of Hercules: how in his cradle, by the pressure of his
young hand he strangled his stepmother’s monstrous
messengers, the two serpents; how in war that same
hand dashed to pieces mighty cities, Troy and Œchalia; 30
how he endured those thousand heavy labours, a slave to
king Eurystheus, by ungentle Juno’s fateful will. “Yes,
thou, unconquered hero, thou slayest the two-formed
children of the cloud, Hylæus and Pholus, thou slayest
the portent of Crete, and the enormous lion that dwelt 35
’neath Nemea’s rock. Thou never quailedst at aught in