Alcestis by Euripides
Alcestis
430 BC
ALCESTIS
by Euripides
translated by Richard
Aldington
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
APOLLO
DEATH
CHORUS OF OLD MEN
A WOMAN SERVANT
ALCESTIS, the Queen, wife of ADMETUS
ADMETUS, King of Thessaly
EUMELUS, their child
HERACLES
PHERES, father of ADMETUS
A MAN SERVANT
(SCENE:-At Pherae, outside the Palace of
ADMETUS, King of
Thessaly. The centre of the scene represents a
portico with columns
and a large double-door. To the left are the women's
quarters, to
the right the guest rooms. The centre doors of
the Palace slowly
open inwards, and Apollo comes out. In his left
hand he carries a
large unstrung golden bow. He moves slowly and
majestically, turns,
and raises his right hand in salutation to the
Palace.)
APOLLO
DWELLING of Admetus, wherein I, a God, deigned
to accept the
food of serfs!
The cause was Zeus. He struck Asclepius, my
son, full in the
breast with a bolt of thunder, and laid him dead.
Then in wild rage
I slew the Cyclopes who forge the fire of Zeus.
To atone for this my
Father forced me to labour as a hireling for a
mortal man; and I
came to this country, and tended oxen for my host.
To this hour I have
protected him and his. I, who am just, chanced
on the son of Pheres, a
just man, whom I have saved from Death by tricking
the Fates. The
Goddesses pledged me their faith Admetus should
escape immediate death
if, in exchange, another corpse were given to
the Under-Gods.
One by one he tested all his friends, and
even his father and
the old mother who bad brought him forth-and found
none that would die
for him and never more behold the light of day,
save only his wife.
Now, her spirit waiting to break loose, she droops
upon his arm within
the house; this is the day when she must die and
render up her life.
But I must leave this Palace's dear roof,
for fear pollution
soil me in the house.
See! Death, Lord of All the Dead, now comes
to lead her to the
house of Hades! Most punctually he comes! How
well he marked the day
she had to die!
(From the right comes DEATH, with a drawn
sword in his hand. He
moves stealthily towards the Palace; then sees
APOLLO and halts
abruptly. The two Deities confront each other.)
DEATH
Ha! Phoebus! You! Before this Palace! Lawlessly
would you grasp,
abolish the rights of the Lower Gods! Did you
not beguile the Fates
and snatch Admetus from the grave? Does not that
suffice? Now, once
again, you have armed your hand with the bow,
to guard the daughter of
Pelias who must die in her husband's stead!
APOLLO
Fear not! I hold for right, and proffer you
just words.
DEATH
If you hold for right, why then your bow?
APOLLO
My custom is ever to carry it.
DEATH
Yes! And you use it unjustly to aid this house!
APOLLO
I grieve for a friend's woe.
DEATH
So you would rob me of a second body?
APOLLO
Not by force I won the other.
DEATH
Why, then, is he in the world and not below
the ground?
APOLLO
In his stead he gives his wife-whom you have
come to take.
DEATH
And shall take-to the Underworld below the
earth!
APOLLO
Take her, and go! I know not if I can persuade
you...
DEATH
Not to kill her I must kill? I am appointed
to that task.
APOLLO
No, no! But to delay death for those about
to die.
DEATH
I hear your words and guess your wish!
APOLLO
May not Alcestis live to old age?
DEATH
No! I also prize my rights!
APOLLO
Yet at most you win one life.
DEATH
They who die young yield me a greater prize.
APOLLO
If she dies old, the burial will be richer.
DEATH
Phoebus, that argument favours the rich.
APOLLO
What! Are you witty unawares?
DEATH
The rich would gladly pay to die old.
APOLLO
So you will not grant me this favour?
DEATH
Not I! You know my nature.
APOLLO
Yes! Hateful to men and a horror to the gods!
DEATH
You cannot always have more than your due.
APOLLO
Yet you shall change, most cruel though you
are! For a man comes
to the dwelling of Pheres, sent by Eurystheus
to fetch a horse-drawn
chariot from the harsh-wintered lands of Thrace;
and he shall be a
guest in the house of Admetus, and by force shall
he tear this woman
from you. Thus shall you gain no thanks from us,
and yet you shall
do this thing-and my hatred be upon you
(APOLLO goes out. DEATH gazes after
him derisively.)
DEATH
Talk all you will, you get no more of me!
The woman shall go
down to the dwelling of Hades. Now must I go to
consecrate her for the
sacrifice with this sword; for when once this
blade has shorn the
victim's hair, then he is sacred to the Lower
Gods!
(DEATH enters the Palace by the open main
door. The CHORUS enters
from the right. They are the Elders or Notables
of the city, and,
therefore move slowly, leaning upon their
staffs.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS (chanting)
Why is there no sound outside the Palace?
Why is the dwelling of
Admetus silent? Not a friend here to tell me if
I must weep for a dead
Queen or whether she lives and looks upon the
light, Alcestis, the
daughter of Pelias, whom among all women I hold
the best wife to her
spouse!
CHORUS (Singing)
Is a sob to be heard?
Or the beating of hands
In the house?
The lament for her end?
Not one,
Not one of her servants
Stands at the gate!
Ah! to roll back the wave of our woe,
O Healer,
Appear!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Were she dead
They had not been silent.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
She is but a dead body!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Yet she has not departed the house.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Ah! Let me not boast!
Why do you cling to hope?
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Would Admetus bury her solitary,
Make a grave alone for a wife so dear?
CHORUS
At the gate I see not
The lustral water from the spring
Which stands at the gates of the dead!
No shorn tress in the portal
Laid in lament for the dead!
The young women beat not their hands!
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Yet to-day is the day appointed....
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Ah! What have you said?
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
When she must descend under earth
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
You have pierced my soul!
You have pierced my mind!
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
He that for long
Has been held in esteem
Must weep when the good are destroyed.
CHORUS
No!
There is no place on earth
To send forth a suppliant ship-
Not to Lycia,
Not to Ammon's waterless shrine-
To save her from death!
The dreadful doom is at hand.
To what laden altar of what God
Shall I turn my steps?
He alone-
If the light yet shone for his eye-
Asclepius, Phoebus's son,
Could have led her back
From the land of shadows,
From the gates of Hades,
For he raised the dead
Ere the Zeus-driven shaft
Slew him with thunder fire....
But now
What hope can I hold for her life?
LEADER (chanting)
The King has fulfilled
Every rite;
The altars of all the Gods
Drip with the blood of slain beasts:
Nothing, nothing avails.
(From the women's quarters in the left
wing of the
Palace comes a woman in tears. She is
not a slave,
but one of the personal attendants on
the Queen.)
