128
Theonöe. (Very softly):
The Sun sets early, it is very dark.
(Dies.)
Flavian. (Prostrate, with face hidden in her robe):
How, dark for you? What then for those you leave?
A shadowing sorrow that obscures the Sun,
A night that never shall break to dawn again.
Asclepiades. (Stands on the highest step, above the body of Theonöe, which he touches with a branch of laurel):
Fleet you, sweet Spirit, on your star-ward way!
Pass to the presence of King Helios
Leaving your lovely body, myrrhine vase,
Whence has escap'd the essence volatile,
The attar of your world-perfuming days,
Exhaled from the crystal continent,