EURIPIDES
He threw himself to the floor, and acted out
a feast. He tarried there a while, then said
he was approaching Isthmus' wooded valley.
He unstrapped his buckles and stripped himself bare,
and wrestled with no one; then called for silence 960
and crowned himself the victor of a match
that never was. Then raged against Eurystheus,
and said he'd come to Mycenae. His father
caught him by that muscled hand and said:
"What do you mean, my son? What is this journey 965
that you make? Or has the blood of those you've slain
made you mad?" He thought Eurystheus' father
had come, trembling, to supplicate his hand;
pushed him away, and set his bow and arrows
against his sons. He thought he was killing 970
Eurystheus' children. Trembling with terror,
they rushed here and there; one hid beneath
his mother's robes, one ran to the shadow
of a pillar, and the last crouched like a bird
below the altar. Their mother shrieked:
"You are their father! Will you kill your sons?" 975
And shouts broke from the old man and the slaves.
Around the pillar he pursued his son
in dreadful circles, then caught up with him
and pierced him to the heart. Backward he fell,
dying, and stained the flagstones with his blood. 980
His father shouted in triumph, exulting,
"Here is the first of Eurystheus' youngsters dead;
his death repays me for his father's hate."
He aimed his bow at the second, who crouched
below the altar's base, trying to hide. 985
The boy leaped first, fell at his father's knees
and held his hand up to his father's chin.
"Dearest Father/' he cried, "do not murder me.
I am your own son, yours, not Eurystheus'!"
But he stared from stony gorgon eyes, 990
found his son too close to draw the bow,
and brought his club down on that golden head,
^ 344