But now from the house comes one of her
women servants, all in
tears. What now shall I learn? (To the weeping
Servant) It is well
to weep when our lords are in sorrow-but tell
us, we would know, is
she alive, is she dead?
SERVANT
You may say she is both alive and dead.
LEADER
How can the same man be dead and yet behold
the light?
SERVANT
She gasps, she is on the verge of death.
LEADER
Ah, unhappy man! For such a husband what loss
is such a wife!
SERVANT
The King will not know his loss until he suffers
it.
LEADER
Then there is no hope that her life may be
saved?
SERVANT
The fated day constrains her.
LEADER
Are all things befitting prepared for her?
SERVANT
The robes in which her lord will bury her
are ready.
LEADER
Then let her know that she dies gloriously,
the best of women
beneath the sun by far!
SERVANT
How should she not be the best! Who shall
deny it? What should the
best among women be? How better might a woman
hold faith to her lord
than gladly to die for him? This the whole city
knows, but you will
marvel when you hear what she has done within
the house. When she knew
that the last of her days was come she bathed
her white body in
river water, she took garments and gems from her
rooms of cedar
wood, and clad herself nobly; then, standing before
the hearth-shrine,
she uttered this prayer:
'O Goddess, since now I must descend beneath
the earth, for the
last time I make supplication to you: and entreat
you to protect my
motherless children. Wed my son to a fair bride,
and my daughter to
a noble husband. Let not my children die untimely,
as I their mother
am destroyed, but grant that they live out happy
lives with good
fortune in their own land!'
To every altar in Admetus's house she went,
hung them with
garlands. offered prayer, cut myrtle boughs-unweeping,
unlamenting;
nor did the coming doom change the bright colour
of her face.
Then to her marriage-room she went, flung
herself down upon her
bed, and wept, and said:
'O my marriage-bed, wherein I loosed my virgin
girdle to him for
whom I die! Farewell! I have no hatred for you.
Only me you lose.
Because I held my faith to you and to my lord-I
must die. Another
woman shall possess you, not more chaste indeed
than I, more fortunate
perhaps.'
She fell upon her knees and kissed it, and
all the bed was damp
with the, tide of tears which flooded to her eyes.
And when she was
fulfilled of many tears, drooping she rose from
her bed and made as if
to go, and many times she turned to go and many
times turned back, and
flung herself once more upon the bed.
Her children clung to their mother's dress,
and wept; and she
clasped them in her arms and kissed them turn
by turn, as a dying
woman.
All the servants in the house wept with compassion
for their
Queen, But she held out her hand to each, and
there was none so base
to whom she did not speak, and who did not reply
again.
Such is the misery in Admetus's house. If
he had died, he would be
nothing now; and, having escaped, he suffers an
agony he will never
forget.
LEADER
And does Admetus lament this woe-since he
must be robbed of so
noble a woman?
SERVANT
He weeps, and clasps in his arms his dear
bedfellow, and cries
to her not to abandon him, asking impossible things.
For she pines,
and is wasted by sickness. She falls away, a frail
burden on his
arm; and yet, though faintly, she still breathes,
still strives to
look upon the sunlight, which she shall never
see hereafter-since
now for the last time she looks upon the orb and
splendour of the
sun I
I go, and shall announce that you are here;
for all men are not so
well-minded to their lords as loyally to stand
near them in
misfortunes, but you for long have been a friend
to both my lords.
(She goes back into the women's
quarters
of the Palace. The CHORUS now begins
to sing.)
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
O Zeus,
What end to these woes?
What escape from the Fate
Which oppresses our lords?
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Will none come forth?
Must I shear my hair?
Must we wrap ourselves
In black mourning folds?
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
It is certain, O friends, it is certain?
But still let us cry to the Gods;
Very great is the power of the Gods.
CHORUS
O King, O Healer,
Seek out appeasement
To Admetus's agony!
Grant this, Oh, grant it!
Once before did you find it;
Now once more
Be the Releaser from death.
The Restrainer of blood-drenched Hades!
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Alas!
O son of Pheres.
What ills shall you suffer
Being robbed of your spouse!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
At sight of such woes
Shall we cut our throats?
Shall we slip
A dangling noose round our necks?
CHORUS
See! See!
She comes
From the house with her lord!
Cry out, Oh, lament.
O land of Pherae,
For the best of women
Fades away in her doom
Under the earth,
To dark Hades!
(From the central door of the Palace
comes a splendid but
tragical procession. Preceded by the royal guards,
ADMETUS enters,
supporting ALCESTIS. The two children, a boy and
a girl, cling to
their mother's dress. There is a train of attendants
and waiting
women, who bring a low throne for the fainting
ALCESTIS.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS (chanting)
Never shall I say that we ought to rejoice
in marriage, but rather
weep; this have I seen from of old and now I look
upon the fate of the
King, who loses the best of wives, and henceforth
until the end his
life shall be intolerable.
ALCESTIS (chanting)
Sun, and you, light of day,
Vast whirlings of swift cloud!
ADMETUS
The sun looks upon you and me, both of us
miserable, who have
wrought nothing against the Gods to deserve death.
ALCESTIS (chanting)
O Earth, O roof-tree of my home,
Bridal-bed of my country, Iolcus!
ADMETUS
Rouse up, O unhappy one, and, do not leave
me! Call upon the
mighty Gods to pity!
ALCESTIS (starting up and gazing wildly in terror,
chanting)
I see the two-oared boat,
I see the boat on the lake!
And Charon,
Ferryman of the Dead,
Calls to me, his hand on the oar:
'Why linger? Hasten! You delay me!'
Angrily he urges me.
ADMETUS
Alas! How bitter to me is that ferrying of
which you speak! O my
unhappy one, how we suffer!
ALCESTIS (chanting)
He drags me, he drags me away-
Do you not see?-
To the House of the Dead,
The Winged One
Glaring under dark brows,
Hades!-
What is it you do?
Set me free!-
What a path must I travel,
O most hapless of women!
ADMETUS
O piteous to those that love you, above all
to me and to these
children who sorrow in this common grief!
ALCESTIS (chanting)
Loose me, Oh, loose me now;
Lay me down;
All strength is gone from my feet.
(She falls
back in the throne.)
Hades draws near!
Dark night falls on my eyes,
My children, my children,
Never more, Oh, never more
Shall your mother be yours!
O children, farewell,
Live happy in the light of day!
ADMETUS (chanting)
Alas! I hear this unhappy speech, and for
me it is worse than
all death. Ah! By the Gods, do not abandon me!
Ah! By our children,
whom you leave motherless, take heart! If you
die, I become as
nothing; in you we have our life and death; we
revere your love.
ALCESTIS (recovering herself)
Admetus, you see the things I suffer; and
now before I die I
mean to tell you what I wish.
