Alcestis (play)

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Alcestis (play)

Alcestis (Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the historical stage in the development of the Greek language spanning across the Archaic Greece , Classical Greece , and Hellenistic civilization periods of ancient Greece and the classical antiquity....
, Alkestis) is an Athenian

Classical Athens

The city of Athens during classical antiquity was a notable polis of Attica, Ancient Greece, leading the Delian League in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League....
tragedy

Tragedy

Tragedy is a form of The arts based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific Poetic tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western culture....
by the ancient Greek

Classical Greece

Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavilly influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and much of the Western World....
playwright Euripides

Euripides

Euripides was the last of the three great tragedy of classical Athens . Ancient scholars thought that Euripides had written ninety-five plays, although four of those were probably written by Critias....
. It was first produced at the City Dionysia festival

Dionysia

The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedy and, since 487 BC, Greek comedy....
in 438 BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy

Tetralogy

A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. Compare to a trilogy; made up of three works.The name comes from the Attica theater, where tetralogies were meant to be played in one sitting at the Dionysia....
of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize; this arrangement was exceptional, as the fourth part was normally a satyr play

Satyr play

Satyr plays were an Ancient Greece form of tragicomedy, similar to the modern-day burlesque style. They always featured a chorus of satyrs and were based in Greek mythology and contained themes of, among other things, drinking, overt sexuality , pranks and general merriment....
. Its ambiguous

Ambiguity

Ambiguity is the property of being ambiguous, where a word, term, notation, sign, symbol, phrase, Sentence , or any other form used for communication, is called ambiguous if it can be interpreted in more than one way....
, tragicomic

Tragicomedy

Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious Play with a happy ending....
tone—which could be "cheerfully romantic" or "bitterly ironic"—has earned it the label of "problem play

Problem play

The problem play is a form of drama that emerged during the 19th century as part of the wider movement of Realism in the arts. It deals with contentious social issues through debates between the characters on stage, who typically represent conflicting points of view within a realistic social context....
." Alcestis is the oldest surviving work by Euripides, although at the time of its first performance he had been producing plays for 17 years.

before the start of the play, King Admetus was granted by the Fates the privilege of living past the allotted time of his death.

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Alcestis (Greek

Ancient Greek

Classical Athens

Tragedy

Classical Greece

Classical Greece was a culture that was highly advanced and which heavilly influenced the cultures of Ancient Rome and much of the Western World....
playwright Euripides

Euripides

Dionysia

Tetralogy

Satyr play

Ambiguity

Tragicomedy

Problem play

Events prior to the start of the play

Long before the start of the play, King Admetus was granted by the Fates the privilege of living past the allotted time of his death. The Fates were persuaded by the god Apollo

Apollo

In Greek mythology and Roman mythology, Apollo , is one of the most important and many-sided of the Twelve Olympians. The ideal of the kouros , Apollo has been variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy; archery; medicine and healing; music, poetry, and the arts; and more....
(who got them drunk). This unusual bargain was struck after Apollo was exile

Exile

Exile means to be away from one's home while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened by prison or death upon return....
d from Olympus

Mount Olympus

Mount Olympus is the highest mountain in Greece at 2,919 metres high . Since its base is located at sea level, it is one of the highest mountains in Europe in terms of topographic prominence, the relative altitude from base to top....
for nine years and spent the time in the service of the Thessalian king, a man renowned for his hospitality

Hospitality

Hospitality refers to the relationship process between a guest and a host, and it also refers to the act or practice of being hospitable, that is, the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers, with liberality and goodwill....
and by whom Apollo was treated well. The gift, however, comes with a price: Admetus must find someone to take his place when Death comes to claim him.

The time of Admetus' death comes, and he still has not found a willing replacement. His father, Pheres, is unwilling to step in and thinks it is ludicrous that he should be asked to give up the life he enjoys so much as part of this strange deal. Finally, his devoted wife Alcestis agrees to be taken in his stead because she wishes not to leave her children fatherless or be bereft of her lover, and at the start of the play, she is close to death.

