Authors of Greece

T >> T. W. Lumb >> Authors of Greece

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"This day will I be ruined by a bitter love. Yet in death I will
be a bane to another, that he may know not to be proud in my woes;
sharing with me in this weakness he will learn wisdom."

Her suicide plunges Theseus into grief. Hanging to her wrist he sees a
letter which he opens and reads. There he finds evidence of her
passion for his son. In mad haste he calls on Poseidon his father to
fulfil one of the three boons he promised to grant him; he requires
the death of his son. Hearing the tumult the latter returns. His
father furiously attacks him, calling him hypocrite for veiling his
lusts under a pretence of chastity. The youth answers with dignity;
when confronted with the damning letter, he is unable to answer for
his oath's sake. He sadly obeys the decree of banishment pronounced on
him, bidding his friends farewell.

A messenger tells the sequel. He took the road from Argos along the
coast in his chariot. A mighty wave washed up a monster from the deep.
Plunging in terror the horses became unruly; they broke the car and
dashed their master's body against the rocks. Theseus rejoices at the
fate which has overtaken a villain, yet pities him as his son. He bids
the servants bring him that he may refute his false claim to
innocence. Artemis appears to clear her devotee. The letter was forged
by the Nurse, Aphrodite causing the tragedy. "This is the law among us
gods; none of us thwarts the will of another but always stands aside."
Hippolytus is brought in at death's door. He is reconciled to his
father and dies blessing the goddess he has served so long.

The play contains the first indication of a sceptical spirit which was
soon to alter the whole character of the Drama. The running sore of
polytheism is clear. In worshipping one deity a man may easily offend
another, Aeschylus made this conflict of duties the cause of
Agamemnon's death, but accepted it as a dogma not to be questioned.
Such an attitude did not commend itself to Euripides; he clearly
states the problem in a prologue, solving it in an appearance of
Artemis by the device known as the _Deus ex machina_. It is sometimes
said this trick is a confession of the dramatist's inability to untie
the knot he has twisted. Rather it is an indication that the legend he
was compelled to follow was at variance with the inevitable end of
human action. The tragedies of Euripides which contain the _Deus ex
machina_ gain enormously if the last scene is left out; it was added
to satisfy the craving for some kind of a settlement and is more in
the nature of comedy perhaps than we imagine. Hippolytus is a somewhat
chilly man of honour, the Nurse a brilliant study of unscrupulous
intrigue. Racine's _Phedre_ is as disagreeable as Euripides' is noble.
Like _Hamlet_, the play is full of familiar quotations.

Two Euripidean features appear in the _Heracleidae_, of uncertain
date. Iolaus the comrade of Heracles flees with the hero's children to
Athens. They sit as suppliants at an altar from which Copreus, herald
of their persecutor Eurystheus, tries to drive them.

Unable to fight in his old age Iolaus begs aid. A Chorus of Athenians
rush in, followed by the King Demophon, to hear the facts. First
Copreus puts his case, then Iolaus refutes him. The King decides to
respect the suppliants, bidding Copreus defy Eurystheus in his name.
As a struggle is inevitable Iolaus refuses to leave the altars till it
is over.

Demophon returns to say that the Argive host is upon them and that
Athens will prevail if a girl of noble family freely gives her life;
he cannot compel his subjects to sacrifice their children for
strangers, for he rules a free city. Hearing his words, Macaria comes
from the shrine where she had been sheltering with her sisters and
Alcmena, her father's mother. When she hears the truth, she willingly
offers to save her family and Athens.

"Shall I, daughter of a noble sire, suffer the worst indignity?
Must I not die in any wise? We may leave Attica and wander again;
shall I not hang my head if I hear men say, 'Why come ye here with
suppliant boughs, cleaving to life? Depart; we will not help
cowards.' Who will marry such a one? Better death than such
disgrace."

A messenger announces that Hyllus, Heracles' son, has returned with
succours and is with the Athenian army. Iolaus summons Alcmena and
orders his arms; old though he is, he will fight his foe in spite of
Alcmena's entreaties. In the battle he saw Hyllus and begged him to
take him into his chariot. He prayed to Zeus and Hebe to restore his
strength for one brief moment. Miraculously he was answered. Two stars
lit upon the car, covering the yoke with a halo of light. Catching
sight of Eurystheus Iolaus the aged took him prisoner and brought him
to Alcmena. At sight of him she gloats over the coming vengeance. The
Athenian herald warns her that their laws do not permit the slaughter
of captives, but she declares she will kill him herself. Eurystheus
answers with great dignity; his enmity to Heracles came not from envy
but from the desire to save his own throne. He does not deprecate
death, rather, if he dies, his body buried in Athenian land will bring
to it a blessing and to the Argive descendants of the Heracleidae a
curse when they in time invade the land of their preservers.

