Epeisodion 4
Admetus
Outlive then Zeus himself!
Pheres
Dost curse thy parents, though unharmed by them?
Admetus
Yea, for I see thy heart is set on length of days.
715
Pheres
Is it not to save thyself thou art carrying to the tomb this corpse?
Admetus
A proof of thy cowardice, thou craven heart!
Pheres
At any rate her death was not due to me; this thou canst not say.
Admetus
Ah! mayst thou some day come to need my aid!
Pheres
Woo many wives, that there may be the more to die.
720
Admetus
That is thy reproach, for thou didst refuse to die.
Pheres
Dear is the light of the sun-god, dear to all.
Admetus
A coward soul is thine, not to be reckoned among men.
Pheres
No laughing now for thee at bearing forth my aged corpse.
Admetus
Thy death will surely be a death of shame, come when it will.
725
Pheres
Once dead I little reck of foul report.
Admetus
Alas! how void of shame the old can be!
Pheres
Hers was no want of shame; ’twas want of sense in her that thou didst find.
Admetus
Begone! and leave me to bury my dead.
Pheres
I go; bury thy victim, thyself her murderer. Her kinsmen yet will call for an account. Else surely has Acastus ceased to be a man, if he avenge not on thee his sister’s blood.
730
Admetus
Perdition seize thee and that wife of thine!
grow old, as ye deserve, childless, though your son yet lives, for ye shall never enter the same abode with me; nay! were it needful I should disown thy paternal hearth by heralds’ voice, I had disowned it. (Exit PHERES). Now, since we must bear our present woe,
735
let us go and lay the dead upon the pyre. [Exit ADMETUS.
740
