is steeped in Greek mythology with many believing these originate in ancient Greek hunter tribes. Hercules (the most common English spelling) is half mortal and half-son-of-Zeus. He is an example of the sort of bi-existential characters that appear in Greek plays and poems, such as Hercules, Perseus, and Achilles.

Hercules relevance to Amazons occurs in the 9th Labor of Hercules, when he is sent to retrieve Hippolyta's belt. This plays out one of three ways in various myths: the first is that he defeats the Amazons/Hippolyta and takes the belt by force, the second is that Hippolyta was so impressed with Hercules'deeds she just gives it to him, or Hercules kidnaps her sister Melanippe and she trades it to him for her life. In the myth of Theseus, who joins Hercules, Hippolyta is kidnapped, forced in sexual slavery and impregnated, causing the Greeks to invade Attica, starting the Attic Wars.

The play begins with Heracles family being pursued by Lycus, the ruler of Thebes. Megara, Heracles' wife,is the rightful heir of Thebes as the daughter of Creon. Heracles is off dealing with the 12th labor, so they flee to the altar of Zeus.

Lycus catches up with them and argues with Heracles' father, Amphitryon. Lycus refuses to let Megara and her children go. So, Megara convinces Lycus to let her dress them in funeral robes. She goes through a long lamentation of the kingdoms they would have inherited, the brides they would have marries, while Amphitryon laments wasting his own life.

Then, unexpectedly, Heracles returns. He has rescued Theseus and brought back Cerberus. Heracles is very angry when he finds out what is going on. When Lycus returns to kill Megara and the children, Heracles kills him instead.

Hera sends Iris the messenger goddess and Lyssa the goddess of madness to drive Heracles mad and kill his own children. Hera really hates Heracles. Heracles thinks he has been sent to kill Eurystheus, the king who gave Heracles the 12 Labors. When Heracles finds his own children, he thinks they are Eurystheus' children and slays them. He kills Megara and he would have kill Amphitryon, but Athena intervenes.

Theseus, king of Athens and recently freed from Hades by Hracles, arrives with an army to battle Lycus. Instead he finds the tragedy of Heracles. After a lot convincing, Thesus talks Heracles in to returning with him to Athens, a broken man.

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MegaraMy brothers, Herakles and my old father, Creon, are all dead!

HeraklesWhat? Who killed him? What did he do?540 MegaraLykos killed him. The new ruler here!

HeraklesBut how? Was it in some battle or other? Was the country suffering from some affliction?

MegaraCivil war. Now he’s the ruler of Thebes, Cadmus’ city of seven gates.

HeraklesBut what was it that terrified you?

MegaraHerakles, he was going to kill your father, me and our sons!

HeraklesBut why? What made him so afraid of orphaned kids?

MegaraHe was afraid that when they grow up they would make him pay for killing Creon.

The Lion of Nemea (359-363) The Battle of the Centaurs (364-374) The Hind of Artemis (375-379) The Mares of Diomedes (380-388) Cycnos (389-393) The Apples of the Hesperides (394-400) The Clearing of the Sea (400-402) Atlas (403-407) The Girdle of the Amazon, Hippolyta (408-418) The Lenean Hydra (419-422) The Cattle of Geryon (423-424) The bringing back to earth of Cerberus

ChorusI wish to praise Herakles, to sing a song that crowns all his labours.

ChorusIt is a glory for the dead to praise their noble deeds!

ChorusHis first noble deed was to rid the grove of Zeus of the fierce lion!360 ChorusAnd threw the beast’s fiery skin, ferocious, gaping jaws over his auburn head.

ChorusThen he laid low the mountain race of wild Centaurs with his murderous arrows.

ChorusThe river Peneus, Peneus of the lovely eddies, can vouch for this and so can all the distant barren lands and all the farms of Mount Pelion and all deep glens of Homole next to it.370 ChorusThat’s where the Centaurs used to live.

ChorusThey used to arm themselves with the trunks of pine trees and rule over the whole of Thessaly with their horsemanship!

ChorusThen he killed that dappled hind with the golden horns that pillaged the farms and brought joy to Artemis, the huntress, goddess of Oenoe.

ChorusAnd then he climbed upon his four-horse chariot and with the bit Diomedes’ horses.380 ChorusThese were the gruesome horses that with unbridled appetite plunged their maws into the gory troughs and fed voraciously on human flesh. Savage beasts dining savagely.

ChorusThen he crossed the silver waters of the Hebrus river and performed his labour for the king of Mycenae.

ChorusThen it was the turn of Cycnos, who lived on the shore next to Mount Pelion, near the waters of Anaurus and who, wanting to build a temple made of human skulls, he used to kill all the travelers that went by.390 ChorusHerakles killed this wild dweller of Amphanae, with his unerring arrows and immediately his father, Ares had turned him into a swan.

ChorusThen to the garden of the sweet-voiced divine women of the Hesperides he went and from the leafy branches of the apple trees that grew there, he plucked the golden fruit, killing the murderous dragon-guard with its coils twisted all around it and whose back was the colour of flames.

ChorusThen, passing through the straits of Gadir, he entered the watery caves of the far flung ocean and made it calm for the mortal sailors.400 ChorusThen he went to Atlas’ house and lend his mighty hand to him, stretching it up to hold the heavens high, the star-filled home of all the gods.

ChorusThen he gathered friends from all over Greece and fought the mounted army of the Amazons who lived round the lake Maeotis, a lake fed by many rivers, beyond theEuxeine Sea.410 ChorusThey took from their barbarian queen, Hippolyta, the golden girdle –a deadly labour!- and this glorious spoil of war they brought back to Greece, where it is safe in Mycenae.

ChorusThen, with fire he killed the murderous hound of Lerna, the Hydra, with its myriad heads and smeared its poison on his arrows and it was with these arrows that he had killed Geryon, a monster with three bodies and the shepherd on the island of Erytheia.420 ChorusThen he brought to a happy conclusion many other travels before he sailed to Hades, the tear soaked land, for the last of his labours and the last of his life, and from there the poor man has not returned yet.

ChorusHis house is now bereft of friends and the oar of Charon the underworld’s ferryman waits to take his children on a journey away from life, a journey of no return, a journey against the laws’ of god and of man’s justice.430 ChorusYour house, Herakles, looks to your strong arms for protection but you are not here!

ChorusIf only!

If only I still had the youth, and had I all those Theban friends of mine –we of the same age- had I the strength to raise a war spear, I stand by your sons, Herakles, I would have shielded them.

ChorusBut now, now, Herakles my blessed youth is gone.440 Megara, Amphitryon and the three boys enter from the palace, dressed for their burials which include wreaths on their heads.