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THE ATHENIAN DRAMA
A Series of Verse Translations from the Greek Dramatic
Poets, with Commentaries and Explanatory
Essays, for English Readers
VOL. Ill
EURIPIDES
Uniform with this Volume
Crown 8vo, clotli, gilt top, 7s. 6d. each net.
Each Volume Illustrated from ancient
Sculptures and Painting.
AESCHYLUS: The Orestean Trilogy. By Prof.
Warr. With an Introduction on The Rise of
Greek Tragedy, and I 3 Illustrations.
SOPHOCLES: (Edipus Tyranmis and Coloneus,
and Antigone. By Prof. J. S. Phillimore.
With an Introduction on Sophocles and his
Treatment cf Tragedy ^ and 16 Illustrations.
THE HOMERIC HYMNS. A New Prose
Rendering by Andrew Lang, with Essays
Critical and Explanatory, and 14 Illustrations.
^
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2008 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/euripides03euriuoft
ATI en 4 Co.Sc
EURIPIDES
EURIPIDES
TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE BY
GILBERT MURRAY, M.A., LL.D
KMKRITUS PROFESSOR OP CREEK IN THH UNIVEKSITV
OP GLASGOW ; SOMETIME PELLOW OF
NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
SECOND EDITION
y
LONDON
GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD
1904
All rights resen-ed
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Printed by Rallantyne, Hanson &> Co.
At the IJallantyne Press
PREFACE
THE object of this book is in the first place
to put before English readers a transla-
tion of some very beautiful poetry, and in the
second place to give some description of a
remarkable artist and thinker. This double
purpose explains the somewhat unusual com-
position of the volume.
I have taken first two plays of Euripides —
the Hippolytus and The Bacchae — chosen partly
for their beauty, partly because they are very
characteristic of their author. Different as they
are, both are peculiarly imbued with his special
atmosphere, an atmosphere of creativeness
steeped in critical meditation, of Fiction that
exists for the sake of Truth — sometimes to ex-
press Truth, sometimes consciously to fly from
Truth, but always in some way intimately
conditioned by the search for it.
Next, I have selected the chief ancient
criticism of Euripides, a satire penetrating,
brilliant, and, though preposterously unfair,
still exceedingly helpful to any student who
vi PREFACE
does not choose to put himself at its mercy.
To some readers there may appear to be some-
thing irreverent in allowing two noble tragedies
to be so closely followed by a hostile burlesque.
I personally feel a kind of satisfaction in the
juxtaposition. What is said of Euripides in
The Frogs^ so far as it is serious, is after all
part of the truth, and a part not to be ignored.
And to me the figure of the great philosopher
and poet seems even more august and more
undoubtedly beautiful when I have heard and
digested what his enemies said of him. Euri-
pides would be the last man to wish for an
admiration based on the suppression of evi-
dence. My only regret is for the necessity of
inserting the irrelevant and rather poor fooling
of the first few scenes of The Frogs.
Lastly, I have added an Appendix which, I
venture to hope, may be of some interest both
to students and to other readers. In trying to
understand the work of Euripides, one ought
certainly to take some account of the many
plays — fifty-six for certain — which are " lost "
or represented by "fragments," that is, by
quotations or descriptions or allusions in
late authors. 1 have tried, following chiefly
Welcker {T>ie Griechischen Tragodieri) ^and
Hartung {Euripides Restitutus\ to reconstruct
the main lines of many of these lost dramas.
PREFACE vii
and have translated a few typical fragments of
each. It seemed most convenient to choose
for this purpose those plays which happen to
be referred to in The Frogs.
On points of ancient religion I have had the
great advantage of frequent consultation with
Miss J. E. Harrison. As to questions of text,
I have in the Hippolytus followed my own
critical edition published by the Clarendon
Press ; in The Bacchae I have acted on the same
plan, though the volume containing that play
has not yet been published. In places where
my own mind was not yet made up I have
nearly always followed Ewald Bruhn. In The
Frogs I used Van Leeuwen's edition, but have
been led by the Oxford editors, Hall and
Geldart, to reconsider several passages. In
the fragments I have made no emendations,
but followed either Nauck or some MS
Once or twice, for convenience' sake, I have
joined two fragments together.
As to the method of this translation, which
may, I fear, seem odd and even illegitimate to
many scholars, a word of explanation is neces-
sary. My aim has been to build up some-
thing as like the original as I possibly could,
in form and in what one calls " spirit." To
do this, the first thing needed was a work of
painstaking scholarship, a work in which there
viii PREFACE
should be no neglect of the letter in an attempt
to snatch at the spirit, but, on the contrary,
close study of the letter and careful tracking of
the spirit by means of its subtleties. This to
the best of my power I tried to accomplish
many years ago in prose translations, very full
and often verging towards commentary or para-
phrase, which I used as the basis of lectures
in my classes at the University of Glasgow.
Such a translation, so far as it was correct,
would give what one loosely calls the " mean-
ing " of the original ; but it would be prose,
stilted and long-winded prose, and the original
is gleaming poetry. The remaining task, then
— so great a task that I shrink somewhat from
even admitting that I have contemplated it —
was that of a poet. Of course, in such an
attempt, the attempt of an ordinary man of
letters to reproduce the essential poetry of a
great far-off poet, failure is certain, and failure
generally more profound than the translator
himself realises. But of that more presently.
I am bound to confess that, the groundwork
of careful translation once laid, I have thought
no more about anything but the poetry. I
have often laboured long to express a slight
shade of meaning or of beauty which I felt
lurking in some particular word or cadence ;
and, on the other hand, I have often changed
PREFACE ix
metaphors, altered the shapes of sentences,
and the like. On one occasion {Hip. 385) I
have even omitted a line and a half, because,
though apparently needed in the Greek to
make clear a rather difficult thought, they were
not needed in English, where the thought in
question was quite familiar. I have added, of
course by conjecture, a few stage directions.
There are pitfalls innumerable in this course.
Who is to say what the " spirit " of Euripides
really was ? My version of it will differ
greatly from that of many men of far greater
learning. Some good scholars, again (and
innumerable bad ones !), have a rigidly fixed
conception of what is in the limits of " an-
cient thought," and what is "Christian" or
" modern," and may consider that I ought to
have shut my ears and refused to listen when
Euripides seemed to transgress these limits.
It may also be felt that I have walked some-
what rashly in places of uncertain text or
meaning, and consequently made some definite
mistranslations where a more cautious scholar
would have avoided committing himself. My
answer is that, if in a matter of scholar-
ship it is well to be " safe " or even to
" hedge," in a matter of Art any such cowar-
dice is fatal. I have in my own mind a fairly
clear conception of what I take to be the
X PREFACE
" spirit " of Euripides, and I have kept my
hands very free in trying to get near it. Some
of the means employed are indirect and even
paradoxical. Euripides has, of course, no
rhyme ; yet a rhymed version seems to me,
after many experiments, to produce the effect
of his style much more nearly than blank
verse. I have often used more elaborate
diction than he, because I found that, Greek
being a very simple and austere language and
modern English an ornate one, a direct transla-
tion produced an effect of baldness which was
quite unlike the original.
A strictly literal translation has the advan-
tage that it can be definitely attacked and
defended on scientific grounds. It has a possi-
bility of being " right." And a translation
like mine cannot be " right." Its failure,
indeed, must, as I said above, be more pro-
found than the writer realises. First, because
a man generally does not see his own mistakes
or realise his own interrupting mannerisms ;
and, secondly, because a translator cannot help
seeing his own work through the medium of
that greater thing which he studies and loves.
The light of the original shines through it,
and the music of the original echoes round it.
Creech's versions of Horace and Theocritus
may possess as little "art of speech" as their
PREFACE xi
famous critic implies — I speak without pre-
judice, never having seen them. They may be
to us unreadable ; bad verse in themselves, and
full of Creech's tiresome personality, the Horace
no Horace of ours, and the Theocritus utterly
unlike Theocritus. But to Creech himself,
how different it all was ! He did not know
how bad his lines were. He did not feel any
veil of intervening Creech. To him the
Theocritus was not Creech, but pure Theo-
critus, or, if not quite that, at least something
haunted by all the magic of Theocritus.
When he read his baldest lines his voice, no
doubt, trembled with emotion. But it was
the original that caused the emotion. The
original was always there present to him in a
kind of symbol, its beauty perhaps even
increased by that idealisation and endearment
which naturally attend the long and loving
service of one human mind to another.
G. M.
Churt, Surrey,
Oct. 30, 1902.
^>
CONTENTS
^///
Preface . . . •
List of Illustrations
Introductory Essay .
Translation —
HiPPOLYTUS
The Bacchae .
Notes on the Hippolvtus
Notes on the Bacchae
Translation — The Frogs
Commentary on the Frogs
Appendix on the Lost Plays
Index ....
XV
xix
I
77
155
.65
177
285
3'3
353
i>
xrv
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Portrait Bust of Euripides Photogravure Frontispttce
From the Naples Museum. A copy of the
authoritative portrait set up in the Theatre
at Athens in the 4th century, on the
motion of the orator Lycurgus.
Dionysus with Worshipping Attendants . Page xix
From a Hellenistic (4th century?) bas-relief in
the Naples Museum. The God, beardless,
according to the later conception, is pre-
ceded by a Maenad and a Satyr. The
beardless type appears, perhaps for the first
time, in The Bacchae, where, however, there
are no Satyrs.
The Sailing of Dionysus . , . . „ Ixviii
From a black-figured cylix by Exckias in the
Pinakothek, Munich, 6th century. The
painting is damaged in the centre of the
design. The bearded God, ivy-crowned and
holding a horn, lies in a magic ship in
full sail. From the mast spring two vine
branches, bearing seven clusters. The sea is
indicated by seven dolphins. (Harrison and
MacCoU, Greet Vate Paintings, pi. i.)
Eros Armed ....... I
5th century. Design on an amphora discovered
at Nola, and now in the Cabinet des Medailles,
Bibl. Nat., Paris, No. 366. It is published
in Lenormant et de Witte, Monuments Ceramo.
graphiquet, vol. iv., pi. li. The God is of the
early and austere type. Inscribed XapM^oijj
/fa\6j.
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Artemis with Drawn Bow . . . Page 75
A figure taken from the group of the Slaying of
the Children of Niobe on a Crater from
Orvieto, now in the Louvre. 5th century.
(Roscher, Lexicon iir Mythologte, 8. v.
NiobiJen.)
79
54
Bacchanals on a Mountain
From a vase of the Sabouroff Collection, now
at Berlin: late 5th century or early 4th.
The figures are taken from a larger group,
including Sileni and Dionysus himst-lf.
The figures have fanciful names attached
to them (Kisso, Makaria, and the like).
(Rayet et CoUignon, Ceramiqne Gr , pi. 92.)
A Maenad . .....
5tli century. From the Museo Gregoriano
of the Vatican. The end figure of a group
of moving Maenads, she stands as though
pensive or weary, leaning upon her thyrsus.
(Roscher, ut supra, s.v. Mainaden, p. 2269.)
Eos WITH THE Body of Memnon . . . » 164
From a cylix by Duris in the Campana Collection
of the Louvre. 5th century. The winged
Dawn-Goddess stoops to uplift the body of
her slain son. {Harrison and MacCoil,
pi. xviii.)
Dance of Maenads . . . . . ,,176
From a cylix by Hieron in the Berlin Museum.
5th century. "Eleven Maenads dance in a
ring round the ancient Xoanon of Dionysos,
Some hold thyrsi, one plays the crotala,
another holds a crater decorated with ivy
wreath and black-figured satyr, another
holds a fawn. The image of Dionysos is a
draped post; the head is ivy-crowned, on
the breast is a necklace of strung dried figs,
from the shoulders branch on; great ivy and
vine branches, and honeycombs threaded on
by ivy sprays. In front of the God is his
altar ... its acroterion is decorated with a
figure of himself seated." (Harrison and
iVtacCoU, pi. xxi.)
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii
A HlPPALECTOR, OR HoRSE-CoCK, RIDDEN BY A
Boy Pas'- 284
From the Museo Greco-Etrusco, Florence. 5th
century. The mane and tail are painted
purple; the stripes of the boy's mantle
green. (Harrison and MacColl, pi. viii.)
Eros with a Lyre '.313
From a lekythos from Gela. 5th century.
Published in Benndorf, Grlech. und Sicll.
VasenbiUir, 48, 2. The early and austere
type. The lines of and about the lower
part of the legs are much blurred upon the
vase; Dr. Benndorf considers that they do
not represent wings.
The Heavenly Aphrodite, riding on a Swan
AND HOLDING A F LOWER {Photogravure) . ,352
From a vase by Euphronios or one of his school ;
early 5th century. Found at Camirus in
Rhodes, and now in the British Museum.
:a.
+X
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY
THE BACCHAE IN RELATION TO CERTAIN
CURRENTS OF THOUGHT IN THE
FIFTH CENTURY
Of the two dramas that make up the main
part of this volume, the Hippolytus can be
left to speak for itself. Its two thousand five
hundred years have left little mark upon it.
It has something of the stateliness of age, no
doubt, but none of the staleness or lack of
sympathy. With all the severe lines of its
beauty, it is tender, subtle, quick with human
feeling. Even its religious conceptions, if we
will but take them simply, forgetting the false
mythology we have learned from handbooks,
are easily understood and full of truth. One
of the earliest, if not the very earliest, of love
XX EURIPIDES
tragedies, it deals with a theme that might
easily be made ugly. It is made ugly by later
writers, especially by the commentators whom
we can see always at work from the times of
the ancient scholia down to our own days.
Even Racine, who wished to be kind to his
PhMre, has let her suffer by contact with
certain deadly and misleading suggestions.
But the Phaedra of Euripides was quite another
woman, and the quality of her love, apart
from its circumstances, is entirely fragrant
and clear. The Hippolytus^ like most works
that come from a strong personality, has its
mannerisms and, no doubt, its flaws. But in
the main it is a singularly satisfying and com-
plete work of art, a thing of beauty, to con-
template and give thanks for, surrounded by
an atmosphere of haunting purity.
If we turn to The Bacchae^ we find a curious
difference. As an effort of genius it is perhaps
greater than the Hippolytus, at any rate more
unusual and rare in quality. But it is un-
satisfying, inhuman. There is an impression
of coldness and even of prolixity amid its
amazing thrill, a strange unearthliness, some-
thing that bewilders. Most readers, I believe,
tend to ask what it means, and to feel, by im-
plication, that it means something.
Now this problem, what The Bacchae means
and how Euripides came to write it, is not
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxi
only of real interest in itself; it is also,
I think, of importance with regard to cer-
tain movements in fifth-century Athens, and
certain currents of thought in later Greek
philosophy.
The remark has been made, that, if Aristotle
could have seen through some magic glass the
course of human development and decay for
the thousand years following his death, the
disappointment would have broken his heart.
A disappointment of the same sort, but more
sharp and stinging, inasmuch as men's hopes
were both higher and cruder, did, as a matter
of fact, break the hearts of many men two or
three generations earlier. It is the reflection of
that disappointment on the work of Euripides,
the first hopefulness, the embitterment, the
despair, followed at last by a final half-prophetic
vision of the truths or possibilities beyond that
despair, that will, I think, supply us with an
explanation of a large part of The Bacchae^ and
with a clue to a great deal of the poet's other
work.
There has been, perhaps, no period in the
world's history, not even the openings of the
French Revolution, when the prospects of the
human race can have appeared so brilliant as
they did to the highest minds of Eastern
Greece about the years 470-445 B.C. To us,
looking critically back upon that time, it is
xxii EURIPIDES
as though the tree of human life had burst
suddenly into flower, into that exquisite and
short-lived bloom which seems so disturbing
among the ordinary processes of historical
growth. One wonders how it must have felt
to the men who lived in it. We have but little
direct testimony. There is the tone of solemn
exaltation that pervades most of Aeschylus, the
high confidence of the Persae^ the Prometheus^
the Eumenides. There is the harassed and
half-reluctant splendour of certain parts of
Pindar, like the Dithyramb to Athens and the
fourth Nemean Ode. But in the main the
men of that day were too busy, one would fain
think too happy, to write books.
There is an interesting witness, however,
of a rather younger generation. Herodotus
finished his Histories when the glory was
already gone, and the future seemed about
equally balanced between good and evil. But
he had lived as a boy in the great time. And
the peculiar charm of his work often seems to
lie mainly in a certain strong and kindly joyous-
ness, persistent even amid his most horrifying
stories, which must be the spirit of the first
Athenian Confederation not yet strangled by
the spirit of the Peloponnesian war.
What was the object of this enthusiasm, the
ground of this high hopefulness .'' It would,
of course, take us far beyond our limits to
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxiii
attempt any full answer to such a question.
But for one thing, there was the extraordi-
nary swiftness of the advances made ; and, for
another, there was a circumstance that has
rarely been repeated in history — the fact that
all the different advances appeared to help one
another. The ideals of freedom, law, and
progress ; of truth and beauty, of knowledge
and virtue, of humanity and religion ; high
things, the conflicts between which have caused
most of the disruptions and despondencies of
human societies, seemed for a generation or
two at this time to lie all in the same direction.
And in that direction, on the whole, a great
part of Greece was with extraordinary swift-
ness moving. Of course, there were backwaters
and reactionary forces. There was Sparta and
even Aetolia ; Pythagoras and the Oracle at
Delphi. But in the main, all good things
went hand in hand. The poets and the men
of science, the moral teachers and the hardy
speculators, the great traders and the political
reformers — all found their centre of life and
aspiration in the same 'School of Hellas,'
Athens. The final seal of success was set upon
the movement by the defeat of the Persian inva-
sion and the formation of the Athenian League.
The higher hopes and ideals had clashed against
^ A magnificent text for such a discussion would be found in the
great lyric on the Rise of Man in Sophocles' Anti,:^one (v. 332 (f. ).
xxiv EURIPIDES
the lower under conditions in which the victory
of the lower seemed beforehand certain ; and
somehow, miraculously, ununderstandably, that
which was high had shown that it was also
strong. Athens stood out as the chief power
of the Mediterranean.
Let us recall briefly a few well-known pas-
sages of Herodotus to illustrate the tone of
the time.
Athens represented Hellenism (Hdt. i. 60).
" The Greek race was distinguished of old
from the barbarian as nimbler of intellect
and further removed from primitive savagery
(or stupidity). . . . And of all Greeks the
Athenians were counted the first for wisdom."
She represented the triumph of Democracy
(Hdt. V. 78). " So Athens grew. It is clear
not in one thing alone, but wherever you test
it, what a good thing is equality among men.
Even in war, Athens, when under the tyrants,
was no better than her neighbours ; when freed
from the tyrants, she was far the first of all."
And Democracy was at this time a thing
v/hich stirred enthusiasm. A speaker says in
Herodotus (iii. 80) : " A tyrant disturbs
ancient laws, violates women, kills men without
trial. But a people ruling — first, the very
name of it is so beautiful, Isonomie (Equahty
in law) ; and, secondly, a people does none of
these things."
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxv
" The very name of it is so beautiful ! "
It was some twenty-five years later that
an Athenian statesman, of moderate or rather
popular antecedents, said in a speech at
Sparta (Thuc. vi. 89): "Of course, all sen-
sible men know what Democracy is, and I
better than most, having suffered ; but there is
nothing new to be said about acknowledged
insanity ! "
That, however, is looking ahead. We must
note that this Democracy, this Freedom, repre-
sented by Greece, and especially by Athens,
was always the Rule of Law. There is a story
told by Aeschylus of the Athenians, by Hero-
dotus of the Spartans, contrasting either with
the barbarians and their lawless absolute mon-
archies. Xerxes, learning the small numbers
of his Greek adversaries, asks, " How can they
possibly stand against us, especially when, as
you tell me, they are all free, and there is no
one to compel them .'' " And the Spartan
Demaratus answers (Hdt. vii. 104): "Free
are they, O King, yet not free to do
everything ; for there is a master over them,
even Law, whom they fear more than thy
servants fear thee. At least they obey what-
ever he commands, and his voice is always the
same." In Aeschylus (Persae, 241 ser/r^.) the
speakers present are both Persians, so the point
xxvi EURIPIDES
about Law cannot be explained. It is left a
mystery, how and why the free Greeks face
their death.
It would be easy to assemble many passages
to show that Athens represented freedom
(e.g. Hdt. viii. 142) and the enfranchisement
of the oppressed ; but what is even more
characteristic than the insistence on Freedom is
the insistence on Aret^, Virtue — the demand
made upon each Greek, and especially each
Athenian, to be a better man than the ordinary.
It comes out markedly from a quarter where
we should scarcely expect it. Herodotus gives
an abstract of the words spoken by the much-
maligned Themistocles before the battle of
Salamis — a brief, grudging resume of a speech
so celebrated that it could not in decency be
entirely passed over (Hdt. viii. 83) : " The argu-
ment of it was that in all things that are possible
to man's nature and situation, there is always a
higher and a lower ; " and that they must stand
for the higher. We should have liked to
hear more of that speech. It certainly achieved
its end.
There was insistence on Arete in another
sense, the sense of generosity and kindliness.
A true Athenian must know how to give way.
When the various states were contending for
the leadership before the battle of Artemisium,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxvii
the Athenians, contributing much the largest
and finest fighting force, " thought," we are
told (Hdt. viii. 3), " that the great thing was
that Greece should be saved, and gave up their
claims," In the similar dispute for the post of
honour and danger before the battle of Plataea,
the Athenians did plead their cause, and easily
won it (Hdt. ix. 27). But we may notice not
only the moderate and disciplined spirit in
which they promise to abide by Sparta's deci-
sion, and to show no resentment if their claim
is rejected, but also the grounds upon which
they claim honour — beyond certain obvious
points, such as the size of their contingent.
Their claims are that in recent years they alone
have met the Persians single-handed on behalf
of all Greece ; that in old times it was they who
gave refuge to the Children of Heracles when
hunted through Greece by the overmaster-
ing tyrant, Eurystheus ; it was they who
championed the wives and mothers of the
Argives slain at Thebes, and made war upon
that conquering power to prevent wrong-doing
against the helpless dead.
These passages, which could easily be re-
inforced by a score of others, illustrate, not of
course what Athens as a matter of hard fact
"jjas — no state has ever been one compact mass
of noble qualities — but the kind of ideal that
xxviii EURIPIDES
Athens in her own mind had formed of herself.
They help us to see what she appeared to the
imaginations of Aeschylus and young Euri-
pides, and that ' Band of Lovers ' which Pericles
gathered to adore his Princess of Cities. She
represented Freedom and Law, Hellenism and
Intellect, Humanity, Chivalry, the championship
of the helpless and oppressed.
Did Euripides feel all this.f* one may ask.
The answer to that doubt is best to be found,
perhaps, in the two plays which he wrote upon
the two traditional feats of generosity mentioned
above — the reception of the Children of Hera-
cles, and the championing of the Argive Sup-
liants. The former is unfortunately mutilated,
and perhaps interpolated as well, so the Sup-
■pliants will suit our purpose best. It is, I
think, an early play rewritten at the time of the
Peace of Nicias (b.c. 421), about the beginning
of the poet's middle period,^ a poor play in
many respects, youthful, obvious, and crude, but
all aflame with this chivalrous and confident
spirit.
The situation is as follows : Adrastus, King
of Argos, has led the ill-fated expedition of the
' Some critics consider that it was first written at this time. If
so, we must attribute the apparent marks of earliness to deliberate
archaism. There is no doubt that the reception of Suppliants was
a very old stage subject, and had acquired a certain traditional stiff-
ness of form, seen at its acme in the Suppliants of Aeschylus.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxix
Seven Chieftains againstThebes,and been utterly
defeated. The Thebans have brutally refused
to allow the Argives to bury their dead. The
bodies are lying upon the field. Adrastus,
accompanied by the mothers and wives of the
slain chieftains, has come to Attica, and ap-
pealed to Theseus for intercession. That hero,
like his son Demophon in The Children of
Heracles^ like his ancestor Cecrops in certain
older poetry, is a sort of personification of
Athens.
He explains that he always disapproved of
Adrastus's expedition ; that he can take no re-
sponsibility, and certainly not risk a war on
the Argives' account.
He is turning away when one of the be-
reaved women, lifting her suppliant wreaths
and branches, cries out to him : —
What is this thing thou doest ? Wilt despise
All these, and cast us from thee beggar-wise,
Grey women, with not one thing of all we crave?
Nay, the wild beast for refuge hath his cave,
The slave God's altar ; surely in the deep
Of fortune City may call to City, and creep,
A wounded thing, to shelter.
Observe the conception of the duty of one
state to protect and help another. — Theseus is
still obdurate. He has responsibilities. The
recklessness of Athens in foreign policy has
XXX EURIPIDES
become a reproach. At last Aethra, his mother,
can keep silence no more. Can he really allow
such things to be done ? Can Athens really put
considerations of prudence before generosity
and religion ?
Thou shalt not suffer it, thou being my child !
Thou hast heard men scorn thy city, call her wild
Of counsel, mad ; thou hast seen the fire of morn
Flash from her eyes in answer to their scorn !
Come toil on toil, 'tis this that makes her grand,
Peril on peril ! And common states that stand
In caution, twilight cities, dimly wise —
Ye know them ; for no light is in their eyes !
Go forth, my son, and help. — My fear is fled
Now. Women in sorrow call thee and men dead !
To help the helpless was a necessary part of
what we call chivalry, what the Greeks called
religion. Theseus agrees to consult the people
on the matter. Meantime there arrives a
Theban herald, asking arrogantly, " Who is
Master of the land ? " Theseus, although a
king, is too thorough a personification of de-
mocratic Athens to let such an expression pass —
Nay, peace. Sir Stranger ! Ill hast thou begun.
Seeking a Master here. No will of one
Holdeth this land ; it is a city and free.
The whole folk year by year, in parity
Of service, is our King. Nor yet to gold
Give we high seats, but in one honour hold
The poor man and the rich.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxxi
The herald replies that he is delighted to
hear that Athens has such a silly constitution,
and warns Theseus not to interfere with Thebes
for the sake of a beaten cause. Eventually
Theseus gives his ultimatum : —
Let the slain be given
To us, who seek to obey the will of Heaven.
Else, know for sure, I come to seek these dead
My.self, for burial. — It shall not be said
An ancient ordinance of God, that cried
To Athens and her King, was cast aside !
A clear issue comes in the conversation that
follows : —
Herald.
Art thou so strong ? Wilt stand against all Greece ?
Theseus.
Against all tyrants ! With the rest be peace.
Herald.
She takes too much upon her, this thy state !
Theseus.
Takes, aye, and bears it ; therefore is she great !
We know that spirit elsewhere in the history
of the world. How delightful it is, and green
and fresh and thrilling ; and how often it has
paid in blood and ashes the penalty of dream-
ing and of TO /j.r] OurjTO. (ppovdv.
There is one other small point that calls
for notice before we leave this curious play.
Theseus represents not only chivalry and
xxxii EURIPIDES
freedom and law, but also a certain delicacy of
feeling. He is the civilised man as contrasted
with the less civilised. It was a custom in
many parts of Greece to make the very most
of mourning and burial rites, to feel the
wounds of the slain, and vow vengeance with
wild outbursts of grief. Athenian feeling dis-
approved of this.
Theseus.
This task
Is mine. Advance the burden of the dead !
[The attendants bring fortvard the bodies.
Adrastus.
Up, ye sad mothers, where your sons are laid !
Theseus.
Nay, call them not, Adrastus.
Adrastus.
That were strange !
Shall they not touch their children's wounds ?
Theseus.
The change
In that dead flesh would torture them.
Adrastus.
'Tis pain
Alway, to count the gashes of the slain.
Theseus.
And wouldst thou add pain to the pain of these ?
Adrastus (^after a pause).
So be it ! — Ye women, wait in your degrees ;
Theseus says well.
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxxiii
This particular trait, this civilisation or
delicacy of feeling, is wonderfully illustrated
in a much finer drama, the Heracles. The
hero of that tragedy, the rudely noble Dorian
— or perhaps Pelasgian — chief, has in a fit of
madness killed his own children. In the scene
to be cited he has recovered his senses and
is sitting dumb and motionless, veiled by
his mantle. He is, by all ordinary notions,
accursed. The sight of his face will pollute
the sun. A touch from him or even a spoken
word will spread the curse, the contagion of
his horrible blood-stainedness, to another. To
him comes his old comrade Theseus [Heracles^
I2i4ff.):_
Theseus.
0 thou that sittest in the shadow of Death,
Unveil thy brow ! 'Tis a friend summoneth,
And never darkness bore so black a cloud
In all this world, as from mine eyes could shroud
The wreck of thee. . . . What wouldst thou with that arm
That shakes, and shows me blood ? Dost fear to harm
Me with thy words' contagion ? Have no fear ;
What is it if I surfer with thee here ?
1 have rejoiced in many lands. — Back now
To when the Dead had hold of me, and how
Thou camest conquering ! Can that joy grow old,
Or friends once linked in suubhine, when the cold
Storm falleth, not together meet the sea ? —
Oh, rise, and bare thy brow, and turn to me
Thine eyes ! A brave man faces his own fall
And takes it to him, as God sends withal.
C
xxxiv EURIPIDES
Heracles.
Theseus, thou seest my children ?
Theseus.
Surely I see
All, and I knew it ere I came to thee.
Heracles.
Oh, why hast bared to the Sun this head of mine ?