Though slight and weakly constructed, this play is important. Its two
features are first, the love of argument, a weakness of all the
Athenians who frequented the Law Courts and the Assembly; this mania
for discussing pros and cons spoils one or two later plays. Next, the
self-sacrificing girl appears for the first time. To Euripides the
worthier sex was not the male, possessed of political power and
therefore tyrannous, but the female. He first drew attention to its
splendid heroism. He is the champion of the scorned or neglected
elements of civilisation.

The _Andromache_ is a picture of the hard lot of one who is not merely
a woman, but a slave. Hector's wife fell to Neoptolemus on the capture
of Troy and bore him a son called Molossus. Later he married Hermione,
daughter of Menelaus and Helen; the marriage was childless and
Hermione, who loved her husband, persecuted Andromache. She took
advantage of her husband's absence to bring matters to a head.
Andromache exposed her child, herself flying to a temple of Thetis
when Menelaus arrived to visit his daughter. Hermione enters richly
attired, covered with jewels "not given by her husband's kin, but by
her father that she may speak her mind." She reviles Andromache as a
slave with no Hector near and commands her to quit sanctuary. Menelaus
brings the child; after a long discussion he threatens to kill him if
Andromache does not abandon the altar, but promises to save him if she
obeys. In this dilemma she prefers to die if she can thus save her
son; but when Menelaus secures her he passes the child to his daughter
to deal with him as she will. Betrayed and helpless, Andromache breaks
out into a long denunciation of Spartan perfidy.

Peleus, grandfather of Neoptolemus, hearing the tumult intervenes.
After more rhetoric he takes Andromache and Molossus under his
protection and cows Menelaus, who leaves for Sparta on urgent
business. When her father departs, Hermione fears her husband's
vengeance on her maltreatment of the slave and child whom he loves.
Resolving on suicide, she is checked by the entry of Orestes who is
passing through Phthia to Dodona. She begs him to take her away from
the land or back to her father. Orestes reminds her of the old compact
which their parents made to unite them; he has a grievance against
Neoptolemus apart from his frustrated wedlock, for he had called him a
murderer of his mother. He had therefore taken measures to assassinate
him at Delphi, whither he had gone to make his peace with Apollo.

Hearing of Hermione's flight Peleus returns, only to hear more serious
news. Orestes' plot had succeeded and Neoptolemus had been
overwhelmed. In consternation he fears the loss of his own life in old
age. His goddess-wife Thetis appears and bids him marry Andromachus to
Hector's brother Helenus; Molossus would found a mighty kingdom, while
Peleus would become immortal after the burial of Neoptolemus.

A very old criticism calls this play "second rate". Dramatically it is
worthless, for it consists of three episodes loosely connected. The
motives for Menelaus' return and Hermione's flight with an assassin
from a husband she loved are not clear, while the _Deus ex machina_
adds nothing to the story. It is redeemed by some splendid passages,
but is interesting as revealing a further development of Euripides'
thought. He here makes the slave, another downtrodden class, free of
the privileges of literature, for to him none is vile or reprobate.
The famous painting _Captive Andromache_ indicates to us the
loneliness of slavery.

The same subject was treated more successfully in the _Hecuba_: she
has received her immortality in the famous players' scene in _Hamlet_.
The shade of Polydorus, Hecuba's son, outlines the course of the
action. Hecuba enters terrified by dreams about him and her daughter
Polyxena. Her forebodings are realised when she hears from a Chorus of
fellow-captives that the shade of Achilles has demanded her daughter's
sacrifice. Odysseus bids her face the ordeal with courage. She replies
in a splendid pathetic appeal. Reminding him how she saved him from
discovery when he entered Troy in disguise, she demands a requital.

"Kill her not, we have had enough of death. She is my comfort, my
nurse, the staff of my life and guide of my way. She is my joy in
whom I forget my woes. Victors should not triumph in lawlessness
nor think to prosper always. I was once but now am no more, for
one day has taken away my all."

He sympathises but dare not dishonour the mighty dead. Polyxena
intervenes to point out the blessings death will bring her.

