Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1894) v1.djvu/38

10 And this—yea, all the city knoweth this.

But what within she did, hear thou, and marvel.

For when she knew that the appointed day

Was come, in river-water her white skin

She bathed, and from the cedar-chests took forth

Vesture and jewels, and decked her gloriously,

And stood before the hearth, and prayed, and said:

"Queen, for I pass beneath the earth, I fall

Before thee now, and nevermore, and pray:—

Be mother to my orphans: mate with him

A loving wife, with her a noble husband.

Nor, as their mother dieth, so may they,

My children, die untimely, but with weal

In the home-land fill up a life of bliss."

To all the altars through Admetus' halls

She went, with wreaths she hung them, and she prayed,

Plucking the while the tresses of the myrtle,

Tearless, unsighing, and the imminent fate

Changed not the lovely rose-tint of her cheek.

Then to her bower she rushed, fell on the bed;

And there, O there she wept, and thus she speaks:

"O couch, whereon I loosed the maiden zone

For this man, for whose sake I die to-day,

Farewell: I hate thee not. Me hast thou lost,

Me only: loth to fail thee and my lord

I die: but thee another bride shall own,

Not more true-hearted; happier perchance."

Then falls thereon, and kisses: all the bed

Is watered with the flood of melting eyes.

But having wept her fill of many tears,

Drooping she goeth, reeling from the couch;

Yet oft, as forth the bower she passed, returned,

And flung herself again upon the couch.