Then another Guest-Friend of Admetus came to
the rescue, Jupiter's own son Hercules, and by main force wrested
Alcestis from the grasp of Death, and restored her to her husband._
PROLOGUE
_Scene: Pherae in Thessaly. The early morning sunshine blazes full on
the Royal Palace of the Glorious Admetus, and on the statues,
conspicuous in front of it, of Jupiter Lord of Host and Guest, and
Apollo: nevertheless the Courtyard is silent and deserted.--At last
Apollo himself is seen, not aloft in the air as Gods were wont to
appear, but on the threshold of the Central Gate._
APOLLO meditates on his happy associations with the house he is
quitting. How when there was trouble in heaven, and he himself, for
resisting Jove's vengeance on the Healer Aesculapius, was doomed to a
year's slavery amongst mortal men, he had bound himself as herdsman to
Admetus, and Admetus exercised his lordship with all reverence:
A holy master o'er his holy slave. {13}
How again when trouble came to Admetus he had saved him from the day of
death, on condition that another would die in his stead.
Pages:
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129