Exit Admetus, Chorus, and funeral procession by Eisodos A. To the empty stage enter a serving-man from the palace.
Serving-man
I have known many men from all manner of lands to come as guests to Admetus' house, and I have served them dinner. But never yet have I welcomed
[750]
a worse guest to our hearth than this one. In the first place, though he saw that our master was in mourning, he was shameless enough to enter our doors. Then he did not soberly accept the fare that was set before him, as he might in view of our misfortunes,
[755]
but if we failed to bring anything, he ordered it brought. Then taking an ivy-wood drinking-bowl in his hands and drinking unmixed wine, offspring of the dark grape, until the fire in it enveloped and warmed his heart, he garlanded his head with sprays of myrtle
[760]
and howled songs out of tune. There were two sorts of melody one could hear. He was singing, paying no attention to the trouble in Admetus' house, while we servants were bewailing our mistress. But we did not show our faces in tears to the stranger, for those were Admetus' orders.
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And now I must feast the stranger in our house, some knavish thief or brigand, while my mistress has left the house without my following or holding out my hand in mourning for her. She was like a mother to me and to the other servants,
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rescuing us from countless troubles and softening her husband's temper. Do I not have reason to hate the guest, who has arrived in our hour of misfortune?
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Euripides. Euripides, with an English translation by David Kovacs. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1994.
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