Synopsis

In the play's prologue

Prologue

Prologue , or prolog, is a preferred piece of writing. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance, embracing any kind of preface, like the Latin praefatio....
, the god Apollo

Apollo

Admetus

Pherae

Pherae was an ancient Greek town in southeastern Thessaly. In mythology, it was the home of King Admetus, whose wife, Alcestis, Heracles went into Hades to rescue....
(modern Velestino in Magnesia

Magnesia

Magnesia , deriving from the tribe name Magnetes, is the name of the southeastern area of Thessaly in central Greece. The modern prefecture was created in 1947 out of the Larissa prefecture....
), dressed in white and carrying his golden bow, with the intention of leaving to avoid becoming stained by the imminent death of Alcestis

Alcestis

Alcestis is a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her Admetus. Her story was popularised in Euripides's tragedy Alcestis ....
, who is being comforted within. He offers an exposition of the events leading up to this moment

Alcestis (play)

Alcestis is an Classical Athens tragedy by the Classical Greece playwright Euripides. It was first produced at the Dionysia in 438 BCE. Euripides presented it as the final part of a tetralogy of unconnected plays in the competition of tragedies, for which he won second prize; this arrangement was exceptional, as the fourth part was norma...
, repeating the phrase "none but his wife." He hails the arrival of Thanatos

Thanatos

In Greek religion, Th?natos was the Daemon personification of Death and Mortality. He was a minor figure in Greek mythology, often referred to but rarely appearing in person....
(Death

Death (personification)

Death as a sentient entity is a concept that has existed in many societies since the beginning of history. In English, death is often given the name the "Grim Reaper" and from the 15th century onwards came to be shown as a skeletal figure carrying a large scythe and clothed in a black cloak with a hood....
), who, dressed in black and carrying a sword, has come to the palace in his role as psychopomp

Psychopomp

Many religions include a particular spiritual being, angel, or deity whose responsibility is to escort newly-deceased souls to the afterlife. These creatures are called psychopomps, from the Greek language word ????p??p?? , literally meaning the "guide of souls"....
to lead Alcestis to the underworld

Greek underworld

The Greek underworld is a general term used to describe the various realms of Greek mythology which were believed to lie beneath the earth or beyond the horizon....
. Thanatos challenges Apollo's apparent defense of Alcestis and accuses him of "twisting slippery tricks" when he helped Admetus cheat death in the first place. Apollo reassures him and, in a passage of swift stichomythic

Stichomythia

Stichomythia is a technique in drama or poetry, in which alternating lines, or half-lines, are given to alternating characters, voices, or entities....
banter, proposes a postponement of Alcestis' death, which is sarcastically rebuffed. "Who would ever have thought Death had a sense of humour?" Apollo muses with theatrical self-consciousness

Metatheatre

The word metatheatre was coined by Lionel Abel and, although the term has entered into common critical usage, there is still much uncertainty over its proper definition, and what dramatic techniques might be included under its banner....
. "For once," Thanatos concludes, "you may not have what is not yours." Defeated, Apollo leaves angrily, prophesying the arrival of a man (Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
) who will wrestle Alcestis away from Death. Alone with the audience, Thanatos warns that "this was a god of many words; but words / are not enough," before he summons the doors open with the tip of his sword and slowly enters the palace.

The entry of the chorus

Greek chorus

The Greek chorus is a group of twelve or fifteen minor actors in tragedy and twenty-four in Ancient Greek comedy plays of classical Athens....
, or the "parodos

Parodos

Parodos is a term used in tragedy. An alternate spelling is "paridos." The term is used in two ways: to refer to part of the theater's structure, and to refer to a section of a play....
" sequence, follows: a chorus of fifteen men of Pherae

Chorus of the Elderly in Classical Greek Drama

The chorus of the elderly in classical Greek drama is a common trope in the Theatre of ancient Greece. Out of the thirty or so plays that are extant from the classical period seven have choruses that consist of elderly people....
, led by a "coryphaeus

Coryphaeus

Coryphaeus, or Koryphaios , in Attic Greek drama, the leader of the Greek chorus. Hence the term is used for the chief or leader of any company or movement....
" (chorus-leader), enter the orchestra

