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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
HERACLES
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Euripides' play Heracles, coming maybe from 414 b.c.e., begins
with Amphitryon, the pseudo-father of Heracles (Heracles doubts the story
that Zeus is his father), introducing himself and Heracles' wife Megara.
Heracles is on the last of his labors currently: he has gone to Hades to
retrieve Cerberus. Meanwhile, Lycus has taken rule of Thebes and become a
murderous tyrant. He wants to kill Hercules three sons for fear they will
grow up and seek revenge for other family murders. Megara and a Chorus of
Theban elders commiserate.
Lycus taunts them with assertions that Heracles has been a successful
fighter only against animals such as the Nemean lion. He declares the bow
a "coward's weapon" (158). Amphitryon counters the insults and Lycus
decides to kill these five remaining members of Heracles' family.
Amphitryon requests that he and Megara be killed first so they don't have
to listen to the kids' screams.
The Chorus recounts Heracles' labors: killing the Lernean hydra, and all.
The others prepare to die. Heracles arrives in time and Megara fills him
in on recent events. Heracles is determined to level Lycus' house, "Cut
off his head, and throw it out for dogs to tear" (170). And he'll club to
death other Theban traitors. He thinks his famous labors a waste of time
while his own family has suffered (171). He reports that he "beheld the
holy Mysteries" in the Underworld, and has extra strength. It took him so
long to get back because he rescued Theseus from the Underworld too.
After a brief final appearance, Lycus goes offstage and is slain by
Heracles. The Chorus comments.
Iris and Madness appear above the palace and now that Heracles' labors
are done it's open season. Hera wants blood-guilt on him, so the plan now
is to make him kill his kids. That's why Madness is along.
A messenger recounts Heracles' fit of insanity and his murder of each of
his kids and his wife. A phantom looking like Athena eventually knocked
him down and out. He sleeps now, bound to a pillar. Amphitryon
commiserates with the Chorus. Heracles comes to and gradually realizes
that he killed his family. Theseus arrives and proves a true friend.
Heracles claims to "defy divinity" (192) and wants to commit suicide.
Theseus tries to talk him out of it, meanwhile casting doubt on the poets
and the stories of the gods. Heracles notes now a love/hate relationship
he has with his bow: "This bow / Is anguish to me, yet I cannot part with
it.... Could I but stay here / Changed to a rock that feels no sorrow"
(197). Amphitryon must perform the funereal rites. He and his son part,
and Heracles exits with Theseus.
"In 416 B.C., the island of Melos revolted and tried to leave the
Athenian empire. The Athenians crushed the uprising, killed every adult
male in Melos, and enslaved the women and children. Euripides' play ญญ if
it was staged after 416, as many think ญญ may refashion an old myth to
dramatize the horror of this contemporary event" (Powell 356).
Euripides. Heracles. Trans. Philip Vellacott. Medea and Other Plays. Baltimore: Penguin Classics, 1963. 153-199, 204-205.
Powell, Barry. Classical Myth. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2001.