Euripides and Alcestis: Speculations, Simulations, and Stories of Love in the Athenian CultureUniversity Press of America, 1998 - 113 pages Euripides and Alcestis demonstrates the inherent presence of indeterminacy in Euripides' play, Alcestis. The author uses about eighty of the scholarly attempts to establish a determinate meaning of the play to exhibit the difficulty and lack of success in previous attempts at interpretation. She recognizes that the meaning of the play is surrounded by ambiguity and indeterminacy and provides an interpretation based on this knowledge. As an interpretation, the author focuses on Admetus' desire in relation to Alcestis' statue and his nature as a fifth century Athenian man while exposing Alcestis as a nonidentity. She also analyzes the issues of representation and spectatorship, showing that the theatrical performance is constructed in order to function as vehicles for the satisfaction of a dominant position-that of Admetus and the spectator of the performance. |
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Page 35
... eye ... is filled by an image of itself through contemplation [ of another thing ] . " Thus Admetus needs a " mirror " to verify his self through the perception of another , to be ... eye looking at another eye , Her Statue and Alcestis 35.
... eye ... is filled by an image of itself through contemplation [ of another thing ] . " Thus Admetus needs a " mirror " to verify his self through the perception of another , to be ... eye looking at another eye , Her Statue and Alcestis 35.
Page 36
... eye looking at another eye , and at that eye which is most perfect and which is the instrument of vision , will there see itself ? But looking at anything else either in man or in the world except at what this resembles , it will not ...
... eye looking at another eye , and at that eye which is most perfect and which is the instrument of vision , will there see itself ? But looking at anything else either in man or in the world except at what this resembles , it will not ...
Page 50
... eyes , into stone . Perseus , warned by Athena not to look at Medusa directly , severs Medusa's head while turning his face away and looking only at her reflection on the polished surface of his shield which functions as a mirror ...
... eyes , into stone . Perseus , warned by Athena not to look at Medusa directly , severs Medusa's head while turning his face away and looking only at her reflection on the polished surface of his shield which functions as a mirror ...
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absence accepts According action actor Admetus Aeschylus Alcestis analysis Ancient Apollo appears ariste Aristotle Athenian Bacchae becomes believes brings called Cambridge Century characters Charles Segal Chorus Classical Collected Criticism dead death describe desire deus Dionysus Drama Duke University elements Essays Euripidean Euripides fact father female Feminine figure final finds function gives Gorgias Greek Tragedy hand Heracles hospitality human husband identity illusion imitation important interpretation keep language live London look male marriage mask meaning mirror Mortals Myth nature object offered origin Oxford Paris person Plato play pleasure Poetics present Princeton promise reality refers reflection relationship representation returns rhetorical role sacrifice scene spectators speech stage statue story Stranger structural Studies substitute suggests theatre thing tragic trans translated truth University Press values veil Vernant wife woman women York young Zeitlin