Admetus in the ancient sources

Ancient Sources / Figures / Admetus

33 passages from 10 ancient authors that tell of Admetus, in the original with English translation, author by author in the order the Greeks read them. In Greek mythology, Admetus was the king of Pherae in the region of Thessaly, son of Pheres. He participated in the Argonautic Expedition. He was a f... For the story in one place, read our article on Admetus.

Hesiod (1)

Hesiod, Fragments 2.1–3.16Marriage of Ceyx and the Great EoiaeThe Marriage of Ceyx has Heracles landing from the Argo to look for water and a feast with Ceyx. The Great Eoiae gives genealogies and local legends, among them Epidaurus, Hyettus and Mycene, and Melampus and the serpents.

Homer (2)

Homer, Iliad 2.645–785The Catalogue of Ships (3): Crete, Achilles' Myrmidons and ThessalyThe Catalogue turns to the Cretans under Idomeneus, Tlepolemus of Rhodes and Nireus of Syme. It lists Achilles' Myrmidons, who lie idle by their ships while he nurses his wrath, and then the contingents from Thessaly, including those of Protesilaus, Philoctetes and Eumelus. The poet asks the Muse who were the best of the men and horses, and names Ajax as the best man while Achilles was angry.
Homer, Iliad 23.362–533Funeral games: the chariot raceApollo strikes the whip from Diomedes' hand, but Athena gives it back to him and breaks the yoke of Eumelus' chariot, so that he is thrown out. Antilochus, driving in a narrow place, forces Menelaus to give way and passes him. Diomedes comes in first, Antilochus second, and Menelaus is third by a small margin.

Apollodorus (1)

Apollodorus, The Library (Bibliotheca), with the Epitome 1.9.1–15Athamas, Sisyphus, Salmoneus, Melampus and AdmetusThe sons of Aeolus: Athamas, whose children Phrixus and Helle flee on the golden ram and who later loses Ino and Learchus to madness, then Sisyphus, Deion, Perieres, Magnes and Salmoneus, who is struck down for impersonating Zeus. Salmoneus's daughter Tyro bears Pelias and Neleus to Poseidon, and the section follows Neleus and Nestor at Pylus, Pelias in Thessaly, and Cretheus's line with the seer Melampus winning Pero for his brother Bias. It ends with Pheres, Admetus and Alcestis.

Pindar (1)

Pindar, Pythian Odes 4.1–142Pythian 4: for Arcesilas — Medea's prophecy and Jason at IolcusPindar honours Arcesilas, king of Cyrene and victor in the chariot race, and recalls the word that Medea spoke at Thera, that her companions' descendants would colonise Libya, so that Arcesilas is eighth in the line from Battus. He then turns to Jason, who arrives at Iolcus wearing one sandal and astonishes the crowd in the market-place, and who says that he has come to recover his father's honour. His kinsmen Pheres, Amythaon, Admetus and Melampus gather to him, and he leads them to the hall of Pelias and begins his appeal to the king.

Euripides (22)

Euripides, Alcestis 507–568Third episode: Admetus conceals Alcestis' death and welcomes HeraclesAdmetus comes out, and Heracles notices his shorn hair and asks who is dead. Admetus, wishing to receive his friend, answers that it is a woman who is not of his family and who lived in his house. He orders his servants to take Heracles to the guest rooms and close the doors so that the noise of mourning will not be heard, and the Chorus is amazed that he welcomes a guest in his grief.
Euripides, Alcestis 1037–1117Exodos: Admetus reluctantly agrees to take the womanAdmetus explains that he was not unkind and hid his grief only out of hospitality, and that the sight of another woman in the house of Alcestis would be unbearable. Heracles insists, and Admetus, against his will, at last agrees to take her hand.
Euripides, Alcestis 1118–1163Exodos: Heracles restores Alcestis to AdmetusHeracles tells Admetus to look at the woman, and Admetus, amazed, sees his wife, and wonders whether it is a ghost. Heracles tells him that he has wrestled with the god and won her back, but that she may not speak to him until she has been purified for three days. He departs, and Admetus calls on his people to hold dances and sacrifices; the Chorus ends the play.
Euripides, Alcestis 369–415Second episode: Alcestis entrusts her children to Admetus and diesAlcestis makes Admetus repeat his promise before the children, and gives the children into his hands. She says that darkness is closing on her eyes, bids her children farewell, and dies, and the Chorus announces her death. Her son Eumelus cries out that his mother has left him, and Admetus tells him that she cannot hear or see.
Euripides, Alcestis 706–746Fourth episode: Admetus and Pheres part in anger; Alcestis is borne to burialThe Chorus begs them to stop, and the quarrel goes on a little longer. Pheres leaves, telling Admetus that he is the murderer of his wife and that her family will take vengeance on him. Admetus curses his father and his stepmother, and goes to lay the body on the pyre, and the Chorus sings a farewell to Alcestis.
Euripides, Alcestis 861–902Exodos: Admetus returns from the burial in griefAdmetus returns from the burial, saying that he loathes to enter his house and wishes that he were dead. The Chorus tells him to go inside and to endure it, and Admetus says that the loss of a wife is the greatest of evils. He asks why he was kept from dying with her.
Euripides, Alcestis 1–27Prologue: Apollo explains why Alcestis must dieApollo says that he served in the house of Admetus as a herdsman, and that Admetus was so pious that he saved him from death by persuading the Fates to let him escape if another would die in his place. Admetus found no one willing but his wife Alcestis, who is dying this very day, and Apollo must leave the house before Death comes.
Euripides, Alcestis 141–212First episode: the Maid describes Alcestis' last hoursA Maid comes out of the house and tells the Chorus that Alcestis is alive and yet dead. She describes how the queen washed and dressed herself, prayed at the altar-hearth for her children, and wept in the bridal chamber. She says that Admetus holds his dying wife in his arms and begs her not to leave him.
Euripides, Alcestis 416–475Second episode: Admetus orders mourning; the Chorus praises AlcestisThe Chorus tells Admetus that he must bear his misfortune, since all are debtors to death. Admetus says that he knew of it long before, and gives orders for the funeral, with all Thessalians to mourn with shorn hair and black robes. The Chorus sings a farewell to Alcestis, calling for her a happy life in the sunless house of Hades.
Euripides, Alcestis 570–613Second choral song on Admetus' hospitality; the funeral processionThe Chorus praises the hospitable house of Admetus, which Apollo once served as a shepherd. Admetus then asks the elders to salute the dead, and the body of Alcestis is carried out for the burial, and the Chorus sees Pheres, the aged father of Admetus, coming with gifts for the dead.
Euripides, Alcestis 817–860Fifth episode: Heracles learns of Alcestis' death and goes to the tombThe Attendant tells him that the woman who died was Alcestis, wife of Admetus. Heracles, stung that his host hid the truth and let him feast, asks where she is buried. He resolves to repay Admetus' kindness by going to the tomb to wait for Death, to wrestle with him, and to bring her back.
Euripides, Alcestis 213–279First choral song; Alcestis comes out to dieThe Chorus prays to Apollo as Paean to save Admetus, and then sees Alcestis come out of the house, supported by her husband. Alcestis speaks to the sun and the clouds, and sees Charon, the ferryman of the dead, calling her to come. Admetus begs her not to leave him or the children.

