_Medea:_ Thou bid'st me pity-- Well! [_Slays the second child_.]--'Tis done! No more atonement, passion, can I offer thee. Now hither lift thy tearful eyes ungrateful one. 1020 Dost recognize thy wife? 'Twas thus of old I fled. The heavens themselves provide me with a safe retreat. [_A chariot drawn by dragons appears in the air._] Twin serpents bow their necks submissive to the yoke. Now, father, take thy sons; while I, upon my car, With wingéd speed am borne aloft through realms of air. 1025 [_Mounts her car and is borne away._] _Jason [calling after her_]: Speed on through realms of air that mortals never see: But, witness heaven, where thou art gone no gods can be! HERCULES FURENS HERCULES FURENS DRAMATIS PERSONAE HERCULES Son of Jupiter and Alcmena, but the reputed son of Amphitryon. _Juno_ Sister and wife of Jupiter, and queen of heaven. _Amphitryon_ Husband of Alcmena. _Theseus_ King of Athens and friend of Hercules. _Lycus_ The usurping king of Thebes, who has, prior to the opening of the play, slain king Creon in battle. _Megara_ Wife of Hercules and daughter of Creon. _Chorus_ Of Thebans. THE SCENE is in the princely palace of Hercules at Thebes, on the day of the return of the hero from the lower world. _The jealous wrath of Juno, working through Eurystheus, has imposed twelve mighty and destructive tasks on Hercules, her hated stepson. But these, even to the last and worst, the bringing of Cerberus to the upper world, he has triumphantly accomplished. Abandoning her plan of crushing him by toils like these, she will turn his hand against himself, and so accomplish his destruction. Upon the day of his return from hell, she brings a madness on him, and so precipitates the tragedy which forms the action of the play._ ACT I