La maschera di Eracle nell'Alcesti

This article discusses the character of Heracles in Euripides’ Alcestis. In the banquet scene Heracles’ behaviour is described by the Servant in terms that suggest a close proximity with famous scenes from the Attic satyr play: Heracles seems to be the same greedy glutton that we find for example in the Syleus (and some passages in the Servant’s speech can probably be considered as “quotations” from the Syleus). But in the following episodes (the “philosophical” lesson of life given to the Servant and the final dialogue with Admetus) Heracles plays a real tragic role: it is he who forces Admetus to give up his absurd illusions and to accept the tragic rule of the “painful learning”. In other words, Heracles enters the play as a comic mask, but his appearance is a turning point for the plot, which without him would not have its tragic fulfilment.