To show you honour and-at the cost of my life-that
you may still
behold the light, I die; and yet I might have
lived and wedded any
in Thessaly I chose, and dwelt with happiness
in a royal home. But,
torn from you, I would not live with fatherless
children, nor have I
hoarded up those gifts of youth in which I found
delight. Yet he who
begot you, she who brought you forth, abandoned
you when it had been
beautiful in them to die, beautiful to die with
dignity to save
their son! They had no child but you, no hope
if you were dead that
other children might be born to them. Thus I should
have lived my life
out, and you too, and you would not lament as
now, made solitary
from your wife, that you must rear our children
motherless!
But these things are a God's doing and are
thus.
Well! Do not forget this gift, for I shall
ask-not a recompense,
since nothing is more precious than life, but-only
what is just, as
you yourself will say, since if you have not lost
your senses you must
love these children no less than I. Let them be
masters in my house;
marry not again, and set a stepmother over them,
a woman harsher
than I, who in her jealousy will lift her hand
against my children and
yours. Ah! not this, let not this be, I entreat
you! The new
stepmother hates the first wife's children, the
viper itself is not
more cruel. The son indeed finds a strong rampart
in his father-but
you, my daughter, how shall you live your virgin
life out in
happiness? How will you fare with your father's
new wife? Ah! Let
her not cast evil report upon you and thus wreck
your marriage in
the height of your youth! You will have no mother,
O my child, to give
you in marriage, to comfort you in childbed when
none is tenderer than
a mother!
And I must die. Not to-morrow. nor to-morrow's
morrow comes this
misfortune on me, but even now I shall be named
with those that are no
more. Farewell! Live happy! You, my husband, may
boast you had the
best of wives; and you, my children, that you
lost the best of
mothers!
(She falls back.)
LEADER
Take heart! I do not hesitate to speak for
him. This he will do,
unless he has lost his senses.
ADMETUS
It shall be so, it shall be! Have no fear!
And since I held you
living as my wife, so, when dead, you only shall
be called my wife,
and in your place no bride of Thessaly shall salute
me hers; no
other woman is noble enough for that, no other
indeed so beautiful
of face. My children shall suffice me; I pray
the Gods I may enjoy
them, since you we have not enjoyed.
I shall wear mourning for you, O my wife,
not for one year but all
my days, abhorring the woman who bore me, hating
my father-for they
loved me in words, not deeds. But you-to save
my life you give the
dearest thing you have! Should I not weep then,
losing such a wife
as you?
I shall make an end of merry drinking parties,
and of
flower-crowned feasts and of the music which possessed
my house. Never
again shall I touch the lyre, never again shall
I raise my spirits
to sing to the Libyan flute-for you have taken
from me all my joy.
Your image, carven by the skilled hands of artists,
shall be laid in
our marriage-bed; I shall clasp it, and my hands
shall cling to it and
I shall speak your name and so, not having you,
shall think I have
my dear wife in my arms-a cold delight, I know,
but it will lighten
the burden of my days. Often you will gladden
me, appearing in my
dreams; for sweet it is to look on those we love
in dreams, however
brief the night.
Ah! If I had the tongue and song of Orpheus
so that I might
charm Demeter's Daughter or her Lord, and snatch
you back from
Hades, would go down to hell; and neither Pluto's
dog nor Charon,
Leader of the Dead, should hinder me until I had
brought your life
back to the light!
At least await me there whenever I shall die,
and prepare the
house where you will dwell with me. I shall lay
a solemn charge upon
these children to stretch me in the same cedar
shroud with you, and
lay my side against your side; for even in death
let me not be
separate from you, you who alone were faithful
to me!
LEADER (to ADMETUS)
And I also will keep this sad mourning with
you, as a friend
with a friend; for she is worthy of it.
ALCESTIS
O my children, you have heard your father
say that never will he
set another wife over you and never thus insult
me.
ADMETUS
Again I say it, and will perform it too!
ALCESTIS (placing the children's hands in his)
Then take these children from my hand.
ADMETUS
I take them-dear gifts from a dear hand.
ALCESTIS
Now you must be the mother for me to my children.
ADMETUS
It must be so, since they are robbed of you.
ALCESTIS
O children, I should have lived my life out-and
I go to the
Underworld.
ADMETUS
Alas! What shall I do, left alone by you?
ALCESTIS
Time will console you. The dead are nothing.
ADMETUS
Take me with you, by the Gods! Take me to
the Underworld!
ALCESTIS
It is enough that I should die-for you.
ADMETUS
O Fate, what a wife you steal from me!
ALCESTIS (growing faint)
My dimmed eyes are heavily oppressed.
ADMETUS
O woman, I am lost if you leave me!
ALCESTIS
You may say of me that I am nothing.
ADMETUS
Lift up your head! Do not abandon your children!
ALCESTIS
Ah! Indeed it is unwillingly-but, farewell,
my children!
ADMETUS
Look at them, look....
ALCESTIS
I am nothing.
ADMETUS
What are you doing? Are you leaving me?
ALCESTIS (falling back dead)
Farewell.
ADMETUS (staring at the body)
Wretch that I am, I am lost!
LEADER
She is gone! The wife of Admetus is no more.
EUMELUS (chanting)
Ah! Misery!
Mother has gone,
Gone to the Underworld!
She lives no more,
O my Father,
In the sunlight.
O sad one,
You have left us
To live motherless!
See, Oh, see her eyelids
And her drooping hands!
Mother, Mother,
Hearken to me, listen,
I beseech you!
I-I-Mother!-
I am calling to you,
Your little bird fallen upon your face!
ADMETUS
She hears not, she sees not. You and I are
smitten by a dread
calamity.
EUMELUS (chanting)
Father, I am a child,
And I am left
Like a lonely ship
By the mother I loved.
Oh! The cruel things I suffer!
And you, little sister,
Suffer with me.
O my Father,
Vain, vain was your wedding,
You did not walk with her
To the end of old age.
She died first;
And your death, O Mother,
Destroys our house.
LEADER
Admetus, you must endure this calamity. You
are not the first
and will not be the last to lose a noble wife.
We all are doomed to
die.
ADMETUS
I know it.
Not unawares did this woe swoop down on me;
for long it has gnawed
at me.
But, since I shall ordain the funeral rites
for this dead body,
you must be there, and meanwhile let a threnody
re-echo to the
implacable God of the Underworld. And all you
men of Thessaly whom I
rule-I order you to share the mourning for this
woman with severed
hair and black-robed garb. You who yoke the four-horsed
chariot and
the swift single horses, cut the mane from their
necks with your
steel.
Let there be no noise of flutes or lyre within
the city until
twelve moons are fulfilled. Never shall I bury
another body so dear to
me, never one that has loved me better. From me
she deserves all
honour, since she alone would die for me!
