EXCURSUS C.

THE ANDROMEDA OF EURIPIDES.

Of all the plays of Euripides, the one which is generally looked upon as especially “romantic” is the Andromeda,[348] and it must be confessed that, at first sight, it does appear to have a certain character of its own. The common view of the story is, that Perseus, seeing Andromeda exposed, falls in love with her, and therefore rescues her. If this view is correct, this play will furnish the solitary instance in Euripides of a man’s falling in love with a woman.

But how far is this view correct? A careful examination of the fragments will, perhaps, show that it requires at least to be modified.

When the play opens, Andromeda is found exposed on her rock, and after she has made due lamentations, there appears Perseus, bearing evident marks of his long journey, and generally in a deplorable condition.[349] On learning from her the state of the case, he pities her, and, say the modern critics, falls in love with her. I doubt it. This is not at all the sort of occasion on which a Greek would be likely to fall in love. Perseus is wet and dirty and hungry, and has the prospect of a dangerous encounter before him. Love, to the Greek, is essentially the child of ease and idleness;[350] to connect it with stress and struggle is entirely a modern notion. The one and only thing which a Greek in Perseus’ position would be likely to do, would be to try whether he couldn’t find someone—a king by preference—to lend him some new clothes;[351] and this, or something of the kind, is, in all probability, what he makes the condition of his saving Andromeda.[352] Then, cheered by the prospect of a warm bath and of a comfortable night’s rest, he goes to face the monster.

But though he does not fall in love with Andromeda, she falls in love with him, and begs him, when he returns victorious,[353] to take her with him anywhere, if only as a slave. She will follow him anywhere, she says, even through the sky if he likes.[354] In the improved state of affairs,[355] Perseus is not averse to these advances; but an obstacle arises in the shape of Cepheus, who objects to the disreputable appearance of his would-be son-in-law. Perseus argues his case with considerable fervour, but apparently without success; and it is Andromeda again who, by some bold stroke, overcomes or outwits her parents, and brings off what she wishes—οὐχ εἵλετο τῷ πατρὶ συμμένειν οὐδὲ τῇ μητρί, ἀλλ’ αὐθαίρετος εἰς τὸ Ἄργος ἀπῆλθε μετ’ ἐκείνου εὐγενές τι φρονήσασα.[356]

In other words, the initiative in the love-affair of Perseus and Andromeda is again almost entirely on the side of the woman, and this play forms in reality no exception to the general rule in this respect.