But now there comes in sight a procession bearing burial gifts, headed by the old parents of the king. At their entrance there is an abrupt change of tone, a descent from the ideal standpoint, and a violent clash of character which make for acrid realism in the scene which follows. It is one of mutual recrimination between father and son, each blaming the other for the cowardice which the onlooker can perceive in both. As the procession halts before his door, Admetus drops to the dead level of existence from the height of great emotion. He hates the formal troop of mourners: the gifts by which they seek to honour the peerless spirit of his wife: the trite phrases of consolation which are belied in the uttering by the hardness of voice and eye. He hates the very presence of his father, reminding him, as it does, that they both of them alike have cowered for safety under the sacrifice of a woman. And when, in the selfishness of an unlovely old age, Pheres praises the act of Alcestis because it leaves him the protection of his son, the wrath and shame in the heart of Admetus break out into unreasonable railing against his father. “_Thou grieve!—Thou shouldst have grieved in my death hour! Thou stoodst aloof—the old, didst leave the young To die:—and wilt thou wail upon this corpse?_“[29] The retort is obvious, and pointed with caustic truth: Pheres does not spare his son, and although there is fierce malignance in his speech, there is justice in it too. “_Shamelessly thou hast fought against thy death: Thy life is but transgression of thy doom, And murder of thy wife._“[29] The torrent of scorn that he pours upon Admetus: the merciless exposure of his timidity, the gibes at his base love of life, cannot but sweep away the moorings which held the king to his self-respect. But pride and anger struggle fiercely against humiliation; and the unseemly quarrel rages on, despite voices interposed in a vain effort at conciliation, until the funeral train emerges from the palace. Then father and son, shamed to silence, follow the body of Alcestis to its burial, while the Chorus chants: “_Alas for the loving and daring! Farewell to the noblest and best! May Hermes conduct thee down-faring Kindly, and Hades to rest Receive thee! If any atonement For ills even there may betide To the good, O thine be enthronement By Hades’ bride._“[29]