P. 188.—“The Raging Hercules.” One of the most precious remains of Euripides, full of tragic pathos. While Hercules is absent from home, Lycos, tyrant of Thebes, persecutes his father, wife and children. As they are about to be put to death, Hercules returns and a scene of vengeance follows, and Lycos is the one to suffer death.
“Balaustion,” ba-lausˈti-on.
“Sicilian Expedition.” See “Brief History of Greece,” page 31.
P. 191.—“Mistress.” Artemis.
P. 192.—“I-olˈcos.” An ancient town in Thessaly, the place from which the Argonauts set sail.
“Stygian barge.” The Greek’s view of the world entered immediately after death is given in the following quotation from Seemann’s “Classical Mythology:” “It was supposed to be a region in the center of the earth, with several passages to and from the upper world. Through it flowed several rivers—Co-cyˈtus, Pyˌri-phlegˈe-thon, Achˈe-ron and Styx. The last of these encompassed the lower world several times, and could only be crossed by the aid of Charon, the ferryman, who was depicted as a sullen old man with a bristling beard. The Greeks, therefore, used to place an obolus (small copper coin) in the mouths of their dead, in order that the soul might not be turned back by Charon for lack of money. On the farther side of the river the portals were watched by the dreadful hell-hound Cerberus, a three-headed monster, who refused no one entrance, but allowed none to leave the house of Pluto. All souls on reaching the lower world had to appear before the tribunal of Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Æacus. Those whose lives had been upright were then permitted to enter Elysium, where they led a life of uninterrupted bliss; while those who on earth had been criminal and wicked were consigned to Tartarus, where they were tormented by the Furies and other evil spirits. Those whose lives had not been distinctly good or bad remained in the Asphodel Meadow, where, as dim shadows, they passed a dull, joyless existence.”
P. 194.—“Koré,” kōˈrā. Persephone or Proserpine, the wife of Pluto.
P. 195.—“Moirai,” moyˈrī.
P. 197.—“Strophe.” In Greek tragedy, in its highest development, there was a group of persons, composed of both sexes, who constituted the chorus. When the actors paused the chorus sung or spoke, accompanied by solemn music, moving from one side of the stage to the other. The time of this movement was adapted to the stanzas, so that one, called the strophe, was given as they passed in one direction, and the next, the antistrophe, as they passed back.
“Daughter of Pelias.” Alcestis.