SOURCE: Segal, Charles. “Female Death and Male Tears.” In Euripides and the Poet of Sorrow: Art, Gender, and Commemoration in Alcestis, Hippolytus, and Hecuba, pp. 51-72. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1993.

In the following excerpt, Segal focuses on death and mourning in the Alcestis and contends that the play, despite its depiction of women's feelings, is a firmly patriarchal work.

Alcestis and the Process of Dying

Despite the fantastic circumstances, Alcestis' death unfolds as a “normal” death of a woman in the house: gradual, anticipated, full of pain and also of unexpected family tensions. We observe the inevitable progression as Alcestis makes elaborate preparations; bids tearful farewells to husband, children, and servants; and reveals her most intense emotions before the marriage bed, the center of the woman's life (177-84). The play therefore allows us an extraordinary glimpse of how men and women in classical Athens might be expected...