1021-1031

Hercules drags Megara and his son into the palace. Amphitryon narrates how he murders them. He then calls on Hercules to kill him next.

1021 sanguinem … tuum: Hercules’ son is “his own blood.”

1022  igneō vultū: ablative of cause (AG 404) depending on pavefactus.

1023  The infant dies of terror before Hercules can strike him.

1024  in: “against” + acc.

1025  corporī truncō: dative of separation (AG 381) with abest.

1026  nec usquam est: “is not there at all”; i.e., it has been completely destroyed.  

1027  senectūs: Amphitryon addresses his own old age. sī piget luctūs: the impersonal verb pigēt takes a gen. of the thing that disgusts a person.

1028 mortem parātam: i.e., Hercules can kill him as well. Amphitryon then proceeds to shout at Hercules inside the palace, asking for this death.

1028 pectorī ēn tēla indue: “here, plunge your arrows into my chest.”

1029  caede: ablative of source (AG 403).

1030–31 Amphitryon speaks as if Lycus’ criticisms in Act 2 were genuine, namely that he is not in fact Hercules’ father. He speaks with bitter irony (we could express this by translating falsum and turpem in quotation marks). But he is also quite desperate: he is willing to say anything, even relinquishing his claims as a father, in order to convince Hercules to kill him and thereby end his suffering.

1031  nē … obstrepat: “doesn’t interfere with,” “doesn’t prove an obstacle to,” negative purpose clause (AG 563).