Alcestis: A Play

It take a classist who is a poet first to do justice to Euripides- Ted Hughes translation takes this relatively minor work and raises it to a profundity I’ve not encountered in other contemporary translations.

This was a very eye opening play that kept me on my toes. I thought it was a great read and I highly recommend it. If its for a class or even for the joy of reading, it will keep you engaged throughout to make the reader want to keep reading. I finished it in a day thats how good it was and I would read it again if I had the time to! If you come across this play, I would give it a shot and take the time to read it because I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This play by the famed Greek playwright Euripides (480-406 BCE) is a supernatural tale of King Admetus who was told that he would not die if he could find another person who was willing to die for him. In his play, Euripides analyses the psychology of the king. After being rebuffed by his parents, he asks his wife to die for him. She agrees on the condition that he marries no other person after her death. She explained that she loves her two children and feared that a stepmother would not treat them well. The king agrees and she dies. Soon after her death, the king realizes two things. First, he acted dishonorably and second, he misses his wife. “This is he who lives in shame because he dared not do.” “He never knew her worth… he will know it now.”Just as she is being buried, Heracles appears at the king’s palace. Unasked by the king, he goes out, wrestles with death, defeats death, and brings back Alcestis to her husband alive.Interestingly, Alcestis is unable to speak when she reappears after her death. Her husband asks why this is so. Heracles explains that it is only after three days after death that one can be fully alive again. This brings to mind the story of the resurrection of Jesus after three days.

Great.

Emotive, beautiful, and heart-wrenching beyond much of what I have read. I keep this book on my tablet {having worn out my paper copy many years ago} and re-read it, I think, every year💛

Da es leider eine Lebensaufgabe ist, die englische Version von Alcestis in Deutschland zu bekommen, habe ich meine Glück mit dieser Übersetzung versucht.Leider ist sie so weit entfernt vom Original, dass sie zu wissenschaftlichen Zwecken, wie zum Beispiel für eine Hausarbeit in der Universität, absolut ungeeignet ist.Keine Kaufempfehlung!