Thoughts crooked, wholesome never, devious all,—
A crime is your supremacy in Greece! etc.[306]
[Way’s translation]
Thus, in effect the mythological heroes were dragged upon the stage before the Athenian populace and forced to affirm: “Your friends shall be my friends, and your enemies my enemies.”
It would be easy greatly to extend this list, but I shall close with two instances in which it is particularly obvious that dramatic illusion has been sacrificed. In Euripides’ Suppliants the Theban herald inquires, “Who is despot of this land?” which gives Theseus an opportunity to say (vss. 403 ff.):
First, stranger, with false note thy speech began,
Seeking a despot here. Our state is ruled
Not of one only man: Athens is free.
Her people in the order of their course
Rule year by year, bestowing on the rich