INTRODUCTION TO ALCESTIS
The Legend
The origins of the story as it is told by Euripides are difficult
to trace. We hear of Admetus and of Alcestis, "loveliest of all
the daughters of Pelias/7 in the Iliad, but only as parents of
Eumelus, one of the Achaeans at Troy. There is an allusion to
the story as Euripides tells it in the skolion or drinking catch
attributed to the little-known poetess Praxilla:
Mark the saying of Admetus, dear friend, and make friends with
the brave.
Keep away from cowards, knowing that there is little grace in them.
We also know that Phrynichus, a dramatic poet of the early
fifth century, used what seems to have been essentially the
same version as that which Euripides followed. The best con-
clusion, though it is tentative, is that Euripides did not add
any "facts" to the legend as he received it. The originality of
the play would rather lie in the way in which he approached
a known, though not particularly well-known, story from a
new angle and with a new emphasis.
The Play
Grant, then, the basic outline of the plot: Alcestis volun-
tarily dying for her husband when his father and mother
would not; Alcestis and Admetus delivered by Admetus' true
friend, Heracles, who is guided by the remote hand of Apollo,
also a true friend of Admetus. One may emphasize the hero-
ism of Alcestis and the staunchness of Heracles, as against the
way in which mother and father fail wretchedly in the crisis.
This is as far as our skolion goes, for whether or not "the brave"
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