Generational tensions and the ‘burden’ of old age in Euripides’ Alcestis

This analysis of Euripides’ Alcestis makes a legal approach to the mutually reciprocal principles of paidotrophia and gerotrophia, and the ethical and legal obligations that derive from them. Their application to the Euripidean drama forces the characters to face the need of developing a self-excusing argumentation, whose inconsistency and fragile legitimacy expose the partiality of their reasonings and the cowardice of Feres’ and Admetus’ behaviour. A sharp contrast with them is established by characters external to the original oikos of Pheres, as is especially the case of Alcestis and Heracle