Alcestis

1First Semichorus 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 stationed about the gate, no, not one. O come, thou saving god, to smooth the swelling waves of woe!†

1Second Semichorus Before the gates I see no lustral water from the spring, as custom doth ordain should be at the gates of the dead, no shorn lock lies on the threshold, which, as thou knowest, falls in mourning for the dead, no choir of maidens smites its youthful†palms together.

2Chorus’Tis done; no single spot in all the world remains whither one might steer a course, either to Lycia†or to the parched abodes†of Ammon to release the hapless lady’s soul; on comes death with step abrupt, nor know I to whom I should go of all who at the gods’ altars offer sacrifice.

2Chorus Only the son of Phoebus,†if he yet saw this light of day— Ah! then then might she have left the dark abode and gates of Hades and have come again, for he would raise the dead to life, till that the thunderbolt’s forked flame, hurled by Zeus, smote him. But now what further hope of life can I welcome to me?

1Chorus O Zeus, what way out of these sorrows can be found? how can we loose the bonds of fate that bind our lord? Comes some one forth? Am I at once to cut my hair, and cast the sable robe about me? Too plainly, ay too plainly, friends; still let us to heaven pray; for the gods’ power is very great. O king Paean, devise for Admetus some means of escape from his sorrows. Yes, yes, contrive it; for thou in days gone by didst find salvation for him, so now be thou a saviour from the toils of death and stay bloodthirsty Hades.

1Chorus Woe! woe! alas! Thou son of Pheres, woe! Ah, thy fate in losing thy wife! Is not this enough to make thee slay thyself, ah! more than cause enough to tie the noose aloft and fit it to the neck? Yea, for to-day wilt thou witness the death of her that was not merely dear, but dearest of the dear. Look, look! she cometh even now, her husband with her, from the house. Cry aloud and wail, O land of Pherae, wail for the best of women, as with sickness worn she passes’neath the earth to Hades, lord below.

1Alcestis O sun-god, lamp of day! O scudding clouds that dance along the sky! Admetus He sees us both with anguish bowed, albeit guiltless of any crime against the gods, for the which thy death is due.

1Alcestis O earth, O sheltering roof, and ye my maiden chambers in my native land Iolcos! Admetus Lift thyself, unhappy wife, forsake me not; entreat the mighty gods to pity us.

2Alcestis I see the two-oared skiff, I see it; and Charon, death’s ferryman, his hand upon the boatman’s pole, is calling me e’en now, Why lingerest thou? Hasten. Thou art keeping me. Thus in his eager haste he hurries me. Admetus Ah me! bitter to me is this voyage thou speakest of. Unhappy wife, what woes are ours!

2Alcestis One draws me, draws me hence, seest thou not? to the courts of death, winged Hades glaring from beneath his dark brows. What wilt thou with me? Unhand me. On what a journey am I setting out, most wretched woman I! Admetus Bitter journey to thy friends, yet most of all to me and to thy babes, the partners in this sorrow.

1Eumelus O my hard fate! My mother has passed to the realms below; she lives no more, dear father,’neath the sun. Alas for her! she leaves us ere her time and to me bequeaths an orphan’s life. Behold that staring eye, those nerveless hands! Hear me, mother, hear me, I implore!’tis I who call thee now, I thy tender chick, printing my kisses on thy lips. Admetus She cannot hear, she cannot see; a heavy blow hath fortune dealt us, you children and me.

1Eumelus O father, I am but a child to have my loving mother leave me here alone; O cruel my fate, alas! and thine, my sister, sharer in my cup of woe. Woe to thee, father! in vain, in vain didst thou take a wife and hast not reached the goal of eld with her; for she is gone before, and now that thou art dead, my mother, our house is all undone. Chorus Admetus, these misfortunes thou must bear. Thou art by no means the first nor yet shalt be the last of men to lose a wife of worth; know this, we all of us are debtors unto death. Admetus I understand; this is no sudden flight of ill hither; I was ware of it and long have pined. But since I am to. carry the dead forth to her burial, stay here with me and to that inexorable god in Hades raise your antiphone. While raise your antiphone. While to all Thessalians in my realm I do proclaim a general mourning for this lady, with hair shorn off and robes of sable hue; all ye who harness steeds for cars, or single horses ride, cut off their manes with the sharp steel. Hush’d be every pipe, silent every lyre throughout the city till twelve full moons are past; for never again shall I bury one whom I love more, no! nor one more loyal to me; honour from me is her due, for she for me hath died, she and she alone. [Exeunt ADMETUS and EUMELUS, with the other children.

1Chorus Daughter of Pelias, be thine a happy life in that sunless home in Hades’ halls! Let Hades know, that swarthy god, and that old man who sits to row and steer alike at his death-ferry, that he hath carried o’er the lake of Acheron in his two-oared skiff a woman peerless amidst her sex.

1Chorus Oft of thee the Muses’ votaries shall sing on the seven-stringed mountain shell and in hymns that need no harp,†glorifying thee, oft as the season in his cycle cometh round at Sparta in that Carnean†month when all night long the moon sails high o’erhead, yea, and in splendid Athens, happy town. So glorious a theme has thy death bequeathed to tuneful bards.

