Alcestis (Masterplots, Revised Second Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Euripides
- First Published: 438
- Type of Work: Drama
- Type of Plot: Tragicomedy
- Time of Work: Antiquity
- Setting: Pherae, in ancient Greece
- Principal Characters: Apollo, Admetus, Alcestis, Thanatos, Hercules
- Genres: Drama, Tragedy
- Subjects: Death or dying, Gods or goddesses, Fate or fatalism, Heroes or heroism, Greek or Roman times, Sacrifice, Greece or Greek people
- Locales: Greece, ancient, Pherae
The Story:
Phoebus Apollo had a son, Asclepius, who in time became a god of medicine and healing. Asclepius transgressed divine law by raising a mortal, Hippolytus, from the dead, and Zeus, in anger, killed Apollo’s son with a thunderbolt forged by the Cyclops. Apollo then slew the Cyclops, a deed for which he was condemned by Zeus to leave Olympus and to serve for one year as herdsman to Admetus, the king of Pherae in Thessaly.
Some time after Apollo had completed his term of service, Admetus married Alcestis, the daughter of the king of Iolcus, Pelias. On his wedding...
[The entire page is 1869 words long]
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