ine enemies. Have I not always done due reverence to thee
and to my mother? And, lo! this is the recompense that ye make me.
Wherefore I say to thee, make haste and raise other sons who may nourish
thee in thy old age, and pay thee due honour when thou art dead, for I
will not bury thee. To thee I am dead."

Then the old man spake, "Thinkest thou that thou art driving some Lydian
and Phrygian slave that hath been bought with money, and forgettest that
I am a freeborn man of Thessaly, as my father was freeborn before me? I
reared thee to rule this house after me; but to die for thee, that I
owed thee not. This is no custom among the Greeks that a father should
die for his son. To thyself thou livest or diest. All that was thy due
thou hast received of me; the kingdom over many people, and, in due
time, broad lands which I also received of my father. How have I wronged
thee? Of what have I defrauded thee? I ask thee not to die for me; and I
die not for thee. Thou lovest to behold this light. Thinkest thou that
thy father loveth it not? For the years of the dead are very long; but
the days of the living are short yet sweet withal. But I say to thee
that thou hast fled from thy fate in shameless fashion, and hast slain
this woman. Yea, a woman hath vanquished thee, and yet thou chargest
cowardice against me. In truth, 'tis a wise device of thine that thou
mayest live for ever, if marrying many times, thou canst still persuade
thy wife to die for thee. Be silent then, for shame's sake; and if thou
lovest life, remember that others love it also."

So King Admetus and his father reproached each other with many unseemly
words. And when the old man had departed, they carried forth Alcestis to
her burial.

But when they that bare the body had departed, there came in the old
man that had the charge of the guest-chambers, and spake, saying, "I
have seen many guests that have come from all the lands under the sun to
this palace of Admetus, but never have I given entertainment to such
evil guest as this. For first, knowing that my lord was in sore trouble
and sorrow, he forebore not to enter these gates. And then he took his
entertainment in most unseemly fashion; for if he lacked aught he would
call loudly for it; and then, taking a great cup wreathed with leaves of
ivy in his hands, he drank great draughts of red wine untempered with
water. And when the fire of the wine had warmed him, he crowned his head
with myrtle boughs, and