(The body of ALCESTIS is carried solemnly
into the Palace,
followed by ADMETUS, With bowed head, holding
one of his children by
each hand. When all have entered, the great doors
are quietly shut.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
O Daughter of Pelias,
Hail to you in the house of Hades,
In the sunless home where you shall dwell!
Let Hades, the dark-haired God,
Let the old man, Leader of the Dead,
Who sits at the oar and helm,
Know you:
Far, far off is the best of women
Borne beyond the flood of Acheron
In the two-oared boat!
antistrophe 1
Often shall the Muses' servants
Sing of you to the seven-toned
Lyre-shell of the mountain-tortoise,
And praise you with mourning songs at Sparta
When the circling season
Brings back the month Carneius
Under the nightlong upraised moon,
And in bright glad Athens.
Such a theme do you leave by your death
For the music of singers!
strophe 2
Ah! That I had the power
To bring you back to the light
From the dark halls of Hades,
And from the waves of Cocytus
With the oar of the river of hell
Oh, you only,
O dearest of women,
You only dared give your life
For the life of your lord in Hades!
Light rest the earth above you,
O woman.
If your lord choose another bridal-bed
He shall be hateful to me
As to your own children.
antistrophe 2
When his mother
And the old father that begot him
Would not give their bodies to the earth
For their son's sake,
They dared not deliver him-O cruel!
Though their heads were grey.
But you,
In your lively youth,
Died for him, and are gone from the light!
Ah! might I be joined
With a wife so dear!
But in life such fortune is rare.
How happy were my days with her!
(From the left HERACLES enters. He is black-bearded
and
of great physical strength; he wears a lion-skin
over
his shoulders and carries a large
club.)
HERACLES (with a gesture of salutation)
Friends, dwellers in the lands of Pherae,
do I find Admetus in his
home?
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
The son of Pheres is in his home, O Heracles.
But, tell us, what
brings you to the land of Thessaly and to the
city of Pherae?
HERACLES
I have a task I must achieve for Eurystheus
of Tiryns.
LEADER
Where do you go? To what quest are you yoked?
HERACLES
The quest of the four-horsed chariot of Diomedes,
the Thracian.
LEADER
But how will you achieve it? Do you know this
stranger?
HERACLES
No, I have never been to the land of the Bistones.
LEADER
You cannot obtain the horses without a struggle.
HERACLES
I cannot renounce my labours.
LEADER
You must kill to return, or you will remain
there dead.
HERACLES
It will not be the first contest I have risked.
LEADER
And if you conquer the King will you gain
anything?
HERACLES
I shall bring back his foals to the lord of
Tiryns.
LEADER
It is not easy to thrust the bit into their
jaws.
HERACLES
Only if they breathe fire from their nostrils!
LEADER
But they tear men with their swift jaws.
HERACLES
You speak of the food of wild mountain beasts,
not of horses.
LEADER
You may see their mangers foul with blood.
HERACLES
Of what father does the breeder boast himself
the son?
LEADER
Of Ares, the lord of the gold-rich shield
of Thrace!
HERACLES
In this task once more you remind me of my
fate, which is ever
upon harsh steep ways, since I must join battle
with the sons of
Ares-first with Lycaon, then with Cycnus, and
now in this third
contest I am come to match myself with these steeds
and their master!
LEADER
But see, the lord of this land, Admetus himself,
comes from the
house!
(The central doors of the Palace have opened,
and ADMETUS comes
slowly on the Stage, preceded and followed by
guards and attendants.
The King has put off all symbols of royalty, and
is dressed in
black. His tong hair is clipped close to his head.
ADMETUS
dissembles his grief throughout this scene, in
obedience to the laws
of hospitality, which were particularly reverenced
in Thessaly.)
ADMETUS
Hail Son of Zeus and of the blood of Perseus!
HERACLES
And hail to you, Admetus, lord of the Thessalians
ADMETUS
May it be so! I know your friendship well.
HERACLES
What means this shorn hair, this mourning
robe?
ADMETUS
To-day I must bury a dead body.
HERACLES
May a God avert harm from your children!
ADMETUS
The children I have begotten are alive in
the house.
HERACLES
Your father was ripe for death-if it is he
has gone?
ADMETUS
He lives-and she who brought me forth, O Heracles.
HERACLES
Your wife-Alcestis-she is not dead?
ADMETUS (evasively)
Of her I might make a double answer.
HERACLES
Do you mean that she is dead or alive?
ADMETUS (ambiguously)
She is and is not-and for this I grieve.
HERACLES (perplexed)
I am no wiser-you speak obscurely.
ADMETUS
Did you not know the fate which must befall
her?
HERACLES
I know she submitted to die for you.
ADMETUS
How then can she be alive, having consented
to this?
HERACLES
Ah! Do not weep for your wife till that time
comes.
ADMETUS
Those who are about to die are dead, and the
dead are nothing.
HERACLES
Men hold that to be and not to be are different
things.
ADMETUS
You hold for one, Heracles, and I for the
other.
HERACLES
Whom, then, do you mourn? Which of your friends
is dead?
ADMETUS
A woman. We spoke of her just now.
HERACLES (mistaking his meaning)
A stranger? Or one born of your kin?
ADMETUS
A stranger, but one related to this house.
HERACLES
But how, then, did she chance to die in your
house?
ADMETUS
When her father died she was sheltered here.
HERACLES
Alas! Would I had not found you in this grief,
Admetus!
ADMETUS
What plan are you weaving with those words?
HERACLES
I shall go to the hearth of another friend.
ADMETUS
Not so, O King! This wrong must not be.
HERACLES (hesitating)
The coming of a guest is troublesome to those
who mourn.
ADMETUS (decisively)
The dead are dead. Enter my house.
HERACLES
But it is shameful to feast among weeping
friends.
ADMETUS
We shall put you in the guest-rooms, which
are far apart.
HERACLES
Let me go, and I will give you a thousand
thanks.
ADMETUS
No, you shall not go to another man's hearth.
(To a servant) Guide
him, and open for him the guest-rooms apart from
the house.
(HERACLES enters the Palace by the guests' door;
when he has gone
in, ADMETUS turns to the other servants) Close
the inner door of the
courtyard; it is unseemly that guests rejoicing
at table should hear
lamentations, and be saddened.
(The attendants
go into the Palace.)
LEADER
What are you about? When such a calamity has
fallen upon you,
Admetus, have you the heart to entertain a guest?
Are you mad?
ADMETUS
And if I had driven away a guest who came
to my house and city,
would you have praised me more? No, indeed! My
misfortune would have
been no less, and I inhospitable. One more ill
would have been added
to those I have if my house were called inhospitable.
I myself find
him the best of hosts when I enter the thirsty
land of Argos.
