HERCULES, CHORUS.

HER.  Strangers, inhabitants of the land of Pheres, can I find Admetus within the palace?

CHOR.  The son of Pheres is within the palace, O Hercules.  But tell me, what purpose sends thee to the land of the Thessalians, so that thou comest to this city of Pheres?

HER.  I am performing a certain labor for the Tirynthian Eurystheus.

CHOR.  And whither goest thou? on what wandering expedition art bound?

HER.  After the four chariot-steeds of Diomed the Thracian.

CHOR.  How wilt thou be able?  Art thou ignorant of this host?

HER.  I am ignorant; I have not yet been to the land of the Bistonians.

CHOR.  Thou canst not be lord of these steeds without battle.

HER.  But neither is it possible for me to renounce the labors set me.

CHOR.  Thou wilt come then having slain, or being slain wilt remain there.

HER.  Not the first contest this that I shall run.

CHOR.  But what advance will you have made, when you have overcome their master?

HER.  I will drive away the horses to king Eurystheus.

CHOR.  ’Tis no easy matter to put the bit in their jaws.

HER. ’Tis, except they breathe fire from their nostrils.

CHOR.  But they tear men piecemeal with their devouring jaws.

HER.  The provender of mountain beasts, not horses, you are speaking of.

CHOR.  Their stalls thou mayst behold with blood bestained.

HER.  Son of what sire does their owner boast to be?

CHOR.  Of Mars, prince[28] of the Thracian target, rich with gold.

HER.  And this labor, thou talkest of, is one my fate compels me to (for it is ever hard and tends to steeps); if I must join in battle with the children whom Mars begat, first indeed with Lycaon, and again with Cycnus, and I come to this third combat, about to engage with the horses and their master.  But none there is, who shall ever see the son of Alcmena fearing the hand of his enemies.

CHOR.  And lo! hither comes the very man Admetus, lord of this land, from out of the palace.

ADMETUS, HERCULES, CHORUS.

ADM.  Hail!  O son of Jove, and of the blood of Perseus.

HER.  Admetus, hail thou too, king of the Thessalians!

ADM.  I would I could receive this salutation; but I know that thou art well disposed toward me.

HER.  Wherefore art thou conspicuous with thy locks shorn for grief?

ADM.  I am about to bury a certain corse this day.

HER.  May the God avert calamity from thy children!

ADM.  My children whom I begat, live in the house.

HER.  Thy father however is of full age, if he is gone.

ADM.  Both he lives, and she who bore me, Hercules.

HER.  Surely your wife Alcestis is not dead?

ADM.  There are two accounts which I may tell of her.