calamity.

EUM. Young and deserted, my father, am I left by my dear mother: O! I that
have suffered indeed dreadful deeds!--and thou hast suffered with me, my
sister. O father, in vain, in vain didst thou marry, nor with her didst
thou arrive at the end of old age, for she perished before, but thou being
gone, mother, the house is undone.

CHOR. Admetus, you must bear this calamity; for in no wise the first, nor
the last of mortals hast thou lost thy dear wife: but learn, that to die is
a debt we must all of us discharge.

ADM. I know it, and this evil hath not come suddenly on me; but knowing it
long ago I was afflicted. But be present, for I will have the corse borne
forth, and while ye stay, chant a hymn to the God below that accepteth not
libations. And all the Thessalians, over whom I reign, I enjoin to share in
the grief for this lady, by shearing _their locks_ with steel, and by
arraying themselves in sable garb. And harness[24] your teams of horses to
your chariots, and cut from your single steeds the manes that fall upon
their necks. And let there be no noise of pipes, nor of the lyre throughout
the city for twelve completed moons. For none other corse more dear shall I
inter, nor one more kind toward me. But she deserves to receive honor from
me, seeing that she alone hath died for me.

CHORUS.

O daughter of Pelias, farewell where thou dwellest in sunless dwelling
within the mansions of Pluto. And let Pluto know, the God with ebon locks,
and the old man, the ferryman of the dead, who sits intent upon his oar and
his rudder, that he is conducting by far the most excellent of women in his
two-oared boat over the lake of Acheron. Oft shall the servants of the
Muses sing of thee, celebrating thee both on the seven-stringed lute on the
mountains, and in hymns unaccompanied by the lyre: in Sparta, when returns
the annual circle in the season of the Carnean month,[25] when the moon is
up the whole night long; and in splendid[26] and happy Athens. Such a song
hast thou left by thy death to the minstrels of melodies. Would that it
rested with me, and that I could waft thee to the light from the mansions
of Pluto, and from Cocytus' streams, by the oar of that infernal river. For
thou, O unexampled, O dear among women, thou didst dare to receive thy
husband from the realms below in exchange for thine own life. Light may the
earth from above fall upon thee, lady! and if thy husband chooses any other
alliance, surely