Ah! what is this? I see my children before the house in the robes of death, with chaplets on their heads and my wife amid a throng of men, and my father weeping—what misfortune? Let me draw near to them and inquire; lady, what strange stroke of fate has fallen on the house? Megara Dearest of all mankind to me! Amphitryon O ray of light appearing to your father! Megara Are you safe and is your coming just in time to help your dear ones? Heracles What do you mean? What is this confusion I find on my arrival, father? Megara We are being ruined; forgive me, old friend, if I have anticipated that to which you had a right to tell him; for women’s nature is perhaps more prone to grief than men’s and they are my children that were being led to death, which was my own lot too. Heracles Apollo! what a prelude to your story! Megara My brothers are dead, and my old father. Heracles How so? what did he do? whose spear did he meet?