Megara

Also known as: MEG. · Family: Thebes · Role: wife of Heracles · First appears: Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 1

Megara is the wife of Heracles and the daughter of Creon, king of Thebes. With Amphitryon and Heracles’ children, she sought asylum at Zeus’s altar while Lycus planned to kill them all. Amphitryon encouraged her to hope that Heracles might return, but she recognized Lycus as their enemy and saw no way to appease him.

Lycus allowed Megara and the children to enter their paternal house to dress in funeral robes, while promising to kill them afterward. When he ordered Amphitryon to bring them outside, he eventually went to bring them out himself. In his madness, Heracles killed his three sons and Megara.

Relationship record

Life events

• Amphitryon and Megara sought asylum at Zeus’s altar with Heracles’ children.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 1)
  • With: Amphitryon
  • “With their afflicted mother, lest the race Of Hercules should bleed, for an asylum Have chosen this altar of protecting Jove”
• Lycus (the younger) planned to kill Megara, Heracles’ children, and Amphitryon.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 1 · 📍 Thebes)
  • With: Lycus (the younger) Amphitryon
  • “Lycus th’ egregious monarch of this land Would with the children of Alcides kill His consort, by fresh murders to extinguish The past, and kill me too”
• Lycus permits Megara and the children to enter the paternal house for funeral dressing.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 2 · 📍 Thebes)
  • With: Lycus
  • “Your wishes Shall be complied with. I my servants bid Unbar the gates. Go in, bedeck yourselves;”
• Lycus promises to kill Megara and Heracles’ children after they put on funeral robes.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 2 · 📍 Thebes)
  • With: Lycus Heracles
  • “The costly robes I grudge not: but no sooner Shall ye have put them on, than I to you Will come, and plunge you in the shades beneath.”
• Lycus orders Amphitryon to bring Megara and the children outside to die.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 4)
  • With: Lycus Amphitryon
  • “But go, command the children and the wife Of Hercules without these gates t’ appear, Because ye have engaged that ye will die By your own hands.”
• Lycus decides to bring Megara and the children out himself for execution.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 4)
  • With: Lycus
  • “I, whom such idle scruples cannot move, Will with their mother bring the children forth.”
• Heracles kills his three sons and Megara during his madness.(Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 6)
  • With: Heracles
  • “There doth he taste an inauspicious sleep, First having slain his children and his consort.”

Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 1

• married with Heracles “Creon is the sire Of this unhappy Megara, to grace Whose hymeneal pomp, each Theban erst Attuned the jocund lute, into my house When Hercules conducted her.”
• parent: Creon “Hence Creon king of Thebes, Menæceus’ son, Derives his birth, and Creon is the sire Of this unhappy Megara”
• elder kin: Amphitryon “The auspicious gales Of fortune, O my daughter, yet may waft Both you and me out of our present troubles, If e’er my son your valiant lord return.”
• enemies with Lycus (the younger) “Lycus th’ egregious monarch of this land Would with the children of Alcides kill His consort, by fresh murders to extinguish The past”

Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 2

• enemies with Lycus “Can we by gentle words Appease this tyrant? No: we ought to fly From fools who are our foes:”

Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 3

• parent: Amphitryon “I know not, O my daughter; for I too Am with amazement seized.”
• elder kin: Amphitryon “I know not, O my daughter; for I too Am with amazement seized.”
• enemies with Lycus “My valiant brothers, And aged sire, alas! are now no more. HER. Who slew them, how, or with what weapon? MEG. Lycus, The monarch of this city, was their murderer.”

Euripides, Hercules Distracted — Scene 4

• enemies with Lycus “But go, command the children and the wife Of Hercules without these gates t’ appear, Because ye have engaged that ye will die By your own hands.”

⭐ Character constellation map → · 📖 Read the original → · 🗂 Character index → · 🕰 Chronicle → · 📍 Places →

Extracted from the original text of Greek Tragedy. Made with Rho MD.