Ye gods of heaven who have beheld my deeds;
O earth, is't fitting that your Hercules1175
Should die by such a death? Oh, cruel shame!
Oh, base and bitter end—that fame should say
Great Hercules was by a woman slain,
He who in mortal combat has o'ercome[38]
So many men and beasts! If changeless fate
Had willed that I by woman's hand should die,1180
And if to such base end my thread of life,
Alas, must lead, Oh, that I might have fallen