Heracles

Megara, Amphitryon, and the children reenter, having prepared themselves for death. Megara and Amphitryon both deliver speeches in which they despair of any hope of being saved. Megara speaks first, lamenting that her and Heracles’s high hopes for their children must go unfulfilled. She addresses her three children in turn, recalling the promises that Heracles made to them. She finally addresses Heracles, whom she believes to be dead, and beseeches him to return, even if only as a ghost. Amphitryon responds by making a final appeal to Zeus, though he admits that now “death is on us like necessity” (Line 502). He bemoans the changes of fortune brought about by the passage of time and bids farewell to the Chorus.

Suddenly Megara spots Heracles, returning seemingly from the dead. She and the children run to embrace him as he greets them and asks about what has happened in his absence. Megara explains their dire situation, revealing that Creon is dead and that the throne has been seized by Lycus, who is now intent on killing Heracles’s children “lest they take revenge some day for Creon’s death” (Line 548). Heracles is furious and vows to kill Lycus and his followers.