Waiting (Prologue and Entry of the Chorus)

Deianeira came out of the house at Trachis and spoke to her old nurse.

"There is an old saying among men, that you cannot know a man's life, whether it has been good or bad, until he has died. But I know mine, even before I go to Hades: it is unhappy and heavy."

When she was a girl, in her father's house at Pleuron, she had had the most terrible of suitors: the river-god Achelous, who came to court her in three shapes — now as a bull, now as a writhing snake, now as a man with the head of an ox, with streams of water pouring from his shaggy beard. She prayed to die rather than marry him. And then Heracles came, the glorious son of Zeus and Alcmene, and fought the river-god for her, and freed her. How the fight went she could not tell; she sat apart, stunned with fear, terrified that her beauty would bring her only pain. And Zeus brought it to a good end — if it was good. For since she had been chosen as Heracles' wife, she had lived always in fear for him. One night brings a trouble, and the next night drives it out with another. They had children, whom he saw only now and then, like a farmer who visits a distant field only at sowing and harvest. He was always away, labouring for someone. And now — now, when he had finished his labours — she was most afraid of all. He had been gone fifteen months, with no word. And he had left her a tablet, with a prophecy that troubled her.

The Nurse suggested that she send her eldest son, Hyllus, to look for his father. Hyllus came, and had news: people said that Heracles had spent the past year as a slave to a Lydian woman, Omphale; and now he was making war on the city of Oechalia, in Euboea, the city of King Eurytus.

Deianeira told him of the prophecy. Heracles had said, when he left, that at the end of a year and three months he would either die, or, if he passed that time, live the rest of his life in peace. And that time was now. Hyllus went at once to find his father.

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The Chorus of young women of Trachis came in, singing to the Sun, who sees everything, to tell them where the son of Alcmene was; they knew Deianeira, the girl fought for so long ago, was wasting away like a lonely bird, never letting her eyes close in sleep, for longing for her husband. But they comforted her: joy and sorrow come round to all in turn, like the circling paths of the Bear. "For neither starry night abides with men, nor ruin, nor wealth; but suddenly they are gone, and to another comes joy, and the loss of it." Had anyone ever seen Zeus so careless of his own children?