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.

  1. Thy words have probed the sore place in my heart. What greater grief can come to man
  2. than the loss of a faithful wife? Would I had never married or shared with her my home! I envy those ’mongst men who have nor wife nor child. Theirs is but one life; to grieve for that is no excessive burden;
  3. but to see children fall ill and bridal beds emptied by death’s ravages is too much to bear, when one might go through life without wife or child.
Chorus
  1. A fate we cannot cope with is come upon us.
Admetus
  1. Woe is me!