Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/164

 146 EUKIPIDES. to the worship of Apollo there ^, may have been prompted by the re- storation of the Delians to their island, which the Athenians carried out in B.C. 421 in obedience to an oracle^; and, if so, the play may have been performed about this time. It is conjectured^ that the Phrixus, Epo^eus, and Alope were the other plays of the Tetralogy. The IpMgenia at Tauri exhibits happier situations and greater taste in the execution than perhaps any play of Euripides. The poet avoids the awkwardness of making the pure and elevated priestess a sacrificer of her unfortunate countrymen. The duty of Iphigenia is only to consecrate the victims ^ and it has so happened that no Greek has been driven to the inhospitable coast, before the arrival of Orestes^. The mutual recognition of the brother and sister, the plan of flight, and the deep devotion of Orestes to his friend Pylades, sustain the interest of the piece, which has furnished materials for the greatest Tragedy of Pacuvius^, and for a singu- larly beautiful reproduction by Goethe'^. The Surplices makes the Argive ruler contract an alliance with Athens, by which all his descendants are to be bound ^. This must surely refer to the treaty between Athens and Argos, brought about by Alcibiades in B. c. 420. For Euripides and Alcibiades were in some sort of connexion with one another. A few years previously (b. c. 424), Alcibiades had won the prize at Olympia, and Euripides had written the ode for him^. It is probable therefore that Euri- pides might use his stage-opportunities for recommending the poli- tical action of Alcibiades ; and the general subject of the play, the services rendered by Theseus in procuring from the Thebans the interment of the Argive warriors, may have been intended to pro- mote the newly established relations between Argos and Athens. The reference to the three classes in the state is quite in the spirit of Alcibiades himself ^^. The Andromache describes the persecution of the widow of Hector, now married to Neoptolemus, by Menelaus and his daughter Hermione, the intervention of Peleus to protect her, the abduction of Hermione by Orestes, and the assassination of Neoptolemus by the latter. At the end Thetis appears ex macliina to promise the 1 1096 sqq. 2 Thucyd. V. 32, cf. c. i. ^ Hartung, ii, p. 142. "^ The IpJiigenie auf Tauris. ^ V. 1 192 sqq. ^ Plut. Vit. Alcihiad. c. ir. 1*^ Comp. Siippl. 247 with Thucyd. vi. 18, § 7.
 * V. 617 sqq. ^ V. 244 sqq. ^ The Didoresies.