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Alcestis

Overview

In Greek myth, Alcestis is known as the ideal good wife; she loved her husband so much that she died to save his life and was sent to the underworld in his place. In this poetic and vividly-imagined debut, Katharine Beutner gives voice to the woman behind the ideal, bringing to life the world of Mycenaean Greece, a world peopled by capricious gods, where royal women are confined to the palace grounds and passed as possessions from father to husband. Alcestis tells of a childhood spent with her sisters in the bedchamber where her mother died giving birth to her and of her marriage at the age of fifteen to Admetus, the young king of Pherae, a man she barely knows, who is kind but whose heart belongs to a god. She also tells the part of the story that's never been told: What happened to Alcestis in the three days she spent in the underworld before being rescued by Heracles? In the realm of the dead, Alcestis falls in love with the goddess Persephone and discovers the true horror and beauty of death.

Author Information

Katharine Beutner

No bio available for Katharine Beutner.

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9781569476178

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Product Details

  • Published by

    Soho Press

  • Publish Date

    January 31, 2010 

  • eBook ISBN

    9781569476178

  • Imprint

    Soho Press

  • Filesize

    565.81 KB

  • Number of Print Pages*

    N/A

* Number of eBook pages may differ. Click here for more information.