Alcestis is the story of a king, Admetus, who is able to escape death because his wife, Alcestis, has volunteered to die in his place. Ted Hughes began his translation of Euripides' play in 1993, almost completing it then, but breaking off to fulfil commissions for English versions of the Oresteia and Racine's Phedre, and for the book that came to be called Tales from Ovid.

As was true of the other works, Hughes's Alcestis goes beyond mere translation to an inspired rethinking of the story in terms of his own vision of human suffering. His additions to the text include an expanded burlesque treatment of Hercules's drunk scene and an episode involving Prometheus and his vulture. Hughes took up the play again and finished work on it a few months before his death in 1998.