Abstract

This passage is interpreted by all commentators and translators as follows: ‘Or how shall we call it glorious that I went out to fight the hydra and the lion at the command of Eurystheus—and shall I not labour to shield off death from my own children?’ The purpose of my note1 is to suggest that we have here a very remarkable use of the verb, and that Euripides used it here with a precise and subtle intention.