And take her as thy wife.[1] Rebel thou not;
Nor let another take, instead of thee,
One who has clung so closely to my side;
But thou thyself, my son, make her thy wife.
Obey me, for to trust in greater things,
And then, in small, distrust, this cancels quite
The former boon.
Hyllos. [Aside.] Ah me! To vent one's wrath
On one so vexed is wrong. Yet who can bear1230
To see him in this mood?
Hera. Thou speakest then
As meaning not to do the things I say.
Hyllos. Nay, who could choose a wife who guilty stands,
She, and she only, of my mother's death,
And that thou, father, art as now thou art?
Who could do this, unless the fiends had laid
The spell of madness on him? Better 'twere
For me to die, my father, than to live
With worst foes dwelling.
Hera. This boy, it seems, denies
What I in death have asked for. But a curse
From God awaits thee, if thou disobey.1240
Hyllos. Too soon, 'twould seem, thou 'lt shew how wild thou art.
Hera. Yes; thou hast roused me when the ill was lulled.
Hyllos. Woe's me! I stand as one in much perplexed.
Hera. Yes, for thou dar'st thy father disobey.
Hyllos. But must I learn, my father, godless deeds?
- ↑ Revolting as this element in the drama is to our feelings, the thought which seems to underlie it is, that the coming apotheosis of Heracles removed him from the normal conditions of human life, and cancelled the relationship which, even to the Greek mind, would have made such a union horrible.
