Excerpt from The Alcestis of Euripides In the midst of his grief for the decease of his wife, Admetus is surprised by the arrival of Hercules, who is on his way to Thrace in the performance of one of his labours. The strong sense which the Greeks had of the duties of hospitality induces the prince to insist on his guest te maining even in a house of mourning. After a somewhat boisterous enjoyment of the banquet, Hercules learns the facts of the case and to requite his kind host, he lies in wait for the demon Death, and by grappling with him re covers Alcestis from his grasp. At first he conceals the real nature of the service, and merely asks permission to leave under the care of Admetus a woman whom be pre tends that he has won as a prize in a contest. The myth is capable of a plausible explanation. Apollo, as the sun-god, was supposed to visit the earth when he descended from the sky in the far west. Thus, according to a well-known Indian (and indeed Egyptian) doctrine, the god was believed to have taken a human form. Hercules himself is a sun-god, but in the different attribute of the all-powerful benefactor and preserver of mankind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.