Hath on Achilles’ son revenged himself,
And like some worthless human foe, revived
An ancient grudge: how then can he be wise?
Thetis declares that the death of Neoptolemus is a disgrace to the Delphians and, is for Orestes, a murderous crime.[335] Though slain on grounds of sacrilege, Neoptolemus is buried near the shrine of Phoebus![336] The existence of such a tomb at Delphi would naturally have begotten the story of his death there: the fact that Hermione was, in one legend, the wife of Orestes, in another the wife of Neoptolemus, and the close connexion of Orestes with Delphi in post-Homeric story, may explain his association with the death of Neoptolemus. But the murderous plot which is here attributed to Orestes we believe to be Euripidean. It has no proper sequel: it does not harmonise with anything antecedent or subsequent: it is just a novel, thrilling episode introduced by Euripides to give an artistic interest to an otherwise dull and lifeless drama.
The ‘Hecuba’
A deed of blood and its avenging forms the subject of the Hecuba. The scene is laid at Troy and the atmosphere is predominantly Homeric. Polymestor, King of Thrace, having consented to act as the guardian and protector of Polydorus, the son of Priam, King of Troy, murdered his ward and cast his body unburied on the sea-shore. The mode of vengeance which is put in force against Polymestor is peculiarly archaic. The avengers are exclusively women, and are led by Hecuba, the mother of Polydorus. The punishment which is exacted is not the death or the exile of Polymestor, but the death of his two sons, and the destruction of his eyes. Here we have an instance of physical torture such as was prohibited by a law of Dracon[337] in the case of a convicted murderer caught en rupture de ban. We have also an instance of hereditary punishment which Greek law had abolished for homicide in the seventh century, and had retained for treason alone in the historical era,[338] in the form of a civic degradation of the traitor’s posterity. Polymestor has no consciousness of guilt after the slaying of Polydorus, as he regards his act as justified in political self-defence, and therefore he proceeds to avenge himself on Hecuba and the Trojan women whom he now regards as the murderers of his children. At this stage Agamemnon is requested by Hecuba to act as an arbitrator.[339] In his presence Polymestor says[340]:
But hear my motives for the deed, to prove
How justly and how prudently I acted:
Your enemy, that boy, if he survived
The ruin of his country, might, I feared,