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Are only the good worth saving? The legend

of Admetus and Alcestus.

In the English language, the word `love' has so many different meanings. Its usage ranges from

the love which a man has for his immediate friends and family, to the love which he has for the

activities he undertakes which appeal to him, as well as the sensual love which is reserved for

sexual activity. Then there is also that very special form of love which is reserved for one's spouse,

and bonds a man to a woman, so that the two become one in the union of marriage. This one

word has so many different applications!

The Greeks understood this, and had as many as five different words which they believed define

`love'. They are `eros', `phileos', `storge', `xenia', and `agape'.

`Eros' might be defined as `sensual love'. It is from `eros' that the word `erotica' is derived, and

is depicted as the love which a man has for a woman. We see this in the Greek pantheon, where

Cupid, the god of love, is poised ready to strike arrows into our hearts. The Greeks took this

sensual form of love and sought to elevate it far above the sensualism which they believed weighs

it down into the material world in which we live, and believed that this unsullied form of love in its

purest form is the `parousia' of the gods, and is that ecstatic elevation of consciousness which is

achieved when we achieve union with them, for `eros' defines the very essence of the gods and is

replicated in the love which a man has for a woman. The Greeks believed that it is so powerful,

that it acts like a tsunami - it washes away all before it and carries all that is with it, for it is an

irresistible force which impells us to procreate and have babies, so that this `original spark' upon

which the entire universe revolves, might be incarnated in our young. But `eros' is capricious, just

as the gods were depicted as being capricious; for though immortal - they shared in the baser

emotions of pride, envy, and vengeance which all of humanity experiences, so that men were

subject to the whim of the gods. This was known as fate! `Eros' is dependent upon circumstance

and is therefore conditional, for eros thrives when that magnetic spark of attraction exists between

a man and a woman in a romantic situation; but when this wanes - so also does the relationship!

Although `eros' can at times be exhilarating, it is notoriously fickle and dependent upon our sense

of need. But just as all of the gods were in fact considered to be emanations of the one, central

Sun god, then therefore all of the gods were considered to be differing expressions of the dualistic

One, who is considered to be both good and evil, and all the forms of love were represented in

these lower deities.

While `storge' is not used in the Bible, it is a word which defines instinctive affection - for instancethe affection which we have for our children, and animals have for their young. I extreme cases, it

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will sometimes lead us to die for the object of our affection.

Everyone has heard of Philedelphia, the city of brotherly love. It is derived from the word

`phileos', and is the love of the fellowship of the friends which you enjoy being with. It is based

upon the principle of water finding its own level - we are attracted to people we admire, like, and

share commonalities with. But just as we tend to seek out those who are like us, so also do we

tend to avoid and sometimes shun those who are unlike us - such as murderers, rapists and nasty

government officials who would rather rape and pillage our pockets, than be friends with us! But

just as `eros' is based upon a sense of need, so also is `phileos'. Some friends we keep for years;

sometimes our entire lives - while others we grow apart from when we no longer have anything in

common with them, and they become strangers to us. `Phileos' holds this in common with `eros'.

While there is nothing wrong with these two forms of love, for this is the way we are `built', both

forms of love are based upon `what's in it for me', or disguised selfishness.

`Xenia' is best regarded as the form of courtesy and respect which one shows to strangers, for the

Greeks believed that there was a sacred obligation to show hospitality to travelers, which they in

turn must reciprocate. It was customary for the host to give the guest a parting gift, which

demonstrated that the host honoured and respected the guest, or traveler. While this ritual might

seem strange to the western mind, the Greeks believed that the gods walked amongst them, and

at any time they might be unknowingly entertaining a god, who would reward you for good or ill in

accordance with how you treated the god. Therefore it was in your best interest to be courteous to

strangers, for you never knew when the gods might test you! Zeus was sometimes referred to as

`Zeus Xenios', or the `god of travelers'.

`Agape' was an obscure, little used word which took upon a new meaning when it became used in

light of the context of the New Testament. While all of these other forms of love are conditional

and are based upon a sense of need `agape' is completely unconditional and is based upon the

love which God has for us, instead of the love which we have for God, as our `natural' human love

is fickle and changeable; whereas His love for us never changes! When the cross first

demonstrated this kind of unconditional love to the world, it literally turned the world `upside

down' (Acts 17: 6). When you were told of it, it either made an apostle of you, or an enemy of you

- there was no sitting on the fence; for it relentlessly exposes all other forms of love as disguised

selfishness, as `agape' is not based upon a sense of need, and is so stupendous in its breadth that

it even dares to die the `second death' (Revelation 2: 11). While the Greeks believed that only the

good are worth saving, the Bible declares that none are good, and:

` . . . . God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us'

(Romans 5: 8.)

