592-617

Hercules announces his arrival from the Underworld. He instructs Phoebus, Jupiter, and Neptune, gods who oversee the earth, to look away from Cerberus so they will not be polluted. Only Juno should see the monster. Hercules claims that he could have ruled in the Underworld. He dares Juno to assign him a bigger challenge, now that he has conquered death.

Act 3 Essay

As Lycus prepares to kill Megara and Amphitryon, Hercules and Theseus suddenly appear, back from their trip to the Underworld. Hercules dashes off to kill Lycus, while Theseus describes the Underworld at great length, occasionally prompted by Amphitryon’s questions. Nothing happens to advance the plot, but the audience is treated to some of Seneca’s most beautiful and evocative descriptions.

592 A prayer to Phoebus Apollo, the god of the sun. Compare the address to Jupiter at 205: Ō magne Olympī rēctor et mundī arbiter. Amphitryon’s despair there has become Hercules’ triumph here.

593 alterna … spatia … ambiēns: “circling through alternate expanses,” i.e. moving from east to west and back again.

594 exseris: “you reveal” (LS exsero II.B). Note the “Golden Line” word arrangement: adjective – adjective – verb – noun – noun.

595 sī quid: = sī aliquid (AG 310). illicitum: it was thought that the gods above could be polluted by the sight of evil or unclean things (cf. 601 faciē polluī metuēns novā). See 60–61, where Juno speaks of the sun being afraid at the sight of Cerberus.

595–96 tuī … vultūs: “your face,” poetic plural.

596 vīdēre: = vīdērunt  (syncopated perfect). iussus: the nominative participle is placed emphatically at the start of the clause: “because I was commanded,” i.e., not of my own free will.

597 arcāna mundī: “the world’s secrets,” i.e., Cerberus. 

597–98 caelestum arbiter parēnsque: Jupiter. caelestum = caelestium (gen. pl.) for metrical convenience. vīsūs: accusative. fulmine oppositō: ablative of instrument (AG 409), i.e., use your thunderbolt to shield your face from the sight of Cerberus.

599 secundō … scēptrō: ablative of instrument. Neptune’s scepter is “second” because Jupiter and his brothers divided the world by drawing lots (Virgil, Aeneid 1.138–39). Jupiter rules the heavens, Neptune the “second” kingdom of the seas, and Dis “third” kingdom of the Underworld (see line 609).

600–601 quisquis ... terrēna: in a polytheistic religion filled with gods who were easily offended, phrases like this covered any gods omitted from the rest of the prayer. ex altō: “from on high,” in opposition to īmās. terrēna: “earthly affairs.” metuēns: governs the complementary infinitive polluī (AG 456). faciē … novā: “by the strange sight” (LS facies II.B), ablative of means after the passive infinitive polluī.

602–603 reflectat … ērigat … cernant: hortatory subjunctives (AG 439). portenta fugiēns: Seneca restates the main idea with an emphatic two word-phrase in enjambment, a common means of concluding a lengthy period.

604 quī … quae: respectively, Hercules and Juno.

604–605 in… in: “for the purpose of” (LS in II.C.2).

605–606 non satis terrae patent / Iunonis odiō: “the earth is not wide-open enough for Juno’s hatred.” Her hatred of Hercules was so great that she ran out of places on earth to punish him and had to send him to the Underworld. Hercules echoes Juno’s own words at 46 nec satis terrae patent. The plural of terra often means “the whole earth” (LS terra II). odio is a dative of reference (“for the benefit of Juno’s hatred,” AG 376) or purpose (“for the purpose of Juno’s hatred,” AG 382).  

606–607 inaccessa … ignōta: each adjective governs a dative. They may be understood as substantive adjectives (“things inaccessible [and] unknown”) or as modifying spatia in 608. dēterior polus: “the baser world” (Fitch 2018). Normally in poetry polus = “the heavens” (LS polus II.B); “the worse heavens” = “the Underworld.”

608 dīrō… Iovī: “the abominable Jupiter” = Dis/Pluto (like īnfernī Iovis 47).

609 sī placērent: supply mihi; present contrary-to-fact condition (AG 517.c). Hercules imagines himself ruling the Underworld. Indicative potuī (rather than potuissem) expresses his definite belief that he could have. tertiae sortis loca:see 599 for the division of the world by lot.

610–12 chaos … deōs … fāta: all objects of 612 vīcī, placed in ascending order of difficulty. Hercules conquered the Fates, which do not typically allow people to return from the Underworld.

611 nocte quiddam gravius: “something (even) more oppressive than night,” i.e., a darkness more impenetrable than that of night. The phrase amplifies the image of 610 noctis aeternae chaos. nocte is ablative of comparison (AG 406) after gravius.

612 morte contemptā: ablative absolute (AG 419).

613 quid restat aliud: “what else is left?” ostendī: i.e., to the world above.

614–15 As a final act of hubris, Hercules sarcastically complains that Juno is letting him rest for too long, and directly challenges her to do her worst.

614 sī quid: = sī aliquid (AG 310). pateris: present tense, but most naturally translated as a perfect in English: “you have allowed…”

615 quae vincī iubēs?: “what things do you command to be conquered?”

616–17 Hercules finally notices the soldiers surrounding the temple where his family is taking refuge. This couplet is a good example of how Latin poetry relies on theme and variation: after a straightforward description of hostile soldiers in control of the temple, Seneca restates the idea in more figurative language, focusing on “the terror of weapons.”

616 templa: poetic plural. mīles: poetic singular referring a group (like Virgil, Aeneid 2.20 uterumque armātō mīlite complent.)