| Asklepios, the son of Apollon, was endowed by his father with such skill in the healing art that he even restored the dead to life. At this Hades took alarm, and prevailed on Zeus to launch a thunderbolt at Asklepios. Apollon was indignant at the destruction of his son, and wreaked his vengeance on the innocent workmen who had made the thunderbolt. These were the Cyclopes, who have their workshop under Mount Aitna, from which the smoke and flames of their furnaces are constantly issuing. Apollon shot his arrows at the Cyclopes, which so incensed Zeus that he condemned him as a punishment to become the servant of a mortal for the space of one year.
Accordingly Apollon went into the service of Admetos, king of Pherai, and pastured his flocks for him on the verdant banks of the river Amphrysos.
Admetos was a suitor, with others, for the hand of Alkestis, the daughter of Pelias, who promised her to him who should come for her in a chariot drawn by lions and boars. This task Admetos performed by the assistance of his divine herdsman, and was made happy in the possession of Alkestis. But Admetos fell ill, and being near to death, Apollon prevailed on the Fates to spare him on condition that some one would consent to die in his stead. Admetos, in his joy at this reprieve, thought little of the ransom, and perhaps remembering the declarations of attachment which he had often heard from his courtiers and dependents fancied that it would be easy to find a substitute. But it was not so. Brave warriors, who would willingly have perilled their lives for their prince, shrunk from the thought of dying for him on the bed of sickness; and old servants who had experienced his bounty and that of his house from their childhood up, were not willing to lay down the scanty remnant of their days to show their gratitude.
Men asked, "Why does not one of his parents do it? They cannot in the course of nature live much longer, and who can feel like them the call to rescue the life they gave from an untimely end?" But the parents, distressed though they were at the thought of losing him, shrunk from the call. Then Alkestis, with a generous self-devotion, proffered herself as the substitute. Admetos, fond as he was of life, would not have submitted to receive it at such a cost; Lut there was no remedy. The condition imposed by the Fates had been met, and the decree was irrevocable. Alkestis sickened as Admetos revived, and she was rapidly sinking to the grave.
Just at this time Herakles arrived at the Palace of Admetos, and found all the inmates in great distress for the impending loss of the devoted wife and beloved mistress. Herakles, to whom no labour was too arduous, resolved to attempt her rescue. He went and lay in wait at the door of the chamber of the dying queen, and when Charon came for his prey, he seized him and forced him to resign his victim. Alkestis recovered, and was restored to her husband.
Source: http://www.greekmythology.com/Books/Bulfinch/B_Chapter_23/b_chapter_23.html
|
1
Featured February 2 , 2005
