thee,- the gods bear me witness! HYLLUS Then will I do it, and refuse not,- calling upon the gods to witness thy deed. I can never be condemned for loyalty to thee, my father. HERACLES Thou endest well; and to these words, my son, quickly add the gracious deed, that thou mayest lay me on the pyre before any pain returns to rend or sting me. Come, make haste and lift me! This, in truth, is rest from troubles; this is the end, the last end, of Heracles! HYLLUS Nothing, indeed, hinders the fulfilment of thy wish, since thy command constrains us, my father. HERACLES (chanting) Come, then, ere thou arouse this plague, O my stubborn soul, give me a curb as of steel on lips set like stone to stone, and let no cry escape them; seeing that the deed which thou art to do, though done perforce, is yet worthy of thy joy! HYLLUS (chanting) Lift him, followers! And grant me full forgiveness for this; but mark the great cruelty of the gods in the deeds that are being done. They beget children, they are hailed as fathers, and yet they can look upon such sufferings. (The attendants raise HERACLES on the litter and move slowly off, as HYLLUS chants to the CHORUS in the closing lines.) No man foresees the future; but the present is fraught with mourning for us, and with shame for the powers above, and verily with anguish beyond compare for him who endures this doom. Maidens, come ye also, nor linger at the house; ye who have lately seen a dread death, with sorrows manifold and strange: and in all this there is nought but Zeus. THE END