LEADER
But why did you hide from him the fate that
has befallen, if the
man came as a friend, as you say?
ADMETUS
Never would he have entered my house if he
had guessed my
misfortune.
To some, I know, I shall appear senseless
in doing this, and
they will blame me; but my roof knows not to reject
or insult a guest.
(He goes into the Palace, as the CHORUS
begins its song.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
O house of a bountiful lord,
Ever open to many guests,
The God of Pytho,
Apollo of the beautiful lyre,
Deigned to dwell in you
And to live a shepherd in your lands!
On the slope of the hillsides
He played melodies of mating
On the Pipes of Pan to his herds.
antistrophe 1
And the dappled lynxes fed with them
In joy at your singing;
From the wooded vale of Orthrys
Came a yellow troop of lions;
To the sound of your lyre, O Phoebus,
Danced the dappled fawn
Moving on light feet
Beyond the high-crested pines,
Charmed by your sweet singing.
strophe 2
He dwells in a home most rich in flocks
By the lovely moving Boebian lake.
At the dark stabling-place of the Sun
He takes the sky of the Molossians
As a bourne to his ploughing of fields,
To the soils of his plains;
He bears sway
As far as the harbourless
Coast of the Aegean Sea,
As far as Pelion.
antistrophe 2
Even to-day he opened his house
And received a guest,
Though his eyelids were wet
With tears wept by the corpse
Of a dear bedfellow dead in the house.
For the noble spirit is proclaimed by honour;
All wisdom lies with the good.
I admire him:
And in my soul I know
The devout man shall have joy.
(The funeral procession of ALCESTIS enters
from the door of the
women's quarters. The body, carried on a bier
by men servants, is
followed by ADMETUS and his two children. Behind
them comes a train of
attendants and servants carrying the funeral offerings.
All are in
mourning. ADMETUS addresses the CHORUS.)
ADMETUS
O friendly presence of you men of Pherae!
Now that the body is
prepared, and the servants bear it on high to
the tomb and the fire,
do you, as is fitting, salute the dead as she
goes forth on her last
journey.
(PHERES, the father of ADMETUS, enters,
followed
by attendants bearing funeral offerings.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
But I see your father, tottering with an old
man's walk, and his
followers bearing in their hands for your wife
garments as an offering
to the dead.
PHERES
My son, I have come to share your sorrow,
for the wife you have
lost was indeed noble and virtuous-none can deny
it. But these
things must be endured, however intolerable they
may be.
Take these garments, and let her descend under
the earth. Her body
must be honoured, for she died to save your life,
my son; she has
not made me childless, nor left me to be destroyed
without you in my
hapless old age; and she has given glorious fame
to all women by
daring so noble a deed! (He lifts his hand in
salutation to the body
of ALCESTIS.) O woman, who saved my son, who raised
me up when I had
fallen, hail! Be happy in the halls of Hades!
I declare it-such
marriages are profitable to mankind; otherwise,
it is foolish to
marry.
ADMETUS (furiously)
It was not my wish that you should come to
this burial, and I deny
that your presence is that of a friend! She shall
never wear these
garments of yours; she needs not your gifts for
her burial. You should
have grieved when I was, about to die; but you
stood aside, and now do
you come to wail over a corpse when you, an old
man, allowed a young
woman to die?
Were you in very truth father of this body
of mine? Did she, who
claims to be and is called my mother, bring me
forth? Or was I bred of
a slave's seed and secretly brought to your wife's
breast? You have
proved what you are when it comes to the test,
and therefore I am
not your begotten son; or you surpass all men
in cowardice, for, being
at the very verge and end of life, you had neither
courage nor will to
die for your son. But this you left to a woman,
a stranger, whom alone
I hold as my father and my mother!
Yet it had been a beautiful deed in you to
die for your son, and
short indeed was the time left you to live. She
and I would have lived
out our lives, and I should not now be here alone
lamenting my misery.
You enjoyed all that a happy man can enjoy-you
passed the flower
of your age as a king, and in me your son you
had an heir to your
dominion; you would not have died childless, leaving
an orphaned house
to be plundered by strangers. You will not say
that you abandoned me
to death because I dishonoured your old age, for
above all I was
respectful to you-and this is the gratitude I
have from you and my
mother!
Beget more sons, and quickly, to cherish your
old age and wrap you
in a shroud when dead and lay your body out in
state! This hand of
mine shall not inter you. I am dead to you. I
look upon the light of
day because another saved me-I say I am her son,
and will cherish
her old age!
Vainly do old men pray for death, regretting
their age and the
long span of life. If death draws near, none wants
to die, and age
is no more a burden to him.
LEADER
Admetus! The present misfortune is enough.
Do not provoke your
father's spirit.
(ADMETUS turns angrily to depart, but
PHERES prevents him.)
PHERES
My son, do you think you are pursuing some
hireling Lydian or
Phrygian with your taunts? Do you know I am a
Thessalian, a free man
lawfully begotten by a Thessalian father? You
are over-insolent, and
you shall not leave thus, after wounding me with
your boyish
insults. I indeed begot you, and bred you up to
be lord of this
land, but I am not bound to die for you. It is
not a law of our
ancestors or of Hellas that the fathers should
die for the children!
You were born to live your own life, whether miserable
or fortunate;
and what is due to you from me you have. You rule
over many men, and I
shall leave you many wide fields even as received
them from my own
father. How, then, have I wronged you? Of what
have I robbed you? Do
not die for me, any more than I die for you. You
love to look upon the
light of day-do you think your father hates it?
I tell myself that
we are a long time underground and that life is
short, but sweet.
But you-you strove shamelessly not to die,
and you are alive,
you shirked your fate by killing her! And you
call me a coward, you,
the worst of cowards, surpassed by a woman who
died for you, pretty
boy? And now you insult those who should be dear
to you, when they
refuse to die for a coward like you!
Be silent! Learn that if you love your life,
so do others. If
you utter insults, you shall hear many, and true
ones too!
LEADER
These insults and those that went before suffice.
Old man, cease
to revile your son.
ADMETUS (to PHERES)
Speak on! I shall refute you. If the truth
wounds you when you
hear it you should not have wronged me.
PHERES
I should have wronged you far more if I had
died for you.
ADMETUS
It is the same then to die an old man and
in the flower of life?
PHERES
We should live one life, not two.
ADMETUS
May you live longer than God!
PHERES
Do you curse your parents when they have done
you no wrong?
ADMETUS
I see you are in love with long life.
PHERES
But you are not carrying her dead body in
place of your own?
ADMETUS
It is the proof of your cowardice, O worst
of men.
PHERES
You cannot say she died for me!
ADMETUS
Alas! May you one day need my help.
PHERES
Woo many women, so that more may die for you.
