Titas Choudhury, currently studying Masters in English at Jadavpur University (India), is an aspiring Classicist who's been reading about myths since she was introduced to them as a child. She intends to work on Indo-Greek myths and femininity in these old stories while digging up ancient artefacts one day and writing about them another.
The character of Alcestis is unique: she is a wife with utmost loyalty for her husband, the woman who is ready to die for love and does so, finally reunited with her husband because of his friendship with the hero Herakles. Primarily known through the famous play by Euripides, the story of Alcestis presents as a satyr play at the end of a tragic trilogy. Unfortunately, only the singular play survives, and we are to study Alcestis removed from the context of the trilogy. In our study of the play, we are inevitably driven to ask, what roles do love and duty play?
Alcestis dies in her husband's place, an action even Apollo cannot reverse. At the onset there is a clear reversal of the natural. One cannot bargain with death or foresee the day it would come, but the royal family and their servants are each aware of when Alcestis will die. It is also a notable departure on the stage: death scenes usually take place offstage in Classical dramas The natural process is distorted by one god, so another must restore balance. We see in the opening the following conversation:
DEATH
If you hold for right, why then your bow?
APOLLO
My custom is ever to carry it.
DEATH
Yes! And you use it unjustly to aid this house!
It is Apollo's love for Admetus that drives him to use his wits to evade death on his stead. Clearly, he is still trying to use his art of words to avert the untimely death of Alcestis, but alas, it proves fruitless. Alcestis will die.
The overarching theme of love is seen in Alcestis' self-sacrifice: offering her husband a long life by giving up her own. Royalties often married out of necessity and not love, but Alcestis and Admetus love each other. Admetus is pained by Alcestis' suffering, and says, "...since I held you living as my wife, so, when dead, you only shall be called my wife, and in your place no bride of Thessaly shall salute me hers; no other woman is noble enough for that, no other indeed so beautiful of face." When Herakles brings Alcestis back, her face covered, the hero asks Admetus to take her as wife. Admetus refuses, he is steadfast in his love for her.
Michael Lloyd writes, "Admetus cannot benefit from the sacrifice even though he lives and his wife dies in his stead. Why does he not wish to die instead? Can these choices be used to measure their loves for each other?”
Now one may question this love with a simple analogy: if Admetus loves Alcestis so much, how can he bear letting her die in his stead? This is where his duty as the king comes in. He is the patriarchal head of his family and his kingdom, and dying would not only desert his family, but also leave his kingdom without a proper heir, because his children are too young. Without the patriarch, the kingdom and family is at risk from external forces, who might usurp his throne and abduct his wife and children. His duty bars him from abandoning his mortal existence.
So, what about the wife's duty? Marital duty does demand one to show such piety towards their partner, and indeed Admetus' loyalty to his wife far surpasses what is needed of him. But when it comes to Alcestis, she is duty-bound to protect her husband, regardless of love. Her dialogues show a mix of duty and love, not betraying favour for one over the other like Admetus: "It is enough that I should die-for you." A recall of the couple's individual duties also show up in Alcestis' dialogues to Admetus: "I might have lived and wedded any in Thessaly I chose, and dwelt with happiness in a royal home. But, torn from you, I would not live with fatherless children, nor have I hoarded up those gifts of youth in which I found delight." She is pious and virtuous, and her loyalty towards her husband takes precedence over her personal affections.
Alcestis' love for Admetus greatly overshadows her other loves, including her love for her children. The role of a mother and a father are clearly divided in classical society, and one cannot fulfil the other. A reversal is created by bestowing the motherly role on the father.
The words "you must be the mother…to my children" might be seen as an emasculation of Admetus. But it is not, because of Alcestis' virtue. The gap created in their children's parenting is a result of Alcestis' love and duty towards Admetus, and therefore Admetus must pay it back by undertaking a dual role. Alcestis deeply loves her children but she has no choice in abandoning them, because she is a wife first and a mother later. Euripides was often criticised for his portrayal of characters, which showed a heavy departure from the norm.
The audience of Euripides comprised both Athenian men and women, though the former was a majority. Classical myths saw all women as fallible and faulty, with certain exceptions. Penelope is an exception, and so is Alcestis. They are both wives and queens who place their duties above their personal opinion. Both are concerned with the welfare of the kingdom above their own safety or pleasure.
Social norms certainly drew from these mythical implications. Women's mobility was highly controlled, portrayed as the properties of, first their fathers, then their husbands. The lone woman has no place in society, a concept that influenced Alcestis' decision to leave her children motherless instead of fatherless. This is perhaps a unique case in Euripides: the woman is ideally constructed. However, the nuances still diverted from the norm.
Alcestis' death isn't only her own (Dellner). Her death is the death of balanced domesticity. She is an exception in the heroic tradition: she chooses death and then makes all the necessary arrangements to ensure the stability of her household when she is gone. She is heroic because of her loving in life, and because she doesn't shirk away from the greatest duty a wife can face. She succeeds by dying. Her revival was not anticipated. Love and duty are not only questioned in the play but placed both as concurrent as well as opposing forces throughout the story.
Alcestis is the play of departures and conformations, placing dichotomies in a perfect harmony.