ADMETUS Hail Son of Zeus and of the blood of Perseus!

HERACLES And hail to you, Admetus, lord of the Thessalians

ADMETUS May it be so! I know your friendship well.

HERACLES What means this shorn hair, this mourning robe?

ADMETUS To-day I must bury a dead body.

HERACLES May a God avert harm from your children!

ADMETUS The children I have begotten are alive in the house.

HERACLES Your father was ripe for death-if it is he has gone?

ADMETUS He lives--and she who brought me forth, O Heracles.

HERACLES Your wife--Alcestis--she is not dead?

ADMETUS (evasively) Of her I might make a double answer.

HERACLES Do you mean that she is dead or alive?

ADMETUS (ambiguously) She is and is not-and for this I grieve.

HERACLES (perplexed) I am no wiser-you speak obscurely.

ADMETUS Did you not know