Apollo.
Surely thou shalt forbear, though ruthless thou,
So mighty a man to Pheres' halls shall come, 65
Sent of Eurystheus forth, the courser-car
From winter-dreary lands of Thrace to bring.
Guest-welcomed in Admetus' palace here,
By force yon woman shall he wrest from thee.
Yea, thou of me shalt have no thank for this, 70
And yet shalt do it, and shalt have mine hate.
Death.
Talk on, talk on: no profit shalt thou win.
This woman down to Hades' halls shall pass.
For her I go: my sword shall seal her ours:
For sacred to the Nether Gods is he, 75
He from whose head this sword hath shorn the hair.
Enter Chorus, dividing to right and left, so that the sections answer one another till they unite at l. 112.
Half-Chorus 1.
What meaneth this hush afront of the hall?
The home of Admetus, why voiceless all?
Half-Chorus 2.
No friend of the house who should speak of its plight
Is nigh, who should bid that we raise the keen 80
For the dead, or should tell us that yet on the light
Alcestis looketh, and liveth the Queen,
The daughter of Pelias, the noblest, I ween,
Yea, in all men's sight
The noblest of women on earth that have been. 85
