51�Թ�

His wife Alcestis offered to die for him.

During his servitude Apollo made friends with the household, especially with the head of it and his wife Alcestis.

To be sure, it would have been still more accurate if it had shown him in a fit of rage killing one of the servants who were annoying him with their gloomy faces, but the poet Euripides from whom we get the story kept it clear of everything that did not bear directly on Alcestis’ death and return to life.

It was this Admetus whose wife, Alcestis, Hercules rescued from Hades.

He passes over also one of the most famous tales about Hercules, how he freed Alcestis from death, which was the subject of another of Euripides’ plays.