THE BOOK WAS DRENCHED - OUDL Home

680 Euripides [72-97]
DEATH
Talk all you will, you get no more of me! The woman shall go down
to the dwelling of Hades.
Now must I go to consecrate her for the sacrifice with this sword; for
when once this blade has shorn the victim's hair, then he is sacred to the
Lower Gods!
(DEATH enters the Palace by the open main door. The CHORUS enters
from the right. They are the Elders or Notables of the city, and
therefore move slowly, leaning upon their staffs.)
LEADER OF THE CHORUS (chanting)
Why is there no sound outside the Palace? Why is the dwelling of
Admetus silent? Not a friend here to tell me if I must weep for a dead
Queen or whether she lives and looks upon the light, Alcestis, the
daughter of Pelias, whom among all women I hold the best wife to
her spouse!
CHORUS (singing)
Is a sob to be heard?
Or the beating of hands
In the house?
The lament for her end?
Not one,
Not one of her servants
Stands at the gate!
Ah! to roll back the wave of our woe,
O Healer,
Appear!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Were she dead
They had not been silent.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
She is but a dead body!
FIRST SEMI-CHORUS
Yet she has not departed the house.
SECOND SEMI-CHORUS
Ah! Let me not boast!
Why do you cling to hope?