1272-1295

Theseus encourages Hercules to endure his guilt rather than yield to his anger and kill himself, but Hercules continues to rationalize the thought of suicide. He addresses his right hand and wonders why it appears to hesitate. He demands his weapons and threatens to destroy his surroundings unless they are brought to him.

1272 patriae: “fatherly,” modifying preces.

1274 movēre: “be moved,” i.e., persuaded; passive imperative, not active  infinitive. adversa: “adverse circumstances.”

1274–75 impetū … solitō: ablative of manner (AG 412).

1275–76 nullī … / malō: dative with adjective imparem (AG 384). This litotes makes Theseus’ point strongly: because Hercules’ spirit is “unequal to no misfortune” it is therefore emphatically “equal [i.e., an equal match] to every misfortune.”

1276–77 tibi … agendum est: an impersonal passive periphrastic with a dative of agent (AG 500.2): “you must act.” magnā … virtute: ablative of manner (AG 412)

1278 tulī: “I suffered them,” and am thus the victim, rather than the perpetrator.

1279 mihi: dative of reference depending on oberrat (AG 376), “ranges before me.”

1280 mōnstrum: referring to himself, as though he were one more monster to be dispatched.

1281 conāre: imperative of deponent conor (AG 190).

1282 labōre bis sēnō: ablative of comparison depending on amplius (AG 407.c), referring to the Twelve Labors.

1283 ignāve: Hercules finds himself hesitating and blames his right hand, calling it a “coward” that is only (modo) brave enough to attack boys and their mothers.

1284–94 By paying careful attention to the main verbs and the use of nisi and sī, this Herculean sentence can be divided into shorter, more straightforward clauses. Here it is in prose word order:

• nisi arma mihi dantur,
  • aut omne nemus Pindī Thrācis excīdam
    • Bacchīque lūcōs et iuga Cithaerōnis mēcum cremābō,
  • aut tōta tēcta cum suīs domibus dominīsque [suprā meum corpus excipiam],
    • [et] templa Thēbāna cum omnibus deīs suprā meum corpus excipiam,
    • atque urbe versā condar,
  • et, sī, leve pondus, moenia immissa fortibus umerīs incident,
    • [et] opertus septem portīs nōn satis premar,
      • in meum caput vertam omne onus,
        • quod sedet mediā parte mundī,
        • dirimitque superōs.

1285–86 Pindī ... Cithaerōnis: Mt. Pindus and Mt. Cithaeron (a site of Bacchic worship), see lines 976–81. excīdam: “I will cut down” (> excīdō, not excidō) in order to make a colossal pyre (see cremābō 1287). nemus is the direct object.

1287–88 tōta cum domibus suīs / dominīsque tēcta: “every building with its family and master” (Fitch 2018). LS domus II.B. tōta = omnia.

1290 urbe versā condar: ablative of means (AG 409), “I shall be buried by the ruined city” (LS verto I.B.2.e).

1290–91 fortibus … umerīs: dative depending on the adjective leve, “for my strong shoulders.”

1291 leve pondus: in apposition to moenia.

1292 septem … portis: the Seven Gates of Thebes, ablative of means with opertus and premar.

1293 onus: the fault of heaven, which separates the gods above from the earth below. mediā parte: locative ablative (AG 421).

1294 dirimitque superōs: “and keeps the gods separate” (Fitch 2018).