A source-book of ancient history - The Search For Mecca

. Chorus.
Alcestis 233
ever have a stout chest, a clear complexion, broad shoulders,
a little tongue. . . . But if you practice what the
youths of the present day do, you will have, in the first
place, a pallid complexion, small shoulders, a narrow chest,
a large tongue, little hips. . . . And this deceiver will
persuade you to consider everything that is base to be
honorable, and what is honorable to be base.
VII.
Selections from Euripides
Let Hades know, that swarthy god, and that Alcestis dies
. .
old man who sits to row and steer alike at his death-ferry,
in place of
her husthat
he hath carried o'er the lake of Acheron in his two-
^° *
oared skiff a woman peerless amidst her sex. Oft of thee aIcIsHs^^'
the Muses' votaries shall sing on the seven-stringed moun- Ancient
tain shell and in hymns that need no harp, glorifying thee, G^^ece' 210-
oft as the season in his cycle cometh around at Sparta in 222.
that Carnean month when all night long the moon sails The Camea
high o'erhead, yea, and in splendid Athens, happy town, festival at
So glorious a theme has thy death bequeathed to tuneful
p^"^'
bards. Would it were in my power and range to bring Cocytus, a
thee to the light from the chambers of Hades and the Epirus, here
streams of Cocytus with the oar that sweeps yon nether as°a^rive°/ of
flood! For thou, and thou alone, most dear of women, the lower
world.
.
hadst the courage to redeem thy husband from Hades in
exchange for thy own life. Light lie the earth above thee. Her husband
° •' '^
\i
., ^
Admetus.
lady ! And if ever thy lord take to him a new wife, I vow
he will earn my hatred and thy children's too. . . .
Admetus. O the weary sorrow! the grief for dear Admetus
.
,
1 • , ^^^ regrets
r
ones dead and gone ! Why didst thou hinder me from that he let
plunging into the gaping grave, there to lay me down and ^^^
die with her, my peerless bride? Then would Hades for
that one have gotten these two faithful souls at once,
crossing the nether lake together.