#Alcesti

[myborderland]

[...] Le vostre parole, anche se insincere, non mentono: ogni vostro messaggio trasuda inconsistenza, credo ve ne rendiate conto (ma non ne sono sicura) soprattutto quando provate ad intavolare un discorso dal quale rimango distante e, stravolti dalla noia da voi stessi montata, cercate goffamente di coinvolgermi, come naufraghi che onda dopo onda, cerchino di aggrapparsi ad uno scoglio scivoloso e solitario. Quanto ero lontana da me stessa quando vi trovavo divertenti?

[finelythreadedsky]

obsessed with stories where the message is that you can't bring someone back from the dead even if you can bring someone back from the dead

[amiti-art]

Apollo helping his boyfriend get a wife be like

Based on this

Apollo's design

Admetus and Alcestis' designs ( +sumary of their myth)

[bones-ivy-breath]

Alcestis by Euripides (tr. Richard Aldington)

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

Alcestis, watching Apollo & Cyrene: Anyway why is archery so fucking sexy

Admetus, also watching Apollo & Cyrene: Shoulders and absolute physical control. next question.

[thearchaicsmile]

ἐγὼ μὲν οὐκ ἔχοιμ᾽ ἂν εὖ λέγειν τύχην, χρὴ δ᾽, ἥτις ἐστί, καρτερεῖν θεοῦ δόσιν

"I could never bring myself to say that fate is kind, but we must endure what the gods give, whatever that may be."

— Euripides, Alcestis

[my-name-is-apollo]

Wanna share some newly found Admetus x Apollo crumbs!! because I just love them and they never fail to make me go feral every time I read something about them!!

This time it's from a latin poem "Alcestis Barcinonensis", and as the name suggests it narrates the story of Alcestis. But it also has Admetus and Apollo having a conversation with each other - which I've never seen before in any of the texts, so this poem has stirred my feels (again).

It starts with Admetus calling upon Apollo to answer his questions about his future:

"If I worshipped you ever; if I ever offered you support when you came to me as a terrified servant after the gods' charge against you"

Just...Imagine being Admetus. You worship a god ardently, and that god turns up at your door step as your servant (a terrified servant) and you get to shelter him, accept him. Support him at his lowest. And this god falls in love with you and is serving you in a way that feels like he is worshipping you. ("I am myself godly, and in Admetus, son of Pheres, I found a godly man." - Apollo in Euripides' Alcestis) It is dishonorable for the god but he doesn't care, he is ready to go to any extent to keep you happy.

A commentary on this poem points out how Admetus' addresses Apollo in this way with an intent of binding the god to himself:

I'm kinda loving how this characterises Admetus as being selfish, or at least insensitive with his request to Apollo. Yes he knows Apollo is no longer his slave, but he knows very well he can still bind Apollo to him and he doesn't hesitate to take advantage of it.

Apollo doesn't have to oblige, because he has already served Admetus exceptionally well during his years of servitude. Even afterwards, he has done enough favours for Admetus - helped him get a wife, saved him from Artemis' wrath. But of course, he still comes to do him yet another favour. It's very fitting that their story is used as an example for servitium amoris (slavery of love) by other poets like Ovid and Tibullus. Despite being free, in his heart he's still a slave to Ademtus' love. Maybe that's why Apollo lets himself get easily bound when Admetus requests for it. He probably knows that this is not entirely fair, but he still answers it because perhaps everything he has done so far is still not enough for him (or perhaps yielding to Admetus' requests has become a fond habit of his)

Back to the poem, this is Apollo's answer to Admetus:

"I grieve for you, but I must tell you the truth. Death is pressing upon you."

Apollo says he is already grieving for Admetus. He must have known that for a while huh. For how long has he been mourning Admetus in secret? :')

He not only answers the questions, but also goes beyond by letting Admetus know how to escape death - something Admetus hadn't asked for (but that probably would have been Admetus' next request). It seems like Apollo is just as desperate to save Admetus as Admetus is to save himself, and maybe he was waiting for the day Admetus would selfishly ask this of him.

Admetus has to find someone to die in his place, so that he can live longer. Given how in Ovid's poem Apollo wishes to renounce his godhood so that he could die with Hyacinthus, I don't think it would be a stretch to imagine that if it was possible, Apollo would have given his years (at least some of his years) to Admetus. Instead, Apollo tells him to ask his parents, wife and children. Where both his parents refuse, Alcestis gladly agrees to die in her husband's place.

Alcestis agrees to die, first and foremost because it will bring her glory. She will be praised and remembered for being a pious wife. And she will not have to live the life of a widow. That doesn't make her sacrifice any less noble or selfless at all...

But the thing is, while both Apollo and Alcestis go out of their way to save Admetus, Alcestis' act of saving her husband brings her glory and honor, but Apollo's part in saving Admetus only brings him dishonor and scorn from other gods. But that doesn't stop Apollo from still trying to do something for Admetus, to save him in whatever way possible. In Alcestis, Apollo even tries to save Alcestis by negotiating with Thanatos. All for the sake of Admetus.

Like just how much can a god love a mortal?

[the-evil-clergyman]

Illustrations from Padraic Colum's The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles by Willy Pogany (1921)

[grymkoena]

Dragon's Dogma 2

[OC: Alcestis Lysther]

[gennsoup]

"You could come to see me in my dreams and comfort me. For they who love find a time's sweetness in the visions of night."

Euripides, Alcestis

[gotstabbedbyapen]

[tanogabo]

Alcesti, una delle figlie di Pelia

Alcesti, figlia di Pelia e moglie di Admeto, insieme alle sorelle Pelopia, Medusa,  Pisidice  e  Ippotoe, si lasciò convincere da Medea ad uccidere il padre Pelia immergendolo in un bagno bollente. Alcesti e Admeto – Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, affresco da Ercolano, Augusteum-Basilica – Wikipedia, pubblico dominio Medea, che intendeva aiutare Giasone ad eliminare Pelia che lo aveva…

[finelythreadedsky]

ranking sophocles plays in order of how real ghosts are in them

[amiti-art]

Apollo wingmaning his boyfriend is one of my favourite parts of Admetus' myths.

I have to draw them like this

[illustratus]

Hercules and Alcestis by Eugène Delacroix