Stories from the Greek Tragedians | Page 5

I followed not after her, nor reached my hand to her, that was as a mother to all that dwell in this place."
When the man had so spoken, Hercules came forth from the guest-chamber, crowned with myrtle, having his face flushed with wine. And he cried to the servant, saying, "Ho, there! why lookest thou so solemn and full of care? Thou shouldst not scowl on thy guest after this fashion, being full of some sorrow that concerns thee not nearly. Come hither, and I will teach thee to be wiser. Knowest thou what manner of thing the life of a man is? I trow not. Hearken therefore. There is not a man who knoweth what a day may bring forth. Therefore I say to thee: Make glad thy heart; eat, drink, count the day that now is to be thine own, but all else to be doubtful. As for all other things, let them be, and hearken to my words. Put away this great grief that lieth upon thee, and enter into this chamber, and drink with me. Right soon shall the tinkling of the wine as it falleth into the cup ease thee of these gloomy thoughts. As thou art a man, be wise after the fashion of a man; for to them that are of a gloomy countenance, life, if only I judge rightly, is not life but trouble only."
Then the servant answered, "All this I know; but we have fared so ill in this house that mirth and laughter ill beseem us."
"But they tell me that this dead woman was a stranger. Why shouldst thou be so troubled, seeing that they who rule this house yet live."
"How sayest thou that they live? Thou knowest not what trouble we endure."
"I know it, unless thy lord strangely deceived me."
"My lord is given to hospitality."
"And should it hinder him that there is some stranger dead in the house?"
"A stranger, sayest thou? 'Tis passing strange to call her thus."
"Hath thy lord then suffered some sorrow that he told me not?"
"Even so, or I had not loathed to see thee at thy revels. Thou seest this shaven hair and these black robes."
"What then? who is dead? One of thy lord's children, or the old man his father?"
"Stranger, 'tis the wife of Admetus that is dead."
"What sayest thou? And yet he gave me entertainment?"
"Yea, for he would not, for shame, turn thee from his house."
"O miserable man, what a helpmeet thou hast lost!"
"Ay, and we are all lost with her."
"Well I knew it; for I saw the tears in his eyes, and his head shaven, and his sorrowful regard; but he deceived me, saying that the dead woman was a stranger. Therefore did I enter the doors and make merry, and crown myself with garlands, not knowing what had befallen my host. But come, tell me; where doth he bury her? Where shall I find her?"
"Follow straight along the road that leadeth to Larissa, and thou wilt see her tomb in the outskirts of the city."
Then said Hercules to himself, "O my heart, thou hast dared many great deeds before this day; and now most of all must I show myself a true son of Zeus. Now will I save this dead woman Alcestis, and give her back to her husband, and make due recompense to Admetus. I will go, therefore, and watch for this black-robed king, even Death. Methinks I shall find him nigh unto the tomb, drinking the blood of the sacrifices. There will I lie in wait for him and run upon him, and throw my arms about him, nor shall any one deliver him out of my hands, till he have given up to me this woman. But if it chance that I find him not there, and he come not to the feast of blood, I will go down to the Queen of Hell, to the land where the sun shineth not, and beg her of the Queen; and doubtless she will give her to me, that I may give her to her husband. For right nobly did he entertain me, and drave me not from his house, for all that he had been stricken by such sorrow. Is there a man in Thessaly, nay in the whole land of Greece, that is such a lover of hospitality? I trow not. Noble is he, and he shall know that he is no ill friend to whom he hath done this thing."
So he went his way. And when he was gone, Admetus came back from the burying of his wife, a great company following him, of whom the elders sought to comfort him in his sorrow. And when he was come to the gates of his palace he cried, "How shall I enter thee? how shall I dwell