[240] Helena, 1013; Fragm. 890, 905, 935; Troades, 848–88. [↑]
[241] A. Schlegel, Lectures on Dramatic Literature, Bohn tr. p. 117. [↑]
[242] This charge is on a par with that of Hygiainon, who accused Euripides of impiety on the score that one of his characters makes light of oaths. Aristotle, Rhetoric, iii, 15. [↑]
[243] K. O. Müller, Hist. of the Lit. of Anc. Greece, 1847, p. 359. The complaint is somewhat surprising from such a source. The only play with an entirely invented plot mentioned by Aristotle is Agathon’s Flower (Aristotle, Poetic, ix); and such plays would not have been eligible for representation at the great festivals. [↑]
[244] Cp. Jevons, Hist. of Greek Lit. pp. 223–24. [↑]
[245] Haigh. The Attic Theatre, p. 191. Cp. Müller, pp. 362–64. [↑]
[246] See, however, the æsthetic theorem of Prof. Murray, Euripides and his Age, pp. 221–27. [↑]
[247] It seems arguable that the aversion of Aristophanes to Euripides was primarily artistic, arising in dislike of some of the features of his style. On this head his must be reckoned an expert judgment. The old criticism found in Euripides literary vices; the new seems to ignore the issue. But a clerical scholar pronounces that “Aristophanes was the most unreasoning laudator temporis acti. Genius and poet as he was, he was the sworn foe to intellectual progress.” Hence his hatred of Euripides and his championship of Æschylus. (Rev. Dr. W. W. Merry, introd. to Clar. Press ed. of The Frogs, 1892.) [↑]