THE PHRENZY OF HERCULES.
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Lords it o'er others: of no foreign aid
The God, who is indeed a God, hath need:
These are the idle fables of your bards."
However, he consents to go with Theseus to Athens, and will not add the guilt of suicide to that of homicide.
This play seems at no time to have been a favourite with either spectators or readers. For the former, this dose of Anaxagorean philosophy may have been too strong: for the latter, the piece may have seemed to follow "a course too bloody." Yet among the tragic spectacles on the Athenian stage, that of Hercules bound to a column, with the remains of his wife and children before him, and the terror-stricken looks of Amphitryon and his attendants, was surely one of the most affecting.
