My mom isn’t that much of an outdoor person, but every year for as long as I can remember she’s went to the all night catfish tournament with dad. Not because she particularly enjoys it, but because dad asks her to go with him. A marriage is about give and take, but this sacrifice seems like a small one compared to what Medea and Alcestis gave up for their husbands in two of Euripides’ plays. Although Medea and Alcestis are alike in their willingness to sacrifice themselves for their husbands, Jason and Admetus’ loyalty to them make the women differ.Medea betrayed her family and left her homeland to be with Jason.
“How I wish that the ship Argo had never winged its way through the grey Clashing Rocks to the land of the Colchians! How I wish the pines had never been hewn down in the glens of Pelion, to put oars into the hands of the Heroes who went to fetch for Pelias the Golden Fleece” (37). The nurse is giving us exposition at the beginning of the play Medea. When Jason landed at Colchis, where King Pelias had sent him to capture the Golden Fleece, Medea fell in love with him, and despite her father (King Aaetes), helped him.After she betrayed her father, Medea left her homeland and has been living with Jason as husband and wife ever since.
Jason’s actions later in the story make the nurse wish none of this had ever happened. Even though Medea sacrificed a lot for her husband, she didn’t get the same treatment in return. Similarly, Alcestis agreed to take her own life in place of her husband Admetus. “He canvassed and solicited all his friends, his aged father and the mother who bore him, but he found no one except his wife willing for his sake to die and to forgo the light of day” (3).This quote refers to when Admetus was given the chance to live if he could find someone willing to die in his place. When his friends and even his elderly mom and dad refused, his wife Alcestis didn’t hesitate to do him this favor.
Alcestis reminds Admetus, “For your sake I die, though I could have survived and married any Thessalian I wished” (10). If she wasn’t so willing to make sacrifices for someone she loves, she could’ve let her husband except his fate and moved on happily with another husband. Even though Admetus made a mistake in letting Alcestis die for him, he made up for it later in the play.Medea’s husband wasn’t a faithful partner to her.
The nurse tells us that “Jason has betrayed his own children and my mistress to sleep beside a royal bride, the daughter of Creon who rules this land, while Medea, in her desolation invokes the promises he made […]”(37-38). Jason chose to cheat on Medea even though she had been a good wife and mother to him and his children. “Only now and then she [Medea] turns her white neck and talks to herself in sorrow, of her dear father and her country and the home which she betrayed to come here with a husband who now holds her in contempt” (38).The idea of Jason’s betrayal saddens and angers Medea. She cannot believe she’s sacrificed so much for him and he’s giving her this kind of treatment in return.
She regrets the day that she went against her own family for a man who would later do her so wrong. In contrast, Alcestis’s husband stayed faithful to her even after her life had ended. On Alcestis’s death bed she asked one favor of Admetus, and that was to never marry another. He agreed without hesitation.
“Alive you were my only wife, and dead you alone will be called mine” (11). Admetus says this to her before she dies.He wants her to know that he will not forget this sacrifice she has made for him and wed another bride because no other woman could ever measure up to her in his mind. After Alcestis had been buried, Admetus still kept his word. “But know you will never call me bridegroom” (31). Admetus says this to Heracles after he suggested it might be in his best interest to marry again and put an end to his sorrow.
This proves that he was going to keep his promise he gave to Alcestis on her death bed and never marry another woman. Basically, the characters of Medea and Alcestis have a lot in common.The loyalty of their husbands is the only thing that makes the women differ. Medea went against her own father and even willingly left her homeland to be with Jason, and Alcestis agreed to die in Admetus’s place without hesitation when no one else would. Jason later broke up the marriage that Medea fought for by finding another bride.
In contrast, Admetus was faithful to Alcestis even after she was in her grave. Both Medea and Alcestis made a selfless sacrifice for the man they loved, but Medea’s husband took her love for granted, while Alcestis’s husband vowed he would love her until the end of his time.
