P.
66, l. 1152, The feasting day shall surely come;
now I must needs away.]—A fine last word
for Heracles. We have seen him feasting, but that
makes a small part in his life. His main life
is to perform labour upon labour in service to his
king. Euripides occasionally liked this method
of ending a play, not with a complete finish (Greek
catastrophe), but with the opening of a door
into some further vista of endurance or adventure.
The Trojan Women ends by the women going out
to the Greek ships to begin a life of slavery; the
Rhesus with the doomed army of Trojans gathering
bravely for an attack which we know will be disastrous.
Here we have the story finished for Admetus and Alcestis,
but no rest for Heracles. See the note at the
end of my Trojan Women.
