Euripides, Alcestis

1. The protagonist is Admetus. The focus is on his suffering and learning.

2. Centrality of the House of Admetus

• treated almost as if it were one of the characters
• nearly everyone addresses it
• it receives guests and does not know how to turn them away)
• a god served in it as a slave
• it is the house of the king; therefore its continuation is more vital than would be that of an ordinary house
• it accepts human sacrifice

3. Apollo acts with typical (for Euripides) divine blindness toward human modality: in arranging for the substitution he does not envision (ironically in that he is god of light and prophecy) the consequences until the event is about to occur. Like him Admetus puts out of his mind the reality of his wife's death until his wife is dying before his eyes and does not realize until his conversation with Heracles what the promise of death meant and what he should have known all along. Not until he returns from the funeral does he see what his wife's death means: he cannot foresee the emptiness. He has to actually see the now empty house.

4. Alcestis (like any dramatic character) is only part of a person: she is a role and function: mistress of the house of Admetus. Her reality is death. She leaves nothing undone in the house. She is a household fixture even to herself. The approaching evil does not change her fine complexion because it is her fulfillment as wife and mother.

5. Themes:

• life and death
• home / house / hospitality
• charis (favor)/ obligation / expectation / exchange

6. The family, all its values, all its affections have become institutionalized. Admetus begins the process of de- institutionalization when he elevates his wife's sacrifice from the functional to the individual: she died for the house (which seems to initiate every action in the play!), but she destroyed him. She thought that she could ask for nothing as great as her sacrifice, but she receives more, in that he is condemned (by himself and her) to a life that is worse than death because of his grief and guilt.

When Admetus invites Heracles to be his guest a second time (in the exodos), it is with a much better sense of hospitality in comparison with his earlier invitation when he had not let his friend mourn with him: now he invites him to stay and rejoice with him.

When Admetus finally agrees to accept the young woman, to let her stay, Heracles is very precise about how she must be received. He will not let the house of Admetus receive her (1110-17), but Admetus must take her in his own hand. The man must take her and not the house.

Stabilizing the institutions adds only an apparent stability to life, which is precarious and precious.

As mortals involved in our lives and our loved ones, we cannot take the same detached view as the gods do, we cannot expect the sacrifice of others, nor can we have our way with death. Death is an obligation that every one owes. Being mortal it is necessary to think mortal thoughts.

Study Questions:

1. Collect references to the house (hospitality, inheritance, service, direct address to). Consider how the house dominates the action from the first words (o domat' Admetei', "Oh House of Admetus") to almost the end of the play (see line 1110, 1112, 1114).
2. Consider the hierarchies (Gods, superman, kings, women, children, servants) and the social relations presented (often in pairs) in the drama.
3. Outline the play to work on its dramatic structure: the entrances and exits, the balanced scenes, the repetition of the themes and structure of the prologue in every scene.
4. What is the effect of our knowing from Apollo that Alcestis will be saved? What is the effect of the drunken Heracles' speech on the meaning of life. Consider what follows the exit of each of these characters.
5. This is a two-actor play (with the resurrected Alcestis as a mute): how would you divide the parts for the greatest parallelism of roles?