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ALCESTE. Alcestis, the most beautiful of King Pelias's daughters, married Admetus of Thessaly after he passed the test her father had set him: to yoke together a wild boar and a lion. When his time came to die, Admetus asked his parents to die in his stead, but they refused. Then Alcestis offered herself in his stead, and he accepted her offer. But Persephone refused her sacrifice and sent her back to earth (Fulgentius, Mythologies I.22). In Euripides's play, Alcestis, Hercules rescues her from Hades. Alcestis is one of the four noble wives in Gower's Confessio Amantis VII.1917-1949, VIII.2640-2646.

Alceste is the image of the perfect wife; she appears in the Man of Law's catalogue of heroines, MLI 75, and she is on Dorigen's list of virtuous women, FranklT 1442. Cassandra tells Troilus the story of Alceste, Tr V.1527-1533. The poet says that he would more gladly write of Penelope's loyalty and of good Alceste than of Criseyde, Tr V.1772-1785. Alceste surpasses other famous women who have died for love, LGW G 203-223. In Chaucer's vision the God of Love leads forth Alceste, who wears a crown made of "flourons smale," LGW F 217; she is clothed in green and crowned with white, LGW F 241-246, LGW G 173-174. Alceste pleads for the poet before the God of Love, LGW F 431-441, LGW G 421-431. The God of Love says that the poet has a book that tells the story of Alceste, how she chose to die for her husband and how Hercules rescued her, LGW F 510-518, LGW G 498-506. [Amete: Cibella]

Alceste appears three times initially, LGW G 209, 216, 223; five times in medial positions, FranklT 1442, LGW G 179, 317, LGW F 432, LGW G 532; eight times in final rhyming position: MLI 75; Tr V.1527, 1778; LGW F 511, 518, LGW G 499, 506, 530.


P. Clogan, "Chaucer's Cybele and the Liber Imaginun Deorum." PQ 43 (1964): 272-274; Fulgentius, Mythographi Latini, ed. T. Munckerus, II: 62-64; ibid., Fulgentius the Mythographer, trans. L.Whitbread, 62-63; John Gower, Complete Works, ed. G.C. Macaulay, III: 458.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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