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270and once, when he saw Iphitus approaching
the hill of Tiryns in search of his lost horses,
looking at one thing, thinking of another,
Heracles threw him from the towering peak.
But then Olympian Zeus, the universal
father of all, in anger at this deed,
did not hold back from selling him to bondage,
because he dared to kill this single man
by guile. If his revenge had been but open,
Zeus would have pardoned what he did in justice:
280like us, the gods hate reckless violence.
So all those men, who spoke with evil tongues,
are gone to Hades, and their city is
enslaved. These women whom you see, once happy,
have found a life which none will envy now,
and come to you. This was your husband's bidding,
and I, his faithful servant, have performed it.
Be certain he himself will come, when he
has made pure offering to his father Zeus
for his great conquest. Surely this will be,
290of all good tidings you have heard, the sweetest.
The Women of Trachis and Philoctetes. A new translation in verse by Robert Torrance. Houghton Mifflin. 1966.
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