Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/120

 102 ^SCHYLUS. was always full, to wKich he often alludes^, and which perhaps he practised himself^. Now, in all ages of art the pyramidal group has been considered the most beautiful : the reader need only recal to his mind the ^ginetan pediment, the Laocoon, and the most beautiful of Raphael's pictures ; for instance, the upper part of the Transfiguration, the Sistine Madonna, and the Mater pulcrce dilectionis. It may have been the object of JEschylus to realize this. But as he always subjoined a satyrical drama to the three Tragedies, and was very eminent in that species of composition', he must have aimed, in his Trilogies, rather at internal symmetry than at external completeness. But, in addition to all these evidences, from the general form of the Tragedies of ^schylus, of a Dorian spirit warring against their once Dorian element, the chorus ; there is no lack of passages in his plays which point directly to his fondness for the Dorians* and for Aristeides^ and which show that the maxims of Solon were deeply engraved on his memory^. It is also highly interest- ing to trace in his few remaining Tragedies the frequently occurring allusions to his military and other public employments. For as ^ For instance, Agamem. 233 : irpiirovad 6' ws iv ypa<pais. 405 : evfjidpcpwv 5^ KoXocraQv ^X^^TC-'' X'^P'-^ avhpl. 775: Kapr aTTOfiotJcrcos rjcrda yeypap.p.ipos. Eumen. 50: dtbv ttot' rjdT] ^ivius yeypa[iiiipa% piyKovcri 5' ov TrXaaroiaL (pv<xidfia(ri,p. 284: Tld7]<xiv dpdhv T] KaTr)pe(f)ri iroda. (Comp. Miiller, Eumeniden, p. [12). Supplices, 279: Kvirpios x"-P°<'^'^P "'"' ^ yvpaiKciois tvttois eZ/fcbs iriirXTjKTaL tcktovojv Trpos apahxav. 458 : vioLS Trba^i ^pirea Kocrfiijaai rdde. 2 This is implied in the improvements which he made in the masks, dresses, &c. 3 As the trilogies were acted early in the year, it is probable that the night began to close in before the last piece and the satyrical drama were over. This may account for Prometheus, the fire-kindler (which was probably a torch-race, Welcker, THl. pp. 120, 507), being the satyrical drama of the Perseis; for the torch-procession at the end of the Eumenides, and for the conflagration at the end of the Troades. Comp. Gruppe, Ariadne, p. 361. ^ Comp. Pers. 179, 803. ^ See Miiller, Eumeniden, § 138. ^ The following is one of many passages in which the words of Solon are nearly repeated by -^schylus. Solon, p. 80, Bach : irXovTOv 5'' oi^hv ripfia irecpaafjiivou civdpd(n Ketrai' ot yap vvv yjp.Civ irXetaToy ^x^^"'"' P^^'' dnrXdcriov cnreijbov(n' tls B,u Kopiaeiev aTravras; Agamenm. 972 : fjt,da ydp toi tm TroXXas vyielas aKbpecrrov Tipp,a.