Page:Tragedies of Seneca (1907) Miller.djvu/266

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Great praise and mighty triumph by my act:
I have forestalled thee, Juno, in the death
Of this thy rival.
Hyllus: Wouldst to ruin doom
Thy house already tottering? This crime,
Whate'er it is, is all from error sprung. 885
He is not guilty who unwilling sins.
Deianira: Whoe'er ignores his fate and spares himself,
Deservedly has erred, deserves to die.
Hyllus: He must be guilty who desires to die.
Deianira: Death, only, makes the erring innocent. 890
Hyllus: Fleeing the sun—
Deianira: The sun himself flees me.
Hyllus: Wouldst leave thy life?
Deianira: A wretched life indeed;
I long to go where Hercules has gone.
Hyllus: He still survives, and breathes the air of heaven.
Deianira: Alcides died when first he was o'ercome.
Hyllus: Wilt leave thy son behind? forestall thy fates? 895
Deianira: She whom her own son buries has lived long.
Hyllus: Follow thy husband.
Deianira: Chaste wives go before.
Hyllus: Who dooms himself to death confesses sin.
Deianira: No sinner seeks to shirk his punishment.
Hyllus: The life of many a man has been restored 900
Whose guilt in judgment not in action lay.
Who blames the lot by fate assigned to him?
Deianira: He blames it to whom Catenas been unkind.
Hyllus: But Hercules himself killed Megara,
And by his raging hands with deadly darts 905
Transfixed his sons. Still, though a parricide,
Thrice guilty, he forgave himself the deed,
Blaming his madness. In Cinyphian waves
In Libya's land he washed his sin away,
And cleansed his hands. Then why, poor soul, shouldst thou
So hastily condemn thine own misdeeds?
Deianira: The fact that I have ruined Hercules 910
Condemns my deeds. I welcome punishment.