Alcestis
Euripides
Euripides. The Plays of Euripides, Translated into English Prose from the Text of Paley. Vol. I. Coleridge, Edward P., translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1906.
- Great gods, what shall I say? a marvel past all hope is here! My wife, my own true wife I see,
- or is some mocking rapture sent by heaven to drive me mad?
- No, no; ’tis thy own wife thou seest here.
- Beware it be not a phantom from that nether world.
- No necromancer was this guest whom thou didst welcome.
- Do I behold my wife, her whom I buried?
- Be well assured thereof; still I marvel not thou dost distrust thy luck.
- May I touch her, may I speak to her as my living wife?
- Speak to her. For thou hast all thy heart’s desire.
- O form and features of my well-loved wife! past all hope I hold thee, never expecting to see thee again.
- So thou dost; may no jealous god rise against thee!
- O noble son of almighty Zeus, good luck to thee! may the father that begat thee hold thee in his keeping; for thou and none else hast raised my fallen fortunes. How didst thou bring her from the world below to this light of day?
- By encountering the god[*](Reading δαιμόνων τῷ κυρίῳ. Nauck has κοιράνῳ—apparently regarding the Death-god as supreme over all deities, but surely this is incorrect. Jacobs, seeing the difficulty, conjectured νερτέρων. But the translation in the text seems a possible one, and makes the emendation unnecessary.) who had her in his power.
- Where didst thou engage with Death? tell me this.
- Just by the tomb I from my ambush sprang and caught him in my grip.
- But why thus speechless stands my wife?
- ’Tis not lawful yet for thee to hear her speak,
- ere she be purified from the gods below and the third day be come. So lead her in; and hereafter, e’en as now, be just and kind to guests, Admetus. Now farewell! for I must go to perform my appointed task
- for the lordly son of Sthenelus.
- Abide with us and be our welcome guest.