O woman.
If your lord choose another bridal-bed

He shall be hateful to me
As to your own children.

antistrophe 2
When his mother

And the old father that begot him
Would not give their bodies to the earth

For their son's sake,
They dared not deliver him-O cruel!

Though their heads were grey.
But you,

In your lively youth,
Died for him, and are gone from the light!

Ah! might I be joined
With a wife so dear!

But in life such fortune is rare.
How happy were my days with her!

(From the left HERACLES enters. He is black-bearded and
of great physical strength; he wears a lion-skin over

his shoulders and carries a large club.)
HERACLES (with a gesture of salutation)

Friends, dwellers in the lands of Pherae, do I find Admetus in his
home?

LEADER OF THE CHORUS
The son of Pheres is in his home, O Heracles. But, tell us, what

brings you to the land of Thessaly and to the city of Pherae?
HERACLES

I have a task I must achieve for Eurystheus of Tiryns.
LEADER

Where do you go? To what quest are you yoked?
HERACLES

The quest of the four-horsed chariot of Diomedes, the Thracian.
LEADER

But how will you achieve it? Do you know this stranger?
HERACLES

No, I have never been to the land of the Bistones.
LEADER

You cannot obtain the horses without a struggle.
HERACLES

I cannot renounce my labours.
LEADER

You must kill to return, or you will remain there dead.
HERACLES

It will not be the first contest I have risked.
LEADER

And if you conquer the King will you gain anything?
HERACLES

I shall bring back his foals to the lord of Tiryns.
LEADER

It is not easy to thrust the bit into their jaws.
HERACLES

Only if they breathe fire from their nostrils!
LEADER

But they tear men with their swift jaws.
HERACLES

You speak of the food of wild mountain beasts, not of horses.
LEADER

You may see their mangers foul with blood.
HERACLES

Of what father does the breeder boast himself the son?
LEADER

Of Ares, the lord of the gold-rich shield of Thrace!
HERACLES

In this task once more you remind me of my fate, which is ever
upon harsh steep ways, since I must join battle with the sons of

Ares-first with Lycaon, then with Cycnus, and now in this third
contest I am come to match myself with these steeds and their master!

LEADER
But see, the lord of this land, Admetus himself, comes from the

house!
(The central doors of the Palace have opened, and ADMETUS comes

slowly on the Stage, preceded and followed by guards and attendants.
The King has put off all symbols of royalty, and is dressed in

black. His tong hair is clipped close to his head. ADMETUS
dissembles his grief throughout this scene, in obedience to the laws

of hospitality, which were particularly reverenced in Thessaly.)
ADMETUS

Hail Son of Zeus and of the blood of Perseus!
HERACLES

And hail to you, Admetus, lord of the Thessalians
ADMETUS

May it be so! I know your friendship well.
HERACLES

What means this shorn hair, this mourning robe?
ADMETUS

To-day I must bury a dead body.
HERACLES

May a God avert harm from your children!
ADMETUS

The children I have begotten are alive in the house.
HERACLES

Your father was ripe for death-if it is he has gone?
ADMETUS

He lives-and she who brought me forth, O Heracles.
HERACLES

Your wife-Alcestis-she is not dead?
ADMETUS (evasively)

Of her I might make a double answer.
HERACLES

Do you mean that she is dead or alive?
ADMETUS (ambiguously)

She is and is not-and for this I grieve.
HERACLES (perplexed)

I am no wiser-you speak obscurely.
ADMETUS

Did you not know the fate which must befall her?
HERACLES

I know she submitted to die for you.
ADMETUS

How then can she be alive, having consented to this?
HERACLES

Ah! Do not weep for your wife till that time comes.
ADMETUS

Those who are about to die are dead, and the dead are nothing.
HERACLES

Men hold that to be and not to be are different things.
ADMETUS

You hold for one, Heracles, and I for the other.
HERACLES

Whom, then, do you mourn? Which of your friends is dead?
ADMETUS

A woman. We spoke of her just now.
HERACLES (mistaking his meaning)

A stranger? Or one born of your kin?
ADMETUS

A stranger, but one related to this house.
HERACLES

But how, then, did she chance to die in your house?
ADMETUS

When her father died she was sheltered here.
HERACLES

Alas! Would I had not found you in this grief, Admetus!
ADMETUS

What plan are you weaving with those words?
HERACLES

I shall go to the hearth of another friend.
ADMETUS

Not so, O King! This wrong must not be.
HERACLES (hesitating)

The coming of a guest is troublesome to those who mourn.
ADMETUS (decisively)

The dead are dead. Enter my house.
HERACLES

But it is shameful to feast among weeping friends.
ADMETUS

We shall put you in the guest-rooms, which are far apart.
HERACLES

Let me go, and I will give you a thousand thanks.
ADMETUS

No, you shall not go to another man's hearth. (To a servant) Guide
him, and open for him the guest-rooms apart from the house.

(HERACLES enters the Palace by the guests' door; when he has gone
in, ADMETUS turns to the other servants) Close the inner door of the

courtyard; it is unseemly that guests rejoicing at table should hear
lamentations, and be saddened.

(The attendants go into the Palace.)
LEADER

What are you about? When such a calamity has fallen upon you,
Admetus, have you the heart to entertain a guest? Are you mad?

ADMETUS
And if I had driven away a guest who came to my house and city,

would you have praised me more? No, indeed! My misfortune would have
been no less, and I inhospitable. One more ill would have been added

to those I have if my house were called inhospitable. I myself find
him the best of hosts when I enter the thirsty land of Argos.

LEADER
But why did you hide from him the fate that has befallen, if the

man came as a friend, as you say?
ADMETUS

Never would he have entered my house if he had guessed my
misfortune.

To some, I know, I shall appear senseless in doing this, and
they will blame me; but my roof knows not to reject or insult a guest.

(He goes into the Palace, as the CHORUS begins its song.)
CHORUS (singing)

strophe 1
O house of a bountiful lord,

Ever open to many guests,
The God of Pytho,

Apollo of the beautiful lyre,
Deigned to dwell in you

And to live a shepherd in your lands!
On the slope of the hillsides

He played melodies of mating
On the Pipes of Pan to his herds.

antistrophe 1
And the dappled lynxes fed with them

In joy at your singing;
From the wooded vale of Orthrys

Came a yellow troop of lions;
To the sound of your lyre, O Phoebus,

Danced the dappled fawn
Moving on light feet

Beyond the high-crested pines,
Charmed by your sweet singing.

strophe 2
He dwells in a home most rich in flocks

By the lovely moving Boebian lake.
At the dark stabling-place of the Sun

He takes the sky of the Molossians

• lively [´laivli] a.活泼的；热烈的 (初中英语单词)
• physical [´fizikəl] a.物质的；有形的 (初中英语单词)
• gesture [´dʒestʃə] n.手势 v.打手势 (初中英语单词)
• achieve [ə´tʃi:v] vt.完成；达到；获得 (初中英语单词)
• obtain [əb´tein] v.获得；买到；得到承认 (初中英语单词)
• contest [kən´test, ´kɔntest] v.争辩 n.争夺；竞赛 (初中英语单词)
• conquer [´kɔŋkə] v.征服；克服；抑制 (初中英语单词)
• thrust [θrʌst] v.&n.猛推；冲；刺；挤进 (初中英语单词)
• shield [ʃi:ld] n.盾牌；防御 v.保护 (初中英语单词)
• remind [ri´maind] vt.提醒；使记(想)起 (初中英语单词)
• mourning [´mɔ:niŋ] n.悲伤；治丧；戴孝 (初中英语单词)
• entertain [,entə´tein] vt.招待；娱乐；使高兴 (初中英语单词)
• driven [´driv(ə)n] drive 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• insult [in´sʌlt, ´insʌlt] n.&vt.侮辱；损害 (初中英语单词)
• chorus [´kɔ:rəs] n.合唱；齐声 v.合唱 (初中英语单词)
• shepherd [´ʃepəd] n.牧羊人 vt.带领 (初中英语单词)
• chariot [´tʃæriət] n.古时双轮战车 (高中英语单词)
• royalty [´rɔiəlti] n.王位；特权阶层；版税 (高中英语单词)
• obedience [ə´bi:djəns] n.服从；顺从 (高中英语单词)
• hospitality [,hɔspi´tæliti] n.好客，殷勤 (高中英语单词)
• befall [bi´fɔ:l] v.降临；发表(于) (高中英语单词)
• related [ri´leitid] a.叙述的；有联系的 (高中英语单词)
• hearth [hɑ:θ] n.炉边；家庭(生活) (高中英语单词)
• rejoicing [ri´dʒɔisiŋ] n.高兴；欢呼 (高中英语单词)
• misfortune [mis´fɔ:tʃən] n.不幸；灾祸 (高中英语单词)
• reject [ri´dʒekt] vt.拒绝；抵制；否决 (高中英语单词)
• hateful [´heitfəl] a.可恨的，可憎的 (英语四级单词)
• renounce [ri´nauns] v.拒绝 n.放弃权力 (英语四级单词)
• shameful [´ʃeimfəl] a.可耻的；猥亵的 (英语四级单词)
• calamity [kə´læmiti] n.灾害，大灾难 (英语四级单词)
• befallen [bi´fɔ:lən] befall的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
• senseless [´sensləs] a.无知觉的；愚蠢的 (英语四级单词)
• wooded [´wudid] a.多树林的 (英语四级单词)
• weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)