Hercules of Heaven

Fable by Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian Period 18th century

When the son of Alcmene, after his long labors,
was received into heaven, all the gods hastened
to come before this famous hero.
Mars, Minerva, Venus, tenderly embraced him.
Even Juno gave him a fairly gentle welcome.
Hercules, transported, thanked them all,
when Plutus, who wanted to be at the feast as well,
came with an insolent air to offer him his hand.
The angered hero turns away his head as he passes.
My son, Jupiter then said to him,
what has this god done to you? Whence comes it that anger,
at the sight of him, troubles your senses?
-It is that I know him, my father,
and almost always on earth
I have seen him the friend of the wicked.

Florian

Translation generated by Poésies 123 with assistance from the deepseek-chat artificial-intelligence model.

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