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Enter Heracles by Eisodos A with a veiled woman.
Chorus-Leader
But look: it seems Alcmene's son is coming to your hearth, Admetus. Heracles
One should speak frankly to a friend, Admetus, and not silently store up reproaches in the heart. [1010] I thought it right that I should stand by you in your misfortune and give proof that I was your friend. Yet you did not tell me your wife was laid out for burial but feasted me in the house, saying that you were busy with a grief not your own. [1015] So I garlanded my head and poured libations to the gods in your house in its hour of misfortune. I do object to this treatment, indeed I do. Yet I do not want to cause you pain in the midst of your trouble. But I will tell you why I have returned here. [1020] Take and keep this woman for me until I have killed the king of the Bistones and come back with the Thracian mares. But if I should suffer the fate I pray heaven may avert （for I pray I may return）, I give her to you to be a servant in your house. [1025] It was with great labor that she came into my hands. I found some people holding a public contest, an occasion worthy of an athlete's toil. It is from there that I took this woman as a prize. Those victorious in the light events [1030] won horses as a prize, while those in the greater events, boxing and wrestling, won cattle, with a woman in addition. Since I happened to be there, it seemed a shame to let slip this chance for profit combined with glory. But as I said, you must care for the woman. [1035] For I did not steal her but won her with labor. Perhaps in time you will praise me for this.
Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1994.
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