Heracles

Perseus Greek · Perseus Greek · 537 sections

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and the steadings on Pelion and neighboring caves of Homole, from where the Centaurs rode forth to conquer Thessaly, arming themselves with pines.
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And he slew that dappled deer with horns of gold, that preyed upon the country-folk, glorifying Artemis, huntress queen of Oenoe.
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Next he mounted on a chariot and tamed with the bit the horses of Diomedes, that greedily champed their bloody food at gory mangers with unbridled jaws, devouring with hideous joy the flesh of men;
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then crossing the heights of Hebrus that flow with silver, he still toiled on for the tyrant of Mycenae.
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And at the strand of the Pelian gulf
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by the streams of Anaurus, he slew with his arrows Cycnus, murderer of his guests, the savage wretch who dwelt in Amphanae.
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And he came to those minstrel maids,
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to their orchard in the west, to pluck from the leafy apple-tree its golden fruit, when he had slain the tawny dragon, whose terrible coils were twined all round to guard it;
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and he made his way into ocean’s lairs, bringing calm to men that use the oar.
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And he stretched out his hands to uphold the firmament,
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seeking the home of Atlas, and on his manly shoulders took the starry mansions of the gods.
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Then he went through the waves of heaving Euxine against the mounted host of Amazons dwelling round Maeotis,
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the lake that is fed by many a stream, having gathered to his standard all his friends from Hellas, to fetch the gold-embroidered raiment of the warrior queen,
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a deadly quest for a girdle. Hellas won those glorious spoils of the barbarian maid, and they are safe in Mycenae.
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He burned to ashes Lerna’s murderous hound,
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the many-headed water-snake, and smeared its venom on his darts, with which he slew the shepherd of Erytheia, a monster with three bodies.
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And many another glorious achievement he brought to a happy issue; to Hades’ house of tears has he now sailed, the goal of his labors, where he is ending his career of toil, nor does he come back again.
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Now your house is left without a friend, and Charon’s boat awaits your children to bear them on that journey out of life, without return, contrary to the gods’ law and man’s justice; and it is to your prowess
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that your house is looking although you are not here.
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Had I been strong and lusty, able to brandish the spear in battle’s onset, and my Theban companions too, I would have stood by your children
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to champion them; but now my happy youth is gone and I am left.
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But look! I see the children of Heracles who was once so great, wearing the clothes of the dead,
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and his loving wife dragging her babes along at her side, and Heracles’ aged father. Ah! woe is me! no longer can I stem the flood of tears
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that spring to my old eyes.
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Come now, who is to sacrifice or butcher these poor children? or rob me of my wretched life? These victims are ready to be led to Hades’ halls. O my children! an ill-matched company are we hurried off to die,
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old men and young ones and mothers, all together. Alas! for my sad fate and my children’s, whom these eyes now for the last time behold. So I gave you birth and reared you only for our foes to mock, to jeer at, and slay.
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Ah me! how bitterly my hopes have disappointed me in the expectation I once formed from the words of your father. Addressing each of her three sons in turn. To you your dead father was for giving Argos; and you were to dwell in the halls of Eurystheus, lording it over the fair fruitful land of Argolis;
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and over your head would he throw that lion’s skin with which he himself was armed. And you were to be king of Thebes, famed for its chariots, receiving as your heritage my broad lands, for so you coaxed your dear father;
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and to your hand he used to resign the carved club, his sure defence, pretending to give it to you. And to you he promised to give Oechalia, which once his archery had wasted. Thus with three principalities
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would your father exalt you, his three sons, proud of your manliness; while I was choosing the best brides for you, scheming to link you by marriage to Athens, Thebes, and Sparta, that you might live a happy life with a fast sheet-anchor to hold by.
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And now that is all vanished; fortune’s breeze has veered and given to you for brides the maidens of death in their stead, and my tears will be the marriage bath; woe is me for my foolish thoughts! and your grandfather here is celebrating your marriage-feast, the cares of a father, accepting Hades as the father of your brides.
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Ah me! which of you shall I first press to my bosom, which last? on which bestow my kiss, or clasp close to me? Oh! would that like the bee with russet wing, I could collect from every source my sighs in one, and, blending them together, shed them in one copious flood!
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O my dearest Heracles, to you I call, if perhaps mortal voice can make itself heard in Hades’ halls; your father and children are dying, and I am doomed, I who once because of you was counted blessed as men count bliss. Come to our rescue; appear, I pray, if only as a phantom,
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since your arrival, even as a dream, would be enough, for they are cowards who are slaying your children.
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Lady, prepare the funeral rites; but I, O Zeus, stretching out my hand to heaven, call on you to help these children,
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if such is your intention; for soon any aid of yours will be unavailing; and yet you have been often invoked; my toil is in vain; death seems inevitable. You aged friends, the joys of life are few; so take heed that you pass through it as gladly as you may,
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without a thought of sorrow from morning until night; for time takes little heed of preserving our hopes; and, when he has busied himself on his own business, away he flies. Look at me, a man who had made a mark among his fellows by deeds of note; yet fortune in a single day
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has robbed me of it as of a feather that floats away toward the sky. I know not any whose plenteous wealth and high reputation is fixed and sure; fare you well, for now you have seen the last of your old friend, my comrades.
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Ah! Old friend, is it my own, my dearest I see? or what am I to say?
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I do not know, my daughter; I too am struck dumb.
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Is this he who they told us was beneath the earth?It is, unless some day-dream mocks our sight. What am I saying? What visions do these anxious eyes behold? Old man, this is no one other than your own son.
