Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/128

 1 10 ^SCHYLUS. appeared in the play^ and to have claimed a part of the blame for the universal t/xe/oo?, to which Hypermnestra yielded when the love for Lynceus made her disobey her father 2. Whether the play intro- duced any reference to the device of a foot-race to determine the re-marriage of the homicidal widows^, there is no means of de- ciding. It is remarkable that the same verb is used in the SuppUces to denote the assignment of a handmaiden to each of the chorus'*, and in the story of the mythographer, to denote the assignment of a husband to each of the 50 cousins^. With regard to the former circumstance, we are not to suppose that a crowd of 100 dancers appeared in the orchestra or on the stage. But as the chorus was probably the same in all three plays, and as reference is made to the number of 50^, it is not improbable that the whole number of choreutas may have been employed in each play, some of them sus- taining the action on the stage, and others executing dances in the orchestra. The date of this Trilogy is approximately determined by distinct references in the Supijliants to amicable relations be- tween the popular party at Argos and the Athenians ^, and to the anticipated results of a conflict between Greeks and Egyptians^. And as the war with Egypt began in B.C. 462, and the alliance between Athens and Argos came into operation in B.C. 461, we may fix the latter year for the performance of this Trilogy^. In these separate plays we see no traces of the employment of a third actor. It has been shown already that a simple expedient 1 Athen. p. 600 a: kol 6 de/xvoTaros AiVxi^^os eu tois Aavataiv avTrv Trapdyei rrjp 'A(ppodiT7}v yovaav ipa ixkv ayvbs ovpavos rpQaac x^oj'a k. t. X. tQuB' €'y(h TrapacTLOS. 2 Prom. 864 : p.lau 5e iraidwu t/xepos OeX^ei to fxr] KTeivai avvevvov. 3 Pind. IX. Pyth. 116; Apollodor. i. i, 5, § 12. ^ Suppl. 984 : rdcraeade, cpiXai Sfxootdes, oi'Vws ws 60' €Kd(TTT} dieKXrjpcocrev Aavabs depairovTiba (pepvrjv. ^ Apollod. II, I, 5, § I : (hfxoyeL tovs ydfxovs Kal 8(.€Kr]pov ras Kopas. 6 Prometh. 855; Suppl. 316. ^ JSiq^pl. 699 : j^ov 5^ icdpiros cu vlko. arrdxvv. 953: dXX' dpcrevdt tol rijade yrjs olKrjTopas evprjaer', oii rriuovTas iK Kpi0u)u p-eOv. ^ Miiller, Eicmeniden, p. 125.