Greek tragedy

by Gilbert Norwood

FOOTNOTES

[1] See Haigh, The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, pp. 19 sq.

[2] It arose in a similar fashion to tragedy, from the phallic songs to Dionysus at his winter festival.

[3] τί ταῦτα πρὸς τὸν Διόνυσον; (Plutarch, Symposiaca, 615 A).

[4] Pp. 39-41.

[5] These first paragraphs give a summary of the view almost universally held as to the origin of Greek tragedy. Of late, however, Professor Sir William Ridgeway (The Origin of Tragedy, with Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians, Cambridge, 1910) has combated current beliefs with great vigour. His belief is (p. 186) “that Tragedy arose in the worship of the dead, and that the only Dionysiac element in the Drama was the satyric play”. Aristotle’s evidence (see p. 4) he dismisses as mistaken, because “Aristotle was only interested in Tragedy as a fully developed art, and paid little heed to its early history” (p. 57). The present writer is bound to confess that, after following and estimating to the best of his ability the numerous and heterogeneous statements put forward in evidence, he cannot regard Professor Ridgeway’s contention as proved. It is undoubtedly true that many extant tragedies centre more or less vitally upon a tomb, but many do not. The mimetic ritual in honour of the slain Scephrus (p. 37) is real evidence, so far as it goes; but the utmost it proves is that Greek tragedy could have arisen from such funeral performances—it does not show that it did. The most remarkable point in the book is the discussion of the well-known passage in Herodotus (V, 67): τά τε δὴ ἄλλα οἱ Σικυώνιοι ἐτίμων τὸν Ἄδρηστον καὶ δὴ πρὸς τὰ πάθεα αὐτοῦ τραγικοῖσι χοροῖσι ἐγέραιρον, τὸν μὴν Διόνυσον οὐ τιμέωντες, τὸν δὲ Ἄδρηστον. Κλεισθένης δὲ χοροὺς μὲν τῷ Διονύσῳ ἀπέδωκε, τὴν δὲ ἄλλην θυσίην Μελανίππῳ (see Ridgeway, p. 28): “The men of Sicyon paid honours to Adrastus, and in particular they revered him with tragic choruses because of his sufferings, herein honouring not Dionysus, but Adrastus. Cleisthenes gave the choruses to Dionysus, and the rest of the offering to Melanippus.” It may well be that Professor Ridgeway is right in asserting that ἀπέδωκε means not “restored” but “gave”—that is, these tragic choruses were originally of the funereal kind which he suggests for all primitive Greek tragedy. This is excellent evidence for his contention, so far as it goes, but it only proves one example. Herodotus’ words, on the other hand, imply that he believed tragedy to be normally Dionysiac. To sum up, we cannot regard Professor Ridgeway as having succeeded in damaging the traditional view.

[6] Aristotle, Poetic, 1448a: διὸ καὶ ἀντιποιοῦνται τῆς τε τραγῳδίας καὶ τῆς κωμῳδίας οἱ Δωριεῖς.

[7] Ol., XIII, 18 sq.: ταὶ Διωνύσου πόθεν ἐξέφανεν σὺν βοηλάτᾳ χάριτες διθυράμβῳ; i.e. as the context shows, the dithyramb appeared first at Corinth.

[8] α for η, and sometimes -ᾶν as the inflexion of the feminine genitive plural.

[9] Poetic, 1449a: γενομένη δ’ οὖν ἀπ’ ἀρχῆς αὐτοσχεδιαστική ... ἀπὸ τῶν ἐξαρχόντων τὸν διθύραμβον ... κατὰ μικρὸν ηὐξήθη προαγόντων ὅσον ἐγίγνετο φανερὸν αὐτῆς, καὶ πολλὰς μεταβολὰς μεταβαλοῦσα ἡ τραγῳδία ἐπαύσατο, ἐπεὶ ἔσχε τὴν αὐτῆς φύσιν. καὶ τό τε τῶν ὑποκριτῶν πλῆθος ἐξ ἑνὸς εἰς δύο πρῶτος Αἰσχύλος ἤγαγε καὶ τὰ τοῦ χοροῦ ἠλάττωσε καὶ τὸν λόγον πρωταγωνιστὴν παρεσκεύασεν, τρεῖς δὲ καὶ σκηνογραφίαν Σοφοκλῆς. ἔτι δὲ τὰ μέγεθος ἐκ μικρῶν μύθων καὶ λέξεως γελοίας διὰ τὸ ἐκ σατυρικοῦ μεταβαλεῖν ὀψὲ ἀπεσεμνύνθη. τό τε μέτρον ἐκ τετραμέτρου ἰαμβεῖον ἐγένετο· τὸ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον τετραμέτρῳ ἐχρῶντο διὰ τὸ σατυρικὴν καὶ ὀρχηστικωτέραν εἶναι τὴν ποίησιν ... ἔτι δὲ ἐπεισοδίων πλήθη. καὶ τὰ ἄλλ’ ὡς ἕκαστα κοσμηθῆναι λέγεται.... Here and elsewhere, in quoting from the Poetic, I borrow Butcher’s admirable translation.

[10] These narratives and conversations were naturally regarded as interruptions in the main business, and this feeling is marked by the name always given to the “acts” of a play, ἐπεισόδια (“episodia”), i.e. “interventions” or “interruptions”.

[11] The text of the treatise is, however, incomplete. The author of the pseudo-Platonic Minos (321 A) speaks of the current belief that Thespis was the originator of tragedy.

[12] This is a mere name for a really anonymous collection of information on philosophical and other history.

[13] Ars Poetica, 275-7.

[14] Poetic, 1449a.

[15] βασιλεὺς ἦν Χοίριλος ἐν σατύροις (Plotius, De Metris, p. 2633, quoted by Haigh, Tragic Drama, p. 40).

[16] Frogs, 689: εἴ τις ἥμαρτε σφαλείς τι Φρυνίχου παλαίσμασιν. The allusion in the first instance points undoubtedly to the famous general Phrynichus; but his political machinations are jokingly referred to as a “wrestling-bout” because of the celebrated description in his namesake the playwright.

[17] Herod. VI, 21.

[18] Wasps, 220 (μέλη ἀρχαιομελισιδωνοφρυνιχήρατα).

[19] Birds, 748-51, reading ὥσπερ ἡ μέλιττα.

[20] λάμπει δ’ ἐπὶ πορφυρέαις παρῇσι φῶς ἔρωτος. Notice the exquisite alliteration. Sophocles no doubt had this line in mind when he wrote Antigone 782.

[21] The writer of the Argument to the Persæ says: Γλαῦκος ἐν τοῖς περὶ Αἰσχύλου μύθων ἐκ τῶν Φοινίσσων Φρυνίχου φησὶ τοὺς Πέρσας παραπεποιῆσθαι. The late Dr. Verrall (The Bacchantes of Euripides and Other Essays, pp. 283-308) believed that not only is the Persæ modelled on the Phœnissæ but Æschylus incorporated a large portion of Phrynichus’ play with little change (Persæ vv. 480-514 especially).

[22] By M. Croiset, Hist. de la Litt. grecque, III, p. 49.

[23] This is asserted by his epitaph:—

Αἴσχυλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθει

μνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας,

ἀλκὴν δ’ εὐδόκιμον Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποι

καὶ βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενος.

These verses are said to come from the pen of Æschylus himself. For once such tradition appears to be true. No forger would have had the audacity to omit all reference to the plays.

[24] This, however, is certainly stated by Aristotle (Nic. Ethics, 1111a). On the other hand, Æschylus says in the Frogs (886); Δήμητερ, ἡ θρέψασα τὴν ἐμὴν φρένα, εἶναί με τῶν σῶν ἄξιον μυστηρίων.

[25] Aristotle, Poetic, 1449a.

[26] The following plays were performed with two actors only: of Æschylus, Supplices, Prometheus, Persæ, Seven against Thebes; of Euripides, Medea, and perhaps Alcestis.

[27] By Plutarch, Life of Cimon, VIII. Haigh (The Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 128²) gives good reasons for rejecting the story.

[28] One of these occasions was that on which he presented the Œdipus Tyrannus.

[29] A fragment of Ion’s Ἐπιδημίαι remarks: τὰ μέντοι πολιτικὰ οὔτε σοφὸς οὔτε ῥεκτήριος ἦν, ἀλλ’ ὡς ἄν τις εἷς τῶν χρηστῶν Ἀθηναίων.

[30] Aristophanes, too, in the Frogs (v. 82), bears witness to his charm: ὁ δ’ εὔκολος μὲν ἐνθάδ’, εὔκολος δ’ ἐκεῖ· “Sophocles, on the other hand, is gentle here (i.e. in Hades) as he was in life.”

[31] Œd. Col. 1225-8.

[32] Poetic, 1460b: Σοφοκλῆς ἔφη αὐτὸς μὲν οἵους δεῖ ποιεῖν, Εὐριπίδην δὲ οἷοι εἰσίν.

[33] Plutarch, De Profectu in Virtute, 79 B: ὁ Σοφοκλῆς ἔλεγε, τὸν Αἰσχύλου διαπεπαιχὼς ὄγκον, εἶτα τὸ πικρὸν καὶ κατάτεχνον τῆς αὐτοῦ κατασκευῆς, τρίτον ἤδη τὸ τῆς λέξεως μεταβάλλειν εἶδος ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἠθικώτατον καὶ βέλτιστον.

[34] See Haigh, Tragic Drama, p. 162.

[35] Aristotle, Poetic, 1449a.

[36] Suidas (s.v. Σοφοκλῆς): καὶ αὐτὸς ἦρξε τοῦ δρᾶμα πρὸς δρᾶμα ἀγωνίζεσθαι, ἀλλὰ μὴ τετραλογίαν.

[37] In the Anonymous Life.

[38] See Haigh, Attic Tragedy, pp. 139 sq., where this excellent point is made.

[39] The most celebrated is the description of the sun as a “clod” (Orestes, 983). Alcestis, 904 sqq., may very possibly refer to the death of Anaxagoras’ son.

[40] XV, 20.

[41] A passage in his Life suggests that he was indifferent to the strictly “theatrical” side of his profession: οὐδεμίαν φιλοτιμίαν περὶ τὰ θέατρα ποιούμενος· διὸ τοσοῦτον αὐτὸν ἔβλαπτε τοῦτο ὅσον ὠφέλει τὸν Σοφοκλέα.

[42] Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Vol. IX, pp. 124-82.

[43] Pp. 29 sq.

[44] ἀκριβῶς ὅλως περιείληφεν τὸν Ἀναξαγόρειον διάκοσμον ἐν τρισὶν περιόδοις.

[45] Aristotle, Poetic, 1452b.

[46] Not all. The elegance of his iambic style excited Aristophanes’ admiration: indeed he confessed to imitating it, and the great Cratinus invented a significant compound verb εὐριπιδαριστοφανίζειν. See Meineke, Frag. Comicorum Græcorum, II, 1142.

[47] Frogs, v. 1122: ἀσαφὴς γὰρ ἦν ἐν τῇ φράσει τῶν πραγμάτων.

[48] vv. 846-54.

[49] vv. 518-44.

[50] Frogs, 939 sqq.

[51] Ibid. 948 sqq.

[52] Ibid. 959: σύνεσμεν may recall Grant Allen’s famous sentence about taking Hedda Gabler down to dinner.

[53] Of these three points the first two come from Suidas (under the article Νεόφρων), the third from the argument to the extant Medea: τὸ δρᾶμα δοκεῖ ὑποβαλέσθαι τὰ Νεόφρονος διασκευάσας, ὡς Δικαίαρχός τε περὶ τοῦ Ἑλλάδος βίου καὶ Ἀριστοτέλης ἐν ὑπομνήμασι.

[54] vv. 1211-6.

[55] There is good reason to suppose that what we possess is a second version. The scholiast on Aristophanes mentions passages as parodies of lines in the Medea which we no longer read there.

[56] In his ὑπομνήματα, quoted by the Argument to the Medea.

[57] πρῶτος εἰς τὸ νῦν μῆκος τὰ δράματα κατέστησεν.

[58] Unless we except the Rhesus (996 lines).