Theseus.
How can thy human sin stain things divine ?
Heracles.
Leave me ! I am all blood. The curse thereof
Crawls. . . .
Theseus.
No curse cometh between love and love !
Heracles.
I thank thee. . . . Yes ; I served thee long ago.
Heracles is calmed and his self-respect par-
tially restored. But he still cannot bear to
live. Notice the attitude of Theseus towards
his suicide — an attitude more striking in
ancient literature than it would be in modern.
Heracles.
Therefore is all made ready for my death.
Theseus.
Thinkest thou God feareth what thy fury saith ?
Heracles [rising).
Oh, God is hard ; and I hard against God !
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxxv
Theseus.
What wilt thou ? And whither on thine angry road ?
Heracles.
Back to the darkness whence my race began !
Theseus.
These be the words of any common man !
Heracles (taien alack).
Aye, thou art scathless. Chide me at thine case !
Theseus.
Is this He of the Labours, Heracles ?
Heracles.
Of none like this, if measure there is in pain !
Theseus.
The Helper of the World, the Friend of Man ?
Heracles [nvith a movement).
Crushed by Her hate ! How can the past assuage
This horror. . . .
Thi;seus.
Thou shalt not perish in thy rage !
Greece will not suffer it.
The passage illustrates not only nobility of
feeling in Theseus, but, in a way very charac-
teristic of Euripides, the fact that this nobility
is based on religious reflection, on genuinely
' free ' thought. Theseus dares the contagion
for the sake of his friendship. He also does
not believe in the contagion. He does not
xxxvi EURIPIDES
really think for a moment that he will become
guilty of a crime because he has touched
some one who committed it. He is in every
sense, as Herodotus puts it, " further removed
from primitive savagery."
But this play also shows, and it is probably
the very last of Euripides' plays which does
show it, a strong serenity of mind. The loss
of this serenity is one of the most significant
marks of the later plays of Euripides as con-
trasted with the earlier. We must not over-
state the antithesis. There was always in
Euripides a vein of tonic bitterness, a hint of
satire or criticism, a questioning of estab-
lished things. It is markedly present even in
the Akestis, in the scene where Admetus is
denounced by his old father ; it is present in
a graver form in the Hippolytus. Yet the
general impression produced by those two plays
when compared with, for instance, the Electra
and the Troades^ is undoubtedly one of serenity
as against fever, beauty as against horror.
And the same will nearly always hold for the
comparison of any of his early plays with any
later one. Of course not quite always. If we
take the Troades^ in the year 415, as marking
the turning-point, we shall find the Hecuba
very bitter among the early plays, the Helena
bright and light-hearted, though a little harsh,
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxxvii
among the later. This is only natural. There
is always something fitful and irregular in the
gathering of clouds, however persistent.
There is one cloud even in the Suppliants^
possibly a mark of the later retouching of that
play. The Theban herald is an unsympa-
thetic character, whose business is to say hard,
sinister things, and be confuted by Theseus.
These unsympathetic heralds are common
stage characters. They stalk in with insult-
ing messages and 'tyrannical' sentiments, are
surrounded by howling indignation from the
virtuous populace, stand their ground motion-
less, defying any one to touch their sacred
persons, and go off with a scornful menace.
But this particular herald has some lines put
in his mouth which nobody confutes, and
which are rather too strongly expressed for the
situation.
Theseus is prepared for his chivalrous war,
and the people clamour for it. The herald
says (v. 484) :—
Oh, it were well
The death men shout for could stand visible
Above the urns ! And never Greece had reeled
Blood-mad to ruin o'er many a stricken field.
Great Heaven, set both out plain and all can tell
The False word from the True, and 111 from \V'ell,
And how much Peace is better! Dear is Peace
To every Muse ; she walks her ways and sees
xxxviii EURIPIDES
No haunting Spirit of Judgment. Glad is she
With noise of happy children, running free
With corn and oil. And we, so vile we are,
Forget, and cast her off, and call for War,
City on city, man on man, to break
Weak things to obey us for our greatness' sake !
If it is true that the Suppliants was rewritten,
that must be one of the later passages. Athens
had had ten years of bitter war by the time the
lines were actually spoken.
Let us again take a few typical passages
from the historians to see the form in which
the clouds gathered over Athens.
The first and most obvious will be from that
curious chapter in which Herodotus, towards
the end of his life, is summing up his conclu-
sions about the Persian war, of which Athens
was so indisputably the heroine. He observes
(vii. 139): "Here I am compelled by neces-
sity to express an opinion which will be offen-
sive to most of mankind. But I cannot refrain
from putting it in the way that I believe to be
true. . . . The Athenians in the Persian wars
were the saviours of Hellas." By the time
that passage was written, apologies were neces-
sary if you wished to say a good word for
Athens !
The Athenian League, that great instrument
of freedom, had grown into an Empire or
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xxxix
Arch^. Various allies had tried to secede and
failed ; had been conquered and made into
subjects. The greater part of Greece was
seething with timorous ill-feeling against what
they called ' The Tyrant City.' And by the
opening of the Peloponnesian war, Athens
herself had practically ceased to protest against
the name. It is strange to recall such words
as, for instance, the Spartans had used in 479,
when it was rumoured, falsely, that Athens
thought of making terms with Persia (Hdt.
viii. 142) : " It is intolerable to imagine that
Athens should ever be a party to the subjec-
tion of any Greek state ; always from the
earliest times you have been known as the
Liberators of Many Men." It is strange to
compare those words with the language attri-
buted to Pericles in 430 (Thuc. ii. 63) : ^ —
" Do not imagine that you are fighting about
a simple issue, the subjection or independence of
certain cities. You have an empire to lose, and
a danger to face from those whom your im-
perial rule has made to hate you. And it is
impossible for you to resign your power — if at
this crisis some timorous and inactive spirits
^ These speeches were revised as late as 403, and may well be
coloured by subsequent experience. But this particular point is
one on which Thucydides may be absolutely trusted. He would
not attribute the odious sentiments of Cleon to his hero Pericles
without cause.
xl EURIPIDES
are hankering after righteousness even at that
price ! For by this time your empire has become
a Despotism ('Tyrannis '), a thing which in the
opinion of mankind is unjust to acquire, but
which at any rate cannot be safely surrendered.
The men of whom I was speaking, if they
could find followers, would soon ruin the city.
If they were to go and found a state of their
own, they would soon ruin that ! "
It would not be relevant here to appraise
this policy of Pericles, to discuss how far events
had really made it inevitable, or when the first
false step was taken. It would not be just,
though to many it will be tempting, to draw
immediate and unqualified conclusions about
contemporary English politics. Our business,
at the moment, is merely to notice the ex-
traordinary change of tone. It comes out
even more strongly in a speech made by Cleon,
the successor of Pericles, in the debate about
the punishment of rebel Mitylene — a debate
remarkable as being the very last in which
the side of clemency gained the day (Thuc.
iii. 37):-
" I have remarked again and again that a
Democracy cannot govern an empire ; and
never more clearly than now, when I see
you regretting your sentence upon the Mity-
lenaeans. Living without fear and suspicion
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xli
among yourselves, you deal with your allies
upon the same principle ; and you do not realise
that whenever you make a concession to them
out of pity, or are misled by their specious re-
ports, you are guilty of a weakness dangerous to
yourselves, and you receive no gratitude from
them. You must remember that your empire
is a Despotism exercised over unwilling sub-
jects who are always conspiring against you.
They do not obey in return for any kindness
you do them ; they obey just so far as you
show yourselves their masters."
" Do not be misled," he adds a little later
(iii. 40), " by the three most deadly enemies of
empire, Pity and Eloquent Sentiments and the
Generosity of Strength ! "
It is a change indeed ! A change which the
common run of low men, no doubt, accepted
as inevitable, or even as a matter of course ;
which the merely clever and practical men
insisted upon, and the more brutal ' patriots '
delighted in. They had never loved or under-
stood the old ideals !
Some great political changes can take place
without much effect upon men's private lives.
But this change was a blight that worked upon
daily conduct, upon the roots of character.
Thucydides, writing after the end of the
war, has two celebrated and terrible chapters
xHi EURIPIDES
(iii. 82, 83) on that side of the question.
Every word of it is apposite to our point ; but
we may content ourselves with a few sentences
here and there.
"In peace and prosperity both states and
nien," he says, "are free to act upon higher
motives. They are not caught up by coils of
circumstance which drive them without their
own volition. But War, taking away the
margin in daily life, is a teacher who educates
by violence ; and he makes men's characters fit
their conditions. . . ."
The later actors in the war "determined
to outdo the report of those who had gone
before them by the ingenuity of their enter-
prises and the enormity of their revenges. . . ."
The meaning of words, he notices, changed
in relation to things. Thoughtfulness, pru-
dence, moderation, generosity were scouted ;
daring and cunning were prized. "Frantic
energy was the true quality of a man. . . ."
" Neither side cared for religion, but both
used it with enthusiasm as a pretext for various
odious purposes. . . ."
" The cause of all these evils was the lust of
empire, originating in avarice and ambition,
and the party spirit which is engendered from
such circumstances when men settle themselves
down to a contest."
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xliii
" Thus Revolution gave birth to every kind
of wickedness in Hellas. The simplicity which
is so large an element in a noble nature was
laughed to death and vanished out of the
world. An attitude of mistrustful antagonism
prevailed everywhere. No power existed to
soften it, no cogency of reason, no bond of
religion." ..." Inferior characters succeeded
best. The higher kinds of men were too
thoughtful, and were swept aside."
Men caught up in coils of circumstance
that drive them without their own volition —
ingenious enterprises; enormous revenges;
mad ambition ; mistrust ; frantic energy ; the
abuse of religion ; simplicity laughed out of
the world : it is a terrible picture, and it is
exactly the picture that meets us in the later
tragedies of Euripides. Those plays all, as
Dr. Verrall has acutely remarked, have an
extraordinary air of referring to the present
and not the past, of dealing with things that
' matter,' not things made up or dreamed
about. And it is in this spirit that they deal
with them. Different plays may be despairing
like the Troades, cynical like the Ion, deliber-
ately hateful like the Electra, frantic and fierce
like the Orestes; they are nearly all violent,
nearly all misanthropic. Amid all their power
and beauty there sounds from time to time
xHv EURIPIDES
a cry of nerves frayed to the snapping point,
a jarring note of fury against something per-
sonal to the poet and not always relevant to
the play. Their very splendours, the lines
that come back most vividly to a reader's mind,
consist often in the expression of some vice.
There are analyses or self-revelations, like the
famous outburst of the usurping Prince Eteocl6s
in the Phoenissae : —
These words that thou wilt praise
The Equal and the Just, — in all men's ways
I have not found them ! These be names, not things.
Mother, I will unveil to thee the springs
That well within me. I would break the bars
Of Heaven, and past the risings of the stars
Climb, aye, or sink beneath dark Earth and Sea,
To clasp my goddess-bride, my Sovranty !
This is my good, which never by mine own
Will shall man touch, save Eteocles alone !
There are flashes of cruel hate like the first
words of old Tyndareus to the doomed and
agonised Orestes, whose appearance has been
greeted by Menelaus with the words : —
Who Cometh ghastly as the grave ? . . .
Tyndareus.
Ah God,
The snake 1 The snake, that drank his mother's blood.
Doth hiss and flash before the gates, and bow
The pestilence- ridden glimmer of his brow.
I sicken at him ! — Wilt thou stain thy soul
With speech, Menelaus, of a thing so foul ?
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xlv
Above all, there is what I will not venture to
illustrate, the celebrated Euripidean ' pathos,'
that power of insight into the cruelty of suf-
fering ; the weakness and sensitiveness of the
creatures that rend one another ; that piteous-
ness in the badness of things which makes
them half lovable. This is the one char-
acteristic of Euripides' world which is not
present in that of Thucydides. The grimly
reticent historian seldom speaks of human suf-
fering ; the tragedian keeps it always before
our eyes.
This gradual embitterment and exacerbation
of style in Euripides, as shown by the later
plays compared with the earlier, is, I believe,
generally recognised. I will choose in illustra-
tion of it a scene from the Hecuba, a tragedy
early in date, but in tone and spirit really the
first of the late series.^
The Hecuba deals with the taking of Troy,
the great achievement in war of the heroic age
of Greece. And the point in it that interests
Euripides is, as often, the reverse of the picture
— the baseness and, what is worse, the uninterest-
ingness of the conquerors; the monstrous wrongs
of the conquered ; the moral degradation of
1 I am the more moved to select this particular scene because I
find that the text and punctuation of my edition, which I owe to a
remark of Dr. Verrall's, confirmed by a re-examination of the I'aris
MSS., has caused difficulties to some scholars.
xlvi EURIPIDES
both parties, culminating in the transformation
of Hecuba from a grave oriental queen into a
kind of she-devil. Among the heroes who
took Troy were, as every Athenian knew, the
two sons of Theseus. The Athenian public
would, of course, insist on their being mentioned.
And they are mentioned — once ! A young
princess is to be cruelly murdered by a vote of
the Greek host. One wishes to know what
these high Athenians had to say when the
villain Odysseus consented to her death. And
we are told. " The sons of Theseus, the branches
of Athens, made orations contradicting each
other " — so like them at their worst ! — " but
both were in favour of the murder!"
Small wonder that Euripides* plays were
awarded only four first prizes in fifty years !
In the scene which I select (vv. 795 ff.), the
body of Hecuba's one remaining son, Polydorus,
has just been washed up by the sea. He, being
very young, had been sent away to the keeping
of a Thracian chieftain, an old friend, till the
war should be over. And now it proves that
the Thracian, as soon as he saw that the Trojan
cause wasdefinitely lost, has murdered his charge!
Hecuba appeals to her enemy Agamemnon for
help to avenge the murder. The "King of
Men " is, as usual in Euripides, a poor creature,
a brave soldier and kindly enough amid the
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xlvii
havoc he makes, but morally a coward and a
sensualist. The scene is outside Agamemnon's
tent. Inside the tent is Hecuba's one remain-
ing daughter, Cassandra, a prophetess vowed to
virginity or to union only with the God ; she is
now Agamemnon's concubine !
Observe how the nobler part of the appeal
fails, the baser succeeds. Hecuba shows Aga-
memnon her son's body, and tells how the
Thracian slew him : —
And by a plot
Slew him ; and when he slew him, could he not
Throw earth upon his bones, if he must be
A murderer ? Cast him naked to the sea ?
0 King, I am but one amid thy throng
Of servants ; I am weak, but God is strong,
God, and that King that standeth over God,
Law ; who makes gods and unmakes, by whose rod
We live dividing the Unjust from the Just ;
Whom now before thee standing if thou thrust
Away — if men that murder guests, and tear
God's house down, meet from thee no vengeance, where
Is Justice left in the world ? Forbid it, thou !
Have mercy! Dost not fear to wrong me now? . . .
Hate me no more. Stand like an arbiter
Apart, and count the weight of woes I bear.
1 was a Queen once, now I am thy slave ;
I had children once ; but not now. And my grave
Near ; very old, broken and homeless. . . . Stay ;
[_ylgamemnon, painfully embarrassed, has moved
toivards the tent.
God help me, whither dost thou shrink away ? . . .
It seems he does not listen ! . . .
xlviii EURIPIDES
. . . So, 'tis plain
Now. I must never think of hope again. . . .
Those that are left me are dead ; dead all save one ;
One lives, a slave, in shame. . . . Ah, I am gone ! . . .
The smoke ! Troy is on fire ! The smoke all round !
[^S/je stuoons. Agamemnon comes back. Her
fellow-s/aves tend her. . . . She rises
again with a sudden thought.
What? . . . Yes, I might! . . . Oh, what a hollow sound,
Love, here 1 But I can say it ! . . . Let me be ! . . .
King, King, there sleepeth side by side with thee
My child, my priestess, whom they call in Troy
Cassandra. Wilt thou pay not for thy joy ?
Nothing to her for all the mystery,
And soft words of the dark ? Nothing to me
For her ? Nay, mark me ; look on these dead eyes !
This is her brother ; surely thine likewise !
Thou wilt avenge him ?
This desperate and horrible appeal stirs him.
He is much occupied with Cassandra for the
moment. But he is afraid. ' The King of
Thrace is an ally of the Greeks, the slain boy
was after all an enemy. People will say he is
influenced by Cassandra. If it were not for
that. . . .' She answers him in words which
might stand as a motto over most of the plays
of this period — as they might over much of
Tolstoi : —
Faugh ! There is no man free in all this world !
Slaves of possessions, slaves of fortune, hurled
This way and that. Or else the multitude
Hath hold on him ; or laws of stone and wood
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY xli.v
Constrain, and will not let him use the soul
Within him! ... So thou durst not? And thine whole
Thought hangs on what thy herd will say ? Nay, then,
My master, I will set thee free again.
She arranges a plan which shall not implicate
him. The Thracian chieftain is allowed to
visit her. On the pretence of explaining to
him where a treasure is hidden, she entices him
and his two children — " it is more prudent to
have them present, in case he should die ! " —
inside the tent of the captive Trojan women.
The women make much of the children, and
gradually separate them from their father.
They show interest in his Thracian javelins and
the texture of his cloak, and so form a group
round him. At a given signal they cling to
him and hold him fast, murder his children
before his face, and then tear his eyes out.
Agamemnon, who knew that something would
happen, but had never expected this, is horrified
and impotent. The blinded barbarian comes
back on to the stage, crawling, unable to stand.
He gropes for the bodies of his children ; for
some one to help him ; for some one to tear
and kill. He shrieks like a wild beast, and
the horrible scene ends.
We will not go farther into this type of
play. More illustrations would, of course,
prove nothing. It is the business of a tragedian
1 EURIPIDES
to be harrowing. It is a dangerous and a some-
what vulgar course to deduce from a poet's
works direct conclusions about his real life ; but
there is on the one hand the fact of progressive
bitterness in Euripides' plays, and, on the other,
as we have noticed above, there is the peculiar
impression which they make of dealing with
living and concrete things. But it is not really
anything positive that chiefly illustrates the
later tone of Euripides. It is not his denun-
ciations of nearly all the institutions of human
society — of the rich, the poor, men, women,
slaves, masters, above all, of democracies and
demagogues ; it is not even the mass of sordid
and unbalanced characters that he brings upon
the scene — trembling slaves of ambition like
Agamemnon ; unscrupulous and heartless
schemers like Odysseus ; unstable compounds
of chivalry and vanity like Achilles in the
second Iphigenia ; shallow women like Helen
and terrible women like Electra in the Orestes —
a play of which the Scholiast naively remarks
that " the characters are all bad except Pylades,"
the one exception being a quite peculiarly
feather-brained dealer in bloodshed. It is not
points like these that are most significant. It
is the gradual dying off of serenity and hope.
I think most students of Euripides will agree
that almost the only remnant of the spirit of
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY li-
the Alcestis or the Hippolytus, the only region
of clear beauty, that can still be found in
the later tragedies, lies in the lyrical element.
There are one or two plays, like the Andro-
meda, which seem to have escaped from reality
to the country of Aristophanes' Birds, and
read hke mere romance ; and even in the
Electra there are the songs. Euripides had
prayed some twenty years before his death :
" May I not live if the Muses leave me ! "
And that prayer was heard. The world had
turned dark, sordid, angry, under his eyes,
but Poetry remained to the end radiant and
stainless.
It is this state of mind and a natural
development from it which afford in my
judgment the best key to the understanding
of The Bacchae, his last play, not quite finished
at his death. It was written under peculiar
circumstances.
We have seen from Thucydides what Athe-
nian society had become in these last years
of the death-struggle. If to Thucydides, as is
possible, things seemed worse than they were,
we must remember that to the more impul-
sive nature and equally disappointed hopes of
Euripides they are not likely to have seemed
better. We know that he had become in these
last years increasingly unpopular in Athens;
lii EURIPIDES
and it is not hard, if we examine the groups
and parties in Athens at the time, to under-
stand his isolation.
Most of the high-minded and thoughtful
men of the time were to some extent isolated,
and many retired quietly from public notice.
But Euripides was not the man to be quiet in
his rejected state. He was not conciliatory, not
silent, not callous. At last something occurred
to make his life in Athens finally intolerable.
We do not know exactly what it was. It cannot
have been the destruction of his estate ; that
had been destroyed long before. It cannot have
been his alleged desertion by his wife ; she
was either dead or over seventy. It may have
been something connected with his prosecution
for impiety, the charge on which Socrates was
put to death a few years after. All that we
know is one fragmentary sentence in the ancient
' Life of Euripides ' : " He had to leave Athens
because of the malicious exultation over him
of nearly all the city."
Archelails, King of Macedon, had long been
inviting him. The poet had among his papers
a play called Archelaus^ written to celebrate
this king's legendary ancestor, so he must
before this have been thinking of Macedonia
as a possible refuge. He went now, and seems
to have lived in some wild retreat on the
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY liii
northern slopes of Mount Olympus, in the
Muses' country, as he phrases it : —
In the elm-woods and the oaken,
There where Orpheus harped of old,
And the trees awoke and knew him,
And the wild things gathered to him,
As he sang amid the broken
Glens his music manifold.
The spirit of the place passed into his writings.
He had produced the Orestes in 408. He pro-
duced nothing, so far as has been made out,
in 407. He died in 406. And after his death
there appeared in Athens, under the manage-
ment of his son, a play that held the Greek
stage for five centuries, a strange and thrilling
tragedy, enigmatical, inhuman, at times actually
repellent, yet as strong and as full of beauty
as the finest work of his prime.
Two other plays were produced with it.
Of one, Alcmaeon in Corinth^ we know nothing
characteristic ; the second, Ipliigenia in Aulis^ is
in many ways remarkable. The groundwork
of it is powerful and bitter, like the other plays
of this period, but it is interspersed with pas-
sages and scenes of most romantic beauty ; and,
finally, it is only half finished. One could
imagine that he had begun it in Athens, or at
least before the bitter taste of Athens had worn
off; that he tried afterwards to change the
liv EURIPIDES
tone of it to something kindlier and more
beautiful ; that finally he threw it aside and
began a quite new play in a different style to
express the new spirit that he had found.
For The Bacchae is somehow different in spirit
from any of his other works, late or early.
The old poet chose a curiously simple and even
barbaric subject. It is much what we should
call a Mystery Play. Dionysus, the young god
born of Zeus and the Theban princess, Semele,
travelling through the world to announce his
godhead, comes to his own people of Thebes,
and — his own receive him not. They will not
worship him simply and willingly ; he con-
strains them to worship him with the enthu-
siasm of madness. The King, Pentheus, insults
and imprisons the god, spies on his mystic
worship, is discovered by the frenzied saints
and torn limb from limb; his own mother,
Agave, being the first to rend him.
Now it is no use pretending that this is a
moral and sympathetic tale, or that Euripides
palliates the atrocity of it, and tries to justify
Dionysus. Euripides never palliates things.
He leaves this savage story as savage as he
found it. The sympathy of the audience is
with Dionysus while he is persecuted ; doubtful
while he is just taking his vengeance ; utterly
against him at the end of the play. Note how
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Iv
Agave, when restored to her right mind, re-
fuses even to think of him and his miserable
injured pride : —
Agave.
'Tis Dionyse hath done it. Now I see.
Cadmus.
Ye wronged him ! Ye denied his deity.
Agave.
Show me the body of the son I love !
Note how Dionysus is left answerless when
Agave rebukes him : —
Dionysus.
Ye mocked me being God. This is your wage.
Agave.
Should God be like a proud man in his rage ?
Dionysus.
'Tis as my sire, Zeus, willed it long ago.
A helpless, fatalistic answer, abandoning the
moral standpoint.
But the most significant point against Diony-
sus is the change of tone — the conversion,
one might almost call it — of his own inspired
' Wild Beasts,' the Chorus of Asiatic Bac-
chanals, after the return of Agave with her
son's severed head. The change is clearly
visible in that marvellous scene itself. It is
emphasized in the sequel. Those wild singers.
Ivi EURIPIDES
who raged so loudly in praises of the god's
vengeance before they saw what it was, fall,
when once they have seen it, into dead silence.
True, there is a lacuna in the MS. at one
point, so it is possible that they may have
spoken ; but as the play stands, their Leader
speaks only one couplet addressed to Cadmus,
whom the god has wronged : —
Lo, I weep with thee. 'Twas but due reward
God sent on Pentheus ; but for thee . . . 'tis hard !
And they go off at the end with no remark,
good or evil, about their triumphant and hate-
ful Dionysus, uttering only those lines of
brooding resignation with which Euripides
closed so many of his tragedies.
Such silence in such a situation is significant.
Euripides is, as usual, critical or even hostile
towards the moral tone of the myth that he
celebrates. There is nothing in that to sur-
prise us.
Some critics have even tried to imagine that
Pentheus is a ' sympathetic ' hero ; that he is
right in his crusade against this bad god, as
much as Hippolytus was right. But the case
will not bear examination. Euripides might
easily have made Pentheus ' sympathetic ' if
he had chosen. And he certainly has not
chosen. No. As regards the conflict between
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Ivii
Dionysus and Pentheus, Euripides has merely
followed a method very usual with him, the
method, for instance, of the Electra. He has
given a careful objective representation of the
facts as alleged in the myth : " If the story is
true," he says, " then it must have been like
this." We have the ordinary hot-tempered
and narrowly practical tyrant — not very care-
fully studied, by the way, and apparently not
very interesting to the poet ; we have a well-
attested god and suitable miracles ; we have a
most poignant and unshrinking picture of the
possibilities of religious madness. That may
be taken as the groundwork of the play. It is
quite probable that Euripides had seen some
glimpses of Dionysus-worship on the Macedon-
ian mountains which gave a fresh reality in his
mind to the legends of ravening and wonder-
working Maenads.
But when all this is admitted, there remains
a fact of cardinal importance, which was seen
by the older critics, and misled them so greatly
that modern writers are often tempted to deny
its existence. There is in The Bacchae real and
heartfelt glorification of Dionysus.
The ' objectivity ' is not kept up. Again
and again in the lyrics you feel that the
Maenads are no longer merely observed and
analysed. The poet has entered into them.
Iviii EURIPIDES
and they into him. Again and again the
words that fall from the lips of the Chorus or
its Leader are not the words of a raving Bac-
chante, but of a gentle and deeply musing
philosopher.
Probably all dramatists who possess strong
personal beliefs, yield at times to the tempta-
tion of using one of their characters as a mouth-
piece for their own feelings. And the Greek
Chorus, a half-dramatic, half-lyrical creation,
both was and was felt to be particularly suitable
for such use. Of course a writer does not — or
at least should not — use the drama to express
his mere 'views' on ordinary and commonplace
questions, to announce his side in politics or his
sect in religion. But it is a method wonderfully
contrived for expressing those vaguer faiths and
aspirations which a man feels haunting him and
calling to him, but which he cannot state in plain
language or uphold with a full acceptance of re-
sponsibility. You can say the thing that wishes
to be said ; you ' give it its chance ' ; you re-
lieve your mind of it. And if it proves to be
all nonsense, well, it is not you that said it.
It is only a character in one of your plays !
The rehgion of Dionysus as Euripides found
it, already mysticised and made spiritual, half-
reformed and half-petrified in sacerdotalism, by
the Orphic movement, was exactly that kind of
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Hx
mingled mass which lends itself to dramatic and
indirect expression. It was gross as it stood ;
yet it could be so easily and so wonderfully
idealised ! Euripides seems to have felt a pecu-
liar and almost enthusiastic interest in a further
sublimation of its doctrines, a philosophic or
prophet-like interpretation of the spirit that a
man might see in it if he would. And mean-
time he did not bind himself. He let his
Bacchanals rave from time to time, as they were
bound to rave. He had said his say, and he
was not responsible for the whole of Dionysus-
worship nor yet of Orphism,
Dionysus, as Euripides takes him from the
current conceptions of his day, is the God of
all high emotion, inspiration, intoxication. He
is the patron of poetry, especially of dramatic
poetry. He has given man Wine, which is
his Blood and a religious symbol. He purifies
from Sm. It is unmeaning, surely, to talk of
a ' merely ritual ' purification as opposed to
something real. Ritual, as long as it fully
lives, is charged with spiritual meaning, and
can often express just those transcendent things
which words fail to utter — much as a look or
the clasp of a hand can at times express more
than a verbal greeting. Dionysus purified as
spiritually as the worshipper's mind required.
And he gave to the Purified a mystic Joy,
Ix EURIPIDES
surpassing in intensity that of man, the Joy of
a god or a free wild animal. The Bacchanals
in this play worshipped him by his many names
(vv. 725 fF.):—
' lacchos, Bromios, Lord,
God of God born ; ' and all the mountain felt
And worshipped with them, and the wild things knelt,
And ramped and gloried, and the wilderness
Was filled with moving voices and dim stress.
That is the kind of god he celebrates.
Euripides had lived most of his life in a
great town, among highly educated people ;
amid restless ambitions and fierce rivalries ;
amid general scepticism, originally caused, no
doubt, in most cases, by higher religious aspi-
rations than those of the common man, but
ending largely in arid irreligion ; in an ultra
political community, led of late years by the
kind of men of whom Plato said that if you
looked into the soul of one of them you could
see " its bad little eye glittering with sharp-
ness " ; in a community now hardened to the
condition described in the long passage quoted
above from Thucydides. Euripides had lived
all his life in this society ; for many years
he had led it, at least in matters of art and
intellect ; for many years he had fought with
it. And now he was free from it !
