Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/222

192 192 EURIPIDES

lieved that the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles were the only right models.

The popularity of Euripides with the masses is un- doubted, and is attested by the well-known story that many of the Athenian prisoners taken by the Syracusans in 415 B. c. received their liberty in return for their recitations of parts of his plays. His tragedies were played or read with interest well into the Christian era, and had a marked in- fluence upon the Roman drama, and the classical tragedy in France. He appeals to the reader of to-day perhaps more than the other Greek tragedians, because he is more " modern " in his treatment of the same human interests that are alive for us to-day. Mrs. Browning has described him in these well-known lines : —

" Our Euripides the Human

With his droppings of warm tears, And his touches of thing's common Till they rose to touch the spheres."

The story of the Heracles {Hercides) may be briefly told. The last of the twelve labors which Heracles had to per- form for his cousin Eurystheus was to fetch the thiee-headed dog, Cerberus, from the lower world. He departed on this mission, leaving his father Amphitryon, his wife Me- gara. and his sons under the protection of his wife's fa- ther, Creon. the aged king of Thebes. During his absence, Lycus, after slaying Creon, assumes the throne, and deter- mines to put to death the family of Heracles, lest they should avenge the murder of the king. Heracles returns from Hades just in time to save them, and in his turn kills Lycus. As he is offering an expiatory sacrifice after the deed, he is struck with madness sent by his arch-enemy, the goddess Hera, and in his frenzy slays his own wife and children, believing them to be those of the hated Eurystheus. In his agony when he awakens and discovers the truth, he is about to kill himself, but is persuaded by Theseus to come to Athens and there seek pardon from the gods.