Alcestis
Also known as: Alkestis, Alcestis of Euripides
Admetus, granted a reprieve from death if another dies in his place, accepts his wife Alcestis’s self-sacrifice. Heracles, arriving as a guest, wrests Alcestis back from Death and restores her to Admetus.
Description
Set in Pherae, the drama opens with Apollo recounting how he served Admetus and won for him a pact permitting a substitute death; only Alcestis consents. Thanatos arrives to claim her, and the household laments as she dies. Admetus, bound by scrupulous hospitality, conceals the death from his visiting friend Heracles. On learning the truth, Heracles is moved to repay his host: he waylays Thanatos at Alcestis’s tomb and returns with a veiled woman, revealed as Alcestis restored under conditions of ritual silence. Tense scenes of filial duty and blame—especially the confrontation with Admetus’s father Pheres—complicate the play’s blend of tragic pathos with unexpected consolation.
Historiography
Alcestis was produced in 438 BCE and notoriously occupied the pro-satyric position, prompting ancient and modern debate over its generic status between tragedy and satyr-like relief. The play survives through medieval manuscript families transmitted with other Euripidean dramas, accompanied by scholia that comment on its unusual tone and staging. It was read and adapted in antiquity and later eras as a paradigmatic tale of conjugal devotion and the ethics of xenia. Modern editions draw on the standard Euripidean tradition with relatively stable text.
Date Notes
Premiered at the City Dionysia in 438 BCE as the fourth play of a tetralogy, in the slot typically reserved for a satyr play.
Symbols
Major Characters
- Alcestis
- Admetus
- Heracles
- Thanatos
- Apollo
- Pheres
Myths
- Alcestis Volunteers for Death
- Heracles Wrestles Death
- Alcestis Restored to Life
Facts
- First produced at the City Dionysia in 438 BCE, occupying the pro-satyric position.
- Apollo’s prologue frames the action as repayment for Admetus’s exemplary hospitality.
- Only Alcestis agrees to die in Admetus’s place when his parents refuse.
- Thanatos appears on stage as the personification of death, rare in extant tragedy.
- Heracles practices xenia by honoring Admetus’s concealment and then repays him.
- Heracles overcomes Death at Alcestis’s tomb and brings back a veiled, living Alcestis.
- Admetus and his father Pheres engage in a sharp debate on filial duty and mortality.
- The setting is the palace at Pherae in Thessaly; the Chorus are local elders.
- The play blends tragic lament with a consolatory ending, fueling genre debates.
- Alcestis’s return requires ritual silence until purification is complete.