He felt like a hunted animal escaped from
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Ixi
its pursuers ; like a fawn fled to the forest, says
one lyric, in which the personal note is surely
audible as a ringing undertone (vv. 862 ft.): —
Oh, feet of a fawn to the greenwood fled
Alone in the grass and the loveliness,
Leap of the Hunted, no more in dread . . .
But there is still a terror in the distance be-
hind him ; he must go onward yet, to lonely
regions where no voice of either man or hound
may reach. " What else is wisdom ? " he asks,
in a marvellous passage : —
What else is wisdom ? What of man's endeavour
Or God's high grace so lovely and so great ?
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait ;
To hold a hand uplifted over Hate ;
And shall not loveliness be loved for ever ?
He was escaped and happy ; he was beyond
the reach of Hate. Nay, he was safe, and
those who hated him were suffering. A judg-
ment seemed to be upon them, these men who
had resolved to have no dealings with " the
three deadly enemies of Empire, Pity and
Eloquent Sentiments and the Generosity
of Strength " ; who lived, as Thucydides says
in another passage (vi. 90), in dreams of wider
and wider conquest, the conquest of Sicily, of
South Italy, of Carthage and all her empire, of
every country that touched the sea. They
Ixii EURIPIDES
had forgotten the essence of religion, forgotten
the eternal laws, and the judgment in wait for
those who "worship the Ruthless Will " ; who
dream —
Dreams of the proud man, making great
And greater ever
Things that are not of God. — (vv. 885 fF.)
It is against the essential irreligion implied
in these dreams that he appeals in the same
song :—
And is thy faith so much to give ?
Is it so hard a thing to see,
That the Spirit of God, whate'er it be.
The Law that abides and falters not, ages long,
The Eternal and Nature-born — these things be strong ?
In the epode of the same chorus, taking the
ritual words of certain old Bacchic hymns and
slightly changing them, he expresses his own
positive doctrine more clearly : —
Happy he, On the weary sea,
Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven ;
Happy, whoso hath risen, free,
Above his strivings !
Men strive with many ambitions, seethe with
divers hopes, mostly conflicting, mostly of in-
herent worthlessness ; even if they are achieved,
no one is a whit the better.
But whoe'er can know, As the long days go.
That to live is happy, hath found his Heaven !
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Ixiii
Could not the wise men of Athens under-
stand- what a child feels, what a wild beast
feels, what a poet feels, that to live — to live in
the presence of Nature, of Dawn and Sunset, of
eternal mysteries and discoveries and wonders
— is in itself a joyous thing ?
*' Love thou the day and the night," he says
in another place. It is only so that Life can
be made what it really is, a Joy : by loving not
only your neighbour — he is so vivid an element
in life that, unless you do love him, he will
spoil all the rest ! — but the actual details and
processes of living. Life becomes like the
voyage of Dionysus himself over magic seas,
or rather, perhaps, like the more chequered
voyage of Shelley's lovers : —
\\'hile Ni^^ht
And Day, and Storm and Calm pursue their flight,
Our ministers across the boundless sea,
Trtading each other's heels unheetledly —
the alternations and pains being only '* mini-
sters " to the great composite joy.
It seemed to Euripides, in that favourite
metaphor of his, which was always a little
more than a metaphor, that a God had been
rejected by the world that he came from.
Those haggard, striving, suspicious men, full
of ambition and the pride of intellect, almost
destitute of emotion, unless political hatreds
Ixiv EURIPIDES
can be called emotion, were hurrying through
Life in the presence of august things which
they never recognised, of joy and beauty which
they never dreamed of. Thus it is that " the
world's wise are not wise" (v. 395). The
poet may have his special paradise, away from
the chosen places of ordinary men, better than
the sweetness of Cyprus or Paphos : —
The high still dell Where the Muses dwell,
Fairest of all things fair —
it is there that he will find the things truly
desired of his heart, and the power to worship
in peace his guiding Fire of inspiration. But
Dionysus gives his Wine to all men, not to
poets alone. Only by " spurning joy " can
men harden his heart against them. For the
rest —
The simple nameless herd of Humanity-
Hath deeds and faith that are truth enough for me !
It is a mysticism which includes democracy
as it includes the love of your neighbour.
They are both necessary details in the inclusive
end. It implies that trust in the ' simple
man ' which is so characteristic of most
idealists and most reformers. It implies the
doctrine of Equality — a doctrine essentially
religious and mystical, continually disproved
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Ixv
in every fresh sense In which it can be formu-
lated, and yet remaining one of the living
faiths of men.
It is at first sight strange, this belittling of
' the Wise ' and all their learning. Euripides
had been all his life the poet militant of know-
ledge, the apostle of progress and enlighten-
ment. Yet there is no real contradiction. It
is only that the Wise are not wise enough, that
the Knowledge which a man has attained is
such a poor and narrow thing compared with
the Knowledge that he dreamed of. In one
difficult and beautiful passage Euripides seems ^
to give us his own apology (vv. 1005 ff.) : —
Knowledge, we are not foes !
I seek, thee diligently ;
But the world with a great wind blows,
Shining, and not from thee ;
Blowing to beautiful things,
On amid dark and light.
Till Life through the trammellings
Of Laws that are not the Right,
Breaks, clean and pure, and sings
Glorying to God in the height !
One feels grateful for that voice from the old
Euripides amid the strange new tones of The
Bacchae.
' I say " seems," because the reading is conjectural. I suggest
d^KTCjv ( = "let ihem blow") in place of the MS. atl rwv. The
passage is generally abandoned as hopelessly corrupt.
e
Ixvi EURIPIDES
It is not for us to consider at present how
far this doctrine is true, nor even how far it
is good or bad. We need only see what the
essence of it is. That the end of life is not
in the future, not in external objects, not a
thing to be won by success or good fortune,
nor to be deprived of by the actions of others.
Live according to Nature, and Life itself is
happiness. The Kingdom of Heaven is within
you — here and now. You have but to accept
it and live with it — not obscure it by striving
and hating and looking in the wrong place.
On one side this is a very practical and lowly
doctrine — the doctrine of contentment, the
doctrine of making things better by liking and
helping them. On the other side, it is an
appeal to the almost mystical faith of the poet
or artist who dwells in all of us. Probably
most people have had the momentary experi-
ence— it may come to one on Swiss mountains,
on Surrey commons, in crowded streets, on the
tops of omnibuses, inside London houses — of
being, as it seems, surrounded by an incom-
prehensible and almost intolerable vastness of
beauty and delight and interest — if only one
could grasp it or enter into it ! That is just
the rub, a critic may say. It is no use
telling all the world to find happiness by liv-
ing permanently at the level of these fugitive
INTRODUCTORY ESSAY Ixvii
moments — moments which in high poets and
prophets may extend to days. It is simpler and
quite as practical to advise them all to have ten
thousand a year.
It is not necessary to struggle with that
point. But it is worth while to remark in
closing that historically the line here suggested
by Euripides was followed by almost all the
higher minds of antiquity and early Christi-
anity. Excepting Aristotle, who clung charac-
teristically to the concrete city and the dutiful
tax-paying citizen, all the great leaders of
Greek thought turned away from the world
and took refuge in the Soul. The words used
accidentally above — Live according to Nature
— formed the very foundation of moral
doctrine not only for the Stoics, but for all
the schools of philosophy. The Platonists
sought for the Good, the Stoics for Virtue,
the Epicureans for Pleasure ; but the various
names are names for the same End ; and it is
always an End, not future, but existing — not
without or afar, but inside each man's self.
The old devotion to Fifth Century Athens,
to that Princess of Cities, who had so fear-
fully fallen and dragged her lovers through
such bloodstained dust, lived on with a kind
of fascination as a symbol in the minds of
these deeply individual philosophers of later
Ixviii EURIPIDES
Hellenism and early Christianity. But it was
no longer a city on earth that they sought, not
one to be served by military conquests, nor
efficient police, nor taxes and public education.
It was " the one great city in which all are
free," or it was the city of Man's Soul, " The
poet has said," writes a late Stoic, who had a
pretty large concrete city of his own to look
after, " The poet has said : O Beloved City of
Cecrops : canst thou not say : O Beloved City
of God?"
^^
THK SAII.INC OF tJlONVSUS
/. Ixviii
EROS WITH SPEAK AND SHIELD
HIPPOLYTUS
v
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
The Goddess Aphrodit^.
The Goddess Artemis.
Theseus, King of Athens and Trozen.
Phaedra, daughter of Minos , King of Crete, luife to Theseus,
HiPPOLYTUS, bastard son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyte.
The Nurse of Phaedra,
An Old Huntsman.
A Henchman of Hippolytus.
A Chorus of Huntsmen.
A Chorus of Trozenian Women, with their Leader.
Attendants on the thrke Royal Persons.
" The scene is laid in Trozen. The play was first acted when
Epameinon was Archon, Olympiad 87, year 4 (B.C. 429). Eu7-ipides
was first, lophon second, Ton third."
HIPPOLYTUS
The scene represents the front of the royal castle of
Trozen, the chief door being in the centre^ facing the
audience. Two statues are visible^ that 0/ Artemis
on the right, that of Aphrodite or Cypris on the
left. The goddess Aphrodite is discovered alone.
Aphrodite.
Great among men, and not unnamed am I,
The Cyprian, in God's inmost halls on high.
And wheresoe'er from Pontus to the far
Red West men dwell, and see the glad day-star.
And worship Me, the pious heart I bless,
And wreck that life that lives in stubbornness.
For that there is, even in a great God's mind,
That hungereth for the praise of human kind.
So runs my word ; and soon the very deed
Shall follow. For this Prince of Theseus' seed,
Hippolytus, child of that dead Amazon,
And reared by saintly Pittheus in his own
Strait ways, hath dared, alone of all Trozen,
To hold me least of spirits and most mean.
And spurns my spell and seeks no woman's kiss.
But great Apollo's sister, Artemis,
EURIPIDES
He holds of all most high, gives love and praise,
And through the wild dark woods for ever strays.
He and the Maid together, with swift hounds
To slay all angry beasts from out these bounds,
To more than mortal friendship consecrate !
I grudge it not. No grudge know I, nor hate ;
Yet, seeing he hath offended, I this day
Shall smite Hippolytus. Long since my way
Was opened, nor needs now much labour more.
For once from Pittheus' castle to the shore
Of Athens came Hippolytus over-seas
Seeking the vision of the Mysteries.
And Phaedra there, his father's Queen high-born.
Saw him, and, as she saw, her heart was torn
With great love, by the working of my will.
And for his sake, long since, on Pallas' hill.
Deep in the rock, that Love no more might roam,
She built a shrine, and named it Love-at-home :
And the rock held it, but its face alway
Seeks Trozen o'er the seas. Then came the day
When Theseus, for the blood of kinsmen shed.
Spake doom of exile on himself, and fled,
Phaedra beside him, even to this Trozen.
And here that grievous and amazed Queen,
Wounded and wondering, with ne'er a word.
Wastes slowly ; and her secret none hath heard
Nor dreamed.
But never thus this love shall end !
To Theseus' son some whisper will I send.
And all be bare ! And that proud Prince, my foe.
His sire shall slay with curses. Even so
Endeth that boon the great Lord of the Main
To Theseus gave, the Three Prayers not in vain.
HIPPOLYTUS 5
And she, not in dishonour, yet shall die.
I would not rate this woman''s pain so high
As not to pay mine haters in full fee
That vengeance that shall make all well with
me.
But soft, here comes he, striding from the
chase.
Our Prince Hippolytus ! — I will go my ways. —
And hunters at his heels : and a loud throng
Glorying Artemis with praise and song !
Little he knows that HclPs gates opened are.
And this his last look on the great Day-star !
[Aphrodite withdraws^ unseen by Hippolytus
and a band of huntsmen, who enter from
the left^ singing. They pass the Statue of
Aphrodite zuithout notice.
Hippolytus.
Follow, O follow me.
Singing on your ways
Her in whose hand are we.
Her whose own flock wc be,
The Zeus-Child, the Heavenly j
To Artemis be praise !
Huntsmen.
Hail to thee, Maiden blest,
Proudest and holiest :
God's Daughter, great in bliss,
Leto-born, Artemis !
Hail to thee. Maiden, far
Fairest of all that are.
EURIPIDES
Yea, and most high thine home,
Child of the Father's hall ;
Hear, O most virginal,
Hear, O most fair of all.
In high God's golden dome.
[The huntsmen have gathered about the altar of
Artemis. Hippolytus now advances from
them^ and approaches the Statue with a
wreath in his hand.
Hippolytus.
To thee this wreathed garland, from a green
And virgin meadow^ bear I, O my Queen,
Where never shepherd leads his grazing evs^es
Nor scythe has touched. Only the river dew^s
Gleam, and the spring bee sings, and in the glade
Hath Solitude her mystic garden made.
No evil hand may cull it : only he
Whose heart hath knovi^n the heart of Purity,
Unlearned of man, and true w^hate"'er befall.
Take therefore from pure hands this coronal,
O mistress loved, thy golden hair to tvi^ine.
For, sole of living men, this grace is mine.
To dwell with thee, and speak, and hear replies
Of voice divine, though none may see thine eyes.
So be it ; and may death find me still the same !
\_An Old HunTSMAiiy who has stood apart from
the restf here comes up to Hippolytus.
Huntsman.
My Prince — for 'Master' deem I no man's name —
Gave I good counsel, wouldst thou welcome it ?
HIPPOLYTUS 7
HiPPOLYTUS.
Right gladly, friend ; else were I poor of wit.
Huntsman.
Knowest thou one law, that through the world has
won ?
HiPPOLYTUS.
What wouldst thou ? And how runs thy law ?
Say on.
Huntsman.
It hates that Pride that speaks not all men fair !
HiPPOLYTUS.
And rightly. Pride breeds hatred everywhere.
Huntsman.
And good words love, and grace in all men's sight ?
HiPPOLYTUS.
Aye, and much gain withal, for trouble sh'ght.
Huntsman.
How deem'st thou of the Godsr Are they the same ?
HiPPOLYTUS.
Surely : we are but fashioned on their frame.
Huntsman.
Why then wilt thou be proud, and worship not . . .
HiPPOLYTUS.
Whom ? If the name be spcakablc, speak out I
EURIPIDES
Huntsman.
She stands here at thy gate : the Cyprian Queen !
HiPPOLYTUS.
I greet her from afar : my life is clean.
Huntsman.
Clean ? Nay, proud, proud ; a mark for all to scan !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Each mind hath its own bent, for God or man.
Huntsman.
God grant thee happiness . . . and wiser thought !
HiPPOLYTUS.
These Spirits that reign in darkness like me not.
Huntsman.
What the Gods ask, O Son, that man must pay !
HiPPOLYTUS [turning from him to the others).
On, huntsmen, to the Castle ! Make your way
Straight to the feast room ; 'tis a merry thing
After the chase, a board of banqueting.
And see the steeds be groomed, and in array
The chariot dight. I drive them forth to-day.
[He pausesy and makes a slight gesture of reverence
to the Statue on the left. Then to the Old
Huntsman.
That for thy Cyprian, friend, and nought beside !
[HiPPOLYTUS follows the huntsmen, who stream
off" by the central door into the Castle. The
Old Huntsman remains.
HIPPOLYTUS 9
Huntsman [approaching the Statue and kneeling).
0 Cyprian — for a young man in his pride
1 will not follow ! — here before thee, meek,
In that one language that a slave may speak,
I pray thee ; Oh, if some wild heart in froth
O youth surges against thee, be not wroth
For ever ! Nay, be far and hear not then :
Gods should be gentler and more wise than men !
\^He rises and follows the others into the Castle.
The Orchestra is empty for a moment, then there enter
from right and left several Troxenian women^ young
and old. Their number eventually amounts to fifteen.
Chorus.
There riseth a rock-born river.
Of Ocean's tribe, men say ;
The crags of it gleam and quiver,
And pitchers dip in the spray :
A woman was there with raiment white
To bathe and spread in the warm sunlight,
And she told a tale to me there by the river,
The tale of the Queen and her evil day :
How, ailing beyond allavment.
Within she hath bowed her head,
And with shadow of silken raiment
The bright brown hair bespread.
For three long days she hath lain forlorn,
Her lips untainted of flesh or corn.
For that secret sorrow bcvond allayment
That steers to the far sad shore of the dead.
10 EURIPIDES
Some JVomen.
Is this some Spirit, O child of man ?
Doth Hecat hold thee perchance, or Pan ?
Doth She of the Mountains work her ban,
Or the dread Corybantes bind thee ?
Others.
Nay, is it sin that upon thee lies.
Sin of forgotten sacrifice.
In thine own Dictynna's sea-wild eyes ?
Who in Limna here can find thee ;
For the Deep's dry floor is her easy way.
And she moves in the salt wet whirl of the spray.
Other JVoinen.
Or doth the Lord of Erechtheus' race.
Thy Theseus, watch for a fairer face.
For secret arms in a silent place.
Far from thy love or chiding ?
Others.
Or hath there landed, amid the loud
Hum of Piraeus' sailor-crowd.
Some Cretan venturer, weary-browed.
Who bears to the Queen some tiding ;
Some far home-grief, that hath bowed her low.
And chained her soul to a bed of woe ?
An Older Woman.
Nay — know ye not ? — this burden hath alway lain
On the devious being of woman ; yea, burdens twain,
The burden of Wild Will and the burden of Pain.
Through my heart once that wind of terror sped ;
But I, in fear confessed,
HIPPOLYTUS II
Cried from the dark to Her in heavenly bliss,
The Helper of Pain, the Bow-Maid Artemis :
Whose feet I praise for ever, where they tread
Far off among the blessed !
The Leader.
But see, the Queen's grey nurse at the tloor,
Sad-eyed and sterner, methinks, than of yore.
With the Queen. Doth she lead her hither,
To the wind and sun ? — Ah, fain would I know
What strange betiding hath blanched that brow.
And made that young life wither.
[The Nurse comes out from the central door^
followed by Phaedra, who is supported by
two handmaids. They make ready a couch
for Phaedra to lie upon.
Nurse.
O sick and sore are the days of men !
What wouldst thou ? What shall I change again ?
Here is the Sun for thee ; here is the sky ;
And thy weary pillows wind-swept lie.
By the castle door.
But the cloud of thy brow is dark, I ween ;
And soon thou wilt back to thy bower within :
So swift to change is the path of thy feet,
And near things hateful, and far things sweet j
So was it before I
Oh, pain were better than tending pain !
For that were single, and this is twain.
With grief of heart and labour of limb.
Yet all man's life is but ailing and dim,
And rest upon earth comes never.
>
EURIPIDES
But if any far-off state there be,
Dearer than life to mortality ;
The hand of the Dark hath hold thereof,
And mist is under and mist above.
And so we are sick for life, and cling
On earth to this nameless and shining thing.
For other life is a fountain sealed,
And the deeps below us are unrevealed.
And we drift on legends for ever I
[Phaedra during this has been laid on her couch ;
she speaks to the handmaids.
Phaedra.
Yes ; lift me : not my head so low.
There, hold my arms. — Fair arms they
seem ! —
My poor limbs scarce obey me now !
Take off that hood that weighs my brow.
And let my long hair stream.
Nurse.
Nay, toss not, Child, so feveredly.
The sickness best will win relief
By quiet rest and constancy.
All men have grief.
Phaedra {not noticing her).
Oh for a deep and dewy spring.
With runlets cold to draw and drink !
And a great meadow blossoming,
Long-grassed, and poplars in a ring,
To rest me by the brink !
HIPPOLYTUS 13
Nurse.
Nay, Child ! Shall strangers hear this tone
So wild, and thoughts so fever-flown ?
Phaedra.
Oh, take me to the Mountain 1 Oh,
Past the great pines and through the wood.
Up where the lean hounds softly go,
A-whine for wild things' blood.
And madly flies the dappled roe.
O God, to shout and speed them there.
An arrow by my chestnut hair
Drawn tight, and one keen glimmering spear —
Ah! if I could !
Nurse.
What wouldst thou with them — fancies all ! —
Thy hunting and thy fountain brink ?
What wouldst thou ? By the city wall
Canst hear our own brook plash and fall
Downhill, if thou wouldst drink.
Phaedra.
O Mistress of the Sea-lorn Mere
Where horse-hoofs beat the sand and sing,
O Artemis, that I were there
To tame Enetian steeds and steer
Swift chariots in the ring !
Nurse.
Nay, mountainward but now thy hands
Sf earned out, with craving for the chase ;
And now toward the unseaswept sands
Thou roamest, where the coursers pace !
EURIPIDES
O wild young steed, what prophet knows
The power that holds thy curb, and throws
Thy swift heart from its race ?
[^Jt these words Phaedra gradually recovers
■ herse/f and pays attention.
Phaedra.
What have I said ? Woe's me ! And where
Gone straying from my wholesome mind ?
What ? Did I fall in some god's snare ?
— Nurse, veil my head again, and blind
Mine eyes. — There is a tear behind
That lash. — Oh, I am sick with shame !
Aye, but it hath a sting,
To come to reason ; yet the name
Of madness is an awful thing. —
Could I but die in one swift flame
Nurse.
I veil thy face. Child. — Would that so
Mine own were veiled for evermore.
So sore I love thee ! . . . Though the
Of long life mocks me, and I know
How love should be a lightsome thing
Not rooted in the deep o' the heart ;
With gentle ties, to twine apart
If need so call, or closer cling. —
Why do I love thee so ? O fool,
O fool, the heart that bleeds for twain.
And builds, men tell us, walls of pain.
To walk by love's unswerving rule.
HIPPOLYTUS 15
The same for ever, stem and true !
For ' Thorough ' is no word of peace :
'Tis ' Naught-too-much ' makes trouble cease,
And many a wise man bows thereto.
[The Leader of the Chorus here approaches
the Nurse.
Leader.
Nurse of our Queen, thou watcher old and true,
We see her great affliction, but no clue
Have we to learn the sickness. Wouldst thou tell
The name and sort thereof, 'twould like us well.
Nurse.
Small leechcraft have I, and she tells no man.
Leader.
Thou know'st no cause ? Nor when the unrest began ?
Nurse.
It all comes to the same. She will not speak.
Leader {turning and looking at Phaedra).
How she is changed and wasted ! And how weak !
Nurse.
'Tis the third day she hath fasted utterly.
Leader.
What, is she mad ? Or doth she seek to die ?
Nurse.
I know not. But to death it sure must lead.
i6 EURIPIDES
Leader.
'Tis strange that Theseus takes hereof no heed.
Nurse.
She hides her wound, and vows it is not so.
Leader,
Can he not look into her face and know ?
Nurse.
Nay, he is on a journey these last days.
Leader.
Canst thou not force her, then ? Or think of ways
To trap the secret of the sick heart's pain ?
Nurse.
Have I not tried all ways, and all in vain ?
Yet will I cease not now, and thou shalt tell
If in her grief I serve my mistress well !
[_She goes across to where Phaedra lies ; and pre-
sently^ while speakings kneels by her.
Dear daughter mine, all that before was said
Let both of us forget ; and thou instead
Be kindlier, and unlock that prisoned brow.
And I, who followed then the wrong road, now
Will leave it and be wiser. If thou fear
Some secret sickness, there be women here
To give thee comfort. [Phaedra shakes her head.
No ; not secret ? Then
Is it a secret meet for aid of men ?
Speak, that a leech may tend thee.
HIPPOLYTUS 17
Silent still ?
Nay, Child, what profits silence ? If 'tis ill
This that I counsel, make me see the wrong :
If well, then yield to me.
Nay, Child, I long
For one kind word, one look !
[Phaedra lies motionless. The Nurse rises.
Oh, woe is me !
Women, we labour here all fruitlessly,
All as far off as ever from her heart !
She ever scorned me, and now hears no part
Of all my prayers ! [Turning to Phaedra again.
Nay, hear thou shalt, and be,
If so thou will, more wild than the wild sea ;
But know, thou art thy little ones' betrayer !
If thou die now, shall child of thine be heir
To Theseus' castle ? Nay, not thine, I ween.
But hers ! That barbed Amazonian Queen
Hath left a child to bend thy children low,
A bastard royal- hearted — sayst not so ? —
Hippolytus . . .
Phaedra.
Ah!
[She starts up^ sittings and throws the veil off.
Nurse.
That stings thee ?
Phaedra.
Nurse, most sore
Thou hast hurt me ! In God's name, speak that name
no more.
i8 EURIPIDES
Nurse.
Thou seest ? Thy mind is clear ; but with thy mind
Thou wilt not save thy children, nor be kind
To thine own life.
Phaedra.
My children ? Nay, most dear
I love them. — Far, far other grief is here.
Nurse {after a pause^ tvondcrhjg).
Thy hand is clean, O Child, from stain of blood ?
Phaedra.
My hand is clean ; but is my heart, O God ?
Nurse.
Some enemy's spell hath made thy spirit dim ?
Phaedra.
He hates me not that slays me, nor I him.
Nurse.
Theseus, the King, hath wronged thee in man's wise ?
Phaedra.
Ah, could but I stand guiltless in his eyes !
Nurse.
O speak ! What is this death-fraught mystery ?
Phaedra.
Nay, leave me to my wrongs. I wrong not thee.
HIPPOLYTUS 19
Nurse {suddenly throiving herself in supplication
at Phaedra's /f^/).
Not wrong me, whom thou wouldst all desolate leave !
Phaedra {rising and trying to move away).
What wouldst thou ? Force me ? Clinging to my
sleeve ?
Nurse.
Yea, to thy knees ; and weep ; and let not go !
Phaedra.
Woe to thee. Woman, if thou learn it, woe !
Nurse.
I know no bitterer woe than losing thee.
Phaedra.
I am lost ! Yet the deed shall honour me.
Nurse.
Why hide what honours thee .'' 'Tis all I claim !
Phaedra.
Why, so I build up honour out of shame !
Nurse.
Then speak, and higher still thy fame shall stand.
Phaedra.
Go, in God's name ! — Nay, leave me ; loose my hand !
Nurse.
Never, until thou grant me what I pray.
20 EURIPIDES
Phaedra [yielding^ after a pause).
So be it. I dare not tear that hand away.
Nurse {rising and releasing Phaedra).
Tell all thou wilt, Daughter. I speak no more.
Phaedra {after a long pause).
Mother, poor Mother, that didst love so sore !
Nurse.
What mean'st thou, Child ? The Wild Bull of the
Tide ?
Phaedra.
And thou, sad sister, Dionysus' bride !
Nurse.
Child ! wouldst thou shame the house where thou
wast born ?
Phaedra.
And I the third, sinking most all-forlorn !
Nurse {to herself).
I am all lost and feared. What will she say ?
Phaedra.
From there my grief comes, not from yesterday.
Nurse.
I come no nearer to thy parable.
Phaedra.
Oh, would that thou couldst tell what I must tell !
HIPPOLYTUS 21
Nurse.
I am no seer in things I wot not of.
Phaedra {again hesitating).
What is it that they mean, who say men . . . love ?
Nurse.
A thing most sweet, my Child, yet dolorous.
Phaedra.
Only the half, belike, hath fallen on us !
Nurse (starting).
On thee ? Love ? — Oh, what sayst thou ? What
man's son ?
Phaedra.
What man's ? There was a Queen, an Amazon . . .
Nurse.
Hippolytus, sayst thou ?
Phaedra (again wrapping her face in the veil).
Nay, 'twas thou, not I !
[Phaedra sinh back on the couch and covers her
face again. The NuRSE starts violently from
her and walks up and down.
Nurse.
0 God ! what wilt thou say. Child ? Wouldst thou try
To kill me ? — Oh, 'tis more than I can bear ;
Women, I will no more of it, this glare
Of hated day, this shining of the sky.
1 will fling down my body, and let it lie
Till life be gone !
22 EURIPIDES
Women, God rest with you,
My works are over ! For the pure and true
Are forced to evil, against their own heart's vow.
And love it !
[She suddenly sees the Statue of Cypris, and stands
with her eyes riveted upon it.
Ah, Cyprian ! No god art thou,
But more than god, and greater, that hath thrust
Me and my queen and all our house to dust !
[She throws herself on the ground close to the statue.
Chorus.
Some TVomen.
O Women, have ye heard ? Nay, dare ye hear
The desolate cry of the young Queen's misery ?
A Woman.
My Queen, I love thee dear,
Yet liefer were I dead than framed like thee.
Others.
Woe, woe to me for this thy bitter bane.
Surely the food man feeds upon is pain !
Others.
How wilt thou bear thee through this livelong day,
Lost, and thine evil naked to the light ?
Strange things are close upon us — who can say
How strange ? — save one thing that is plain to sight.
The stroke of the Cyprian and the fall thereof
On thee, thou child of the Isle of fearful Love !
[Phaedra during this has risen from the couch
and comes forward collectedly. As she speaks
the Nurse gradually rouses herself^ and listens
more calmly.
HIPPOLYTUS 23
Phaedra.
0 Women, dwellers in this portal-seat
Of Pelops' land, gazing towards my Crete,
How oft, in other days than these, have I
Through night's long hours thought of man's misery,
And how this life is wrecked ! And, to mine eyes,
Not in man's knowledge, not in wisdom, lies
The lack that makes for sorrow. Nay, we scan
And know the right — for wit hath many a man —
But will not to the last end strive and serve.
