§1716noverca cernat quo feram flammas modo.
"Let my stepmother see in what manner I bear the flames.
Why has your right hand trembled? Has your fearful hand shrunk from an impious crime?
§1721isnave iners inermis— en nostros manus
Return now the quivers to me, or is that hand sluggish and unarmed — behold our hand to draw the bow!
§1722quae tendat arcus! quid sedet pallor genis?
Why does pallor sit on your cheeks?
Attack the torches with the same spirit with which you see Alcides lying in countenance; look upon the one about to burn, wretched man.
Behold, my father already calls me and opens the heavens; I come, father." And his countenance was no longer the same.
§1727tremente pinum dextera ardentem impulit.
With trembling right hand he pushed the burning pine torch.
§1728refugit ignis et reluctantur faces §1729et membra vitant, sed recedentem Hercules §1730insequitur ignem.
The fire shrank back, and the torches resisted, and avoided his limbs, but Hercules pursues the receding fire.
Caucasum aut Pindum aut Athon §1731ardere credas: nullus erumpit sonus, §1732tantum ingemescit ignis.
You would believe Caucasus or Pindus or Athos to be burning: no sound breaks forth, only the fire groans.
o durum iecur!
Oh, stout heart!
§1733Typhon in illo positus immanis rogo §1734gemuisset ipse quique convulsam solo §1735imposuit umeris Ossan Enceladus ferox; §1736at ille medias inter exurgens faces, §1737semiustus ac laniatus, intrepidum tuens: §1738'nunc es parens Herculea: sic stare ad rogum §1739te, mater' inquit, 'sic decet Heri Herculem. ' §1740inter vapores positus et flammae minas §1741immotus, inconcussus, in neutrum latus §1742correpta torquens membra adhortatur, monet, §1743gerit aliquid ardens, omnibus fortem addidit §1744animum ministris; urere ardentem putes.
Huge Typhon himself, placed on that pyre, would have groaned, and fierce Enceladus, who, torn from the ground, placed Ossa upon his shoulders; but he, rising up in the midst of the torches, half-burnt and mangled, looking fearlessly, said: "Now you are the mother of Hercules: thus to stand at the pyre becomes you, mother," he said, "thus does it befit Hercules." Placed amid the heat and the threats of the flame, immobile, unshaken, turning his seized limbs to neither side, he exhorts, he advises, burning, he does something, and added brave courage to all the ministers; you would think that he, burning, is burning the fire itself.
All the crowd is amazed, they can scarcely believe the flames, so calm is his brow, so great is the majesty in the man.
§1747nec properat uri; cumque iam forti datum §1748leto satis pensavit, igniferas trabes §1749hinc inde traxit, minima quas flamma occupat, §1750totasque in ignes vertit et quis plurimus §1751exundat ignis repetit intrepidus ferox, §1752tunc ora flammis implet: ast illi graves §1753luxere barbae; cumque iam voltum minax §1754appeteret ignis, lamberent flammae caput,
Nor does he hasten to be burned; and when he weighed that enough had already been given to a brave death, the fire-bearing logs he dragged from here and there, those which the smallest flame occupies, and turns them all into the fires, and where the most abundant fire overflows, he seeks it, fearless and fierce, then he fills his face with flames; but for him, his heavy beard shone; and when already the threatening fire attacked his face, and the flames licked his head, "Fear the fates, O gods above: so small an ash of Hercules!
To this, to this has that giant shrunk!
§1760o quanta, Titan, ad nihil moles abit;
O Titan, how great a mass goes away to nothing!
§1761anilis, heu me, recipit Alciden sinus, §1762hic tumulus illi est: ecce vix totam Hercules §1763complevit urnam; quam leve est pondus mihi, §1764cui totus aether pondus incubuit leve.
A woman's old lap, alas for me, receives Alcides, this is his tomb: behold, Hercules has scarcely filled the whole urn; how light is the weight to me, for whom the whole heavens once lay as a light weight.
Once to Tartarus and the furthest realms, O son, you went, destined to return — when from the infernal Styx will you return again?
Not so that you may drag spoils and Theseus should again owe his life to you — but when will you return alone?
Will the world placed upon you confine your shade, and will the Tartarean dog be able to hold you back?
When will you knock at the Taenarian gates?
Or to what jaws shall I, your mother, be driven, where death is approached? You go to the shades, destined to have only a single journey.
quid diem questu tero?
Why do I waste the day in lamentation?
§1775quid misera duras vita? quid lucem tenes?
Why do you endure, wretched life? Why do you hold onto the light?
§1776quem parere rursus Herculem possum Iovi?
What other Hercules can I bear again to Jupiter?
What son, so great, will call me, his Alcmene, his mother?
§1779Thebane coniunx, Tartari intrasti loca §1780florente nato teque venientem inferi §1781timuere forsan, quod pater tantum Herculis, §1782vel falsus, aderas: quas petam terras anus, §1783invisa saevis regibus (si quis tamen §1784rex est relictus saevus)? ei miserae mihi!
O too, too happy, Theban spouse, you entered the places of Tartarus while your son was flourishing, and the shades perhaps feared you as you came, because you appeared as the father of Hercules, even if a false one: what lands shall I seek, an old woman, hated by fierce kings (if indeed any fierce king is left)? Ah, wretched me!
§1785quicumque caesos ingemit natus patres, §1786a me petet supplicia, me cuncti obruent: §1787si quis minor Busiris aut si quis minor §1788Antaeus orbem fervidae terret plagae, §1789ego praeda ducar; si quis Ismarius gregis §1790Thracis cruenti vindicat, carpent greges §1791mea membra diri; forsitan poenas petet §1792irata Iuno: totus huc verget dolor; §1793secura victo tandem ab Alcide vacat, §1794paelex supersum— a quanta supplicia expetet, §1795ne parere possim! fecit hic natus mihi §1796uterum timendum.
Whatever son laments his slain father will seek punishment from me, they will all overwhelm me: if any lesser Busiris or any lesser Antaeus terrifies the region of the hot zone, I shall be led as prey; if anyone vindicates the flock of the bloody Thracian, his fierce herds will tear my limbs; perhaps angry Juno will seek punishment: all her grief will turn hither; now at last secure, she is free from the conquered Alcides, I, the rival, survive — ah, what great punishments will she exact, so that I may not be able to give birth! This son has made my womb a thing of dread.
quae petam Alcmene loca?
What places shall I, Alcmene, seek?
What place, what region, what tract of the world will defend me, or into what hiding places shall I, a mother, be driven, everywhere famous because of you?
§1799ubique per te nota? sic patriam petam
Shall I seek my homeland thus..."