Heracles
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. II. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1891.
- seeking the home of Atlas, and on his manly shoulders took the starry mansions of the gods.
- Then he went through the waves of heaving Euxine against the mounted host of Amazons dwelling round Maeotis,
- the lake that is fed by many a stream, having gathered to his standard all his friends from Hellas, to fetch the gold-embroidered raiment of the warrior queen,
- a deadly quest for a girdle. Hellas won those glorious spoils of the barbarian maid, and they are safe in Mycenae.
- He burned to ashes Lerna’s murderous hound,
- the many-headed water-snake, and smeared its venom on his darts, with which he slew the shepherd of Erytheia, a monster with three bodies.
- And many another glorious achievement he brought to a happy issue; to Hades’ house of tears has he now sailed, the goal of his labors, where he is ending his career of toil, nor does he come back again.
- Now your house is left without a friend, and Charon’s boat awaits your children to bear them on that journey out of life, without return, contrary to the gods’ law and man’s justice; and it is to your prowess
- that your house is looking although you are not here.
- Had I been strong and lusty, able to brandish the spear in battle’s onset, and my Theban companions too, I would have stood by your children
- to champion them; but now my happy youth is gone and I am left.