[59] The original form of it seems to have been:—

ὥστ’ οὐχ ὑπάρχων ἀλλὰ τιμωρούμενος

ἀγωνιοῦμαι.

[60] The name is not certain. The book is variously called ὑπομνήματα (“notes”), ἐπιδημίαι (“visits”), and συνεκδημητικός. The first is not a “name”—it merely describes the book. The second was explained by Bentley to mean “accounts of the visits to our island of Chios by distinguished strangers”. The third could mean something like “traveller’s companion”.

[61] Plutarch (De Profectu in Virtute, 79 E), no doubt quoting from Ion, tells us that at a critical moment in a boxing match Æschylus nudged Ion and said: “You see what a difference training makes? The man who has received the blow is silent, while the spectators cry aloud.”

[62] Plutarch, Pericles, Chap. V.

[63] v. 835. To the scholium on this line we owe much of our information about Ion.

[64] One of them bears the curious title “Great Play” (μέγα δρᾶμα), but nothing is known of it.

[65] Frogs, 1425.

[66] XXXIII, 5 (Prof. Rhys Roberts’ translation).

[67] Diog. Laert. II, 133.

[68] Croiset III, p. 400 (n.), thus explains the strange words of Suidas, ἐπεδείκνυτο δὲ κοινῇ σὺν καὶ Εὐριπίδῃ.

[69] Haigh, Tragic Drama of the Greeks, p. 409.

[70] Ath. X, 451 C.

[71] Aristotle, Poetic, 1451b.

[72] Ibid. 1456a (Butcher’s translation).

[73] Plutarch, Symposiaca, 645 E.

[74] Thesm. 100: μύρμηκος ἀτραπούς.

[75] Aristotle, Poetic, 1456a.

[76] Ibid.

[77] Ibid.

[78] Such a sentence as that of M. Orgon in Le jeu de l’amour et du hasard (I, ii.): “Va, dans ce monde, il faut être un peu trop bon pour l’être assez,” strikes one as thoroughly Agathonesque.

[79] Protagoras, 315 E.

[80] Symposium, 198 C. Socrates says of Agathon’s panegyric upon Eros: καὶ γάρ με Γοργίου ὁ λόγος ἀνεμίμνησκεν. The whole speech of Agathon is intended to show these characteristics. Cp., for example, 197 D: πρᾳότητα μὲν πορίζων, ἀγριότητα δ’ ἐξορίζων· φιλόδωρος εὐμενείας, ἄδωρος δυσμενείας κτἑ.

[81] Thesm. 130 sqq.

[82] Ibid. 54 sqq.

[83] It is noteworthy that Socrates’ famous “prophecy of Shakespeare” (Symposium, 223 D), “one who can write comedy can write tragedy and vice versa,” is addressed to Agathon and Aristophanes jointly.

[84] The attribution of this play to Critias is not certain, but probable; it is accepted by Wilamowitz. The new life of Euripides by Satyrus (see above, p. 18) attributes it to that poet.

[85] Eratosthenes, II.

[86] Poetic, 1453b.

[87] De Gloria Atheniensium, 349 E.

[88] Poetic, 1455a, b.

[89] Aristotle, Rhetoric, III, 12, 2: βαστάζονται δὲ οἱ ἀναγνωστικοί, οἷον Χαιρήμων· ἀκριβὴς γὰρ ὥσπερ λογογράφος.

[90] “You know how to feel contempt before you have learnt wisdom,” or, to reproduce (however badly) the play upon words, “You practise contempt before using contemplation”.

[91] Athenæus, fr. 10: δρᾶμα πολύμετρον.

[92] Poetic, 1447b.

[93] vv. 677-774.

[94] Symonds, Studies in the Greek Poets, II, p. 26.

[95] Adversus Indoctos, 15.

[96] Athenæus III, 98 D, reports, for example, that he called a javelin βαλλάντιον (properly “purse”), because “it is thrown in the face of the foe” (ἐναντίον βάλλεται).

[97] Poetic, 1454b.

[98] 1455a.

[99] Rhetoric, II, 1400b.

[100] Ibid. 1417b, but the passage is obscure.

[101] Eth. Nic. 1150b, 10.

[102] Ælian, V.H. XIV, 40.

[103] Orator, 51.

[104] Poetic, 1452a.

[105] Ibid. 1455b.

[106] “First there came a circle with a dot in the middle,” etc.

[107] θέλω τύχης σταλαγμὸν ἢ φρενῶν πίθον.

[108] That he belongs to the fourth century is not certain, though extremely probable.

[109] We have only one title (Telephus) which implies a legendary theme.

[110] Meineke suggests that the subject is an incident related by Xenophon, Hellenica, VI, iv. 33, 34.

[111] He might at least have written τοῖς ἀμείνοσιν.

[112] The meaning of this name is unknown.

[113] Athenæus XIII, 595 F.

[114] He uses the diminutive δραμάτιον.

[115] κατὰ ἰατρῶν (Stobæus, 102, 3). He was thus a precursor of Molière and Mr. Bernard Shaw.

[116] Diogenes Laertius, VII, 173.

[117] This point is made by Bernhardy, Grundriss der Gr. Litteratur II, ii. p. 72.

[118] His date is not, however, certain, and there is some reason to assign his floruit to the time of Alexander the Great.

[119] The most amazing example is that of the “Three Unities”—those of Action, Time, and Place—of which such a vast amount has been heard and which ruled tyrannically over French “classical” tragedy. It is difficult to believe that Aristotle never mentions the “Three Unities”. On the Unity of Action he has, of course, much to say; the Unity of Time is dismissed in one casual sentence. As to the Unity of Place there is not a word. (It is signally violated in the Eumenides and the Ajax.)

[120] Poetic, 1454a.

[121] Ibid.

[122] See Wilamowitz-Moellendorff’s magnificent Einleitung in die griechische Tragödie, pp. 48-51 (e.g. “nicht mehr Aristoteles der aesthetiker sondern Aristoteles der historiker ist der ausgangspunkt unserer betrachtung” and “unser fundament ist und bleibt was in der poetik steht”).

[123] Poetic, 1449b: ἔστιν οὖν τραγῳδία μίμησις πράξεως σπουδαίας καὶ τελείας μέγεθος ἐχούσης, ἡδυσμένῳ λόγῳ χωρὶς ἑκάστῳ τῶν εἰδῶν ἐν τοῖς μορίοις, δρώντων καὶ οὐ δι’ ἀπαγγελίας, δι’ ἐλέου καὶ φόβου περαίνουσα τὴν τῶν τοιούτων παθημάτων κάθαρσιν.

[124] 1448a.

[125] 1451a, b.

[126] 1462a.

[127] 1462a, b. (The phrasing in the summary above is borrowed from Butcher.) See further 1449b.

[128] 1450b.

[129] 1450a.

[130] 1451a.

[131] 1451a.

[132] 1451b.

[133] 1452a.

[134] 1452a.

[135] 1452b.

[136] οἱ ἐν τῷ φανερῷ θάνατοι.

[137] 1453a.

[138] 1453b.

[139] 1454a, b.

[140] pp. 163-5.

[141] pp. 313-5.

[142] 1454b, 1460a.

[143] 1452b: ἔστιν δὲ πρόλογος μὲν μέρος ὅλον τραγῳδίας τὸ πρὸ χοροῦ παρόδου, ἐπεισόδιον δὲ μέρος ὅλον τραγῳδίας τὸ μεταξὺ ὅλων χορικῶν μελῶν, ἔξοδος δὲ μέρος ὅλον τραγῳδίας μεθ’ ὃ οὐκ ἔστι χοροῦ μέλος, χορικοῦ δὲ πάροδος μὲν ἡ πρώτη λέξις ὅλη χοροῦ, στάσιμον δὲ μέλος χοροῦ τὸ ἄνευ ἀναπαίστου καὶ τροχαίου, κόμμος δὲ θρῆνος κοινὸς χοροῦ καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ σκηνῆς.

[144] p. 4.

[145] Chap. VI.

[146] 1455b.

[147] 1452a.

[148] 1450b.

[149] Plato (Symposium, 175 E) makes Socrates congratulate Agathon on his success in the presence of “more than 30,000 Greeks”. Modern archæologists, by statistics based on the seating-accommodation, would reduce this figure to 17,000.

[150] There are fourteen of these at Athens.

[151] This account is based on Dörpfeld (Das griechische Theater, Abschnitt VII) who believes there was no stage, and on Haigh (Attic Theatre³, edited by Mr. Pickard-Cambridge, Chap. III) who believes there was a stage.

[152] That is, shorter, viewed from left to right by the spectators. The depth of the Vitruvian stage was 10 feet.

[153] Vitruvius V, vii, 3-4.

[154] By Wieseler and others.

[155] Haigh³, pp. 165-74.

[156] ἀναβαίνω: Knights, 148; Acharnians, 732; Wasps, 1342.

[157] καταβαίνω: Eccles. 1151; Wasps, 1514.

[158] Euripides, Ion, 727, Electra, 4 sq., Herc. Fur. 119. As Haigh (3rd ed., p. 167) points out, “in the last passage it is the chorus which makes the complaint; so that in this case, if there was any visible ascent, it cannot have been the ascent to the stage”.

[159] This is a strong and favourite argument for the stage; when Haigh (3rd ed., p. 168) denies this because “a sufficient reason is ... the fact that, if they had gone into the palace, the scene of action would have been left empty for the time being,” he forgets that such a departure of the chorus is quite possible. It occurs in Eumenides, Ajax, Alcestis, and Helena, not to mention Comedy.

[160] Haigh³, p. 170 sq.

[161] Symposium, 194 B.

[162] Ars Poetica, 278: Æschylus et modicis instravit pulpita tignis.

[163] Das Gr. Theater, p. 350.

[164] He wrote a lexicon to Plato in the third century after Christ.

[165] Dörpfeld gives various optical diagrams to exhibit the effects.

[166] We incessantly see this effect in modern theatres. But in Greece the presence of the chorus performing below would force spectators to regard the building as suspended.

[167] Save, of course, those on the new lowest seats, which went down to the new level of the excavated half. Dörpfeld has discovered evidence that the present lowest seats at Athens were added after the rest.

[168] Das griechische Theater, p. 364. After the publication of this view Dörpfeld altered his opinion, and suggested (Bull. Corr. Hell. 1896, p. 577 sqq.) that V. means not the ordinary Greek Theatre, but the Græco-Roman type found in Asia Minor. But this seems worse than his first thought. See Haigh³, pp. 147 sq.

[169] Ibid. pp. 146 sq.

[170] In Plato’s time this was notably so (Laws, 659 A-C, 700 C, 701 A).

[171] Plutarch, Nicias, 524 D.

[172] Aristotle, Rhetoric, III, i.

[173] This is the usual term employed. See, however, Haigh³, p. 13, note 3: “the word τετραλογία was applied only to a group of four plays connected in subject,” etc.

[174] This was certainly the number for comedy; it is assumed for tragedy.

[175] τράγος. This was supposed to be the origin of the word “tragedy” (τραγῳδία “goat-song”).

[176] Vitruvius, V, vi., and Pollux, iv., 126.

[177] Professor Ridgeway makes much use of this custom in his theory that Greek drama originated in celebrations at the tombs of great persons. See his Origin of Tragedy, and pp. 2 sq. above.

[178] Haigh³, p. 187.

[179] Clouds, 225.

[180] Pollux (iv. 128), who gives the most definite description, adds: “one must understand it at each door, as it were in each house,” but his unsupported testimony on any subject is not trustworthy.

[181] In fact Pollux, who is fond of making a particular case into a general rule, may have had this instance in his head. He writes (iv. 128): “the eccyclema is a lofty stand raised upon timbers and carrying a chair” (ἐπὶ ξύλων ὑψηλὸν βάθρον ᾧ ἐπίκειται θρόνος).

[182] Ar. Knights, 1249.

[183] This story occurs in the anonymous Life of Æschines.

[184] They are mutes, for the lines supposed to be uttered by one or both behind the scenes were probably delivered by one of the actors not needed “in front”.

[185] The Œdipus Coloneus is an exception. See Jebb’s Introduction, 3rd ed., pp. 7, 8.

[186] Cp. the vigorous protest of Pratinas (p. 6).

