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. whensoe’er I see my widowed couch, the seat whereon she sat, the floor ail dusty in the house, and my babes falling at my knees with piteous tears for their mother, while my servants mourn the good mistress their house hath lost.
  2. These are the sorrows in my home, while abroad the marriages among Thessalians and the thronging crowds of women will drive me mad,[*](Or, drive me away.) for I can never bear to gaze upon the compeers of my wife. And whoso is my foe will taunt me thus,
  3. Behold him living in his shame, a wretch who quailed at death himself, but of his coward heart gave up his wedded wife instead, and escaped from Hades; doth he deem himself a man after that? And he loathes his parents, though himself refused to die. Such ill report shall I to my evils add.
  4. What profit, then, my friends, for me to live, in fame and fortune ruined.
Chorus
  1. Myself have traced the Muses’ path, have soared amid the stars, have laid my hold on many a theme,