This was foolishness to the Greeks, for they believed that their good works testified to their

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virtuous hearts!

`But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness'

(1 Corinthians 1: 23.)

Thus the cross became an offense to the selfish pride that lay hidden in their hearts, because it

revealed to them that everything which they ever did was so that they might benefit from it in

some way, so that they might realize their `True Self', and `become' as gods themselves. So it is

today. In rejecting God, `self' becomes god and anarchy prevails.

While `eros' only appears in the `Song of Solomon' in the Old Testament, and `storge' and

`xenia' do not appear in the Greek manuscipts of the Bible at all - when the Bible speaks of `love',

it generally speaks of `phileos', or `agape', and contrasts the differences between the two. So if

we are to understand what the Scriptures really mean, when we think of that most profound

statement, `God is love', then a knowledge of the intent of the original writers reveals to us the

type of love which God has for us which is so foreign to our `natural' human nature - that is the

fallen `nature' which we inherited from Adam after the fall, that we would never have known it

unless the cross first demonstrated it to us! John, the beloved disciple of Christ acknowledges this,

for when he states `He that loves not knows not God; for God is love', he specifically uses the

word `agape', when he speaks of love in both instances. In other words, `He who does not love as

God loves us, does not know God, for God is love! It is this form of love which God desires to

reproduce in our hearts:

`For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord;

I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and

they shall be to me a people.' (Hebrews 8: 10)

For those that believe, Christ promises to put this faith `in their minds and in their hearts', for we

cannot force this kind of love into our hearts ourselves; it is the work of the Holy Spirit, and if we

are `in' Christ, it is a faith that works by the `agape' which God promises to impart into our

hearts.

`For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which

works by love.' (Gal. 5: 6)

The Greek philosophers of ancient times believed that one of the most noble attributes of man was

virtue. If a man was said to be virtuous, then he was most surely a good man, and beloved of the

gods and men. Moreover, he was someone which other men wanted to befriend, for as it was

certain that the Delphine Oracle would smile upon him and Apollo himself would bless him, then

perhaps some of his good fortune would through some mysterious process of alchemy honour hisfriends, who were not as enlightened as he.

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The more educated Greeks believed that all of the Gods emanated from the One God in All, which

was the purest of the forms that could be found. But just as a stone dropped in a pond creates

ripples which become smaller as they move further away from their point of origin, so also did the

Greeks believe that the Gods became less attenuated to the `original source' the further away

they moved from the One, in a process of divine procreation. Thus the less attenuated Gods took

on some of the baser human emotions as they moved closer to the material plane of existence in

which we live, and weren't really all that much different from us at all, except of course that they

were immortal. Sophia, the last of these divine emanations fell completely into the material plane,

because of her overweening presumption of attaining to hidden knowledge (gnosis) of the

mysteries of the One.

As all life originated from the One, then therefore at death the soul yearned to return to the One

from whence it originally first came, among the stars of heaven. But the soul was sometimes

instead seduced by the desire of animating a body, and it descended from the lofty heights of

heaven to be imprisoned in matter for the duration of the life of the body which it posessed. This

base plane of existence was regarded as a corruption of the soul; often leading to the soul

`forgetting' its origin. Therefore, the whole duty of man was to remember that which he had

forgotten, for by utilizing the dynamics of Reason, he might be enlightened by the hidden

knowledge of his True Self. This could sometimes be attained by enlisting the help of the adept

who were trained in the higher `mysteries' of enlightenment, and under the direction of the

temple priest, once could partake in the ritualized temple prostitution which imitated the

procreating activity of the Gods, so that one might briefly achieve an ecstatic transcendence which

elevated ones Self far above this earthly plane of existence, and momentarily achieve the bliss of

union with the One.

Needless to say, the Greeks believed that the souls of men are imprisoned in the material body,

and have forgotten nearly all knowledge, or gnosis of the One from which they came. The soul

therefore suffers in its earthly prison, and if it is continually seduced by the baser passions, so that

it never aspires to doing good, then when it is released at death, it might fall even further andinhabitat the body of an animal, which has forgotten the One completely, and therefore hsd no

hope of ever achieving union. But as it was the sole duty of man to remember that which he had

forgotten, so that at death the soul might be released from the prison in which it dwells, it is

expedient that men achieve union with the Gods by imitating their action. As the higher forms (or

gods) were more attenuated to the One and therefore purer in spirit, one's soul might be purified

by imitating the action of the Gods. Thus, if over the course of one's life, one aspired to the doing

of good deeds, and thinking pure thoughts, at death these deeds weighed positively in the

balances and overcame the sensualism of the base desires of the material body which weighed

down the soul, so that when they died, their souls were released from the body so that they might

ascend to the One from which they first came. If one had the good fortune to be regarded as a

virtuous man, then surely the man of virtue was not very far removed from the abode of the Gods.

