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But as for me, I cling to the theme of Heracles gladly, rousing an ancient story from among the great heights of his excellence,
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how, when the son of Zeus suddenly came out of his mother’s womb into the brilliant light, escaping her birth-pangs, with his twin brother,
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he did not escape the notice of gold-throned Hera when he was placed in his saffron swaddling-clothes. But the queen of the gods,
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stung in her heart, immediately sent serpents. The doors opened, and they crept into the spacious inner-chamber, eager to coil their swift jaws around the babies. But Heracles lifted his head straight up, and had his first experience of battle,
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seizing
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the two necks of the serpents in his two irresistible hands. When they were strangled, time squeezed the breath of life out of their unspeakable limbs. Unbearable fear Reading with Snell δέος for βέλος. struck the women who were then helping Alcmena at her bedside;
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for she herself leapt to her feet from her bed, unrobed as she was, and tried to ward off the violent attack of the monsters.
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And swiftly the chiefs of the Cadmeans rushed in together in their bronze armor, and Amphitryon came brandishing a sword bared from its scabbard, stricken with sharp distress. For each man alike is oppressed by his own trouble, but the heart recovers quickly from someone else’s grief.
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He stood, possessed by overwhelming astonishment and delight. For he saw the supernatural courage and power of his son; the immortals had turned the story of the messengers to falsehood for him.
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And he called his neighbor, the outstanding prophet of Zeus the highest, the truthful seer Teiresias. And the prophet told him and all the men what fortunes the boy would encounter:
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how many he would slay on land, and how many lawless monsters at sea. And he told of a certain one,
