O breast and back,
O shrivelling arms and hands, ye are the same
That crushed the dweller of the Nemean wild,
The lion unapproachable and rude,
The oxherd’s plague, and Hydra of the lake
Of Lerna, and the twi-form prancing throng
Of Centaurs,—­insolent, unsociable,
Lawless, ungovernable:—­the tusked pest
Of Erymanthine glades; then underground
Pluto’s three-headed cur—­a perilous fear,
Born from the monster-worm; and, on the verge
Of Earth, the dragon, guarding fruits of gold. 
These toils and others countless I have tried,
And none hath triumphed o’er me.  But to-day,
Jointless and riven to tatters, I am wrecked
Thus utterly by imperceptible woe;
I, proudly named Alcmena’s child, and His
Who reigns in highest heaven, the King supreme! 
  Ay, but even yet, I tell ye, even from here,
Where I am nothingness and cannot move,
She who hath done this deed shall feel my power. 
Let her come near, that, mastered by my might,
She may have this to tell the world, that, dying,
As living, I gave punishment to wrong.

CH.  O Hellas, how I grieve for thy distress! 
How thou wilt mourn in losing him we see!

HYL.  My father, since thy silence gives me leave,
Still hear me patiently, though in thy pain! 
For my request is just.  Lend me thy mind
Less wrathfully distempered than ’tis now;
Else thou canst never know, where thou art keen
With vain resentment and with vain desire

HER.  Speak what thou wilt and cease, for I in pain
Catch not the sense of thy mysterious talk

HYL.  I come to tell thee of my mother’s case,
And her involuntary unconscious fault.

HER.  Base villain! hast thou breathed thy mother’s name,
Thy father’s murderess, in my hearing too!

HYL.  Her state requires not silence, but full speech.

HER.  Her faults in former time might well be told.

HYL.  So might her fault to day, couldst thou but know.

HER.  Speak, but beware base words disgrace thee not.

HYL.  List!  She is dead even now with new-given wound.

HER.  By whom?  Thy words flash wonder through my woe.

HYL.  Her own hand slaughtered her, no foreign stroke.

HER.  Wretch! to have reft this office from my hands.

HYL.  Even your rash spirit were softened, if you knew.

HER.  This bodes some knavery.  But declare thy thought!

HYL.  She erred with good intent.  The whole is said.

HER.  Good, O thou villain, to destroy thy sire!

HYL.  When she perceived that marriage in her home,
She erred, supposing to enchain thy love.

HER.  Hath Trachis a magician of such might?

HYL.  Long since the Centaur Nessus moved her mind
To work this charm for heightening thy desire.

HER.  O horror, thou art here!  I am no more. 
My day is darkened, boy!  Undone, undone! 
I see our plight too plainly. woe is me! 
Come, O my son! —­thou hast no more a father,—­
Call to me all the brethren of thy blood,
And poor Alcmena, wedded all in vain
Unto the Highest, that ye may hear me tell
With my last breath what prophecies I know.