EUM.  Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother:  O!  I that have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!—­and thou hast suffered with me, my sister.  O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with her didst thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but thou being gone, mother, the house is undone.

CHOR.  Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first, nor the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife:  but learn, that to die is a debt we must all of us discharge.

ADM.  I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but knowing it long ago I was afflicted.  But be present, for I will have the corse borne forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that accepteth not libations.  And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I enjoin to share in the grief for this lady, by shearing their locks with steel, and by arraying themselves in sable garb.  And harness[24] your teams of horses to your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the manes that fall upon their necks.  And let there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre throughout the city for twelve completed moons.  For none other corse more dear shall I inter, nor one more kind toward me.  But she deserves to receive honor from me, seeing that she alone hath died for me.

CHORUS.

O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling within the mansions of Pluto.  And let Pluto know, the God with ebon locks, and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar and his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent of women in his two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron.  Oft shall the servants of the Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute on the mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the lyre:  in Sparta, when returns the annual circle in the season of the Carnean month,[25] when the moon is up the whole night long; and in splendid[26] and happy Athens.  Such a song hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of melodies.  Would that it rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the light from the mansions of Pluto, and from Cocytus’ streams, by the oar of that infernal river.  For thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou didst dare to receive thy husband from the realms below in exchange for thine own life.  Light may the earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and if thy husband chooses any other alliance, surely he will be much detested by me and by thy children.  When his mother was not willing for him to hide her body in the ground, nor his aged father, but these two wretches, having hoary locks, dared not to rescue him they brought forth, yet thou in the vigor of youth didst depart, having died for thy husband.  May it be mine to meet with another[27] such a dear wife; for rare in life is such a portion, for surely she would live with me forever without once causing pain.