EURIPIDES
losing these boys, 135
what allies you lose!
No more. Look: I see my country's tyrant,
Lycus, approaching the palace.
(Enter Lycus with attendants.)
Lyons
You there,
father of Heracles, and you, his wife: 140
allow me one question. And you must allow it:
I am the power here; I ask what I wish.
How long will you seek to prolong your lives?
What hope have you? What could prevent your death?
Or do you think the father of these boys 145
who lies dead with Hades will still come back?
How shabbily you suffer when you both must die—
you who filled all Hellas with your hollow boasts
that Zeus was partner in your son's conception;
and you, that you were wife of the noblest man! 150
What was so prodigious in your husband's deeds?
Because he killed a hydra in a marsh?
Or the Nemean lion? They were trapped in nets,
not strangled, as he claims, with his bare hands.
Are these your arguments? Because of this, 155
you say, the sons of Heracles should live—•
a man who, coward in everything else,
made his reputation fighting beasts,
who never buckled shield upon his arm,
never came near a spear, but held a bow, 160
the coward's weapon, handy to run away?
The bow is no proof of manly courage;
no, your real man stands firm in the ranks
and dares to face the gash the spear may make.
My policy, old man, is not mere cruelty; 165
call it caution. I am well aware
that I killed Creou and usurped his throne.
It does not suit my wishes that these boys
go free to take their grown revenge on me*
3H