After doing a little more research on this story i discovered that Admetus, who Calasso claimed to be hospitable, turned out to be a King of a small Kingdom. His kingdom was named Delphi. Admetus was a very kind king who took the time to know all of his subjects. One day a beggar came to the door of the King, he of course took care of this man and ended up accepting the beggar's proposal and let him become his slave for a single year. This beggar turned out to be the powerful god Apollo. Go figure. Admetus now has this gods blessing for all time and has the gods promise of help if needed. It obviously doesn't take long for Admetus to request the help of Apollo. (since humans have a strange need to put themselves in a situation that they can not control) Admetus' request for help, like many other heroes, concerns a beautiful women. Her name is Alcestis. Long story short Admetus gets the girl with the help of Apollo. He also gets a special gift from the gods. If Admetus wishes, when Admetus should die, someone else may choose to take his place. After they had lived together in happiness for a long while, it came about that Admetus fell very ill and was close to death. It was at this time that they remembered his gift from Apollo. Alas, no one was willing to take his place, no one but his beloved wife. Without her husbands knowledge, Alcestis gave up her life for Admetus. When he discovered what Alcestis had done Admetus was horribly heart broken. However after morning over his wife all night he began to feel life flood back into Alcestis. Unimaginable joy filled Admetus. Apparently Alcestis love and loyalty was apreciated by the gods so much that Hercules was allowed to go down to the Under World and return her to the life of the living. It was also told that Persephone (The Queen of Hades) was moved by the story this beautiful lady had told her and made The Shadow Leader bring her back to the surface of the world.
This story was very interesting to me because of how a women takes on the role of another historical character, Jesus. She gave up her own life for someone she loved more then her own life. This love and devotion that she displayed ended up being her own savior. I love how Callaso brings up the fact that back in this time it was rare for a women to be able to take the place of someone dying due to how most women where not known to posses philia. But this women Alcestis had philia and proved to the world that women could have this love.
Philia (φιλία philía[3]) is "mental" love. It means affectionate regard or friendship in both ancient and modern Greek. This type of love has give and take. It is a dispassionate virtuous love, a concept developed by Aristotle. It includes loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality and familiarity. In ancient texts, philos denoted a general type of love, used for love between family, between friends, a desire or enjoyment of an activity, as well as between lovers.