For some grow too soon weary, and some swerve
To other paths, setting before the Right
The diverse far-oft image of Delight ;
And many are delights beneath the sun !
Long hours of converse ; and to sit alone
Musing — a deadly happiness ! — and Shame :
Though two things there be hidden in one name,
And Shame can be slow poison if it will 1
This is the truth I saw then, and see still ;
Nor is there any magic that can stain
That white truth for me, or make me blind again.
Come, I will show thee how my spirit hath moved.
Wlien the first stab came, and I knew I loved,
1 cast about how best to face mine ill.
And the first thought that came, was to be still
And hide my sickness. — Fur no trust there is
In man's tongue, that so well admonishes
And counsels and betrays, and waxes fat
With griefs of its own gathering ! — After that
I would my madness bravely bear, and try
To conquer by mine own heart's purity.
My third mind, when these two availed me naught
24 EURIPIDES
To quell love, was to die —
[Afotion of protest among the Women.
the best, best thought —
— Gainsay me not — of all that man can say !
I would not have mine honour hidden away ;
Why should I have my shame before men's eyes
Kept living ? And I knew, in deadly wise.
Shame was the deed and shame the suffering ;
And I a woman, too, to face the thing,
Despised of all !
Oh, utterly accurst
Be she of women, whoso dared the first
To cast her honour out to a strange man !
'Twas in some great house, surely, that began
This plague upon us ; then the baser kind.
When the good led towards evil, followed blind
And joyous ! Cursed be they whose lips are clean
And wise and seemly, but their hearts within
Rank with bad daring ! How can they, O Thou
That walkest on the waves, great Cyprian, how
Smile in their husbands' faces, and not fall.
Not cower before the Darkness that knows all,
Aye, dread the dead still chambers, lest one day
The stones find voice, and all be finished !
Nay,
Friends, 'tis for this I die ; lest I stand there
Having shamed my husband and the babes I bare.
In ancient Athens they shall some day dwell.
My babes, free men, free-spoken, honourable.
And when one asks their mother, proud of me !
For, oh, it cows a man, though bold he be,
To know a mother's or a father's sin.
'Tis written, one way is there, one, to win
HIPPOLYTUS 25
This life's race, could man keep it from his birth,
A true clean spirit. And through all this earth
To every false man, that hour comes apace
When Time holds up a mirror to his face,
And girl-like, marvelling, there he stares to sec
How foul his heart ! Be it not so with me !
Leader of Chorus.
Ah God, how sweet is virtue, and how wise.
And honour its due meed in all men's eyes !
Nurse {who has now risen and recovered herself).
Mistress, a sharp swift terror struck me low
A moment since, hearing of this thy woe.
But now — I was a coward 1 And men say
Our second thought the wiser is alway.
This is no monstrous thing ; no grief too dire
To meet with quiet thinking. In her ire
A most strong goddess hath swept down on thee.
Thou lovest. Is that so strange ? Many there be
Beside thee ! . . . And because thou lovest, wilt fall
And die ! And must all lovers die, then ? All
That are or shall be ? A blithe law for them !
Nay, when in might she swoops, no strength can stem
Cypris ; and if man yields him, she is sweet ;
But is he proud and stubborn ? From his feet
She lifts him, and — how think you r — flings to scorn !
She ranges with the stars of eve and morn,
She wanders in the heaving of the sea,
And all life lives from her. — Aye, this is she
That sows Love's seed and brings Love's fruit to
birth ;
And great Love's brethren arc all we on earth !
26 EURIPIDES
Nay, they who con grey books of ancient days
Or dwell among the Muses, tell — and praise —
How Zeus himself once yearned for Semeld ;
How maiden Eos in her radiancy
Swept Kephalos to heaven away, away,
For sore love's sake. And there they dwell, men
say.
And fear not, fret not ; for a thing too stern
Hath met and crushed them !
And must thou, then, turn
And struggle ? Sprang there from thy father's blood
Thy little soul all lonely ? Or the god
That rules thee, is he other than our gods ?
Nay, yield thee to men's ways, and kiss their rods !
How many, deem'st thou, of men good and wise,
Know their own home's blot, and avert their eyes ?
How many fathers, when a son has strayed
And toiled beneath the Cyprian, bring him aid.
Not chiding ? And man's wisdom e'er hath been
To keep what is not good to see, unseen !
A straight and perfect life is not for man ;
Nay, in a shut house, let him, if he can,
'Mid sheltered rooms, make all lines true. But here.
Out in the wide sea fallen, and full of fear,
Hopest thou so easily to swim to land ?
Canst thou but set thine ill days on one hand
And more good days on the other, verily,
O child of woman, life is well with thee !
[She pauses^ and then draws nearer to Phaedra.
/Nay, dear my daughter, cease thine evil mind,
I Cca.se thy fierce pride ! For pride it is, and blind,
' To seek to outpass gods ! — Love on and dare :
A god hath willed it ! And, since pain is there,
HIPPOLYTUS 27
Make the pain sleep ! Songs are there to bring calm,
And magic words. And I shall find the balm,
Be sure, to heal thee. Else in sore dismay-
Were men, could not we women find our way !
Leader of the Chorus.
Help is there, Queen, in all this woman says,
To ease thy suffering. But 'tis thee I praise ;
Albeit that praise is harder to thine ear
Than all her chiding was, and bitterer !
Phaedra.
Oh, this it is hath flung to dogs and birds
Men's lives and homes and cities — fair false words !
Oh, why speak things to please our ears ? We crave
Not that. 'Tis honour, honour, we must save !
Nurse.
Why prate so proud ? 'Tis no words, brave nor base,
Thou cravest ; 'tis a man's arms !
[Phaedra moves indignantly.
Up and face
The truth of what thou art, and name it straight !
Were not thy life thrown open here for Fate
To beat on ; hadst thou been a woman pure
Or wise or strong ; never had I for lure
Of joy nor heartache led thee on to this !
But when a whole life one great battle is,
To win or lose — no man can blame me tiicn.
Phaedra.
Shame on thee ! Lock those lips, and ne'er again
Let word nor thought so foul have harbour there !
28 EURIPIDES
Nurse.
Foul, if thou wilt : but better than the fair
For thee and me. And better, too, the deed
Behind them, if it save thee in thy need,
Than that word Honour thou wilt die to win !
Phaedra.
Nay, in God's name, — such wisdom and such sin
Are all about thy lips ! — urge me no more.
For all the soul within me is wrought o'er
By Love ; and if thou speak and speak, I may
Be spent, and drift where now I shrink away.
Nurse.
Well, if thou wilt ! — 'Twere best never to err,
But, having erred, to take a counsellor
Is second. — Mark me now. I have within
Love-philtres, to make peace where storm hath been.
That, with no shame, no scathe of mind, shall save
Thy life from anguish ; wilt but thou be brave !
[To hetsel/j rejecting.
Ah, but from him, the well-beloved, some sign
We need, or word, or raiment's hem, to twine
Amid the charm, and one spell knit from twain.
Phaedra.
Is it a potion or a salve ? Be plain.
Nurse.
Who knows ? Seek to be helped, Child, not to know.
Phaedra.
Why art thou ever subtle ? I dread thee, so.
HIPPOLYTUS 29
Nurse.
Thou wouldst dread everything ! — What dost thou
dread r
Phaedra.
Lest to his ear some word be whispered.
Nurse.
Let be, Child ! I will make all well with thee !
— Only do thou, O Cyprian of the Sea,
Be with me ! And mine own heart, come what
may.
Shall know what ear to seek, what word to say !
[The Nurse, having spoken these last tvords in
prayer apart to the Statue o/"Cypris, turns
back and goes into the house. Phaedra sits
pensive again on her couch till toivards the
end of the following Song^ when she rises and
bends close to the door.
Chorus.
Eros, Er6s, who blindest, tear by tear,
Men's eyes with hunger ; thou swift Foe,
that pliest
Deep in our hearts joy like an edged spear ;
Come not to me with Evil haunting near.
Wrath on the wind, nor jarring of the clear
Wing's music as thou fl
ou niest
There is no shaft that burneth, not in fire,
Not in wild stars, far off and flinging fear,
As in thine hands the shaft of All Desire,
Eros, Child of the Highest !
30 EURIPIDES
In vain, in vain, by old Alpheus' shore
The blood of many bulls doth stain the river.
And all Greece bows on Phoebus' Pythian floor ;
Yet bring we to the Master of Man no store,
The Keybearer, who standeth at the door
Close-barred, where hideth ever
Love's inmost jewel. Yea, though he sack man's
life
Like a sacked city, and moveth evermore
Girt with calamity and strange ways of strife,
Him have we worshipped never !
There roamed a Steed in Oechalia's wild,
A Maid without yoke, without Master,
And Love she knew not, that far King's child :
But he came, he came, with a Song in the night.
With fire, with blood ; and she strove in flight,
A Torrent Spirit, a Maenad white,
Faster and vainly faster,
Sealed unto Heracles by the Cyprian's Might.
Alas, thou Bride of Disaster !
O Mouth of Dirce, O god-built wall,
That Dirce's wells run under,
Ye know the Cyprian's fleet footfall !
Ye saw the heavens around her flare.
When she lulled to her sleep that Mother fair
Of Twy-born Bacchus, and decked her there
The Bride of the bladed Thunder.
For her breath is on all that hath life, and she floats in
the air.
Bee-like, death-like, a Wonder.
[During the last lines Phaedra has approached
the door and is listening.
HIPPOLYTUS 31
Phaedra.
Silence, ye Women ! Something is amiss.
Leader.
How r In the house r — Phaedra, what fear is this ?
Phaedra.
Let me but h'sten ! There are voices. Hark !
Leader.
I hold my peace : yet is thy presage dark.
Phaedra.
Oh, misery I
O God, that such a thing should fall on mc !
Leader.
What sound, what word,
0 Woman, Friend, makes that sharp terror start
Out at thy lips ? What ominous cry half-heard
Hath leapt upon thine heart ?
Phaedra.
1 am undone ! — Bend to the door and hark.
Hark what a tone sounds there, and sinks away !
Leader.
Thou art beside the bars. 'Tis thine to mark
The castle's floating message. Say, Oh, say
What thing hath come to thee .?
Phaedra {calmly).
Why, what thing should it be ?
The son of that proud Amazon speaks again
In bitter wrath : speaks to my handmaiden !
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Leader.
I hear a noise of voices, nothing clear.
For thee the din hath words, as through barred locks
Floating, at thy heart it knocks.
Phaedra.
" Pander of Sin " it says. — Now canst thou hear ? —
And there : " Betrayer of a master's bed."
Leader.
Ah me, betrayed ! Betrayed !
Sweet Princess, thou art ill bested,
Thy secret brought to light, and ruin near,
By them thou heldest dear.
By them that should have loved thee and obeyed !
Phaedra.
Aye, I am slain. She thought to help my fall
With love instead of honour, and wrecked all.
Leader.
Where wilt thou turn thee, where ?
And what help seek, O wounded to despair ?
Phaedra.
I know not, save one thing, to die right soon.
For such as me God keeps no other boon.
[^The door in the centre bursts opeuy and HlPPO-
LYTUS comes forth^ closely followed by the
Nurse. Phaedra cowers aside.
HiPPOLYTUS.
O Mother Earth, O Sun that makest clean.
What poison have I heard, what speechless sin !
HIPPOLYTUS 33
Nurse.
Hush, O my Prince, lest others mark, and guess . . .
HiPPOLYTUS.
I have heard horrors ! Shall I hold my peace ?
Nurse.
Yea, by this fair right arm, Son, by thy pledge . . .
HiPPOLYTUS.
Down with that hand ! Touch not my garment's
edge !
Nurse.
Oh, by thv knees, be silent or I die !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Why, when thy speech was all so guiltless ? Why P
Nurse.
It is not meet, fair Son, for every ear !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Good words can bravely forth, and have no fear.
Nurse.
Thine oath, thine oath ! I took thine oath before !
HiPPOLYTUS.
'Twas but my tongue, 'twas not my soul that swore.
Nurse.
O Son, what wilt thou ? Wilt thou slay thy kin ?
C
-^
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HiPPOLYTUS.
I own no kindred with the spawn of sin !
\_He Jlings her from him.
Nurse,
Nay, spare me ! Man was born to err ; oh, spare !
HiPPOLYTUS.
O God, why hast Thou made this gleaming snare.
Woman, to dog us on the happy earth ?
Was it Thy will to make Man, why his birth
Through Love and Woman ? Could we not have rolled
Our store of prayer and offering, royal gold.
Silver and weight of bronze before Thy feet.
And bought of God new child-souls, as were meet
For each man's sacrifice, and dwelt in homes
Free, where nor Love nor Woman goes and comes ?
How, is that daughter not a bane confessed.
Whom her own sire sends forth — (He knows her
best !)—
And, will some man but take her, pays a dower !
And he, poor fool, takes home the poison-flower ;
Laughs to hang jewels on the deadly thing
He joys in j labours for her robe-wearing,
Till wealth and peace are dead. He smarts the less
In whose high seat is set a Nothingness,
A woman naught availing. Worst of all
The wise deep-thoughted ! Never in my hall
May she sit throned who thinks and waits and sighs !
For Cypris breeds most evil in the wise.
And least in her whose heart has naught within ;
For puny wit can work but puny sin.
Why do we let their handmaids pass the gate ?
Wild beasts were best, voiceless and fanged, to wait
HIPPOLYTUS 35
About their rooms, that they might speak with none,
Nor ever hear one answering human tone !
But now dark women in still chambers lay
Plans that creep out into the light of day
On handmaids' lips — [Turning to the Nurse.
As thine accursed head
Braved the high honour of my Father's bed,
And came to traffic, . . , Our white torrent's spray
Shall drench mine ears to wash those words away !
And couidst thou dream that / . . . ? I feel impure
Still at the very hearing ! Know for sure.
Woman, naught but mine honour saves ye both.
Hadst thou not trapped me with that guileful oath,
No power had held me secret till the King
Knew all ! But now, while he is journeying,
I too will go my ways and make no sound.
And when he comes again, I shall be found
Beside him, silent, watching with what grace
Thou and thy mistress greet him face to face !
Then shall I have the taste of it, and know
What woman's guile is. — Woe upon you, woe !
How can I too much hate you, while the ill
Ye work upon the world grows deadlier still ?
Too much ? Make woman pure, and wild Love tame,
Or let me cry for ever on their shame !
\He goes off in fury to the left. Phaedra itill
cowering in her place begins to sob.
^ Phaedra.
Sad, sad and evil-starred
Is Woman's state.
What shelter now is left or guard ?
What spell to loose the iron knot of fate ?
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And this thing, O my God,
0 thou sweet Sunh'ght, is but my desert !
1 cannot fly before the avenging rod
Falls, cannot hide my hurt.
What help, O ye who love me, can come near.
What god or man appear.
To aid a thing so evil and so lost ?
Lost, for this anguish presses, soon or late,
To that swift river that no life hath crossed.
No woman ever lived so desolate !
Leader of the Chorus.
Ah me, the time for deeds is gone ; the boast
Proved vain that spake thine handmaid ; and all lost !
[/f/ these words Phaedra suddenly remembers
the Nurse, who is cowering silently where
HiPPOLYTUS had thrown her from him. She
turns upon her.
Phaedra.
0 vilest of the vile, O murderess heart
To them that loved thee, hast thou played thy part T
Am I enough trod down ?
May Zeus, my sire.
Blast and uproot thee I Stab thee dead with fire !
Said I not — Knew I not thine heart ? — to name
To no one soul this that is now my shame r
And thou couldst not be silent ! So no more
1 die in honour. But enough ; a store
Of new words must be spoke and new things thought.
This man's whole being to one blade is wrought
Of rage against me. Even now he speeds
To abase me to the King with thy misdeeds ;
HIPPOLYTUS 37
Tell Pitthcus ; fill the land with talk of sin !
Cursed be thou, and whoso else leaps in
To bring bad aid to friends that want it not.
[Tilt; Nurse has raised herselj\ and faces
Phaedra, downcast but calm.
Nurse.
Mistress, thou blamest me ; and all thy lot
So bitter sore is, and the sting so wild,
I bear with all. Yet, if I would, my Child,
I have mine answer, couldst thou hearken aught.
I nursed thee, and I love thee ; and I sought
Only some balm to heal thy deep despair.
And found — not what I sought for. Else I were
Wise, and thy friend, and good, had all sped right.
So fares it with us all in the world's sight.
Phaedra.
First stab me to the heart, then humour me
With words 1 'Tis fair ; 'tis all as it should be !
Nurse.
We talk too long, Child. I did ill ; but, oh.
There is a way to save thee, even so I
Phaedra.
A way ? No more ways ! One way hast thou trod
Already, foul and false and loathed of god !
Begone out of my sight ; and ponder how
Thine own life stands 1 I need no helpers now.
[She turns from the Nurse, who creeps abashed
away into the Castle.
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Only do ye, high Daughters of Troz^n,
Let all ye hear be as it had not been ;
Know naught, and speak of naught ! 'Tis my last
prayer.
Leader.
By God's pure daughter, Artemis, I swear.
No word will I of these thy griefs reveal !
Phaedra.
'Tis well. But now, yea, even while I reel
And falter, one poor hope, as hope now is,
I clutch at in this coil of miseries ;
To save some honour for my children's sake ;
Yea, for myself some fragment, though things break
In ruin around me. Nay, I will not shame
The old proud Cretan castle whence I came,
I will not cower before King Theseus' eyes,
Abased, for want of one life's sacrifice !
Leader.
What wilt thou ? Some dire deed beyond recall ?
Phaedra [musing).
Die ; but how die ?
Leader.
Let not such wild words fall I
Phaedra {turfiing upon her).
Give thou not such light counsel ! Let me be
To sate the Cyprian that is murdering me 1
To-day shall be her day ; and, all strife past,
Her bitter Love shall quell me at the last.
HIPPOLYTUS 39
Yet, dying, shall I die another's bane !
( He shall not stand so proud where I have lain 1
^ Rent in the dust ! Oh, he shall stoop to share )
The life I live in, and learn mercy there !
[She goes off wildly into the Castle.
Chorus.
Could I take me to some cavern for mine hiding,
In the hill-tops where the Sun scarce hath trod
Or a cloud make the home of mine abiding,
As a bird among the bird-droves of God !
Could I wing me to my rest amid the roar
Of the deep Adriatic on the shore,
Where the water of Eridanus is clear,
And Phatithon's sad sisters by his grave
Weep into the river, and each tear
Gleams, a drop of amber, in the wave.
To the strand of the Daughters of the Sunset,
The Apple-tree, the singing and the gold ;
Where the mariner must stay him from his onset,
And the red wave is tranquil as of old ;
Yea, beyond that Pillar of the End
That Atlas guardeth, would I wend ;
Where a voice of living waters never ceaseth
In God's quiet garden by the sea,
And Earth, the ancient life-giver, increaseth
Joy among the meadows, like a tree.
O shallop of Crete, whose milk-white wing
Through the swell and the storm-beating.
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Bore us thy Prince's daughter,
Was it well she came from a joyous home
To a far King's bridal across the foam ?
What joy hath her bridal brought her ?
Sure some spell upon either hand
Flew with thee from the Cretan strand,
Seeking Athena's tower divine ;
And there, where Munychus fronts the brine,
Crept by the shore-flung cables' line.
The curse from the Cretan water !
And, for that dark spell that about her clings,
Sick desires of forbidden things
The soul of her rend and sever ;
The bitter tide of calamity
Hath risen above her lips ; and she,
Where bends she her last endeavour ?
She will hie her alone to her bridal room.
And a rope swing slow in the rafters' gloom ;
And a fair white neck shall creep to the noose,
A-shudder with dread, yet firm to choose
The one strait way for fame, and lose
The Love and the pain for ever.
[The Voice of the Nurse is heard from within^
crying^ at first inarticulately^ then clearly.
Voice.
Help ho ! The Queen ! Help, whoso hearkeneth !
Help ! Theseus' spouse caught in a noose of death !
A Woman.
God, is it so soon finished ? That bright head
Swinging beneath the rafters ! Phaedra dead !
HIPPOLYTUS 41
Voice.
O haste ! This knot about her throat is made
So fast ! Will no one bring me a swift blade ?
A Woman.
Say, friends, what think ye ? Should we haste within,
And from her own hand's knotting loose the Queen r
Another.
Nay, are there not men there ? 'Tis an ill road
In hfe, to finger at another's load.
Voice.
Let it lie straight ! Alas ! the cold white thing
That guards his empty castle for the King !
A Woman.
Ah ! ' Let it lie straight ! ' Heard ye what she said ?
No need for helpers now ; the Queen is dead I
[T/;f JVomen^ intent upon the voices from the
Castle^ have not noticed the approach of
Theseus. He enters from the left ; his
dress and the garland on his head show that
he has returned from some oracle or special
abode of a God, He stands for a moment
perplexed.
Theseus.
Ho, Women, and what means this loud acclaim
Within the house ? The vassals' outcry came
To smite mine ears far off. It were more meet
To fling out wide the Castle gates, and greet
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With joy a herald from God's Presence !
\_The confusion and horror of the Women s faces
gradually affects him. A dirge-cry comes
from the Castle.
How?
Not Pittheus ? Hath Time struck that hoary brow ?
Old is he, old, I know. But sore it were,
Returning thus, to find his empty chair !
\The Women hesitate ; then the Leader cornes forward.
Leader.
O Theseus, not on any old man's head
This stroke falls. Young and tender is the dead.
Theseus.
Ye Gods ! One of my children torn from me \
Leader.
Thy motherless children live, most grievously.
Theseus.
How sayst thou ? What ? My wife ? . . .
Say how she died.
Leader.
In a high death-knot that her own hands tied.
Theseus.
A fit of the old cold anguish — Tell me all —
That held her ? Or did some fresh thing befall ?
Leader.
We know no more. But now arrived we be,
Theseus, to mourn for thy calamity.
[Theseus stays for a moment silent^ and puts his
hand to his brow. He notices the wreath.
HIPPOLYTUS 43
Theseus.
What ? And all garlanded I come to her
\Vith flowers, most evil-starred God's-messengcr !
Ho, varlets, loose the portal bars ; undo
The bolts ; and let me see the bitter view
Of her whose death hath brought me to mine own.
\_The great centra/ door of the Castle is thrown
open widey and the body of Phaedra is seen
lying on a bier^ surrounded by a group of
Handmaids^ wailing.
The Handmaids.
Ah me, what thou hast suffered and hast done :
A deed to wrap this roof in flame !
Why was thine hand so strong, thine heart so bold ?
Wherefore, O dead in anger, dead in shame.
The long, long wrestling ere thy breath was cold r
O ill-starred Wife,
What brought this blackness over all thy life ?
\_A throng of Men and JVomen has gradually
collected.
Theseus.
Ah mc, this is the last
— Hear, O my countrymen ! — and bitterest
Of Theseus' labours ! Fortune all unblest.
How hath thine heavy heel across me passed !
Is it the stain of sins done long ago,
Some fell God still remembereth,
That must so dim and fret my life with death r
I cannot win to shore ; and the waves flow
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Above mine eyes, to be surmounted not.
Ah wife, sweet wife, what name
Can fit thine heavy lot ?
Gone like a wild bird, like a blowing flame.
In one swift gust, where all things are forgot !
Alas ! this misery !
Sure 'tis some stroke of God's great anger rolled
From age to age on me,
For some dire sin wrought by dim kings of old.
Leader.
Sire, this great grief hath come to many an one,
A true wife lost. Thou art not all alone.
Theseus.
Deep, deep beneath the Earth,
Dark may my dwelling be.
And Night my heart's one comrade, in the dearth,
O Love, of thy most sweet society.
This is my death, O Phaedra, more than thine.
[^He turns suddenly on the Attendants,
Speak who speak can ? What was it ? What malign
Swift stroke, O heart discounselled, leapt on thee ?
[^He bends over Phaedra ; theuy as no one speaks^
looks fiercely up.
What, will ye speak ? Or are they dumb as death.
This herd of thralls, my high house harboureth ?
[There is no answer. He bends again over
Phaedra.
Ah me, why shouldst thou die ?
A wide and royal grief I here behold,
Not to be borne in peace, not to be told.
As a lost man am I,
HIPPOLYTUS 45
My children motherless and my house undone,
Since thou art vanished quite,
Purest of hearts that e'er the wandering Sun
Touched, or the star-eyed splendour of the Night,
[He throws himself beside the body.
Chorus.
Unhappy one, O most unhappy one ;
With what strange evil is this Castle vexed I
Mine eyes are molten with the tears that run
For thee and thine ; but what thing follows next ?
I tremble when I think thereon !
{They have noticed that there is a tablet with
writing fastened to the dead woman* s zurist.
Theseus also sees it.
Theseus.
Ha, what is this that hangs from her dear hand ?
A tablet ! It would make me understand
Some dying wish, some charge about her bed
And children. 'Twas the last prayer, ere her head
Was bowed for ever. [Taking the tablet.
Fear not, my lost bride,
No woman born shall lie at Theseus' side,
Nor rule in Theseus' house !
A seal ! Ah, see
How her gold signet here looks up at me.
Trustfully. Let me tear this thread away,
And read what tale the tablet seeks to say.
[He proceeds to undo and read the tablet. The
Chorus breaks into horrified groups.
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Some Women.
Woe, woe ! God brings to birth
A new grief here, close on the other's tread !
My hfe hath lost its worth.
May all go now with what is finished !
The castle of my King is overthrown,
A house no more, a house vanished and gone !
Other Women.
0 God, if it may be in any way.
Let not this house be wrecked ! Help us who pray !
1 know not what is here : some unseen thing
That shows the Bird of Evil on the wing.
[Theseus has read the tablet and breaks out in
uncontrollable emotion.
Theseus.
Oh, horror piled on horror ! — Here is writ . . .
Nay, who could bear it, who could speak of it ?
Leader.
What, O my King ? If I may hear it, speak !
Theseus.
Doth not the tablet cry aloud, yea, shriek,
Things not to be forgotten .? — Oh, to fly
And hide mine head ! No more a man am I.
Ah, God, what ghastly music echoes here !
Leader.
How wild thy voice ! Some terrible thing is near.
HIPPOLYTUS 47
Theseus.
No ; my lips' gates will hold it back no more ;
This deadly word,
That struggles on the brink and will not o'er,
Yet will not stay unheard.
[He raises his hand^to make proclamation to all present.
Ho, hearken all this land !
[The people gather expectantly about him.
Hippolytus by violence hath laid hand
On this my wife, forgetting God's great eye.
[Murmurs of amazement and horror ; Theseus,
apparently calm^ raises both arms to heaven.
Therefore, O Thou my Father, hear my cry,
Poseidon ! Thou didst grant me for mine own
Three prayers ; for one of these, slay now my son,
Hippolytus ; let him not outlive this day.
If true thy promise was ! Lo, thus I pray.
Leader.
Oh, call that wild prayer back ! O King, take heed !
I know that thou wilt live to rue this deed.
Theseus.
It may not be. — And more, I cast him out
From all my realms. He shall be held about
By two great dooms. Or by Poseidon's breath
He shall fall swiftly to the house of Death ;
Or wandering, outcast, 'twixt strange land and sea.
Shall live and drain the cup of misery.
Leader.
Ah, see ! here comes he at the point of need.
Shake off that evil mood, O King : have heed
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For all thine house and folk. — Great Theseus, hear !
[Theseus stands silent in fierce gloom. Hippo-
LYTUS comes in from the right.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Father, I heard thy cry, and sped in fear
To help thee. — But I see not yet the cause
That racked thee so. — Say, Father, what it was.
[The murmurs in the crowd^ the silent gloom of
his Father^ and the horror of the Chorus-
women gradually work on HiPPOLYTUS and
heivilder him. He catches sight of the bier.
Ah, what is that I Nay, Father, not the Queen
Dead ! [Murmurs in the crowd.)
'Tis most strange. 'Tis passing strange, I ween.
'Twas here I left her. Scarce an hour hath run
Since here she stood and looked on this same sun.
What is it with her .? Wherefore did she die ?
[Theseus remains silent. The murmurs increase.
Father, to thee I speak. Oh, tell me, why.
Why art thou silent ? What doth silence know
Of skill to stem the bitter flood of woe ?
And human hearts in sorrow crave the more
For knowledge, though the knowledge grieve them sore.
It is not love, to veil thy sorrows in
From one most near to thee, and more than kia
Theseus {to himself).
Fond race of men, so striving and so blind.
Ten thousand arts and wisdoms can ye find.
Desiring all and all imagining :
But ne'er have reached nor understood one thing.
To make a wise heart there where no heart is !
HIPPOLYTUS 49
HiPPOI.YTUS.
That were indeed beyond man's mysteries,
To force a fool's heart wise against his will.
But why this subtle talk ? It likes me ill,
Father ; thy speech runs wild beneath this blow.
Theseus {as before).
O would that God had given us here below
Some test of love, some sifting of the soul,
To tell the false and true ! Or through the whole
Of men two voices ran, one true and right,
The other as chance willed it ; that we might
Convict the liar by his own true tone.
And not live duped forever, every one !
HlPPOLYTUS (misunderstanding him ; then guessing at
something of the truth).
What ? Hath some friend proved false ?
Or in thine ear
Whispered some slander ? Stand I tainted here.
Though utterly innocent ? [Murmurs from the crowd.
Yea, dazed am I ;
'Tis thv words daze me, falling all awry,
Away from reason, by fell fancies vexed !
