Volume V, Stichus. Trinummus. Truculentus. Tale of a Travelling Bag. Fragments. (Loeb Classical Library), Vol. 5 Book

I'm pretty sure this was either a masterpiece or a train wreck. I'm leaning towards masterpiece. Admetus knows he will die soon, but Death offers him the chance to live if he can find someone to take his place. Admetus' wife, Alcestis, accepts. As Lattimore writes in the introduction, the tale isn't so much "How noble must a wife be to take her husband's place in death," as "How selfish and cowardly must a husband be to let his wife die for him." But Heracles rescues Alcestis and brings her back to life in the last five pages. We don't hear from her after her revivification, which leaves the reader wondering how this family can ever be reconciled--can such a noble wife return to living with and loving a man who let her die for him? This is supposed to be a tragicomedy, but I think that the ending is intentionally lacking in satisfaction to force the reader to consider what's left unsaid.

I wonder if this myth had any bearing on Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale. The endings remind me of each other so.