Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/356

334 334 HISTORY OF THE had no mother, but proceeded at once out of the head of her father, Zeus. When the judges, of whom there are twelve,* come to the vote, it is found that the votes on each side are equal ; upon this the goddess gives the casting- vote — " the voting pebble of Athena," — the destina- tion of which she has declared beforehand, and so decides in favour of Orestes. The poet here means to imply that the duty of revenge and the guilt of matricide are equally balanced, and that stern justice has no alternative; but the gods of Olympus, being of the nature of man, and acquainted and entrusted with the personal condition of individuals, can find and supply a refuge for the unfortunate, who are so by no im- mediate guilt of their own. Hence the repeated references to the over- ruling name of Zeus, who always steps in between contending powers as the saviour-god (Ztvc a-wrr]p),f and invariably turns the scale in favour of virtue. After his acquittal, Orestes leaves the stage with blessings and promises of friendly alliance with Athens, but somewhat more hastily than we expected, after the intense interest which his fate has inspired. But the cause of this is seen in the heart-felt love of iEschylus for the Athenians. The goddess of wisdom, who has veiled her power in the mildest and most persuasive form, succeeds in soothing the rage of the furies, which threatens to bring destruction upon Athens, by promising to ensure them for ever the honour and respect of the Athenians ; and thus the whole concludes with a song of blessing by the furies (wherein, on the supposition that their power is duiy ac- knowledged, they assume the character of beneficent deities), and with the establishment of the worship of the Eumenides, who are at once conducted by torchlight to their sanctuary in the Areopagus with all the pomp with which their sacrifices at Athens were attended. The Athenians are here plainly admonished to treat with reverence the Areopagus thus founded by the gods, and the judicial usages of which are so closely connected with the worship of the Eumenides ; and not to take from that body its cognizance of charges of murder, as was about to be done, in order to transfer their functions to the great jury courts. The stasima, too, in which the ideas of the piece appear still more clearly than in the treatment of the mythus, utter no sentiment more definitely than this ; that it is above all things necessary to recognize without hesitation a power which bridles the unruly affections and sinful thoughts of man. J We may remark in few words, that the satyrical drama which was appended to this trilogy, the Proteus, was in all probability connected with the same mythical subject, and turned upon the adventure of Menelaus and Helen with Proteus, the sea-daemon and keeper of the made by the parties while the voting is going on (v. 710 — 733. j f Vv. 759, 797, 1045.
 * The number twelve is inferred from the arrangement of the short speeches
 * Uuf4<pipll OUtQooliiv V9T0 (TTbVll, V. 520.