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218 218 EURIPIDES

And in the hreath she passed aumy. " Undone — me miserable ! " moaned the king, ssz While friends released the long -suspended sigh, " Gone is she : no wife for Admetos more ! "

Sucji was the signal : hoio the woe hrohe forth, ses Why tell ? — or how the children's tears ran fast Bidding their father note the eyelids' stare, Hands' droop, each dreadful circumstance of death.

" Ay, she hears not, she sees not : I and you,

'T is plain, are stricken hard and have to bear ! " 590

Was all Admetos answered.

So, friends came round him, took him hy the hand, 6O6

Bade him remember our mortality.

Its due, its doom: hoiv neither was he first.

Nor would he last, to thus deplore the loved.

" I understand," slov) the icords came at last. eio


 * ' Nor of a sudden did the evil here

Fly on me : I have known it long ago,

Ay, and essayed myself in misery ;

Nothing is new. You have to stay, you friends,

Because the next need is to carry forth eis

The corpse here : you must stay and do your part.

Chant proper paean to the God below ;

Drink-sacrifice he likes not. I decree

That all Thessalians over whom I rule

Hold gi'ief in common with me ; let them shear 620

Their locks, and be the peplos black they show !

And you who to the chariot yoke your steeds,

Or manage steeds one-frontleted, — I charge.

Clip from each neck with steel the mane away !