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219 ALCESTIS 219

And through my city, nor of flute nor lyre 625

Be there a sound till twelve full moons succeed.

For I shall never bury any corpse

Dearer than this to me, nor better friend :

One worthy of all honor from me, since

Me she has died for, she and she alone." eso

With that, he sought the inmost of the house. He and his dead, to get grave's gaimiture.

While the friends sang the paean that should peal.

" Daughter of Pelias with farewell from me,

I' the house of Hades have thy unsunned home ! ess

Let Hades know, the dark-haired deity, —

And he who sits to row and steer alike,

Old corpse-conductor, let him know he bears

Over the Acherontian lake, this time,

I' the two-oared boat, the best — oh, best by far eio

Of womankind ! For thee, Alkestis Queen !

Many a time those haunters of the Muse

Shall sing thee to the seven-stringed mountain-shell,^

And glorify in hymns that need no harp,

At Sparta when the cycle comes about, &10

And that Karneian month ^ wherein the moon

Rises and never sets the whole night through :

So too at splendid and magnificent

Athenai.^ Such the spread of thy renown.

And such the lay that, dying, thou hast left eso

Singer and sayer. Ο that I availed

Of my own might to send thee once again

From Hades' hall, Kokutos' stream,* by help

O' the oar that dips the river, back to day ! "

^ The Greek lyre, made in early times with a tortoise-shell as Bounding board. ^ August-September.

^ Athens. * Cocytus, a river of Hadee.