By Alethea Lam
Author’s Note:
The titular character of Euripides’s play Alcestis chooses to die for her husband Admetus as she eyes the glory of being known as ἀρίστη γύνη (“the best wife”), a title with which she is repeatedly crowned throughout the play. Apollo, his divine benefactor, has granted Admetus a rare opportunity: when the Fates determine his time on earth is up, he can stay alive—if a volunteer makes the voyage to Hades in his stead.
Alcestis is a profoundly human story of grief, guilt, and the pursuit of glory. Admetus repeatedly (and ironically) says life is not worth living once Alcestis is gone. At her funeral procession, he lashes out at his father Pheres, arguing that the remnants of the old man’s life should have been sacrificed instead of Alcestis’s youth: it was a chance at a glorious death and thus eternal fame, but he had refused it. Now, Alcestis will be the one to have plays written about her. Despite the extraordinary circumstances that set the plot in motion, the emotional fallout of an unexpected loss and the impossible questions of how to value life and death resonate with the human experience. Meanwhile, Alcestis’s awkward, silent return at the end of the play leaves many loose ends untied: did she want to be resurrected? Will the family reconcile? Can you really just cheat Death like that? Like many questions in life, there are no easy answers.
But the story also plays out on a divine scale. This is perhaps most apparent in the following excerpt from the opening scene outside Admetus’s house. Apollo makes a last-ditch effort to convince Thanatos not to collect his debt, but Death wants his prize now. The god of prophecy spoils the end of the play (though he passes over the human drama), announcing the impending arrival of Herakles, who will save Alcestis from Thanatos’s clutches. Neither character will appear onstage again, but their brief exchange frames the narrative as a tension between chthonic and ouranic deities. In the recent past, Apollo’s son Asclepius has been killed for resurrecting the dead (Alcestis 3–4). The Olympian is forced from Admetus’s house because of the μίασμά (“pollution,” Alcestis 22) caused by Thanatos’s presence; it is unthinkable that he could physically lay hands on him. Yet Herakles, as a hero and half-mortal, can and does, literally wrestling Death until he surrenders the woman. His jarringly comedic scenes in the otherwise tragic play also reflect his liminal status as a demigod. Herakles’s deus ex machina appearance solves Apollo and Thanatos’s philosophical impasse by brute force.
I have attempted a dynamic translation of Apollo and Thanatos’s dialogue in blank verse because of the meter’s association with English plays and its close imitation of natural speech cadence. This makes it a reasonable approximation of the qualities of iambic trimeter, which the Greek is composed in. The limitations of the meter forced me to render many lines less literally; for example, a translation of line 48 more faithful to the Greek might be “Taking her, go: for I do not know whether I may persuade you.” I endeavored to capture the spirit of the pointed and at times sarcastic dialogue, hopefully conveying the force of particles through tone when words would not fit.
Text (https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-alcestis/1994/pb_LCL012.157.xml):
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
… ἤδη δὲ τόνδε Θάνατον εἰσορῶ πέλας,
ἱερέα θανόντων, ὅς νιν εἰς Ἅιδου δόμους 25
μέλλει κατάξειν· συμμέτρως δ᾿ ἀφίκετο,
φρουρῶν τόδ᾿ ἦμαρ ᾧ θανεῖν αὐτὴν χρεών.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
ἆ ἆ·
τί σὺ πρὸς μελάθροις; τί σὺ τῇδε πολεῖς,
Φοῖβ᾿; ἀδικεῖς αὖ τιμὰς ἐνέρων 30
ἀφοριζόμενος καὶ καταπαύων;
οὐκ ἤρκεσέ σοι μόρον Ἀδμήτου
διακωλῦσαι, Μοίρας δολίῳ
σφήλαντι τέχνῃ; νῦν δ᾿ ἐπὶ τῇδ᾿ αὖ
χέρα τοξήρη φρουρεῖς ὁπλίσας, 35
ἣ τόδ᾿ ὑπέστη, πόσιν ἐκλύσασ᾿
αὐτὴ προθανεῖν Πελίου παῖς;
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
θάρσει· δίκην τοι καὶ λόγους κεδνοὺς ἔχω.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
τί δῆτα τόξων ἔργον, εἰ δίκην ἔχεις;
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
σύνηθες αἰεὶ ταῦτα βαστάζειν ἐμοί. 40
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
καὶ τοῖσδέ γ᾿ οἴκοις ἐκδίκως προσωφελεῖν.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
φίλου γὰρ ἀνδρὸς συμφοραῖς βαρύνομαι.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
καὶ νοσφιεῖς με τοῦδε δευτέρου νεκροῦ;
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἐκεῖνον πρὸς βίαν σ᾿ ἀφειλόμην.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
πῶς οὖν ὑπὲρ γῆς ἐστι κοὐ κάτω χθονός; 45
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
δάμαρτ᾿ ἀμείψας, ἣν σὺ νῦν ἥκεις μέτα.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
κἀπάξομαί γε νερτέραν ὑπὸ χθόνα.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
λαβὼν ἴθ᾿· οὐ γὰρ οἶδ᾿ ἂν εἰ πείσαιμί σε.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
κτείνειν γ᾿ ὃν ἂν χρῇ; τοῦτο γὰρ τετάγμεθα.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
οὔκ, ἀλλὰ τοῖς μέλλουσι θάνατον ἀμβαλεῖν. 50
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
ἔχω λόγον δὴ καὶ προθυμίαν σέθεν.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
ἔστ᾿ οὖν ὅπως Ἄλκηστις ἐς γῆρας μόλοι;
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
οὐκ ἔστι· τιμαῖς κἀμὲ τέρπεσθαι δόκει.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
οὔτοι πλέον γ᾿ ἂν ἢ μίαν ψυχὴν λάβοις.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
νέων φθινόντων μεῖζον ἄρνυμαι γέρας. 55
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
κἂν γραῦς ὄληται, πλουσίως ταφήσεται.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
πρὸς τῶν ἐχόντων, Φοῖβε, τὸν νόμον τίθης.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
πῶς εἶπας; ἀλλ᾿ ἦ καὶ σοφὸς λέληθας ὤν;
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
ὠνοῖντ᾿ ἂν οἷς πάρεστι γηραιοὶ θανεῖν.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
οὔκουν δοκεῖ σοι τήνδε μοι δοῦναι χάριν. 60
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
οὐ δῆτ᾿· ἐπίστασαι δὲ τοὺς ἐμοὺς τρόπους.
