Parodos
[Episode]
When young lives die I reap a higher honour.
55
Apollo
Should she die old, a sumptuous funeral will she have.
Death
Phoebus, the law thou layest down is all in favour of the rich.
Apollo
What mean’st thou? art so wise, and I never knew it?
Death
Those who have wealth would buy the chance of their dying old.
Apollo
It seems then thou wilt not grant me this favour.
60
Death
Not I; my customs well thou knowest.
Apollo
That I do, customs men detest and gods abhor.
Death
Thou canst not realise every lawless wish.
Apollo
Mark me, thou shalt have a check for all thy excessive fierceness;
such a hero shall there come to Pheres’ halls, by Eurystheus sent to fetch a team of steeds from the wintry world of Thrace; he, a guest awhile in these halls of Admetus, will wrest this woman from thee by sheer force.
65
So wilt thou get no thanks from me but yet wilt do this all the same, and earn my hatred too.Dindorf rejects these two lines.
70
Death
Thou wilt not gain thy purpose any the more for all thy many words; that woman shall to Hades’ halls go down, I tell thee.
Lo! I am going for her, that with the sword I may begin my rites, for he whose hair this sword doth hallow is sacred to the gods below.
75
[Choral]
WhatIn the arrangement of the following dialogue between the divided chorus I have mainly been guided by Paley, though I believe the last three lines assigned to him a Semichorus are said as the two bands are re-uniting preparatory to chanting their ode. means this silence in front of the palace? why is the house of Admetus stricken dumb?
Second Semichorus
Not one friend near
to say if we must mourn our queen as dead, or if she liveth yet and sees the sun, Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, by me and all esteemed the best of wives
80
[Choral 1]
Doth any of you hear a groan, or sound of hands that smite together, or the voice of lamentation, telling all is over and done? Yet is there no servant
First Semichorus
stationed about the gate, no, not one. O come, thou saving god, to smooth the swelling waves of woe!μετακύμιος. Liddell and Scott between two waves of misery, i.e. causing a short lull.
90
