Alcestis
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Original / primary: Perseus Eng2
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Dost know the nature of this mortal state? I trow not; how shouldst thou? Well, lend an ear to me. Death is the common debt of man; no mortal really knows if he will live to see the morrow’s light;
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for Fortune’s issues are not in our ken, beyond the teacher’s rule they lie, no art can master them. Hearken then to this and learn of me, be merry, drink thy cup, and count the present day thine own, the rest to Fortune yield.
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And to Cypris too, sweetest of the gods by far to man, thy tribute pay, for kindly is her mood. Let be those other cares, and heed my counsel if thou think’st I speak aright; methinks I do. Come, banish this excessive grief,
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and drink a cup with me when thou hast passed beyond these doors and wreathed thy brow; and I feel sure the plash of wine within the cup will bring thee to a better haven from this crabbed mood, this cabined state of mind.Reading φρενῶν, which Nauck, however, doubts. Mortals we are, and mortals’ thoughts should have;
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for all they who frown and scowl do miss,—leastways I think so,—the true life and get themselves misfortune.
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Attendant
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I know all that, but our present state has little claim on revelry or laughter.
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Heracles
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The dead was a stranger woman; grieve not to excess; for the rulers of thy house are living.
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Attendant
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How, living? Thou knowest not the trouble in the house.
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Heracles
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I do, unless thy master did in aught deceive me.
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Attendant
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Too hospitable is he.
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Heracles
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Was I to miss good cheer because a stranger had died?
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Attendant
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A stranger surely! quite a stranger she!
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Heracles
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Is there some trouble that he withheld from me?
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Attendant
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Farewell, go thy way! my master’s troubles are my care.
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Heracles
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This word of thine heralds not a grief for strangers felt.
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Attendant
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Had it been, the sight of thy merriment had not grieved me so.
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Heracles
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CanThere is some doubt whether the next four lines are genuine. Nauck brackets them. it be mine host hath strangely wronged me?
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Attendant
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Thou earnest at no proper time for our house to welcome thee, for sorrow is come upon us; lo! thou seest our shorn heads and robes of sable hue.
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Is it a child or his aged sire that hat hath passed away?
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Attendant
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Nay, sir guest, ’tis Admetus’ wife that is no more.
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Heracles
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What sayest thou? and did ye then in spite of that admit me to your cheer?
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Attendant
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Yes, for his regard would not let him send thee from his door.
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Heracles
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Unhappy husband, what a wife hast thou lost!
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Attendant
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We are all undone, not she alone.
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Heracles
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I knew it when I saw his streaming eye, shorn head and downcast look, yet did he persuade me, saying it was a stranger he was bearing to burial. So I did constrain myself and passed his gates
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and sat drinking in his hospitable halls, when he was suffering thus. And have I wreathed my head and do I revel still? But—thou to hold thy peace when such a crushing sorrow lay upon the house! Where is he burying her? Whither shall I go to find her?
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Attendant
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Beside the road that leadeth straight to Larissa, shalt thou see her carved tomb outside the suburb.
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Heracles
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O heart, O soul, both sufferers oft, now show the mettle of that son Tirynthian Alcmena, daughter of Electryon, bare to Zeus.
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For I must save this woman, dead but now, setting Alcestis once again within this house, and to Admetus this kind service render. So I will go and watch for death the black-robed monarch of the dead, and him methinks I shall find
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as he drinks of the blood-offering near the tomb. And if, from ambush rushing, once I catch and fold him in my arms’ embrace, none shall ever wrest him thence with smarting ribs, ere he give up the woman unto me.
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But should I fail to find my prey and he come not to the clotted blood, I will go to the sunless home of those beneath the earth, to Persephone and her king, and make to them my prayer, sure that I shall bring Alcestis up again, to place her in the hands of him, my host,
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who welcomed me to his house nor drove me thence, though fortune smote him hard, but this his noble spirit strove to hide out of regard for me. What host more kind than him in Thessaly? or in in the homes of Hellas? Wherefore shall he never say
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his generous deeds were lavished on a worthless wretch. [Exeunt HERACLES and Servant.
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Admetus
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Ah me! I loathe this entering in, and loathe to see my widowed home. Woe, woe is me! Whither shall I go? Where stand? what say? or what suppress? Would God that I were dead!
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Surely in an evil hour my mother gave me birth. The dead I envy, and would fain be as they, and long to dwell within their courts. No joy to me to see the light, no joy to tread the earth;
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such a hostage death hath reft me of and handed o’er to Hades.
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Chorus
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Move forward, go within the shelter of thy house.
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Admetus
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Woe is me!
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Chorus
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Thy sufferings claim these cries of woe.
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Admetus
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Ah me!
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Chorus
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Through anguish hast thou gone, full well I know.
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Admetus
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Alas! alas!
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Chorus
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Thou wilt not help the dead one whit.
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Admetus
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O misery!
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Chorus
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Nevermore to see thy dear wife face to face is grief indeed.
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Admetus
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Thy words have probed the sore place in my heart. What greater grief can come to man
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than the loss of a faithful wife? Would I had never married or shared with her my home! I envy those ’mongst men who have nor wife nor child. Theirs is but one life; to grieve for that is no excessive burden;
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but to see children fall ill and bridal beds emptied by death’s ravages is too much to bear, when one might go through life without wife or child.
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Chorus
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A fate we cannot cope with is come upon us.
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Admetus
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Woe is me!
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Chorus
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But thou to sorrow settest no limit.
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Admetus
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Ah! ah!
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Chorus
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’Tis hard to bear, but still—
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Admetus
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Woe is me!
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Chorus
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Thou art not the first to lose—
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Admetus
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O! woe is me!
