No easy task to bit their jaws.HeraclesEasy enough, unless their nostrils vomit fire.ChorusWith ravening jaws they rend the limbs of men.HeraclesThou speakest of the food of mountain beasts, not of horses.ChorusTheir mangers blood-bedabbled thou shalt see.HeraclesWhose son doth he who feeds them boast to be?ChorusAres’ son, king of the golden targe of Thrace.HeraclesThis toil again is but a piece of my ill-luck; hard it ever is and still is growing steeper, if I with Ares’ own-begotten sons must fight, first with Lycaon, next with Cycnus, while now I am bound on this third contest to engage the horses and their master. Yet shall no man ever see Alcmena’s son trembling at his foemen’s prowess.ChorusSee where Admetus, lord of this land, comes in person from the palace forth.AdmetusHail! son of Zeus, from Perseus sprung.HeraclesJoy to thee also, Admetus, king of Thessaly.AdmetusWould there were! yet thy kindly heart I know full well.HeraclesWhy dost thou appear with head shorn thus in mourning?AdmetusTo-day I am to bury one who is dead.HeraclesHeaven avert calamity from thy children!AdmetusThe children I have begotten are alive within my house.HeraclesThy father maybe is gone; well, he was ripe to go.AdmetusNo, Heracles, he lives; my mother too.