« ALCESTIS » O generous one, O noble and brave, farewell. May Hermes of the world below and Hades welcome you. And if, even there, the good fare best, may you have high honor 745 and sit by the bride of Hades. (The body is borne off, followed by Admetus, servants, and Chorus, Thus the stage is empty. Then enter, from the house, the servant who was put in charge of Heracles.) Servant I have known all sorts of foreigners who have come in from all over the world here to Admetus’ house, and I have served them dinner, but I never yet j have had a guest as bad as this to entertain. - 750 In the first place, he could see the master was in mourning, but inconsiderately came in anyway. ‘Then, he refused to understand the situation and be content with anything we could provide, but when we failed to bring him something, demanded it, 755 and took a cup with ivy on it in both hands and drank the wine of our dark mother, straight, until the flame of the wine went all through him, and heated him, and then he wreathed branches of myrtle on his head _ and howled, off key. There were two kinds of music now 760 to hear, for while he sang and never gave a thought to the sorrows of Admetus, we servants were mourning our mistress; but we could not show before our guest with our eyes wet. Admetus had forbidden that. So now I have to entertain this guest inside, 765 this ruffian thief, this highwayman, whatever he is, while she is gone away from the house, and I could not say goodbye, stretch my hand out to her in my grief for a mistress who was like a mother to all the house and me, She gentled her husband’s rages, saved us all 770 from trouble after trouble. Am I not then right to hate this guest who has come here in our miseries? i | # ' i «37> sotHeracles You there, with the sad and melancholy face, what is the matter with you? The servant who looks after guests should be polite and cheerful and not scowl at them. But look at you. Here comes your master’s dearest friend to visit you, and you receive him with black looks and frowns, all because of some trouble somewhere else. Come here, I'll tell you something that will make you wise. Do you really know what things are like, the way they are? I don’t think so. How could you? Well then, listen to me. at Death is an obligation which we all must pay. U There is not one man living who can truly say (Enter Heracles from the house, drunk, but not hopelessly so.) « BURIPIDES » ot We" | fhe will be alive or dead on the next day. Fortune is dark; she moves, but we cannot see the way nor can we pin her down by science and study her. There, I have told you. Now you can understand. Go on, enjoy yourself, drink, call the life you live today your own, but only that, the rest belongs to chance. ‘Then, beyond all gods, pay your best attentions to the Cyprian, man’s sweetest. There’s a god who’s kind, Let all this business go and do as I prescribe for you, that is, if I seem to talk sense. Do I? I think so. Well, then, get rid of this too-much grief, put flowers on your head and drink with us, fight down these present troubles; later, I know very well that the wine splashing in the bowl will shake you loose from these scowl-faced looks and the tension in your mind. We are only human. Our thoughts should be human too, since, for these solemn people and these people who scowl, the whole parcel of them, if 1 am any judge, life is not really life but a catastrophe. Servant I know all that. But we have troubles on our hands now, that make revelry and laughter out of place. «385 775 780 785 790 795« ALCESTIS » Heracles ‘The dead woman is out of the family. Do not mourn Bos too hard. The master and the mistress are still alive. Servant What do you mean, alive? Do you not know what happened? Heracles fee Certainly, unless your master has lied to me. Servant He is too hospitable, too much. Heracles Should I not then have enjoyed myself, because some outside woman was dead? 810 Servant She was an outsider indeed. That is too true. Heracles Has something happened that he did not tell me about? Servant : Never mind, Go. Our masters’ sorrows are our own. Heracles ‘These can be no outsiders’ troubles. Servant If they were, ; I should not have minded seeing you enjoy yourself. 815 Heracles Have I been scandalously misled by my own friends? Servant You came here when we were not prepared to take in guests. You see, we are in mourning. You can see our robes of black, and how our hair is cut short. Heracles Who is dead? ‘The aged father? One of the children who is gone? g20 «39> | e SE EES SAT FIDE ea« BURIPIDES > Servant My lord, Admetus’ wife is dead. Heracles ‘What are you saying? And all this time you were making me comfortable? Servant He could not bear to turn you from this house of his. Heracles My poor Admetus, what a helpmeet you have lost! Servant ‘We are all dead and done for now, not only she. 825 Heracles I really knew it when I saw the tears in his eyes, his shorn hair and his face; but he persuaded me with talk of burying someone who was not by blood related. So, unwillingly, I came inside and drank here in the house of this hospitable man 830 when he was in this trouble! Worse, I wreathed my head with garlands, and drank freely. But you might have said something about this great disaster in the house. Now, where shall I find her? Where is the funeral being held? Servant Go straight along the Latisa road, and when you clear us the city you will see the monument and the mound. (He goes into the house, leaving Heracles alone on the stage.) soos Heracles O heart of mine and hand of mine, who have endured so much already, prove what kind of son it was Alcmene, daughter of Electryon, bore to Zeus in Tiryns. I must save this woman who has died 840 so lately, bring Alcestis back to live in this house, and pay Admetus all the kindness that I owe. I must go there and watch for Death of the black robes, master of dead men, and I think I shall find him « 40 > P j Ree joa nantes RMT DIO« ALCESTIS » drinking the blood of slaughtered beasts beside the grave. 845 ‘Then, if I can break suddenly from my hiding place, catch him, and hold him in the circle of these arms, there is no way he will be able to break my hold on his bruised ribs, until he gives the woman up to me, But if I miss my quarry, ifhe does not come 850 to the clotted offering, I must go down, I must ask the Maiden and the Master in the sunless homes of those below; and I have confidence I shall bring Alcestis back, and give her to the arms of my friend who did not drive me off but took me into his house 855 and, though he staggered under the stroke of circumstance, hid it, for he was noble and respected me. Who in all Thessaly is a truer friend than this? Who in all Greece? Therefore, he must not ever say that, being noble, he befriended a worthless man. 860 (He goes out. Presently Adimetus comes on, followed by the Chorus.) Admetus Hateful is this return, hateful the sight of this house widowed, empty. Where shall I go? Where shall I stay? What shall I say? How can I die? My mother bore me to a heavy fate. 865 Ienvy the dead. I long for those who are gone, to live in their houses, with them. There is no pleasure in the sunshine nor the feel of the hard earth under my feet. Such was the hostage Death has taken 870 from me, and given to Hades. (As they chant this, Admetus moans inarticulately.) Chorus Go on, go on. Plunge in the deep of the house. ‘What you have suffered is enough for tears. “You have gone through pain, I know, «41» EB '« EURIPIDES » but you do no good to the woman who lies below. Never again to look on the face of the wife you loved hurts you. Admetus You have opened the wound torn in my heart. ‘What can be worse for a man than to lose a faithful wife. I envy those without wives, without children. I wish I had not ever married her, lived with her in this house. ‘We have each one life. To grieve for this is burden enough. When we could live single all our days without children, it is not to be endured to see children sicken or married love despoiled by death. Chorus Chance comes. It is hard to wrestle against it. ‘There is no limit to set on your pain. The weight is heavy. Yet still bear up. You are not the first man to lose his wife. Disaster appears, to crush one man now, but afterward another. (As before.) Admetus How long my sorrows, the pain for my loves down under the earth. Why did you stop me from throwing myself in the hollow cut of the grave, there to lie dead beside her, who was best on earth? ‘Then Hades would have held fast two lives, not one, and the truest of all, who crossed the lake of the dead together. Chorus There was a man of my people, who lost a boy 875 880 885 895 900 rtenteseigearteno IE pr sot ratpnsn