This most noble attribute of virtue was revealed in the Greek conception of love, which they called`eros', and represented the highest knowledge (gnosis) to which one could attain; for it was

believed that this was represented by a good and virtuous man laying down his life for his friends.

They had a fable of the legendary King Admetus and his fair wife Alcestus, which epitomized the

Greek conception of love.

"Admetus was the ruler of a small town not very far from the sea who loved his people and they

loved him, as not only was he their king, but he also knew the names of everyone within his small

kingdom, and was very kind and of a gentle dispostion. One day a half-starved beggar from a land

far away came to his door, so the young king gave him shelter and fed him, for in his kingdom, no

one ever went hungry. He gave him his best warm cloak, and bade his servants treat him as an

honoured guest of the house.

The next morning, the beggar implored the king to make him his slave, and he would serve him

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for a year. But although the king did not need another slave, he saw that even his poorest servant

was better off than this man, so he took pity on him and made him his shepherd, as there was

nothing else that the king needed to have this man do. But as to where the man came from, he

would not say.

After a year and a day had passed, the young king decided to see how well the man had tended

his sheep and goats. Imagine his surprise when the sweet sound of music filled his ears, such as

that which shepherds would play, but far surpassed any music which he had ever heard! But

where was his shepherd? For a tall and handsome young man sat on the hilltop where the

shepherd would oversee his sheep, and was clad in much finer robes than that which any king

might wear. In his hands he bore a golden lyre, upon his belt was a silver bow, in his quiver were

arrows finer than any human hand could make, and his countenance was that of the Gods. And as

the young king surveyed his flock, he found that it had increased tenfold, and the sheep posessed

the finest coats that he had ever seen! Then the beautiful young man spoke:

"I am the poor, starving beggar whom you were so kind to. My name is Apollo - twelve months

ago the mighty Jupiter, my father, drove me out of Olympus and I was without a friend and utterly

alone. He told me that I could not return until I had put off my divinity, appeared as a mortal man,

and served for a year as a man's slave. I was dirty, ragged and starving, but you clothed and fed

me and treated me as your own son. What reward would you ask that I give you?"

Admetus replied that he was happy that he had helped Apollo, and this in itself was its own

reward, for he could think of nothing that he wanted or needed. Then the young god informed him

to merely call his name if he were ever needed, for he promised Admetus that when the god of the

Underwold sent Death for him, he would have one chance in which death might be defeated. He

then departed, playing sweet music on his lyre.

King Ametus lived only a few miles from a rich city by the sea named Iolcus, which was ruled by a

tyrant named Pelias, who cared for nothing but himself. Many a noble, young prince from Greece

had attempted to woo his daughter named Alcestis for his wife, but her heart lay with Admetus,and none could win her favour. So Admetus appeared before the King, and asked the King that she

might be his wife. Now Pelias was greedy, and thought that this insignificant young ruler from a

little town only a few miles away was too poor to provide him with the riches he wanted to

recompense him for his loss, so he devised a plan which made it impossible for Admetus to wed

his daughter. He instructed Admetus that:

"No one shall wed my daughter unless he proves that he is worthy to have her as his wife. Only he

who enters my palace in a chariot drawn by a lion and a wild boar shall have her for his wife."

This pronouncement made Admetus very sad, and he left the kings presence. As he walked home,

he espied his beautiful flock of sheep and goats grazing on the hillside near his town, and

remembered the words which the god had spoken to him - just call on the name of Apollo and hewould help. So very early the next morning, he built an altar of stones in an open field, sacrificed

the fattest goat of the flock, and laid its thighs upon the flames. When the sweet savor of burning

flesh filled the air, he called Apollo's name. When the god appeared, Admetus told him of Alcestis,

who was the fairest maiden in the land, and that only he who proved himself worthy by entering

the kingdom of Pelias in a chariot drawn by a lion and a wild boar could take her hand in marriage.

Apollo decided that this worthy man should be helped, and kept his promise. He first captured a

lion and subdued it, although it snapped at him with its jaws. He then found a wild boar in a

thicket and caught it, and led the two beasts beside him to a golden chariot which stood

abandoned only a little way outside of the city precinct of Iolcus, as if it were waiting for him.

