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A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Lands: A Selection

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Charlotte Mary Yonge

A Book of Golden Deeds of All Times and All Lands: A Selection

Paperback (Forgotten Books Aug. 11, 2012)
Jason in quest of the golden fleece, and when the marriage of his daughter, A lcestis, was in question, he tried to get rid of her suitors by making it a condition that the successful suitor should be able to yoke and drive together a wild boar and a lion. A dmetus, King of Pherae, a town or district in Thessaly to the west of lolcos, succeeded, thanks to a little timely help from A pollo, who owed the king a debt of gratitude. lo Admetus married A lcestis, but he foolishly omitted to offer a sacrifice to the goddess A rtemis, and was in consequence condemned to die. Alcestis thereupon offered herself as a willing sacrifice in his stead, rather than that the state should be deprived of its ruler. The most touching scene in Euripides tragedy is where A lcestis, full of the desire to live, yet moved by a splendid patriotism and a high sense of duty, takes her last look at the glorious sun and prepares for death. The weakness of the story lies in Admetus willing 20 concession that his wife should make so unparalleled a self-sacrifice on his behalf, but the age of chivalry did not begin till after the power of Christianity had raised the status of woman to a higher level. In another of his plays Euripides tells us that As far as life goes, one man is worth 10,000 women. The story does not end in gloom, and therefore is not in the strictest sense a tragedy (see Glossary), for Heracles rescued the dead Alcestis from the grasp of death and restored her to A dmetus. 30 Euripides, the Athenian poet who dramatised the beautiful story of A lcestis, was born B.C. 480, the year of the battle of Salamis. It was an age of literary glory for Greece, for it produced not only Euripides, but also Aeschylus and Sophocles, two of the greatest play-writers the world has ever known, and Socrates, one of its greatest philosophers or wise thinkers.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)About the Publisher
ISBN
1440074429 / 9781440074424
Pages
138
Weight
9.3 oz.
Dimensions
6.0 x 0.3 in.

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