Alcestis Quotes

“One who is about to die is really dead already and being so, exist no longer”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“There be many shapes of mystery; And many things God brings to be, Past hope or fear. And the end men looked for cometh not, And a path is there where no man thought. So hath it fallen here.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“Verrai a visitarmi in sogno ed io sarò felice: è dolce vedere i propri cari anche di notte, per il tempo che ci è concesso. Magari avessi la voce e il canto di Orfeo, per ammaliare la figlia di Demetra o il suo sposo e così portarti via dall'Ade. Scenderei tra le ombre, e né il cane di Plutone né Caronte, il nocchiero delle anime potrebbero impedirmi di restituirti alla luce. Ma così come stanno le cose, aspettami, finchè non giunga il mio ultimo giorno: prepara la dimora, dove tu ed io abiteremo insieme. Ordinerò ai miei figli di depormi nella tua stessa bara di cedro, giaceremo fianco a fianco: neanche da morto voglio restar separato da te, l'unica persona a me fedele.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“Let mortal man keep to his own
Mortality, and not expect too much.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“Look this way!
Death is a debt all mortal men must pay;
Aye, there is no man living who can say
If life will last him yet a single day.
On, to the dark, drives Fortune; and no force
Can wrest her secret nor put back her course….”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“LEADER.
My King, thou needs must gird thee to the worst.
Thou shalt not be the last, nor yet the first,
To lose a noble wife. Be brave, and know
To die is but a debt that all men owe.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“But Why Does She Not Speak?”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“Today's today. Tomorrow, we may be
Ourselves gone down the drain of eternity.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“y, visitándome en sueños, me alegrarás, pues a los seres queridos, aun de noche, dulce es verlos, sea el tiempo que sea.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“What profit was it to live on,
Friend, with my grief kept and mine honour gone?”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“Scowlers—I tell thee truth, no more nor less—
Life is not life, but just unhappiness”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“I got thee to succeed me in my hall,
I have fed thee, clad thee. But I have no call
To die for thee. Not in our family,
Not in all Greece, doth law bid fathers die
To save their sons. Thy road of life is thine
None other's, to rejoice at or repine.
All that was owed to thee by us is paid.
My throne is thine. My broad lands shall be made
Thine, as I had them from my father…. Say,
How have I wronged thee? What have I kept away?
"Not died for thee?"… I ask not thee to die.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“We may marvel. Yet I trust,
When man seeketh to be just
And to pity them that wander, God will raise him from the dust.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“HERACLES.
I understand no more.
Thy words are riddles.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“For never shall I lose a closer friend,
Nor braver in my need. And worthy is she
Of honour, who alone hath died for me.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“LITTLE BOY.
Oh, what has happened? Mummy has gone away,
  And left me and will not come back any more!
Father, I shall be lonely all the day….
  Look! Look! Her eyes … and her arms not like before,
    How they lie …
  Mother! Oh, speak a word!
Answer me, answer me, Mother! It is I.
  I am touching your face. It is I, your little bird.
ADMETUS (recovering himself and going to the Child).
She hears us not, she sees us not. We lie
Under a heavy grief, child, thou and I.
LITTLE BOY.
I am so little, Father, and lonely and cold
  Here without Mother. It is too hard…. And you,
    Poor little sister, too.
        Oh, Father!
Such a little time we had her. She might have stayed
  On till we all were old….
Everything is spoiled when Mother is dead.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“LEADER.
And who hath said that Love shall bring
  More joy to man than fear and strife?
I knew his perils from of old,
I know them now, when I behold
  The bitter faring of my King,
Whose love is taken, and his life
  Left evermore an empty thing.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“It is a fearful ordeal for Admetus, and, after his first fury, he takes it well. He comes back from his wife's burial a changed man. He says not much, but enough. "I have done wrong. I have only now learnt my lesson. I imagined I could save my happy life by forfeiting my honour; and the result is that I have lost both." I think that a careful reading of the play will show an almost continuous process of self-discovery and self-judgment in the mind of Admetus. He was a man who blinded himself with words and beautiful sentiments; but he was not thick-skinned or thick-witted. He was not a brute or a cynic. And I think he did learn his lesson … not completely and for ever, but as well as most of us learn such lessons.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“So that many characters which passed as heroic, or at least presentable, in the kindly remoteness of legend, reveal some strange weakness when brought suddenly into the light. When the tradition is Satyric, as here, the same process produces almost an opposite effect. It is somewhat as though the main plot of a gross and jolly farce were pondered over and made more true to human character till it emerged as a refined and rather pathetic comedy.”
― Euripides, Alcestis

“Ahimè, sento parole dolorose, peggiori per me di ogni morte. Non essere così crudele da abbandonarmi, te ne prego, per gli dei, per questi figli che lascerai orfani. Non cedere, fatti coraggio! Se tu muori io non sono più niente: solo per te esisto e vivo.”
― Euripides, Alcestis