ALCESTIS (ALKESTIS), in Greek legend the daughter of
Pelias and Anaxibia, and wife of Admetus, king of Pherae in
Thessaly. She consented to die in place of her husband,
and was afterwards rescued by Heracles. This beautiful
story of conjugal devotion forms the subject of the
Alcestis of Euripides, which furnished the basis of
Robert Browning's Balaustion's Adventure. Sophocles
also wrote an Alcestis, of which only fragments remain.