Hercules
HERCULES, PHILOCTETES, NEOPTOLEMUS,
1408
Not yet, O son of Peas: to my words
First be attentive. Know thou hear'st the voice
1410
Of Hercules, thine eyes behold his form.
Leaving the heav'nly mansions for thy sake
I come, announcing the decrees of Jove,
And charge thee not to steer thy purposed course.
Do thou with fix'd attention mark my words.
My fortunes to thy memory I recal,
What dangers I subdued, what toils achieved,
1420
By virtue made immortal, as thine eyes
Behold. And know, thou too must suffer thus,
And by such toils a life of glory gain.
Go with this leader to the walls of Troy;
There first thy fell disease shall be relieved:
There 'midst the host of Greece in valour rank'd
The noblest of her heroes, with thy bow
Paris, the guilty cause of all these ills,
Thou shalt deprive of life, lay waste the state
Of Troy, and send triumphant to thy house,
To Eta, to thy father, the rich spoils,
Selected by the host, thy glorious prize.
But bear thou to my funeral pyre these spoils,
The trophies of my bow.---My mandates now,
Son of Achilles, I to thee address;
For without him thou hast not pow'r to waste
