Alcestis Essay -- essays research papers

Alcestis is a myth that is "the most touching of all the Greek dramas to a modern audience" (Lind 213). It is a tragicomedy by the playwright Euripides and it centers on the king and queen of Thessalia. Admetus, the king, has been fated to die yet, due to his alliance with Apollo, is given the chance to find a replacement. His wife, Alcestis, volunteers for the position claiming that she cannot imagine life without her husband. After Alcestis submits her life, Admetus discovers the pain of loss and even determines that Alcestis is the lucky one in dying. In a surprising turn of events, a friend of Admetus, Heracles, goes down into the underworld, wrestles Death, and wins Admetus back his bride.1 This tale, as mentioned above, tugs at a reader’s heartstrings. We, as an audience, want to believe that Alcestis is brought to life at the termination of this drama, yet there are those interpreters who believe otherwise. A specific example of this type of person is D.L. Drew, who proposes that the woman given to Admetus is the corpse of his wife rather than the resurrected Alcestis. Drew goes further to comment that this is Heracles’s revenge against Admetus for tricking him into believing that she who died is a stranger and not Alcestis.1 This is a terrible proposition that tends to disturb a reader and, through the examination of the text, seems to be rather incorrect. The concept that Alcestis has been resurrected can be supported, in fact, by several elements. Through the influence of the god Apollo in the drama’s entirety, through the temperament and motivations of Heracles, and through the presence of many comic elements in correlation with the definition of comedy, one can truly believe that Alcestis is brought back to life. In the onset of Alcestis, the god Apollo utters to Death an oracle. "For a man comes to the dwelling of Pheres†¦and he shall be a guest in the house of Admetus, and by force shall he tear this woman [Alcestis] from you" (Euripides 66-69). These are the last words of Apollo in this text, yet he does not completely disappear from the drama. He seems to show his covert influence through the use of light and sound.One may first examine the use of light in this drama. The characters use the concept of the sun many times throughout their dialogue. "Sun, and you, light of day†¦" (Euripides 244). A similar line... ... the above elements and then also by a rise of the protagonist in the drama’s termination. It thus follows that if Alcestis has the elements of comedy, then there must also be some sort of comic rise! There seems to be two comic rises. First, Admetus understands the true sacrifice that Alcestis has made. "No pain ever shall touch her again; she has reached the noble end of all her sufferings. But I, I who should have died, I have escaped my fate, only to drag out a wretched life. Only now do I perceive it" (Euripides 938-941). Although this does not seem to be a comic rise for Admetus, it is an enlightenment of sorts. Admetus has seen that he has been selfish and is shamed by it. The final comic rise is the resurrection of Alcestis, which seems to be an almost reward for Admetus’s enlightenment. This resurrection of Alcestis is necessary in order to fulfill the definition of comedy and is thus proven through it, through the actions of Apollo, and through the motivations of Heracles.Footnotes1. L. R. Lind (1957), Ten Greek Plays in Contemporary Translations Houghton Mifflin Company; Boston, Mass.2. Thomas Bulfinch (1855) The Age and Fable or Stories of Gods and Heroes