Product Description

This is Hughes's version of "Alcestis" - the story of a king, Admetus, who is able to escape death because his wife, Alcestis, has volunteered to die in his place. It is a tragedy about being beckoned to die, and also a story of death defeated.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #158467 in Books
• Published on: 2000-09-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
The qualities that make classic Greek Drama often so difficult to relate to on the modern stage--its weird formality, its lyricised violence, its declamatory tone and peculiar plotting--paradoxically make it perfect for translating into modern poetry. The late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes proved this himself with his Whitbread Prize-winning Tales From Ovid. In that fine translation Hughes's pagan fatalism and passionate craftsmanship proved an ideal match for one of the greatest of Greek texts.

Now this new poem/play shows that Hughes's previous success was far from a one-off. Euripides's story is simply summarised: a rich and esteemed Greek king, Admetos, has been asked for his life by the Gods. In place of Admetos, the king's beautiful wife Alcestis, mother of their two beloved children, offers to sacrifice herself. Meanwhile Admetos's beer-buddy, the hero Heracles (i.e. Hercules), has shown up at the palace, ready to do some carousing. On this clash of personalities and circumstances the play tilts, and turns--until the world is eventually put to rights.

The joy of this work is in the language. Hughes/Euripides is by turns vernacular: "I need to get my double nelson on an immortal neck", lyrical: "I have nailed her to the sun with a laser", and pungent: "What loathsome sacks of refuse old men are!". Other times the writing is almost casual in its modernity, which makes what could otherwise be a dense and disappointing text fresh and accessible.

Ted Hughes died, of course, in 1998: a short while after completing work on this version. His death seems all the more poignant in that, taking into account the other late, great works--Birthday Letters, and Tales From Ovid--alongside this noble and moving translation, he appeared to be approaching the height of his powers in his final months. But at least we have the books. --Sean Thomas

Customer Reviews

The closest thing we have to a Greek satyr play
"Alcestis" is the oldest surviving play of Euripides, although he had been writing tragedies for almost twenty years when it was written. Apparently it ws the fourth play in a tetralogy, taking the place of the ribald satyr play which traditionally followed a series of three tragedies. Consequently, this play has more of a burlesque tone, best represented in the drunken speech of Heracles to the butler and his teasing of Admetus at the end. So while "Alcestis" is a tragedy, it does offer up an unusal happy ending.

In Greek mythology Alcestis was the daughter of Pelias and wife of Admetus, an Argonaut and the king of Pherae. In Western literature Alcestis is the model wife, for when her husband is to die she alone agrees to die in his place. However, the key in this drama is how Admetus finds this sacrifice totally acceptable. Admetus is represented as a good and honorable man, but then his ethos is established in this play by the god Apollo in the opening scene, and even though it was written later it is hard not to remember the expose Euripides did on the god of truth in "Ion." Euripides adds a key twist in that Alcestis agrees to the sacrifice before she fully understands that her husband will suffer without her. She is brought back from the underworld by Heracles and restored to her relieved husband, but the play clearly characterizes Admetus as a selfish man and it is this view that other writers have imitated every since.

The story of Alcestis has been addressed by more modern writers from Chaucer and Milton to Browning and Eliot. The sacrifice of Alcestis has also been the subject of several operas. "Alcestis" is not a first rate play by Euripides, but it does represent both his cynicism and his attempt to make the audience confront the problematic elements of its belief system. So while I would not teach "Alcestis" by itself, in conjunction with other play by Euripides, specifically "Ion," it can definitely have value in class.