ADMETUS
To your shame be it-you who dared not die.
PHERES
Sweet is the daylight of the Gods, very sweet.
ADMETUS
Your spirit is mean, not a man's.
PHERES
Would you laugh to carry an old man's body
to the grave?
ADMETUS
You will die infamous, whenever you die.
PHERES
It will matter little enough to me to hear
ill of myself when I am
dead!
ADMETUS
Alas! Alas! full of impudence. is old age!
PHERES
She was not impudent, but foolish,
ADMETUS
Go! Leave me to bury her body.
PHERES (turning away)
I go. You, her murderer, will bury her-but
soon you must render an
account to her relatives. Acastus is not a man
if he fails to avenge
his sister's blood on you!
(PHERES goes out by the way he entered,
followed by his
attendants. ADMETUS gazes angrily after
him.)
ADMETUS
Go with a curse, you, and she who dwells with
you! Grow old, as
you ought, childless though you have a child.
You shall never return
to this house. And if I could renounce your hearth
as my father's by
heralds, I would do it. But we-since this sorrow
must be endured-let
us go, and set her body on the funeral pyre.
(The Procession moves slowly along the
stage, and is joined by the
CHORUS. As they pass, the LEADER salutes
the body of ALCESTIS.)
LEADER (chanting)
Alas! Alas! You who suffer for your courage,
O noblest and best of
women, hail! May Hermes of the Dead, may Hades,
greet you kindly. If
there are rewards for the dead, may you share
them as you sit by the
bride of the Lord of the Dead!
(The Procession has filed out. A servant
in mourning
hurries out from the guests' quarters.)
SERVANT
Many guests from every land, I know, have
come to the Palace of
Admetus, and I have set food before them, but
never one worse than
this guest have I welcomed to the hearth.
First, though he saw our Lord was in mourning,
he entered, and
dared to pass through the gates. Then, knowing
our misfortune, he
did not soberly accept what was offered him, but
if anything was not
served to him he ordered us to bring it. In both
hands he took a cup
of ivy-wood, and drank the unmixed wine of the
dark grape-mother,
until he was encompassed and heated with the flame
of wine. He crowned
his head with myrtle sprays, howling discordant
songs. There was he
caring nothing for Admetus's misery, and we servants
weeping for our
Queen; and yet we hid our tear-laden eyes from
the guest, for so
Admetus had commanded.
And now in the Palace I must entertain this
stranger, some
villainous thief and brigand, while she, the Queen
I mourn, has gone
from the house unfollowed, unsaluted, she who
was as a mother to me
and all us servants, for she sheltered us from
a myriad troubles by
softening her husband's wrath.
Am I not right, then, to hate this stranger,
who came to us in the
midst of sorrow?
(HERACLES comes from the Palace. He is
drunkenly merry, with a
myrtle wreath on his head, and a large cup and
wine-skin in his hands.
He staggers a little.)
HERACLES
Hey, you! Why so solemn and anxious? A servant
should not be
sullen with guests, but greet them with a cheerful
heart.
You see before you a man who is your lord's
friend, and you
greet him with a gloomy, frowning face, because
of your zeal about a
strange woman's death. Come here, and let me make
you a little wiser!
(With drunken gravity) Know the nature of
human life? Don't
think you do. You couldn't. Listen to me. All
mortals must die.
Isn't one who knows if he'll be alive to-morrow
morning. Who knows
where Fortune will lead? Nobody can teach it.
Nobody learn it by
rules. So, rejoice in what you hear, and learn
from me! Count each day
as it comes as Life-and leave the rest to Fortune.
Above all, honour
the Love Goddess, sweetest of all the Gods to
mortal men, a kindly
goddess! Put all the rest aside. Trust in what
I say, if you think I
speak truth-as I believe. Get rid of this gloom,
rise superior to
Fortune. Crown yourself with flowers and drink
with me, won't you? I
know the regular clink of the wine-cup will row
you from darkness
and gloom to another haven. Mortals should think
mortal thoughts. To
all solemn and frowning men, life I say is not
life, but a disaster.
SERVANT
We know all that, but what we endure here
to-day is far indeed
from gladness and laughter.
HERACLES
But the dead woman was a stranger. Lament
not overmuch, then,
for the Lords of this Palace are still alive.
SERVANT
How, alive? Do you not know the misery of
this house?
HERACLES
Your lord did not lie to me?
SERVANT
He goes too far in hospitality!
HERACLES
But why should I suffer for a stranger's death?
SERVANT
It touches this house only too nearly.
HERACLES
Did he hide some misfortune from me?
SERVANT
Go in peace! The miseries of our lords concern
us.
HERACLES
That speech does not imply mourning for a
stranger!
SERVANT
No, or I should not have been disgusted to
see you drinking.
HERACLES
Have I then been basely treated by my host?
SERVANT
You did not come to this house at a welcome
hour. We are in
mourning. You see my head is shaved and the black
garments I wear.
HERACLES
But who, then, is dead? One of the children?
The old father?
SERVANT
O stranger, Admetus no longer has a wife.
HERACLES
What! And yet I was received in this way?
SERVANT
He was ashamed to send you away from his house.
HERACLES
O hapless one! What a wife you have lost!
SERVANT
Not she alone, but all of us are lost.
HERACLES (now completely sobered)
I felt there was something when I saw his
tear-wet eyes, his
shaven head, his distracted look. But he persuaded
me he was taking
the body of a stranger to the grave. Against my
will I entered these
ates, and drank in the home of this generous man-and
he in such grief!
And shall I drink at such a time with garlands
of flowers on my
head? You, why did you not tell me that such misery
had come upon this
house? Where is he burying her? Where shall I
find him?
SERVANT
Beside the straight road which leads to Larissa
you will see a
tomb of polished stone outside the walls.
(Returns to
the servants' quarters)
HERACLES
O heart of me, much-enduring heart, O right
arm, now indeed must
you show what son was born to Zeus by Alcmena,
the Tirynthian,
daughter of Electryon! For I must save this dead
woman, and bring back
Alcestis to this house as a grace to Admetus.
I shall watch for Death, the black-robed Lord
of the Dead, and I
know I shall find him near the tomb, drinking
the blood of the
sacrifices. If can leap upon him from an ambush,
seize him, grasp
him in my arms, no power in the world shall tear
his bruised sides
from me until he has yielded up this woman. If
I miss my prey, if he
does not come near the bleeding sacrifice, I will
go down to Kore
and her lord in their sunless dwelling, and I
will make my entreaty to
them, and I know they will give me Alcestis to
bring back to the hands
of the host who welcomed me, who did not repulse
me from his house,
though he was smitten with heavy woe which most
nobly he hid from
me! Where would be a warmer welcome in Thessaly
or in all the
dwellings of Hellas?