[187] Pherecrates, Cheiron, frag. 1, cp. Arist. Thesmoph. 100.

[188] Ar. Frogs, 1314.

[189] We hear from the scholiast on Choephorœ, 900, that the same actor took the part of Pylades and of the servant who gives the alarm. The latter after arousing Clytæmnestra rushes within, and when the Queen has uttered five lines Pylades appears accompanying Orestes. This example is given by Haigh³, p. 232.

[190] Told by the scholiast on Aristophanes, Frogs, 303.

[191] The slovenliness in this regard of many modern actors is mostly due to “long runs”. After saying the same thing hundreds of times, an actor naturally tends to mechanical diction. The writer has heard a performer in an emotional crisis suddenly (as it appeared) call for champagne. Feeling sure that “Pommery” could not be right, he reflected, and discovered that the mysterious syllables meant “Poor Mary!” Even actors at the head of the profession are guilty of such things as “the lor of Venice”.

[192] See Haigh³, p. 279 sq., for some highly interesting extracts.

[193] Poetic 1456a (tr. Butcher).

[194] Ibid.

[195] This was the normal mode of entry, but the plot sometimes demanded others. In the Eumenides the Chorus rush in pell-mell; so probably in the Bacchæ; in the Euripidean Supplices they are discovered grouped around the Queen.

[196] See pp. 344 sq.

[197]

ὥστ’ εἴ τις ὀρχοῖτ’ εὖ, θέαμ’ ἦν· νῦν δὲ δρῶσιν οὐδέν,

ἀλλ’ ὥσπερ ἀπόπληκτοι βάδην ἑστῶτες ὠρύονται.

[198] Haigh³, p. 318. Both the gestures described sound like a curious anticipation of the gestures favoured by the performers of “coon-songs”.

[199] This was not always an advantage when comedy held the scene. There is a delightfully impudent passage in the Frogs (v. 297) where Dionysus to escape a hobgoblin appeals to his own priest for protection.

[200] For a detailed description of the seating see Haigh³, pp. 94-101.

[201] It is a fact familiar to students of comparative religion that obscenity is often a part of ritual. This is true of several Greek worships, including that of Dionysus. Hence even tragedy retained its satyric complement, though satyric drama regularly showed obscene features.

[202] Puchstein would date it earlier (end of the fifth century).

[203] Plutarch, Liber Amatorius, 756 B, C.

[204] ἐκσυρίττειν (“to hiss off”).

[205] Demosthenes, De Falsa Legatione, § 337.

[206] Ethics, X, 1175 B.

[207] Date: uncertain. Professor Tucker thinks the year 492-1 probable; Æschylus was then thirty-three years old. Historical considerations are here of doubtful value, but the technique of the play seems to prove beyond question that it is an early work.

Arrangement: protagonist, Danaus, Egyptian herald; deuteragonist, King of Argos.

[208] In the centre of the orchestra, as always.

[209] Danaus is necessarily dismissed so that the actor who impersonates him may appear as the Egyptian herald.

[210] vv. 991-2.

[211] vv. 994-1013.

[212] Ζεύς (or words derived therefrom) occurs about sixty times.

[213] vv. 91-5 (Professor Tucker’s translation).

[214] vv. 230-1.

[215] Date: 472 B.C. Arrangement: protagonist, Atossa and Xerxes; deuteragonist, Messenger and Darius.

[216] The actor who presents the queen has now to present the king.

[217] This was a satyric play, and must not be confused with the extant Prometheus.

[218] See Patin, Eschyle, p. 211.

[219] Henry V, IV, viii.

[220] vv. 361-2.

[221] Arrangement: protagonist: Eteocles and Antigone; deuteragonist, messenger, and herald. The part of Ismene was taken by a member of the chorus.

[222] Frogs, 1021.

[223] vv. 591-4.

[224] Life of Aristides, III.

[225] Dr. Verrall, however, in his Introduction (pp. xiv, xv) sees technical drama of the highest kind in the choosing of the champions. As the Theban warriors are told off one by one, the chorus (and audience) see with ever-increasing horror that Eteocles must be left as the opponent of Polynices.

[226] Müller-Heitz (Griechische Litteraturgeschichte, ii. p. 88) point out, also, that this play needs more elaborate machinery than any other extant drama. But it may well be doubted whether all the effects mentioned by the poet are realized.

[227] Bia (“Violence”), also present, is a mute.

[228] See H. Weil’s masterly Note sur le Prométhée d’Eschyle (Le drame antique, pp. 86-92).

[229] Zeus had intended to wed Thetis. On hearing the secret, he married her to Peleus, who became the father of Achilles.

[230] It is fairly certain that it dealt with Menelaus’ visit to Egypt on his way back from Troy. He was shipwrecked on an island and the prophetic Proteus gave him advice, sending him first to Egypt. See Odyssey, IV, 351-586.

[231] Arrangement: protagonist, Clytæmnestra; deuteragonist, Herald, Cassandra; tritagonist, Sentinel, Agamemnon, Ægisthus.

[232] See especially his Introduction (pp. xiii-xlvii of the 2nd edition).

[233] This is noted by an admirable touch. Almost always a tragedy ends with words of the chorus as the least impassioned parties. In the Agamemnon the closing words are uttered by Clytæmnestra.

[234] Choephorœ, 889.

[235] The Relapse, V, iv. 135.

[236] Arrangement: protagonist, Orestes; deuteragonist, Electra, Clytæmnestra; tritagonist, Pylades, nurse, attendant, Ægisthus.

[237] This is of course a conventional mise-en-scène; we are to imagine the tomb as distant from the palace.

[238] On this and the other “tokens” see below, p. 258.

[239] The dead man is undoubtedly supposed to send aid in a mysterious way, but no ghost appears, as in the Persæ. This discrepancy points to a change in religious feeling. Clytæmnestra’s shade “appears” in the Eumenides, but as a dream (see v. 116).

[240] vv. 870-4. It seems most natural to suppose that they altogether quit the orchestra, returning before v. 930.

[241] Not quite, however. The poet is to depict a man, with whom we are to sympathize, almost in the act of slaying his mother. Not only Orestes, but the spectator also, needs as much spiritual fortification as can be provided.

[242] vv. 313: δράσαντι παθεῖν.

[243] Arrangement.—Croiset gives: protagonist, Orestes; deuteragonist, Apollo; tritagonist, Athena, priestess, ghost of Clytæmnestra. This grouping is certainly right, but it is not easy to suppose that the part of Athena was given to the tritagonist. It seems better to give Athena, etc., to the protagonist, Apollo to the second, and Orestes to the third actor.

[244] Probably the eccyclema was used. See pp. 66-8.

[245] vv. 517-9:—

ἔσθ’ ὅπου τὸ δεινὸν εὖ

καὶ φρενῶν ἐπίσκοπον

δεῖ μένειν καθήμενον.

[246] The actual rule of the Areopagite Court was that if the votes were even the defendant was acquitted. This rule was explained as derived from the “Vote of Athena” in the trial of Orestes. It seems then that Athena’s vote here makes inequality, not equality. Therefore her pebble is not put into either urn, but laid between them.

[247] It is implied by the title of the drama that they assume the title Eumenides or “Gracious Ones,” but this title is not used in the play itself. Their most usual name was Σεμναί, “Awful Ones”.

[248] v. 644.

[249] In her great speech to the court she plainly adopts the language of the Furies. See below.

[250] v. 747: ἡμῖν γὰρ ἔρρειν, ἢ πρόσω τιμὰς νέμειν.

[251] Dr. Verrall (Introduction to his edition, pp. xxxii, xxxiii) explains the reconciliation of the Furies as the result of a mystic revelation conveyed not in words but through a kind of spiritual magnetism exercised by Athena when she draws near to them at v. 886 (he notes the break in syntax at this point); such an influence could not be shown forth in words—it is too sacred and mysterious. But if a poet does undertake to dramatize the truths of religion, he must do so in dramatic form; he ought not suddenly to throw up his task. Several places in Æschylus can be found where he does put such ideas into words.

[252] This appears to me certain from Athena’s language to the court, but the reader should not suppose that the Furies say so definitely; they acquiesce.

[253] vv. 696-8.

[254] This vital point is admirably demonstrated by Dr. Verrall on v. 1046.

[255] This number is not certain. It is probably an under-statement.

[256] ποδαπὸς ὁ γύννις;

[257] ἐνθουσιᾷ δὴ δῶμα, βακχεύει στέγη.

[258] βρῦτον.

[259] On the death of Kirk-White: “’Twas thine own genius gave the fatal blow,” etc. The fiery verse, ὅπλων ὅπλων δεῖ· μὴ πύθῃ τὸ δεύτερον, recalls the famous line: “A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!”

[260] Frogs, 911-3.

[261] Meineke, II, p. 1177.

[262]

οἱ θεῶν ἀγχίσποροι

οἱ Ζηνὸς ἐγγύς ὧν κατ’ Ἰδαῖον πάγον

Διὸς πατρῴου βωμός ἐστ’ ἐν αἰθέρι,

κοὔπω σφιν ἐξίτηλον αἷμα δαιμόνων.

Cp. Plato, Republic, 391 E.

[263] Oration 52.

[264] Only one has survived, that of Sophocles.

[265] Titus Andronicus, II, i. 5-7.

[266] Frogs, 924-5.

[267] Ag. 494-5. In spite of Dr. Verrall’s ingenious remarks, it seems best to take this phrase in the traditional way, as a mere extravagance.

[268] P.V. 170.

[269] Septem, 493-4.

[270] Choeph. 451-2.

[271] Eum. 137-8.

[272] Frogs, 1261-95.

[273] Suppl. 836-7. I see no reason for supposing that the Greek is defective.

[274] Ibid. 12.

[275] Ibid. 608.

[276] Persæ, 115.

[277] Ibid. 346.

[278] Persæ 395.

[279] Ibid. 815.

[280] Septem, 593.

[281] P.V. 89-90.

[282] Ibid. 993.

[283] Ag. 1434.

[284] Choeph. 647.

[285] Eum. 694.

[286] Haigh, Tragic Drama, pp. 82 sq.

[287] Frogs, 932.

[288] Professor Gilbert Murray, Literature of Ancient Greece, p. 217.

[289] vv. 908 sqq.

[290] Frogs, 1119 sqq.

[291] Dr. Verrall’s theory is still, I believe, accepted only by a minority.

[292] P.V. vv. 350-2.

[293] Danaides.

[294] Cp. Septem, 592-4 (Aristides), P.V. 1068 (Themistocles), and the references to the Areopagus (vv. 681-710) and to the Athenian Empire (vv. 398-401) in the Eumenides.

[295] Choeph. 313 sq.: δράσαντι παθεῖν, τριγέρων μῦθος τάδε φωνεῖ.

[296] Ag. 750-7.

[297] Septem, 689-91.

[298] Choeph. 1076.

[299] Æschylus never worked himself entirely free from this savage conception of sin as a material defilement. Orestes, among the proofs that he has expiated his offence, mentions the use of swine’s blood as a cleansing power (Eum. v. 283).

[300] See Dr. Verrall’s discussion of the prologue to the Eumenides, Euripides the Rationalist, pp. 220-4.

[301] Eum. vv. 640-51.

[302] Arrangement: protagonist, Ajax, Teucer (Ajax, when dead, is represented by a lay figure); deuteragonist, Odysseus, Tecmessa; tritagonist, Athena, messenger, Menelaus, Agamemnon.

[303] For the arguments see Jebb’s Introduction (pp. li-liv) to the Ajax. He thinks Antigone the earlier.

[304] vv. 520-1: “Nay, have thought even of me. A man should sure be mindful of any joy that hath been his.” But of course the quality spoken of evaporates in such a “translation”.

[305] In the address to his child he throws a half-line to the mother (v. 559) and at the beginning of his disguised farewell to the chorus he expresses pity for Tecmessa (vv. 650-3), but there is nothing to show that this is not feigned, like his implied renunciation of suicide.

[306] See Jebb’s Introduction to the play (pp. xxviii-xxxii).

[307] The arrangement is uncertain. Jebb gives, protagonist: Antigone, Tiresias, Eurydice; deuteragonist: Ismene, guard, Hæmon, the messengers; tritagonist: Creon. Croiset gives, protagonist: Antigone, Hæmon; deuteragonist: Ismene, guard, Tiresias, messengers; tritagonist: Creon, Eurydice.

