Book of illustrations : Ancient Tragedy

Charm'd by the sweet notes of his gladdening strings.

Strophe II

Hence is thy house, Admetus, graced
With all that plenty's hand bestows;
Near the sweet-streaming current placed,
That from the lake of Boebia flows;
Far towards the shades of night thy wide domain,
Rich-pastured mead and cultured plain,
Extends, to those Molossian meads
Where the sun stations his unharnessed steeds;
And stretching towards his eastern ray,
Where Pelion, rising in his pride,
Frowns o'er th' Aegean's portless tide:
Reaches from sea to sea thy ample sway.

Antistrophe II

And thou wilt ope thy gate e'en now, {625}
E'en now wilt thou receive this guest;
Though from thine eye the warm tear flow,
Though sorrow rend thy suffering breast,
Sad tribute to thy wife, who, new in death,
Lamented lies thy roof beneath!
Nature in truth has thus decreed:
The pure soul must bear fruit of reverent deed.
Lo, all the pow'r of wisdom lies
Fix'd in the righteous bosom: hence
Rests in my soul this confidence —
The good shall yet safe from their trials rise. {636}

EPISODE III

The Central Gates open and the Funeral Procession slowly files out and begins to fill the Stage. Admetus beside the bier of Alcestis is calling on the Chorus (as representing the citizens of Pherae) to join in the invocations to the dead – when suddenly another Procession appears on the Stage [entering by the Right Side-door, as from the immediate neighborhood]: it is headed by the father and mother of Admetus, both of whom have reached the furthest verge of old age, and who with difficulty totter along, while attendants follow them bearing sumptuous drapery and other funeral gifts. The scene settles down into the 'Forensic Contest,' a fixed feature of every Greek Tragedy, in which the 'case' of the hero and the opposition to it are brought out with all the formality of a judicial process, the long rheses representing advocates' speeches, the stichomuthic dialogue suggesting cross-examination, and the Chorus interposing as moderators.

Pheres in the tone of conventional consolation speaks of the virtues of the dead, and the special virtue of Alcestis's sacrifice, which has saved her husband's life, and himself from a childless old age; it is meet then that he should do honor to the corpse. Attendants of Admetus advance to receive the presents: Admetus waves them back and stands coldly confronting his father. At last he speaks. His father is an uninvited guest at this funeral feast, and unwelcome: the dead shall never be arrayed in his gifts. Then was the time for his father to show kindness when a life was demanded: and yet he could stand aloof and let a younger die! He will never believe himself the son of so mean and abject a soul.

At such an age, just trembling on the verge {677}
Of life, thou would'st not, nay, thou dared'st not die
For thine own son; but thou couldst suffer her,
Though sprung from foreign blood: with justice then
Her only as my father must I deem,
Her only as my mother. Yet this course
Mightst thou have run with glory, for thy son
Daring to die; brief was the space of life
That could remain to thee: I then had lived
My destin'd time, she too had lived.

Yet Pheres had already had his share of all that makes life happy: a youth amid royal luxury, a prosperous reign, a son to inherit his state and who ever did him honor. But let him beget him new sons to cherish his age and attend him in death: Admetus's hand shall never do such offices for him. And this is all that comes of old age's longing for death: let death show itself, and the old complaints of life are all silenced!

Cho. Forbear! Enough the present weight of woe: {710} My son, exasperate not a father's mind.

To this long rhesis Pheres answers in a set speech of similar length. Is he a slave to be so rated by his own son? And for what? He has given his son birth and nurture, he has already handed over to him a kingdom and will bequeath him yet more wide lands; all that fathers owe to sons he gives. What new obligation is this for Greece to submit to, that a father should die for his son?

It is a joy to thee {730}
To view the light of heaven, and dost thou think
Thy father joys not in it? Long I deem
Our time in death's dark regions: short the space
Of life, yet sweet! So thought thy coward heart
And struggled not to die: and thou dost live,
Passing the bounds of life assign'd by fate,
By killing her! My mean and abject spirit
Dost thou rebuke, O timidest of all,
Vanquish'd e'en by a woman, her who gave
For thee, her young fair husband, her own life! {740}
A fine device that thou mightst never die,
Couldst thou persuade – who at the time might be
Thy wife – to die for thee!

If such a man takes to heaping reproaches on his own kin he shall at least hear the truth told him to his face!

Cho. Too much of ill already hath been spoken: {750}

Forbear, old man, nor thus revile thy son.

Admetus says if his father does not like to hear the truth he should not have done the wrong.

Pher. Had I died for thee, greater were the wrong.
Adm. Is death alike then to the young and old?
Pher. Man's due is one life, not to borrow more.
Adm. Thine drag thou on and out-tire heaven's age!
Pher. Darest thou to curse thy parents, nothing wrong'd?
Adm. Parents in dotage lusting still to live! {760}
Pher. And thou – what else but life with this corpse buyest?
Adm. This corpse – the symbol of thy infamy!
Pher. For us she died not; that thou canst not say!
Adm. Ah! mayst thou some time come to need my aid!
Pher. Wed many wives that more may die for thee!
Adm. On thee rests this reproach – thou daredst not die!
Pher. Sweet is this light of heav'n! sweet is this light!
Adm. Base is thy thought, unworthy of a man!
Pher. The triumph is not thine to entomb my age.
Adm. Die when thou wilt, inglorious wilt thou die. {770}
Pher. Thy ill report will not affect me dead.
Adm. Alas, that age should outlive sense of shame!
Pher. But lack of age's wisdom slew her youth.
Adm. Begone, and suffer me to entomb my dead.
Pher. I go: no fitter burier than thyself
Her murderer! Look for reckoning from her friends: