Alcestis: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
← Previous editNext edit →
VisualWikitext
imported>Robby
link to Commons is now defined on Wikidata
changed typo in Euripides' name and added link to his wiki page
Line 10: Line 10:
[[File:Herbert thomas dicksee--hercules wrestling with death for the soul of alcestis--1884.jpg|thumb|[[Herbert Dicksee|Herbert Thomas Dicksee]], ''Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Soul of Alcestis'', 1884, private collection.]]Many suitors appeared before King [[Pelias]] and tried to woo Alcestis when she came of age to marry. It was declared by her father that she would marry the first man to yoke a lion and a boar (or a bear in some cases) to a [[chariot]]. [[Admetus|King Admetus]] was able to do this because he was helped by [[Apollo]], who had been banished from [[Olympus (mythology)|Olympus]] for one year to serve as a shepherd to Admetus. With Apollo's help, Admetus completed the challenge set by King Pelias, and was allowed to marry Alcestis. But in a sacrifice after the wedding, Admetus forgot to make the required offering to [[Artemis]], therefore when he opened the marriage chamber he found his bed full of coiled snakes.<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.15&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=9&highlight=Alcestis 1.9.15]</ref> Admetus interpreted it a portent of an early death.<ref>Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=54}}</ref>
[[File:Herbert thomas dicksee--hercules wrestling with death for the soul of alcestis--1884.jpg|thumb|[[Herbert Dicksee|Herbert Thomas Dicksee]], ''Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Soul of Alcestis'', 1884, private collection.]]Many suitors appeared before King [[Pelias]] and tried to woo Alcestis when she came of age to marry. It was declared by her father that she would marry the first man to yoke a lion and a boar (or a bear in some cases) to a [[chariot]]. [[Admetus|King Admetus]] was able to do this because he was helped by [[Apollo]], who had been banished from [[Olympus (mythology)|Olympus]] for one year to serve as a shepherd to Admetus. With Apollo's help, Admetus completed the challenge set by King Pelias, and was allowed to marry Alcestis. But in a sacrifice after the wedding, Admetus forgot to make the required offering to [[Artemis]], therefore when he opened the marriage chamber he found his bed full of coiled snakes.<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+1.9.15&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=1:chapter=9&highlight=Alcestis 1.9.15]</ref> Admetus interpreted it a portent of an early death.<ref>Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). {{Google books|tOgWfjNIxoMC|Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology.|page=54}}</ref>


Apollo again helped the newlywed king, this time by making the [[Moirai|Fates]] drunk, extracting from them a promise that if anyone would want to die instead of Admetus, they would allow it. And when the day of his death came near, no one volunteered, not even his elderly parents, but Alcestis came forward to die in place of her husband.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#243 243]</ref> As a token of his appreciation for Admetus' hospitality,<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.6.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=2:chapter=6&highlight=Alcestis 2.6.2]</ref> [[Heracles]] rescued Alcestis from the [[Greek underworld|underworld]], shortly after fighting with [[Thanatos]]. After Alcestis comes back and is united with her husband, she doesn't speak. Euripides, in his work "Alcestis", asks: "But why does she not speak?"
Apollo again helped the newlywed king, this time by making the [[Moirai|Fates]] drunk, extracting from them a promise that if anyone would want to die instead of Admetus, they would allow it. And when the day of his death came near, no one volunteered, not even his elderly parents, but Alcestis came forward to die in place of her husband.<ref>[[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'' [https://topostext.org/work/206#243 243]</ref> As a token of his appreciation for Admetus' hospitality,<ref>Apollodorus, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Apollod.+2.6.2&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0022:book=2:chapter=6&highlight=Alcestis 2.6.2]</ref> [[Heracles]] rescued Alcestis from the [[Greek underworld|underworld]], shortly after fighting with [[Thanatos]]. After Alcestis comes back and is united with her husband, she doesn't speak. Admetus, in [[Euripides]]' play "[[Alcestis (play)|Alcestis]]", asks: "But why does she not speak?" to which Hercules tells him that she will be silent for three days until she is purified of her debt to the lower (Underworld) gods.


== Cultural Reference ==
== Cultural Reference ==
Line 16: Line 16:


