1032-1053

The Chorus leader urges Amphitryon to save himself by hiding. Hercules returns to the stage from the palace and celebrates what he thinks (still in the grip of his hallucination) is the defeat of his enemies. Then Amphitryon urges Hercules to slaughter him, like a human sacrifice, but Hercules collapses. Amphitryon orders slaves to remove Hercules’ weapons so he cannot cause further harm.

1032 quō: “why?” tē … obvium … ingeris: “throw yourself in the way of,” “rush into,” + dat., a more violent version of the common idiom dare sē obvium alicui, “to meet someone.”

1033 quō: “where?” obtēctus latē: “lie hidden under cover.” latē is imperative > lateō -ēre, not to be confused with the adverb > lātus -a -um.

1034 manibus: ablative of separation (AG 400). Note this line’s carefully arranged word order.

1035 bene habet: a Latin idiom meaning “it is well.” Hercules uses it to sum up how well things are going, in his opinion: “OK, so far so good.”

1036 tibi: Juno. hunc dicātum: modifies gregem in the next line.

1037 libēns: predicative adjective; translate as an adverb.

1038 tē: ablative with digna (AG 418). Argos: Hercules intends to travel to Argos/Mycenae and kill Eurystheus (996–98n.). He sarcastically imagines that Juno will be pleased by all these “sacrifices.”

1039 nondum litāstī: “you have not yet made a sacrificial offering,” i.e. a full or complete one.

1041 cervīce prōnā: ablative of manner (AG 412). Amphitryon bends his head forward, mimicking the pose of an animal about to be sacrificed. praebeō, occurrō, insequor: the string of first-person verbs that follows suggests the speed of the stage action. Supply mē with praebeō.

1042 aciēs luminum: “my eyesight,” literally “the gaze of my eyes.”

1043 visūs: accusative plural.

1045–46 capite summissō … flexō genū: ablative absolute phrases (AG 419).

1046 totus: a pridicative adjective: “entirely/completely.”

1047 ut: “just as,” introducing a simile. caesa: “felled,” nominative perfect passive participle > caedo, modifying the feminine noun ornus.

1047–48 portum marī / datūra mōlēs: “a mass of stone about to provide the sea with a harbor.” Roman engineers sunk massive concrete piers into the sea to provide shelter to ships in port.

1048–49 Prose order: vīvis? an īdem furor, quī mīsit tuōs ad mortem, lētō [tē] dedit? tuōs: Romans regularly referred to a person’s family members this way, as in the English expression “you and yours.”

1050 reciprocōs spīritus mōtūs agit: “his breath comes and goes regularly” (Fitch 2018).

1051–52 Amphitryon orders that Hercules be left to sleep, in the hope that this might drive away his madness. dētur: jussive subjunctive (AG 439). somnō gravī: ablative of means (AG 408), with victa.

1053 nē repetat: negative purpose clause (AG 563).