Heracles
Then, you must carry my body there after raising it up in your own hands, aided by as many of our friends as you require; and when you have cut many a branch from the deep-rooted oak and chopped down many a sturdy wild-olive, you must lay my body on them and with a flaming pine-torch burn it. And let no tear of mourning show itself there. No, do this without laments or tears, if you are indeed my son. But if you fail to do this, even from the world below my curse and my wrath shall await you for ever.
Hyllus Ah, Father, what have you said? What you have done to me!
Heracles I have spoken that which you must perform. If you refuse, then get yourself some other father, and be called my son no longer!
Hyllus Ah, me! What deeds you call on me to do, Father—that I should become your murderer, polluted with your blood!
Heracles Not so, in truth, but healer of my sufferings, sole physician of my pain!
Hyllus And how, by inflaming your body, shall I heal it?
Heracles If your fear keeps you from this one task, at least perform the rest.
Hyllus The service of carrying you will not be refused.
Heracles And the heaping of the pyre which I have ordered?
Hyllus Yes, except that I will not touch fire to it with my own hands. All else will I do, and you will have no hindrance on my part.
Heracles Well, that much will be enough—yet add one small favor to your large benefits.
Hyllus Even if it is tremendously large, it will be done.
Heracles Do you know, then, the maiden, daughter of Eurytus?
Hyllus You mean Iole, I would guess.
Heracles
You know her. Just this is the command that I impose upon you, my son: when I am dead, if you wish to show your piety by remembrance of your oath to your father, make this woman your wife and do not disobey your father. Let no other but you take her who has lain close at my side. You, my son, make that marriage-bond your own. Obey; for although you were obedient in great affairs, your disobedience in small ones cancels the gratitude already won.
Hyllus Ah, me, it is wrong to be angry with a sick man, but who could bear to see him have thoughts like these?
Heracles Your words show no willingness to do as I say.
Hyllus Who on earth would, when she alone is to blame for my mother’s death, and for your present condition besides? Who would choose to do so, unless he were infected by avenging fiends? It would be better, Father, that I also die, rather than live united with those whom I most detest!
Heracles The man will render no due respect, it seems, to my dying prayer. No, be sure that the curse of the gods will await you for disobeying my commands.
Hyllus Ah, you will soon show, it seems, how diseased you are!
Heracles Yes, for you stir me from my slumbering plague.
Hyllus I am miserable! I have no way out of so many dilemmas!
Heracles Yes, since you think it wrong to obey your begetter.
Hyllus But must I then learn to be unholy, Father?
Heracles It is not unholy, if you gladden my heart.
Hyllus Do you, then, command me to do this as a clear duty?
Heracles I do, and I call on the gods to bear me witness!
Hyllus Then I will do it, and not refuse, —calling upon the gods to witness your deed. I can never be condemned for obeying you, Father.
Heracles Your words make a fair ending, and to them, my son, quickly add the gracious deed itself, so that you may place me on the pyre before any pain returns to tear or sting me. Come, make haste and lift me! This, in truth, is rest from troubles, this is the end, the last end, of Heracles!
Hyllus Nothing hinders the fulfillment of your wish, since your commandment strongly compels me, Father.
Heracles Come, then, before you awaken this plague, O my hardened soul, give me a bit of steel to bind my lips like stone to stone! Stop any cry, since the task you accomplish, though by constraint, gives cause for joy.
Hyllus Lift him, attendants! Grant me ample forgiveness for this, but also recall the great cruelty of the gods in the deeds that are being done. They beget children and are hailed as fathers, and yet they can let such sufferings pass before their eyes. No man foresees the future; the present is full of mourning for us, and of shame for the powers above, and indeed of hardship beyond compare for him who endures this disaster. And you, maiden, do not be left at the house. You have seen immense, shocking death, with sorrows great in number and strange. And in all of them there is nothing that is not Zeus.
Cite This Text