[308] vv. 904-12. See Jebb’s discussion in his Appendix.

[309] vv. 450-70.

[310] Rhetoric, III, xvi. 9.

[311] Jebb’s Introduction, pp. xvii-xx.

[312] See pp. 8, 15.

[313] Arrangement probably: protagonist, Electra; deuteragonist, Orestes and Clytæmnestra; tritagonist, Pædagogus, Chrysothemis, Ægisthus.

[314] Jebb, however, gives substantial reasons for putting it later. See his Introduction, pp. lvi-lviii.

[315] vv. 1424-5.

[316] Choeph. 1075-6 (Verrall’s translation).

[317] vv. 1508 sqq. (Jebb’s translation).

[318] vv. 616-21.

[319] This seems a fair deduction, not only from the whole situation, but from the pause after Αἴγισθον in v. 957; also perhaps from the emphatic ἐμοί of v. 974. Cp. also 582 sqq. and especially the comment of the chorus in v. 1080 (διδύμαν ἑλοῦσ’ Ἐρινύν).

[320] vv. 1331-3.

[321] Arrangement: protagonist, Œdipus; deuteragonist, Priest, Jocasta, servant of Laius; tritagonist, Creon, Tiresias, the two messengers.

[322] vv. 774 sqq.

[323] It is true that when the prophet mentions the parents of Œdipus quite definitely (v. 436) the king is startled. But this is one point only. All the other remarks of Tiresias are ignored.

[324] See Aristotle, Poetic, 1454b.

[325] vv. 130-1.

[326] See pp. 127-8.

[327] vv. 124-5.

[328] The entry of Fortinbras at the end of Hamlet is closely similar. Perhaps it is fear of anti-climax which causes producers nowadays to omit this finale.

[329] Note his preciosity, vv. 942, 959, 1028.

[330] He first (v. 1026) says that he found the infant Œdipus; only later (1038) does he admit that another man has been concerned.

[331] vv. 758-64.

[332] vv. 1117-8.

[333] v. 1141.

[334] Arrangement: protagonist, Deianira, Heracles; deuteragonist, Hyllus, Lichas; tritagonist, nurse, messenger, old man.

[335] See Jebb’s Introduction, pp. xxxviii sq.

[336] vv. 575-7 (Jebb’s translation).

[337] vv. 547-9.

[338] These remarks are not vitiated by the fact (see Jebb on v. 1224) that legend wedded Iole to Hyllus. If the command of Heracles is as objectionable as Jebb appears to think, why did Sophocles go out of his way to cause the hero himself, instead of some other, to enjoin the marriage?

[339] vv. 719 sq.

[340] This accounts also for the absurd behaviour of the nurse (vv. 927 sq.) who instead of interfering hastens away to Hyllus, entirely unlike other such women in tragedy.

[341] See the speech of Lichas (vv. 248-86).

[342] Deianira’s plan, moreover, reads like a sort of dilution of Medea’s, and her last moments (vv. 900-22) recall the description in the Alcestis (vv. 158-84).

[343] v. 427. Cp. Eur. Helena, 567: ποίας δάμαρτος;

[344] Jebb points out that Trach. 416 and Supplices 567 are practically identical.

[345] v. 1140.

[346] 268.

[347] vv. 9-14.

[348] That even the equable Sophocles did on occasion embody criticism of other playwrights in his works is shown by such passages as Electra 1288 sqq., Œd Col. 1148-9.

[349] Arrangement: protagonist, Philoctetes; deuteragonist, Neoptolemus; tritagonist, Odysseus, merchant, Heracles.

[350] vv. 1007-15.

[351] E.g. Mahaffy (History of Gk. Lit., Poets, pp. 309-12).

[352] Christ (Geschichte der Gr. Lit. p. 210) who compares Heracles here to the δαιμόνιον σημεῖον of Socrates.

[353] K. O. Müller (Gr. Lit., ii. p. 124) who is opposed by Bernhardy (II, ii. p. 370).

[354] vv. 1404 sqq.

[355] When he threatens to shoot Odysseus (vv. 1299 sqq.).

[356] v. 670: εὐεργετῶν γὰρ καὐτὸς αὔτ’ ἐκτησάμην.

[357] See Jebb’s 2nd edition (p. xxvii with footnote).

[358] Or. 52.

[359] vv. 936 sqq., 987 sq., etc.

[360] vv. 187-90 (Jebb’s reading and translation).

[361] v. 1455.

[362] vv. 282-4. Notice also the phrase ξὺν ᾗ (v. 268) used of his malady.

[363] Jebb (Introd. pp. xl, xli, 2nd ed.) seems unwilling to allow any direct allusions. But see vv. 385 sqq., 456 sqq., and particularly 1035 sqq.; all three passages show a peculiar emphasis; vv. 1047-51 are quite in the tone of Thucydides’ “Melian dialogue”.

[364] The arrangement of the parts is not certain. But the important fact seems clear that a fourth actor was here used not tentatively (as in other cases) but in a very remarkable degree. Jebb gives: protagonist, Œdipus; deuteragonist, Antigone; tritagonist, Ismene and Creon; fourth actor, “Stranger,” Theseus, Polynices, messenger. Croiset: protagonist, Œdipus; deuteragonist, Antigone; fourth actor, Theseus; all the other parts to the tritagonist.

[365] Creon, vv. 854 sq.; Antigone, v. 1195.

[366] v. 106.

[367] vv. 1563 sq. The same word recurs in Antigone’s lament (v. 1682): ἄσκοποι δὲ πλάκες ἔμαρψαν.

[368] Note specially the word τοὐπιεικές (v. 1127) though the idea is of course expressed by the whole play.

[369] vv. 670-80 (Jebb’s version).

[370] See below, p. 185.

[371] σμικρὸς λόγος four times (vv. 569, 620, 1116, 1152), σμικρὸν ἔπος once (v. 443), and ἓν μόνον ἔπος once (v. 1615 sqq.). Dr. Mackail (Lectures on Greek Poetry, p. 150) has indicated this point. See also Electra, 415.

[372] vv. 670 sqq.: The parallel I owe to Jebb’s note.

[373] vv. 1503 sq.

[374] King Lear, III, iv.

[375] vv. 1627 sq. Cp. 1 Sam. iii. 10.

[376] Deut. xxxiv. 6.

[377] Heb. xi. 22.

[378] vv. 62 sq.: “Such ... are these haunts, not honoured in story, but rather in the life that loves them” (Jebb).

[379] v. 472.

[380] v. 506.

[381] vv. 964 sq.

[382] vv. 1422-5.

[383] See Jebb, Introduction, pp. xxi sq.

[384] See his splendid exculpatory speeches to the chorus (vv. 258-91) and to Creon (vv. 960-1013).

[385] See pp. 10, 12 sq.

[386] Ad Quintum Fratrem, II, xv. 3.

[387] Fr. 344: πόνου μεταλλαχθέντος οἱ πόνοι γλυκεῖς, and fr. 345: μόχθου γὰρ οὐδεὶς τοῦ παρελθόντος λόγος; recall Æneid, I, 203: forsan et haec olim meminisse iuuabit.

[388] De Subl. XV, 7: ἄκρως πεφάντασται.

[389] For the Recognition-scene of this play, cp. Aristotle, Poetic, 1454b.

[390] Birds, vv. 100 sqq.

[391] These have been published and annotated by Dr. A. S. Hunt (who, with Dr. B. P. Grenfell, discovered these and so many other precious remains) in Vol. IX of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

[392] Welcker thought that the wanderings of Europa formed the subject.

[393] The word ῥοῖβδος is inserted as a stage-direction (παρεπιγραφή). It no doubt means that the babe Hermes is playing his lyre “within”.

[394] The passage is amusing: χαίρει ἀλύων, “he is in a rapture of joy,” is an excellent phrase for this earliest of maestri; but, as Dr. Hunt remarks, his audience of one (Cyllene) seems not to share his ecstasy: παραψυκτήριον κείνῳ μόνον.

[395] The name is not certain. All that can be asserted is that the tragedy dealt with Eurypylus’ death, in defence of Troy, at the hands of Neoptolemus.

[396] See pp. 15-17.

[397] See e.g. the remarks in Creon’s opening speech (Ant. vv. 175-90).

[398] O.T. 587-8:

ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὔτ’ αὐτὸς ἱμείρων ἔφυν

τύραννος εἶναι μᾶλλον ἢ τύραννα δρᾶν.

[399] Electra, vv. 328 sqq.

[400] See p. 16.

[401] Electra, 303-16.

[402] For this and other metrical terms which follow see [Chapter VI].

[403] There are no less than thirty iambic lines thus divided. The name for such division is ἀντιλαβή.

[404] Phil. vv. 287-92.

[405] O.C. 1697, translated by Jebb: “Ah, so care past can seem lost joy!”

[406] Electra, 1165 sq.

[407] Dr. J. W. Mackail (Lectures on Greek Poetry, p. 150 sq.) has described these lines with brilliant aptness. “The language is so simple, so apparently unconscious and artless, that its overwhelming effect makes one gasp: it is like hearing human language uttered, and raised to a new and incredible power, by the lips of some one more than human.”

[408] O.C. 607 sqq. The wonderful version of these first few fines is by Professor Gilbert Murray.

[409] Ajax, 815 sqq.

[410] O.C. 1586 sqq.

[411] This figure includes the Rhesus, the authenticity of which is not certain.

[412] It is almost certain that only two actors were employed, Alcestis being mute in the last scene (i.e. the character was apparently borne by a supernumerary, not the actor who had delivered her earlier speeches), and the few lines of the child Eumelos being sung by a chorister. Croiset suggests: protagonist, Apollo, Alcestis, Heracles, Pheres; deuteragonist, Thanatos, maidservant, Admetus, attendant.

[413] The true explanation, as Dr. Hayley points out, is that the two actors are already engaged (as A. and H.) so that the queen is presented by a mute. I cannot, however, agree that this is “a clumsy device”. Admetus deserved some modification of his delight; we may, moreover, feel that Alcestis would not wish to show precipitation in greeting the husband who had interred her with such strange promptitude.

[414] The celebrated “tag” beginning πολλαὶ μορφαὶ τῶν δαιμονίων (vv. 1159-63), which is found also at the close of Medea (practically), Helena, Andromache, and Bacchæ.

[415] There are no satyrs and no indecency of language.

[416] E.g. v. 58: πῶς εἶπας; ἀλλ’ ἦ καὶ σοφὸς λέληθας ὤν; “What! you among the philosophers!”

[417] The late Dr. A. W. Verrall’s brilliant theory of this play it will be better to discuss later (see pp. 190 sq.).

[418] vv. 763 sq.

[419] vv. 280-325.

[420] Euripides the Rationalist, pp. 1-128.

[421] The hurried obsequies probably do not fall into this category. We are almost certainly to assume that as Alcestis’ sacrifice is to be made on a certain day, that day must see her not only expire, but actually delivered up to the power of death. See Dr. H. W. Hayley’s Introduction to the play (pp. xxxi sq.) and my Riddle of the Bacchæ, pp. 143 sq.

[422] I cannot write with decision about the Alcestis, because on the one hand universal testimony and opinion date it as only seven years anterior to the Medea, while my own instinct would put it quite twenty years earlier than that play. To me it reads essentially like the work of a young but highly-gifted playwright who has recently lost his wife.

[423] These celebrated lines (vv. 230-51) are not in character. They form a splendid and moving criticism of the attitude adopted by the poet’s own Athenian contemporaries towards women, but have only a very partial application to herself.

[424] (i) In vv. 1231-5, there is a very clear dittography. That is, either 1231-2, or 1233-5 would serve excellently as a speech of the chorus-leader; but it is unlikely that the poet meant both to be used; (ii) vv. 1236-50 read like another and far shorter version of the great soliloquy 1021-80; (iii) it seems odd that Medea, after finally gaining courage to slay her children, should before doing so, be seen again and join in conversations; (iv) vv. 1375-7 give the impression (as Dr. Verrall has pointed out) that the play is to end, not as it does, but with some kind of arrangement between Medea and Jason; (v) one or two ancient quotations purporting to come from this play are not to be found in our texts.

