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.
- To slay my rightful victim? Why, that is my appointed task.
- Nay, but to lay thy deadly hand on those who soon would die.
- I see thy drift, thy eager plea.
- Is it then possible that Alcestis should attain old age?
- It is not possible; I too, methinks, find a pleasure in my rights.
- Thou canst not anyhow take more than one life.
- When young lives die I reap a higher honour.
- Should she die old, a sumptuous funeral will she have.
- Phoebus, the law thou layest down is all in favour of the rich.
- What mean’st thou? art so wise, and I never knew it?
- Those who have wealth would buy the chance of their dying old.
- It seems then thou wilt not grant me this favour.
- Not I; my customs well thou knowest.
- That I do, customs men detest and gods abhor.
- Thou canst not realise every lawless wish.
- Mark me, thou shalt have a check for all thy excessive fierceness;
- such a hero shall there come to Pheres’ halls, by Eurystheus sent to fetch a team of steeds from the wintry world of Thrace; he, a guest awhile in these halls of Admetus, will wrest this woman from thee by sheer force.
- So wilt thou get no thanks from me but yet wilt do this all the same, and earn my hatred too.[*](Dindorf rejects these two lines.)
- Thou wilt not gain thy purpose any the more for all thy many words; that woman shall to Hades’ halls go down, I tell thee.
- Lo! I am going for her, that with the sword I may begin my rites, for he whose hair this sword doth hallow is sacred to the gods below.