not of kin with Admetus but much loved in the house, who has lived
there since her father's death left her an orphan, is of course Alcestis,
but Heracles, misled by Admetus's first answers, supposes it is some
dependant to whom the King happens to be attached. He naturally proposes
to go away, but, with much reluctance, allows himself to be over-persuaded
by Admetus. He had other friends in Thessaly, but the next castle would
probably be several miles off. The guest-chambers of the castle are
apparently in a separate building with a connecting passage.

As to Admetus's motive, we must remember that the entertaining of Heracles
is a datum of the story in its simplest form. See Preface, pp. xiv, xv. In
Euripides, Admetus is perhaps actuated by a mixture of motives, real
kindness, pride in his ancestral hospitality, and a little vanity. He
likes having the great Son of Zeus for a friend, and he has never yet
turned any one from his doors.

Euripides passes no distinct judgment on this act of Admetus. The Leader
in the dialogue blames him ("Art thou mad?") and so does Heracles
hereafter, p. 56. But the Chorus glorifies his deed in a very delightful
lyric. Perhaps this indicates the judgment we are meant to pass upon it.
On the plane of common sense it was doubtless all wrong, but on that of
imaginative poetry it was magnificent.

P. 35, 11. 569-605, Chorus.]--Apollo, worshipped as a shepherd god and a
singer, harper, piper, etc. ("song-changer"), had been himself a stranger
in this "House that loved the stranger": hence its great reward. Othrys is
the end of the mountain range to the south of Pherae; Lake Boibeis was
just across the narrow end of the plain to the north-east, beyond it came
Mt. Pelion and the steep harbourless coast. Up to the north-west the plain
of Thessaly stretched far away towards the Molossian mountains. The wild
beasts gathered round Apollo as they did round Orpheus ("There where
Orpheus harped of old, And the trees awoke and knew him, And the wild
things gathered to him, As he piped amid the broken Glens his music
manifold."--_Bacchae_, p. 35).

P. 37, l. 614, Scene with Pheres.]--Pheres is in tradition the "eponymous
hero" of Pherae, _i.e._ the mythical person who is supposed to have
given his name to the town. It is only in this play that he has any
particular character. The scene gives the reader a shock, but is a
brilliant piece of satirical comedy, with a good deal of pathos in it,
too. The