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248 For what we gain in act. It needs must be

That one who prospers should receive good words.

Deian. Ah! dearest friend, first tell me what I first

Desire to know. Comes Heracles alive?

Lichas. I, for my part, left him in strength of health,

Living and well, unsmitten of disease.

Deian. And where? At home, or on a foreign soil?

Lichas. There is a high Eubœan promontory

Where he now marks his altars' limits out,

His first-fruits offering to Kenæan Zeus.

Deian. Fulfilling vows, or led by oracles?

Lichas. The vows he made when with his spear he sacked

The city of these women whom thou see'st.

Deian. And these, in Heaven's name, who and whence are they?

Full sad, unless they cheat me with their grief.

Lichas. These, when he sacked the town of Eurytos,

He chose his own possession and the Gods'.

Deian. And was it against that city that he went,

That endless time of days innumerable?

Lichas. Not so. By far the longest time he spent

In Lydia; not, so says he, of free choice,

But sold as slave. Let not my tale, dear lady,

Move thee to wrath, when Zeus himself appears

The doer of the deed. And he, being sold

To Omphale, the alien, so he said,

Served one whole year. And thus, his soul being vexed

At this reproach, he vowed a bitter vow