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34 may expect the best that can be said for his conduct. But they expostulate vehemently:

And when Admetus pleads the importance of sustaining his reputation, and the high claims of Heracles as a friend, they reply:

It will be seen that they put simply and sharply the precise dilemma which we have already expounded in the foregoing remarks. Either Heracles is very near and dear to Admetus, or he is not. If he is not, it is needless and improper to admit him at such a moment; if he is, it is needless and improper to deceive him. That Euripides thought this dilemma, as I think it, unanswerable, I infer from his making Admetus not solve it but silence the discussion:

And thereupon he retires. Since he has added nothing to his case as he put it before, except the assumption, both gratuitous and damaging, that Heracles, if treated frankly, would not have come in, he naturally supposes the others to maintain their unanswered objections; and if they were nevertheless represented by Euripides as convinced, that would affect not the truth but our estimate of their intelligence. But in fact they retract nothing. Since their admired prince will not hear them, they set themselves, like loyal courtiers, to make the best of what he chooses to do. They remind themselves that the house always was, as Admetus has said, a most liberal and hospitable house. Had not Apollo consented to live in it, graced it with miracles, and rewarded it with immense increase of substance and land? Upon this encouraging theme they are made to dilate with a fulness, which has been noted as exceeding the