[425] See pp. 21 sq.

[426] v. 389 sqq.

[427] Poetic, 1454b.

[428] Four Plays of Euripides, pp. 125-30.

[429] vv. 1381-3.

[430] v. 472: ἀναίδεια.

[431] v. 364: κακῶς πέπρακται πανταχῇ· τίς ἀντερεῖ;

[432] vv. 801 sq.

[433] v. 450.

[434] v. 1367.

[435] vv. 944 sq. Two MSS., however (followed by Murray), give the second line to Medea.

[436] v. 349: αἰδούμενος δὲ πολλὰ δὴ διέφθορα.

[437] vv. 309 sq.

[438] v. 454.

[439] vv. 930 sq.

[440] vv. 824-45.

[441] vv. 1081-1115.

[442] Arrangement: protagonist, Iolaus, Eurystheus; deuteragonist, Demophon, Alcmena; tritagonist, Copreus, Macaria, attendant, messenger. There were a great number of mutes: Acamas, the sons of Heracles, and probably some Athenian soldiers.

[443] It has only 1055 lines, but there are probably gaps in our text.

[444] This name is not mentioned by Euripides. The scholiasts have taken it from Iliad, XV, 639.

[445] In the Peloponnesian war. The Spartans were believed the descendants of Hyllus and his brothers.

[446] Professor Murray, however, supposes another lacuna here, and thinks there were two semi-choruses, one party supporting Alcmena, the other disagreeing.

[447] Even in ancient times it seems to have enjoyed little attention.

[448] v. 638.

[449] v. 625.

[450] vv. 9 sq., 540.

[451] vv. 869 sqq.

[452] vv. 910 sqq.

[453] Down to v. 847 his story contains nothing superhuman. Then “up to this point I saw with mine own eyes; the rest of my tale depends on hearsay,” τἀπὸ τοῦδ’ ἤδη κλύων λέγοιμ’ ἂν ἄλλων, δεῦρο δ’ αὐτὸς εἰσιδών· And when he mentions the identification of the miraculous lights with Hebe and Heracles, he attributes the theory to οἱ σοφώτεροι, “cleverer heads than mine,” as we may translate it.

[454] The oracle has demanded the daughter of “a well-born father,” and she of course mentions her own qualification in this respect, without proceeding to dilate (as one would think inevitable in Euripides—or anyone else) on the quite unrivalled “nobility” of her father.

[455] vv. 513, 563.

[456] Hercules Furens, vv. 151-64.

[457] vv. 997-9; v. 990, referring to the hostility of Hera, is too vague to stand as a warrant for the divine birth of Heracles.

[458] vv. 240 sq.

[459] It has been thought that vv. 819-22 indicate the sacrifice of the maiden. They describe the soothsayers’ offering just before the battle: ἀφίεσαν λαιμῶν βροτείων εὐθὺς οὔριον φόνον. If βροτείων is right (though βοτείων, “of sheep,” is a tempting alteration) the reference to the girl’s heroism is brutally curt.

[460] vv. 597 sqq.

[461] There is, however, in vv. 45-7 an isolated statement which vaguely contradicts this.

[462] Her remark on hearing the news (v. 665): τοῦδ’ οὐκέθ’ ἡμῖν τοῦ λόγου μέτεστι δή, sets the seal upon her utter feebleness of mind.

[463] vv. 1035-7.

[464] vv. 1049-52 and elsewhere in the last scene.

[465] vv. 1020-5.

[466] Arrangement (according to Croiset): protagonist, Hippolytus; deuteragonist, Aphrodite, Phædra, Theseus (the body of Phædra being represented by a lay-figure); tritagonist, Artemis, servant (who announces the suicide), nurse, messenger.

[467] This additional name (The Crowned H.) was given to distinguish the play from the earlier Ἱππόλυτος Καλυπτόμενος (now lost), or Hippolytus Veiled.

[468] vv. 73-87.

[469] vv. 121-5.

[470] vv. 208-31. Cp. vv. 219-21 with vv. 1375 sq.

[471] vv. 732-51.

[472] vv. 828-9.

[473] vv. 1423-30.

[474] vv. 616-68. He seems to begin listening to the sound of his own voice at v. 654.

[475] vv. 728-31.

[476] vv. 831-3. Hippolytus agrees, vv. 1379-83.

[477] vv. 967-9, where note the emphatic ἐγώ. And the word νόθος is frequent in the play; see especially Hippolytus’ exclamation in vv. 1082-3, which, by a finely dramatic stroke, immediately turns Theseus’ anger to hot fury.

[478] vv. 337-41.

[479] Professor Murray.

[480] vv. 29-33.

[481] Cp. vv. 490 sq.

[482] vv. 191-7 (Professor Murray’s translation).

[483] vv. 439-61.

[484] Cp. vv. 474 sq.:—

λῆξον δ’ ὑβρίζουσ’· οὐ γὰρ ἄλλο πλὴν ὕβρις

τάδ’ ἐστί, κρείσσω δαιμόνων εἶναι θέλειν.

[485] vv. 493-6.

[486] vv. 507 sq.

[487] vv. 1034 sq.

[488] vv. 415 sqq. Compare her whole attitude. Indeed the poet suggests, as at any rate a collateral reason for her destruction of Hippolytus, a fear that he will reveal her secret (vv. 689-92).

[489] vv. 373-430.

[490] Agamemnon, vv. 160-83.

[491] In the first edition of the play, to which it seems that most of the ancient strictures apply.

[492] vv. 135-40.

[493] v. 384: τερπνὸν κακόν.

[494] v. 281: ἔκδημος ὦν γὰρ τῆσδε τυγχάνει χθονός.

[495] v. 384: μακραί τε λέσχαι καὶ σχολή, τερπνὸν κακόν.

[496] vv. 337, sqq.

[497] v. 328, etc.

[498] vv. 503-6.

[499] v. 512.

[500] See Professor Murray’s admirable remarks (p. 81 of his translation).

[501] In the trivial question, v. 516: πότερα δὲ χριστὸν ἢ ποτὸν τὸ φάρμακον; she is dangerously toying with the proposal. The nurse’s reply is a half-quaint, half-heartbreaking quotation from childish days when the little Phædra was querulous with her “medicine” as now: ὄνασθαι, μὴ μαθεῖν, βούλει, τέκνον.

[502] We notice incidentally the amazing dexterity shown by the line (565) in which she announces her discovery: σιγήσατ’, ὦ γυναῖκες, ἐξειργάσμεθα. It is a perfectly clear piece of Greek; it is also a series of gasps.

[503] v. 1035.

[504] See the Greek Argument.

[505] In our play the poet leaves his heroine silent on this topic, but hints it himself for us. See vv. 151-54, 967-70.

[506] Frogs, 1041; Thesm. 497, 547.

[507] Frogs, 101, 1467; Thesm. 275-6.

[508] Hipp. 612.

[509] vv. 960 sq., 1076 sq.

[510] vv. 1060-3.

[511] Aristophanes in the Clouds (v. 1165 sq.) parodies vv. 174 sq. The Clouds was produced in 423 B.C. In Hecuba, v. 462, reference seems to be made to the re-establishment of the Delian festival in 426 B.C.

[512] Its popularity in Byzantine times is no bar to this statement. Probably all the three plays, Hecuba, Phœnissæ, and Orestes, were chosen because the Greek was comparatively easy. Euripides was already sufficiently ancient to make this an important consideration.

Miss L. E. Matthaei’s essay should, however, be read (Studies in Greek Tragedy, pp. 118-57). With admirable insight and skill this scholar seeks to show that the Hecuba is a study, first, of “conventional” justice, the claim of the community, shown in the sacrifice of Polyxena; and, secondly, of “natural” justice, seen in Hecuba’s revenge. Miss Matthaei’s treatment, however subjective, is trenchant and illuminating, especially as regards the psychology of Hecuba and Odysseus, the value of Polyxena’s surrender, and the finale. But concerning the vital point, lack of dramatic unity, she has little to say, apparently only the suggestion (p. 140) that “the cumulative effect of finding the body of Polydorus after having seen Polyxena taken away is the deciding factor; otherwise the end of the play would have been simply unbelievable”. The strength of this argument is very doubtful.

[513] See Mr. Hadley’s admirable Introduction to the play (pp. ix-xii).

[514] vv. 779 sq.

[515] vv. 428-30, 671, 894-7, 1287 sq.

[516] v. 230.

[517] vv. 814-9, 1187-94.

[518] In 427 B.C.

[519] vv. 905 sqq.

[520] vv. 342-78.

[521] vv. 518-82.

[522] vv. 953-67.

[523] vv. 796 sq. provide an example:—

ἔκτεινε, τύμβου δ’, εἰ κτανεῖν ἐβούλετο,

οὐκ ἠξίωσεν, ἀλλ’ ἀφῆκε πόντιον.

[524] Note his absurd insistence (vv. 531-3) on his own trivial part in the sacrifice-scene.

[525] vv. 592-603 (the last line being an apology for the digression), 864-7.

[526] vv. 799 sqq.

[527] vv. 585 sqq., 806-8.

[528] v. 421: ἡμεῖς δὲ πεντήκοντά γ’ ἄμμοροι τέκνων. Comment seems obvious: “Actually enough children to row a galley!” (πεντηκόντορος ναῦς).

[529] vv. 68 sqq.

[530] vv. 702 sqq.

[531] Probably it was composed during the early years of the Peloponnesian war, as the scholiast suggests in a note on v. 445.

[532] Schol. on v. 445.

[533] Her son, who is not given a name in the play, no doubt obtains it from this prophecy.

[534] Mention of such a conflict naturally occurs (vv. 588 sq.) in the heat of their quarrel, but it comes to nothing. That the old king has no military following seems certain from the silence of both parties. See particularly vv. 752 sqq.

[535] vv. 732 sqq. Note the stammering repetition of τις—he cannot even suggest a name.

[536] It may be answered that here, as elsewhere, the time consumed by the choric ode is conventionally supposed long enough to allow for the alleged synchronous action. But how much time is required? Orestes is to place Hermione in Menelaus’ care, journey to Delphi, and arrange his plot; then the slaves are to carry the body home. This certainly means three days; one would expect a week. Thus Peleus only hears of Hermione’s departure three days (perhaps a week) after it has occurred. Is this credible? See also the conversation between him and the chorus which implies that the news has reached him within an hour or two.

[537] Four Plays of Euripides, pp. 1-42.

[538] vv. 1239 sqq. (Δελφοῖς ὄνειδος).

[539] It is usually supposed to mean “one of the second-rate plays”.

[540] vv. 929-53.

[541] vv. 595-601.

[542] v. 964: ἦλθον δὲ σὰς μὲν οὐ σέβων ἐπιστολάς, κτἑ. There can be hardly a doubt that these words refer to their parting before her marriage, when she forbade him to see her again.

[543] vv. 639, 708 sqq. Cp. Verrall, p. 38.

[544] Eg. vv. 229 sq.

[545] Cp. Verrall, pp. 29 sq.

[546] v. 166. This is the type of drama at which Sophocles shook his head and which Aristophanes reviled. But it must have made many a slave-holding citizen in the theatre suddenly raise his brows and fall to thinking of words let drop an hour ago at home.

[547] vv. 1147 sqq.: The some one of course might be anyone. The speaker elects to assume that the god is actually present.

[548] vv. 1002 sqq., especially 1004.

[549] vv. 464-94.

[550] vv. 147-80.

[551] vv. 164 sqq.

[552] vv. 445-63.

[553] Eg. vv. 632 sqq.

[554] Arrangement (according to Croiset): protagonist, Amphitryon, Madness; deuteragonist, Megara, Iris, Theseus; tritagonist, Lycus, Heracles, messenger. Of course the dead bodies are lay figures. Other arrangements are possible.

[555] vv. 637-700.

[556] vv. 70-9, 460-89.

[557] vv. 1255-1310, 1340-93.

[558] vv. 140-235.

[559] Four Plays of Euripides, pp. 134-98.

[560] vv. 339 sqq., etc.

[561] vv. 798 sqq.

[562] vv. 1340-6.

[563] Especially vv. 1269 sqq.

