Alcestis by Euripides

At the rate I am going there is no way I will get through all of the Great Book Series before I expire.  I am seriously considering skipping over the rest of the works of Euripides.  I don’t like his attitude toward women.  In two of his prior works, he has expressed that it would be great if men could procreate without involving women.  In Alcestis, he apparently concedes the necessity of women to bring about off-spring, but I’m not so sure that he isn’t pleased with the notion of them dying shortly after they accomplish this function.

Admetus has been doomed to die unless he can get someone to take his place and go to Hades for him.  No one steps forward to do this.  He is miffed at his parents.  They are old anyway….shouldn’t they be willing to die for him?  He says this in so many words to his elderly father.

His dear precious wife, mother of his children, is the only one who loves him enough to die for him.  A considerable part of the play is taken up with her taking leave of her husband and children and bemoaning her fate.  She extracts a promise from Admetus that he will not remarry, because she is concerned about how a stepmother would treat her children.  He promises to remain true to her even after she is gone.  He will have an image of her made and hold that in his arms.

Shortly after she actually dies, Hercules arrives on the scene.  He is on his way to accomplish one of his Herculean tasks, and he is looking for lodging from his friend Admetus.  Admetus doesn’t want to be inhospitable, so he doesn’t let on to Hercules that his wife his just died.  Hercules eventually figures out that everyone is in mourning, and that he is being a bit too jovial for the occasion.

Hercules manages to ambush Death and return Alcestis to her home.  However, she is not allowed to speak for three days, and he presents her to Admetus veiled and without explaining who she really is.  Admetus repeatedly refuses to take this woman into his home lest he be disloyal to his recently deceased wife.  Eventually he figures out that it is his wife, and he is overjoyed.

Observations:

What a wimp!  I thought men were supposed to protect their wives.  He seems to think it is just fine if she dies for him.

Euripides apparently likes women either dead or unable to speak.

His real point apparently is stated in the closing paragraph:  Many are the shapes that fortune takes, and oft the gods bring things to pass beyond our expectation.  That which we deemed so sure is not fulfilled, while for that we never thought should be, God finds out a way.