“She will come back at the end of her life. […] Are we really to begin life again and be happy once more?” […] Yet, sweet as was Admetus’ life to them, there was no one in the land to whom his own life was not sweeter, and so Admetus came very near to death. […] He prayed to Venus (called by the Greeks Aphrodite) to give life to the image. […] Its great hulk drifted to the hero and with one blow he put an end to its life.