2Chorus Would it were in my power and range to bring thee to the light from the chambers of Hades and the streams of Cocytus with the oar that sweeps yon nether flood! For thou, and thou alone, most dear of women, hadst the courage to redeem thy husband from Hades in exchange for thy own life. Light lie the earth above thee, lady! And if ever thy lord take to him a new wife, I vow he will earn my hatred and thy children’s too.

2Chorus His mother had no heart to plunge into the darkness of the tomb for her son, no! nor his aged sire.†Their own child they had not the courage to rescue, the wretches! albeit they were grey-headed. But thou in thy youth and beauty hast died for thy lord and gone thy way. O be it mine to have for partner such a loving wife! for this lot is rare in life. Surely she should be my help-meet all my life and never cause one tear.

1Chorus O home of hospitality, thrown open by thy lord to all now and ever! In thee it was that Pythian Apollo, the sweet harper, deigned to make his home, and in thy halls was content to lead a shepherd’s life, piping o’er the sloping downs shepherd’s madrigals to thy flocks.

1Chorus And spotted lynxes couched amid his sheep in joy to hear his melody, and the lions’ tawny troop left the glen of Othrys and came; came too the dappled fawn on nimble foot from beyond the crested pines and frisked about thy lyre, O Phoebus, for very joy at thy gladsome minstrelsy.

2Chorus And so it is thy lord inhabits a home rich in countless flocks by Boebe’s lovely mere, bounding his tilled corn-land and his level pastures with the clime of the Molossi near the sun’s dark stable, and holding sway as far as the harbourless strand of the Aegean’neath Pelion’s shadow.

2Chorus Now too hath he opened wide his house and welcomed a guest although his eye is wet with tears in mourning for his wife so dear but lately dead within his halls; yea, for noble birth to noble feeling is inclined.†And in the good completest wisdom dwells; and at my heart sits the bold belief that heaven’s servant will be blesedblessed.

1Chorus Move forward, go within the shelter of thy house. Admetus Woe is me! Chorus Thy sufferings claim these cries of woe. Admetus Ah me! Chorus Through anguish hast thou gone, full well I know. Admetus Alas! alas! Chorus Thou wilt not help the dead one whit. Admetus O misery! Chorus Nevermore to see thy dear wife face to face is grief indeed.

1Chorus A fate we cannot cope with is come upon us. Admetus Woe is me! Chorus But thou to sorrow settest no limit. Admetus Ah! ah! Chorus’Tis hard to bear, but still— Admetus Woe is me! Chorus Thou art not the first to lose— Admetus O! woe is me! Chorus A wife; misfortune takes a different shape for every man she plagues.

2Chorus I had a kinsman once, within whose home died his only son, worthy of a father’s tears; yet in spite of that he bore his grief resignedly, childless though he was, his hair already turning grey, himself far on in years, upon life’s downward track.

2Chorus Hard upon prosperous fortune came this sorrow to thee, a stranger to adversity; yet hast thou saved thy soul alive. Thy wife is dead and gone; her love she leaves with thee. What new thing is here? Death ere now from many a man hath torn a wife. Admetus My friends, I count my dead wife’s lot more blest than mine, for all it seems not so; for nevermore can sorrow touch her for ever; all her toil is over, and glorious is her fame. While I, who had no right to live, have passed the bounds of fate only to live a life of misery; I know it now. For how shall I endure to enter this my house? Whom shall I address, by whom be answered back, to find†aught joyful in my entering in? Whither shall I turn? Within, the desolation will drive me forth, whensoe’er I see my widowed couch, the seat whereon she sat, the floor ail dusty in the house, and my babes falling at my knees with piteous tears for their mother, while my servants mourn the good mistress their house hath lost. These are the sorrows in my home, while abroad the marriages among Thessalians and the thronging crowds of women will drive me mad,†for I can never bear to gaze upon the compeers of my wife. And whoso is my foe will taunt me thus, Behold him living in his shame, a wretch who quailed at death himself, but of his coward heart gave up his wedded wife instead, and escaped from Hades; doth he deem himself a man after that? And he loathes his parents, though himself refused to die. Such ill report shall I to my evils add. What profit, then, my friends, for me to live, in fame and fortune ruined.

1Chorus Myself have traced the Muses’ path, have soared amid the stars, have laid my hold on many a theme, and yet have found naught stronger than necessity, no spell inscribed on Thracian tablets written there by Orpheus, the sweet singer, no! nor aught among the simples culled by Phoebus for the toiling race of men, and given to Asclepius’ sons.

1Chorus The only goddess she, whose altar or whose image man cannot approach; victims she heedeth not. O come not to me, dread goddess, in greater might than heretofore in my career. Even Zeus requires thy aid to bring to pass whatso he wills. Thou too it is that by sheer force dost bend the steel among the Chalybes; nor is there any pity in thy relentless nature.

2Chorus This is the goddess that hath gripped thee too in chains thou canst not’scape; yet steel thy heart, for all thy weeping ne’er will bring to light again the dead from the realms below. Even sons of gods perish in darkness†in the hour of death. We loved her while she was with us, we love her still though dead; noblest of her sex was she, the wife thou tookest to thy bed.

2Chorus Her tomb let none regard as the graves of those who die and are no more, but let her have honours equal with the gods, revered by every traveller; and many a one will cross the road and read this verse aloud, This is she that died in days gone by to save her lord; now is she a spirit blest. Hail, lady revered; be kind to us! Such glad greeting shall she have.