Page:Euripides the Rationalist.djvu/29

Rh aged into cynicism; but he is not a fool. If it be true that in those days, "failing the substitute who shirked his duty", that is to say, Pheres, "Alcestis would be regarded as simply fulfilling hers in yielding her life", how is it that this very Pheres can threaten Admetus with the vengeance of her friends, whose anger must on that hypothesis have been directed altogether against himself? How does Admetus miss this obvious retort, and answer only with irrelevant reiteration of his own implacable hatred? And if it be said that Pheres is blinded by selfishness, and the family of Alcestis not impartial—though as between father and son they may, it would seem, judge as fairly as any one else—we may turn from Iolcus to Pherae and hear, in a cooler moment, the testimony and confession of Admetus.

We pause to note that this tone of emphatic hypothesis is introduced, unconsciously and instinctively, by the translator: "whoever happens to be hostile to me" says the Greek:—

Such is the reception which Admetus expects from his world; and his own particular friends, who are present for the very purpose of consoling him, dare not, or at least do not, say a word to relieve his fears. But his fears are idle, if to the average Pheraean Admetus would still be "a noble character". The tongue of malice is impotent against public opinion. Pherae therefore held the modern view, not a view diametrically opposite; and if Pherae, why not Athens?