Theseus.
O heart of man, what height wilt venture next ?
What end comes to thy daring and thy crime ?
For if with each man's life 'twill higher climb.
And every age break out in blood and lies
Beyond its fathers, must not God devise
Some new world far from ours, to hold therein
Such brood of all unfaithfulness and sin ?
D
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Look, all, upon this man, my son, his life
Sprung forth from mine ! He hath defiled my
wife ;
And standeth here convicted by the dead,
A most black villain !
[HiPPOLYTUS falls hack with a cry and covers his
face with his robe.
Nay, hide not thine head !
Pollution, is it ? Thee it vfiW not stain.
Look up, and face thy Father's eyes again !
Thou friend of Gods, of all mankind elect ;
Thou the pure heart, by thoughts of ill unflecked !
I care not for thy boasts. I am not mad,
To deem that Gods love best the base and bad.
Now is thy day ! Now vaunt thee ; thou so pure.
No flesh of life may pass thy lips ! Now lure
Fools after thee ; call Orpheus King and Lord ;
Make ecstasies and wonders ! Thumb thine hoard
Of ancient scrolls and ghostly mysteries —
Now thou art caught and known !.
Shun men like these,
I charge ye all ! With solemn words they chase
Their prey, and in their hearts plot foul disgrace.
My wife is dead. — ' Ha, so that saves thee now ? '
That is what grips thee worst, thou caitiff, thou !
What oaths, what subtle words, shall stronger be
Than this dead hand, to clear the guilt from thee ?
' She hated thee,' thou sayest ; ' the bastard born
Is ever sore and bitter as a thorn
To the true brood.' — A sorry bargainer
In the ills and goods of life thou makest her,
If all her best-beloved she cast away
To wreak her hate on thee ! — What, wilt thou say,
HIPPOLYTUS 51
' Through every woman's nature one blind strand
Of passion winds, that men scarce understand ? '
Are they so different ? Know I not the fire
And perilous flood of a young man's desire,
Desperate as any woman, and as blind,
When Cvpris stings r Save that the man behind
Has all men's strength to aid him. Nay, 'twas thou . . .
But what avail to wrangle with thee now,
When the dead speaks for all to understand,
A perfect witness !
Hie thee from this land
To exile with all speed. Come never more
To god-built Athens, not to the utmost shore
Of any realm where Theseus' arm is strong !
What ? Shall I bow my head beneath this wrong,
And cower to thee ? Not Isthmian Sinis so
Will bear men witness that I laid him low.
Nor Skiron's rocks, that share the salt sea's prey,
Grant that my hand hath weight vile things to slay !
Leader.
Alas ! whom shall I call of mortal men
Happy ? The highest are cast down again.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Father, the hot strained fury of thy heart
Is terrible. Yet, albeit so swift thou art
Of speech, if all this matter were laid bare.
Speech were not then so swift ; nay, nor so fair. . .
l^AIurmurs again in the croiud.
I have no skill before a crowd to tell
My thoughts. 'Twere best with few, that know me
well. —
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Nay, that is natural ; tongues that sound but rude
In wise men's ears, speak to the multitude
With music.
None the less, since there is come
This stroke upon me, I must not be dumb,
But speak perforce. . . . And there will I begin
Where thou beganst, as though to strip my sin
Naked, and I not speak a word !
Dost see
This sunlight and this earth ? I swear to thee
There dwelleth not in these one man — deny
All that thou wilt ! — more pure of sin than I.
I know two things : the Gods' due worship first ;
Next, to love well, and live with, men that thirst
To keep them clear of all unrighteousness ;
To whom 'twere vile to proffer sin, nor less
To help the profFerer with acceptance, vile.
' Dupes,' sayst thou ? Nay ; no cheat am I, to guile
And mock my fellow-worshippers. I stay
The same friend, be they near or far away.
And most in that one thing, where now thy mesh
Would grip me, stainless quite ! No woman's flesh
Hath e'er this body touched. Of all such deed
Naught wot I, save what things a man may read
In pictures or hear spoke ; nor am I fain,
Being virgin-souled, to read or hear again.
My life of innocence moves thee not ; so be it.
Show then what hath seduced me ; let me see it.
Was that poor flesh so passing fair, beyond
All women's loveliness ?
Was I some fond
False plotter, that I schemed to win through her
Thy castle's heirdom ? Fond indeed I were !
Sho^
HIPPOLYTUS 53
Nay, a stark madman ! 'But a crown,' thou sayst,
* Usurped, is sweet.' Nay, rather most unblest
To all wise-hearted ; sweet to fools and tiiem
Whose eyes arc blinded bv the diadem.
In the great Games of Hellas I would fain
Be first ; but, in my city's gates, remain
Not first but happy, each good man my friend.
Free to work on and fear not. These things lend
A greater joy than any crown or throne.
[//^ sees from the demeanour of Theseus and of
the crowd that his words are not winning
them, but rather making them bitterer than
before. It comes to his lips to speak the whole
truth.
I have said my say ; save one thing . . . one alone.
O had I here some witness in my need,
As I was witness ! Could she hear me plead.
Face me and face the sunlight ; well I know,
Our deeds would search us out for thee, and show
Who lies !
But now, I swear — so hear me both.
The Earth beneath and Zeus who Guards the
Oath—
I never touched this woman that was thine !
No words could win me to it, nor incline
My heart to dream it. May God strike me down.
Nameless and famelcss, without home or town.
An outcast and a wanderer of the world ;
May my dead bones rest never, but be hurled
From sea to land, from land to angry sea.
If evil is my heart and false to thee !
\^He waits a moment ; but sees that his Father is
unmoved. The truth again comes to his lips.
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If 'twas some fear that made her cast away
Her life ... I know not. More I must not say.
Right hath she done when in her was no right ;
And Right I follow to mine own despite !
Leader.
It is enough ! God's name is witness large,
And thy great oath, to assoil thee of this charge.
Theseus.
Is not the man a juggler and a mage.
Cool wits and one right oath — what more ? — to
assuage
Sin and the wrath of injured fatherhood !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Am I so cool ? Nay, Father, 'tis thy mood
That makes me marvel ! By my faith, wert thou
The son, and I the sire ; and deemed I now
In very truth thou hadst my wife assailed,
I had not exiled thee, nor stood and railed.
But lifted once mine arm, and struck thee dead !
Theseus.
Thou gentle judge ! Thou shalt not so be sped
To simple death, nor by thine own decree.
Swift death is bliss to men in misery.
Far off, friendless forever, thou shalt drain
Amid strange cities the last dregs of pain !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Wilt verily cast me now beyond thy pale.
Not wait for Time, the lifter of the veil ?
HIPPOLYTUS 55
Theseus.
Aye, if I could, past Pontus, and the red
Atlantic marge ! So do I hate thine iicad.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Wilt weigh nor oath nor faith nor prophet's word
To prove me ? Drive me from thy sight unheard :
Theseus.
This tablet here, that needs no prophet's lot
To speak from, tells me all. I ponder not
Thy fowls that fly above us ! Let them fly.
HiPPOLYTUS.
O ye great Gods, wherefore unlock not I
My lips, ere yet ye have slam me utterly.
Ye whom I love most ? No, It may not be !
The one heart that I need I ne'er should gain
To trust me. I should break mine oath in vain.
Theseus.
Death ! but he chokes me with his saintly tone I —
Up, get thee from this land ! Begone ! Begone !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Where shall I turn me ? Think. To what friend's
door
Betake me, banished on a charge so sore ?
Whoso delights to welcome to his hall
Vile ravishers ... to guard his hearth withal !
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HiPPOLYTUS.
Thou seekst my heart, my tears ? Aye, let it be
Thus ! I am vile to all men, and to thee !
Theseus.
There was a time for tears and thought ; the time
Ere thou didst up and gird thee to thy crime.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Ye stones, will ye not speak ? Ye castle walls !
Bear witness if I be so vile, so false !
Theseus.
Aye, fly to voiceless witnesses ! Yet here
A dumb deed speaks against thee, and speaks clear !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Alas!
Would I could stand and watch this thing, and see
My face, and weep for very pity of me !
Theseus.
Full of thyself, as ever ! Not a thought
For them that gave thee birth ; nay, they are naught !
HiPPOLYTUS.
O my wronged Mother ! O my birth of shame !
May none I love e'er bear a bastard's name !
Theseus (in a sudden blaze of rage).
Up, thralls, and drag him from my presence ! What ?
'Tis but a foreign felon ! Heard ye not ?
{The thralls still hesitate in spite of his fury.
HIPPOLYTUS 57
HiPPOLYTUS.
They touch me at their peril ! Thine own hand
Lift, if thou durst, to drive me from the land.
Theseus.
That will I straight, unless my will be done !
[HiPPOLYTUS comes close to him and kneels.
Nay ! Not for thee my pity ! Get thee gone !
[HiPPOLYTUS rises, makes a sign of submission, and
slowly moves away. Theseus, as soon as
he sees him going, turns rapidly and enters
the Castle. The door is closed again. HiP-
POLYTUS has stopped for a moment before the
Statue <?/ Artemis, and, as Theseus departs,
breaks out in prayer.
HiPPOLYTUS.
So ; it is done ! O dark and miserable !
I see it all, but see not how to tell
The tale. — O thou beloved, Leto's Maid,
Chase-comrade, fellow-rcster in the glade,
Lo, I am driven with a caitifFs brand
Forth from great Athens ! Fare ye well, O land
And city of old Erechtheus ! Thou, Trozcn,
What riches of glad youth mine eyes have seen
In thy broad plain ! Farewell ! This is the end ;
The last word, the last look !
Come, every friend
And fellow of my youth that still may stay,
Give me god-speed and cheer me on my way.
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Ne'er shall ye see a man more pure of spot
Than me, though mine own Father loves me not !
[HiPPOLYTUS goes away to the right^ followed by
many Huntsmen and other young men. The
rest of the crowd has by this time dispersed^
except the IVomen of the Chorus and some
Men of the Chorus of Huntsmen,
Chorus.
Men.
Surely the thought of the Gods hath balm in it alway,
to win me
Far from my griefs ; and a thought, deep in the
dark of my mind,
Clings to a great Understanding. Yet all the spirit
within me
Faints, when I watch men's deeds matched with
the guerdon they find.
For Good comes in Evil's traces,
And the Evil the Good replaces ;
And Life, 'mid the changing faces,
Wandereth weak and blind.
TVomen.
What wilt thou grant me, O God ? Lo, this is the
prayer of my travail —
Some well-being ; and chance not very bitter
thereby ;
A Spirit uncrippled by pain ; and a mind not deep to
unravel
Truth unseen, nor yet dark with the brand of
a lie.
HIPPOLYTUS 59
With a veering mood to borrow
Its light from every morrow,
Fair friends and no deep sorrow,
Well could man live and die 1
Men.
Yet my spirit is no more clean.
And the weft of my hope is torn,
For the deed of wrong that mine eyes
have seen,
The lie and the rage and the scorn ;
A Star among men, yea, a Star
That in Hellas was bright.
By a Father's wrath driven far
To the wilds and the night.
Oh, alas for the sands of the shore !
Alas for the brakes of the hill.
Where the wolves shall fear thee no more.
And thy cry to Dictynna is still !
Jf^omen.
No more in the yoke of thy car
Shall the colts of Enetia fleet ;
Nor Limna's echoes quiver afar
To the clatter of galloping feet.
The sleepless music of old,
That leaped in the lyre,
Ceaseth now, and is cold,
In the halls of thy sire.
The bowers are discrowned and unladen
Where Artemis lay on the lea ;
And the love-dream of many a maiden
Lost, in the losing of thee
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A Maiden.
And I, even I,
For thy fall, O Friend,
Amid tears and tears,
Endure to the end
Of the empty years.
Of a life run dry.
In vain didst thou bear him,
Thou Mother forlorn !
Ye Gods that did snare him,
Lo, I cast in your faces
My hate and my scorn 1
Ye love-linked Graces,
(Alas for the day !)
Was he naught, then, to you,
That ye cast him away.
The stainless and true,
From the old happy places ?•
Leader.
Look yonder ! 'Tis the Prince's man, I w^een.
Speeding toward this gate, most dark of mien.
[A Henchman enters in haste.
Henchman.
Ye women, whither shall I go to seek
King Theseus ? Is he in this dwelling ? Speak !
Leader.
Lo, where he cometh through the Castle gate !
[Theseus comes out from the Castle.
HIPPOLYTUS 6i
Henchman.
0 King, I bear thee tidings of dire weight
To thee, aye, and to every man, I ween,
From Athens to the marches of Trozcn.
Theseus.
What ? Some new stroke hath touched, unknown to me,
The sister cities of my sovranty ?
Henchman.
Hippolytus is . . . Nay, not dead ; but stark
Outstretched, a hairsbreadth this side of the dark.
Theseus (as though unmoved).
How slain ? Was there some other man, whose wife
He had like mine defiled, that sought his life ?
Henchman.
His own wild team destroyed him, and the dire
Curse of thy lips.
The boon of thy great Sire
Is granted thee, C) King, and thy son slain.
Theseus.
Ye Gods I And thou, Poseidon ! Not in vain
1 called thee Father ; thou hast heard my prayer !
How did he die ? Speak on. How closed the snare
Of Heaven to slay the shamer of my blood ?
Henchman.
'Twas by the bank of beating sea we stood,
We thralls, and decked the steeds, and combed each
mane ;
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Weeping ; for word had come that ne'er again
The foot of our Hippolytus should roam
This land, but waste in exile by thy doom.
So stood we till he came, and in his tone
No music now save sorrow's, like our own,
And in his train a concourse without end
Of many a chase-fellow and many a friend.
At last he brushed his sobs away, and spake :
' Why this fond loitering ? I would not break
My Father's law. — Ho, there ! My coursers four
And chariot, quick ! This land is mine no more.'
Thereat, be sure, each man of us made speed.
Swifter than speech we brought them up, each steed
Well dight and shining, at our Prince's side.
He grasped the reins upon the rail : one stride
And there he stood, a perfect charioteer,
Each foot in its own station set. Then clear
His voice rose, and his arms to heaven were spread :
' O Zeus, if I be false, strike thou me dead !
But, dead or living, let my Father see
One day, how falsely he hath hated me ! '
Even as he spake, he lifted up the goad
And smote ; and the steeds sprang. And down the
road
We henchmen followed, hard beside the rein.
Each hand, to speed him, toward the Argive plain
And Epidaurus.
So we made our way
Up toward the desert region, where the bay
Curls to a promontory near the verge
Of our Trozen, facing the southward surge
Of Saron's gulf Just there an angry sound.
Slow-swelling, like God's thunder underground,
HIPPOLYTUS 63
Broke on us, and we trembled. And the steeds
Pricked their ears skyward, and threw back their heads.
And wonder came on all men, and affright.
Whence rose that awful voice. And swift our sight
Turned seaward, down the salt and roaring sand.
And there, above the horizon, seemed to stand
A wave unearthly, crested in the sky ;
Till Skiron's Cape first vanished from mine eye.
Then sank the Isthmus hidden, then the rock
Of Epidaurus. Then it broke, one shock
And roar of gasping sea and spray flung far.
And shoreward swept, where stood the Prince's car.
Three lines of wave together raced, and, full
In the white crest of them, a wild Sea-Bull
Flung to the shore, a fell and marvellous Thing.
The whole land held his voice, and answering
Roared in each echo. And all we, gazing there,
Gazed seeing not ; 'twas more than eyes could bear.
Then straight upon the team wild terror fell.
Howbeit, the Prince, cool-eyed and knowing well
Each changing mood a horse has, gripped the reins
Hard in both hands ; then as an oarsman strains
Up from his bench, so strained he on the thong,
Back in the chariot swinging. But the young
Wild steeds bit hard the curb, and fled afar ;
Nor rein nor guiding hand nor morticed car
Stayed them at all. For when he veered them round,
And aimed their flying feet to grassy ground,
In front uprose that Thing, and turned again
The four great coursers, terror-mad. But when
Their blind rage drove them toward the rocky places,
Silent, and ever nearer to the traces,
It followed, rockward, till one wheel-edge grazed.
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The chariot tript and flew, and all was mazed
In turmoil. Up went wheel-box with a din,
Where the rock jagged, and nave and axle-pin.
And there — the long reins round him — there was he
Dragging, entangled irretrievably.
A dear head battering at the chariot side.
Sharp rocks, and ripped flesh, and a voice that cried :
' Stay, stay, O ye who fattened at my stalls.
Dash me not into nothing ! — O thou false
Curse of my Father ! — Help ! Help, whoso can.
An innocent, innocent and stainless man ! '
Many there were that laboured then, I wot.
To bear him succour, but could reach him not,
Till — who knows how ? — at last the tangled rein
Unclasped him, and he fell, some little vein
Of life still pulsing in him.
All beside.
The steeds, the horned Horror of the Tide,
Had vanished — who knows where ? — in that wild land.
O King, I am a bondsman of thine hand ;
Yet love nor fear nor duty me shall win
To say thine innocent son hath died in sin.
All women born may hang themselves, for me.
And swing their dying words from every tree
On Ida ! For I know that he was true !
Leader.
O God, so cometh new disaster, new
Despair ! And no escape from what must be !
Theseus.
Hate of the man thus stricken lifted me
At first to joy at hearing of thy tale ;
But now, some shame before the Gods, some pale
HIPPOLYTUS 65
Pity for mine own blood, hath o'er me come.
I laugh not, neither weep, at this fell doom.
Henchman.
How then ? Behoves it bear him here, or how
Best do thy pleasure ? — Speak, Lord. Yet if thou
Wilt mark at all my word, thou wilt not be
Fierce-hearted to thy child in misery.
Theseus.
Aye, bring him hither. Let me see the face
Of him who durst deny my deep disgrace
And his own sin ; yea, speak with him, and prove
His clear guilt by God's judgments from above.
[The Henchman departs to fetch Hippolytus ;
Theseus sits waiting in stern gloom^ while
the Chorus sing. At the close of their song a
Divine Figure is seen approaching on a cloud
in the air and the voice o/Artemis speaks.
Chorus.
Thou comest to bend the pride
Of the hearts of God and man,
Cypris ; and by thy side.
In earth-encircling span,
He of the changing plumes,
The Wing that the world illumes,
As over the leagues of land flies he,
Over the salt and sounding sea.
For mad is the heart of Love,
And gold the gleam of his wing ;
And all to the spell thereof
Bend, when he makes his spring ;
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All life that is wild and young
In mountain and wave and stream,
All that of earth is sprung,
Or breathes in the red sunbeam ;
Yea, and Mankind. O'er all a royal throne,
Cyprian, Cyprian, is thine alone !
A Voice from the Cloud.
0 thou that rulest in Aegeus' Hall,
1 charge thee, hearken !
Yea, it is I,
Artemis, Virgin of God most High.
Thou bitter King, art thou glad withal
For thy murdered son ?
For thine ear bent low to a lying Queen,
For thine heart so swift amid things unseen ?
Lo, all may see what end thou hast won !
Go, sink thine head in the waste abyss ;
Or aloft to another world than this,
Birdwise with wings,
Fly far to thine hiding.
Far over this blood that clots and clings ;
For in righteous men and in holy things
No rest is thine nor abiding !
[The cloud has become stationary in the air.
Hear, Theseus, all the story of thy grief !
Verily, I bring but anguish, not relief;
Yet, 'twas for this I came, to show how high
And clean was thy son's heart, that he may die
Honoured of men ; aye, and to tell no less
The frenzy, or in some sort the nobleness,
HIPPOLYTUS 67
Of thy dead wife. One Spirit there is, whom we
That know the joy of white virginity,
Most hate in heaven. She sent her fire to run
In Phaedra's veins, so that she loved thy son.
Yet strove she long with love, and in the stress
Fell not, till by her Nurse's craftiness
Betrayed, who stole, with oaths of secrecy.
To entreat thy son. And he, most righteously,
Nor did her will, nor, when thy railing scorn
Beat on him, broke the oath that he had sworn.
For God's sake. And thy Phaedra, panic-eyed.
Wrote a false writ, and slew thy son, and died.
Lying ; but thou wast nimble to believe !
[Theseus, at first bewildered, then dumbfoundered,
now utters a deep groan.
It stings thee, Theseus ? — Nay, hear on, and grieve
Yet sorer. VVottest thou three prayers were thine
Of sure fulfilment, from thy Sire divine ?
Hast thou no foes about thee, then, that one —
Thou vile King ! — must be turned against thy
son ?
The deed was thine. Thy Sea-born Sire but heard
The call of prayer, and bowed him to his word.
But thou in his eyes and in mine art found
Evil, who wouldst not think, nor probe, nor sound
The deeps of prophet's lore, nor day by day
Leave Time to search ; but, swifter than man
may.
Let loose the curse to slay thine innocent son I
Theseus.
O Goddess, let me die I
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Artemis.
Nay ; thou hast done
A heavy wrong ; yet even beyond this ill
Abides for thee forgiveness. 'Tvv^as the will
Of Cypris that these evil things should be,
Sating her wrath. And this immutably
Hath Zeus ordained in heaven : no God may thwart
A God's fixed will ; we grieve but stand apart.
Else, but for fear of the Great Father's blame.
Never had I to such extreme of shame
Bowed me, be sure, as here to stand and see
Slain him I loved best of mortality !
Thy fault, O King, its ignorance sunders wide
From very wickedness ; and she who died
By death the more disarmed thee, making dumb
The voice of question. And the storm has come
Most bitterly of all on thee 1 Yet I
Have mine own sorrow, too. When good men die,
There is no joy in heaven, albeit our ire
On child and house of the evil falls like fire.
[^ tkrong is seen approaching i Hippolytus ^w/^n,
supported by his attendants.
Chorus.
Lo, it is he ! The bright young head
Yet upright there !
Ah, the torn flesh and the blood-stained hair ;
Alas for the kindred's trouble !
It falls as fire from a God's hand sped.
Two deaths, and mourning double.
HIPPOLYTUS 69
HiPPOLYTUS.
All, pain, pain, pain !
O unrighteous curse ! O unrighteous sire !
No hope. — My head is stabbed with fire,
And a leaping spasm about my brain.
Stay, let me rest. I can no more.
O fell, fell steeds that my own hand fed.
Have ye maimed me and slain, that loved me of yore r
— Soft there, ye thralls ! No trembling hands
As ye lift me, now I — Who is that that stands
At the right ? — Now firm, and with measured tread.
Lift one accursed and stricken sore
By a father's sinning.
Thou, Zeus, dost see me ? Yea, it is I ;
The proud and pure, the server of God,
The white and shining in sanctity !
To a visible death, to an open sod,
I walk my ways ;
And all the labour of saintly days
Lost, lost, without meaning !
Ah God, it crawls
This agony, over me !
Let be, ye thralls !
Come, Death, and cover mc ;
Come, O thou Healer blest !
But a little more.
And my soul is clear,
And the anguish o'er !
Oh, a spear, a spear !
To rend my soul to its rest !
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Oh, strange, false Curse ! Was there some blood-
stained head,
Some father of my line, unpunished,
Whose guilt lived in his kin,
And passed, and slept, till after this long day
It lights. . . . Oh, why on me ? Me, far away
And innocent of sin ?
O words that cannot save !
When will this breathing end in that last deep
Pain that is painlessness ? 'Tis sleep I crave.
When wilt thou bring me sleep.
Thou dark and midnight magic of the grave !
Artemis.
Sore-stricken man, bethink thee in this stress,
Thou dost but die for thine own nobleness.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Ah!
O breath of heavenly fragrance ! Though my pain
Burns, I can feel thee and find rest again.
The Goddess Artemis is with me here.
Artemis.
With thee and loving thee, poor sufferer !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Dost see me. Mistress, nearing my last sleep ?
Artemis.
Aye, and would weep for thee, if Gods could weep.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Who now shall hunt with thee or hold thy quiver ?
HIPPOLYTUS 71
Artemis.
He dies ; but my love cleaves to him for ever.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Who guide thy chariot, keep thy shrine-flowers fresh ?
Artemis.
The accursed Cyprian caught him in her mesh !
HiPPOLYTUS.
The Cyprian ? Now I see it ! — Aye, 'twas she.
Artemis.
She missed her worship, loathed thy chastity !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Three lives by her one hand ! 'Tis all clear now.
Artemis.
Yea, three ; thy father and his Queen and thou.
HiPPOLYTUS.
My father ; yea, he too is pitiable !
Artemis.
A plotting Goddess tripped him, and he fell.
HiPPOLYTUS.
Father, where art thou ? . . . Oh, thou sufferest sore !
Theseus.
Even unto death, child. There is joy no more.
HiPPOLYTUS.
I pity thee in this coil ; aye, more than me.
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Theseus,
Would I could lie there dead instead of thee 1
Hippo LYTUs.
Oh, bitter bounty of Poseidon's love !
Theseus.
Would God my lips had never breathed thereof!
HiPPOLYTUS {gent/y).
Nay, thine own rage had slain me then, some w^ise !
Theseus.
A lying spirit had made blind mine eyes !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Ah me !
Would that a mortal's curse could reach to God !
Artemis.
Let be ! For not, though deep beneath the sod
Thou liest, not unrequited nor unsung
Shall this fell stroke, from Cypris' rancour sprung.
Quell thee, mine ovv^n, the saintly and the true !
My hand shall win its vengeance, through and
through
Piercing with flawless shaft what heart soe'er
Of all men living is most dear to Her.
Yea, and to thee, for this sore travail's sake.
Honours most high in Trozen will I make ;
For yokeless maids before their bridal night
Shall shear for thee their tresses ; and a rite
Of honouring tears be thine in ceaseless store ;
HIPPOLYTUS 73
And virgins' thoughts in music evermore
Turn toward thee, and praise thee in the Song
Of Phaedra's far-famed love and thy great wrong.
O seed of ancient Aegeus, bend thee now
And clasp thy son. Aye, hold and fear not thou !
Not knowingly hast thou slain him ; and man's way,
When Gods send error, needs must fall astray.
And thou, Hippolytus, shrink not from the King,
Thy father. Thou wast born to bear this thing.
Farewell ! I may not watch man's fleeting breath,
Nor stain mine eyes with the effluence of death.
And sure that Terror now is very near.
[The cloud slowly rises and floats away.
Hippolytus.
Farewell, farewell, most Blessed ! Lift thee clear
Of soiling men ! Thou wilt not grieve in heaven •
For my long love ! . . . Father, thou art forgiven.
It was Her will. I am not wroth with thee. . , .
I have obeyed Her all my days ! . . .
Ah me.
The dark is drawing down upon mine eyes ;
It hath me ! . . . Father ! . . . Hold me ! Help mc
rise !
Theseus {supporting him in his arms).
Ah, woe ! How dost thou torture me, my son !
Hippolytus.
I see the Great Gates opening. I am gone.
Theseus.
Gone ? And my hand red-reeking from this thing!
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HiPPOLYTUS.
Nay, nay ; thou art assoiled of manslaying.
Theseus.
Thou leav'st me clear of murder ? Sayst thou so ?
HiPPOLYTUS.
Yea, by the Virgin of the Stainless Bow !
Theseus.
Dear Son ! Ah, now I see thy nobleness !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Pray that a true-born child may fill my place.
Theseus.
Ah me, thy righteous and godfearing heart !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Farewell ;
A long farewell, dear Father, ere we part !
[Theseus bends down and embraces him passionately.
Theseus.
Not yet ! — O hope and bear while thou hast breath !
HiPPOLYTUS.
Lo, I have borne my burden. This is death. . . ,
Quick, Father ; lay the mantle on my face.
[Theseus covers his face with a mantle and rises.
Theseus.
Ye bounds of Pallas and of Pelops' race,
What greatness have ye lost !
Woe, woe is me !
Thou Cyprian, long shall I remember thee !
HIlPPOLYTUS
75
Chorus.
On all this folk, both low and high,
A grief hath fallen beyond men's fears.
There cometh a throbbing of many tears,
A sound as of waters falling.
For when great men die,
A mighty name and a bitter cry
Rise up from a nation calling.
'[They move into the Cast ley carrying the bi
HiPPOLYTUS.
v
^/
THE BACCHAE
>
CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
Dionysus, the God ; son of Zeus and of the Theban princess
Semele.
Ckdu\3?,, formerly King of Thebes, father of Semele.
Pentheus, Kitig of Thebes, grandson of Cadmus.
AGAV&, daughter of Cadmus, mother of Pentheus.
Teiresias, an aged Theban prophet.
A Soldier of Pentheus' Guard.
Two Messengers.
A Chorus of Inspired Damsels, following Dionysus
from the East.
*' The play was first produced after the death of Euripides by his
son, who bore the same name, together with the ' Iphigenia in Aulis'
and the ' A Icmaeon,' probably in the year 405 B.C."
y?
THE BACCHAE
The background represents the front of the Castle of
Pentheus, King of Thebes. At one side is visible
the sacred Tomb of Semele^ a little enclosure over-
grown with wild vines, with a cleft in the rocky floor
of it from which there issues at times steam or smoke.
The God Dionysus is discovered alone.
Dionysus.
Behold, God's Son is come unto this land
Of Thebes, even I, Dionysus, whom the brand
Of heaven's hot splendour lit to life, when she
Who bore me, Cadmus' daughter Semel5,
Died here. So, changed in shape from God to
man,
I walk again by Dircc's streams and scan
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Ismenus' shore. There by the castle side
I see her place, the Tomb of the Lightning's Bride,
The wreck of smouldering chambers, and the great
Faint wreaths of fire undying — as the hate
Dies not, that Hera held for Semele.
