AP.  Thou canst not, however, take more than one life.

DEA.  When the young die I earn the greater glory.

AP.  And if she die old, she will be sumptuously entombed.[6]

DEA.  Thou layest down the law, Phoebus, in favor of the rich.

AP.  How sayest thou? what? hast thou been clever without my perceiving it?

DEA.  Those who have means would purchase to die old.

AP.  Doth it not then seem good to thee to grant me this favor?

DEA.  No in truth; and thou knowest my ways.

AP.  Yes, hostile to mortals, and detested by the Gods.

DEA.  Thou canst not have all things, which thou oughtest not.

AP.  Nevertheless, thou wilt stop, though thou art over-fierce; such a man will come to the house of Pheres, whom Eurystheus hath sent after the chariot and its horses,[7] to bring them from the wintry regions of Thrace, who in sooth, being welcomed in the mansions of Admetus, shall take away by force this woman from thee; and there will be no obligation to thee at my hands, but still thou wilt do this, and wilt be hated by me.

DEA.  Much though thou talkest, thou wilt gain nothing.  This woman then shall descend to the house of Pluto; and I am advancing upon her, that I may begin the rites on her with my sword; for sacred is he to the Gods beneath the earth, the hair of whose head this sword hath consecrated.[8]

CHORUS.

SEMICH.  Wherefore in heaven’s name is this stillness before the palace? why is the house of Admetus hushed in silence?

SEMICH.  But there is not even one of our friends near, who can tell us whether we have to deplore the departed queen, or whether Alcestis, daughter of Pelias, yet living views this light, who has appeared to me and to all to have been the best wife toward her husband.

CHOR.  Hears any one either a wailing, or the beating of hands within the house, or a lamentation, as though the thing had taken place?[9] There is not however any one of the servants standing before the gates.  Oh would that thou wouldst appear, O Apollo, amidst the waves of this calamity!

SEMICH.  They would not however be silent, were she dead.

SEMICH.  For the corse is certainly not gone from the house.

SEMICH.  Whence this conjecture?  I do not presume this.  What is it gives you confidence?

SEMICH.  How could Admetus have made a private funeral of his so excellent wife?

CHOR.  But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the fountain,[10] as is the custom at the gates of the dead:  and in the vestibule is no shorn hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead; the youthful[11] hand of women for the youthful wife sound not.

SEMICH.  And yet this is the appointed day,—­

SEMICH.  What is this thou sayest?

SEMICH.  In the which she must go beneath the earth.

SEMICH.  Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.