"First, its very unfamiliar name makes me love it. Perhaps I might
have found a cruel-hearted lord to sell me for money, the sister
of Hector; I might have had the burden of making bread, sweeping
the house and weaving at the loom in a life of sorrow. A slave
marriage would degrade me, once thought a fit mate for kings."

Bidding Odysseus lead her to death, she takes a touching and beautiful
farewell. Her latter end is splendidly described by Talthybius.

A serving woman enters with the body of Polydorus; she is followed by
Agamemnon who has come to see why Hecuba has not sent for Polyxena's
corpse. In hopeless grief she shows her murdered son, begging his aid
to a revenge and promising to exact it without compromising him. A
message brings on the scene Polymestor, her son's Thracian host with
his sons. In a dialogue full of terrible irony Hecuba inquires about
Polydorus, saying she has the secret of a treasure to reveal. He
enters her tent where is nobody but some Trojan women weaving.
Dismissing his guards, he lets the elder women dandle his children,
while the younger admire his robes. At a signal they arose, slew the
children and blinded him. On hearing the tumult, Agamemnon hurries in;
turning to him, the Thracian demands justice, pretending he had slain
Polydorus to win his favour. Hecuba refutes him, pointing out that it
was the lust for her son's gold which caused his death. Agamemnon
decides for Hecuba, whereupon Polymestor turns fay, prophesying the
latter end of Agamemnon, Hecuba and Cassandra.

The strongest and weakest points of Euripides' appeal are here
apparent. The play is not one but two, the connection between the
deaths of both brother and sister being a mere dream of their mother.
The poet tends to rely rather upon single scenes than upon the whole
and is so far romantic rather than classical. His power is revealed in
the very stirring call he makes upon the emotions of pity and revenge;
because of this Aristotle calls him the most tragic of the poets.

The _Supplices_, written about 421, carries a little further the
history of the Seven against Thebes. A band of Argive women, mothers
of the defeated Seven, apply to Aethra, mother of Theseus, to prevail
on her son to recover the dead bodies. Adrastus, king of Argos, pleads
with Theseus who at first refuses aid but finally consents at the
entreaties of his mother. His ultimatum to Thebes is delayed by the
arrival of a herald from that city. A strange discussion of the
comparative merits of democracy and tyranny leads to a violent scene
in which Theseus promises a speedy attack in defence of the rights of
the dead.

In the battle the Athenians after a severe struggle won the victory;
in the moment of triumph Theseus did not enter the city, for he had
come not to sack it but to save the dead. Reverently collecting them
he washed away the gore and laid them on their biers, sending them to
Athens. In an affecting scene Adrastus recognises and names the
bodies. At this moment Evadne enters, wife of the godless Capaneus who
was smitten by the thunderbolt; she is demented and wishes to find the
body to die upon it. Her father Iphis comes in search of her and at
first does not see her, as she is seated on a rock above him. His
pleadings with her are vain; she throws herself to her death. At the
sight Iphis plunges into a wild lament.

"She is no more, who once kissed my face and fondled my head. To a
father the sweetest joy is his daughter; son's soul is greater, but
less winsome in its blandishments."

Theseus returns with the children of the dead champions to whom he
presents the bodies. He is about to allow Adrastus to convey them home
when Athena appears. She advises him to exact an oath from Adrastus
that Argos will never invade Attica. To the Argives she prophecies a
vengeance on Thebes by the Epigoni, sons of the Seven.

This play is very like the _Heraclidae_ but adds a new feature; drama
begins to be used for political purposes. The play was written at the
end of the first portion of the Peloponnesian war, when Argos began to
enter the world of Greek diplomacy. This illegitimate use of Art
cannot fail to ruin it; Art has the best chance of making itself
permanent when it is divorced from passing events. But there are other
weaknesses in this piece; it has some fine and perhaps some
melodramatic situations; here and there are distinct touches of
comedy.

The _Ion_ is a return to Euripides' best manner. Hermes in a prologue
explains what must have been a strange theme to the audience. Ion is a
young and nameless boy who serves the temple of Apollo in Delphi.
There is a mystery in his birth which does not trouble his sunny
intelligence. Creusa, daughter of Erectheus King of Athens, is married
to Xuthus but has no issue. Unaware that Ion is her son by Apollo, she
meets him and is attracted by his noble bearing. A splendid dialogue
of tragic irony represents both as wishing to find the one a mother,
the other a son. Creusa tells how she has come to consult the oracle
about a friend who bore a son to the god and exposed him. Ion is
shocked at the immorality of the god he serves; he refuses to believe
that an evil god can claim to deliver righteous oracles. Addressing
the gods as a body, he states the problem of the play.

