198 EURIPIDES
" Father ! Why sacrifice, before I slay
Eurustheus ? why have twice the lustral fire, looo
And double pains, w^hen 't is permitted me
To end, with one good hand-sweep, matters here ?
Then, — when I hither bring Eurustheus' head, —
Then for these just slain, wash hands once for all I
Now, — cast drink - offerings forth, throw baskets
down ! 1005
Who gives me bow and arrows, who my club ? I go to that Mukenai ! One must match Crowbars and mattocks, so that — those sunk stones The Kuklops squared with picks and plumb - line
red ^ — I, with my bent steel, may o'ertumble town I " loio
^V^hich said, he goes and — with no car to haΛ'^e — Affirms he has one ! mounts the chariot-board. And strikes, as having really goad in hand ! And two ways laughed the servants — laugh with
awe ; And one said, as each met the other's stare, lois
" Playing us boys' tricks ? or is master mad ? " But up he climbs, and down along the roof. And, dropping into the men's place, maintains He 's come to Nisos city,^ when he 's come Only inside his own house ! then reclines 1020
On floor, for couch, and, as arrived indeed. Makes himself supper ; goes through some brief stay, Then says he 's traversing the forest-flats Of Isthmos ; ^ thereupon lays body bare Of bucklings, and begins a contest with 1025
^ The mighty Cyclopean walls at Mycenae are still to be seen. ^ Megara, on the route to Mycenae.
^ Corinth, the seat of the tthmian Games, in which Heracles fan- cies himself to engage.
