Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/113

 CHAPTER L SECTION 11. ^SCHYLUS. Et cligitls tria tura tribus suh limine ponit. Ovid. 7r?SCHYLUS, tlie son of Eupliorion, was born at Eleusls^ in j!^i~^ the fourth year of the 63rd Olympiad (b.c. 525). In his boyhood he was employed in a vineyard, and, while engaged in watching the grapes, with his mind full of his occupation, and inspired with reverence for the god of the vintage, felt himself suddenly called upon to follow the bent of his own genius, and contribute to the spectacles which had just been established at Athens in honour of Dionysus^. He made his first appearance as ^ Vit. Anonym., given in Stanley's edition of this jjoet, and the Arundel Marble. The invocation to the Eleusinian goddess, which he is made to utter by Aristophanes, may refer to the place of his birth : Arj/XTjTep, 7] dpi^paaa ttjv ifXTju ippiva, 'Rival fie Twv aCbv d^iov fivarrjpiwv. Ranee, 884. These lines would seem to show that he had been initiated into the mysteries, which is quite at variance with the defence which he set up when accused before the Areopagus. See Clem, Al. quoted below. 2 "E^t; 5^ kiax^^os fxeipcLKLou ov KaBevbetv iv dyp(^ (pvXdaacov cyraipvXds, Kai ol Libwaov i-maTdpTa, KeXeuaai rpaycfdiav TroLetv. ws S^ rjv rjfxepa {ireidecrdaL yap iOeXeiv) paara rjSrj veipu^/xevos voLeLv. ovros jj-kv ravra '4eyev. Pausan. I. 21, 2. To this employment of the poet were probably owing the habits of intemperance with which he has been charged, and also his introduction on the stage of characters in a state of drunkenness. Athenseus tells us (X. p. 428): Kai rbv AlaxvXov iyu} c/iaLrju B.V TOVTO dLafxaprdveLU' TrpQros yap eKetuo$ Kal oux, cos 'ivLol (pacnu, Evpiiridrjs Traprjyaye TTjv Twv p.e6vbvTwv 6f/Lv ds Tpayq}8iap. ev yap roXs 'Ka^elpoLS elcrdyei rovs irepl rbv 'Idcova p^eOvovras. a S' euros 6 Tpa.ya}dL07roibs iiroleL, ravra rots iipcocTL irepUd-qKe' p.edTucov yovv iypacpe rds rpayaidias' dib Kal So0o/c?5s avrqi /xe^u(p6p.€vos ^Xeyeu 6ti, "^fl Alax^Xe, el Kal rd biovra irouls, dXX' odv ovk elcws ye iroieTs' us icrrope? Xap-aiXicov h T(p irepl Alax^Xou. The same observation of Sophocles is given in the same words, I, p. 22, and is probably taken^ as Welcker suggests {l^ril. p. 254, note) from Sopho- cles' treatise on the chorus. This failing is also mentioned by Plutarch: /cat top Alax^Xop <paal rpayci^dias TrlvovTO. Toutp Kal 8tadepp.aip6p.epop. Symp. I. 5 ; by Callisthenes ; oi ydp, Cos rbp