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206 206 EURIPIDES

And, cloudlike in their increase, all these griefs itb Brohe and began the over-brimming wail. Out of a common impulse, word by word.

" What now may mean the silence at the door ?

Why is Admetos' mansion stricken dumb?

Not one friend near, to say if we should mourn iso

Our mistress dead, or if Alkestis lives

And sees the light still, Pelias' child — to me,

To all, conspicuously the best of wives

That ever was toward husband in this world I

Hears any one or wail beneath the roof, 155

Or hands that strike each other, or the groan

Announcing all is done and nought to dread ?

Still not a servant stationed at the gates !

Ο Paian,^ that thou wouldst dispart the wave

O' the woe, be present I Yet, had woe o'erwhelmed

The housemates, they were hardly silent thus : lei

It cannot be, the dead is forth and gone.

Whence comes thy gleam of hope ? ^ I dare not hope :

What is the circumstance that heartens thee ?

How could Admetos have dismissed a wife les

So worthy, unescorted to the grave ?

Before the gates I see no hallowed vase

Of fountain-water, such as suits death's door ;

Nor any dipt locks strew the vestibule,^

Though surel}"^ these drop when we grieve the dead, 170

Nor hand sounds smitten against youthful hand.

The women's way. And yet — the appointed time —

How speak the word ? — this day is even the day

Ordained her for departing from its light.

Ο touch calamitous to heart and soul I m

^ God of healing, often identified with Apollo.

^ These questions are addressed by one of the chorus to another.

^ The hair was cut aa a sigii of mourning for near friends.