HERACLES
Settle in some other city then,
where notoriety shall pick me out
to be watched and goaded by bitter gibes—
"Is this the son of Zeus, who killed his wife
and sons? Away with him! Let him die elsewhere." 1290
[To a man who prospers and is blessed,
all change is grief; but the man who lives
akin to trouble minds disaster less.]
But to this pitch of grief my life has come:
the earth itself will groan, forbidding me 1295
to touch the ground, rivers and seas cry out
against my crossing-over, and I am
like Ixion, bound forever to a wheel.
This is the best, that I be seen no more
in Hellas, where I prospered and was great. 1300
Why should I live? What profit have I,
having a life both useless and accursed?
Let the noble wife of Zeus begin the dance,
pounding with her feet Olympus' gleaming floors!
For she accomplished what her heart desired, 1305
and hurled the greatest man of Hellas down
in utter ruin. Who could offer prayers
to such a goddess? Jealous of Zeus
for a mortal woman's sake, she has destroyed
Hellas' greatest friend, though he was guiltless, 1310
Theseus
No other god is implicated here,
except the wife of Zeus. Rightly you judge.
My advice is this: be patient, suffer
what you must, and do not yield to grief.
Fate exempts no man; all men are flawed,
and so the gods, unless the poets lie. 1315
Do not the gods commit adultery?
Have they not cast their fathers into chains,
in pursuit of power? Yet all the same,
despite their crimes, they live upon Olympos.
How dare you then, mortal that you are, 1320
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