Euripides, Alcestis
David Kovacs, Ed.

Admetus
No, speak on, and so shall I! But if it pains you to hear the truth, you should not be wronging me.

Pheres
[710] If I were dying on your behalf, I would be acting far more wrongly.

Admetus
What? Is death the same thing for a man in his prime as for an old man?

Pheres
We must live with a single life, not with two.

Admetus
Well, may you live a longer life than Zeus!

Pheres
Do you curse your father, though he has done you no wrong?

Admetus
[715] Yes, for I see you lusting for length of days.

Pheres
But is it not you who are burying this corpse in your stead?

Admetus
Yes, the sign of your cravenness, you coward.

Pheres
She did not die at my hands. You cannot say that.

Admetus
Oh! If only you might come to need my help some day!

Pheres
[720] Woo many wives so that more may die!

Admetus
That is a reproach to you, for you refused to.

Pheres
Sweet is the sun-god's light, sweet.

Admetus
Your heart is cowardly, not a man's at all.

Pheres
At least you cannot mock me as you carry my aged body out for burial.

Admetus
[725] But die you shall, and die with no good name.

Pheres
When I am gone, I care not what men say.

Admetus
Oh my, how full of shamelessness is age!

Pheres
She was not shameless. What she lacked was sense.

Admetus
Go, and let me bury this body.

Pheres
[730] I go. But you will bury her being yourself her murderer, and one day you will pay the penalty to your kin by marriage. Acastus is no man if he fails to punish you for his sister's death.

Admetus
Off with you! You and your wife, [735] spend, as you deserve, a childless old age, though with a child alive. For you shall never come under the same roof with me. If I had to renounce your paternal hearth by public herald, I would have renounced it.Exit Pheres and retinue by Eisodos B.

To the Chorus But since we must now endure the sorrow at hand, [740] let us go to bury our dead.