Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/284

266 Hyllus: O bitter light, O day with evil filled! Dead is the Thunderer's daughter, and his son Lies dying! I alone of all survive. By my own mother's crime my father dies, But she by guile was snared. What agéd man, Throughout the round of years, in all his life, Will e'er be able to recount such woes? One day has snatched away my parents both. But though I say naught of my other ills, And cease to blame the fates, still must I say: My sire, the mighty Hercules, is gone. Alcmena: Restrain thy words, child of illustrious sire, And matched with sad Alcmena in her grief; Perchance long slumber will assuage his pain. But see, repose deserts his weary heart, And gives him back to suffering, me to grief. Hercules [awakening in delirium]: Why, what is this? Do I with waking eyes See little Trachin on her craggy seat, Or, set amongst the stars, have I at length Escaped the race of men? Who opes for me The gate of heaven? Thee, father, now I see, Thee, and my stepdame too at last appeased. What heavenly sound is this that fills my ears? Great Juno calls me son! Now I behold The gleaming palace of the heavenly world, And Phoebus' path worn by his burning wheels. [Beginning to come out of his delirium.] I see night's couch; her shadows call me hence. But what is this? who shuts me out of heaven, And from the stars, O father, leads me down? I felt the glow of Phoebus on my face, So near to heaven was I; but now, alas, 'Tis Trachin that I see. Oh, who to earth Has given me back again? A moment since, And Oeta's lofty peak stood far below, And all the world was lying at my feet. How sweet the respite that I had from thee, O grief. Thou mak'st me to confess—but stay,