[564] The appearance of Pallas (vv. 1002-6) is regarded by Verrall as “a chance blow received by the madman from the falling ruins of the chamber”.

[565] In vv. 562-82 he raves, however eloquently. One man cannot capture a whole fortress and punish a hostile population as Amphitryon (vv. 585-94) feels, though his caution and prosaic advice are painfully ludicrous considering the vast claims he has made for his son an hour ago.

[566] v. 1222.

[567] Compare the similar explanation of a wonderful feat actually offered by Lycus (vv. 153 sq.).

[568] Cp. Verrall, pp. 147 sq.

[569] Ibid. pp. 156, 162.

[570] vv. 65-6.

[571] vv. 485-9.

[572] Probable Arrangement: protagonist, Theseus, messenger; deuteragonist, Adrastus, Evadne; tritagonist, Æthra, herald, Iphis, Athena.

[573] The plot strongly recalls the incident after the battle of Delium (424 B.C.), when the victorious Bœotians at first refused to surrender the Athenian dead, and the alliance between Athens and Argos (420 B.C.).

[574] The Hypothesis says: τὸ δὲ δρᾶμα ἐγκώμιον Ἀθηναίων (altered by Dindorf with general approval to Ἀθηνῶν).

[575] vv. 195-218.

[576] vv. 403-56.

[577] vv. 297-331.

[578] She has arrayed herself, not in black but in festal robes (vv. 1054-6)—an interesting parallel with the fine ending of the second act of Mr. Shaw’s Doctor’s Dilemma.

[579] Probable Arrangement: protagonist, Ion, Pædagogus; deuteragonist, Hermes, Creusa; tritagonist, Xuthus, servant, prophetess, Athena.

[580] vv. 1537 sq.

[581] ἀμαθής (v. 916, used by Creusa).

[582] ὁ κακός (v. 952, used by the Pædagogus).

[583] v. 1595.

[584] vv. 550 sqq. are probably significant (and Ion actually the son of Xuthus).

[585] Cp. v. 1324 and the rest of the short conversation between her and Ion, which is of course charming on any view of the play.

[586] vv. 859 sqq.

[587] vv. 1029 sqq.

[588] Cp. v. 1419: οὐ τέλεον, οἷον δ’ ἐκδίδαγμα κερκίδος, and Ion’s acknowledgment (v. 1424): ἰδού· τόδ’ ἐσθ’ ὕφασμα, θέσφαθ’ ὡς εὑρίσκομεν. This latter surely means that Ion is as satisfied as one can expect to be in tracing the fulfilment of oracles.

[589] Cp. v. 1565: μηχαναῖς ἐρρύσατο.

[590] v. 1550: πρόσωπον.

[591] οὐ πέδον τίκτει τέκνα says the elder man (v. 542), casually turning his back on the glory of his wife’s family (cp. vv. 265-8).

[592] vv. 585 sqq.

[593] vv. 738-46.

[594] v. 768 sqq.

[595] vv. 1215 sqq.

[596] His very religion, when put to the test, is mostly intellectual. Apollo’s moral shortcomings only cause him to shake his head gravely; but when the god’s truthfulness is exploded, the whole fabric of his belief collapses.

[597] vv. 369-72.

[598] vv. 436-51. The above paraphrase is probably not too colloquial (cp. especially v. 437: τί πάσχει; and v. 439: μὴ σύ γε). In fact, as the speech is so very explicit and unadorned, and as Ion is probably uttering it while he performs his tasks (see 434-6, after which these reflections begin in the middle of a line), we perhaps overhear thoughts rather than words.

[599] vv. 589 sqq.

[600] vv. 1312 sqq.

[601] vv. 1546 sqq.

[602] vv. 369 sqq.

[603] vv. 308, etc.

[604] vv. 1397 sqq.

[605] vv. 1468 sq.

[606] Arrangement (probable): protagonist, Hecuba; deuteragonist, Athena, Cassandra, Andromache, Helen; tritagonist, Poseidon, Talthybius, Menelaus.

[607] Ælian, Var. Hist. ii. 8.

[608] There are reminders of the western lands in vv. 220 sqq.

[609] vv. 703 sqq.

[610] vv. 1158 sqq.

[611] v. 764: ὦ βάρβαρ’ ἐξευρόντες Ἕλληνες κακά (Andromache’s phrase).

[612] vv. 884 sqq. (The first line refers to air.) If we possess any evidence as to the theological belief of the poet himself it is probably contained in these lines.

[613] vv. 469 sqq., 841 sqq., 1060 sqq. (especially the poignant μέλει μέλει μοι), 1240 sqq.

[614] vv. 1204 sqq.:—

τοῖς τρόποις γὰρ αἱ τύχαι,

ἔμπληκτος ὡς ἄνθρωπος, ἄλλοτ’ ἄλλοσε

πηδῶσι.

The phrasing points back effectively to Poseidon’s description of Athena’s fickleness (vv. 67 sq.: τί δ’ ὧδε πηδᾷς ἄλλοτ’ εἰς ἄλλους τρόπους;).

[615] The arrangement is uncertain. Perhaps: protagonist, Iphigenia; deuteragonist, Orestes, messenger, Athena; tritagonist, herdsman, Pylades, Thoas.

[616] Murray and others place it about 414-2, Wilamowitz, 411-9.

[617] v. 1205: πιστὸν Ἑλλὰς οἶδεν οὐδέν.

[618] v. 626: πῦρ ἱερὸν ἔνδον, χάσμα δ’ εὐρωπὸν πέτρας—a marvellous line.

[619] vv. 823-6.

[620] v. 677: Φωκέων τ’ ἐν πολυπτύχῳ χθονί.

[621] See especially the lovely song, vv. 1089 sqq.

[622] vv. 968 sqq.

[623] One can hardly doubt that this is the intention of the scene on the Taurian beach (vv. 281-94).

[624] vv. 711 sqq. The feelings of the Delphian hierarchy, when Orestes after all actually returned, bringing with him the image—about which they cared not a farthing—may be imagined by the irreverent.

[625] v. 77.

[626] v. 275.

[627] vv. 380 sqq.

[628] vv. 719 sq.

[629] See Verrall, Eur. the Rationalist, pp. 217-30 (Euripides in a Hymn).

[630] Longinus, de Subl. xv. 3.

[631] vv. 970 sqq.

[632] v. 73: ἐξ αἱμάτων γοῦν ξάνθ’ ἔχει τριχώματα, a grotesque thought which we have just heard (as Murray points out in his apparatus) from Iphigenia as part of her dream.

[633] vv. 281 sqq.

[634] vv. 961 sqq.

[635] θεᾶς βρέτας is now the prescription, as we may call it. Cp. vv. 980, 985-6, and 1038-40.

[636] vv. 939 sqq.

[637] ψῆφος (v. 945). He means “assembly (which votes),” but he has ψῆφος on the brain, as well he might have (vv. 965 sq.).

[638] vv. 739 sq. and 1046: Πυλάδης δ’ ὅδ’ ἡμῖν ποῦ τετάξεται φόνου—if this is a task set by Apollo there must be murder in it.

[639] v. 933.

[640] Arrangement: protagonist, Electra; deuteragonist, Orestes, Clytæmnestra; tritagonist, farmer, old man, messenger, Castor. Pylades and Polydeuces were represented by a mute actor.

[641] From vv. 1347-56 it is clear that the Sicilian expedition had already sailed, but that news of the disaster had not yet reached Athens.

[642] Bernhardy, Geschichte der griechischen Poesie II, ii. p. 490.

[643] vv. 1041-3.

[644] vv. 9-10.

[645] 1142-6.

[646] vv. 652-60.

[647] v. 54.

[648] The peasant tells us that Electra’s banishment to the country is due to her mother’s efforts when Ægisthus wished to kill her (vv. 25 sqq.). Electra puts the matter very differently (vv. 60 sq.). The horrible story in vv. 326 sqq. is probably untrue; cp. ὡς λέγουσιν.

[649] vv. 77-8, 354 sq.

[650] vv. 367 sqq.

[651] vv. 255 sqq.

[652] vv. 1294, 1296 sq., 1302.

[653] vv. 737-45.

[654] Expedit esse deos.

[655] “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him.”

[656] vv. 1245 sq.

[657] vv. 1327 sqq.

[658] vv. 1301-7. The first line, μοῖρά τ’ ἀνάγκης ἦγ’ ᾗ τὸ χρεών, is an exceptionally fine instance of misty verbiage.

[659] See Verrall’s discussion in his edition of the Choephorœ (Introd. pp. xxxiii-lxx).

[660] Probable Arrangement: protagonist, Helen, the god (whether Castor or Pollux); deuteragonist, Teucer, Menelaus, Egyptian messenger; tritagonist, old woman, Greek messenger, Theonoe, Theoclymenus.

[661] v. 616: ὦ χαῖρε, Λήδας θύγατερ, ἐνθάδ’ ἦσθ’ ἄρα;

[662] v. 151.

[663] vv. 832, 1048, 491, 1050-2.

[664] vv. 183 sqq.

[665] vv. 1107 sqq.

[666] vv. 878 sqq.

[667] vv. 1013-6:—

καὶ γὰρ τίσις τῶνδ’ ἐστὶ τοῖς τε νερτέροις

καὶ τοῖς ἄνωθεν πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις. ὁ νοῦς

τῶν κατθανόντων ζῇ μὲν οὔ, γνώμην δ’ ἔχει

ἀθάνατον, εἰς ἀθάνατον αἰθέρ’ ἐμπεσών.

The precision of the wording is remarkable.

[668] Troades, 884 sqq.

[669] See Four Plays of Euripides, pp. 43-133 (Euripides’ Apology).

[670] vv. 1301 sqq.

[671] The idea is taken from the famous recantation of Stesichorus, which asserted that Helen never went to Troy.

[672] In the inflated affectation of such things as vv. 355-6 and 629 parody of some contemporary lyrist is quite possible.

[673] vv. 20-1, 256-9 (rejected by Murray, after Badham).

[674] vv. 138 sqq., 205 sqq., 284-5.

[675] vv. 744-60.

[676] Arrangement (according to Croiset): protagonist, Jocasta, Creon; deuteragonist, Antigone, Polynices, Menœceus; tritagonist, pædagogus, Eteocles, Tiresias, messengers, Œdipus.

[677] Perhaps one reason was the great sweep of story which it covers.

[678] See Mr. J. U. Powell’s careful and lucid account in his edition (pp. 7-32).

[679] Verrall, Eur. the Rationalist, pp. 236 sq.

[680] Mr. J. U. Powell, whose edition should be consulted.

[681] vv. 1233 sq.:—

ὑμεῖς δ’ ἀγῶν’ ἀφέντες, Ἀργεῖοι, χθόνα

νίσεσθε, βίοτον μὴ λιπόντες ἐνθάδε,

are out of the question as work of Euripides. There are several other faults.

[682] vv. 1259 sqq.

[683] Mr. Powell, however, rightly remarks that vv. 1265-6 are “strained”.

[684] vv. 1758 sq.

[685] vv. 1524 sq.

[686] So the scholiast: ὅ τε ἐπὶ πᾶσι μετ’ ᾠδῆς ἀδολέσχου φυγαδευόμενος Οἰδίπους προσέρραπται διὰ κενῆς.

[687] vv. 1090-1199 (the ῥῆσις containing the description of the Seven).

[688] vv. 1182 sqq.

[689] Verrall (Eur. the Rationalist, pp. 231-60) believed that those parts which introduce Antigone are un-Euripidean. The terrace-scene has already been discussed. In the body of the play, as he argues with much point, wherever mention of Antigone occurs, it is obtrusive and embarrassing. Her lament with Œdipus at the close contains many inappropriate features. He concludes that Œdipus is an allegory of Euripides himself, leaving Athens in sorrow at the end of his life, and that Antigone represents his literary offspring, the plays. The Sphinx is “the spirit of mystery and darkness,” which the poet has fought and quelled. All this was composed by a poet of the Euripidean circle to commemorate the master; it includes a compliment—the quotation from the Œdipus Tyrannus—to Sophocles, who had shown public respect to his rival when the news of his death reached Athens.

