The breaking-down of the child seems to string Admetus to self-control again.

P. 25, l. 428, Ye chariot-lords.]—­The plain of Thessaly was famous for its cavalry.

P. 25, l. 436 ff., Chorus.]—­The “King black-browed” is, of course, Hades; the “grey hand at the helm and oar,” Charon; the “Tears that Well,” the more that spreads out from Acheron, the River of Ache or Sorrows.

P. 25, l. 445 ff.  Alcestis shall be celebrated—­and no doubt worshipped—­ at certain full-moon feasts in Athens and Sparta, especially at the Carneia, a great Spartan festival held at the full moon in the month Carneios (August-September).  Who the ancient hero Carnos or Carneios was is not very clearly stated by the tradition; but at any rate he was killed, and the feast was meant to placate and perhaps to revive him.  Resurrection is apt to be a feature of both moon-goddesses and vegetation spirits.

P. 27, l. 476, Entrance of Heracles.]—­Generally, in the tragic convention, each character that enters either announces himself or is announced by some one on the stage; but the figure of Heracles with his club and lion-skin was so well known that his identity could be taken for granted.  The Leader at once addresses him by name.

P. 27, l. 481, The Argive King.]—­It was the doom of Heracles, from before his birth, to be the servant of a worser man.  His master proved to be Eurystheus, King of Tiryns or Argos, who was his kinsman, and older by a day.  See Iliad T 95 ff.  Note the heroic quality of Heracles’s answer in l. 491.  It does not occur to him to think of reward for himself.

P. 27, l. 483, Diomede of Thrace.]—­This man, distinguished in legend from the Diomede of the Iliad, was a savage king who threw wayfarers to his man-eating horses.  Such horses are not mere myths; horses have often been trained to fight with their teeth, like carnivora, for war purposes.  Diomedes was a son of Ares, the War-god or Slayer, as were the other wild tyrants mentioned just below, Lycaon, the Wolf-hero, and Cycnus, the Swan.

P. 30, l. 511, Right welcome were she:  i.e. Joy.]—­“Joy would be a strange visitor to me, but I know you mean kindly.”

P. 30, l. 518 ff., Not thy wife?  ’Tis not Alcestis?]—­The rather elaborate misleading of Heracles, without any direct lie, depends partly on the fact that the Greek word [Greek:  gynae]; means both “woman” and “wife.”—­The woman, not of kin with Admetus but much loved in the house, who has lived there since her father’s death left her an orphan, is of course Alcestis, but Heracles, misled by Admetus’s first answers, supposes it is some dependant to whom the King happens to be attached.  He naturally proposes to go away, but, with much reluctance, allows himself to be over-persuaded by Admetus.  He had other friends in Thessaly, but the next castle would probably be several miles off.  The guest-chambers of the castle are apparently in a separate building with a connecting passage.