O father, of long-living love was thy marriage uncherished, uncherished:
Thou hast won not the goal of old age with the love of thy youth at thy side;
For, or ever she won to the fulness of days, she hath perished, hath perished;
And the home is a wreck and a ruin, for thou, O my mother, hast died!
Chorus.
Admetus, this mischance thou needs must bear.
Not first of mortals thou, nor shalt be last
To lose a noble wife; and, be thou sure,
From us, from all, this debt is due—to die.
Admetus.
I know it: nowise unforeseen this ill 420
Hath swooped upon me: long I grieved to know it.
But—for to burial must I bear my dead—
Stay ye, and, tarrying, echo back my wail
To that dark God whom no drink-offerings move.
And all Thessalians over whom I rule 425
I bid take part in mourning for this woman,
With shaven head and sable-shrouding robe.
And ye which yoke the cars four-horsed, or steeds
Of single frontlet, shear with steel their manes.
Music of flutes the city through, or lyres, 430
Be none, while twelve moons round their circles out:
For dearer dead, nor kinder unto me
I shall not bury: worthy of mine honour
Is she, for she alone hath died for me. [Exit.
