Alcestis: The Conflation of philia, xenia, and Exchange from Religion to Eroticism

Abstract

The exchange of gifts and favours represents the link that connects the institutions of philia and xenia in their development from religion to eroticism. In the process of democratization there was some degree of collision between the old and the new law within the three institutions. Alcestis represents the institutional resolution of important dilemmas of citizens who had to renounce the pre-legal ideas and gradually incorporate the new law in to their every day life. The citizens were united in to homosocial bonds by the transformation ofthe religious dilemmas into politics. In this equation a woman appeared as the hidden regulator that enabled the bonds between men and guaranteed the identity and continuity of polis.