618-640

Amphitryon wonders if he is seeing his son or a ghost (618–25). Hercules wonders why his family is dressed in mourning, and Amphytrion tells him (626–30). Hercules condemns the inhabitants who did not defend their country and forgoes embracing his family in his eagerness to kill Lycus (631–40).

618 vīsūs: = oculōs (LS visus II.A)

619 ăn illĕ dŏmĭtŏr orbĭs: the rapid series of short syllables perhaps reflects Amphitryon’s excitement at Hercules’ return. ille: “the famous” (LS ille II.A). Grāium: genitive plural = Grāiōrum.

620 trīstī … nūbilō: ablative of cause (AG 404) with silentem (> sileō) “the halls hushed by cheerless gloom” (Fitch 2018).

621 laetitiā: ablative of cause (AG 404)

623 teneōne: teneō + -ne, introducting a double question (-ne … an, AG 335). in aurās: “into the fresh air” of the upper world. ēditum: “brought forth,” “risen” > ēdō –ere, modifying the implied object tē.

624 umbrā: ablative depending on deponent fruor (AG 410). torōs: “muscles”

%% One branch of the manuscript tradition has this question in a substantially different form: vērumne cernō corpus an fallor vidēns / dēceptus umbra (e.g., Par. Lat. 8260, left hand page, 10th line from the bottom). It could be that in the ancestor of this tradition the original words had been mangled so badly that they had to be reconstructed from a vague sense of what they should mean. Or it could be (as Fitch 1987 suggests) that an overly fussy scribe objected to Amphitryon’s suggestion that he could be embracing (teneōne) a vānā umbrā.

625 altō… truncō: “with its mighty club” (Fitch 2018).

626–28:Mourning dress (lūgubribus sc. vestibus) and unkempt appearance (squālor, foedō ... paedōre) express Megara and her family’s grief in typical Roman fashion.

628 paedore: “with filth,” ablative depending on obsiti, “covered” > obserō.

629–30: Amphitryon summarizes the situation with brief and straightforward language; he lets the enormity of the disaster speak for itself.

630 nātōs parentem coniugem: asyndeton. lētō: dative of purpose (AG 382), the equivalent of ut eōs interficiat.

631–40: Hercules condemns the inhabitants who did not defend their country. Their indifference may be a judgment on the poor quality of his rule.

631–32 ad … auxilia vēnit: “has come to the aid (of).” vīdit: i.e., watched but did nothing to help. hoc tantum nefās: “a crime as great as this,” “such a great crime.”

633 dēfēnsus orbis: “the world protected (by me).” diem … terō: a common idiom to describe wasting time (LS tero II.A). questū: “in complaining” > questus -ūs m.

634–35 mactētur ... ferat ... fīat: hortatory subjunctives (AG 439).

634 hostia: “sacrificial victim, sacrifice,” i.e. Lycus. hanc ferat virtūs notam: “let my valor endure this blemish,” (LS nota II.B.2.b, “mark of ignominy or infamy”) i.e., the shame of killing an enemy as unworthy of Hercules as Lycus.

​​%% This is a correction, proposed by Friedrich Leo in the late 1800s, of the manuscript reading hostis (e.g., Par. Lat. 8260, right hand page, 2nd line from the top; note how 634–36 hanc ferat … feror has been erroneously assigned to Theseus). The corruption hostis resulted from anticipation of hostis in the next line; the repetition of hostis would be “insipid and pointless” (Fitch 1987). Other corrections besides hostia are possible: a very good suggestion is Fitch’s impār (mactētur impār = “though not my equal, he must be slaughtered”), which fits with the idea of Hercules condescending to kill Lycus in lines 634–35.

635 summus hostis: “final foe” (LS superus III.B.2.a). Alcīdae: genitive of the masculine 1st declension Greek noun (AG 44).

636 ad hauriendum sanguinem: ad with gerundive expresses purpose (AG 503), a forceful metaphor for eagerly killing. feror: the passive has a reflexive middle sense, “I take myself, I rush” (LS fero I.B.1β).

637 Thēseu: a Greek vocative singular, declined like Orpheus (AG 82). nē … ingruat: negative purpose clause (AG 529). nē qua vīs: = nē aliqua vīs (fem. nom. sg.) (AG 310).

638 amplexūs: accusative plural noun

638–39 Lycus can go down to the Underworld (once Hercules kills him) to report to Dis that Hercules is back on Earth. This dark joke is a clever twist on a famous Virgilian passage, in which Achilles’ son Pyrrhus tells Priam to go down to the Underworld and complain about his behavior to Achilles in person (Aeneid 2.547–49).

638 nūntiet: hortatory subjunctive, introducing the indirect statement mē iam redīsse, 640.