Re: Thank you, Frank . . .
That little bit actually required 3 years of research into the final days of Hercules (Greek = Heracles). The story I'm working on is at approx. 75,000 words and growing, actually set about 45 years in the future. I think it'll be pretty neat when it's all done.
The passage, though (written about a year ago), seemed to fit right in as an analogy for Raoul's news post. You could actually take the characters and transform them into the USA (Heracles), Great Britain (Lichas, his traveling companion) and the Middle East nations (everyone else), even Iphitus (as Israel?).
Dan