ADM. Hail! O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.
HER. Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!
ADM. I would I could _receive this salutation;_ but I know that thou art
well disposed toward me.
HER. Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for grief?
ADM. I am about to bury a certain corse this day.
HER. May the God avert calamity from thy children!
ADM. My children whom I begat, live in the house.
HER. Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.
ADM. Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.
HER. Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?
ADM. There are two accounts which I may tell of her.
HER. Speakest thou of her as dead or as alive?
ADM. She both is, and is no more, and she grieves me.
HER. I know nothing more; for thou speakest things obscure.
ADM. Knowest thou not the fate which it was doomed for her to meet with?
HER. I know that she took upon herself to die for thee.
ADM. How then is she any more, if that she promised this?
HER. Ah! do not weep for thy wife before the time; wait till this happens.
ADM. He that is about to die is dead, and he that is dead is no more.
HER. The being and the not being is considered a different thing.
ADM. You judge in this way, Hercules, but I in that.
HER. Why then dost weep? Who is he of thy friends that is dead?
ADM. A woman, a woman we were lately mentioning.
HER. A stranger by blood, or any by birth allied to thee?
ADM. A stranger; but on other account dear to this house.
HER. How then died she in thine house?
ADM. Her father dead, she lived an orphan here.
HER. Alas! Would that I had found thee, Admetus, not mourning!
ADM. As about to do what then, dost thou make use of these words?
HER. I will go to some other hearth of those who will receive a guest.
ADM. It must not be, O king: let not so great an evil happen!
HER. Troublesome is a guest if he come to mourners.
ADM. The dead are dead--but go into the house.
HER. 'Tis base however to feast with weeping friends.
ADM. The guest-chamber, whither we will lead thee, is apart.
HER. Let me go, and I will owe you ten thousand thanks.
ADM. It must not be that thou go to the hearth of another man. Lead on
thou, having thrown open the guest-chamber that is separate from the house:
and tell them that have the management, that there be plenty of meats; and
shut the gates in the middle of the hall: it is not meet that feasting
guests should hear groans, nor should they be made sad.
CHOR. What are you doing? when so great a calamity is before you, Admetus,
hast thou the heart to receive guests? wherefore art thou foolish?
ADM. But if I had driven him who came my guest from my house, and from the
city, would you have praised me rather? No in sooth, since my calamity had
been no whit the less, but I the more inhospitable: and in addition to my
evils, there had been this other evil, that mine should be called the
stranger-hating house. But I myself find this man a most excellent host,
whenever I go to the thirsty land of Argos.
CHOR. How then didst thou hide thy present fate, when a friend, as thou
thyself sayest, came?
ADM. He never would have been willing to enter the house if he had known
aught of my sufferings. And to him[29] indeed, I ween, acting thus, I
appear not to be wise, nor will he praise me; but my house knows not to
drive away, nor to dishonor guests.