Such study can also be extended to other myth characters, including Alcestis’ husband, Admetus. An analysis of Admetus can come to criticize his acceptance of Alcestis’s sacrifice. However, he is shown to realize his mistake—a development in the character to represent growth.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lloyd |first=Michael |date=1985 |title=Euripides' 'Alcestis' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/642438?seq=2 |journal=Greece & Rome |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=119–131 |issn=0017-3835}}</ref>
Such study can also be extended to other myth characters, including Alcestis’ husband, Admetus. An analysis of Admetus can come to criticize his acceptance of Alcestis’s sacrifice. However, he is shown to realize his mistake—a development in the character to represent growth.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lloyd |first=Michael |date=1985 |title=Euripides' 'Alcestis' |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/642438?seq=2 |journal=Greece & Rome |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=119–131 |issn=0017-3835}}</ref>
== Appearance in Other Works ==
{{in popular culture|date=September 2017}}
* [[Geoffrey Chaucer]]'s long poem, "[[The Legend of Good Women]]" features Alcestis as a character in both versions of the Prologue. In the poem, she is consort to the God of Love and instructs the poet-narrator to tell "a glorious legend / Of Goode wymmen, maydenes and wyves / That weren trewe in lovyng al hire lyves."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chaucer|first=Geoffrey|title=The Legend of Good Women|pages=F-Prologue, ll. 483–5 / G-Prologue, ll. 473–5}}</ref>
*[[John Milton|Milton]]'s famous sonnet, "[[Methought I Saw My Late Espoused Saint]]", c. 1650, alludes to the myth, with the speaker of the poem dreaming of his dead wife being brought to him "like Alcestis".
* [[Jean-Baptiste Lully|Lully]] wrote an [[Alceste (Lully)|opera]], first performed in 1674, based on the story.
* [[George Frideric Handel|Händel]] wrote a [[Alceste (Handel)|1750 masque, or semi-opera]], based on this myth.
* [[Christoph Willibald Gluck|Gluck]] in 1767 wrote a [[Alceste (Gluck)|significant reform opera]] on the story.
* [[Anton Schweitzer|Schweitzer]] composed an opera ''[[Alceste (Schweitzer)|Alceste]]'' to a libretto by [[Christoph Martin Wieland|Wieland]], premiered in 1773 in [[Weimar]], as a milestone of German opera.<ref name="Lawrence">{{cite journal
| last = Lawrence
| first = Richard
| url = https://www.gramophone.co.uk/review/schweitzer-a-alceste
| title = Schweitzer, A Alceste
| journal = [[Gramophone (magazine)|Gramophone]]
| date = July 2008
| access-date = 20 July 2017
}}</ref>
* In his poem "Past Ruin'd Ilion", English writer and poet [[Walter Savage Landor]] (1775–1864) wrote the line "Alcestis rises from the shades" as having a double meaning, evoking her rise from Hades while demonstrating the ability of enduring poetry to give her vitality, drawing her into the light from the shadows of historical oblivion.
* Irish poet and playwright [[John Todhunter]] wrote a play called ''Alcestis: A Dramatic Poem'' that was published in 1879.


== Gallery ==
== Gallery ==

Revision as of 20:44, 13 September 2025

Template:Short description Template:For-multi

File:Affreschi romani - pompei - alcesti e admeto.JPG
Alcestis and Admetus, ancient Roman fresco (45–79 CE) from the House of the Tragic Poet, Pompeii, Italy (photo by Stefano Bolognini).

Alcestis (Template:IPAc-en; Ancient Greek: Ἄλκηστις, Template:Grc-transl) or Alceste, was a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her husband. Her life story was told by pseudo-Apollodorus in his Bibliotheca,[1] and a version of her death and return from the dead was also popularized in Euripides's tragedy Alcestis.

Family

Alcestis was the fairest among the daughters of Pelias, king of Iolcus, and either Anaxibia or Phylomache. She was sister to Acastus, Pisidice, Pelopia and Hippothoe.[2] Alcestis was the wife of Admetus by whom she bore a son, Eumelus, a participant in the siege of Troy, and a daughter, Perimele.[3]

Mythology

File:Herbert thomas dicksee--hercules wrestling with death for the soul of alcestis--1884.jpg
Herbert Thomas Dicksee, Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Soul of Alcestis, 1884, private collection.

Many suitors appeared before King Pelias and tried to woo Alcestis when she came of age to marry. It was declared by her father that she would marry the first man to yoke a lion and a boar (or a bear in some cases) to a chariot. King Admetus was able to do this because he was helped by Apollo, who had been banished from Olympus for one year to serve as a shepherd to Admetus. With Apollo's help, Admetus completed the challenge set by King Pelias, and was allowed to marry Alcestis. But in a sacrifice after the wedding, Admetus forgot to make the required offering to Artemis, therefore when he opened the marriage chamber he found his bed full of coiled snakes.[4] Admetus interpreted it a portent of an early death.[5]

Apollo again helped the newlywed king, this time by making the Fates drunk, extracting from them a promise that if anyone would want to die instead of Admetus, they would allow it. And when the day of his death came near, no one volunteered, not even his elderly parents, but Alcestis came forward to die in place of her husband.[6] As a token of his appreciation for Admetus' hospitality,[7] Heracles rescued Alcestis from the underworld, shortly after fighting with Thanatos. After Alcestis comes back and is united with her husband, she doesn't speak. Admetus, in Euripides' play "Alcestis", asks: "But why does she not speak?" to which Hercules tells him that she will be silent for three days until she is purified of her debt to the lower (Underworld) gods.

Cultural Reference

Being an early Greek myth, the story of Alcestis can represent the cultural values in Greece at the time. It is known that myths hold cultural values as ways to teach lessons and highlight morals.[8] In the myth of Alcestis, somebody can interpret that she symbolizes women’s roles and expectations in Greece. Alcestis’ character also shows an integral trait cherished by the Greek and desired upon any gender.[9]

Such study can also be extended to other myth characters, including Alcestis’ husband, Admetus. An analysis of Admetus can come to criticize his acceptance of Alcestis’s sacrifice. However, he is shown to realize his mistake—a development in the character to represent growth.[10]

Gallery

Notes

Template:Sister project

<templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" />

  1. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.9.15
  2. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.9.10
  3. ↑ Antoninus Liberalis, 23
  4. ↑ Apollodorus, 1.9.15
  5. ↑ Roman, L., & Roman, M. (2010). Template:Trim&pg=PA54 Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman mythology., p. 54, at Google Books
  6. ↑ Hyginus, Fabulae 243
  7. ↑ Apollodorus, 2.6.2
  8. ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
  9. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".
  10. ↑ Script error: No such module "Citation/CS1".

Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".

References

Template:Sister project

External links

Script error: No such module "Portal".

Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Alcestis&oldid=3230719"