"Ye are unjust in pursuing pleasure rather than wisdom; no longer
must we call men evil, if we imitate your evil deeds; rather the
gods are evil, who instruct men in such things."

Xuthus embraces Ion as his son in obedience to a command he has just
received to greet as his child the first person he meets on leaving
the shrine. Ion accepts the god's will but longs to know who is his
mother. Seeing an unwonted dejection in him Xuthus learns the reason.
Ion is afraid of the bar on his birth which will disqualify him from
residence at Athens, where absolute legitimacy was essential; his life
at Delphi was in sharp contrast, it was one of perfect content and
eternal novelty. Xuthus tells him he will take him to Athens merely as
a sightseer; he is afraid to anger his wife with his good fortune; in
time he will win her consent to Ion's succession to the throne.

Creusa enters with an old man who had been her father's Tutor. She
learns from the Chorus that she can never have a son, unlike her more
lucky husband who has just found one. The Tutor counsels revenge;
though a slave, he will work for her to the end.

"Only one thing brings shame to a slave, his name. In all else he
is every whit the equal of a free man, if he is honest."

The two decide to poison Ion when he offers libations. But the plot
failed owing to a singular chance. The birds in the temple tasted the
wine and one that touched Ion's cup died immediately. Creusa flees to
the altar, pursued by Ion who reviles her for her deed. At that moment
the old Prophetess appears with the vessel in which she first found
Ion. Creusa recognises it and accurately describes the child's
clothing which she wove with her own hands; mother and son are thus
united. The play closes with an appearance of Athena, who prophesies
that Ion shall be the founder of the great Ionian race, for Apollo's
hand had protected him and Creusa throughout.

The central problem of this piece is whether the gods govern the world
righteously or not. No more vital issue could be raised; if gods are
wicked they must fall below the standard of morality which men insist
on in their dealings with one another. Ion is the Greek Samuel; his
naturally reverent mind is disturbed at any suggestion of evil in a
deity. His boyish faith in Apollo is justified and Euripides seems to
teach in another form the lesson that "except we become as children,
we cannot enter the kingdom of Heaven."

The _Hercules Furens_ belongs to Euripides' middle period. Amphitryon,
father of Heracles, and Megara, the hero's wife, are in Theban
territory waiting for news. They are in grave danger, for Lycus, a new
king, threatens to kill them with Heracles' children, as he had
already slain Megara's father. He has easy victims in Amphitryon,
"naught but an empty noise", and Megara, who is resigned to the
inevitable. Faced with this terror, Amphitryon exclaims:--

"O Zeus, thou art a worse friend than I deemed. Though a mortal,
I exceed thee in worth, god though thou art, for I have never
abandoned my son's children. Thou canst not save thy friends;
either thou art ignorant or unjust in thy nature."

As they are led out to slaughter, Amphitryon makes what he is sure is
a vain appeal to Heaven to send succour. At that moment the hero
himself appears. Seeing his family clad in mourning, he inquires the
reason. At first his intention is to attack Lycus openly, but
Amphitryon bids him wait within; he will tell Lycus that his victims
are sitting as suppliants on the hearth; when the King enters Heracles
may slay him without trouble.

When vengeance has been taken Iris descends from heaven, sent by Hera
to stain Heracles with kindred bloodshed. She summons Madness who is
unwilling to afflict any man, much less a famous hero. Reluctantly
consenting she sets to work. A messenger rushes out telling the
sequel. Heracles slew two of his children and was barely prevented
from destroying his father by the intervention of Athena. He reappears
in his right mind, followed by Amphitryon who vainly tries to console
him. Theseus who accompanied Heracles to the lower world hurries in on
hearing a vague rumour. To him Heracles relates his life of
never-ending sorrow. Conscious of guilt and afraid of contaminating
any who touch him, he at length consents to go to Athens with Theseus
for purification. He departs in sorrow, bidding his father bury the
slain children.

Like the _Hecuba_, this play consists of two very loosely connected
parts. The second is decidedly unconvincing. Madness has never been
treated in literature with more power than in Hamlet and Lear. Besides
Shakespeare's work, the description in the mouth of a messenger,
though vivid enough, is less effective, for "what is set before the
eyes excites us more than what is dropped into our ears" as Horace
remarks. But the point of the play is the seemingly undeserved
suffering which is the lot of a good character. This is the theme of
many a Psalm in the Bible; its answer is just this--"Whom the Lord
loveth He chasteneth."

