OR. But before the gates I see not the bath of water from the
fountain,[10] as is the custom at the gates of the dead: and in the
vestibule is no shorn hair, which is wont to fall in grief for the dead;
the youthful[11] hand of women for the youthful _wife_ sound not.

SEMICH. And yet this is the appointed day,--

SEMICH. What is this thou sayest?

SEMICH. In the which she must go beneath the earth.

SEMICH. Thou hast touched my soul, hast touched my heart.

SEMICH. When the good are afflicted, he must mourn, who from the beginning
has been accounted good.

CHOR. But there is not whither in the earth any one having sent naval
equipment, or to Lycia, or to the thirsty site of Hammon's temple, can
redeem the unhappy woman's life, for abrupt fate approaches, and I know not
to whom of those that sacrifice at the hearths of the Gods I can go. But
only if the son of Phoebus were viewing with his eyes this light, could she
come, having left the darksome habitations and the gates of Pluto: for he
raised up the dead, before that the stroke of the lightning's fire hurled
by Jove destroyed him. But now what hope of life can I any longer
entertain? For all things have already been done by the king, and at the
altars of all the Gods abound the victims dropping with blood, and no cure
is there of these evils.

CHORUS, FEMALE ATTENDANT.

CHOR. But here comes one of the female attendants from the house, in tears;
what shall I hear has happened? To mourn indeed, if any thing happens to
our lords, is pardonable: but whether the lady be still alive, or whether
she be dead, we would wish to know.

ATT. You may call her both alive and dead.

CHOR. And how can the same woman be both alive and dead?

ATT. Already she is on the verge of death,[12] and breathing her life away.

CHOR. Oh wretched man, being what thyself of what a wife art thou bereft!

ATT. My master knows not this yet, until he suffer.

CHOR. Is there no longer hope that she may save her life?

ATT. No, for the destined day makes its attack upon her.

CHOR. Are not then suitable preparations made for these events?

ATT. Yes, the adornments[13] are ready, wherewith her husband will bury
her.

CHOR. Let her know then that she will die glorious, and by far the best of
women under the sun.

ATT. And how not the best? who will contest it? What must the woman be, who
has surpassed her? and how can any give greater proof of esteeming her
husband, than by being wi