Amphitryon, or Jupiter in Disguise

Perseus Latin · Perseus Latin · 874 sections

4.2c.1034_sp137
Ah me! what do I hear? I scarcely am myself. For, awake, I am asleep; awake, I am in a dream; alive and well, I come to destruction. I am that same Amphitryon, the descendant of Gorgophone, the general of the Thebans, and the sole combatant for Creon against the Teleboans; I, who have subdued by my might the Acarnanians and the Taphians, and, by my consummate warlike prowess, their king. Over these have I appointed Cephalus, the son of the great Deioneus.
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I am he who by warfare and my valour crushed the hostile ravagers. They had destroyed Electryon and the brothers of my wife. Wandering through the Ionian, the Aegean, and the Cretan seas, with piratical violence they laid waste Achaia, Aetolia, and Phocis.
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Immortal Gods! I cannot trust my own self, so exactly does he relate all the things that happened there. Consider, Blepharo.
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One thing only remains; if so it is, do you be Amphitryons both of you.
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I knew what you would say. The scar that I have on the muscle of my right arm, from the wound which Pterelas gave me—
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Well, that.
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Quite to the purpose.
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See you! look, behold!
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Uncover, and I’ll look.
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We have uncovered. Look!
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Supreme Jupiter, what do I behold? On the right-arm muscle of each, in the same spot, the scar clearly appears with the same mark, reddish and somewhat livid, just as it has first commenced to close. Reasoning is at a standstill, all judgment is struck dumb; I don’t know what to do.
4.3.1035
Do you settle these matters between yourselves; I’m off, for I have business; and I do not think that I have ever anywhere beheld such extraordinary wonders.
4.3.1037
Blepharo, I pray that you’ll stay as my advocate, and not go away.
4.3.1037b
Farewell. What need is there of me for an advocate, who don’t know which of the two to side with?
4.3.1039
I’m going hence in-doors: Alcmena is in labour.
4.3.1039b
I’m undone, wretch that I am;
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for what am I to do, when my advocates and friends are now forsaking me? Never, by heavens, shall he deride me unrevenged, whoever he is. Now will I betake myself straight to the king, and tell him of the matter as it has happened. By my faith, I will this day take vengeance on this Thessalian sorcerer, who has wrongfully distracted the minds of my household.
4.3.1045
But where is he? (Looking around.) By my troth, he’s off into the house, to my wife, I suppose. What other person lives in Thebes more wretched than myself? What now shall I do? I, whom all men deny and deride just as they please. I am resolved; I’ll burst into the house; there, whatever person I perceive, whether maid-servant or man-servant, whether wife or whether paramour,
4.3.1050
whether father or whether grandfather, I’ll behead that person in the house; neither Jupiter nor all the Deities shall hinder me from this, even if they would, but that I’ll do just as I have resolved.
5.1.1053
The hopes and resources of my life lie buried in my breast, nor is there any boldness in my heart, but what I have lost it.
5.1.1055
So much to me do all things seem, the sea, the earth, the heavens, to be conspiring, that now I may be crushed, that I may be destroyed. Ah, wretched me! I know not what to do. Prodigies so great have come to pass within the house. Ah! woe is me! I’m sick at heart, some water I could wish! I’m overpowered and I’m utterly undone. My head is aching, and I cannot hear, nor do I see well with my eyes.
5.1.1060
No woman is there more wretched than myself, nor can one seem to be more so. Thus has it this day befallen my mistress; for when she invoked for herself the Deities of travail, what rumblings and grumblings, crashes and flashes; suddenly, how instantaneously did it thunder, and how woundy loud. On the spot where each one stood, at the peal he fell; then some one, I know not who, exclaimed in a mighty voice, Alcmena, succour is at hand, fear not:
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propitious both to thee and thine, the Ruler of the Heavens comes. Arise, it said, ye who have fallen down in your terror through dread of me. As I lay, I arose; I fancied that the house was in flames. Then Alcmena called me; and then did that circumstance strike me with horror. Fears for my mistress took possession of me; I ran to her to enquire what she wanted;
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and then I beheld that she had given birth to two male children; not yet did any one of us perceive when she was delivered, or indeed expect it. (Sees AMPHITRYON.) But what’s this? Who’s this old man that’s lying thus before our house? Has Jupiter then smitten him with his thunders? By my troth, I think so; for, oh Jupiter! he is in a lethargy just like one dead.
5.1.1075
I’ll approach, that I may learn who it is. (She advances.) Surely, this is my master Amphitryon. (Calls aloud.) Ho! Amphitryon!
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I’m dead.
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Arise.
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I’m slain outright.
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Give me your hand.
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Who is it that has hold of me?
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Bromia, your maid-servant.
5.1.1077b
I tremble all over, to such a degree has Jove pealed against me. And no otherwise is it than if I had come hither from Acheron. But why have you come out of the house?
5.1.1097b
The same alarm has scared ourselves, affrighted with horror;
