[7] Then Hercules said,
“Listen to me and stop talking nonsense. You have come to a place where the
mice gnaw iron. Tell me the truth, quick, or I’ll knock the silliness out of
you.” And in order to be more terrifying, he struck the attitude of a tragedian
and said:
“Declare at once the place you call your natal town,
Or else, by this tough cudgel smitten, down you go!
This club has slaughtered many a mighty potentate.
What’s that, that in a muffled voice you’re trying to say?
Where is the land or race to own your shaky head?
Speak out. Oh, I remember when afar I sought
The triple-bodied king’s domains, whose famous herd
From the western sea I drove to the city of Inachus,
I saw a hill above two rivers, towering high
In face of Phoebus rising each day opposite,
Where the broad Rhone pours by in swiftly moving flood,
And Arar, pausing ere it lets its waters go,
Silently laves the borders of its quiet pools.
Is that the land that nursed you when you first drew breath?”
These things he said with spirit, and boldly enough. All the same, he was
inwardly a good deal afraid of the madman’s blow. Claudius, seeing the
mighty hero, forgot his nonsense and perceived that while no one had been a
match for him at Rome,
here he didn’t have the same advantage; a cock is master only on his own
dunghill. So, as well as could be made out, this is what he appeared to say: “I
did hope that you, Hercules, bravest of the gods, would stand by me before the
others, and if any one had asked me who could vouch for me, I should have named
you, who know me best. For if you recall, I was the one who held court before
your temple all day long during the months of July and August. You know how
many troubles I had there, listening to the lawyers day and night; and if you
had fallen among those fellows, though you may think that you are pretty
courageous, you would have preferred to clean Augeas’
stables. I have cleaned out much more filth. But since I want”— 3
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