Aye, Cadmus hath done well ; in purity
He keeps this place apart, inviolate,
His daughter's sanctuary ; and I have set
My green and clustered vines to robe it round.
Far now behind me lies the golden ground
Of Lydian and of Phrygian ; far away.
The wide hot plains where Persian sunbeams play,
The Bactrian war-holds, and the storm-oppressed
Clime of the Mede, and Araby the Blest,
And Asia all, that by the salt sea lies
In proud embattled cities, motley-wise
Of Hellene and Barbarian interwrought ;
And now I come to Hellas — having taught
All the world else my dances and my rite
Of mysteries, to show me in men's sight
Manifest God.
And first of Hellene lands
I cry this Thebes to waken ; set her hands
To clasp my wand, mine ivied javelin,
And round her shoulders hang my wild fawn-skin.
For they have scorned me whom it least beseemed,
Semele's sisters ; mocked my birth, nor deemed
That Dionysus sprang from Dian seed.
My mother sinned, said they ; and in her need,
With Cadmus plotting, cloaked her human shame
With the dread name of Zeus ; for that the flame
From heaven consumed her, seeing she lied to God.
Thus must they vaunt; and therefore hath my rod
THE BACCHAE 8i
On them first fallen, and stung them forth wild-eyed
From empty chambers ; the bare mountain side
Is made their home, and all their hearts are flame.
Yea, I have bound upon the necks of them
The harness of my rites. And with them all
The seed of womankind from hut and hall
Of Thebes, hath this my magic goaded out.
And there, with the old King's daughters, in a rout
Confused, they make their dwelling-place between
The roofless rocks and shadowy pine trees green.
Thus shall this Thebes, how sore soe'er it smart,
Learn and forget not, till she crave her part
In mine adoring ; thus must I speak clear
To save my mother's fame, and crown me here
As true God, born by Semele to Zeus.
Now Cadmus yieldeth up his throne and use
Of royal honour to his daughter's son
Pentheus ; who on my body hath begun
A war with God. He thrusteth me away
From due drink-offering, and, when men pray,
My name entreats not. Therefore on his own
Head and his people's shall my power be shown.
Then to another land, when all things here
Are well, must I fare onward, making clear
My godhead's might. But should this Theban town
Essay with wrath and battle to drag down
My maids, lo, in their path myself shall be,
And maniac armies battled after me !
For this I veil my godhead with the wan
Form of the things that die, and walk as Man.
O Brood of Tmolus o'er the wide world flown,
O Lydian band, my chosen and mine own,
F
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Damsels uplifted o'er the orient deep
To wander where I wander, and to sleep
Where I sleep ; up, and wake the old sweet sound,
The clang that I and mystic Rhea found,
The Timbrel of the Mountain ! Gather all
Thebes to your song round Pentheus' royal hall.
I seek my new-made worshippers, to guide
Their dances up Kithaeron's pine-clad side.
[Js he departs, there comes stealing in from the left
a hand of fifteen Eastern Women, the light
of the sunrise streaming upon their long zuhite
robes and ivy-bound hair. They wear fawn-
skins over the robes, and carry some of them
timbrels, some pipes and other instruments.
Many bear the thyrsus, or sacred Wand,
made of reed ringed with ivy. They enter
stealthily till they see that the place is empty,
and then begin their mystic song of worship.
Chorus.
J Maiden.
From Asia, from the dayspring that uprises, •
To Bromios ever glorying we came.
We laboured for our Lord in many guises ;
We toiled, but the toil is as the prize is ;
Thou Mystery, we hail thee by thy name I .
Another.
Who lingers in the road ? Who espies us ?
He shall hide him in his house nor be bold.
Let the heart keep silence that defies us ;
For I sing this day to Dionysus
The song that is appointed from of old.
*/
THE RACCFIAE 83
All the Maidens. '^ 2
Oh, blessed he in all wise,
Who hath drunk the Living Fountain,
Whose life no folly staineth, f^
And his soul is near to God ;
Whose sins are lifted, pall-wise,
As he worships on the Mountain,
And where Cybele ordaineth,
Our Mother, he has trod :
His head with ivy laden
And his thyrsus tossing high.
For our God he lifts his cry ;
"Up, O Bacchae, wife and maiden,
Come, O ye Bacchae, come ;
Oh, bring the Joy-bestower,
God-seed of God the Sower,
Bring Bromios in his power
From Phrygia's mountain dome ;
To street and town and tower,
^'fi^O i^H *■ ^^' ^'"'"g y'^ Bromios home ! "
Whom erst in anguish lying
P'or an unborn life's desire.
As a dead thing in the Thunder
His mother cast to earth ; (
For her heart was dying, dying.
In the white heart of the fire ;
Till Zeus, the Lord of WonJer,
Devised new lairs of birth ;
Yea, his own flesh tore to hide hi:n,
And with clasps of bitter gold C
Did a secret son enfold,
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THE BACCHAE 85
, f-
The wild orb of our orgies, ^ ,'
Our Timbrel ; and thy gorges "^ ;
Rang with this strain ; and blended Phrygian chant b !
And sweet keen pipes were there. -^ *
But the Timbrel, the Timbrel was another's,
And away to Mother Rhea it must wend ;
And to our holy singing from the Mother's
The mad Satyrs carried it, to blend
In the dancing and the cheer
Of our third and perfect Year ;
And it serves Dionysus in the end !
A Maiden.
'\^ O glad, glad on the mountains "^ ^
To swoon in the race outworn, t ^
When the holy fawn-skin clings, c.
And all else sweeps away, r»
To the joy of the red quick fountains,
The blood of the hill-goat torn.
The glory of wild-beast ravenings,
Where the hill-tops catch the day ;
To the Phrygian, Lydian, mountaiii
'Tis Bromios leads the
way.
Another Maiden.
Then streams the earth with milk, yea, streams
With wine and nectar of the bee.
And through the air dim perfume steams
Of Syrian frankincense ; and He,
Our leader, from his thyrsus spray
A torchlight tosses high and higher,
A torchlight like a beacon-fire,
To waken all that faint and stray ;
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And sets them leaping as he sings, Ql
His tresses rippling to the sky, i^
And deep beneath the Maenad cry \y
His proud voice rings : ^l ^
" Come, O ye Bacchae, come ! "
All the Maidens.
Hither, O fragrant of Tmolus the Golden, ft.
Come with the voice of timbrel and drum ;
Let the cry of your joyance uplift and embolden
The God of the joy-cry ; O Bacchanals, come ! 0
With pealing of pipes and with Phrygian clamour, ^
On, where the vision of holiness thrills, ^.
And the music climbs and the maddening glamour.
With the wild White Maids, to the hills, to the
hills ! i"
Oh, then, like a colt as he runs by a river, ,o
A colt by his dam, when the heart of him sings.
With the keen limbs drawn and the fleet foot
a-quiver,
Away the Bacchanal springs !
Enter Teiresias. He is an old man and blind, leaning
upon a staff and moving with slow stateliness, though
wearing the Ivy and the Bacchic fawn-skin.
Teiresias.
Ho, there, who keeps the gate ? — Go, summon me
Cadmus, Agenor's son, who crossed the sea
From Sidon and upreared this Theban hold.
Go, whosoe'er thou art. See he be told
Teiresias seeketh him. Himself will gauge
Mine errand, and the compact, age with age.
THE BACCHAE 87
I vowed with him, grey hair with snow-wliitc hair,
To deck the new God's thyrsus, and to wear
His fawn-skin, and with ivy crown our brows.
Enter Qahmus from the Castle. He is even older than
Teiresias, and wears the same attire.
Cadmus.
True friend ! I knew that voice of thine, tliat flows
Like mellow wisdom from a fountain wise.
And, lo, I come prepared, in all the guise
And harness of this God. Are we not told
His is the soul of that dead life of old
That sprang from mine own daughter ? Surely then
Must thou and I with all the strength of men
Exalt him.
Where then shall I stand, where tread
The dance and toss this bowed and hoary head ?
0 friend, in thee is wisdom ; guide my grey
And eld-worn steps, eld-worn Teiresias. — Nay ;
1 am not weak.
\^At the first movement of worship his manner
begins to change ; a fnysterious strength and
exaltation enter into him.
Surely this arm could smite
The wild earth with its thyrsus, day and night.
And faint not ! Sweetly and forgetfully
The dim years fall from off me 1
Teiresias.
As with thee.
With me 'tis likewise. Light am I and young,
And will essay the dancing and the song.
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Cadmus.
Quick, then, our chariots to the mountain road.
Teiresias.
Nay ; to take steeds were to mistrust the God.
Cadmus.
So be it. Mine old arm shall guide thee there.
Teiresias.
The God himself shall guide ! Have thou no care.
Cadmus.
And in all Thebes shall no man dance but we ?
Teiresias.
Aye, Thebes is blinded. Thou and I can see.
Cadmus.
'Tis weary waiting ; hold my hand, friend ; so.
Teiresias.
Lo, there is mine. So linked let us go.
Cadmus.
Shall things of dust the Gods' dark ways despise ?
Teiresias.
Or prove our wit on Heaven's high mysteries ?
Not thou and I ! That heritage sublime
Our sires have left us, wisdom old as time.
No word of man, how deep soe'er his thought
And won of subtlest toil, may bring to naught.
THE BACCHAE 89
Ave, men will rail that I forget my years,
To dance and wreathe with ivy these white hairs ;
What recks it ? Seeing the God no line hath told
To mark what man shall dance, or young or old ;
But craves his honours from mortality
All, no man marked apart ; and great shall be !
Cadmus [cifter looking away toward the Mountain).
Teiresias, since this light thou canst not read,
I must be seer for thee. Here comes in speed
Pentheus, Echion's son, whom I have raised
To rule my people in my stead. — Amazed
He seems. Stand close, and mark what we shall hear.
[The two stand back^ partially concealed^ while
there enters in hot haste PENTHEVSy followed
by a bodyguard. He is speaking to the
Soldier in command.
Pentheus.
Scarce had I crossed our borders, when mine ear
Was caught by this strange rumour, that our own
Wives, our own sisters, from their hearths are flown
To wild and secret rites ; and cluster there
High on the shadowy hills, with dance and prayer
To adore this new-made God, this Dionyse,
Whate'er he be ! — And in their companies
Deep wine-jars stand, and ever and anon
Away into the loneliness now one
Steals forth, and now a second, maid or dame,
Where love lies waiting, not of God ! The flame.
They say, of Bacchios wraps them. Bacchios! Nay,
'Tis more to Aphrodite that tiicy pray.
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Howbeit, all that I have found, my men
Hold bound and shackled in our dungeon den ;
The rest, I will go hunt them ! Aye, and snare
My birds with nets of iron, to quell their prayer
And mountain song and rites of rascaldom !
They tell me, too, there is a stranger come,
A man of charm and spell, from Lydian seas,
A head all gold and cloudy fragrancies,
A wine-red cheek, and eyes that hold the light
Of the very Cyprian. Day and livelong night
He haunts amid the damsels, o''er each lip
Dangling his cup of joyance ! — Let me grip
Him once, but once, within these walls, right
swift
That wand shall cease its music, and that drift
Of tossing curls lie still — when my rude sword
Falls between neck and trunk ! 'Tis all his word.
This tale of Dionysus ; how that same
Babe that was blasted by the lightning flame
With his dead mother, for that mother's lie,
Was re-conceived, born perfect from the thigh
Of Zeus, and now is God ! What call ye these ?
Dreams ? Gibes of the unknown wanderer r Blas-
phemies
That crave the very gibbet ?
Stay ! God wot.
Here is another marvel ! See I not
In motley fawn-skins robed the vision-seer
Teiresias ? And my mother's father here —
O depth of scorn ! — adoring with the wand
Of Bacchios ? — Father ! — Nay, mine eyes are fond ;
It is not your white heads so fancy-flown !
It cannot be ! Cast off that ivy crown,
THE BACCHAE 91
0 mine own mother's sire ! Set free that hand
That cowers about its staff.
'Tis thou Iiast planned
This work, Teiresias ! 'Tis thou must set
Another altar and another yet
Amoncst us, watch new birds, and win more hire
Of gold, interpreting new signs of fire !
But for thy silver hairs, I tell thee true.
Thou now wcrt sitting chained amid thy crew
Of raving damsels, for this evil dream
Thou hast brought us, of new Gods ! When once
the gleam
Of grapes hath lit a Woman's Festival,
In all their prayers is no more health at all I
Leader of the Chorus
{the words are not heard by Pentheus).
Injurious King, hast thou no care for God,
Nor Cadmus, sower of the Giants' Sod,
Life-spring to great Echion and to thee ?
Teiresias.
Good words, my son, come easily, when he
That speaks is wise, and speaks but for the right.
Else come they never ! Swift are thine, and bright
As though with thought, yet have no thought at all.
Lo, this new God, whom thou dost flout withal,
1 cannot speak the greatness wherewith He
In Hellas shall be great ! Two spirits there be.
Young Prince, that in man's world are first of worth.
Dcmcter one is named ; she is the Earth —
Call her which name thou will ! — who feeds man's frame
With sustenance of things dry. And that whicli came
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Her work to perfect, second, is the Power
From Semele born. He found the liquid shower
Hid in the grape. He rests man's spirit dim
From grieving, when the vine exalteth him.
He giveth sleep to sink the fretful day
In cool forgetting. Is there any way
With man's sore heart, save only to forget ?
Yea, being God, the blood of him is set
Before the Gods in sacrifice, that we
For his sake may be blest. — And so, to thee.
That fable shames him, how this God was knit
Into God's flesh ? Nay, learn the truth of it.
Cleared from the false. — When from that deadly
light
Zeus saved the babe, and up to Olympus' height
Raised him, and Hera's wrath would cast him thence.
Then Zeus devised him a divine defence.
A fragment of the world-encircling fire
He rent apart, and wrought to his desire
Of shape and hue, in the image of the child,
And gave to Hera's rage. And so, beguiled
By change and passing time, this tale was born,
How the babe-god was hidden in the torn
Flesh of his sire. He hath no shame thereby.
A prophet is he likewise. Prophecy
Cleaves to all frenzy, but beyond all else
To frenzy of prayer. Then in us verily dwells
The God himself, and speaks the thing to be.
Yea, and of Ares' realm a part hath he.
When mortal armies, mailed and arrayed,
Have in strange fear, or ever blade met blade.
Fled maddened, 'tis this God hath palsied them.
Aye, over Delphi's rock-built diadem
THE BACCHAE 93
Thou yet shalt see him leaping with his train
Of fire across the twin-peaked mountain-plain,
Flaming the darkness with his mystic wand,
And great in Hellas. — List and understand,
King Pentheus ! Dream not thou that force is power ;
Nor, if thou hast a thought, and that thought sour
And sick, oh, dream not thought is wisdom ! — Up,
Receive this God to Thebes ; pour forth the cup
Of sacrifice, and pray, and wreathe thy brow.
Thou fearest for the damsels ? Think thee now ;
How toucheth this the part of Dionyse
To hold maids pure perforce ? In them it lies.
And their own hearts ; and in the wildest rite
Cometh no stain to her whose heart is white.
Nay, mark me ! Thou hast thy joy, when the Gate
Stands thronged, and Pentheus' name is lifted great
And high by Thebes in clamour ; shall not He
Rejoice in his due meed of majesty ?
Howbeit, this Cadmus whom thou scorn'st and I
Will wear His crown, and tread His dances ! Aye,
Our hairs are white, yet shall that dance be trod !
I will not lift mine arm to war with God
For thee nor all thy words. Madness most fell
Is on. thee, madness wrought by some dread spell,
But not by spell nor leechcraft to be cured !
Chorus.
Grey prophet, worthy of Phoebus is thy word,
And wise in honouring Bromios, our great God.
Cadmus.
My son, right well Tciresias points thy road.
Oh, make thine habitation here with us.
Not lonely, against men's uses. Hazardous
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Is this quick bird-like beating of thy thought
Where no thought dwells. — Grant that this God be
naught,
Yet let that Naught be Somewhat in thy mouth ;
Lie boldly, and say He Is ! So north and south
Shall marvel, how there sprang a thing divine
From Semele's flesh, and honour all our line.
[^Drawing nearer to Pentheus.
Is there not blood before thine eyes even now ?
Our lost Actaeon's blood, whom long ago
His own red hounds through yonder forest dim
Tore unto death, because he vaunted him
Against most holy Artemis ? Oh, beware,
And let me wreathe thy temples. Make thy prayer
With us, and walk thee humbly in God's sight.
[He makes as if to set the wreath on Pentheus' head.
Pentheus.
Down with that hand ! Aroint thee to thy rite,
Nor smear on me thy foul contagion !
[Turning upon Teiresias.
This
Thy folly's head and prompter shall not miss
The justice that he needs ! — Go, half my guard,
Forth to the rock-seat where he dwells in ward
O'er birds and wonders ; rend the stone with crow
And trident ; make one wreck of high and low,
And toss his bands to all the winds of air !
Ha, ha/e I found the way to sting thee, there ?
The rest, forth through the town ! And seek amain
This girl-faced stranger, that hath wrought such bane
To all Thebes, preying on our maids and wives.
Seek till ye find 3 and lead him here in gyves,
THE BACCHAE 95
Till he be judged and stoned, and weep in blood
The day he troubled Pentheus with his God !
[The guards set forth in two bodies ; Pentheus
goes into the Castle.
Teiresias.
Hard heart, how little dost thou know what seed
Thou sowest I Blind before, and now indeed
Most mad ! — Come, Cadmus, let us go our way.
And pray for this our persecutor, pray
For this poor city, that the righteous God
Move not in anger. — Take thine ivy rod
And help my steps, as I help thine. 'Twere ill.
If two old men should fall by the roadway. Still,
Come what come mav, our service shall be done
To Bacchios, the All-Father's mystic son.
O Pentheus, named of sorrow ! Shall he claim
From all thy house fulfilment of his name,
Old Cadmus ? — Nay, I speak not from mine art.
But as I see — blind words and a blind heart !
[The two Old Men go offtoiuards the Mountain.
Chorus.
So7ne Maidens.
Thou Immaculate on high ;
Thou Recording Purity ;
Thou that stoopest. Golden Wing,
Earthward, manward, pitying,
Hearest thou this angry King ?
Hearest thou the rage and scorn
'Gainst the Lord of Many Voices,
Him of mortal mother born,
Him in whom man's heart rejoices,
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Girt with garlands and with glee,
First in Heaven's sovranty ?
For his kingdom, it is there.
In the dancing and the prayer,
In the music and the laughter.
In the vanishing of care.
And of all before and after ;
In the Gods' high banquet, when
Gleams the grape-blood, flashed to
heaven ;
Yea, and in the feasts of men
Comes his crowned slumber ; then
Pain is dead and hate forgiven !
Others.
Loose thy lips from out the rein ;
Lift thy wisdom to disdain ;
Whatso law thou canst not see,
Scorning ; so the end shall be
Uttermost calamity !
'Tis the life of quiet breath,
'Tis the simple and the true.
Storm nor earthquake shattereth.
Nor shall aught the house undo
Where they dwell. For, far away,
Hidden from the eyes of day.
Watchers are there in the skies,
That can see man's life, and prize
Deeds well done by things of clay.
But the world's Wise are not wise.
Claiming more than mortal may.
Life is such a little thing ;
Lo, their present is departed,
THE BACCHAE 97
And the dreams to which they ch'ng
Come not. Mad imagining
Theirs, I ween, and empty-hearted !
Divers Maidens.
Where is the Home for me ?
O Cyprus, set in the sea,
Aphrodite's home In the soft sea-foam.
Would I could wend to thee ;
Where the wings of the Loves are furled,
And faint the heart of the world.
Aye, unto Paphos' isle,
Where the rainless meadows smile
With riches rolled From the hundred-fold
Mouths of the far-off Nile,
Streaming beneath the waves
To the roots of the seaward caves.
But a better land is there
Where Olympus cleaves the air.
The high still dell Where the Muses dwell.
Fairest of all things fair !
O there is Grace, and there is the Heart's Desire,
And peace to adore thee, thou Spirit of Guiding
Fire!
A God of Heaven is he.
And born in majesty ;
Yet hath he mirth In the joy of the Earth,
And he loveth constantly
Her who brings increase,
The Feeder of Children, Peace,
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No grudge hath he of the great ;
No scorn of the mean estate ;
But to all that liveth His wine he giveth,
Griefless, immaculate ;
Only on them that spurn
Joy, may his anger burn.
Love thou the Day and the Night ;
Be glad of the Dark and the Light ;
And avert thine eyes From the lore of the vv^ise,
That have honour in proud men's sight.
The simple nameless herd of Humanity
Hath deeds and faith that are truth enough for me !
[y/i the Chorus ceases^ a party of the guards
return^leading in the midst of them DiONYSUS,
bound. The Soldier in command stands
forthy as Pentheus, hearing the tramp of
feety comes out from the Castle.
Soldier.
Our quest is finished, and thy prey, O King,
Caught ; for the chase was swift, and this wild thing
Most tame ; yet never flinched, nor thought to flee.
But held both hands out unresistingly —
No change, no blanching of the wme-red cheek.
He waited while we came, and bade us wreak
All thy decree; yea, laughed, and made my hest
Easy, till I for very shame confessed
And said : ' O stranger, not of mine own will
I bind thee, but his bidding to fulfil
Who sent me.'
And those prisoned Maids withal
Whom thou didst seize and bind within the wall
THE BACCHAE 99
Of thv great dungeon, they are fled, O King,
Free in the woods, a-dance and glorying
To Bromios. Of their own impulse fell
To earth, men say, fetter and manacle.
And bars slid back untouched of mortal hand.
Yea, full of many wonders to thy land
Is this man come. . . . Howbeit, it Hes with thee !
Pentheus.
Ye are mad ! — Unhand him. Howso swift he be,
My toils are round him and he shall not fly.
[The guards loose the arms of Dionysus ;
Pentheus studies him for a tvhile in silence^
then speaks jeeringly. DiONYSUS remains
gentle and unafraid.
Marry, a fair shape for a woman's eye.
Sir stranger ! And thou seek'st no more, I ween !
Long curls, withal ! That shows thou ne'er hast been
A wrestler ! — down both cheeks so softly tossed
And winsome ! And a white skin ! It hath cost
Thee pains, to please thy damsels with this white
And red of cheeks that never face the light !
[Dionysus is silent.
Speak, sirrah ; tell me first thy name and race.
Dionysus.
No glory is therein, nor yet disgrace.
Thou hast heard of Tmolus, the bright hill of flowers ?
Pentheus.
Surely ; the ridge that winds by Sardis' towers.
Dionysus.
Thence am I ; Lydia was my fatherland.
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Pentheus.
And whence these revelations, that thy band
Spreadeth in Hellas ?
Dionysus.
Their intent and use
Dionysus oped to me, the Child of Zeus.
Pentheus {brutally).
Is there a Zeus there, that can still beget
Young Gods ?
Dionysus.
Nay, only He whose seal was set
Here in thy Thebes on Semele.
Pentheus.
What way
Descended he upon thee ? In full day
Or vision of night ?
Dionysus.
Most clear he stood, and scanned
My soul, and gave his emblems to mine hand.
Pentheus.
What like be they, these emblems ?
Dionysus.
That may none
Reveal, nor know, save his Elect alone.
Pentheus.
And what good bring they to the worshipper ?
Dionysus.
Good beyond price, but not for thee to hear.
THE BACCHAE loi
Pentheus.
Thou trickster ! Thou wouldst prick me on the more
To seek them out !
Dionysus.
His mysteries abhor
The touch of sin-lovers.
Pentheus.
And so thine eyes
Saw this God plain ; what guise had he ?
Dionysus.
What guise
It liked him. 'Twas not I ordained his shape.
Pentheus.
Aye, deftly turned again. An idle jape,
And nothing answered !
Dionysus.
Wise words being brought
To blinded eyes will seem as things of nought.
Pentheus.
And comest thou first to Thebes, to have thy God
Established ?
Dionysus.
Nay ; all Barbary hath trod
His dance ere this.
Pentheus.
A low blind folk, I ween.
Beside our Hellenes !
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Dionysus.
Higher and more keen
In this thing, though their ways are not thy way.
Pentheus.
How is thy worship held, by night or day ?
Dionysus.
Most oft by night ; 'tis a majestic thing.
The darkness.
Pentheus.
Ha ! with women worshipping ?
'Tis craft and rottenness !
Dionysus.
By day no less,
Whoso will seek may find unholiness.
Pentheus.
Enough ! Thy doom is fixed, for false pretence
Corrupting Thebes.
Dionysus.
Not mine ; but thine, for dense
Blindness of heart, and for blaspheming God !
Pentheus.
A ready knave it is, and brazen-browed,
This mystery-priest !
Dionysus.
Come, say what it shall be.
My doom ; what dire thing wilt thou do to me ?
THE BACCHAE 103
Pentheus.
First, shear that delicate curl that dangles there.
\^He beckons to the soldiers^ who approach Dionysus,
Dionysus.
I have vowed it to my God ; 'tis holy hair.
[The soldiers cut off" the tress.
Pentheus.
Next, yield mc up thy staff!
Dionysus.
Raise thine ow^n hand
To take it. This is Dionysus' wand.
[Pentheus takes the staff.
Pentheus.
Last, I will hold thee prisoned here.
Dionysus.
My Lord
God will unloose me, when I speak the word.
Pentheus.
He may, if e'er again amid his bands
Of saints he hears thy voice 1
Dionysus.
Even now he stands
Close here, and sees all that I suffer.
Pentheus.
What ?
Where is he ? For mine eyes discern him not.
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Dionysus.
Where I am ! 'Tis thine own impurity
That veils him from thee.
Pentheus.
The dog jeers at me !
At me and Thebes ! Bind him !
[^The soldiers begin to bind him.
Dionysus.
I charge ye, bind
Me not ! I having vision and ye blind !
Pentheus.
And I, with better right, say bind the more !
[^The soldiers obey.
Dionysus.
Thou knowest not what end thou seekest, nor
What deed thou doest, nor what man thou art !
Pentheus {mocking).
Agave's son, and on the father's part
Echion's, hight Pentheus !
Dionysus.
So let it be,
A name fore-written to calamity !
Pentheus.
Away, and tie him where the steeds are tied ;
Aye, let him lie in the manger ! — There abide
And stare into the darkness ! — And this rout
Of womankind that clusters thee about,
THE BACCHAE 105
Thy ministers of worship, are my slaves !
It may be I will sell them o'er the waves,
Hither and thither ; else they shall be set
To labour at my distaffs, and forget
Their timbrel and their songs of dawning day !
Dionysus.
I go ; for that which may not be, I may
Not suffer ! Yet for this thy sin, lo, He
Whom thou deniest cometh after thee
For recompense. Yea, in thy wrong to us,
Thou hast cast Him into thy prison-house !
[Dionysus, without his wandy his hair shorn^ and
his arms tightly bound, is led off by the guards
to his dungeon. Pentheus returns into the
Palace.
Chorus.
Some Maidens.
AcheloQs' roaming daughter,
Holy Dircd, virgin water.
Bathed he not of old in thee.
The Babe of God, the Mystery ?
When from out the fire immortal
To himself his God did take him.
To his own flesh, and bespake him :
" Enter now life's second portal.
Motherless Mvstery ; lo, I break
Mine own body for thy sake.
Thou of the Twofold Door, and seal thee
Mine, O Bromios," — thus he spake —
"And to this thy land reveal thee."
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All.
Still my prayer toward thee quivers,
Dirce, still to thee I hie me ;
Why, O BlessM among Rivers,
Wilt thou fly me and deny me ?
By His ovi^n joy I vow.
By the grape upon the bough,
Thou shalt seek Him in the midnight, thou shalt love
Him, even now !
Other Maidens.
Dark and of the dark impassioned
Is this Pentheus' blood ; yea, fashioned
Of the Dragon, and his birth
From Echion, child of Earth.
He is no man, but a wonder ;
Did the Earth-Child not beget him,
As a red Giant, to set him
Against God, against the Thunder ?
He will bind me for his prize.
Me, the Bride of Dionyse ;
And my priest, my friend, is taken
Even now, and buried lies ;
In the dark he lies forsaken !
All.
Lo, we race with death, we perish,
Dionysus, here before thee I
Dost thou mark us not, nor cherish,
Who implore thee, and adore thee ?
Hither down Olympus' side,
Come, O Holy One defied.
Be thy golden wand uplifted o'er the tyrant in his pride !
THE BACCHAE
A Maiden.
Oh, where art thou ? In thine own
Nysa, thou our help alone ?
O'er fierce beasts in orient lands
Doth thy thronging thyrsus wave,
By the high Corycian Cave,
Or where stern Olympus stands ;
In the elm-woods and the oaken.
There where Orpheus harped of old,
And the trees awoke and knew him,
And the wild things gathered to him.
As he sang amid the broken
Glens his music manifold ?
Blessed Land of PiCrie,
Dionysus lovcth thee ;
He will come to thee with dancing,
Come with joy and mystery ;
With the Maenads at his best
Winding, winding to the West ;
Cross the flood of swiftly glancing
Axios in majesty ;
Cross the Lydias, the giver
Of good gifts and waving green ;
Cross that Father-Stream of story.