Theatre of Ancient Greece

The theatre of ancient Greece, or ancient Greek drama, is a Theatre culture that flourished in Classical Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 BCE....
of the theatre

Theatre of Dionysus

The Theatre of Dionysus was a major Theatre of ancient Greece in ancient Greece, built at the foot of the Athens Acropolis, Athens and forming part of the temenos of "Dionysus Eleuthereus" ....
. The chorus-leader complains that they are in a state of suspense

Suspense

Suspense is a feeling of uncertainty and anxiety about the outcome of certain actions, most often referring to an audience's perceptions in a dramatic work....
, ignorant of whether they ought to be performing mourning rituals for their queen. The chorus' lyrical

Lyric poetry

Lyric poetry refers to a usually short poem that expresses personal feelings, which may or may not be set to music. Aristotle, in Poetics , contrasted lyric poetry with drama and epic poetry....
ode

Ode

Ode is a form of stately and elaborate lyric poetry. A classic ode is structured in three parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode....
, to which they dance as they sing, consists of two paired stanza

Stanza

In poetry, a stanza is a unit within a larger poem. In modern poetry, the term is often equivalent with strophe; in popular vocal music, a stanza is typically referred to as a "Verse " ....
s of strophe

Strophe

Strophe is a concept in poetry which properly means a turn, as from one Foot to another, or from one side of a chorus to the other.A strophe is also the part of the ode that the Greek chorus chants as it moves from right to left across the stage....
and antistrophe

Antistrophe

Antistrophe is the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning movement from west to east, in response to the strophe, which was sung from east to west....
. They sing of the silence that greets their search for signs of mourning, the evidence of Alcestis' death. "When goodness dies," they lament, "all good men suffer, too." The chorus-leader concludes by dismissing the chorus' search for hope in the situation: "The King has exhausted every ritual

Ritual

A ritual is a set of repeated actions, often thought to have symbolic value, the performance of which is usually prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community by religious or political laws because of the perceived efficacy of those actions....
."

[...] Who will deny it?

Is there a higher excellence

than this, that a wife should die her husband's death?

The entire city

Polis

A polis -- plural: poleis --is a city, a city-state and also citizenship and body of citizens. When used to describe Classical Athens and its contemporaries, polis is often translated as "city-state."...
knows it, and affirms it.

Maidservant (Epeisodion I)

The first episode

Episode

An episode is a part of a dramatic work such as a Serial television program or Radio programming program. An episode is a part of a sequence of a body of work, akin to a chapter of a book....
begins with a maid

Maid

A maidservant or in current usage maid is a female employed in domestic worker. Once part of an elaborate hierarchy in great houses, today the maid may be the only domestic worker that upper class and even middle-income households can afford....
servant, who enters from the palace in tears. When the chorus-leader presses her for news, she gives a confusing response: "She is alive. And dead." Alcestis stands, she explains, at this moment on the brink of life and death. The chorus-leader anxiously confirms that all of the customary preparations have been made for her proper burial. The maidservant joins the chorus-leader in praising Alcestis' virtue. She narrates a long description of Alcestis' prayers and preparations to die earlier that morning, when she cried over the bridal bed that will destroy her, embraced her sobbing children and bade all farewell. She describes how Admetus held her weeping in his arms while her eyes clung to the sight of the last rays of sun she would see. The maidservant welcomes the chorus-leader to the palace and goes inside to inform Admetus of their arrival.

Alcestis

Alcestis

Alcestis is a princess in Greek mythology, known for her love of her Admetus. Her story was popularised in Euripides's tragedy Alcestis ....
, on her death-bed, requests that in return for her sacrifice, Admetus

Admetus

In Greek mythology, Admetus /?d 'mi: t?s/ was a king of Pherae in Thessaly, succeeding his father Pheres after whom the city was named. Admetus was one of the Argonauts and took part in the Calydonian Boar hunt....
never again marry, nor forget her or place a resentful stepmother in charge of their children. Admetus agrees to this, and also promises to lead a life of solemnity in her honor, abstaining from the merrymaking that was an integral part of his household. Alcestis then dies.