[690] One notices the criticism (vv. 751 sq.) of Æschylus, Septem (vv. 375 sqq.) when Eteocles declares that to give a list of his champions would be waste of time.

[691] The “popular” character of the Phœnissæ is brought out by the relish with which the Argument enumerates its murderous happenings.

[692] In this passage an allusion has by some been supposed to Alcibiades’ return to Athens (411 B.C.).

[693] Cp. vv. 302 sq. (γηραιὸν πόδ’ ἕλκω) with v. 316 (περιχορεύουσα).

[694] vv. 528 sqq.

[695] Croiset gives the probable arrangement: protagonist, Orestes, messenger; deuteragonist, Electra, Menelaus, Phrygian; tritagonist, Helen, Tyndareus, Pylades, Hermione, Apollo.

[696] See Murray’s text.

[697] vv. 1167 sqq.

[698] vv. 491-525.

[699] vv. 28 sqq.

[700] vv. 285 sqq. Menelaus (v. 417) casually calls Apollo “stupid”.

[701] vv. 380 sqq.

[702] v. 386.

[703] v. 388.

[704] v. 390.

[705] vv. 544 sqq. The flatness of the translation given above is not, I think, inappropriate, νῦν δὲ σὴν ταρβῶ τρίχα (v. 550), is merely hideous. μαστοῖς τὸν ἔλεον θηρώμεναι (v. 568), is even worse.

[706] v. 551.

[707] v. 634.

[708] v. 397.

[709] vv. 640 sq.

[710] vv. 658-61.

[711] vv. 932 sqq.

[712] v. 1576: ποτέρον ἐρωτᾶν ἢ κλύειν ἐμοῦ θέλεις;

[713] v. 396.

[714] His “progression, upward in strength and downward in reason, is visible throughout,” says Dr. Verrall (Four Plays, p. 245), whose eloquent and vivid essay on this drama should be carefully studied.

[715] vv. 1204 sqq.: ὦ τὰς φρένας μὲν ἄρσενας κεκτημένη....

[716] vv. 615 sqq.

[717] vv. 72-92. Compare the amusing little passage-of-arms, vv. 107-11 (see Verrall, Four Plays, pp. 219 sq.).

[718] vv. 126 sqq.

[719] vv. 1-3.

[720] vv. 78 sq.

[721] v. 121.

[722] vv. 960 sqq.

[723] At v. 1539 (very late in the day) they discuss whether it is their duty to inform the State of the murderous plot against Helen and Hermione. Even then they decide to do nothing.

[724] vv. 1547 sqq.

[725] Note vv. 743, 745, 747, 749, and the excitement in the last two verses.

[726] vv. 481 sqq.

[727] vv. 371 sqq.

[728] v. 1323.

[729] vv. 37 sqq.

[730] vv. 395 sqq.

[731] Contrast v. 420: μέλλει· τὸ θεῖον δ’ ἐστὶ τοιοῦτον φύσει; with v. 423: ὡς ταχὺ μετῆλθόν σ’ αἷμα μητέρος θεαί.

[732] vv. 360 sqq.

[733] v. 373.

[734] First Menelaus says that Glaucus spoke to him “from the waves” (v. 362), but from v. 365 (ἐμφανῶς κατασταθείς) it seems that the person is standing on the shore. Such inconsistencies are significant, and in Euripides common. They indicate how much accuracy the narrator commands.

[735] vv. 1493 sqq.

[736] vv. 1662-3.

[737] Professor Gilbert Murray (Euripides and his Age, pp. 160 sqq.) has some beautiful and striking observations on the epiphany of Apollo and its effect on the raving mortals below: a trance falls upon them from which they awake purged of hate and anger. But could Euripides, can we, attribute this to a god who has commanded matricide? And the effect is largely spoiled by Orestes (vv. 1666 sqq.): “Prophetic Loxias, what oracles are thine! Thou art not, then, a lying prophet, but a true. Yet had I begun to dread lest, when I heard thy voice as I thought, it was that of a fiend.” ... These are not the tones of blissful faith.

[738] Paley says that this play is more frequently quoted by ancient writers than all the works of Æschylus and Sophocles together.

[739] vv. 174 sqq.

[740] Arrangement: Protagonist, Pentheus, Agave; deuteragonist, Dionysus, Tiresias; tritagonist, Cadmus, guard, messengers.

[741] Before Cadmus’ speech, a passage has been lost in which the mourners adjusted the torn fragments.

[742] There is another gap at this point. A considerable number of Dionysus’ lines are missing, and no doubt also further conversation between Cadmus and Agave.

[743] See Professor Murray (Euripides and his Age, pp. 183 sq.). I now think that what I wrote about the psychology of Dionysus and Pentheus (The Riddle of the Bacchæ, pp. 66 sq., 87-101) is over-elaborated.

[744] vv. 824-45.

[745] vv. 732-51.

[746] Professor Murray’s beautiful translation of these lyrics will be familiar to most readers.

[747] Murray, Euripides and his Age, p. 196. My quotation, of course, does not imply that Professor Murray is guilty of the confusion of thought in question.

[748] The view mentioned in this paragraph will be found worked out in the present writer’s Riddle of the Bacchæ. This theory has met with much scepticism, but received the honour of almost entire acceptance by the late Dr. Verrall in The Bacchantes of Euripides. Dr. Verrall improved the statement of the theory, in particular by rejecting the supposition of a plot between Tiresias and the Stranger. Mr. W. H. Salter, in his delightful Essays on Two Moderns, also accepts this view of the play in the main (pp. 50-68). Dr. R. Nihard, in Le Problème des Bacchantes d’Euripide (Louvain, 1912), a useful study, rejects it.

[749] vv. 632 sq.:—

πρὸς δὲ τοῖσδ’ αὐτῷ τάδ’ ἄλλα Βάκχιος λυμαίνεται·

δώματ’ ἔρρηξεν χαμᾶζε. συντεθράνωται δ’ ἅπαν ...

συντεθράνωται, however, is elsewhere only known to us by the explanation of Hesychius, συμπέπτωκε, and Verrall points out that it ought to mean “it has all been put together again”.

[750] To this view no complete answer has yet been made. All that can possibly be said is what Professor Gilbert Murray (Euripides and his Age, pp. 186 sq.) and (in a letter to the present writer) Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff suggest, that the palace is in the main destroyed, but the façade is more or less undamaged. This does away with the testimony to Dionysus’ imposture which the audience receive from their own eyes, but it leaves untouched the incredible silence of Pentheus. Moreover, Dionysus’ words as they stand mean that the building is utterly destroyed. That they do not mean this is only suggested in despair, because, if they do mean this, they are absurdly and patently false.

[751] v. 233 sq.: ξένος, γόης ἐπῳδός.

[752] The attachment between Artemis and Hippolytus is a remarkable exception. The stories concerning the “loves” of gods and goddesses for mortals are evidently beside the question.

[753] vv. 1325 sq.

[754] Bellerophon, fr. 294, 7: εἰ θεοί τι δρῶσιν αἰσχρόν, οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοί.

[755] Arrangement: Croiset gives: protagonist, Agamemnon, Achilles; deuteragonist, Old Man, Iphigenia, messenger; tritagonist, Menelaus, Clytæmnestra.

[756] For these see Professor Murray’s text, especially his preface.

[757] It contains, for instance, unmetrical verses.

[758] vv. 1366 sq.

[759] vv. 919-74.

[760] For what follows cp. Professor Murray, Euripides and his Age, pp. 173-5.

[761] v. 414.

[762] The elision of αι in v. 407.

[763] Poetic, 1454a.

[764] Arrangement: protagonist, Odysseus; deuteragonist, Silenus; tritagonist, Polyphemus.

[765] The Detectives (Ἰχνευταί) of Sophocles is now known to us by extensive fragments, see pp. 175 sq.

[766] Murray puts it “perhaps even before 438”.

[767] It attracted little attention from ancient scholars. There are no scholia, and the hypothesis is incomplete.

[768] Odyssey IX. 105-566.

[769] Cp. vv. 549, 672-5, with Od. IX. vv. 366, 408-12.

[770] Cp. vv. 460-3 with Od. IX. 384-8.

[771] See p. 2.

[772] Anapæsts in other feet than the first, and occasional violations of the rule of the final cretic (see [Chapter VI]).

[773] vv. 316-41.

[774] The arrangement of the cast is not clear; perhaps: protagonist, Hector, Odysseus; deuteragonist, Æneas, Rhesus, Diomedes, charioteer; tritagonist, Dolon, herdsman, Athena, Muse. The brief part of Paris may have been taken by Diomedes or Odysseus, possibly by a fourth actor.

[775] ἀνθρωποδαίμων (v. 971).

[776] vv. 474-84.

[777] vv. 546-56.

[778] An excellent summary of the evidence (to which I am indebted) is to be found in the Introduction to Professor Murray’s verse-translation.

[779] Its author, however, is by no means convinced by them. He gives also interesting information on other points.

[780] That is, the two prologues mentioned in the Argument were added for later performances.

[781] Another argument on this side, which is perhaps new, lies in the fact that almost all the action takes place at night—an unique feature. The ancient theatre, of course, could not be darkened. It might be urged that the drama was meant for readers only, and so comes from one of the ἀναγνωστικοί of the fourth century (see p. 32).

[782] vv. 319-23.

[783] vv. 422-53.

[784] It suffices to mention Scaliger, Böckh, Hermann, Valckenaer, and Wilamowitz-Moellendorff.

[785] Upheld, e.g. by Christ and Murray.

[786] Schol. on v. 528.

[787] vv. 962-73.

[788] On the whole question see Mr. W. H. Porter’s excellent paper, “The Euripidean Rhesus in the Light of Recent Criticism” (Hermathena, xvii. pp. 348-80), and his useful edition of the play.

[789] Cp. pp. 119 sq., 165 sq.

[790] Euripides revises even the diction of his predecessor. Æschylus wrote φαγέδαινα δ’ ἥ μου σάρκας ἐσθίει ποδός; Euripides repeats the line with the verb altered to θοινᾶται (Aristotle, Poetic, 1458b).

[791] vv. 1520-7.

[792] Quomodo historia conscribenda, § 1.

[793] See Hartung’s masterly treatment in Euripides Restitutus, II, pp. 344-60.

[794] Ruskin, Mornings in Florence, I, 14.

[795] The statements in this sentence are taken from Hartung, who bases his conception here upon other authors; there are no Euripidean fragments to this effect.

[796] Eratosthenes (Catast. 15, quoted by Nauck) says: οὐχ εἵλετο τῷ πατρὶ συμμένειν οὐδὲ τῇ μητρί, ἀλλ’ αὐθαίρετος εἰς τὸ Ἄργος ἀπῆλθε μετ’ ἐκείνου εὐγενές τι φρονήσασα. The last three words suggest a scene of irresolution followed by a speech of high resolve, as in the Iphigenia at Aulis.

[797] I, 33.

[798] See Goethe’s enthusiastic and brilliant discussion, Altgriechische Literatur (Works, Vol. V, p. 127, edition of 1837).

[799] Hartung’s brilliant sketch of Phaethon’s character (Eur. Restitutus, II, pp. 192 sq.), however imaginary, will be read with interest.

[800] This is an acute suggestion of Goethe.

[801] ὡς πανταχοῦ γε πατρὶς ἡ βόσκουσα γῆ.

[802] δένδρεα φίλοισιν ὠλέναισι ψυκτήρια λέξεται.

[803] The chorus in their terror bid the queen seek refuge with her father Oceanus.

[804] See Oxyrhynchus Papyri, VI, pp. 19-106.

[805] The scholiast on Frogs, v. 53, which was performed in 405 B.C. (the year after Euripides’ death) mentions the Hypsipyle among recent plays.

[806] The critic Didymus, for instance, knew the Hypsipyle better than the Bacchæ. For “Achelous” as a synonym for “water” he quotes the former play rather than Bacchæ, 625. See Macrobius, V, xviii. 12.

[807] That is, “the beginning of doom”.

[808] Hartung, Eur. Rest. II, p. 442.

[809] Μελανίππη ἡ σοφή, so called to distinguish it from Μ. δέσμωτις, or Melanippe in Prison. The latter play seems to have been much less important. Unfortunately there is often a doubt, when authorities quote the “Melanippe,” from which of the two the quotation comes.

