Admetus and Alcestis

Author: James Baldwin

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE; 1851 CE–1900 CE

Country or Culture: United States

Genre: Myth

Overview

It is easy to understand why the ancient Greek myth of Admetus and Alcestis has inspired many new versions through the ages. In this tale of a wife who chooses to die so that her husband may live, the compelling themes of self-sacrifice and resurrection suggest high drama and invite moral reflection on the characters’ choices. Writers have not failed to notice the rich possibilities in these details, and the story lives on in modern renditions.

The version by James Baldwin (1841–1925 CE), a teacher and prolific writer of school texts, is striking for its primitive treatment compared with the ancient sources. Baldwin penned the Admetus and Alcestis myth to create a simple story for children. The plot of his version, which appears in his 1895 volume Old Greek Stories, preserves some basic elements of the ancient texts. Apollo becomes a servant to a king named Admetus, who treats his servant well and is later rewarded when Apollo helps him to marry Alcestis, the daughter of a king who has set an impossible task for her suitors: Only the man who can yoke a lion and a boar to a chariot can win Alcestis’s hand. Apollo helps Admetus to achieve this task and grants him the privilege of being released from death if someone is willing to die in his place. When Admetus becomes ill, only Alcestis is willing to sacrifice her life for her husband. For this, the couple is rewarded with Alcestis’s resurrection.

And so Admetus and Alcestis were married, and everybody in the two towns, except gruff old King Pelias, was glad. Apollo himself was one of the guests at the wedding feast, and he brought a present for the young bridegroom; it was a promise from the Mighty Folk upon the mountain top that if Admetus should ever be sick and in danger of death, he might become well again if some one who loved him would die for him.

“Admetus and Alcestis”

In telling his story, Baldwin wished to avoid interpreting the myth, intending simply to grant younger readers access to a classic tale. However, a comparison of Baldwin’s version with Euripides’s famous drama, produced in 438 BCE, shows that Baldwin interprets the story quite differently, in a way that raises more questions than it answers. Departing from the ancient sources, Baldwin omits key plot elements and oversimplifies the characters; he avoids describing divine figures as gods and portrays all the central characters as completely good. In this way, his story leaves readers puzzled over the characters’ choices and abilities while conveying the simplistic message that good people are always rewarded. Comparative analysis can demonstrate how Baldwin’s treatment actually invokes religious traditions and conveys an implicit hierarchy of values in which Admetus is assumed to be most valuable, while Alcestis serves primarily to reveal his goodness and superior status. If Euripides’s ancient version implies a similar hierarchy, it nonetheless powerfully compels the reader to question these values and the characters’ worth. A comparative reading reveals that Baldwin’s version is in many ways less sophisticated, though no less instructive, than its ancient sources from more than two thousand years earlier. Perhaps more important, a comparative analysis shows that the progress of literature, like history, does not necessarily reflect predictably progressive values.

Summary

Baldwin divides his version of the myth into three sections that follow the traditional story’s major divisions. In the first section, “The Slave,” he introduces Admetus as the kindly leader of a quaint kingdom near the sea and immediately establishes the king as flawlessly good. Admetus knows the names of every person in his realm, and he is loved by all for being “so gentle and kind” (Baldwin 64). One stormy day, a ragged beggar visits the house of Admetus, who knows the man must be a foreigner because “in his own country no one ever went hungry” (64). The king feeds and clothes the stranger and offers him lodging. The next day, when Admetus asks the beggar to identify himself, the beggar simply shakes his head and asks Admetus to enslave him for one year. Although Admetus does not need help, he pities the beggar because of his poverty and allows him to serve. The stranger is unskilled, so Admetus makes him a shepherd and cares for him well. Throughout this time, the stranger never reveals his identity.

After a year and a day, Admetus is walking on his land and hears the sound of extraordinary music. He finds among his sheep not the ragged beggar but a handsome man “clad in robes lighter and finer than any king might wear” (66). The man’s face and eyes shine with great intensity, and he carries a silver bow, arrows, and a golden lyre. The regal man states that he is the beggar who served Admetus and asks if he can do anything for the king. When Admetus again asks his name, the man identifies himself as Apollo and states that his father, Jupiter, cast him out and forced him to serve as a man’s slave for one year. Ever grateful for Admetus’s kind treatment, Apollo asks how he might reward him. The humble Admetus refuses any reward, stating that he is simply glad to have helped. Before he departs, Apollo, now described as a “bright prince,” invites Admetus to call on him if he should ever need assistance (67).

