tioned about the gate, no, not one. O come, thou saving god, to smooth the swelling waves of woe![1]
Semicho. II. Surely, were she dead, they would not be so still.
Semicho. I. Maybe her corpse is not yet from the house borne forth.
Semicho. II. Whence that inference? I am not so sanguine. What gives thee confidence?
Semicho. I. How could Admetus let his noble wife go unattended to the grave?
Semicho. II. Before the gates I see no lustral water from the spring, as custom doth ordain should be at the gates of the dead, no shorn lock lies on the threshold, which, as thou knowest, falls in mourning for the dead, no choir of maidens smites its youthful[2] palms together.
Semicho. I. And yet this is the appointed day.
Semicho. II. What meanest thou by this?
Semicho. I. The day appointed for the journey to the world below.
Semicho. II. Thou hast touched me to the heart, e'en to the soul.
Cho. Whoso from his youth up has been accounted virtuous, needs must weep to see the good suddenly cut off. 'Tis done; no single spot in all the world remains whither one might steer a course, either to Lycia[3] or to the parched abodes[4] of Ammon to release the hapless lady's soul; on comes death with step abrupt, nor know I to whom I should go of all who at the gods' altars offer sacrifice. Only the son of Phœbus,[5] if he yet saw this light of day—Ah! then
- ↑ μετακύμιος. Liddell and Scott "between two waves of misery," i.e. causing a short lull.
- ↑ Dindorf restores νεαλὴς for νεολαία, a doubtful word, apparently not used as an adjective. Cf. Liddell and Scott.
- ↑ To a shrine of Apollo.
- ↑ The temple of Zeus Ammon in the deserts of Libya.
- ↑ Asclepius, who had been slain by Zeus, for raising the dead to life.