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Come here, my children, cling to your father’s robe, hurry, never loose your hold, for here is one to help you, not at all behind our savior Zeus.
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All hail! my house and gates of my home, how glad I am to emerge to the light and see you.
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Ah! what is this? I see my children before the house in the robes of death, with chaplets on their heads and my wife amid a throng of men, and my father weeping—what misfortune? Let me draw near to them and inquire;
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lady, what strange stroke of fate has fallen on the house?
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Dearest of all mankind to me!
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O ray of light appearing to your father!
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Are you safe and is your coming just in time to help your dear ones?
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What do you mean? What is this confusion I find on my arrival, father?
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We are being ruined; forgive me, old friend,
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if I have anticipated that to which you had a right to tell him; for women’s nature is perhaps more prone to grief than men’s and they are my children that were being led to death, which was my own lot too.
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Apollo! what a prelude to your story!
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My brothers are dead, and my old father.
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How so? what did he do? whose spear did he meet?
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Lycus, our new monarch, slew him.
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Did he meet him in fair fight, or was the land sick and weak?
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Yes, from faction; now he is master of the city of Cadmus with its seven gates.
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Why has panic fallen on you and my aged father?
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He meant to kill your father, me, and my children.
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What are you saying? What did he have to fear from my orphan babes?
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He was afraid they might some day avenge Creon’s death.
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What is this dress they wear, suited to the dead?
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It is the garb of death we have already put on.
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And were you being forced to die? O woe is me!
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Yes, deserted by every friend, and informed that you were dead.
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What put such desperate thoughts into your heads?
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That was what the heralds of Eurystheus kept proclaiming.
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Why did you leave my hearth and home?
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He forced us; your father was dragged from his bed.
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Had he no shame, to ill-use the old man so?
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Shame indeed! that goddess and he dwell far enough apart.
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Was I so poor in friends in my absence?
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Who are the friends of a man in misfortune?
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Do they make so light of my hard warring with the Minyans?
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Misfortune, to repeat it to you, has no friends.
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Cast from your heads these chaplets of death, look up to the light, for instead of the darkness below your eyes behold the welcome sun.
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I, meanwhile, since here is work for my hand, will first go raze this upstart tyrant’s halls, and when I have beheaded the villain, I will throw him to dogs to tear; and every Theban who I find has played the traitor after my kindness,
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will I destroy with this victorious club; the rest will I tear apart with my feathered shafts and fill Ismenus full of bloody corpses, and Dirce’s clear stream shall run red with gore. For whom ought I to help rather than wife
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and children and aged father? Farewell my labors! for it was in vain I accomplished them rather than helping these. And yet I ought to die in their defence, since they for their father were doomed; or what shall we find so noble in having fought a hydra and a lion
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at the commands of Eurystheus, if I make no effort to save my own children from death? No longer then, as before, shall I be called Heracles the victor.
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It is only right that parents should help their children, their aged fathers, and the partners of their marriage.
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My son, it is like you to show your love for your dear ones and your hate for your enemies; only curb excessive hastiness.
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How, father, am I now showing more than fitting haste?
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The king has a host of allies, needy villains though pretending to be rich,
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who sowed dissension and overthrew the state with a view to plundering their neighbors; for the wealth they had in their houses was all spent, dissipated by their sloth. You were seen entering the city; and, that being so, beware that you do not bring your enemies together and be slain unawares.
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Little I care if the whole city saw me; but happening to see a bird perched in an unlucky position, from it I learned that some trouble had befallen my house; so on purpose I made my entry to the land by stealth.
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Well done; now, on your arrival, go salute your household altar,
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and let your father’s halls behold your face. For soon the king will be here in person to drag away your wife and children and murder them, and to add me to the bloody list. But if you remain on the spot all will go well, and you will profit by this security; but do not rouse
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your city before you have these matters well in train, my son.
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I will do so; your advice is good; I will enter my house. After my return at length from the sunless den of Hades and the maiden queen of hell, I will not neglect to greet first of all the gods beneath my roof.
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Did you really go to the house of Hades, my son?
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Yes, and brought to the light that three-headed monster.
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Did you conquer him in fight, or receive him from the goddess?
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In fight; for I had been lucky enough to witness the rites of the initiated.
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Is the monster really lodged in the house of Eurystheus?
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The grove of Demeter and the city of Hermione have him now.
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Eurystheus does not know that you have returned to the upper world?
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He does not; I came here first to learn your news.
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How is it you were so long beneath the earth?
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I stayed awhile attempting to bring back Theseus from Hades, father.

Perseus Greek. CTS URN tlg0006.tlg009.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.