He shall not say he was generous to an ingrate!
(HERACLES goes out. Presently ADMETUS and
his attendants, followed
by the CHORUS, return from the burial
of ALCESTIS.)
ADMETUS (chanting)
Alas!
Hateful approach, hateful sight of my widowed
house! Oh me! Oh me!
Alas! Whither shall I go? Where rest? What can
I say? What refrain
from saying? Why can I not die? Indeed my mother
bore me for a hapless
fate. I envy the dead, I long to be with them,
theirs are the
dwellings where I would be. Without pleasure I
look upon the light
of day and set my feet upon the earth-so precious
a hostage has
Death taken from me to deliver unto Hades!
CHORUS (chanting responsively with ADMETUS)
Go forward,
Enter your house.
ADMETUS
Alas!
CHORUS
Your grief deserves our tears.
ADMETUS
O Gods!
CHORUS
I know you have entered into sorrow.
ADMETUS
Woe! Woe!
CHORUS
Yet you bring no aid to the dead.
ADMETUS
Oh me! Oh me!
CHORUS
Heavy shall it be for you
Never to look again
On the face of the woman you love.
ADMETUS
You bring to my mind the grief that breaks
my heart. What sorrow
is worse for a man than the loss of such a woman?
I would I had
never married, never shared my house with her.
I envy the wifeless and
the childless. They live but one life-what is
suffering to them? But
the sickness of children, bridal-beds ravished
by Death-dreadful! when
we might be wifeless and childless to the end.
CHORUS
Chance, dreadful Chance, has stricken you.
ADMETUS
Alas!
CHORUS
But you set no limit to your grief.
ADMETUS
Ah! Gods!
CHORUS
A heavy burden to bear, and yet...
ADMETUS
Woe! Woe!
CHORUS
Courage! You are not the first to lose...
ADMETUS
Oh me! Oh me!
CHORUS
A wife.
Different men
Fate crushes with different blows.
ADMETUS
O long grief and mourning for those beloved
under the earth!
Why did you stay me from casting myself into
the hollow grave to
lie down for ever in death by the best of women?
Two lives, not one,
had then been seized by Hades, most faithful one
to the other; and
together we should have crossed the lake of the
Underworld.
CHORUS
A son most worthy of tears
Was lost to one of my house,
Yet, childless, he suffered with courage,
Though the white was thick in his hair
And his days were far-spent!
ADMETUS
O visage of my house! How shall I enter you?
How shall I dwell
in you, now that Fate has turned its face from
me? How great is the
change! Once, of old, I entered my house with
marriage-songs and the
torches of Pelion, holding a loved woman by the
hand, followed by a
merry crowd shouting good wishes to her who is
dead and to me, because
we had joined our lives, being both noble and
born of noble lines.
Today, in place of marriage-songs are lamentations;
instead of white
garments I am clad in mourning, to return to my
house and a solitary
bed.
CHORUS
Grief has fallen upon you
In the midst of a happy life
Untouched by misfortune.
But your life and your spirit are safe.
She is dead,
She has left your love.
Is this so new?
Ere now many men
Death has severed from wives.
ADMETUS (speaking)
O friends, whatsoever may be thought by others,
to me it seems
that my wife's fate is happier than mine. Now,
no pain ever shall
touch her again; she has reached the noble end
of all her
sufferings. But I, I who should have died, I have
escaped my fate,
only to drag out a wretched life. Only now do
I perceive it.
How shall I summon strength to enter this
house? Whom shall I
greet? Who will greet me in joy at my coming?
Whither shall I turn
my steps? I shall be driven forth by solitude
when I see my bed
widowed of my wife, empty the chairs on which
she sat, a dusty floor
beneath my roof, my children falling at my knees
and calling for their
mother, and the servants lamenting for the noble
lady lost from the
house!
Such will be my life within the house. Without,
I shall be
driven from marriage-feasts and gatherings of
the women of Thessaly. I
shall not endure to look upon my wife's friends.
Those who hate me
will say: 'See how he lives in shame, the man
who dared not die, the
coward who gave his wife to Hades in his stead!
Is that a man? He
hates his parents, yet he himself refused to die!'
This evil fame I have added to my other sorrows.
O my friends,
what then avails it that I live, if I must live
in misery and shame?
(He covers his head with his robe,
and crouches
in abject misery on the steps of his
Palace.)
CHORUS (singing)
strophe 1
I have lived with the Muses
And on lofty heights:
Many doctrines have I learned;
But Fate is above us all.
Nothing avails against Fate
Neither the Thracian tablets
Marked with Orphic symbols,
Nor the herbs given by Phoebus
To the children of Asclepius
To heal men of their sickness.
antistrophe 1
None can come near to her altars,
None worship her statues;
She regards not our sacrifice.
O sacred goddess,
Bear no more hardly upon me
Than in days overpast!
With a gesture Zeus judges,
But the sentence is yours.
Hard iron yields to your strength;
Your fierce will knows not gentleness.
strophe 2
And the Goddess has bound you
Ineluctably in the gyves of her hands.
Yield.
Can your tears give life to the dead?
For the sons of the Gods
Swoon in the shadow of Death.
Dear was she in our midst,
Dear still among the dead,
For the noblest of women was she
Who lay in your bed.
antistrophe 2
Ah!
Let the grave of your spouse
Be no more counted as a tomb,
But revered as the Gods,
And greeted by all who pass by!
The wanderer shall turn from his path,
Saying: 'She died for her lord;
A blessed spirit she is now.
Hail, O sacred lady, be our friend!'
Thus shall men speak of her.
(ADMETUS is still crouched on the
Palace steps, when
HERACLES enters from the side, leading
a veiled woman.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS
But see! The son of Alcmena, as I think, comes
to your house.
(ADMETUS uncovers his head, and faces
the newcomer.)
HERACLES
Admetus, a man should speak freely to his
friends, and not keep
reproaches silent in his heart. Since I was near
you in your
misfortune, should have wished to show myself
your friend. But you did
not tell me the dead body was your wife's, and
you took me into your
house as if you were in mourning only for a stranger.
And I put a
garland of flowers upon my head, and poured wine-offerings
to the
Gods, when your house was filled with lamentation.
I blame you, yes, I
blame you for this-but I will not upbraid you
in your misfortune.
Why I turned back and am here, I shall tell
you. Take and keep
this woman for me until I have slain the King
of the Bistones and
return here with the horses of Thrace. If ill
happens to me-may I
return safely!-I give her to you to serve in your
house.
With much striving I won her to my hands.
On my way I found public
games, worthy of athletes, and I have brought
back this woman whom I
won as the prize of victory. The winners of the
easy tests had horses;
heads of cattle were given to those who won in
boxing and wrestling.
