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Chorus
Daughter of Pelias, be thine a happy life in that sunless home in Hades’ halls! Let Hades know, that swarthy god,
435
and that old man who sits to row and steer alike at his death-ferry, that he hath carried o’er the lake of Acheron in his two-oared skiff a woman peerless amidst her sex.
440
Daughter of Pelias, be thine a happy life in that sunless home in Hades’ halls! Let Hades know, that swarthy god,
435
and that old man who sits to row and steer alike at his death-ferry, that he hath carried o’er the lake of Acheron in his two-oared skiff a woman peerless amidst her sex.
440
Chorus
Oft of thee the Muses’ votaries shall sing on the seven-stringed mountain shell and in hymns that need no harp,
1
glorifying thee, oft as the season in his cycle cometh round at Sparta in that Carnean
2
month
445
when all night long the moon sails high o’erhead, yea, and in splendid Athens, happy town. So glorious a theme has thy death bequeathed to tuneful bards.
450
Oft of thee the Muses’ votaries shall sing on the seven-stringed mountain shell and in hymns that need no harp,
1
glorifying thee, oft as the season in his cycle cometh round at Sparta in that Carnean
2
month
445
when all night long the moon sails high o’erhead, yea, and in splendid Athens, happy town. So glorious a theme has thy death bequeathed to tuneful bards.
450
Chorus
Would it were in my power and range to bring thee to the light from the chambers of Hades and the streams of Cocytus with the oar that sweeps yon nether flood!
455
For thou, and thou alone, most dear of women, hadst the courage to redeem thy husband from Hades in exchange for thy own life. Light lie the earth above thee, lady! And if ever thy lord take to him a new wife, I vow he will earn my hatred
460
and thy children’s too.
465
Would it were in my power and range to bring thee to the light from the chambers of Hades and the streams of Cocytus with the oar that sweeps yon nether flood!
455
For thou, and thou alone, most dear of women, hadst the courage to redeem thy husband from Hades in exchange for thy own life. Light lie the earth above thee, lady! And if ever thy lord take to him a new wife, I vow he will earn my hatred
460
and thy children’s too.
465
Chorus
His mother had no heart to plunge into the darkness of the tomb for her son, no! nor his aged sire.
3
Their own child they had not the courage to rescue,
the wretches! albeit they were grey-headed. But thou in thy youth and beauty hast died for thy lord and gone thy way. O be it mine to have for partner such a loving wife! for this lot is rare in life. Surely she should be my help-meet all my life
470
and never cause one tear.
475
His mother had no heart to plunge into the darkness of the tomb for her son, no! nor his aged sire.
3
Their own child they had not the courage to rescue,
the wretches! albeit they were grey-headed. But thou in thy youth and beauty hast died for thy lord and gone thy way. O be it mine to have for partner such a loving wife! for this lot is rare in life. Surely she should be my help-meet all my life
470
and never cause one tear.
475
Alcestis. Euripides. Edward P. Coleridge (Translator). London. 1906.
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