Page:History of the Literature of Ancient Greece (Müller) 2ed.djvu/398

376 376 HISTORY OF THE and people of Egypt, who are in most points represented under a Greek type, form a very interesting,' back-ground to the drama. The king's sister, Theonoe, a virgin priestess skilled in the future, but full of sympathy for the troubles of mankind, and presiding like a protecting goddess over the plans of Helen and her husband, is a grand and beautiful conception of the poet. § 20. From the manner in which Euripides has treated the story of Helen in the piece we have just spoken of, it bears a strong resem- blance to the action in the Iphigenia at Tauri, except that the ancient poet has made no use of the incentive of love in this latter play, for Thoas is sufficiently constrained by religious motives to prevent the escape of the priestess of the Tauric Artemis and of the strangers destined to be sacrificed at her altar. From an argument, too, deriv- able from the metrical form of the choral songs, we should feel obliged to place the Tauric Iphigenia about this time (Olymp. 92). The efforts of the poet in this piece are chiefly directed to construct an arti- ficial plot, to introduce, in a surprising but at the same time natural manner, the recognition of Orestes by his sister Iphigenia, and to form a plan of flight, possible under the circumstances, and taking into the account all the difficulties and dangers of the case. The drama, how- ever, has other beauties — of a kind, too, rather uncommon in Euripides — in the noble bearing and moral worth of the characters. Iphigenia appears as a pure-minded young maiden, who has inspired even the barbarians with reverence ; her love for her home, and the conviction that she is doing the will of the gods, are her only incentives to flight, and these are sufficient excuses, according to the views of the Greeks, for the imposition which she practises upon the good Thoas. The poet, too, has taken care not to spoil the pleasure with which we con- template this noble picture, by representing Iphigenia as a priestess who slays human victims on the altar. Her duty is only to consecrate the victims by sprinkling them with water outside the temple ; others take them into the temple and put them to death* Fate, too, has contrived that hitherto no Greek has been driven to this coast. f When she flies, however, a symbolical representation is substituted for the rites of an actual sacrifice,:}: whereby the humanity of the Greeks triumphs over the religious fanaticism of the barbarians. Still more attractive and touching is the connexion of Orestes and Pylades, whose friendship is exalted in this more than in any other play. The scene in which the two friends strive which of them shall be sacrificed as a victim and which shall return home, is very affecting, without any de- sign on the part of the poet to call forth the tears of the spectators. According to our ideas, it must be confessed, Pylades yields too soon to • V. 625 foil. f V. 260 foil. 1 V. 1471 foil.