ΑΠΟΛΛΩΝ
ἐχθρούς γε θνητοῖς καὶ θεοῖς στυγουμένους.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
οὐκ ἂν δύναιο πάντ᾿ ἔχειν ἃ μή σε δεῖ.
AΠΟΛΛΩΝ
ἦ μὴν σὺ παύσῃ καίπερ ὠμὸς ὢν ἄγαν·
τοῖος Φέρητος εἶσι πρὸς δόμους ἀνὴρ 65
Εὐρυσθέως πέμψαντος ἵππειον μετὰ
ὄχημα Θρῄκης ἐκ τόπων δυσχειμέρων,
ὃς δὴ ξενωθεὶς τοῖσδ᾿ ἐν Ἀδμήτου δόμοις
βίᾳ γυναῖκα τήνδε σ᾿ ἐξαιρήσεται.
κοὔθ᾿ ἡ παρ᾿ ἡμῶν σοι γενήσεται χάρις 70
δράσεις θ᾿ ὁμοίως ταῦτ᾿ ἀπεχθήσῃ τ᾿ ἐμοί.
ΘΑΝΑΤΟΣ
πόλλ᾿ ἂν σὺ λέξας οὐδὲν ἂν πλέον λάβοις·
ἡ δ᾿ οὖν γυνὴ κάτεισιν εἰς Ἅιδου δόμους.
στείχω δ᾿ ἐπ᾿ αὐτὴν ὡς κατάρξωμαι ξίφει·
ἱερὸς γὰρ οὗτος τῶν κατὰ χθονὸς θεῶν 75
ὅτου τόδ᾿ ἔγχος κρατὸς ἁγνίσῃ τρίχα.
Translation:
Apollo.
I see this Thanatos near, even now,
The dead ones’ priest, who down to Hades’s house 25
Prepares to lead her: he came right on time;
He’s standing guard today, when she must die.
Thanatos.
Ah, ah!
Why stand you near these halls, why haunt this place,
O Phoebus? Doing more injustice now 30
By curbing, stopping honors for the shades?
Are you not satisfied Admetus’s doom
Was hindered by your tripping up the Fates
With cunning skill? And do you now stand guard
For her this time, equipped with bow in hand, 35
When she, the child of Pelias, herself
Agreed to die to free her spouse?
Apollo.
Fear not: I’ve merely justice and sound speech.
Thanatos.
If you have justice what’s the bow for, then?
Apollo.
I’m used to always bringing it with me. 40
Thanatos.
And to unjustly helping out this house.
Apollo.
A mortal friend’s misfortunes weigh on me.
Thanatos.
And will you rob me of this second corpse?
Apollo.
But I didn’t claim the first from you by force.
Thanatos.
Then how come he’s above ground, not below? 45
Apollo.
By trading in the wife you’ve come for now.
Thanatos.
I’ll drag her off, then, down beneath the ground.
Apollo.
Take her and go: I doubt I’d change your mind.
Thanatos.
From killing those I ought? Why, that’s my task.
Apollo.
No, but from hurling death on ling’ring souls. 50
Thanatos.
Oh, now I get your speech and eagerness.
Apollo.
Then could Alcestis somehow reach old age?
Thanatos.
She can’t: you bet my honors I’ll enjoy.
Apollo.
No, look: you may not take more souls than one.
Thanatos.
My prize of honor grows when young ones die. 55
Apollo.
If she dies old, her rites will be more rich.
Thanatos.
O Phoebus, you set laws in favor of the “haves.”
Apollo.
Say what? Has wisdom gone unmarked in you?
Thanatos.
Men who have means would pay to perish old.
Apollo.
You’d rather not do me this favor, then. 60
Thanatos.
Of course not! Oh, you know my ways so well.
Apollo.
Yes, vile to men and heinous to the gods.
Thanatos.
Your wants, though, aren’t needs—can’t have them all.
Apollo.
You’ll stop, for sure, although you’re far too cruel:
For such a man will come to Pheres’s house 65
Eurystheus has sent him to track down
An equine team from Thrace’s wintry parts,
Indeed, guest-welcomed in Admetus’s house,
This woman he will snatch from you by force.
And you shall have from us no favor, and 70
You’ll do this anyway; I’ll hate you too.
Thanatos.
By talking more, you’d gain no headway still:
The woman will descend to Hades’s house.
I come for her, to start the rites with sword,
For sacred to the gods beneath is he— 75
Whoever’s hair the blade may consecrate.
Alethea Lam (College ‘25) is a student at the University of Pennsylvania majoring in Classical Studies.
cover photo: Poster for the Barnard Columbia Ancient Drama Group’s 2012 staging of Alcestis.