What mean’st thou? art so wise, and I never knew it?DeathThose who have wealth would buy the chance of their dying old.ApolloIt seems then thou wilt not grant me this favour.DeathNot I; my customs well thou knowest.ApolloThat I do, customs men detest and gods abhor.DeathThou canst not realise every lawless wish.ApolloMark 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. 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.DeathThou 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.

First SemichorusWhatIn 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 SemichorusNot 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 to her husband.

First SemichorusDoth 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!μετακύμιος. Liddell and Scott between two waves of misery, i.e. causing a short lull.

Second SemichorusSurely, were she dead, they would not be so still.First SemichorusMaybe her corpse is not yet from the house borne forth.Second SemichorusWhence that inference? I am not so sanguine. What gives thee confidence?First SemichorusHow could Admetus let his noble wife go unattended to the grave?

Second SemichorusBefore 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 youthfulDindorf restores νεαλὴς for νεολαία, a doubtful word, apparently not used as an adjective. Cf. Liddell and Scott. palms together.

First SemichorusAnd yet this is the appointed day.Second SemichorusWhat meanest thou by this?First SemichorusThe day appointed for the journey to the world below.Second SemichorusThou hast touched me to the heart, e’en to the soul.ChorusWhoso from his youth up has been accounted virtuous, needs must weep to see the good suddenly cut off.

Chorus’Tis done; no single spot in all the world remains whither one might steer a course, either to LyciaTo a shrine of Apollo.