Alcestis by Euripides
E121513
"Alcestis" is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides that dramatizes the story of a devoted wife who volunteers to die in place of her husband and is later rescued from death by Heracles.
All labels observed (8)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Alcestis | 2 |
| Alcestis (play) | 1 |
| Alcestis by Euripides canonical | 1 |
| Euripides' play Alcestis | 1 |
| Euripides, Alcestis | 1 |
| Euripides’ Alcestis | 1 |
| Euripides’ play Alcestis | 1 |
| myth of Alcestis | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1032245 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Alcestis by Euripides Context triple: [Alcmene, mentionedIn, Alcestis by Euripides]
-
A.
Hecuba (Euripides)
Hecuba (Euripides) is a Greek tragedy by Euripides that portrays the suffering and vengeance of the Trojan queen Hecuba after the fall of Troy.
-
B.
Trojan Women (Euripides)
Trojan Women is a tragedy by Euripides that portrays the suffering and despair of the women of Troy in the aftermath of the city's destruction in the Trojan War.
-
C.
Iphigenia in Aulis (Euripides)
Iphigenia in Aulis is a tragedy by Euripides that dramatizes Agamemnon’s agonizing decision to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to secure favorable winds for the Greek fleet sailing to Troy.
-
D.
Philoctetes (Sophocles)
Philoctetes (Sophocles) is a classical Greek tragedy by Sophocles that dramatizes the moral and psychological conflict surrounding the marooned archer Philoctetes during the final phase of the Trojan War.
-
E.
Antigone
Antigone is a tragic heroine from Greek mythology and Sophocles’ Theban plays, known for defying royal authority to honor her family and the gods.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Alcestis by Euripides Target entity description: "Alcestis" is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides that dramatizes the story of a devoted wife who volunteers to die in place of her husband and is later rescued from death by Heracles.
-
A.
Hecuba (Euripides)
Hecuba (Euripides) is a Greek tragedy by Euripides that portrays the suffering and vengeance of the Trojan queen Hecuba after the fall of Troy.
-
B.
Trojan Women (Euripides)
Trojan Women is a tragedy by Euripides that portrays the suffering and despair of the women of Troy in the aftermath of the city's destruction in the Trojan War.
-
C.
Iphigenia in Aulis (Euripides)
Iphigenia in Aulis is a tragedy by Euripides that dramatizes Agamemnon’s agonizing decision to sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to secure favorable winds for the Greek fleet sailing to Troy.
-
D.
Philoctetes (Sophocles)
Philoctetes (Sophocles) is a classical Greek tragedy by Sophocles that dramatizes the moral and psychological conflict surrounding the marooned archer Philoctetes during the final phase of the Trojan War.
-
E.
Antigone
Antigone is a tragic heroine from Greek mythology and Sophocles’ Theban plays, known for defying royal authority to honor her family and the gods.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
ancient Greek play
ⓘ
stage drama ⓘ tragedy ⓘ |
| associatedDeity | Apollo ⓘ |
| associatedMythCycle | Admetus and Alcestis myth ⓘ |
| author | Euripides ⓘ |
| centralTheme |
death and rebirth
ⓘ
hospitality (xenia) ⓘ marital devotion ⓘ self-sacrifice ⓘ the nature of heroism ⓘ |
| characterizationFeature | blend of tragic and comic elements ⓘ |
| choralMeter | various lyric meters in choral odes ⓘ |
| dramaticDevice | Heracles as a comic yet heroic savior ⓘ |
| dramaticInnovation | use of a tragic play in the satyr-play position ⓘ |
| ethicalQuestion |
obligations between parents and children
ⓘ
value of self-sacrifice in marriage ⓘ |
| featuresCharacter |
Admetus' father Pheres
ⓘ
Apollo ⓘ Chorus of citizens of Pherae ⓘ Admetus ⓘ
surface form:
King Admetus of Pherae
Thanatos ⓘ
surface form:
Thanatos (Death)
servants of Admetus ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceDate | 438 BC ⓘ |
| firstPerformanceFestival | City Dionysia ⓘ |
| firstPerformancePlace | Athens ⓘ |
| genre |
satyr-influenced tragedy
ⓘ
tragedy ⓘ |
| influenced |
Alceste by Christoph Willibald Gluck
ⓘ
later European drama ⓘ operatic adaptations ⓘ |
| language | Ancient Greek ⓘ |
| literaryForm | verse drama ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | Classical Athens ⓘ |
| mainCharacter |
Admetus
ⓘ
Alcestis (mythological queen) ⓘ
surface form:
Alcestis (mythological figure)
Heracles ⓘ Thanatos ⓘ |
| meter | primarily iambic trimeter in dialogue ⓘ |
| mythicMotif |
descent to the realm of Death
ⓘ
substitutionary death ⓘ |
| mythologicalSource | Greek mythology ⓘ |
| originalPerformanceContext | Athenian tragedy ⓘ |
| partOfCorpus | Euripidean corpus ⓘ |
| plotSummary | Alcestis volunteers to die in place of her husband Admetus and is later rescued from Death by Heracles ⓘ |
| replacedGenreInTetralogy | satyr play ⓘ |
| setting |
Pherae
ⓘ
surface form:
Pherae in Thessaly
|
| structure | prologue, parodos, episodes, stasima, exodos ⓘ |
| survivalStatus | extant complete play ⓘ |
| tetralogyPosition | fourth play ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Alcestis by Euripides Description of subject: "Alcestis" is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides that dramatizes the story of a devoted wife who volunteers to die in place of her husband and is later rescued from death by Heracles.
Referenced by (9)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Alcestis
this entity surface form:
Alcestis
this entity surface form:
Euripides’ Alcestis
this entity surface form:
Euripides' play Alcestis
subject surface form:
Alcestis
this entity surface form:
Alcestis (play)