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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
ALCESTIS
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Alcestis is the earliest surviving play by Euripides, appearing first in 438 BCE when
Euripides had seventeen years of playwriting experience. If it seems like an immature piece,
it may be because this was played as the fourth work in a tetralogy -- the place usually occupied
by a satyr play (such as The Cyclops) after three tragedies. Therefore, Alcestis is
lighter and simpler than most Euripides plays, with an ambiguously happy ending.
The play begins with Apollo subjecting us to "premise overload": ultimately, he somehow wangled
a deal with the Fates that the supposedly pious King of Pherae, Admetus, could avoid death and
Hades if he could find someone to take his place. "He canvassed and solicited all his friends"
(3), but only his wife Alcestis would agree to die in his stead. She is now approaching her
untimely end. A gloomy Death enters with a sword and has a snippy exchange with Apollo, accusing
him of trickery, thwarting the somewhat more natural order, and favoritism towards the rich who
can afford to "buy the privilege of dying old" (5). Apollo calls Death a "sophist" (5).
The Chorus tries to gauge whether or not Alcestis is yet dead. A "Leader" and Handmaid discuss
her coming death, the Leader saying rather oddly about Admetus, "Ah, unfortunate. Such a man,
to lose such a wife!" (6). The Handmaid reports Alcestis' lament:
Heracles visits on his way between tasks; currently he must "fetch the four-horse team of
Diomede of Thrace" (14). "They tear men with their swift jaws," warns the Leader. When
Admetus enters, Heracles realizes that there's reason to think he's in mourning, but
Heracles' questions yield him only ambiguous answers and Admetus avoids specifying that
Alcestis is dead. Admetus insists that Heracles stay.
Admetus' father Pheres visits, only to be scolded:
A Butler resents Heracles' presence in the household, revelling and drinking. Gradually
Heracles finds out through this fellow that Alcestis did die. Heracles immediately is
horrified and decides he must ambush Death and restore Alcestis to the household.
The funeral procession returns, and Admetus frets that he will have the reputation of
a coward, letting his wife take his place in Hades (25). Heracles enters with a veiled
woman he says he "received as a prize of victory" (26). He chides Admetus for not plainly
revealing that Alcestis had died, so that he, Heracles, ended up inappropriately partying
in a house of mourning. But Admetus, he recognizes, has enough sorrow already without
his adding to it. Heracles wants to leave the veiled woman with Admetus while he returns to
his labors. Admetus balks: "Shall she live under the same roof with men? How can she remain
pure if she will be in the company of young men?" (26). After much argument, Admetus agrees
to touch the woman: "[stretching his hand, with head averted]. I am putting it out -- as if
I were beheading the Gorgon" (29). Slowly he realizes it's Alcestis, for whom Heracles
fought with Death at the tomb. "But why does she stand here speechless?"
O couch where I loosed my maiden zone by the hand of him for whom I die, farewell. I do not
hate you. You have destroyed me alone. It is because I dread to betray you and my husband
that I die. Some other woman will possess you, no more chaste, perhaps more fortunate. (7)
After a choral lament, Alcestis appears, supported in the arms of Admetus. He mourns while
she approaches death: "I see the two-oared boat, I see it upon the lake. The ferryman of
the dead has his hand upon the pole, Charon is already calling me" (9). She tells her husband,
regarding her choice, "I was not willing to live separated from you, with my children
orphaned" (9). She does, however, note that one of his old parents could have prevented this:
"they had no hope of getting other children if you were dead" (10). She makes Admetus vow
never to marry again, fearing evil step-mother inevitabilities. Admetus is perfectly willing
to vow to this, and will ban parties. Alcestis dies, son Eumelus wails, and the Chorus'
lament accompanies the carrying off of the body.
I do not count myself your son. Truly, you surpass all men in cowardice; for at your age,
when you had reached the end of life, you had not the will or the courage to die for your own
child.... You had spent your prime in kingship, and you had me for a son and heir of your
house, so that you were not going to die childless and leave an orphaned house for strangers
to plunder. (18)
Pheres counters, "I brought you into the world to be master of this house, and I raised you
up; I am not obliged to die for you. I have received no such tradition from my ancestors
that fathers should die for their children; it's not a Greek custom" (19). They part with
animosity.
It is not permitted for you to hear her voice until her consecration to the powers below
be removed and the third day come. But take her into the house. And in future, Admetus,
show respect for guests, as is right. Farewell; I go to perform the labor that is before
me for the king, the son of Sthenelus. (29)
There will be dancing and celebrating. The Chorus decides, "That which was expected has
not been accomplished; for that which was unexpected has god found the way" (30).
Although the play seems slight compared with other Euripides works, the cheekiness and in-your-face challeges can be found here, particularly regarding the issue of the parents being expected to die in the place of Admetus and the supposed reasons for living or not living. And apparently no woman is safe from rapists nor estate safe from plunderers. The matter of Heracles not knowing that the good time he's having is inappropriate seems bizarre as an ethical issue or as any kind of issue at all.
The ending surely must have been an influence on Lord Oxford's last scene in The Winter's Tale.
Euripides. Alcestis. Ten Plays. Trans. Moses Hadas and John McLean. NY: Bantam, 1981. 1-30.