Play by Euripides. It is in GB Volume 5. Newsletter post: https://www.readgreatbooks.info/p/great-books-ep-79-euripides-alcestis
Alcetis
Metadata
- Author: Euripides
- Full Title: Alcetis
- Category:books
- Summary: “Alcetis” is a play by Euripides that explores themes of love and sacrifice. The story revolves around a woman who wishes to maintain her purity amidst societal pressures. It highlights the struggles of characters as they navigate their emotions and relationships.
People in the play
- Apollo, Alcestis, Admetus, Death, Chorus of Old Men of Pherae, Maid, Pheres, Attendant, Eumelus, Heracles
Highlights
- Admetus should escape the impending doom, if he found a substitute for the powers below. So he went through all his list of friends, made trial of each, his father and the aged mother that bare him, but none he found save his wife alone that was willing to die for him and forego the light of life; (View Highlight)
- Those who have wealth would buy the chance of their dying old. (View Highlight)
- Never, never will I say that marriage brings more joy than grief, as I conjecture by the past and witness these misfortunes of our king, for he when widowed of this noble wife will for the future lead a life that is no life at all. (View Highlight)
- do not marry a new wife to be a stepmother to these children, for she from jealousy, if so she be a woman worse than me, will stretch out her hand against the children of our union. (View Highlight)
- A guest is a burden to sorrowing friends, (View Highlight)
- To feast in a friend’s house of sorrow is shameful. (View Highlight)
- By heaven, thou art the very pattern of cowards, who at thy age, on the borderland of life, wouldst not, nay! couldst not find the heart to die for thy own son; (View Highlight)
- yea, for noble birth to noble feeling is inclined. And in the good completest wisdom dwells; and at my heart sits the bold belief that heaven’s servant will be blessed. (View Highlight)
- For weal or woe, thy life must be thine own; whate’er was due from me to thee, thou hast. (View Highlight)
- reflect, if thou dost love thy life so well, this love by all is shared; (View Highlight)
- ‘Tis not the way for servants to scowl on guests, but with courteous soul to welcome them. (View Highlight)
- Death is the common debt of man; no mortal really knows if he will live to see the morrow’s light; for Fortune’s issues are not in our ken, beyond the teacher’s rule they lie, no art can master them. (View Highlight)
- Thou art not the first to lose a wife; misfortune takes a different shape for every man she plagues. (View Highlight)
- ‘Tis easier to advise than to suffer and endure. (View Highlight)
- Time will soothe the smart; as yet thy grief is young. (View Highlight)
- Tis not lawful yet for thee to hear her speak, ere she be purified from the gods below and the third day be come. (View Highlight)
- 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 would be, God finds out a way. (View Highlight)