228 EURIPIDES
To the last burial place and burning pile,^ —
^ Τ icere i^roijcr friends addressed, as custom prompts,
Alkestis bound on her last journeying. 956
" Unhappy in thy daring ! Noble dame, 1238
Best of the good, farewell ! With favoring face May Hermes the infernal,^ Hades too, 1240
Receive thee ! And if there, — ay, there, — some
touch Of further dignity await the good. Sharing with them, mayst thou sit throned by her The Bride of Hades,^ in companionship ! "
Wherewith, the sad procession wound away, 1245
Made slowly for the suburb sepulchre.
. . . We faced about, 1256
Fronted the palace where the mid-hall-gate Ojiened, ...
_Saw'] a certain ancient servitor: ... wee
This functionary was the trusted one We saw deputed by Admetos late 1275
To lead in Herakles. . . .
" Many the guests " — so he soliloquized m
In musings burdensome to breast before. When it seemed not too ptrudent tongue shoidd wag — " Many, and from all quarters of this world. The guests I now have known frequent our house, For whom I spread the banquet ; but than this. Never a worse one did I yet receive At the hearth here ! One who seeing, first of all, 1390 The master's sorrow, entered gate the same. And had the hardihood to house himself.
^ But if the body had been burned, Heracles could not have recov- ered Alcestis from Death.
- Hermes was the escort of the dead to the lower world. ■^ Persephone.