Just afterwards, Admetus' old friend Heracles

Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
arrives at the palace, having no idea of the sorrow that has befallen the place. Hospitality is considered a great virtue, in fact it remains the main motivation for the characters throughout the play. It would be against all manners to turn a guest away, so the king decides not to burden him with the sad news and instructs the servants to make Heracles welcome and keep their mouths shut. By doing this, Admetus breaks his promise to Alcestis to abstain from merrymaking during the period that follows her death. Heracles gets drunk and begins irritating the servants, who loved their queen and are bitter at not being allowed to mourn her properly. Finally, one of the servants snaps at the guest and tells him what has happened.

Heracles is terribly embarrassed at his blunder and his bad behavior, and he decides to ambush and confront Death

Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a life organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby....
when the funerary sacrifices are made at Alcestis' tomb. When he returns, he brings with him a veiled woman whom he tells Admetus he has brought for his host as a new wife. After much discussion he finally forces Admetus to reluctantly take her by the hand, but when he lifts the veil, he finds that it appears to be, in fact, Alcestis, back from the dead. Heracles has battled Death and forced him to give her up. She cannot speak for three days after which she will be purified and fully restored to life.

Motivations

Some of the decisions by the characters in the play could raise some questions. Hospitality was considered a great virtue among the Greeks, that is why Admetus cannot send Heracles away from his house. In turn as a reward Heracles returns Alcestis to him. Alcestis' fate can be viewed as a reflection of the male- dominated world of fifth- century Athens- her death is decided by her husband, in that he allows her to take his pre-ordained place in Hades; her rescue from Death comes only through Heracles' intervention. Being led silently from the tomb perhaps symbolises the woman's role in the Athenian household as a subordinate figure, from whom it was preferred to hear little. In all, the play shows that the rules of the male world, guest- friendship and hospitality in particular, are more important that the whims of a female, even her dying wish is disregarded. That Heracles rewards Admetus for his adhesion to these social mores is a reflection of this and it may be this aspect of his contemporary society which Euripides is calling into question with this play.

Criticism

Critics find the Alcestis a richly rewarding play in many areas. D. J. Conacher explores how Euripides expanded the myth of Admetus and Alcestis, adding comic and folk tale elements to suit the needs of his tragedy. Charles Rowan Beye, too, discusses legendary and fairy tale aspects of the play. Another issue in Alcestis studies is how to categorize the work; because it mingles tragic and comic elements, can it be considered a satyr-play? D. J. Conacher and others investigate this problem. The Alcestis is also a popular text for women's studies. Numerous critics point out that the story is far more about Admetus than it is about Alcestis; Charles Segal, for example, has written of the play's patriarchal dimension. The nature of sacrifice, especially in ancient times, has been variously analyzed by Nancy Sorkin Rabinowitz, Philip Vellacott, and Anne Pippin Burnett, who explain that ancient Greek morality differed considerably from that of the present day. Modern interpretations of the play have been extremely varied, so much so that critics including Ann Norris Michelini and Kiki Gounaridou find them notable for their failure to agree on much of anything. Gounaridou believes this is fitting, positing that Euripides meant for the play to be understood in many different ways. The psychologies and motivations of Admetus and Alcestis are especially disputed, with the question of Admetus's selfishness strongly contested.

Modern production history

The American theatre director Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson (director)

Robert Wilson is an United States of America avant-garde stage director and playwright who has been called "[America]'s — or even the world's — foremost vanguard 'theater artist'"....
staged a production of the play in 1986 at the American Repertory Theatre

American Repertory Theatre

The American Repertory Theatre is housed in the Loeb Drama Center at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1980 by Robert Brustein as a break off group from the Yale Repertory Theatre after a bitter dispute between Yale University and the long-established Yale company....
in Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cambridge is a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England....
and in 1987 at the Staatstheater

Staatstheater Stuttgart

The 'Staatstheater Stuttgart' is an opera house in Stuttgart, Germany. It is also known locally as the Grosses Haus, having been the larger of two theatres of the former K?nigliche Hoftheater....
in Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-W?rttemberg in southern Germany. The list of cities in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 590,429 while the metropolitan area referred to as Stuttgart Region has a population of 2.7 million ....
. The production supplemented Euripides' play with material drawn from a range of sources, united by their exploration of the themes of death and rebirth. It began with Heiner Müller's