In 415 Euripides told how Hecuba lost her last remaining child
Cassandra. The plot of the _Trojan Women_ is outlined by Poseidon and
Athena who threaten the Greeks with their hatred for burning the
temples of Troy. After a long and powerful lament the captive women
are told their fate by the herald Talthybius. Cassandra is to be
married to Agamemnon. She rushes in prophesying wildly. On recovering
calm speech she bids her mother crown her with garlands of victory,
for her bridal will bring Agamemnon to his death, avenging her city
and its folk. Triumphantly she passes to her appointed work of ruin.

Andromache follows her, assigned to Neoptolemus. She sadly points out
how her faithfulness to Hector has brought her into slavery with a
proud master.

"Is not Polyxena's fate agony less than mine? I have not that thing
which is left to all mortals, hope, nor may I flatter my mind heart
with any good to come, though it is sweet to even to dream of it."

This despair is rendered more hopeless when she learns that the Greeks
have decided to throw her little son Astyanax from the walls.

Menelaus comes forward, gloating at the revenge he hopes to wreak on
Helen. On seeing him Hecuba first prays:--

"Thou who art earth's support and hast thy seat on earth, whoever
thou art, past finding out, Zeus, whether thou art a natural
Necessity or man's Intelligence, to thee I pray. Moving in a
noiseless path thou orderest all things human in righteousness."

She continues:--

"I praise thee, Menelaus, if thou wilt indeed slay thy wife, but
fly her sight, lest she snare thee with desire. She catcheth men's
eyes, sacketh cities, burneth homes, so potent are her charms. I
know her as thou dost and all who have suffered from her."

Hecuba and Helen then argue about the responsibility for the war. The
latter in shameless impudence pleads that she has saved Greece from
invasion and that Love who came with Paris to Sparta was the cause of
her fault. Hecuba ridicules the idea that Hera and Artemis could
desire any prize of beauty. It was lust of Trojan gold that tempted
Helen; never once was she known to bewail her sin in Troy, rather she
always tried to attract men's eyes. Such a woman's death would be a
crown of glory to Greece. Menelaus says her fate will be decided in
Argos. Talthybius brings in the body of Astyanax, over which Hecuba
bursts into a lament of exceptional beauty and then passes out to
slavery.

In this drama Euripides draws upon all his resources of pathos. It is
a succession of brilliantly conceived sorrows. Cassandra's exulting
prophecy of the revenge she is to bring is one of the great things in
Euripides. In this play we have a most vivid picture of the
destructive effects of evil, an inevitable consequence of which it is
that the woman, however innocent she may be, always pays. Hecuba drank
the cup of bereavement to the very last drop.

The _Electra_, acted about 418, is characteristic. Electra has been
compelled to marry a Mycenean labourer, a man of noble instincts who
respects the princess and treats her as such. Both enter the scene;
the man goes to labour for Electra, "for no lazy man by merely having
God's name on his lips can make a livelihood without toil". Orestes
and Pylades at first imagine Electra to be a servant; learning the
truth they come forward and question her. She tells the story of her
mother's shame and Aegisthus' insolence which Orestes promises to
recount to her brother, "for in ignorant men there is no spark of pity
anywhere, only in the learned." The labourer returns and by his speech
moves Orestes to declare that birth is no test of nobility. Electra
sends him to fetch an old Tutor of her father to make ready for her
two guests; he departs remarking that there is just enough food in the
house for one day.

The old Tutor arrives in tears; he has found a lock of hair on
Agamemnon's tomb. Gazing intently on the two strangers, he recognises
Orestes by a scar on the eyebrow. They then proceed to plot the death
of their enemies. Orestes goes to meet Aegisthus is close by
sacrificing, and presently returns with the corpse, at which Electra
hurls back the taunts and jeers he had heaped on her in his lifetime.
She had sent to her mother saying she had given birth to a boy and
asking her to come immediately.

Orestes quails before the coming murder, but Electra bids him be loyal
to his father. Clytemnestra on her arrival querulously defends her
past, alleging as her pretext not the death of Iphigeneia but the
presence of a rival, Cassandra. Electra after refuting her invites her
inside the wretched hut to offer sacrifice for her newly born child,
where she is slain by Orestes. At the end of the play the Dioscuri,
Castor and Pollux, bid Pylades marry Electra, tell Orestes he will be
purified in Athens and prophesy that Menelaus and Helen, just arrived
from Egypt, will bury Agisthus real Helen never went to Troy, a wraith
of her being sent there with Paris.

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