Euripides' Alcestis
Text Access
Via Bb PDFs.
Journal Entries
Can we say that Alcestis — or another character of your choice — is "being" gender (fulfilling a gender she/he was born into) or performing it? Do characters perform against gender? Does the play seem to offer more evidence supporting Butler's ideas or does it seem to challenge them? Explain. . . .
Some Background
This is our first preserved play by Euripides, though he
had already produced several by 438 BCE, when this one first appeared.
The "prequel" to it all is that the god Apollo, who had
enjoyed the hospitality of Admetus, a mortal, repays the favor
with a counter favor: knowing that Admetus is fated to die soon, he has
allowed someone else to die in his friend's place. That someone ends up
being Admetus' wife, Alcestis — no one else will make the sacrifice.
In the course of the play, Admetus is visited by Pheres, his father,
and by the great hero Heracles. The exchange between Pheres and
Admetus is revealing as to character and motivation; Heracles' arrival
is of key importance to the action of the play.
Additional Questions
In exploring the following issues, try to frame your thoughts
within the context of the cultural studies we have been undertaking. I.e.,
knowing a little more now about the sociology of ancient Greece and classical
Athens vis-à-vis women, how can you apply that knowledge to your
study of this play? So then, ...
- Do you think that Alcestis really is meant to be understood
as "best of women" for giving up her life for Admetus?
- Is Euripides suggesting that women really should sacrifice
themselves like that?
- Or is this "feminist" Euripides — is he exposing
the kind of system that would lead to such a thing?
- What do you think this play may reveal about classical Athenian
society, especially attitudes to women? How does it add to or otherwise
alter impressions gained from the Against Neaera?
- What, exactly, to make of Alcestis? Why does she sacrifice
herself for Admetus? And why when she returns from the dead, is she
forbidden to speak, at least for a while? Or is it even Alcestis
that Heracles brings back to Admetus, or some "facsimile"
of her? And what to make of the statue of Alcestis that Admetus wants
to set up in his bedroon when his wife has died?
- Does Alcestis, like Neaera in Against Neaera, appear to
be a token of exchange, a signifier of relationships between men?
- Or does her self-sacrifice betoken autonomy and subjectivity?
- What do you think of Admetus? How does he compare to Jason
in the Medea? To Neaera's lovers in Against Neaera? (And
what, by the way, do you think of Heracles and Apollo?)
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September 5, 2013
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