Ἡρακλῆς
Heracles
Euripides · first staged c. 416 BC
Heracles comes back from the underworld in time to save his wife, sons, and father from the tyrant Lycus. Then Hera drives him mad, and he kills them himself.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Αμ.Amphitryon
- Με.Megara
- Χο.Chorus
- Λυκ.Lycus
- Ηρ.Heracles
- Ιρ.Iris
- Λυσ.Madness
- Εξ.Messenger
- Θη.Theseus
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Murray's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
- Potter, adapted by Ebbott, Dué & Kamil (CHS, Kosmos Society)prose · aligned by speech · with Diggle's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Eur. HF 1–1428
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
While Heracles is in the underworld on his last labour, the usurper Lycus has seized Thebes and is about to kill Heracles' wife Megara, his three sons, and his father Amphitryon. Heracles returns in time and kills Lycus. Then Iris and Madness appear above the house, sent by Hera, and in the fit he kills his wife and children, taking them for Eurystheus's. When he wakes, Amphitryon has to tell him what he has done. He means to kill himself; Theseus, whom he freed from Hades, talks him into living and takes him to Athens.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1850 plate of a red-figure vase in Berlin (Gerhard, Trinkschalen und Gefässe des Königlichen Museums zu Berlin II, Taf. XXI); cut out and retraced.