Then came a woman as a prize. Since I was present,
it would have
been shameful for me to miss this glorious gain.
Therefore, as I said,
you must take care of this woman, whom I bring
to you, not as one
stolen but as the prize of my efforts. Perhaps
in time you will
approve of what I do.
ADMETUS
Not from disdain, nor to treat you as a foe,
did I conceal my
wife's fate from you. But if you had turned aside
to another man's
hearth, one more grief had been added to my sorrow.
It was enough that
I should weep my woe.
This woman-O King, I beg it may be thus-enjoin
some other
Thessalian, one who is not in sorrow, to guard
her. In Pherae there
are many to welcome you. Do not remind me of my
grief. Seeing her in
my house, I could not restrain my tears. Add not
a further anguish
to my pain, for what I suffer is too great. And
then-where could I
harbour a young woman in my house? For she is
young-I see by her
clothes and jewels. Could she live with the men
under my roof? How,
then, could she remain chaste, if she moved to
and fro among the young
men? Heracles, it is not easy to restrain the
young....I am thinking
of your interests....Must I take her to my dead
wife's room? How could
I endure her to enter that bed? I fear a double
reproach-from my
people, who would accuse me of betraying my saviour
to slip into
another woman's bed, and from my dead wife, who
deserves my respect,
for which I must take care.
O woman, whosoever you may be, you have the
form of Alcestis,
and your body is like hers.
Ah! By all the Gods, take her from my sight!
Do not insult a
broken man. When I look upon her-she seems my
wife-my heart is torn
asunder-tears flow from my eyes. Miserable creature
that I am, now
taste the bitterness of my sorrow.
LEADER
I do not praise this meeting; but, whatever
happens, we must
accept the gifts of the Gods.
HERACLES
Oh, that I might bring your wife back into
the light of day from
the dwelling of the Under-Gods, as a gift of grace
to you!
ADMETUS
I know you would wish this-but to what end?
The dead cannot return
to the light of day.
HERACLES
Do not exaggerate, but bear this with decorum.
ADMETUS
Easier to advise than bear the test.
HERACLES
How will it aid you to lament for ever?
ADMETUS
I know-but my love whirls me away.
HERACLES
Love for the dead leads us to tears.
ADMETUS
I am overwhelmed beyond words.
HERACLES
You have lost a good wife-who denies it?
ADMETUS
So that for me there is no more pleasure in
life.
HERACLES
Time will heal this open wound.
ADMETUS
You might say Time, if Time were death!
HERACLES
Another woman, a new marriage, shall console
you.
ADMETUS
Oh, hush! What have you said? A thing unbelievable!
HERACLES
What! You will not marry? Your bed will remain
widowed?
ADMETUS
No other woman shall ever lie at my side.
HERACLES
Do you think that avails the dead?
ADMETUS
Wherever she may be, I must do her honour.
HERACLES
I praise you-but men will call you mad.
ADMETUS
Yet never more shall I be called a bridegroom.
HERACLES
I praise your faithful love to your wife-
ADMETUS
May I die if I betray her even when dead!
HERACLES (offering him the veiled woman's hand.)
Receive her then into your noble house.
ADMETUS
No, by Zeus who begot you, no!
HERACLES
Yet you will do wrong if you do not take her.
ADMETUS
If I do it, remorse will tear my heart.
HERACLES
Yield-perhaps it will be a good thing for
you.
ADMETUS
Ah! If only you had not won her in the contest!
HERACLES
But I conquered-and you conquered with me.
ADMETUS
It is true-but let the woman go hence.
HERACLES
She shall go, if she must. But first-ought
she to go?
ADMETUS
She must-unless it would anger you.
HERACLES
There is good reason for my zeal.
ADMETUS
You have conquered then-but not for my pleasure.
HERACLES
One day you will praise me for it-be persuaded.
ADMETUS (to his attendants)
Lead her in, since she must be received in
this house.
HERACLES
No, I cannot leave such a woman to servants.
ADMETUS
Then lead her in yourself, if you wish.
HERACLES
I must leave her in your hands.
ADMETUS
I must not touch her-let her go into the house.
HERACLES
I trust only in your right hand.
ADMETUS
O King, you force me to this against my will.
HERACLES
Put forth your hand and take this woman.
ADMETUS (turning aside his head)
It is held out.
HERACLES
As if you were cutting off a Gorgon's head!
Do you hold her?
ADMETUS
Yes.
HERACLES
Then keep her. You shall not deny that the
son of Zeus is a
grateful guest. (Takes off the veil and shows
ALCESTIS.) Look at
her, and see if she is not like your wife. And
may joy put an end to
all your sorrow!
ADMETUS (drops her hand and starts back)
O Gods! What am I to say? Unhoped-for wonder!
Do I really look
upon my wife? Or I am snared in the mockery of
a God?
HERACLES
No you look upon your wife indeed.
ADMETUS
Beware! May it not be some phantom from the
Underworld?
HERACLES
Do not think your guest a sorcerer.
ADMETUS
But do I indeed look upon the wife I buried?
HERACLES
Yes-but I do not wonder at your mistrust.
ADMETUS
Can I touch, speak to her, as my living wife?
HERACLES
Speak to her-you have all you desired.
ADMETUS (taking ALCESTIS in his arms)
O face and body of the dearest of women! I
have you once more,
when I thought I should never see you again!
HERACLES
You have her-may the envy of the Gods be averted
from you!
ADMETUS
O noble son of greatest Zeus, fortune be yours,
and may your
Father guard you! But how did you bring her back
from the Underworld
to the light of day?
HERACLES
By fighting with the spirit who was her master.
ADMETUS
Then did you contend with Death?
HERACLES
I hid by the tomb and leaped upon him.
ADMETUS
But why is she speechless?
HERACLES
You may not hear her voice until she is purified
from her
consecration to the Lower Gods, and until the
third dawn has risen.
Lead her in.
And you, Admetus, show as ever a good man's
welcome to your
guests.
Farewell! I go to fulfil the task set me by
the King, the son of
Sthenelus.
ADMETUS
Stay with us, and share our hearth.
HERACLES
That may be hereafter, but now I must be gone
in haste.
(HERACLES departs.)
ADMETUS (gazing after him)
Good fortune to you, and come back here! (To
the CHORUS) In all
the city and in the four quarters of Thessaly
let there be choruses to
rejoice at this good fortune, and let the altars
smoke with the
flesh of oxen in sacrifice! To-day we have changed
the past for a
better life. I am happy.
(He leads ALCESTIS
into the Palace.)
CHORUS (singing)
Spirits have many shapes,
Many strange things are performed by the Gods.
The expected does not always happen,
And God makes a way for the unexpected.
So ends this action.
-THE END-
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