Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/386

364 364 HISTORY OF THE duced the divinity in such a manner as to surprise, or even, in the first instance, to terrify the spectator, by exhibiting him in all his greatness and power, and surrounding him with a halo of light ; in some cases he combined with this other startling appearances, which could not have been brought forward without some acquaintance with the science of optics.* § 6. The position of the chorus also was essentially perverted by the changes which Euripides allowed himself to make in the outward form of tragedy. The chorus fulfils its proper office when it comes forward to mediate between, to advise, and to tranquillize opposing parties, who are actuated by different views of the case, and who have, or at least for the time appear to have, each of them the right on their own side. The special object of the stasima is, by reference to higher ideas, to which the contending powers ought to submit, to introduce a sort of equili- brium into the irregularities of the action. The chorus fulfils this office in very few of the plays of Euripides ;t it is generally but little suited for so dignified a position. Euripides likes to make his chorus the confidant and accomplice of the person whom he represents as under the influence of passion ; the chorus receives his wicked proposals, and even lets itself be bound by an oath not to betray them, so that, how- ever much it may wish to hinder the bad consequences resulting from them, it is no longer capable of doing so. J As a chorus so related to the actors is seldom qualified to pronounce weighty and authoritative opinions, by which a restraint may be placed on the unbridled passions of the actors, it generally fills up the pauses, in which its songs take place, with lyrical narrations of events which happened before, but have some reference to the action of the piece. How many of the choral songs of Euripides consist of descriptions of the Grecian hosts which sailed for Troy and of the terrible destruction of that city ! In the Phoenissae, the subject of which is the contest of the hostile brothers at Thebes, the choral songs tell all the terrible and shocking stories con- nected with the house of Cadmus. We might almost class these. stasima with the species of choral songs mentioned by Aristotle, and escape from the shore (v. 1662); so also in the Iphig. Taur., v. 1446, we see the ship with the fugitives out at sea. In the Orestes, v. 1631, Helen appears hovering in the air. It is clear that these were images, which must have been prepared and lighted up in some peculiar manner so as to produce the desired impression. For this purpose, no doubt, they used the bfiixvxXiov, of whichPollux says (IV. § 131) that distant objects were represented by means of it, such as heroes swimming in the sea or carried up to heaven. f Most of all perhaps in the Medea, where the stasima, altogether or in part com- posed in the lively rhythms of the Doric mode, are sometimes designed to represent the justice of Medea's wrath and hatred against Jason, at other times to mitigate her revenge which is hurrying her to extremes. I Thus in the Hippolytus, v. 904.
 * In the Helena it is clear that, while the Dioscuri are speaking, we see Helen