918-939

Amphitryon reminds his son to purify his bloodstained hands before performing the sacred ritual. Hercules replies that he wishes he could offer Lycus as a sacrifice. Amphitryon then asks Hercules to pray for an end to his Labors, but he instead asks for peace over the whole earth.

Hercules’ desire for human sacrifice stands in tension with his more “civilized” vision of world peace and shows us that he has begun to move beyond social norms even before his episode of madness.

918–919 mānantēs … expiā: prose word order would be expiā prius manūs mānantēs caede cruentā et hostīlī. cruentā et hostīlī: hendiadys: “the bloody enemy’s.”

920–21 utinam … lībāre possem: “if only I could pour.” The imperfect optative subjunctive denotes an unaccomplished wish (AG 442). capitis invīsī: Lycus’s “hateful head.”

922 tinxisset: past contrary to fact: “would have stained” (AG 514C).

922–24 Prose order would be haud ūlla victima amplior magisque opīma quam rēx inīquus potest mactārī Iovī.

924–25 Finiat … optā … dētur: a substantive clause of purpose (AG 563) with the ut omitted: “ask that your father put an end ... and that … be given.”

925 fessīs: dative substantive, “to tired people.”

927 Iove mēque: ablatives of specification with the adjective dignus (AG 418)

927–937  stet … agant … alat … teneat … lateant … turbet … exsiliat … trahat … cessent … tumescat … regnent: all jussive subjunctives (AG 439), expressing Hercules’ prayer for the world.

927 suō locō: locative ablative (AG 421): “in their proper place.”

930 “May the labor of the harmless countryside occupy all iron (i.e., may iron be used only to produce agricultural tools). The line expresses the “swords into plowshares” motif.

932 irātō Iove: ablative of source (AG 403). Seneca plays on Jupiter’s multiple identities as Hercules’ father and the sky from which the lightning (ignis) originates.

933–34 hībernā nive / nūtrītus ... amnis: the river is “fed” by the winter snow as it melts, and begins to flood.

934 agrōs amnis eversōs: placing amnis between agros and eversos suggests the river running through the middle of the field.

935–936 nocitūrō gravis / sūcō: “heavy with juice that will cause harm,” i.e. poison.

937–38 quod: = aliquod. est … lātūra: > fero, “is going to produce.” properet: jussive subjunctive, like sit in the next line.

939 meum sit: an ironic conclusion. Hercules means that the monster will be his to slay, but we know that the monster will be his because he himself will act monstrously by killing his family.