The second part of Baldwin’s rendition, “The Chariot,” introduces Alcestis and describes how Admetus wins her hand in marriage. Alcestis is the daughter of King Pelias, who rules over the nearby city of Iolcus. The only explicitly bad character in the story, Pelias is described as a “cruel tyrant” (67), but Alcestis is beautiful and as unambiguously good as her future husband. Many suitors try to win her over, but Admetus is her favorite. When Admetus asks Pelias’s permission to marry Alcestis, the unreasonable king tells him that he must prove himself worthy by arriving in a chariot pulled by a lion and a boar. Saddened by this seemingly impossible task, Admetus departs and walks among his sheep, which prompts him to remember Apollo’s offer to help. The next day, Admetus builds an altar and sacrifices a goat to Apollo, calling out to the “Lord of the Silver Bow” to help him in his hour of need. Apollo immediately appears, the two go hunting, and Apollo catches the wild animals and yokes them to a golden chariot that magically appears at the forest’s edge. Apollo tames the animals, and the two drive to Iolcus, where the astonished King Pelias is forced to accept Admetus as Alcestis’s future husband. A happy wedding ensues, and Apollo’s gift is particularly special: He brings a pledge “from the Mighty Folk upon the mountain top” that in the future, Admetus will be able to escape death if “some one who love[s] him w[ill] die for him” (71).

The final section, “The Shadow Leader,” recounts Alcestis’s sacrifice for Admetus and the couple’s subsequent reward. The two live happily for some years before Admetus becomes ill. Baldwin does not tell us who summons volunteers to die for Admetus, simply stating that “those who [love] him” recall Apollo’s gift (72) and begin to look for someone to die in his place. Although Admetus’s elderly parents do not have much time to live, they refuse to help their son. Likewise, Admetus’s siblings and the townspeople all refuse to die for the king. Aware of these rejections, Alcestis retires to her room and prays to Apollo to allow her to die in place of her husband. Then she fearlessly lies on her bed and is found dead shortly after by her servants. Upon Alcestis’s death, Admetus immediately recovers and wishes to tell his wife. When he finds her dead, he realizes that she has given her life for his. Speechless with grief, he “wishe[s] that death had taken him and spared the one whom he loved” (73). Admetus holds Alcestis’s hand, refusing to leave her side for the entire night. In the morning, he suddenly feels her hand become warm and sees color flush her cheeks. Alcestis awakens, and the reader learns that upon her death, the mysterious Shadow Leader brought her to “the cheerless halls of Proserpine, the queen of the Lower World” (74). Moved by Alcestis’s tale of self-sacrifice, Proserpine commanded the Shadow Leader to return the woman to her loving husband. The two live happily for many years until the Shadow Leader takes them away together in old age.

Bibliography

Apollodorus. The Library of Greek Mythology. Trans. Keith Aldrich. Lawrence: Coronado, 1975. Print.

Baldwin, James. “Admetus and Alcestis.” Old Greek Stories. New York: American Book Company, 1895. Print.

---. “Preface.” Old Greek Stories. New York: American Book Company, 1895. Print.

Bradley, Edward M. “Admetus and the Triumph of Failure in Euripides’ Alcestis.” Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature 9.2 (1980): 112–27. Print.

Dyson, M. “Alcestis’ Children and the Character of Admetus.” Journal of Hellenic Studies 108 (1988): 13–23. Print.

Euripides. “Alcestis.” Euripides I. Trans. Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1955. Print.

Fisher, Peter J. L., and Sheila Shapiro. «James Baldwin (1841–1925): A Man Who Loved Stories.» Reading Psychology 16.2 (1995): 149–67. Print.

O’Higgins, Dolores. “Above Rubies: Admetus’ Perfect Wife.” Arethusa 26.1 (1993): 77–97. Print.

Wilder, Thornton. The Alcestiad; or, A Life in the Sun. New York: Harper, 1977. Print.