Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/151

 EURIPIDES. 133 428 B.C., when the Hlppolytus was represented though he does not appear to have been often so successful 2. His reputation, how- ever, spread far and wide, and if we may believe Plutarch, some of the Athenians, who had survived the disastrous termination of the Svracusan expedition, obtained their liberty or a livelihood by reciting and teaching such passages from the poems of Euripides as they happened to recollect^. We shall show by and by that Euri- pides was one of the advocates for that expedition ; and we are told that he wrote a funeral poem on the Athenian soldiers who fell in Sicily. Late in life he retired to Mag-nesia, and from thence pro- ceeded to Macedonia, where his popularity procm^ed him the pro- tection and friendship of King Archelaus. It is not known what induced him to quit Athens, though many causes might be as- signed. The infidelity of his two wives, Melito and Choerila, which is supposed to have occasioned the misogynism for which he was notorious, may perhaps have made him desirous of escaping from the scenes of his domestic discomforts, especially as his mis- fortunes were continually recalled to his remembrance by the taunts and jeers of his merciless political enemy, Aristophanes'^. Besides, 1 Argument to the Hippol. : idLddx^V errt ' A/xeivoi^os apxovro? cvjj.7n.ddt ir^ ^rei rerdpTU). TrpuTos EvpcTridrjs' devrepos 'locpQv TpiTOS "Icjv. 2 Suidas says he gained only five victories, one of which was with a posthumous play. ^ "Evioi 5e /cat 5t' ^upnridrjv iaudtjcrav. MaXicra ydp, cbs ^olk€, tQv euros 'Y^Wrjvwv eToOrjaav avrou tt)v /xovaap ol irepi "^LKeXiav /cat /MKpa tQv dtpiKvovixivujv eKdcTore 5ely- fiara Kal yevfiara ko/xl^ovtcju eK/jLavdavoures. dyairrjrQs /xeTedidoaav dWrjXois. Tore yoDv (padL tQv (XiodevTuv otKade avx^ovs dairdaaffdai rbv EvpiTridrju (piXocppouojs, Kal di7)ye1adat tovs p-h, on dovXevovres dcpelOrjcrav, eKdiddtavres, oaa tCov eKelvov TroL-qp.dTwv ifxep-uTivTo, rovs 5', on wXauwpLeuoi p-erd Tr]v p-axv^) Tpapijs /cat vdaros p-ereXa^ov tQv pLeXQv (^(xaPTes. Cv Set Stj davp-d^eiv, 8n rovs Kavpiovs (paai. TrXoiov irpoccpepopevov to7s Xip-ecTLV, virb XrjaTpLduju hLU)Kop.evov, p.r] dex^crdai to Trpuroy dXX' dTreip^/eiV elra p.evTot dLaxupSavop-evovs, el yipdocrKOvaiP acr/xara tuv 'Evpnridov, (prjcrdpTOjp eKeipup, ovtu Trapelvai KarayayeTp to ttXoiop. Plutarch, Nicias, cxxix. We have perhaps an additional proof of the lasting popularity of Euripides in Syracuse, in the fact that Archomelus, who composed an epigram in B.C. 220, on the great ship of Hiero {Anih. Pal. Appendix 15), and who was therefore more or less connected with Sicily, writes thus on the poet's inimitable excellence {Anth. Pal. vii. 50, p. 321): TT]P EvpLTTid^u} p.rp-* ^. X^o p.T}T eTTi^dXXov, bva^arov dudpcoirois oXp.op, doidodera, Xeir) p.ep ydp iSelp /cat ewiKpOTos' ^p 54 rts avTTjv ela^aiPTj, X'^'^^^oD Tprjx^T^pv ctkoXottos' 7]P 8^ ra M7;5et77S AlrjTidos UKpa X^pd^V^, dp.p-Qp.wp Keiarj pepdep' ^a (rTe(^dpovs. Eurip. 0J5e ydp TfU ttjs 'A(ppooiTr]s ovdep aoi' jrEschyl. p.r]d4 y iirel-q' 'AW eirl col tol /cat toTs ao?ai.p ttoXXt] ttoXXov Vt/ca^^ro. "ficrre ye Kavrbv ae KaT oiv i^aXep. Bacchus. X77 TOP At'o tovto yi tol 677'
 * Ban. 1045 :
 * A ydp is Tas aXXorpias eiroieis, avTos TOVTOiaiP enX-qyrjs.