ALCE STIS
for I shall never bury any dearer dead
than she, nor any who loved me better. She deserves
my thanks. She died for me, which no one else would do.
(Exit into the house.)
Chorus
O daughter of Pelias 435
my wish for you is a happy life
in the sunless chambers of Hades.
Now let the dark-haired lord of Death himself, and the
old man,
who sits at the steering oar 440
and ferries the corpses,
know that you are the bravest of wives, by far,
ever conveyed across the tarn
of Acheron in the rowboat.
Much shall be sung of you 445
by the men of music to the seven-strung mountain
lyre-shell, and in poems that have no music,
in Sparta when the season turns and the month Carneian
comes back, and the moon
rides all the night; 450
in Athens also, the shining and rich.
Such is the theme of song you left
in death, for the poets.
Oh that it were in my power 455
and that I had strength to bring you
back to light from the dark of death
with oars on the sunken river.
For you, O dearest among women, you only 460
had the hard courage
to give your life for your husband's and save
him from death. May the dust lie light
upon you, my lady. And should he now take
a new wife to his bed, he will win my horror and hatred,
mine, and your children's hatred too. 465
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