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.