[810] See pp. 313-5.

[811] ἔχει δὲ διπλοῦν σχῆμα, τὸ μὲν τοῦ ποιητοῦ, τὸ δὲ τοῦ προσώπου τοῦ ἐν τῷ δράματι, τῆς Μελανίππης (quoted by Nauck).

[812] Jupiter Tragœdus, 41.

[813] Hartung assigns it to 448 B.C.

[814] Cp. Aristotle’s criticism, Poetic, 1454a: τοῦ δὲ ἀπρεποῦς καὶ μὴ ἁρμόττοντος (παράδειγμα) ... ἡ τῆς Μελανίππης ῥῆσις.

[815] Moralia, 110 D, 998 E.

[816] Poetic, 1454a.

[817]

κοίλοις ἐν ἄλυχνος ὥστε θὴρ μόνος (fr. 425).

[818]

τίς δ’ οἶδεν εἰ τὸ ζῆν μέν ἐστι κατθανεῖν,

τὸ κατθανεῖν δὲ ζῆν κάτω νομίζεται;

[819] 1 Cor. xv. 33.

[820] Fr. 1034:—

ἅπας μὲν ἀὴρ ἀετῷ περάσιμος,

ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς.

[821] Fr. 475.

[822] Mr. F. Manning, Scenes and Portraits (Preface, p. viii).

[823] Aristotle, Poetic, 1460b: Σοφοκλῆς ἔφη αὐτὸς μὲν οἵους δεῖ ποιεῖν, Εὐριπίδην δὲ οἷοί εἰσιν.

[824] Frogs, vv. 850, 1043 sq.

[825] Ibid. 954-8.

[826] Ibid. 1304-8, 1314, 1348.

[827] Ibid. 1309-63.

[828] Ibid. 1378-1410.

[829] Ibid. 1198 sqq.

[830] Poetic, 1454a.

[831] Ibid. 1461b.

[832] Ibid. 1453a. ὁ Εὐριπίδης εἰ καὶ τὰ ἄλλα μὴ εὖ οἰκονομεῖ ἀλλὰ τραγικώτατός γε τῶν ποιητῶν φαίνεται.

[833] Andromache, Electra, Bacchæ, Rhesus, and the original text of the Iphigenia at Aulis (see Murray’s Apparatus at the end of the play). Aristotle naturally allows such as these (Poetic, 1454b): μηχανῇ χρηστέον ἐπὶ τὰ ἔξω τοῦ δράματος, κτἑ.

[834] In the extant plays. Of course there were others, which we cannot discuss with knowledge, e.g. the close of Melanippe the Wise.

[835] For the Iphigenia carries the Helena with it (see the discussion of the latter, [pp. 260 sqq.]). As a matter of cold fact, to be sure, Theoclymenus could never have overtaken the Greeks.

[836] Frogs, 1198-1247.

[837] He seems in private conversation to have maintained the necessity of this; compare the criticism of Æschylus which he utters in the Frogs, 1122: ἀσαφὴς γὰρ ἦν ἐν τῇ φράσει τῶν πραγμάτων. φ.τ.π. is precisely “prologue” in the Euripidean sense.

[838] Herc. Fur., 601 sqq.

[839] Mr. G. B. Shaw.

[840] Troades, vv. 1204-6. Cp. Helena, 1140-3.

[841] See Mr. W. H. S. Jones, The Moral Standpoint of Euripides, pp. 28 sq. This view is also set forth by Jebb, The Growth and Influence of Classical Greek Poetry, p. 218, and by Nestle, Euripides der Dichter der Gr. Aufklärung, p. 174.

[842] Orestes, vv. 982 sqq.: μόλοιμι τὰν οὐρανοῦ κτἑ.

[843] See Mr. E. F. Carritt, The Theory of Beauty, p. 156.

[844] Ibid. p. 89.

[845] v. 618.

[846] Helena, vv. 489 sqq.

[847] Iph. Aul., vv. 819 sqq.

[848] Ion, v. 1039.

[849] The Possessed, Ch. I.

[850] v. 674: ὦ πατρὸς ὅμαιμε θεῖε.

[851] Orestes, vv. 71-111.

[852] M. Arnold, The Scholar-Gipsy. Cp. Mrs. Browning’s well-known lines on “Our Euripides the human”.

[853] Fr. 916:—

μή μοι

λεπτῶν θίγγανε μύθων, ψυχή·

τί περισσὰ φρονεῖς, εἰ μὴ μέλλεις

σεμνύνεσθαι παρ’ ὁμοίοις;

[854] Fr. 894:—

σοφὸν γὰρ ἄνδρα, κἂν ἑκὰς ναίῃ χθονός,

κἂν μήποτ’ ὄσσοις εἰσίδω, κρίνω φίλον.

And Nestle (p. 368) aptly quotes from Schiller’s Don Carlos (III, 10):

Das Jahrhundert

Ist meinem Ideal nicht reif. Ich lebe

Ein bürger derer, welche kommen werden.

[855] See the celebrated sketch of progressive degradation in Thucydides (III, 82, 83).

[856] Dr. W. Nestle’s work is entitled Euripides der Dichter der griechischen Aufklärung.

[857] Herc. Fur., 673 sqq.

[858] A totally different thing from the written Greek accents ΄, `, and ῀, which refer to pitch, not stress.

[859] συνάφεια, “connexion,” “continuity.”

[860] These cause almost all the difficulty of scanning iambics. Till one is quite familiar with them it is a good plan to begin at the end. Nearly all resolved feet occur in the third or fourth place.

[861] Sophocles sometimes neglects this pause. Not only does he occasionally end a line with a word (such as the definite article) which belongs closely to the first word of the next line; in a few places he elides a vowel at the end before a vowel in the following line. See, for instance, Œd. Tyr., 29.

[862] Latin, cæsura “a cutting”.

[863] No such lines are extant in Greek, but an analogy can be found in Ennius’ hexameter:

Sparsis hastis longis campus splendet et horret.

In the Peruigilium Veneris, the trochee is much too often contained in a single word, e.g.:

Hybla totos funde flores, quotquot annus adtulit.

[864] It is so called because the second half of the fifth foot plus the sixth will obviously have the metrical form –⏑–, which sequence of syllables, when it forms a single foot (as, of course, it does not in iambics), is called a cretic. The rule is therefore often thus stated: “When the final cretic extends over a whole word or whole words, it must be preceded by a short syllable”.

[865] Iambics were adopted because nearer to the rhythm of everyday speech. It has been held, for instance by Dr. J. H. H. Schmidt, that iambics are nothing but trochaics with “anacrusis” (for this term see below, p. 342). So near is the iambic metre to ordinary talk that one now and again finds accidental “lines” in prose. Thus Demosthenes (Olynth., I, 5) writes δῆλον γάρ ἐστι τοῖς Ὀλυνθίοις ὅτι.... George Eliot, early in Middlemarch, actually produces two consecutive “lines”: “Obliged to get my coals by stratagem, and pray to heaven for my salad-oil”.

[866] Euripides is much fonder of this metre than the other two masters. Sophocles in particular is very sparing of it. That passage (Philoctetes, 1222 sqq.), where Odysseus and Neoptolemus hurry upon the scene in violent (iambic) altercation, would infallibly have been put into trochaics by Euripides.

[867] From καταλήγω, “to stop short”.

[868] The two instances given are, in fact, all that I have found.

[869] διαίρεσις, “division”.

[870] For example, the splendid poem by Anacreon beginning πῶλε Θρῃκίη is printed by some in long lines, by others in short, even though the first, third, etc., long lines are not catalectic.

[871] The meaning of this term is uncertain.

[872] I have, here and later, printed the readings and arrangement best suited to my purpose.

[873] Greek συγκοπή, “coalescence”. But ⏗ need not fill a foot: for instance in a true dactylic system we find (Œd. Col., 1082):—

– ⏑ ⏑ – ⏑ ⏑ – – ⏗ ⏑ ⏗ ⏑ – –
αιθερι|ας νεφελ|ας κυρσ|αιμ αν|ωθ αγ|ωνων.

Analogously to ⏗ as a trochee, dactyls admit ⏘ (= ⏑⏑⏑⏑) as a foot.

– ⏑⏑ ⏘ ⏘ ⏗ ⏑ – – – ⏑ ⏑ ⏘ –
θησεα | και | τας | διστολ|ους αδμ|ητας αδ|ελφ|αςꞈ̄(Œd. Col., 1055).

[874] Before condemning this statement as a mere evasion, the student should reflect that all such poetry is written for music, which would in performance make the rhythm “come right”.

[875] λογαοιδικός, “mingled of prose and verse”.

[876] ἀνάκρουσις, “striking up”.

[877] Not all, for the first short syllable may be part of a resolved foot.

[878] The first syllable of πρυμνησίων in the second line, though long, is musically equivalent to a short. Such syllables are marked with the sign ˃, and the foot τοῑ πρυ͐μν- may be called an “accelerated spondee”. Syllables which carry a musical length different from their metrical length are named “irrational”.

[879] The existence of these cola forms (to us who have not the music written for Greek lyrics) one of the greatest obstacles to a clear and easy perception of periodic structure.

[880] In lyrics a long syllable (if it does not end with a consonant) may be shortened—instead of disappearing by elision—before a vowel.

[881] ἡ ἐπῳδός. The masculine word, ὁ ἐπῳδός, has a different meaning, with which we are familiar from the Epodes of Horace—a poem which repeats from beginning to end the same period, each period being usually two cola “which either have equal length, or the second of which is catalectic or ‘falling’ or is even shortened by an entire measure” (see Schmidt’s Introduction, Eng. tr. by Prof. J. W. White, pp. 93 sqq.).

[882] Though my obligations to Dr. J. H. H. Schmidt’s volumes, especially Die Eurhythmie in den Chorgesängen der Griechen, are very great, I cannot see in his verse-pause—according to him (Eurhythmie, p. 89) the foundation of his system—anything but a delusion. Dr. Schmidt’s own appendices show a good minority of “verses” which end with no pause.

[883] The first two syllables (⏑⏑) correspond to the first (–) of Οἰδίπου.

[884] How? By examination of the whole period. If we look at the seventh line of the strophe from Antigone, scanned above, it may seem arbitrary to write

– ˃
| αιναν ‖

rather than

⏗ –
| αιν|ανꞈ‖.

But the former method is suggested by the corresponding fourth line, which cannot possibly be scanned otherwise than as above, and which therefore has four feet; hence we scan -αιναν so as to give the seventh line also four, not five, feet altogether.

[885] It is therefore possible to scan the ordinary iambics of dialogue as trochees:—

˃ – ⏑ – ˃ – ⏑ – ˃ – ⏑ –
ειθ ⁝ ωφελ | Αργους | μη δι|απτασθ|αι σκαφ|οςꞈ (Medea, 1).

This is the method followed by Dr. J. H. H. Schmidt, and of course changes altogether the rules given above (§ II), but will hardly perplex the student. It has the advantage of bringing “iambic” dialogue closer to lyric and to episodic trochees, but it has seemed more convenient to keep the traditional statement.

[886] Printed as one line, though containing a colon which ends with the end of a word, because the corresponding line of the antistrophe contains a colon which does not:—

πρῶτά σε κεκλόμενος, θύγατ‖ερ Διός, ἄμβροτ’ Ἀθάνα....

[887] Because spondaic words are lacking. It is sometimes said that the only spondee in English is “amen”. The peculiar pronunciation of this word is due to the fact that it is so often sung to music where each syllable is given a whole bar. The name of Seaford in Sussex is undoubtedly pronounced by its inhabitants ∸∸; but one may perhaps therefore argue that it should be written “Sea Ford”.

[888] This important sequence may be conveniently memorized—if we substitute accent for quantity—by the sentence “Attack Rome at once”.

[889] I take this figure from Schmidt’s Introduction (English Translation, p. 76).

[890] The first two syllables of this word form the anacrusis, though the metre is trochaic; that is, we find ⏑⏑ instead of ⏑. In such cases the two “shorts” are given the length of one only, and this is indicated by the sign ω.

[891] I have taken Schmidt’s readings and arrangement for the sake of an example. Murray’s arrangement is quite different.