Chorus See where Admetus, lord of this land, comes in person from the palace forth.
Admetus Hail! son of Zeus, from Perseus sprung.
Heracles Joy to thee also, Admetus, king of Thessaly.
Admetus Would there were! yet thy kindly heart I know full well.
Heracles Why dost thou appear with head shorn thus in mourning?
Admetus To-day I am to bury one who is dead.
Heracles Heaven avert calamity from thy children!
Admetus The children I have begotten are alive within my house.
Heracles Thy father maybe is gone; well, he was ripe to go.
Admetus No, Heracles, he lives; my mother too.
Heracles It cannot be thy wife is dead, thy Alcestis?
Admetus I can a twofold tale tell about her.
Heracles Dost mean that she is dead, or living still?
Admetus She lives, yet lives no more; that is my grief.
Heracles I am no wiser yet; thy words are riddles to me.
Admetus Knowest thou not the doom she must undergo?
Heracles I know she did submit to die in thy stead.
Admetus How then is she still alive, if so she promised?
Heracles Ah! weep not thy wife before the day, put that off till then.
Admetus The doomed is dead; the dead no more exists.
Heracles Men count to be and not to be something apart.
Admetus Thy verdict this, O Heracles, mine another.
Heracles Why weepest then? which of thy dear ones is the dead?
Admetus ’Tis a woman; I spoke of a woman just now.
Heracles A stranger, or one of thine own kin?
Admetus A stranger, yet in another sense related to my house.
Heracles How then came she by her death in house of thine?
Admetus Her father dead, she lived here as an orphan.
Heracles Ah! would I had found thee free from grief, Admetus!
Admetus With what intent dost thou devise this speech?
Heracles I will seek some other friendly hearth.
Admetus Never, O prince! Heaven forefend such dire disgrace!
Heracles A guest is a burden to sorrowing friends, if come he should.
Admetus The dead are dead. Come in.
Heracles To feast in a friend’s house of sorrow is shameful.
Admetus The guest chambers lie apart, whereto we will conduct thee.
Heracles Let me go; ten thousandfold shall be my thanks to thee.
Admetus Thou must not go to any other hearth. Go before, open the guest-rooms that face not these chambers, and bid my stewards see there is plenty of food; then shut the doors that lead into the courtyard; for ’tis not seemly that guests when at their meat should hear the voice of weeping or be made sad.
Chorus What doest thou? With such calamity before thee, hast thou the heart, Admetus, to welcome visitors? What means this folly?
Admetus Well, and if I had driven him from my house and city when he came to be my guest, wouldst thou have praised me more? No indeed! for my calamity would have been no whit less, while I should have been more churlish. And this would have been another woe to add to mine, that my house should be called no friend to guests. Yea, and I find him myself the best of hosts whene’er to Argos’ thirsty land I come.
Chorus Why then didst thou conceal thy present misfortune, if, as thy own lips declare, it was a friend that came?
Admetus He would never have entered my house, had he known aught of my distress. Maybe there are who think me but a fool for acting thus, and these will blame me; but my halls have never learnt to drive away or treat with scorn my guests.
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