See where Admetus, lord of this land, comes in person from the palace forth.AdmetusHail! son of Zeus, from Perseus sprung.HeraclesJoy to thee also, Admetus, king of Thessaly.AdmetusWould there were! yet thy kindly heart I know full well.HeraclesWhy dost thou appear with head shorn thus in mourning?AdmetusTo-day I am to bury one who is dead.HeraclesHeaven avert calamity from thy children!AdmetusThe children I have begotten are alive within my house.HeraclesThy father maybe is gone; well, he was ripe to go.AdmetusNo, Heracles, he lives; my mother too.HeraclesIt cannot be thy wife is dead, thy Alcestis?AdmetusI can a twofold tale tell about her.HeraclesDost mean that she is dead, or living still?AdmetusShe lives, yet lives no more; that is my grief.HeraclesI am no wiser yet; thy words are riddles to me.AdmetusKnowest thou not the doom she must undergo?HeraclesI know she did submit to die in thy stead.AdmetusHow then is she still alive, if so she promised?HeraclesAh! weep not thy wife before the day, put that off till then.AdmetusThe doomed is dead; the dead no more exists.HeraclesMen count to be and not to be something apart.AdmetusThy verdict this, O Heracles, mine another.HeraclesWhy weepest then? which of thy dear ones is the dead?Admetus’Tis a woman; I spoke of a woman just now.HeraclesA stranger, or one of thine own kin?AdmetusA stranger, yet in another sense related to my house.HeraclesHow then came she by her death in house of thine?AdmetusHer father dead, she lived here as an orphan.HeraclesAh! would I had found thee free from grief, Admetus!AdmetusWith what intent dost thou devise this speech?