ABSTRACT
Hydra whom Heracles had slain. In this elaborate instance we may observe, first, that the whole course of things was darkly foretold by an oracle ofZeus (vv. I 161 f(), and second, that it is significantly linked with what is, in this play, the weak spot in Heracles' character, his reckless passion for women. This double revenge of the dead on the living is, then, no mere coincidence; it is a pattern woven into the very fabric of things.