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in the house where you yourself dwell, have I seen astounding prodigies. Woe to me, Amphitryon; even now do my senses fail me to such a degree.
5.1.1081b
Come now, tell me; do you know me to be your master Amphitryon?
5.1.1082b
I do know it.
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Look even once again.
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I do know it.
5.1.1083
She alone of all my household has a sane mind.
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Nay but, really, they are all of them sane.
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But my wife causes me to be insane
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by her own shameful practices.
5.1.1085b
But I’ll make you, Amphitryon, to be holding other language; that you may understand that your wife is dutiful and chaste, upon that subject I will in a few words discover some tokens and some proofs. In the first place of all, Alcmena has given birth to two sons.
5.1.1089
Two, say you?
5.1.1089b
Two.
5.1.1089c
The Gods preserve me!
5.1.1089d
Allow me to speak,
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that you may know that all the Deities are propitious to yourself and to your wife.
5.1.1091
Say on.
5.1.1091b
After that, this day, your wife began to be in labour, when the pangs of childbirth came on, as is the custom with women in travail, she invoked the immortal Gods to give her aid, with washed hands and with covered head. Then forthwith it thundered
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with most tremendous crash. At first we thought that your house was falling; all your house shone bright, as though it had been made of gold.
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Prithee, relieve me quickly from this, since you have kept me long enough in suspense. What happened then?
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While these things were passing, meanwhile, not one of us heard your wife groaning or complaining;
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and thus, in fact, without pain was she delivered.
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Then do I rejoice at this, whatever she has merited at my hands.
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Leave that alone, and hear these things which I shall tell you. After she was delivered, she bade us wash the babes; we commenced to do so. But that child which I washed, how stout, how very powerful he is; and not a person was there, able to wrap him in the swaddling-clothes.
5.1.1105
Most wondrous things you tell of. If these things are true, I do not apprehend but that succour has been brought to my wife from heaven.
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Now shall I make you own to things more wondrous still. After he was laid in the cradle, two immense crested serpents glided down through the skylight; instantly they both reared their heads.
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Ah me!
5.1.1110
Be not dismayed—but the serpents began to gaze upon all around. After they beheld the children, quickly they made towards the cradle; I, fearing for the children, alarmed for myself, going backwards, began to draw and pull the cradle to and fro, and so much the more fiercely did the serpents pursue. After that one of the children caught sight of the serpents,
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he quickly leapt from the cradle, straightway he made an attack upon them, ana suddenly he grasped them, one in each hand.
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You tell of wondrous things; a very fearful exploit do you relate; for at your words horror steals upon the limbs of wretched me. What happened then? Say on.
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The child slew both the serpents. While these things are passing, in a loud voice there calls upon your wife—
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What person—?
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Jupiter, the supreme Ruler of Gods and men. He said that he had secretly enjoyed Alcmena in his embraces, and that he was his own son who had overcome those serpents; the other, he said, was your child.
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By my troth, I am not sorry
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if I am allowed to take my half of a blessing in partnership with Jupiter. Go home, and bid the sacred vessels to be at once prepared for me, that with many victims I may seek my peace with supreme Jove. I will apply to Tiresias the soothsayer, and consult him what he considers ought to be done; at the same time I’ll relate to him this matter just as it has happened. (It thunders.)
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But what means this? How dreadfully it thunders! Ye Gods, your mercy, I do entreat.
5.2.1131
Be of good cheer, Amphitryon; I am come to thy aid: thou hast nothing to fear; all diviners and soothsayers let alone. What is to be, and what has past, I will tell thee; and so much better than they can, inasmuch as I am Jupiter.
5.2.1135
First of all, I have made loan of the person of Alcmena, and have caused her to be pregnant with a son. Thou, too, didst cause her to be pregnant, when thou didst set out upon the expedition; at one birth has she brought forth the two together. One of these, the one that is sprung from my parentage,
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shall bless thee with deathless glory by his deeds. Do thou return with Alcmena to your former affection; she merits not that thou shouldst impute it to her as her blame; by my power has she been compelled thus to act. I now return to the heavens.
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I’ll do as thou dost command me; and I entreat thee to keep thy promises.
5.2.1145
I’ll go in-doors to my wife. I dismiss the aged Tiresias from my thoughts.
5.2.1146
Spectators, now, for the sake of supreme Jove , give loud applause.

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0119.phi001.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.