Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/702

Rh 076 with which the poet seeks to surround the central figure of Hecuba. The chief interest of the drama consists in its illustration of the skill with which Euripides, while failing to satisfy the requirements of artistic drama, could sustain interest by an ingeniously woven plot. It is a representa tive Intriguenstuclc, and well exemplifies the peculiar power which recommended Euripides to the poets of the New Comedy. Andre- (5.) The AndromacJie, according to a notice in the Scholia mache. Veneta (446) was not acted at Athens, at least in the author s life-time ; though some take the words in the Greek argument (TO SpS/xa ruv Sevreptav) to mean that it was among those which gained a second prize. The invective on the Spartan character which is put into the mouth of Andromache contains the words, dSi/v-ws CUTVJ^IT av EAXaSa, and this, with other indications, points to the Peloponnesian successes of the years 424-422 B.C. Andromache, the widow of Hector, has become the captive and concubine of Neoptolemus, son of Achilles. During his absence, her son Molossus is taken from her, with the aid of Menelaus, by her jealous rival Hermione. Mother and son are rescued from death by Peleus; but meanwhile Neoptolemus is slain at Delphi through the intrigues of Orestes. The goddess I Thetis now appears, ordains that Andromache shall marry j Helenus, and declares that Molossus shall found a line of j Epirote kings, while Peleus shall become immortal among the gods of the sea. The Andromache is a poor play. The , contrasts, though striking, are harsh and coarse, and the J compensations dealt out by the deus ex machina leave the moral sense wholly unsatisfied. Technically the piece is noteworthy as bringing on the scene four characters at once Andromache, Molossus, Peleus, and Menelaus (v. 545 f.) Ion, (6.) The Ton is an admirable drama, the finest of those plays which deal with legends specially illustrating the tra ditional glories of Attica. It is also the most perfect ex- j ample of the poet s skill in the structure of dramatic intrigue, j For its place in the chronological order there are no data. except those of style and metre. Judging by these, Hermann would place it &quot; neither after 01. 89, nor much before &quot; i.e., somewhere between 424 and 421 B.C.; and this may be taken as approximately correct. The scene is laid throughout at the temple of Delphi. The young Ion is a priest in the temple of Delphi when Xuthus and his wife Creusa, daughter of Erechtheus, come to inquire of the i god concerning their childlessness ; and it is discovered ; that Ion is the son of Creusa by the god Apollo. Athena herself appears, and commands that Ion shall be placed on ^the throne of Athens, foretelling that from him shall spring the four Attic tribes, the Teleontes (priests), Hopletes (fighting-men), Argadeis (husbandmen) and Aigikoreis (herdsmen). The play must have been peculiarly effective on the Athenian stage, not only by Its situations, I but ^through its appeal to Attic sympathies. Suppli- (7.) The Suppliants who give their name to the play are ants. Argive women, the widows of Argive warriors slain before the walls of Thebes, who, led by Adrastus king of Argos, come as suppliants to the altar of Demeter at Eleusis. Creon, king of Thebes, has refused burial to their dead lords. The Athenian king Theseus demands of Creon that he shall grant the funeral rites ; the refusal is followed by a battle in which the Thebans are vanquished, and the bodies of the Argive dead are then brought to Eleusis. At the close the goddess Athena appears, and ordains that a close alliance shall be formed between Athens and Argos. Some refer the play to 417 B.C., when the democratic party at Athens rose against the oligarchs. But a more probable date is 420 B.C., when, through the agency of Alcibiades, Athens and Argos concluded a defensive alliance. The play has a strongly marked rhetorical character, and is, in fact, a panegyric, with an immediate political aim, on Athens as the champion of humanity against Thebes. (8.) The Heradeidce, a companion piece to the Suppli- ants, and of the same period, is decidedly inferior in merit. Here, too, there are direct references to contemporary history. The defeat of Argos by the Spartans iu 418 B.C. strengthened the Argive party who were in favour of discarding the Athenian for the Spartan alliance (Time. v. 76). In the Heradeidce, the sons of the dead Heracles, persecuted by the Argive Eurystheus, are received and sheltered at Athens. Thus, while Athens is glorified, Sparta, whose kings are descendants of the Heracleidse, is reminded how unnatural would be an alliance between herself and Argos. (9.) The Heracles Mainomenos, which, on grounds of style, can scarcely be put later than 420-417 B.C., shares with the two last plays the purpose of exalting Athens in the person of Theseus. Heracles returns from Hade?, whither, at the command of Eurystheus, he went to bring back Cerberus, just in time to save his wife Megara and his children from being put to death by Lycus of Thebes, whom he slays. As he is offering lustral sacrifice after the deed, he is suddenly stricken with madness by Lyssa (Fury), the daemonic agent of his enemy the goddess Hera, and in his frenzy he slays his wife and children. Theseus finds him, in his agony of despair, about to kill himself, ;tnd persuades him to come to Athens, there to seek grace and pardon from the gods. The unity of the plot may be partly vindicated by observing that the slaughter of Lycus entitled Heracles to the gratitude of Thebes, whereas the slaughter of his own kinsfolk made it unlawful that he should remain there ; thus, having found a refuge only to lose it, Heracles has no hope left but in Athens, whose praise is the true theme of the entire drama. (10.) Iphigenia among the Tauri, which metre and diction mark as one of the later plays, is also one of the best,: excellent both in the management of a romantic plot and in the delineation of character. The scene is laid at the temple of Artemis in the Tauric Cheronese (the Crimea) on the site of the modern Balaclava. Iphigenia, who had been doomed to die at Aulis for the Greeks, had been snatched from that death by Artemis, and had become priestess of the goddess at the Tauric shrine, where human victims were immolated. Two strangers, who had landed among the Tauri, have been sentenced to die at the altar. She discovers in them her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades. They plan an escape, are recaptured, and are finally delivered by the goddess Athene, who commands Thoas, king of the land, to permit their departure. Iphigenia, Orestes, and Pylades return to Greece, and estab lish the worship of the Tauric Artemis at Brauron and Halae in Attica. The drama of Euripides necessarily sug gests a comparison with that of Goethe; and many readers will probably also feel that, while Goethe is certainly not inferior in fineness of ethical portraiture, he has the advan tage in his management of the catastrophe. But it is only just to Euripides to remember that, while his competitor had free scope of treatment, he, a Greek dramatist, was bound to the motive of the Greek legend, and was obliged to conclude with the foundation of the Attic wc^hip. (11.) The Troades appeared in 415 B.C. along with the Alexander, the Palamedes, and a satyr-play, the Sisyphus. It is a picture of the miseries endured by noble Trojan dames, Hecuba, Andromache, Cassandra, immediately after the capture of Troy. There is hardly a plot in the proper sense, only an accumulation of sorrows on the heads of the passive sufferers. The piece is less a drama than a pathetic spectacle, closing with the crash of the Trojan towers in flame and ruin. The Troades is indeed Mai &amp;gt; menc amor &amp;lt; Trotu