Stasimon 6
[Episode]
War! what do you mean? who killed these?
Amphitryon
You and your bow and some god, whoever is to blame.
1135
Heracles
What are you saying? what have I done? Speak, father, you messenger of evil!
Amphitryon
You were insane; it is a sad explanation you are asking.
Heracles
Was it I that slew my wife also?
Amphitryon
Your own unaided arm has done all this.
Heracles
Alas! a cloud of mourning wraps me round.
1140
Amphitryon
For this reason I lament your fate.
Heracles
Did I dash my house to pieces in my frenzy?
Amphitryon
I know nothing but this, that you are utterly undone.
Heracles
Where did the madness seize me? where did it destroy me?
Amphitryon
When you were purifying yourself with fire at the altar.
1145
Heracles
Ah me! why do I spare my own life when I have become the murderer of my dear children? Shall I not hasten to leap from some sheer rock, or aim the sword against my heart
and avenge my children’s blood, or burn my body, which she drove mad, in the fire and so avert from my life the infamy which now awaits me?
1150
But here I see Theseus coming to check my deadly counsels, my kinsman and friend.
Now shall I stand revealed, and the dearest of my friends will see the pollution I have incurred by my children’s murder. Ah, woe is me! what am I to do? Where can I find freedom from my sorrows? shall I take wings or plunge beneath the earth? Come, let me veil my head in darkness;
1155
for I am ashamed of the evil I have done, and, since for these I have incurred fresh blood-guiltiness, I do not want to harm the innocent.
1160
Theseus
I have come, and others with me, young warriors from the land of Athens, encamped at present by the streams of Asopus,
to bring an allied army to your son, old friend. For a rumour reached the city of the Erechtheidae, that Lycus had usurped the scepter of this land and had become your enemy even to battle. Wherefore I came making recompense for the former kindness of Heracles
1165
in saving me from the world below, if you have any need of such aid as I or my allies can give, old man.
1170
Ha! why this heap of dead upon the floor? Surely I have not delayed too long and come too late to check a revolution? Who slew these children?
whose wife is this I see? Boys do not go to battle; no, it must be some other strange mischance I here discover.
1175
Amphitryon
O king, whose home is that olive-clad hill!
Theseus
Why this piteous prelude in addressing me?
Amphitryon
The gods have afflicted us with grievous suffering.
1180
Theseus
Whose are these children, over whom you weep?
Amphitryon
My own son’s children, woe is him! he was their father and butcher both, hardening his heart to the bloody deed.
Theseus
Hush! good words only!
Amphitryon
I would I could obey!
1185
Theseus
What dreadful words!