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Chorus
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A wife; misfortune takes a different shape for every man she plagues.
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Admetus
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O the weary sorrow! O the grief for dear ones dead and gone! Why didst thou hinder me from plung-ing into the gaping grave, there to lay me down and die with her, my peerless bride?
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Then would Hades for that one have gotten these two faithful souls at once, crossing the nether lake together.
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Admetus
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O house of mine, how can I enter thee? how can I live here, now that fortune turns against me? Ah me! How wide the gulf ’twixt then and now!
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Then with torches cut from Pelion’s pines, with marriage hymns I entered in, holding my dear wife’s hand; and at our back a crowd of friends with cheerful cries, singing the happy lot of my dead wife and me,
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calling us a noble pair made one, children both of highborn lineage; but now the voice of woe instead of wedding hymns, and robes of black instead of snowy white usher me
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into my house to my deserted couch.
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Chorus
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Myself have traced the Muses’ path, have soared amid the stars, have laid my hold on many a theme,
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and yet have found naught stronger than necessity, no spell inscribed on Thracian tablets written there by Orpheus, the sweet singer,
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no! nor aught among the simples culled by Phoebus for the toiling race of men, and given to Asclepius’ sons.
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Chorus
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The only goddess she, whose altar or whose image man cannot approach;
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victims she heedeth not. O come not to me, dread goddess, in greater might than heretofore in my career. Even Zeus requires thy aid to bring to pass whatso he wills.
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Thou too it is that by sheer force dost bend the steel among the Chalybes; nor is there any pity in thy relentless nature.
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Chorus
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But see, Admetus! yonder, I believe, comes Alcmena’s son toward thy hearth.
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Heracles
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Admetus, to a friend we should speak freely, not hold our peace and harbour in our hearts complaints.
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I came to thee in thy hour of sorrow and claimed the right to prove myself thy friend, but thou wouldst not tell me that she, thy wife, lay stretched in death; but didst make me a welcome guest in thy halls, as though thy whole concern was centred on a stranger’s loss.
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So I crowned my head and poured drink-offerings to the gods in that thy house of sorrow. Wherefore I do blame thee for this treatment of me, yet would not grieve thee in thy trouble. So now the reason I have turned my steps and come hither again, I will tell.
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This lady take and keep for me until I come bringing hither the steeds of Thrace, after I have slain the lord of the Bistones. But should I fare as fare I fain would not, I give her to thee to serve within thy halls.
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With no small toil she came into my hands. ’Twas thus: I found folk just appointing an open contest for athletes, well worth a struggle, and there I won her as a prize and brought her thence; now those who were successful in the lighter contests had
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horses for their prize, but those who conquered in severer feats, in boxing and wrestling, won herds of oxen, and this woman was to be added thereto; with such a chance ’twere shame indeed to pass so fair a guerdon by.
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So thou must take her in thy charge, as I said; for not by theft but honest toil I won the prize I bring; and maybe e’en thou in time wilt thank me.
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Admetus
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’Twas not because of any slight or unkind thought of thee that I concealed my wife’s sad fate; but this were adding grief to grief
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if thou hadst gone from hence to the halls of some other friend; and it sufficed that I should mourn my sorrow. But I do beseech thee, prince, if ’tis possible, bid some other Thessalian, one who hath not suffered as I have, keep the maiden for thee,—and thou hast many
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friends in Pherae; remind me not of my misfortune. For I could not see her in my house and stay my tears. Oh! add not new affliction to my stricken heart, for sure by sorrow am I bowed enough. And where within my halls could a tender maiden live?
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for such she is, as her dress and vesture show. Is she to dwell where men consort? Then how shall she retain her maiden purity, if ’mid our youths she come and go? O Heracles, it is no easy task to check a young man’s fancy, and I am anxious for thy sake.
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Or am I to take her to my dead wife’s bower and care for her? How can I bring her there to fill the other’s bed? Twofold reproach I fear; first, some fellow-townsman may taunt me with betraying my benefactress in eagerness to wed a new young bride;
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next, there is my dead wife, whom I should much regard, for she doth merit all my reverence. Thou too, lady, whosoe’er thou art, believe me, art the very counterfeit presentment of Alcestis, the picture of her form, ah me! O take this maiden, I conjure thee, from my sight;
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slay me not already slain. For in her I seem once more to see my wife; and my heart is darkly troubled, and the fountains of my eyes are loosed. Ah, woe is me! Now do I taste the bitterness of this my grief.
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Chorus
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Indeed I cannot call thy fortune blest, yet heaven’s gift must thou endure, whoe’er the god that comes to bring it.
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Heracles
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Would I had the power to bring thy wife up to the light from the halls of death, and confer this kindness on thee!
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Admetus
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Right well I know thou wouldst. But what of that? The dead can never come to life again.
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Heracles
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Do not exceed the mark, but bear thy grief with moderation.
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Admetus
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’Tis easier to advise than to suffer and endure.
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Heracles
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Yet what thy gain, if thou for aye wilt mourn?
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Admetus
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I too know that myself, but some strange yearning leads me on.
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Heracles
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Love for the dead compels a tear.
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Admetus
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Her death was mine, more than any words of mine can tell.
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Heracles
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Thou hast lost a noble wife; who shall gainsay it?
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Admetus
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Life henceforth hath lost all charm for me.
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Heracles
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Time will soothe the smart; as yet thy grief is young.
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Admetus
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Time! use that word, if death and time are one.
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Heracles
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A new wife and a longing for a fresh marriage will stay thy sorrow.
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Admetus
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Peace! What words are thine? I ne’er of thee had thought it.
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Heracles
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What! wilt never wed, but preserve thy widowed state?