Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-cnmwb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-21T15:14:56.303Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

THE TERM ΕΛΕΥΘΕΡΙΑ IN EURIPIDES' ALCESTIS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2014

Efi Papadodima
Efi Papadodima*
Affiliation:
University of Ioanninaepapadod@cc.uoi.gr
Get access

Extract

The story of Alcestis and Admetus as dramatised in Euripides' Alcestis involves the exploration of prominent, as well as interconnected, moral values and cultural norms which affect or define all major parties. The most pertinent ones are those of friendship (φιλία) and guest-friendship (ξενία), goodwill and gratitude (χάρις), nobility (εὐγένεια, γενναιότης), shame or respect (αἰδώς), reverence towards the gods (εὐσέβεια), and honour (τιμή). The notion of ἐλευθερία (‘freedom’) in particular, though not featuring frequently in the play, proves to be a motif which itself works towards the definition or reassessment of the boundaries of friendship (and enmity) within a plot which blurs, complicates or even disturbs the terms of the most familiar and deep-rooted bonds (parentage, marriage, guest-friendship).

Type
Research Article
Information
Ramus , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , December 2014 , pp. 134 - 151
Copyright
Copyright © Aureal Publications 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Belfiore, E.S. (2000), Murder Among Friends: Violation of Philia in Greek Tragedy (Oxford).Google Scholar
Beye, C.R. (1957), ‘Alcestis and her Critics’, GRBS 2, 111-27.Google Scholar
Blundell, M.W. (1989), Helping Friends and Harming Enemies: A Study in Sophocles and Greek Ethics (Cambridge).Google Scholar
Burnett, A.P. (1965), ‘The Virtues of Admetus’, CP 60, 240-55.Google Scholar
Buxton, R.G.A. (1987), ‘Euripides’ Alkestis: Five Aspects of an Interpretation’, in Rodley, L. (ed.), Papers Given at a Colloquium on Greek Drama in Honour of R.P. Winnington-Ingram (London), 17-31.Google Scholar
Conacher, D.J. (1967), Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme and Structure (Toronto).Google Scholar
Conacher, D.J. (ed.) (1988), Euripides: Alcestis (Warminster).Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, G.J. (1991), ‘The Euripidean Heracles: An Intellectual and a Coward?’, Mnemosyne 44, 85-95.Google Scholar
Foley, H. (1985), Ritual Irony: Poetry and Sacrifice in Euripides (Ithaca NY).Google Scholar
Galinsky, G.K. (1972), The Herakles Theme: The Adaptations of the Hero in Literature from Homer to the Twentieth Century (Oxford).Google Scholar
Goldfarb, B.E. (1992), ‘The Conflict of Obligations in Euripides’ Alcestis’, GRBS 33, 109-26.Google Scholar
Griffith, M. (1978), ‘Euripides’ Alkestis 636-641’, HSCP 82, 83-86.Google Scholar
Grube, G.M.A. (1941), The Drama of Euripides (London).Google Scholar
Hamilton, R. (1978), ‘Prologue, Prophecy and Plot in Four Plays of Euripides’, AJP 99, 277-302.Google Scholar
Kovacs, D. (ed.) (1994), Euripides: Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea (Cambridge MA).Google Scholar
Kullmann, W. (1967), ‘Zum Sinngehalt der euripideischen Alkestis’, A&A 13, 127-49.Google Scholar
Luschnig, C.A.E. (1992), ‘Playing the Others: The Mythological Confusions of Admetus’, Scholia n.s. 1, 12-27.Google Scholar
Luschnig, C.A.E., and Roisman, H.M. (2003), Euripides Alcestis (Norman).Google Scholar
Padilla, M. (2000), ‘Gifts of Humiliation: Charis and Tragic Experience in Alcestis’, AJP 121, 179-211.Google Scholar
Papadodima, E. (2011), ‘Self-Characterisation in Rhesus 394-424’, Studia Humaniora Tartuensia 12, 1-8.Google Scholar
Rabinowitz, N.S. (1993), Anxiety Veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women (Ithaca NY).Google Scholar
Schein, S.L. (1988), ‘Philia in Euripides' Alcestis’, Mètis 3, 179-206.Google Scholar
Segal, C. (1992), ‘Euripides’ Alcestis: Female Death and Male Tears’, ClAnt 11, 142-58.Google Scholar
Seidensticker, B. (1982), Palintonos Harmonia: Studien zu komischen Elementen in der griechischen Tragödie (Göttingen).Google Scholar
Smith, W. (1960), ‘The Ironic Structure in Alcestis’, Phoenix 14, 127-45.Google Scholar
Stanton, G.R. (1990), ‘Philia and Xenia in Euripides’ “Alkestis”’, Hermes 118, 42-54.Google Scholar