40 Ernest Heinrich Klotsche 



The pathless land, the wild sea, hath he tamed, 

 And the God's honours hath alone restored, 

 When these by impious men were overthrown. 

 Therefore I plead, devise no monstrous wrong." 



That Hercules is the object of divine resentment is also implied 

 in Iris' answer to the chorus' appeal to Paean : 



H. F. 820-21 : 



oiva^ Ylaiav, 



aTTOTpoTTOs ykvoio ixoL irriixa.T(jiv. 



" Healer, to thee, 

 O King to avert from me yon bane I pray ! " 



Iris: "Fear not: this is the child of Night ye see. 



Madness, grey sires : I, handmaid of the Gods, 

 Iris. We come not for your city's hurt ; 

 Only on one man's house do we make war — 

 His, whom Zeus' and Alcmena's son they call. 

 For, till he had ended all his bitter toils, 

 Fate shielded him, and Father Zeus would not 

 That I, or Hera, wrought him ever harm. 

 But now he has toiled Eurystheus' labours through, 

 Hera will stain him with the blood of kin. 

 That he shall slay his sons : her will is mine." 



(vv: 822-32.) 



If this is the principle on which Olympus is organized we need 

 not wonder that the Olympians turn a deaf ear to the prayers of 

 suffering mankind and that things go wrong on earth. This is 

 the idea which the poet through such passages — intentionally or 

 unintentionally — suggests. 



Hercules who is believed to be in Hades is invoked by Megara 

 to appear : 



H. F. 490-96 : 



w 4>l\TaT^ , el TLs 4>^6-yyos eitraKoiierat 



■dvrjrihv irap' AtSry, crol raS' , HpdicXets, \eyw k. t. X. 



" Dear love, — if any in Hades of the dead 

 Can hear, — I cry this to thee, Hercules : 

 Thy sire, thy sons, are dying; doomed am I, 

 I, once through thee called blest in all men's eyes. 

 Help ! — come ! — Though as a shadow, yet appear ! 



94 



