Alcestis

By Euripides

Admetus will be saved from death only if someone else agrees to die in his place. His wife Alcestis offers herself as "payment," her sacrifice unfolding publicly before the citizens as a predetermined killing, today inevitably read as femicide legitimized by the social and political order. Alcestis is the only surviving ancient tragedy to bring both Death and Resurrection onto the stage, leaving open the question of what returning to life means once the sacrifice has already been made.