350
Messenger
Why, I heard this man say - and there were many
witnesses there - that for the girl's sake only
did Heracles slay Eurytus and conquer
Oechalia's high towers. Love alone,
of all the gods, enticed him into battle,
and not his irksome toil for Omphale
in Lydia, or Iphitus's death.
When Lichas tells his tale, he leaves out Love.
Heracles could not make her father give
360his daughter to him for his concubine,
and so, with some small pretext as his cause,
he fought against her native city, where
this Eurytus, he said, sat on the throne,
and killed the king her father, and destroyed
her country. Now he comes home bringing her,
as you see, lady - and not without purpose,
nor as his slave. Do not think that will happen,
not when a man is burning with desire!
I thought it best to tell you everything
370which I, my Queen, had learned of from this man.
For many other men of Trachis heard him,
as I did, speaking in the public place:
they will bear witness. If my words are bitter,
then I am sorry. But I speak the truth.
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
The Women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
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