Page:The Theatre of the Greeks, a Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Drama, with Various Supplements.djvu/165

 EL'KIPIDES. 147 deification of Peleus, and the future sovranty of Andromaclie's de- scendants among the Molossi. There is a distinct reference in this play to the deceit into which the Spartan ambassadors were led by Alcibiades during the negociations of B.C. 420 ^ and there seems little doubt that, as the Bujpplices recommends the alliance with Argos, the Andromache favours the rupture with Sparta, both brought about by Alcibiades in the same year; and both plays have been accordingly referred, with the (Enomaus and the former Auto- lycusy to a Tetralogy produced in B.C. 419^. It is known that the Troades was brought out in B.C. 415 with the Alexander^ the Palamedes, and the satyrical drama Sisyjphus^. The play refers distinctly to the expedition to Sicily, which sailed in this year*; and it is not improbable that the whole Tetralogy was filled with allusions which would be transferred from the suc- cessful attack on Troy to the expected capture of Syracuse. There is no play even of Euripides which exhibits such a want of dramatic concentration. It is rather a series of incidents than the proper development of one leading idea. The allotment of Cassan- dra to Agamemnon, and her prophecies ; the sacrifice of Polyxena, dismissed with a few words, because it had previously appeared in the Hecuba ; the flinging of Astyanax from the walls of the city, and the sorrow of Andromache; the singular argumentation of Hecuba and Helen before ]lenelaus; and the final picture of the conflagration of Troy, form an unconnected succession of scenes, any one of which might have been worked up by dramatic genius into a complete play. The six remaining Tragedies may be grouped in pairs. That the Electra and the Helena were acted together with the Andromeda in B.C. 412, seems to be established by an adequate induction. For the Andromeda was acted eight years before the Ranee of Aristophanes^, i.e. in B.C. 412. Then again, the Helena was acted with the Andromeda^. Finally, the conclusion of the Electra prepares the hearer for the new version of the history of Helen. ^ Comp. Thucyd, v. 45 with Androm. 445 : iyovT€^ dWa fih yXuxra-ri, 4>povoJVTe<. 6' SXKcL. " Hartung, II. p. 76 sqq. 3 ^lian, 7. H. 11. 8. ^ y, 220. ^ Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 53 : ■^ yap 'AvSpofieda dydocf erei TrpoyJKrac. ^ Schol. Thcsmoph. 1012 : crvvdedidaKTaL yap {i] 'Ai/5pow^5a) tt? 'EX^utj. 10—2