Athens as a place of refuge for suppliants was a favorite note: the conduct of Demophon in Euripides’ Children of Heracles and that of Theseus in Euripides’ Suppliants and Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus must have given great pleasure to an Athenian audience.
Still more striking are the sentiments of the dramatic characters. When Euripides’ Children of Heracles was produced, the Spartans were accustomed to invade and ravage Attica every year. To the ancestors of these pillagers Iolaus says in the play (vss. 309 ff.):
Boys, we have put our friends unto the test:—
If home-return shall ever dawn for you,
And your sires’ halls and honours ye inherit,
Saviours and friends account them evermore,
And never against their land lift hostile spear,
Remembering this, but hold them of all states
Most dear.
[Way’s translation]