βίᾳ νυν ἕλκετ' ὦ κακοὶ τιμὰς βροτοὶ
καὶ κτᾶσθε πλοῦτον πάντοθεν θηρώμενοι
σύμμικτα μὴ δίκαια καὶ δίκαι' ὁμοῦ·
ἔπειτ' ἀμᾶσθε τῶνδε δύστηνον θέρος.
ὦ χρυσέ, δεξίωμα κάλλιστον βροτοῖς,
ὡς οὔτε μήτηρ ἡδονὰς τοιάσδ' ἔχει
οὐ παῖδες ἀνθρώποισιν οὐ φίλος πατήρ,
οἵας σὺ χοἰ σὲ δώμασιν κεκτημένοι.
εἰ δ' ἡ Κύπρις τοιοῦτον ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρᾷ
οὐ θαῦμ' ἔρωτας μυρίους αὐτὴν τρέφειν.[59]
In what he says of noble birth Euripides never wavers. The true democrat speaks through his verse, and yet no poet has spoken more emphatically of bravery and honor. We may take the following examples in their order:
εἰς δ' εὐγένειαν ὀλίγ' ἔχω φράσαι καλά·
ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐσθλὸς εὐγενὴς ἔμοιγ' ἀνὴρ
ὁ δ' οὐ δίκαιος κἂν ἀμείνονος πατρὸς
Ζηνὸς πεφύκῃ δυσγενὴς εἶναι δοκεῖ.
ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως σκοπεῖν χρεὼν
τὴν εὐγένειαν· τοὺς γὰρ ἀνδρείους φύσιν
καὶ τοὺς δικαίους τῶν κενῶν δοξασμάτων
κἂν ὦσι δούλων εὐγενεστέρους λέγω.
φεῦ τοῖσι γενναίοισιν ὡς ἁπανταχοῦ
πρέπει χαρακτὴρ χρηστὸς εἰς εὐψυχίαν.
ἅπας μὲν ἀὴρ αἰετῷ περάσιμος
ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς.[60]
Further to illustrate his conception of true nobility, using for this purpose in particular the fragments of the Antiope, would be easy. It appears throughout that Euripides was bent on contrasting the honor that is won by labor with the pleasures of a lazy life. Against the hedonism which lay so near at hand to pagans in the license of the flesh, the Greeks set up an ideal of glory attainable alone by toil. This morality found expression in the famous lines of Hesiod on ἀρετή, in the action of Achilles, in the proverb πάντα τὰ καλὰ χαλεπά, and in the fable of the choice of Hercules. Euripides varies the theme in his iambics by a hundred modulations:
νεανίαν γὰρ ἄνδρα χρὴ τολμᾶν ἀεί·
οὐδεὶς γὰρ ὢν ῥᾴθυμος εὐκλεὴς ἀνήρ.
ἀλλ' οἱ πόνοι τίκτουσι τὴν εὐδοξίαν.
οὐκ ἔστιν ὅστις ἡδέως ζητῶν βιοῦν
εὔκλειαν εἰσεκτήσατ' ἀλλὰ χρὴ πονεῖν.