Heiner Müller

Heiner M?ller was a Germany dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, M?ller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht....
Explosion of a Memory (Description of a Picture) (1985) as a prologue

Prologue

Automatic writing

Automatic writing is the process or production of writing material that does not come from the consciousness thoughts of the writer. Practitioners say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written....
. Müller described it as a description of "a landscape beyond death" that is "an overpainting of Euripides' Alcestis which quotes the Noh play

Noh

, or is a major form of classic Japanese musical drama that has been performed since the 14th century. Together with the closely-related Kyogen farce, it evolved from various popular, folk and aristocratic art forms, including Dengaku, Shirabyoshi, and Gagaku....
Kumasaka, the Eleventh Canto of the Odyssey
Odyssey

The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Hellenic civilization epic poetrys attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work traditionally ascribed to Homer....
, and Hitchcock's

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock, Order of the British Empire was a British filmmaker and film producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and psychological thriller genres....
The Birds
The Birds (film)

The Birds is a suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the short story The Birds by Daphne du Maurier. The film's innovative special effects, soundtrack, and apocalyptic fiction theme influenced later "revenge of nature" disaster films....
." The production also utilised a Japanese kyogen play

Kyogen

is a form of traditional Japanese theater. It developed alongside noh, was performed along with noh as an intermission of sorts between noh acts, and retains close links to noh in the modern day; therefore, it is sometimes designated noh-kyogen....
whose themes parodied those of Alcestis, laser projections, and a musical score by Laurie Anderson.

Translations

R. Potter, 1908 - verse
Arthur S. Way
Arthur S. Way

Arthur Sanders Way was an English people classical scholar and poet, born at Dorking. He was educated at Kingswood School, Bath, Somerset, and at Queen's College , Melbourne, where he was afterward fellow....
, 1912 - verse
Richard Aldington
Richard Aldington

Richard Aldington, born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an England writer and poetry.Aldington was best known for his World War I poetry, the 1929 novel Death of a Hero, and the controversy arising from his 1955 Lawrence of Arabia: A Biographical Inquiry....
, 1930 - prose and verse:
Augustus T. Murray, 1931 - prose
Moses Hadas
Moses Hadas

Moses Hadas was an American teacher, one of the leading classics scholars of the twentieth century, and a translator of numerous works.Raised in Atlanta, Georgia in a Yiddish-speaking Orthodox Judaism household, his early studies included rabbinical training; he graduated from Jewish Theological Seminary of America and took his doctorate...
and John McLean, 1936 - prose
Richmond Lattimore
Richmond Lattimore

Richmond Alexander Lattimore was an United States poet and translator known for his translations of the Greece classics, especially his versions of the Iliad and Odyssey, which are generally considered as among the best English translations available....
, 1955 - verse
William Arrowsmith, 1974, verse
David Kovacs, 1994 - prose:
Ted Hughes
Ted Hughes

Edward James Hughes Order of Merit was an England poet and Children's literature, known as Ted Hughes. Critics routinely rank him as one of the best poets of his generation....
, 1999, verse
George Theodoridis, 2008 - prose:
New Russian translation completed in 2008 by Vlanes: or

Sources

Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521434378.
Brockett, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. Ninth edition, International edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0205410502.
Fitts, Dudley. 1960. Introduction. Four Greek Plays. Ed. Dudley Fitts. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. 143-145. ISBN 015602795X.
Weber, Carl, ed. & trans. 1989. Explosion of a Memory: Writings by Heiner Müller. By Heiner Müller
Heiner Müller

Heiner M?ller was a Germany dramatist, poet, writer, essayist and theatre director. Described as "the theatre's greatest living poet" since Samuel Beckett, M?ller is arguably the most important German dramatist of the 20th century after Bertolt Brecht....
. New York: Performing Arts Journal Publications. ISBN 1555540414.

Alcestis (play)

Events prior to the start of the play

Synopsis

Motivations

Criticism

Modern production history

Translations

Sources

Further reading

External links