Through a land of steeds and glory
Rolling, bravest, fairest River
E'er of mortals seen !
A Voice Within.
lo ! lo !
Awake, ye damsels ; hear my cry,
Calling my Chosen ; hearken ye !
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A Maiden.
Who speaketh ? Oh, what echoes thus ?
Another.
A Voice, a Voice, that calleth us !
The Voice.
Be of good cheer ! Lo, it is I,
The Child of Zeus and Semele.
A Maiden.
O Master, Master, it is Thou !
Another.
O Holy Voice, be with us now !
The Voice.
Spirit of the Chained Earthquake,
Hear my word ; awake, awake !
[yf« Earthquake suddenly shakes the pillars of the
Castle.
A Maiden.
Ha ! what is coming ? Shall the hall
Of Pentheus racked in ruin fall ?
Leader.
Our God is in the house ! Ye maids adore Him !
Chorus,
We adore Him all !
THE BACCHAE 109
The Voice.
Unveil the Lightning's eye ; arouse
The fire that sleeps, against this house !
\^fire leaps up on the Tomb of Semele.
A Maiden.
Ah, saw ye, marked ye there the flame
From Semele's enhallowed sod
Awakened ? Yea, the Death that came
Ablaze from heaven of old, the same
Hot splendour of the shaft of God ?
Leader.
Oh, cast ye, cast ye, to the earth ! The Lord
Cometh against this house ! Oh, cast ye down.
Ye trembling damsels ; He, our own adored,
God's Child hath come, and all is overthrown !
[The Maidens cast themselves upon the ground^
their eyes earthward. Dionysus, alone and
unbound^ enters from the Castle.
Dionysus.
Ye Damsels of the Morning Hills, why lie ye thus
dismayed ?
Ye marked him, then, our Master, and the mighty
hand he laid
On tower and rock, shaking the house of Pentheus ?
— But arise.
And cast the trembling from your flesh, and lift un-
troubled eyes.
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Leader.
0 Light in Darkness, is it thou ? O Priest, is this
thy face ?
My heart leaps out to greet thee from the deep of
loneliness.
Dionysus.
Fell ye so quick despairing, when beneath the Gate
I passed ?
Should the gates of Pentheus quell me, or his dark-
ness make me fast ?
Leader.
Oh, what was left if thou wert gone ? What could I
but despair ?
How hast thou ""scaped the man of sin ? Who freed
thee from the snare ?
Dionysus.
1 had no pain nor peril ; 'twas mine own hand set me
free.
Leader.
Thine arms were gyved !
Dionysus.
Nay, no gyve, no touch, was laid on me !
'Twas there I mocked him, in his gyves, and gave him
dreams for food.
For when he led me down, behold, before the stall
there stood
A Bull of Offering. And this King, he bit his lips,
and straight
Fell on and bound it, hoof and limb, with gasping
wrath and sweat.
THE BACCHAE in
And I sat watching ! — Then a Voice ; and lo, our
Lord was come,
And the house shook, and a great flame stood o'er his
mother's tomb.
And Pentheus hied this way and that, and called his
thralls amain
For water, lest his roof-tree burn ; and all toiled, all
in vain.
Then deemed a-sudden I was gone ; and left his fire,
and sped
Back to the prison portals, and his lifted sword shone red.
But there, methinks, the God had wrought — 1 speak
but as I guess —
Some dream-shape in mine image ; for he smote at
emptiness,
Stabbed in the air, and strove in wrath, as though
'twere me he slew.
Then 'mid his dreams God smote him yet again ! He
overthrew
All that high house. And there in wreck for ever-
more it lies.
That the day of this my bondage may be sore in
Pentheus' eyes !
And now his sword is fallen, and he lies outworn
and wan
Who dared to rise against his God in wrath, being
but man.
And I uprose and left him, and in all peace took my
path
Forth to my Chosen, recking light of Pentheus and
his wrath.
But soft, methinks a footstep sounds even now
within the hall j
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'Tis he ; how think ye he will stand, and what words
speak withal ?
I will endure him gently, though he come in fury hot.
For still are the ways of Wisdom, and her temper
trembleth not !
Enter Pentheus in fury,
Pentheus.
It is too much ! This Eastern knave hath slipped
His prison, whom I held but now, hard gripped
In bondage. — Ha 1 'Tis he ! — What, sirrah, how
Show'st thou before my portals ?
\^He advances furiously upon him.
Dionysus.
Softly thou !
And set a quiet carriage to thy rage.
Pentheus.
How comest thou here ? How didst thou break thy
cage ?
Speak !
Dionysus.
Said I not, or didst thou mark not me.
There was One living that should set me free ?
Pentheus.
Who ? Ever wilder are these tales of thine.
Dionysus.
He who first made for man the clustered vine.
Pentheus,
I scorn him and his vines !
THE BACCHAE 113
Dionysus.
For Dionyse
'Tis well ; for in thy scorn his glory lies.
Pentheus [to his guani).
Go swift to all the towers, and bar withal
Each gate !
Dionysus.
What, cannot God o'erleap a wall ?
Pentheus.
Oh, wit thou hast, save where thou needest it !
Dionysus.
Whereso it most imports, there is my wit ! —
Nay, peace ! Abide till he who hasteth from
The mountain side with news for thee, be come.
We will not fly, but wait on thy command.
l^Enter suddenly and in haste a Messenger from
the Mountain.
Messenger.
Great Pentheus, Lord of all this Theban land,
I come from high Kithaeron, where the frore
Snow spangles gleam and cease not evermore. . . .
Pentheus.
And what of import may thy coming bring ?
Messenger.
I have seen the Wild White Women there, O King,
Whose fleet limbs darted arrow-like but now
From Thebes away, and come to tell thee how
H
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They work strange deeds and passing marvel. Yet
I first would learn thy pleasure. Shall I set
My whole tale forth, or veil the stranger part ?
Yea, Lord, I fear the swiftness of thy heart,
Thine edged wrath and more than royal soul.
Pentheus.
Thy tale shall nothing scathe thee. — Tell the whole.
It skills not to be wroth with honesty.
Nay, if thy news of them be dark, 'tis he
Shall pay it, who bewitched and led them on.
Messenger.
Our herded kine were moving in the dawn
Up to the peaks, the greyest, coldest time.
When the first rays steal earthward, and the rime
Yields, when I saw three bands of them. The
one
Autonoe led, one Ino, one thine own
Mother, Agave. There beneath the trees
Sleeping they lay, like wild things flung at ease
In the forest ; one half sinking on a bed
Of deep pine greenery ; one with careless head
Amid the fallen oak leaves ; all most cold
In purity — not as thy tale was told
Of wine-cups and wild music and the chase
For love amid the forest's loneliness.
Then rose the Queen Agave suddenly
Amid her band, and gave the God's wild cry,
" Awake, ye Bacchanals ! I hear the sound
Of horned kine. Awake ye ! " — Then, all round,
Alert, the warm sleep fallen from their eyes,
A marvel of swift ranks I saw them rise,
THE BACCHAE 115
Dames young and old, and gentle maids unwed
Among them. O'er their shoulders first they shed
Their tresses, and caught up the fallen fold
Of mantles where some clasp had loosened hold.
And girt the dappled fawn-skins in with long
Quick snakes that hissed and writhed with quivering
tongue.
And one a young fawn held, and one a wild
Wolf cub, and ted them with white milk, and smiled
In love, young mothers with a mother's breast
And babes at home forgotten ! Then they pressed
Wreathed ivy round their brows, and oaken sprays
And flowering bryony. And one would raise
Her wand and smite the rock, and straight a jet
Of quick bright water came. Another set
Her thyrsus m the bosomed earth, and there
Was red wine that the God sent up to her,
A darkling fountain. And if any lips
Sought whiter draughts, with dipping finger-tips
They pressed the sod, and gushing from the ground
Came springs of milk. And reed-wands ivy-crowned
Ran with sweet honey, drop by drop. — O King,
Hadst thou been there, as I, and seen this thing.
With prayer and most high wonder hadst thou gone
To adore this God whom now thou rail'st upon !
Howbeit, the kine-wardens and shepherds straight
Came to one place, amazed, and held debate ;
And one being there who walked the streets and scanned
The ways of speech, took lead of them whose hand
Knew but the slow soil and the solemn hill.
And flattering spoke, and asked : "Is it your will,
Masters, we stay the mother of the King,
Agave, from her lawless worshipping.
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And win us royal thanks ? " — And this seemed good
To all ; and through the branching underwood
We hid us, cowering in the leaves. And there
Through the appointed hour they made their prayer
And worship of the Wand, with one accord
Of heart and cry — " lacchos, Bromios, Lord,
God of God born ! " — And all the mountain felt,
And worshipped with them ; and the wild things knelt
And ramped and gloried, and the wilderness
Was filled with moving voices and dim stress.
Soon, as it chanced, beside my thicket-close
The Queen herself passed dancing, and I rose
And sprang to seize her. But she turned her face
Upon me : " Ho, my rovers of the chase.
My wild White Hounds, we are hunted ! Up, each
rod
And follow, follow, for our Lord and God ! "
Thereat, for fear they tear us, all we fled
Amazed ; and on, with hand unweaponed
They swept toward our herds that browsed the green
Hill grass. Great uddered kine then hadst thou seen
Bellowing in sword-like hands that cleave and tear,
A live steer riven asunder, and the air
Tossed with rent ribs or limbs of cloven tread,
And flesh upon the branches, and a red
Rain from the deep green pines. Yea, bulls of pride.
Horns swift to rage, were fronted and aside
Flung stumbling, by those multitudinous hands
Dragged pitilessly. And swifter were the bands
Of garbed flesh and bone unbound withal
Than on thy royal eyes the lids may fall.
Then on like birds, by their own speed upborne,
They swept toward the plains of waving corn
THE BACCHAE 117
That lie beside Asopus' banks, and bring
To Thebes the rich fruit of her harvesting.
On Hysiae and Erythrae that lie nursed
Amid Kithaeron's bowering rocks, they burst
Destroying, as a focman's army comes.
They caught up little children from their homes.
High on their shoulders, babes unheld, that swayed
And laughed and fell not ; all a wreck they made ;
Yea, bronze and iron did shatter, and in play
Struck hither and thither, yet no wound had they ;
Caught fire from out the hearths, yea, carried hot
Flames in their tresses and were scorched not !
The village folk in wrath took spear and sword.
And turned upon the Bacchae. Then, dread Lord,
The wonder was. For spear nor barbed brand
Could scathe nor touch the damsels ; but the Wand,
The soft and wreathed wand their white hands sped,
Blasted those men and quelled them, and they fled
Dizzily. Sure some God was in these things !
And the holy women back to those strange springs
Returned, that God had sent them when the day
Dawned, on the upper heights ; and washed away
The stain of battle. And those girdling snakes
Hissed out to lap the waterdrops from cheeks
And hair and breast.
Therefore I counsel thee,
O King, receive this Spirit, whoe'er he be,
To Thebes in glory. Greatness manifold
Is all about him ; and the tale is told
That this is he who first to man did give
The grief-assuaging vine. Oh, let him live ;
For if he die, then Love herself is slain,
And nothing joyous in the world again !
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Leader.
Albeit I tremble, and scarce may speak my thought
To a king's face, yet will I hide it not.
Dionyse is God, no God more true nor higher 1
Pentheus.
It bursts hard by us, like a smothered fire.
This frenzy of Bacchic women ! All my land
Is made their mock. — This needs an iron hand !
Ho, Captain ! Quick to the Electran Gate ;
Bid gather all my men-at-arms thereat ;
Call all that spur the charger, all who know
To wield the orbed targe or bend the bow ;
We march to war ! — 'Fore God, shall women dare
Such deeds against us ? 'Tis too much to bear !
Dionysus.
Thou mark'st me not, O King, and boldest light
My solemn words ; yet, in thine own despite,
I warn thee still. Lift thou not up thy spear
Against a God, but hold thy peace, and fear
His wrath ! He will not brook it, if thou fright
His Chosen from the hills of their delight.
Pentheus.
Peace, thou ! And if for once thou hast slipped thy
chain.
Give thanks ! — Or shall I knot thine arms again ?
Dionysus.
Better to yield him prayer and sacrifice
Than kick against the pricks, since Dionyse
Is God, and thou but mortal.
THE BACCHAE 119
Pentheus.
That will I !
Yea, sacrifice of women's hlood, to cry
His name through all Kithaeron !
Dionysus.
Ye shall fly,
All, and abase your shields of bronzen rim
Before their wands.
Pentheus.
There is no way with him,
This stranger that so dogs us ! Well or ill
I may entreat him, he must babble still !
Dionysus.
Wait, good my friend ! These crooked matters may
Even yet be straightened.
[Pentheus has started as though to seek his army
at the gate.
Pentheus.
Aye, if I obey
Mine own slaves' will ; how else ?
Dionysus.
Myself will lead
The damsels hither, without sword or steed.
Pentheus.
How now ? — This is some plot against me !
Dionysus.
What
Dost fear r Only to save thee do I plot.
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Pentheus.
It is some compact ye have made, whereby
To dance these hills for ever !
Dionysus.
Verily,
That is my compact, plighted with my Lord !
Pentheus {turning from him).
Ho, armourers ! Bring forth my shield and sword ! —
And thou, be silent !
Dionysus
{after regarding him fixedly, speaks with resignation^.
Ah ! — Have then thy will !
[He fixes his eyes upon Pentheus again, while
the armourers bring out his armour ; then
speaks in a tone of command.
Man, thou wouldst fain behold them on the hill
Praying I
Pentheus
{who during the rest of this scene, with a few exceptions,
simply speaks the thoughts that Dionysus puts into
him, losing power over his own mind).
That would I, though it cost me all
The gold of Thebes !
Dionysus.
So much ? Thou art quick to fall
To such great longing.
Pentheus
{somewhat bewildered at what he has said).
Aye ; 'twould grieve me much
To see them flown with wine.
THE BACCHAE 121
Dionysus.
Yet cravcst thou such
A sight as would much grieve thee ?
Pentheus.
Yes ; I fain
Would watch, ambushed among the pines.
Dionysus.
'Twere vain
To hide. They soon will track thee out.
Pentheus.
Well said !
'Twere best done openly.
Dionysus.
Wilt thou be led
By me, and try the venture ?
Pentheus.
Aye, mdeed !
Lead on. Why should we tarry ?
Dionysus.
First we need
A rich and trailing robe of fine-linen
To gird thee.
Pentheus.
Nay ; am I a woman, then,
And no man more ?
Dionysus.
Wouldst have them slay thee dead ?
No man may see their mysteries.
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Pentheus.
Well said !-
I marked thy subtle temper long ere now.
Dionysus.
'Tis Dionyse that prompteth me.
Pentheus,
And how
Meanest thou the further plan ?
Dionysus.
First take thy way
Within. I will array thee.
Pentheus.
What array ?
The woman's ? Nay, I will not.
Dionysus.
Doth it change
So soon, all thy desire to see this strange
Adoring ?
Pentheus.
Wait ! What garb wilt thou bestow
About me ?
Dionysus.
First a long tress dangling low
Beneath thy shoulders.
Pentheus.
Aye, and next ?
THE BACCHAE 123
Dionysus.
The said
Robe, falling to thy feet ; and on thine head
A snood.
Pentheus.
And after ? Hast thou aught beyond ?
Dionysus,
Surely ; the dappled fawn-skin and the wand.
Pentheus {after a struggle with himself).
Enough ! I cannot wear a robe and snood.
Dionysus.
Wouldst liefer draw the sword and spill men's blood ?
Pentheus [again doubting).
True, that were evil. — Aye ; 'tis best to go
First to some place of watch.
Dionysus.
Far wiser so,
Than seek by wrath wrath's bitter recompense.
Pentheus.
What of the city streets ? Canst lead me hence
Unseen of any ?
Dionysus.
Lonely and untried
Thy path from hence shall be, and I thy guide !
Pentheus.
I care for nothing, so these Bacchanals
Triumph not against me ! . . . Forward to my halls
Within ! — I will ordain what seemeth best.
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Dionysus.
So be it, O King ! 'Tis mine to obey thine best,
Whate'er it be.
Pentheus
{after hesitating once more and waiting).
Well, I will go — perchance
To march and scatter them with serried lance.
Perchance to take thy plan. ... I know not yet.
l^Exit Pentheus into the Castle.
Dionysus.
Damsels, the Hon walketh to the net !
He finds his Bacchae now, and sees and dies,
And pays for all his sin ! — O Dionyse,
This is thine hour and thou not far away.
Grant us our vengeance ! — First, O Master, stay
The course of reason in him, and instil
A foam of madness. Let his seeing will.
Which ne'er had stooped to put thy vesture on.
Be darkened, till the deed is lightly done.
Grant likewise that he find through all his streets
Loud scorn, this man of wrath and bitter threats
That made Thebes tremble, led in woman's guise.
I go to fold that robe of sacrifice
On Pentheus, that shall deck him to the dark.
His mother's gift ! — So shall he learn and mark
God's true Son, Dionyse, in fulness God,
Most fearful, yet to man most soft of mood.
l^Exit Dionysus, following Pentheus into the
Castle.
THE BACCHAE 125
Chorus.
Some Maidens.
Will they ever come to me, ever again,
The long long dances.
On through the dark till the dim stars wane ?
Shall I feel the dew on my throat, and the stream
Of wind in my hair ? Shall our white feet gleam
In the dim expanses ?
Oh, feet of a fawn to the greenwood fled,
Alone in the grass and the loveliness ;
Leap of the hunted, no more in dread.
Beyond the snares and the deadly press :
Yet a voice still in the distance sounds,
A voice and a fear and a haste of hounds ;
O wildly labouring, fiercely fleet,
Onward yet by river and glen . . .
Is it joy or terror, ye storm-swift feet ? . . .
To the dear lone lands untroubled of men,
Where no voice sounds, and amid the shadowy green
The little things of the woodland live unseen.
What else is Wisdom ? What of man's endeavour
Or God's high grace, so lovely and so great ?
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait ;
To hold a hand uplifted over Hate ;
And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever ?
Others.
O Strength of God, slow art thou and still,
Yet failest never !
On them that worship the Ruthless Will,
On them that dream, doth His judgment wait.
Dreams of the proud man, making great
And greater ever,
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Things which are not of God. In wide
And devious coverts, hunter-wise,
He coucheth Time's unhasting stride,
Following, following, him whose eyes
Look not to Heaven. For all is vain.
The pulse of the heart, the plot of the brain,
That striveth beyond the laws that live.
And is thy Faith so much to give,
Is it so hard a thing to see.
That the Spirit of God, whate'er it be.
The Law that abides and changes not, ages long.
The Eternal and Nature-born — these things be strong?
What else is Wisdom ? What of man's endeavour
Or God's high grace so lovely and so great ?
To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait ;
To hold a hand uplifted over Hate ;
And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever ?
Leader.
Happy he, on the weary sea
Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven.
Happy whoso hath risen, free.
Above his striving. For strangely graven
Is the orb of life, that one and another
In gold and power may outpass his brother.
And men in their millions float and flow
And seethe with a million hopes as leaven ;
And they win their Will, or they miss their Will,
And the hopes are dead or are pined for still ;
But whoe'er can know.
As the long days go,
That To Live is happy, hath found his Heaven !
THE BACCHAE 127
Re-enter Dionysus /row the Castle.
Dionysus,
O eye that cravest sights thou must not see,
O heart athirst for that which slakes not ! Thee,
Pentheus, I call ; forth and be seen, in guise
Of woman. Maenad, saint of Dionyse,
To spy upon His Chosen and thine own
Mother !
[^Enter Pentheus, clad like a Bacchanal, and
strangely excited, a spirit of Bacchic madness
overshadowing him.
Thy shape, methinks, is like to one
Of Cadmus' royal maids !
Pentheus.
Yea ; and mine eye
Is bright ! Yon sun shines twofold in the sky,
Thebes twofold and the Wall of Seven Gates. . . ,
And is it a Wild Bull this, that walks and waits
Before me ? There are horns upon thy brow !
What art thou, man or beast ? For surely now
The Bull IS on thee !
Dionysus.
He who erst was wrath,
Goes with us now in gentleness. He hath
Unsealed thine eyes to see what thou shouldst see.
Pentheus.
Say ; stand I not as Ino stands, or she
Who bore me ?
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Dionysus.
When I look on thee, it seems
I see their very selves !— But stay ; why streams
That lock abroad, not where I laid it, crossed
Under the coif?
Pentheus.
I did it, as I tossed
My head in dancing, to and fro, and cried
His holy mvisic !
Dionysus [tending htm).
It shall soon be tied
Aright. 'Tis mine to tend thee. . . . Nay, but stand
With head straight.
Pentheus.
In the hollow of thy hand
I lay me. Deck me as thou wilt.
Dionysus.
Thy zone
Is loosened likewise ; and the folded gown
Not evenly falling to the feet.
Pentheus.
'Tis so.
By the right foot. But here, methinks, they flow
In one straight line to the heel.
Dionysus {while tending him).
And if thou prove
Their madness true, aye, more than true, what love
And thanks hast thou for me ?
THE BACCHAE 129
Peni-heus {not listt-nirig to him).
In my right hand
Is it, or thus, that I should hear the wand.
To be most hkc to them ?
Dionysus.
Up let It swing
In the right hand, timed with the right foot's
spring. . . .
'Tis well thy heart is changed !
Pentheus [rjiore wildly).
What strength is this !
Kithaeron's steeps and all that in them is —
How say'st thou ? — Could my shoulders lift the whole
Dionysus.
Surely thou canst, and if thou wilt ! Thy soul.
Being once so sick, now stands as it should stand.
Pentheus.
Shall it be bars of iron ? Or this bare hand
And shoulder to the crags, to wrench them down ?
Dionysus.
Wouldst wreck the Nymphs' wild temples, and the
brown
Rocks, where Pan pipes at noonday ?
Pentheus.
Nay ; not I !
Force is not well with women. I will lie
Hid in the pine-brake.
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Dionysus.
Even as fits a spy
On holy and fearful things, so shalt thou lie !
Pentheus {with a laugh).
They lie there now, methinks — the wild birds, caught
By love among the leaves, and fluttering not !
Dionysus.
It may be. That is what thou goest to see,
Aye, and to trap them — so they trap not thee !
Pentheus.
Forth through the Thebans' town ! I am their king,
Aye, their one Man, seeing I dare this thing !
Dionysus.
Yea, thou shalt bear their burden, thou alone ;
Therefore thy trial awaiteth thee ! — But on ;
With me into thine ambush shalt thou come
Unscathed ; then let another bear thee home !
Pentheus.
The Queen, my mother.
Dionysus.
Marked of every eye,
Pentheus.
For that I go
Dionysus.
Thou shalt be borne on high !
Pentheus.
That were like pride !
THE BACCHAE 131
Dionysus.
Thy mother's hands shall share
Thy carrying.
Pentheus.
Nay ; I need not such soft care !
Dionysus.
So soft ?
Pentheus.
Whate'er it be, I have earned it well !
[Exit Pentheus towards the Mountain.
Dionysus.
Fell, fell art thou ; and to a doom so fell
Thou walkest, that thy name from South to North
Shall shine, a sign for ever ! — Reach thou forth
Thine arms, AgAv^, now, and ye dark-browed
Cadmeian sisters ! Greet this prince so proud
To the high ordeal, where save God and me,
None walks unscathed ! — The rest this day shall see.
[Exit DioiiYi,vs following Pentheus.
Chorus.
Some Maidens.
O hounds raging and blind.
Up by the mountain road.
Sprites of the maddened mind.
To the wild Maids of God ;
Fill with your rage their eyes.
Rage at the rage unblest.
Watching in woman's guise.
The spy upon God's Possessed.
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A Bacchanal.
Who shall be first, to mark
Eyes in the rock that spy,
Eyes in the pine-tree dark —
Is it his mother ? — and cry :
« Lo, what is this that comes,
Haunting, troubling still.
Even in our heights, our homes,
The wild Maids of the Hill ?
What flesh bare this child ?
Never on woman's breast
Changeling so evil smiled ;
Man is he not, but Beast !
Lion-shape of the wild,
Gorgon-breed of the waste ! "
All the Chorus.
■ Hither, for doom and deed !
Hither with lifted sword,
Justice, Wrath of the Lord,
Come in our visible need !
Smite till the throat shall bleed,
Smite till the heart shall bleed.
Him the tyrannous, lawless. Godless, Echion's earth-
born seed !
Other Maidens.
Tyrannously hath he trod ;
Marched him, in Law's despite,
Against thy Light, O God,
Yea, and thy Mother's Light ;
Girded him, falsely bold.
Blinded in craft, to quell
And by man's violence hold
Things unconquerable.
THE BACCHAE 133
J Bacchanal.
A strait pitiless mind
Is death unto godliness ;
And to feel in human kind
Life, and a pain the less.
Knowledge, we are not foes !
I seek thee diligently ;
But the world with a great wind blows,
Shining, and not from thee ;
Blowing to beautiful things,
On, amid dark and light.
Till Life, through the trammellings
Of Laws that are not the Right,
Breaks, clean and pure, and sings
Glorying to God in the height !
/Ill the Chorus.
Hither for doom and deed !
Hither with lifted sword.
Justice, Wrath of the Lord,
Come in our visible need I
Smite till the throat shall bleed,
Smite till the heart shall bleed.
Him the tyrannous, lawless. Godless, Echion's earth-
born seed !
Leader.
Appear, appear, whatso thy shape or name
O Mountain Bull, Snake of the Hundred Heads,
Lion of Burning Flame !
O God, Beast, Mystery, come ! Thy mystic maids
Are hunted ! — Blast their hunter with thy breath.
Cast o'er his head thy snare ;
And laugh aloud and drag him to his death.
Who stalks thy herded madness in its lair !
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Enter hastily a Messenger /row the Mountain^
pale and distraught.
Messenger.
Woe to the house once blest in Hellas ! Woe
To thee, old King Sidonian, who didst sow
The dragon-seed on Ares' bloody lea !
Alas, even thy slaves must weep for thee !
Leader.
News from the mountain ? — Speak ! How hath it
sped ?
Messenger.
Pentheus, my king, Echion's son, is dead !
Leader.
All hail, God of the Voice,
Manifest ever more !
Messenger.
What say'st thou ? — And how strange thy tone, as
though
In joy at this my master's overthrow !
Leader.
With fierce joy I rejoice,
Child of a savage shore ;
For the chains of my prison are broken, and the dread
where I cowered of yore !
Messenger.
And deem'st thou Thebes so beggared, so forlorn
Of manhood, as to sit beneath thy scorn ?
THE BACCHAE 135
Leader.
Thebes hath oV-r me no sway !
None save Him I obey,
Dionysus, Child of the Highest, Him I obey and adore !
Messenger.
One can forgive thee ! — Yet 'tis no fair thing,
Maids, to rejoice in a man's suffering.
Leader.
Speak of the mountain side !
Tell us the doom he died.
The sinner smitten to death, even where his sin was
sore !
Messenger.
We climbed beyond the utmost habitings
Of Theban shcplierds, passed Asopus' springs,
And struck into the land of rock on dim
Kithaeron — Pcntheus, and, attending him,
I, and the Stranger who should guide our way.
Then first in a green dell we stopped, and lay,
Lips dumb and feet unmoving, warily
Watching, to be unseen and yet to see.
A narrow glen it was, by crags o'ertowercd.
Torn through by tossing waters, and there lowered
A shadow of great pines over it. And there
The Maenad maidens sate ; in toil they were.
Busily glad. Some with an ivy chain
Tricked a worn wand to toss its locks again ;
Some, wild in joyance, like young steeds set free,
Made answering songs of mystic melody.
But my poor master saw not the great band
Before him. " Stranger," cried he, " where we stand
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Mine eyes can reach not these false saints of thine.
Mount we the bank, or some high-shouldered pine,
And I shall see their follies clear ! " At that
There came a marvel. For the Stranger straight
Touched a great pine-tree's high and heavenward
crown.
And lower, lower, lower, urged it down
To the herbless floor. Round like a bending bow,
Or slow wheel's rim a joiner forces to,
So in those hands that tough and mountain stem
Bowed slow — oh, strength not mortal dwelt in them ! —
To the very earth. And there he set the King,
And slowly, lest it cast him in its spring,
Let back the young and straining tree, till high
It towered again amid the towering sky ;
And Pentheus in the branches ! Well, I ween.
He saw the Maenads then, and well was seen !
For scarce was he aloft, when suddenly
There was no Stranger any more with me.
But out of Heaven a Voice — oh, what voice else ? —
'Twas He that called ! " Behold, O damosels,
I bring ye him who turneth to despite
Both me and ye, and darkeneth my great Light.
'Tis yours to avenge ! " So spake he, and there came
'Twixt earth and sky a pillar of high flame.
And silence took the air, and no leaf stirred
In all the forest dell. Thou hadst not heard
In that vast silence any wild thing's cry.
And up they sprang ; .but with bewildered eye.
Agaze and listening, scarce yet hearing true.
Then came the Voice again. And when they knew
Their God's clear call, old Cadmus' royal brood.
Up, like wild pigeons startled in a wood,
THE BACCHAE 137
On flying feet they came, his mother blind,
Ag.lve, and her sisters, and behind
All the wild crowd, more deeply maddened then.
Through the angry rocks and torrent-tossing glen,
Until they spied him in the dark pine-tree :
Then climbed a crag hard by and furiously
Some sought to stone him, some their wands would fling
Lance-wise aloft, in cruel targeting.
