Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/328

306 30G HISTORY OF THE The tragedy of antiquity originated in the delineation of a suffering or passion (wdSroc), and remained true to its first destination. Sometimes it is outward suffering, danger, and injury ; sometimes, rather inward ; a fierce struggle of the soul, a grievous burthen on the spirit; but it is always one passion, in the largest sense of the word, which claims the sympathy of the audience. The person, then, whose fate excites this sympathy, whose outward or inward wars and conflicts are exhibited, is the protagonist. In the four dramas which require only two actors, the protagonist is easily distinguished : in the Prometheus, the chained Titan himself; in the Persians, Atossa, torn with anxiety for the fate of the army and the kingdom ; in the Seven against Thebes, Eteocles driven by his father's curse to fratricide ; in the Suppliants, Danaus, the fugitive, seeking a new home. The deuter agonist, in this form of the drama, is not, in general, the author of the sufferings of the protagonist. This is some external power, which, in these tragedies, is not brought to view. His only function is to call forth the expres- sions of the various emotions of the protagonist, sometimes by friendly sympathy, sometimes by painful tidings: as for example, in the Prometheus, Oceanus, lo, and Hermes, are all parts of the deuteragoiiist. The protagonist may also appear in other parts ; but the tragedian generally sought to concentrate all the force and ac- tivity of the piece on one part. When a tritagonist is introduced, he generally acts as instigator or cause of the sufferings of the protagonist ; although himself the least pathetic or sympathetic person of the drama, he is yet the occasion of situations by which pity and interest for the principal person are powerfully excited. To the deuteragonist fall the parts in which, though distinguished by a lofty ardour of feeling, there is not the vehemence and depth appropriate to the protago- nist ; feebler characters, with calmer blood and less daring aspiration of mind, whom Sophocles is fond of attaching to his heroes as a sort of foil, to bring out their full force. But even these sometimes display a peculiar beauty and elevation of character. Thus the gradation of these three kinds of parts depends on the degree in which the one part is calculated to excite pity and anxiety, and to command, generally, the sympathy of the audience. If we look over the titles of the plays of the three great tragedians, we shall find that, when they are not derived from the chorus, or the general subject of the piec-% they always consist of the names of the persons to whom the chief interest attaches. Antigone, Electra, (Edipus, the king and the exile, Ajax, Philoctetes, Dejanira, Medea, Hecuba, Ion, Hippolytus, &c, are unquestionably all protagonistJe parts* into the structure of the several tragedies, is not consistent with the plan of the piesent work. We will, however, state the distribution of the parts in several tragedies,, which sejms to us the most probable. In the extant trilogy of j^schyhis,
 * A more detailed illustration of this point, which would lead to investigations