Imagine how astonished King Pelias was, when the god Apollo appeared to him in a golden chariot

drawn by a lion and a boar, with young King Admetus at his side in honour!

So the young king and his fair maiden were married, for King Pelias could not refuse his request -

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for the marriage was sanctioned by Apollo himself! And so, the young king and his fair wife lived

happily for many years. His people loved the happy couple, and they loved them in return. Apollo

also loved them and blessed them, and their kingdom prospered. One day Admetus was walking

through his fields and admiring his sheep, which had made him famous throughout the land for

reason of the richness of their coats, when he espied a radiant figure, and knew that Apollo had

come to speak with him again.

"Oh Apollo," said he, "All that I know of love and happiness has been bestowed upon me through

my friendship with you."

But Apollo gazed sadly upon the countenance of his friend, and exclaimed:

"Admetus, I have come to tell you that the God of the Underworld will shortly send death to you,

and you will die. But do not fear, I have descended to the cheerless halls of Proserpine, the wife of

Pluto, the God of the underworld, and made a bargain with her on your behalf. She has told me

that if any virtuous man or woman willingly take your place, then you will live. You are loved by all

- and rightly so; it may be that you will find someone to take your place."

So with a heavy heart Admetus approached his aging parents and told them of his predicament.

But when he asked them if one of them would die in his place, they shook their heads and

exclaimed:

`My son, although we love you with all our hearts, we love our own lives more. We cannot die for

you.'

He then asked his brothers and sisters if they would die for him, but received the same answer.

Even an old crone with a withered hand who appeared to be on death's door herself recoiled in

horror when asked if she would die for him! After that, the streets of his kingdom were deserted

and no one dared face him, for although all agreed that their good king deserved to live, for he

was such a good man - all loved their own lives more and none were willing to lay down their livesso that their King might live. So with a heavy heart, the King retired to his chambers, lay down on

his bed and closed his eyes, hoping that Death might speedily take him.

At that moment Alcestis cried out to Apollo, and said:

`Oh beloved Apollo, you have blessed my husband and increased his fame and fortune tenfold in

our our entire kingdom. Admetus is such a good man, and his people need him so much, that he

deserves to live. I will die for him, so that he might live.'

And she did. All the land wept for the good wife of the good king, who was greatly beloved of her

people and who had died so that her King might live. So when her spirit left the confines of her

body, she appeared before the pale faced presence of Proserpine, who took pity on her, and badethat she might once again live as a reward for the faithfulness she had shown to her husband. And

so it was that as Admetus and Alcestis increased in age, so also did Apollo reward them for their

faithfulness, and when Death finally came for them in their old age, they were ready for him."

(This account of the legend of Admetus and Alcestis is given by the author of this treatise. All

apologies for any innacuracies, as some elements of this story differ from account to account in

various extant records.)

"This," exclaimed the Greek philosophers, "Is the greatest form of love that there is - that a man

should lay down his life for friends!" Many Christians - especially theologians have in the past

agreed with the Greek philosophers, and have elevated them far beyond what their status

deserves, for Christ Himself has said:

`Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' (John 15: 13.)

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So it was then - and so it is today. So much so, that many Christians, both Catholic and

Protestant, hold to the mistaken belief that Christ Himself lay down His life for His friends; for only

the good are worth saving - just as this account of Admetus and Alcestis teaches. But when Christ

spoke those words, He commented on our `natural' human love, for like the Greeks, we admire

those whom we respect and seek out those who are like us, and fear and hate those who are

unlike us.

But a tiny band of men known as `Christians' turned the world upside down in the first century

(Acts 17: 6), when they declared that this wasn't really `it' at all, for Christ dared to die the

`second death' (Rev. 2: 11), and thus save those don't deserve to be saved, which is surely the

good news of the gospel! This was `foolishness' to the Greeks, for why would a man do such a

thing? After all, `karma' decrees that those who the fates decree shall live their lives as beggars

living in squalor deserve their base existence, for their souls have been hopelessly corrupted by

sensualism and evil acts in a prior existence, and in this life, they must elevate their souls to a

more pure existence by the suffering of the body and the aspiration of the doing of good deeds. As

far as the Greeks were concerned, the very notion that this man ransomed his life for the souls of

men was none other than foolishness, for is it not known by all that the soul is of divine origin and

cannot die, for all men aspire to be the god that they once were?

`For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is

the power of God.' (1 Cor. 1: 18.)