10 more passages of Euripides that name Admetus

Apollonius Rhodius (1)

Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica 1.1–121Pelias' oracle and the catalogue of the ArgonautsThe poet invokes Phoebus and tells how Pelias, warned by an oracle to beware the man with one sandal, sends Jason after the Golden Fleece when Jason loses a sandal crossing the Anaurus. The catalogue of the Argonauts begins with Orpheus and goes on through Asterion, Polyphemus, Admetus, Mopsus, Peleus and Telamon and Tiphys, who steers the ship Athena and Argus built. It closes with Phlias and the sons of Bias from Argos.

Diodorus Siculus (1)

Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Books 4 to 6 (the Greek myths) 6.2.1–6.9.1Book 6: other fragmentsThe fragments that follow take up the gods named after lands they conquered, the Titans Xanthus and Balius, crowns, Picus who was called Zeus, and the Dioscori. They go on to Salmoneus, who imitated Zeus's thunder, to Admetus, Alcestis and Melampus, and end with Bellerophon at the court of Proetus and the Chimaera.

Pausanias (2)

Pausanias, Description of Greece 10.27.1–4Delphi: Polygnotus' painting of Troy after its capture (3): the dead and the house of AntenorPausanias lists the dead bodies in the Polygnotus painting of Troy, including Pelis, Eioneus, Admetus, Leocritus, Coroebus, Priam, Axion, Agenor and Laomedon, with the different poets' accounts of how each died. He then describes the house of Antenor, marked by a leopard's skin so the Greeks would spare it, with Theano and her children, and quotes Simonides' couplet naming Polygnotus of Thasos as the painter.
Pausanias, Description of Greece 5.17.1–11Olympia: the Heraeum’s images and the Chest of Cypselus, first fieldPausanias lists the images in the temple of Hera, among them Zeus and Hera, the Seasons, Themis, the Hesperides and works by Praxiteles, and then describes the cedar Chest of Cypselus, in which the infant Cypselus was hidden. He explains the inscriptions in boustrophedon and describes the first field of its reliefs, the chariot race of Pelops and Oenomaus, the house of Amphiaraus and the funeral games of Pelias.

Bacchylides (1)

Bacchylides, Epinicians (Odes of Victory) 3.1–4.20Odes 3–4: Croesus saved by Apollo; Hieron's victoriesCleio is told to praise Demeter and Hieron of Syracuse, whose horses won at Olympia. The poet tells how Croesus, with Sardis falling to the Persians, mounted a pyre with his family, how Zeus quenched the flames and how Apollo carried him to the Hyperboreans. The ode closes with Apollo's advice to Admetus, son of Pheres, and the promise that Hieron's glory will be sung by the nightingale of Ceos. Ode 4 hymns Hieron's third Pythian victory and his two at Olympia.

Epic Cycle (1)

Epic Cycle, Summaries and Fragments 7.1–26Little IliadProclus' summary of the Little Iliad begins with the judging of the arms of Achilles, which Odysseus wins, and the madness and death of Aias. Philoctetes is brought from Lemnos, Eurypylus is killed by Neoptolemus and Epeius builds the wooden horse. The fragments give the girls' quarrel over Aias and Odysseus, Achilles at Scyros, the golden vine given to Laomedon for Ganymedes, and the death of Astyanax.