Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/364

342 342 HISTORY OF THE but is entirely subservient to the development of the events out of the character and passions of actors, and belongs to the delineation of their state of mind. The lyrical element, on the contrary, so far from gaining anything by this extension, was considerably diminished, especially in the part which fell to the chorus, since it is clear that Sophocles did not feel himself so much called upon, asiEschylus did, to represent the im- pression of the events and circumstances upon those who took no part in them, and to lend his voice to express the feelings of right-minded spectators, which was the chief business of the tragic chorus, but he directed his efforts to express what was going on in the bosoms of the persons whose actions were represented on the stage. It is sufficiently obvious that the introduction of the third actor (chap. XXII. § 7,) was necessary for this change. The dialogue naturally gains much in variety by the addition of a third interlocutor ; for this enables the characters to show themselves on different sides. If it is the property of the tritagonist, to produce opposition on the part of the first person by gainsaying him, the deuter agonist, on the other hand, may, in friendly conversation, draw from his bosom its gentler feelings and more secret thoughts. It was not till the separation of the deuteragonist from the tritagonist that we could have persons like Chrysothemis by the side of Electra, and Ismene by the side of Anti- gone, who elevate the vigour of the chief character by the opposition and contrast of a gentler womanhood.* These outward changes in the stage business of tragedy enable us at once to see the point to which Sophocles desired to bring tragic poetry; he wished to make it a true mirror of the impulses, passions, strivings, and struggles of the soul of man. While he laid aside those great objects of national interest, which made the Greek look upon the time gone by as a high and a holy thing, and to keep up the remem- brance of which the art of ^schylus had been for the most part dedi- cated, the mythical subjects gained in his hands a general, and there- fore a lasting significance. The rules of Greek art obliged him to depict strong and great characters, and the shocks to which they are exposed are exceedingly violent; they are drawn, however, with such in- trinsic truth that every man may recognise in them in some points a likeness of himself; the corrections and limitations of the exercise of man's will, and the requirements and laws of morality are expressed in the most forcible manner. There has hardly been any poet whose works can be compared with those of Sophocles for the universality and durability of their moral significance. § 5. We cannot here attempt to submit the plan of the different tragedies of Sophocles to a circumstantial analysis (to which the re- marks in chap. XXII. furnish a sort of introduction) ; it will, however,
 * Comp. Scliol. on (he Elecda, 328.