Alcestis (play)
Alcestis | |
---|---|
Pheres | |
Date premiered | 438 BC |
Place premiered | Athens |
Original language | Ancient Greek |
Genre | Tragedy |
Setting | Pherae in Thessaly |
Alcestis (
Events prior to the start of the play
Long before the start of the play, King
The time of Admetus' death comes and he still has not found a willing substitute. His father, Pheres, is unwilling to step in and thinks that it is ludicrous that he should be asked to give up the life he enjoys so much as part of this strange deal. Finally, Admetus' devoted wife Alcestis agrees to be taken in his place because she wishes not to leave her children fatherless or be bereft of her lover. At the start of the play, she is close to death.
Synopsis
In the play's
The entry of the
[...] Who will deny it? |
Is there a higher excellence |
than this, that a wife should die her husband's death? |
The entire city knows it, and affirms it. |
Maidservant (Epeisodion I) |
The first episode begins with a maidservant, 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."[10] 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 Alcestis cried over the bridal bed that will destroy her, embraced her sobbing children, and bade all farewell. She describes how Admetus held Alcestis 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.
Just afterwards, Admetus' old friend Heracles arrives at the palace, having no idea of the sorrow that has befallen the place. Unwilling to turn a guest away, the king decides not to burden Heracles with the sad news and instructs the servants to make him welcome and to 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 to irritate 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 deeply embarrassed at his blunder and his bad behaviour and he decides to ambush and confront Death 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 won in a competition. He asks his host to take her and look after her while Heracles is away on his labours. After much discussion, he finally forces a reluctant Admetus to take her by the hand, but when he lifts the veil, he finds that it appears to be 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.
Critics' commentary
The categorization of Alcestis has been a subject of debate among literary critics. It employs both tragic and comic elements, and (when first performed) occupied a slot that was generally reserved for satyr plays. Conacher explores how Euripides expanded the myth of Admetus and Alcestis, and added elements of comedy and folk tales. Beye also discusses legendary and fairy tale aspects of the play.[citation needed]
Alcestis is also a popular text for women's studies. Critics have indicated that the play's central focus is Admetus rather than Alcestis. Segal, for example, has written of the play's patriarchal aspects. The nature of sacrifice, especially in ancient times, has been variously analysed by Rabinowitz, Vellacott, and 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 (such as Michelini and Gounaridou) have noted their failure to agree on much of anything. Gounaridou argues 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.
Adaptations
There are at least seven operas based on the play, six of them named Alceste: the 1674 opera by Jean-Baptiste Lully, a 1750 opera by George Frideric Handel, a 1767 opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck - famous for being published with his proposals for revising operatic composition, a 1773 opera by Anton Schweitzer, and a 1768 opera by Pietro Alessandro Guglielmi.
Rutland Boughton's 1922 opera Alkestis is based on the Gilbert Murray translation.[11] It was performed at Covent Garden by the British National Opera Company and was broadcast by the nascent British Broadcasting Company, both in 1924.[11]
The American theatre director
T. S. Eliot's play The Cocktail Party is a modern adaption of Alcestis; it was premiered at the Edinburgh Festival on 22 August 1949, directed by E. Martin Browne.
Translations
- Rev. Robert Potter, 1781 - prose: full text
- Edward Philip Coleridge, 1891 - prose: full text
- Arthur S. Way, 1912 – verse
- Gilbert Murray, 1915 - verse: full text
- Richard Aldington, 1930 – prose and verse: full text
- Augustus T. Murray, 1931 – prose
- Moses Hadas and John McLean, 1936 – prose
- Richmond Lattimore, 1955 – verse
- Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald, 1960 - verse
- Philip Vellacott, 1974 – prose and verse
- William Arrowsmith, 1974 – verse
- David Kovacs, 1994 – prose: full text
- Paul Roche, 1998; from a Signet edition of ten plays by Euripides
- Ted Hughes, 1999 – verse
- Anne Carson, 2006 – prose and verse
- Diane Arnson Svarlien, 2007 – verse
- George Theodoridis, 2008 – prose, full text
- Rachel Kitzinger, 2016 - verse
- Brian Vinero, 2019: verse[15]
Notes
- ^ Banham (1998, 353).
- ^ Fitts (1960b, 143), Banham (1998, 353), and Brockett and Hildy (2003, 16–17, 37).
- ^ Banham (1998, 353) and Brockett and Hildy (2003, 37).
- ^ Banham (1998, 352) and Brockett and Hildy (2003, 16).
- ^ Line 32, trans. Fitts and Fitzgerald (1960, 150)
- ^ Line 63, trans. Fitts and Fitzgerald (1960, 152).
- ^ Line 72, trans. Fitts and Fitzgerald (1960, 153).
- ^ Line 110, trans. Fitts and Fitzgerald (1960, 154).
- ^ Line 131, trans. Fitts and Fitzgerald (1960, 155).
- ^ Line 141, trans. Fitts and Fitzgerald (1960, 155).
- ^ The Radio Times. 2 (15): 45.
- ^ Weber (1989, 94).
- ^ a b Brockett and Hildy (2003, 550).
- ^ Weber (1989, 93–102).
- ^ "Alcestis adapted from Euripides". Playwrights' Center. 15 February 2020. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
Sources
- Banham, Martin, ed. 1998. The Cambridge Guide to Theatre. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43437-8.
- Brockett, Oscar G. and Franklin J. Hildy. 2003. History of the Theatre. Ninth edition, International edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. ISBN 0-205-41050-2.
- Fitts, Dudley, ed. 1960a. Four Greek Plays. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World. ISBN 0-15-602795-X.
- ---. 1960b. Introduction. In Fitts (1960a, 143–145).
- Fitts, Dudley, and Robert Fitzgerald. 1960. The Alcestis of Euripides. By Euripides. In Fitts (1960a, 149-199).
- L. P. E. Parker, 2007 Euripides Alcestis with Introduction and Commentary. Oxford (Oxford University Press). ISBN 0199254672
- ISBN 1-55554-041-4.
Further reading
- Padilla, Mark W., "Gifts of Humiliation: Charis and Tragic Experience In Alcestis", American Journal of Philology, 121(2) (2000) pp. 179–211.
External links
- Works related to Alcestis at Wikisource
- Greek Wikisource has original text related to this article: Ἄλκηστις
- Alcestis public domain audiobook at LibriVox
- The Noble Wife, retelling by W. M. L. Hutchinson