HERACLES  Your wife, Alcestis, isn't dead...?

ADMETUS  There are two ways of talking about it...

HERACLES  Is she dead or still alive?

ADMETUS  Yes and no, but I grieve for her.

HERACLES  I do not understand. You don't make sense.

ADMETUS   Don't you know the fate she must meet?

HERACLES  Yes, I know that she has undertaken to die in your place.

ADMETUS  How is she still with us, if she has agreed to do that?

HERACLES  Ah. Don't grieve for your wife in advance. Put it off until the time comes.

ADMETUS  She is going to die...the dead are nothing.

HERACLES  Alive and dead are considered two different things.

ADMETUS  You have your opinion, Heracles, and I have mine.

HERACLES  Just why are you in mourning? Has someone died in the family?

ADMETUS  My wife... It’s a woman we were just now talking about.