Heracles, who rose to tragic rank from a very homely
cycle of myth, was apt to bring other homely characters
with him. He was a great killer not only of malefactors
but of “keres” or bogeys, such as “Old
Age” and “Ague” and the sort of
“Death” that we find in this play.
Thanatos is not a god, not at all a King of Terrors.
One may compare him with the dancing skeleton who
is called Death in mediaeval writings. When such
a figure appears on the tragic stage one asks at once
what relation he bears to Hades, the great Olympian
king of the unseen. The answer is obvious.
Thanatos is the servant of Hades, a “priest”
or sacrificer, who is sent to fetch the appointed
victims.
The other characters speak for themselves. Certainly
Pheres can be trusted to do so, though we must remember
that we see him at an unfortunate moment. The
aged monarch is not at his best, except perhaps in
mere fighting power. I doubt if he was really
as cynical as he here professes to be.
* * * *
*
In the above criticisms I feel that I may have done
what critics are so apt to do. I have dwelt on
questions of intellectual interest and perhaps thereby
diverted attention from that quality in the play which
is the most important as well as by far the hardest
to convey; I mean the sheer beauty and delightfulness
of the writing. It is the earliest dated play
of Euripides which has come down to us. True,
he was over forty when he produced it, but it is noticeably
different from the works of his old age. The
numbers are smoother, the thought less deeply scarred,
the language more charming and less passionate.
If it be true that poetry is bred out of joy and sorrow,
one feels as if more enjoyment and less suffering had
gone to the making of the Alcestis than to that
of the later plays.
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
ADMETUS, King of Pherae in Thessaly.
ALCESTIS, daughter of Pelias, his wife.
PHERES, his father, formerly King but now in retirement.
TWO CHILDREN, his son and daughter.
A MANSERVANT in his house.
A HANDMAID.
The Hero HERACLES.
The God APOLLO.
THANATOS or DEATH.
CHORUS, consisting of Elders of Pherae.
“The play was first performed when Glaukinos
was Archon, in the 2nd year of the 85th Olympiad
(438 B.C.). Sophocles was first, Euripides second
with the Cretan Women, Alcmaeon in Psophis, Telephus
and Alcestis.... The play is somewhat Satyric
in character.”
The scene represents the ancient Castle of
ADMETUS near Pherae in Thessaly. It is the
dusk before dawn; APOLLO, radiant in the darkness,
looks at the Castle.