The apostle Paul was well acquainted with Greek philosophy, and debated with the Stoics (which is

one branch of Platomism) in Athens (Acts 17: 17-32). He was also well acquainted with the legend

of Admetus and Alcestis, and makes an oblique reference to it in Romans 5: 6 - 11, in which he

compares the changeable love of men, to the unconditional love of God:

`For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for

a righteous man will one die: yet possibly for a good man some would even dare to die. But Godcommends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more

then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we

were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled,

we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus

Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.' (Romans 5: 6 - 11.)

How many men would die for their enemies? None. But Christ died for us when we were yet

enemies to Him - and even dared to die the second death, which is to say Christ experienced what

the lost must feel when they are separated from God forever in what the Bible describes as `the

second death'. This is a love which is beyond belief! This is in sharp contrast to the Greekidea of

love, for the Greeks viewed death as a friend, as it released the soul from the confines of the body

which weighed it down and corrupted it. Thus Socrates was able to drink his cup of hemlock,smiling serenely during his death, while his friends stood at his side, believing that his soul was

about to return to the One from whence it first came. Not so with Christ, for in Gethsemane, as

Christ felt the union with His Father begin to break up, He suffered in mortal for He could not see

beyond the grave and experienced the terror which allthe lost must feel when they are faced with

the imminent prospect of being separated from the great Giver of Life for eternity. Death was no

friend to Christ!

No doubt there are elements in the fable of Admetus and Alcestis which closely mirror the account

of Christ. Some would say that this proves that Christianity is a refined form of the pagan

religions. However, no pagan religion on earth has evertaught that the greatest form of love is

that a man should lay down his life for his enemies, for this is so beyond our `natural'

comprehension that it took Calvary to demonstrate it, so that we might dimly comprehend thedepths of the love which the Father and Son have for us; for we would not have known otherwise!

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Plato in fact learnt of the predicted Messiah from the Jews, and adapted this and either ideas to his

own ends, such as the idea of one God, which he used to refine the coarse paganism of the

worship of many gods, into the worship of the One-in-all pantheistic God, from which all other

gods emanated:

`In the fourth year of the eighty-seventh Olympiad, Plato, the famous Athenian philosopher, was

born . . . . . for having, in his travels to the East, (whither he went for his improvement in

knowledge), conversed with the Jews, and got some insight into the writings of Moses, and their

other sacred books, he learned many things from them which the philosophers did not attain unto

and therefore he is said by Numenius to be none other than Moses speaking Greek; and many of

the ancient fathers speak of him to the same purpose.' (The Holy Bible, containing the Old and

New Testaments with a Commentary and Critical Notes', Adam Clarke, 18334, p. 994.)

The legend of Admetus and Alcestis so closely parallels the Bible in some instances, that the

similarity of language of sacrificing the fattest goat of the flock and a boar caught in a thicket are

too compelling to ignore, and are derived from the account of Abraham slaying Isaac, in

anticipation of a Saviour to come who would lay down His life for fallen humanity:

`And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by

his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the

stead of his son.' (Genesis 22: 13.)

This account of Abraham slaying a ram instead of his only son Isaac for a burnt offering took place

centuries before the Greeks existed as a nation, and indicates that when Plato returned to Greece

with his account of a Saviour to come, the story eventually evolved into the fable of Admetus and

Alcestis - which was later commented on by Paul when he contrasted the conditional, and

changeable love of the Greeks, which was called `eros', with the apostolic conception of the

unconditional `agape', of love of God, and revealed that all forms of conditional love are based

upon a sense of need, and is in fact disguised selfishness, for the `agape'of Christ and the Fatheris of its own, completely self-less.

We cannot clearly comprehend the `agape' of Christ, until we have a clear conception of the death

which He has saved us from. For the doctrine of the `natural immortality of the soul' - or as it is

more correctly known - the doctrine ofthe divine origin of the soul, is considered to be an

orthodox doctrine of Christianity - but as we can see, it has its origin not in Christianity, but in the

pantheism of the Greeks and the Babylonians which came before them, and thus obscures the true

`agape'of Christ! For theJewish conception of death was that death is like a dreamless sleep, and

then the judgment, at which some are raised to `everlasting life',

`And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some

to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the

firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. But you, O

Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run back and

forth, and knowledge shall be increased . . . . But go you your way till the end be: for you shall rest,

and stand in your lot at the end of the days.' (Daniel 12: 2,3,4,12.)

For if our souls are naturally immortal, then this implies that when we die, we either go straight to

heaven, or straight to hell, and the atonement is degraded to the point that Christ becomes a mere

divine Traffic Director Who sends us to heaven if we have been `good', or to hell if we have been

`bad'.

Copyright K. Jones, 2011.

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