EURIPIDES
for whose wedding once all Thebes shrilled 10
to flutes and songs as she was led, a bride,
home to his father's halls by Heracles.
Then my son left home, left Megara and kin,
hoping to recover the plain of Argos
and those gigantic walls from which I fled 15
to Thebes, because I killed Electryon.
He hoped to win me back my native land
and so alleviate my grief. And therefore,
mastered by Hera or by necessity,
he promised to Eurystheus a vast price
for our return: to civilize the world. 20
When all his other labors had been done,
he undertook the last: descended down
to Hades through the jaws of Taenarus
to hale back up to the light of day
the triple-bodied dog.
He has not come back. 25
Here in Thebes the legend goes that once
a certain Lycus married Dirce, our queen,
and ruled this city with its seven gates
before the twins of Zeus, those "white colts/'
Amphion and Zethus, ruled the land. 30
This'Lycus' namesake and descendant,
no native Theban but Euboean-born,
attacked our city, sick with civil war,
murdered Creon and usurped his throne.
And now our marriage-bond with Creon's house 35
has proved in fact to be our greatest ill.
For since my son is gone beneath the earth,
this upstart tyrant, Lycus, plans to kill
the wife and sons of Heracles—and me,
so old and useless, that I scarcely count— 40
blotting murder with more, lest these boys
grown to men, someday revenge their mother's house.
My son, when he descended to the darkness
underground, left me here, appointing me
both nurse and guardian of his little sons. 45
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