But none could strike. The height o'ertopped their
rage.
And there he clung, unscathed, as in a cage
Caught. And of all their strife no end was found.
Then, " Hither," cried Agave ; "stand we round
And grip the stem, my Wild Ones, till we take
This climbing cat-o'-the-mount ! He shall not make
A tale of God's high dances ! " Out then shone
Arm upon arm, past count, and closed upon
The pine, and gripped ; and the ground gave, and down
It reeled. And that high sitter from the crown
Of the green pine-top, with a shrieking cry
Fell, as his mind grew clear, and there hard by
Was horror visible. 'Twas his mother stood
O'er him, first priestess of those rites of blood.
He tore the coif, and from his head away
Flung it, that she might know him, and not slay
To her own misery. He touched the wild
Cheek, crying: "Mother, it is I, thy child,
Thy Penthcus, born thee in Echion's hall !
Have mercy, Mother ! Let it not befall
Through sin of mine, that thou shouldst slay thy son ! "
But she, with lips a-foam and eyes that run
Like leaping fire, with thoughts that ne'er should be
On earth, possessed by Bacchios utterly,
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Stays not nor hears. Round his left arm she put
Both hands, set hard against his side her foot,
Drew . . . and the shoulder severed ! — Not by might
Of arm, but easily, as the God made light
Her hand's essay. And at the other side
Was Ino rending ; and the torn flesh cried,
And on Autonoe pressed, and all the crowd
Of ravening arms. Yea, all the air was loud
With groans that faded into sobbing breath,
Dim shrieks, and joy, and triumph-cries of death.
And here was borne a severed arm, and there
A hunter's booted foot ; white bones lay bare
With rending ; and swift hands ensanguined
Tossed as in sport the flesh of Pentheus dead.
His body lies afar. The precipice
Hath part, and parts in many an interstice
Lvirk of the tangled woodland — no light quest
To find. And, ah, the head ! Of all the rest.
His mother hath it, pierced upon a wand.
As one might pierce a lion's, and through the land,
Leaving her sisters in their dancing place.
Bears it on high ! Yea, to these walls her face
Was set, exulting in her deed of blood,
Calling upon her Bromios, her God,
Her Comrade, Fellow-Render of the Prey,
Her All- Victorious, to whom this day
She bears in triumph . . . her own broken heart !
For me, after that sight, I will depart
Before Agave comes. — Oh, to fulfil
God's laws, and have no thought beyond His will.
Is man's best treasure. Aye, and wisdom true,
Methinks, for things of dust to cleave unto !
[The Messenger departs into the Castle.
THE BACCHAE 139
Chorus.
Some Maidens.
Weave ye the dance, and call
Praise to God !
Bless ye the Tyrant's fall !
Down is trod
Pentheus, the Dragon's Seed !
Wore he the woman's weed ?
Clasped he his death indeed,
Clasped the rod ?
/i Bacchanal.
Yea, the wild ivy lapt him, and the doomed
Wild Bull of Sacrifice before him loomed !
Others.
Ye who did Bromios scorn.
Praise Him the more.
Bacchanals, Cadmus-born ;
Praise with sore
Agony, yea, with tears !
Great are the gifts he bears !
Hands that a mother rears
Red with gore !
Leader.
But stay, Agave cometh ! And her eyes
Make fire around her, reeling ! Ho, the prize
Cometh ! All hail, O Rout of Dionyse !
[Enter from the Mountain Agave, mad, and to
all seeming wondrously happy , bearing the head
of Pentheus in her hand. The Chorus
Maidens stand horror-struck at the sight ;
the Leader, also horror-struck, strives to
accept it and rejoice in it as the God's deed.
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Agave.
Ye from the lands of Morn !
Leader.
Call me not ; I give praise !
Agave.
Lo, from the trunk new^-shorn
Hither a Mountain Thorn
Bear vi^e ! O Asia-born
Bacchanals, bless this chase !
Leader.
I see. Yea ; I see.
Have I not welcomed thee ?
Agave [very calmly and peacefully).
He w^as young in the wildwood :
Without nets I caught him !
Nay , look without fear on
The Lion ; I have ta'en him !
Leader.
Where in the wildwood ?
Whence have ye brought him ?
Agave.
Kithaeron. . . .
Leader.
Kithaeron ?
Agave.
The Mountain hath slain him !
THE BACCHAE 141
Leader.
Who first came nigh him ?
Agave.
I, I, 'tis confessed !
And they named me there by him
Agave the Blessed !
Leader.
Who was next in the band on him ?
Agave.
The daughters. . . .
Leader.
The daughters ?
Agave.
Of Cadmus laid hand on him.
But the swift hand that slaughters
Is mine ; mine is the praise !
Bless ye this day of days !
[The Leader tries to speak, but is not able;
Agave begins gently stroking the head.
Agave.
Gather ye now to the feast !
Leader.
Feast ! — O miserable !
Agave.
See, It falls to his breast,
Curling and gently tressed,
The hair of the Wild Bull's crest—
The young steer of the fell !
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IvF.AOF.R.
Mc^st likf a bc.ist of the wild
Tliat luMil, those locks ilefilal.
Agave {/if ting up the haui, more excitedly).
He wakened his Mad Ones,
A Chase-God, a wise God !
He sprang them to sei/.e this !
He preys where his band preys.
Leader {brooding, with horror).
In the trail of thy Mad Ones
l^hou tearcst thy prize, God !
AiJAVE.
Dost praise it ?
Leadkr.
I praise this ?
Ac; AVE.
Ah, soon shall the land praise !
Leader.
And IVntheus, O Mother,
Thy child I
Agave.
He shall cry on
My name as none other.
Bless the spoils of the Lion !
THE BACCHAE 143
Leader.
Aye, strange is thy treasure !
Agave.
And strange was the taking !
Leader.
Thou art glad r
Agave.
Beyond measure ;
Yea, glad in the breaking
Of dawn upon all this land,
By the prize, the prize of my hand !
Leader.
Show then to all the land, unhappy one,
The trophy of this deed that thou hast done !
Agave.
Ho, all ye men that round the citadel
And shining towers of ancient Thebe dwell.
Come ! Look upon this prize, this lion's spoil,
That we have taken — yea, with our own toil.
We, Cadmus' daughters ! Not with leathern-set
Thessalian javelins, not with hunter's net.
Only white arms and swift hands' bladed fall.
Why make ye much ado, and boast withal
Your armourers' engines ? See, these palms were
bare
That caught the angry beast, and held, and tare
The limbs of him ! . . . Father ! . . . Go, bring
to me
My father ! . . . Aye, and Pcntheus, where is he.
[44 EURIPIDES
My son ? He shall set up a ladder-stair
Against this house, and in the triglyphs there'
Nail me this lion's head, that gloriously
I bring ye, having slain him — I, even I !
[^She goes through the crowd towards the Castle^
showing the head and looking for a place to
hang it. Enter from the Mountain Cad-
mus, with attendants^ bearing the body of
Pentheus on a bier.
Cadmus.
On, with your aw^ful burden. Follow me,
Thralls, to his house, w^hose body grievously
With many a weary search at last in dim
Kithaeron's glens I found, torn limb from limb,
And through the interweaving forest weed
Scattered. — Men told me of my daughters' deed.
When I was just returned within these walls.
With grey Teiresias, from the Bacchanals.
And back I hied me to the hills again
To seek my murdered son. There saw I plain
Actaeon's mother, ranging where he died,
Autonoe ; and Ino by her side,
Wandering ghastly in the pine-copses.
Agave was not there. The rumour is
She Cometh fleet-foot hither. — Ah ! 'Tis true ;
A sight I scarce can bend mine eyes unto.
Agave
{turning from the Palace and seeing him).
My father, a great boast is thine this hour.
Thou hast begotten daughters, high in power
THE BACCHAE 145
And valiant above all mankind — yea, all
Valiant, though none like me I I have let fall
The shuttle by the loom, and raised my hand
For higher thmgs, to slay from out thy land
Wild beasts ! See, in mine arms I bear the prize,
That nailed above these portals it may rise
To show what things thy daughters did ! Do
thou
Take it, and call a feast. Proud art thou now
And highly favoured in our valiancy I
Cadmus.
O depth of grief, how can I fathom thee
Or look upon thee ! — Poor, poor, bloodstained
hand !
Poor sisters ! — A fair sacrifice to stand
Before God's altars, daughter ; yea, and call
Me and my citizens to feast withal !
Nay, let me weep — for thine affliction most.
Then for mine own. All, all of us are lost.
Not wrongfully, yet is it hard, from one
Who might have loved — our Bromios, our ov/n !
Agave,
How crabbed and how scowling in the eyes
Is man's old age ! — Would that my son likewise
Were happy of his hunting, in my way,
When with his warrior bands he will essay
The wild beast ! — Nay, his valiance is to fight
With God's will ! Father, thou shouldst set him
right. . . .
Will no one bring him hither, that mine eyes
May look on his, and show him this my prize !
K
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Cadmus.
Alas, if ever ye can know again
The truth of what ye did, what pain of pain
That truth shall bring ! Or were it best to wait
Darkened for evermore, and deem your state
Not misery, though ye know no happiness ?
Agave.
What seest thou here to chide, or not to bless ?
Cadmus {after hesitation^ resolving himself).
Raise me thine eyes to yon blue dome of air !
Agave.
'Tis done. What dost thou bid me seek for there ?
Cadmus.
Is it the same, or changed in thy sight ?
Agave.
More shining than before, more heavenly bright !
Cadmus.
And that wild tremor, is it with thee still ?
Agave {troubled).
I know not what thou sayest ; but my will
Clears, and some change cometh, I know not how.
Cadmus.
Canst hearken then, being changed, and answer, now ?
Agave.
I have forgotten something ; else I could.
THE BACCHAE 147
Cadmus.
What husband led thee of old from mine abode ?
Agave.
Echion, whom men named the Child of Earth.
Cadmus.
And what child in Echion's house had birth ?
Agave.
Pentheus, of my love and his father's bred.
Cadmus.
Thou bearest in thine arms an head — what head ?
Agave
{beginning to tremble^ and not looking at what she carries).
A lion's — so thev all said in the chase.
Cadmus.
Turn to it now — 'tis no long toil — and gaze.
Agave.
Ah ! But what is it r What am I carrying here r
Cadmus.
Look once upon it full, till all be clear !
Agave.
I see . . . most deadly pain ! Oh, woe is me !
Cadmus.
Wears it the likeness of a lion to thee ?
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Agave.
No ; 'tis the head — O God ! — of Pentheus, this !
Cadmus.
Blood-drenched ere thou wouldst know him ! Aye,
'tis his.
Agave.
Who slew^ him ? — How^ came I to hold this thing ?
Cadmus.
O cruel Truth, is this thine home-coming ?
Agave.
Answer ! My heart is hanging on thy breath !
Cadmus.
'Twas thou. — Thou and thy sisters wrought his death.
Agave.
In what place was it ? His own house, or where ?
Cadmus.
Where the dogs tore Actaeon, even there.
Agave.
Why went he to Kithaeron ? What sought he ?
Cadmus.
To mock the God and thine own ecstasy.
Agave.
But how should we be on the hills this day ?
Cadmus.
Being mad ! A spirit drove all the land that way.
THE BACCHAE 149
ACAVE.
'Tis Dionyse hath done it ! Now I see.
Cadmus {earnestly).
Ye wronged Him ! Yc denied his deity !
Agave {turning from him).
Show me the body of the son I love !
Cadmus {leading her to the l>ier).
'Tis here, my child. Hard was the quest thereof.
Agave.
Laid in due state r
\^Js there is no answer, she lifts the veil of the bier.,
and sees.
Oh, if I wrought a sin,
'Twas mine ! What portion had my child therein r
Cadmus.
He made him like to you, adoring not
The God ; who therefore to one bane hath brought
You and this body, wrecking all our line.
And me. Aye, no man-child was ever mine ;
And now this first-fruit of the flesh of thee,
Sad woman, foully here and frightfully
Lies murdered ! Whom the house looked up unto,
[Kneeling by the body.
O Child, my daughter's child ! who heldcst true
Mv castle walls ; and to the folk a name
Of fear thou wast ; and no man sought to shame
My grey beard, when they knew that thou wast
there,
Else had they swift reward ! — And now I fare
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Forth in dishonour, outcast, I, the great
Cadmus, who sowed tlie seed-rows of this state
Of Thebes, and reaped the harvest wonderful.
O my beloved, though thy heart is dull
In death, O still beloved, and alway
Beloved ! Never more, then, shalt thou lay
Thine hand to this white beard, and speak to me
Thy "Mother's Father" ; ask "Who wrongeth thee ?
Who stints thine honour, or with malice stirs
Thine heart ? Speak, and I smite thine injurers I "
But now — woe, woe, to me and thee also.
Woe to thy mother and her sisters, woe
Alway ! Oh, whoso walketh not in dread
Of Gods, let him but look on this man dead !
Leader.
Lo, I weep with thee. 'Twas but due reward
God sent on Pentheus ; but for thee . . . 'Tis hard.
Agave.
My father, thou canst see the change in me,
* * * * *
*****
[^ page or tiiore has here been torn out of the MS. from
which all our copies of ** The Bacchae " are derived. It
evidently contained a speech of Agave [followed presum-
ably by some words of the Chorus)^ and an appearance of
Dionysus upon a cloud. He must have pronounced Judg-
ment upon the Thebans in general, and especially upon the
daughters of Cadmus, have justified his own action, and
declared his determiyiation to establish his godhead. Where
the MS. begins again, we find him addressing Cadmus.]
*****
THE BACCHAE 151
Dionysus.
And tell of Time, what gifts for thee he bears,
What griefs and wonders in the winding years.
For thou must change and be a Serpent Thing
Strange, and beside thee she whom thou didst bring
Of old to be thy bride from Heaven afar,
Harmonia, daughter of the Lord of War.
Yea, and a chariot of kine — so spake
The word of Zeus — thee and thy Queen shall take
Through many lands, Lord of a wild array
Of orient spears. And many towns shall they
Destroy beneath thee, that vast horde, until
They touch Apollo's dwelling, and fulfil
Their doom, back driven on stormy ways and steep.
Thee only and thy spouse shall Ares keep,
And save alive to the Islands of the Blest.
Thus speaketh Dionysus, Son confessed
Of no man but of Zeus ! — Ah, had ye seen
Truth in the hour ye would not, all had been
Well with ye, and the Child of God your friend !
Agave.
Dionysus, we beseech thee ! We have sinned !
Dionysus.
Too late ! When there was time, ye knew me not !
Agave.
We have confessed. Yet is thine hand too hot.
Dionysus.
Ye mocked me, being God ; this is your wage.
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Agave.
Should God be like a proud man in his rage ?
Dionysus.
'Tis as my sire, Zeus, willed it long ago.
Agave {turning from him abnost with disdain^
Old Man, the word is spoken ; we must go.
Dionysus.
And seeing ye must, what is it that ye wait ?
Cadmus.
Child, we are come into a deadly strait,
All ; thou, poor sufferer, and thy sisters twain.
And my sad self. Far off to barbarous men,
A grey-haired wanderer, I must take my road.
And then the oracle, the doom of God,
That I must lead a raging horde far-flown
To prey on Hellas ; lead my spouse, mine own
Harmonia, Ares' child, discorporate
And haunting forms, dragon and dragon-mate,
Against the tombs and altar-stones of Greece,
Lance upon lance behind us ; and not cease
From toils, like other men, nor dream, nor past
The foam of Acheron find my peace at last.
Agave.
Father ! And I must wander far from thee !
Cadmus.
O Child, why wilt thou reach thine arms to me,
As yearns the milk-white swan, when old swans die ?
Agave.
Where shall I turn me else ? No home have I.
THE BACCHAE 153
Cadmus.
I know not ; I can help thee not.
Agave.
Farewell, O home, O ancient tower !
Lo, I am outcast from my bower,
And leave ye for a worser lot.
Cadmus,
Go forth, go forth to misery.
The way Actaeon's father went !
Agave.
Father, for thee my tears are spent.
Cadmus.
Nay, Child, 'tis I must weep for thee ;
For thee and for thy sisters twain !
Agave.
On all this house, in bitter wise,
Our Lord and Master, Dionyse,
Hath poured the utter dregs of pain !
Dionysus.
In bitter wise, for bitter was the shame
Ye did me, when Thebes honoured not my name.
Agave.
Then lead me where my sisters be ;
Together let our tears be shed.
Our ways be wandered ; where no red
Kithaeron waits to gaze on me ;
[54 EURIPIDES
Nor I gaze back ; no thyrsus stem,
Nor song, nor memory in the air.
Oh, other Bacchanals be there,
Not I, not I, to dream of them !
[Agave with her group of attendants goes out on
the side away from the Mountain. DiONYSUS
rises upon the Cloud and disappears.
Chorus.
There be many shapes of mystery.
And many things God makes to be.
Past hope or fear.
And the end men looked for cometh not,
And a path is there where no man thought.
So hath It fallen here. [Exeunt.
/^(T
NOTES ON THE HIPPOLYTUS
Prologue. — The Aphrodite of Euripides' actual
belief, if one may venture to dogmatise on such a
subject, was almost certainly not what we should call
a goddess, but rather a Force of Nature, or a Spirit
working in the world. To deny her existence you
would have to say not merely, "There is no such
person," but " There is no such thing ; " and such a
denial would be a defiance of obvious facts. It is in
this sense that it is possible to speak of Hippolytus as
"sinning against Aphrodite."
For the purposes of drama, of course, this "thing"
must be made into a person, and even represented in
human form according to the current conceptions of
mythology. And, once personified, she becomes, like
most of the Olympians in Euripides, certainly hateful
and perhaps definitely evil, though still far removed
from the degraded, ultra-feminine goddess of Ovid and
the handbooks of mythology. In this prologue she
retains much of the impersonal grandeur of a Force of
Nature. The words "I grudge it not : no grudge
know I, nor hate," are doubtless intended to be true.
P. 3, 1. II, Pitthcus.] — Father of Aethra, who was
Theseus' mother. Formerly King of Trozcn, now
ending his days in a life of meditation.
P. 4, 11. 31 ff.. She built a shrine.] — An obscure
passage, in which I follow the suggestion of Dr.
156 EURIPIDES
Verrall {Class, Rev. xv. 449). Euripides is evidently-
giving an account of the origin of a sanctuary of
Aphrodite Pandemos on the Acropohs, which in his
day was known as ' Af^pohiTrj iirl ' iTnrokvrw., i.e. (as,
at least, he imagined) "Aphrodite for Hippolytus," or
" with a view to Hippolytus." Phaedra, he says,
built this shrine because of., thinking of., Hippolytus
— i.e. seeking to exorcise her passion for him, and to
fix her errant love at home as she fixed the shrine in
the rock. She perhaps — so Dr. Verrall suggests —
called it Aphrodite Endemos, " Love-at-home " or
" in-the-land." When her plan failed, and it appeared
that Love will not be fixed down in one place, the name
was changed to Pandemos, " of-all-lands." Of course
it is not certain, nor even very probable, that either
ndvSr]fxo<; or eVt ' IiriTokvra) originally bore the mean-
ing that Euripides and his contemporaries attached to
them. 'EttI ' iTnroXvTO), for instance, is quite likely,
in its original form, to have meant " the shrine at the
place where horses are unyoked."
P. 6, 1. 73, From a green and virgin meadow.]
— There are long discussions in the ancient Greek
commentators, whether this meadow is real or alle-
gorical. Is it only the garland of his adoration from
the meadow of his virgin soul ? " It seems odd," says
one of them, " to have a meadow which you are not
allowed to enter until you can show that your good
qualities do not come from education ! " Doubtless
it is a real sacred meadow.
Pp. 7, 8, 11. 99, 103. — In two lines, " Then why wilt
thou be proud ? " and " Clean ? Nay, proud," I follow
my own published text, reading ae/j,vo<; for aeavrjv and
aefivij.
NOTES 157
P. 9, 1. 121, Of Ocean's tribe.]— The river Ocean
was, by some accounts, the father of all fresh and
pure water.
P. 10, 11. 142, 143, Hecate . . . Pan ... the Cory-
bantes.] — These powers all produced seizures, terrors,
and ecstasies. Dictynna (often a mere alternative
name for Artemis) was, strictly speaking, a Cretan sea-
goddess — cf. hUrvoi'i " a net " — a hunter of the sea as
Artemis is a hunter of the land. (She is identified with
Artemis on p. 59.) She can catch Phaedra in Limna,
the " Mere " in the neighbourhood of Trozen, because
Limna is a dried-up lagoon that was once part of the
sea, and therefore belongs to the sea powers.
P. 10, 1. 151, Erechtheus.] — An old king of
Athens.
P. 12, 11. 193, 194, This nameless and shining thing.]
— Reading rov 8' on tovto crriX/Sei . . • SufftptoTe?.
P. 13, 1. 228, The Sea-lorn Mere.] — The dried
lagoon, Limna, near Trozt^n, used for chariot races.
The "unseaswept sands," just below, are the same.
P. 15, 11. 264, 265.— "Thorough" and "Naught
too much " were mottoes of two of the legendary
Seven Wise Men.
P. 16, 1. 281, He is on a journey.] — Apparently to
an oracle (see below). Perhaps there was a definite
tradition saying where he had gone and why, but if so,
it is lost. A modern playwright would, of course, fill
in these details, for the sake of verisimilitude ; the
ancient playwright intentionally omits them as irre-
levant, just as he omits to give proper names to his
Nurses, Messengers, and Leaders of the Chorus.
P. 19, 1. 325, What wouldst thou ? Force me.] —
It was of the nature of sin to reject a suppliant, i.e.
158 EURIPIDES
a person who threw himself entirely upon your mercy,
and implored you. The repugnance that an ordi-
nary person has to such a rejection was felt by the
Greeks in a religious way. The ultimate sanction,
if you did harden your heart, would be twofold : first,
the gods would have a natural repulsion against one
who formally and knowingly refused to be merciful ;
secondly, the suppliant might do what the Nurse
threatens to do here, and stay immovable till he died
of hunger or exposure — and his death would lie at the
door of his rejector !
P. 20, 11. 337-341, Mother, poor Mother, that didst
love so sore.] — Phaedra thinks of the general wreck
of her house through love. Her mother, Pasiphae,
wife of Minos, loved the pirate or adventurer Tauros
("The Bull"), was cast into prison by her husband,
and there starved herself to death (see Appendix, The
Cretans). Her sister, Ariadne, had loved Theseus ;
he saved her from her father's vengeance, but by com-
mand of the gods left her on the lonely island of Naxos,
where the god Dionysus came and carried her away
(see Appendix, The Theseus).
P. 22, 1. 372, The Isle of awful Love.] — Crete,
because of Pasiphae, Ariadne, Aerope, the wife of
Thyestes, and other heroines of terrible love-stories.
P. 23, 1. 373, O Women, dwellers in this portal-
seat.] — This wonderful passage is very characteristic
of Euripides — a subtle and beautiful study of character
expressed in a formal, self-analysing speech. The
"delights" that have tempted and undone her are,
first, the pleasure of long talks — with Hippolytus, or
about him ; next, the pleasure of losing herself in
dreams ; and thirdly, in some sense not precisely
NOTES 159
explained, but surely not difficult to understand, a feel-
ing of shame or cowardice. She feels that if only she
had had more courage all might have been well !
Why this " shame," this yielding to fear, strikes her
at this moment as a "delight," is not explained ; but
it does not seem to me unnatural.
P. 25, 1. 433, Mistress, a sharp, swift terror, &c.] —
This speech of the Nurse, so beautiful and so full of
sophistries, is typically the kind of thing that caused
Euripides to be accused of immoral writing.
P. 28, 1. 478, Love-philtres.] — The situation at
the end of this scene seems to be this : The Nurse
goes in to prepare a magic charm %uhich shall cure
Phaedra of her love^ but mentions that, in order to
prepare it, she must get something belonging to
Hippolytus to weave into the charm. (Either a
material object to be actually woven into the charm,
or a word, to be ceremonially caught and woven in
— a common device in magic.) Phaedra suspects that
she means to speak to Hippolytus, and the Nurse's
next words rather confirm her suspicions ; but, broken
and weary as she is, she has not strength or keenness
of mind enough to make sure and to prevent her doing
so. A large part of her nature, no doubt, longs to have
Hippolytus told, and succeeds at this critical moment
in lulling to sleep her exhausted will and conscience.
P. 30, 11. 545-564, Chorus.] — The second strophe
and antistrophe (" On Oechalian hills, iS-'c"), are rather
obscure. The connection of thought is : "Think of
the terrible things that have befallen through love I
How Iol<}, daughter of Eurytus, suffered, when the
angry love of Heracles made him burn her father's
house in Oechalia, and carry her oflf amid flames and
i6o EURIPIDES
blood. And how Semelc, the mother of Bacchus,
suffered in Thebes by the waters of Dirc^, when
Zeus came to her in a blaze of lightning, and his love
was her death."
P. 33, 1. 612, 'Twas but my tongue, 'twas not
my soul that swore.] — A line constantly misrepre-
sented and attacked (see on Frogs^ 1. loi, p. 187). In
reality Hippolytus faces death rather than break the
oath that he was trapped into.
P. 34, 1. 616, O God, why hast thou made this
gleaming snare.] — The fury of this speech, while not
unnatural to the youthful saintliness of Hippolytus,
is intentionally made bitter and offensive by the play-
wright, so as to throw our sympathies for the time
entirely on the side of Phaedra. We hate Hippolytus,
and can for the moment sympathise with, or at least
understand, her terrible act of blind self-preservation
and revenge.
P. 36, 1. 690, He speeds to abase me to the King.]
— He had definitely said that he would not do so ;
but she felt his hatred, she had no reason to trust
him, she had just been betrayed by one much closer
to her, and probably she had hardly even noticed the
actual words in his torrent of rage.
P. 38, 1. 712, Know naught and speak of naught.]
— This oath of the Chorus is important for the sequel
of the play. It prevents them from saving Hippolytus.
P. 39, 1. 732, Could I take me to some cavern for
mine hiding.] — This lovely song seems to me a good
instance of the artistic value of the Greek chorus.
The last scene has been tragic to the point of pain-
fulness ; the one thing that can heal the pain without
spoiling the interest is an outburst of pure poetry.
NOTES i6i
And the sentiment of this song, the longing to escape
to a realm, if not of happiness, at least of beautiful
sadness, is so magically right,
Phacthon, who tried to drive the chariot of the Sun
and fell, was buried by the river Eridanus (afterwards
identified with the Po). His sisters wept over his
grave, and their tears turned to drops of amber.
P. 39, 1. 742, The apple-tree, the singing and the
gold.] — The Garden of the Hesperides, or Daughters
of the Sunset, was in the West, near the Pillars of
Heracles, which marked the utmost limit to which
man might travel. The apple-tree bore golden
apples, and it was here that Zeus walked in the
garden and first met his bride, Hera.
P. 40, 1. 756, Sure some spell upon either hand.] —
A curse or spell must have come with her from Crete.
It was difficult for a curse to come from one country
to another. Exactly like infection, it had to be some-
how carried. The women suggest that it came with
Phaedra in the ship, and then, when the ship was
moored in Munychia, the old harbour of Athens, it
crawled up the cables to the shore.
P. 42, 1. 803, A fit of the old cold anguish ?] — It
is characteristic of Euripides to throw these sudden
lights back on the history of his characters. We
never knew before (except perhaps from the Pro-
logue) that Phaedra had had these fits of "cold
anguish," or that Theseus had noticed them. Cf. p.
56, where for the first time we have a reference to
Theseus' own turbulent youth, and his crime against
the Amazon, Hippolytus' mother. And p. 50, where
we first hear that Hippolytus fasted and followed
Orphic rites.
L
i62 EURIPIDES
P. 42, 1. 804, But now arrived we be.] — A lie, to
make the avoidance of explanations easier.
Pp. 43 f., 11. 817-851.] — The laments of Theseus,
though they cannot compensate for the drop of dra-
matic interest after Phaedra's death, are full of beauty
and also of character. They bring out clearly the
passionateness of the old hero, and also the way in
which he only gradually, and then with increasing
emotion, realises his loss.
P. 51, 1. 977.] — Sinis was a robber slain by Theseus
at the Isthmus of Corinth. He tied his victims to
the tops of pine-trees, which he had bent to the
ground, and, according to Hyginus, sent them flying
in the air so that they fell and were killed ; as
Pausanias rather more intelligibly puts it, he tied them
between two pines, which he had bent together, and
then let the pines spring back and rack the men
asunder. Skiron was another robber in the same
neighbourhood ; he made travellers wash his feet on
the top of a cliff — the Skironian Rock (cf. p. 63) —
and then kicked them into the sea.
Pp. 51-54? 11' 983 ft*) Hippolytus' speech.] — The
ineffectiveness of this speech is, of course, intentional
on the poet's part. The one effective answer for
Hippolytus would be to break his oath and tell the
whole truth. As it is, he can do nothing but appeal
to his known character, and plead passionately against
all the inferences that his father has drawn as to his
general hypocrisy.
P. 54, 1. 1036, It is enough.] — The Chorus, de-
barred from announcing the truth, catch at any straws
that tell in favour of the truth.
P. 54, 1. 1041, Father, 'tis thy mood that makes me
NOTES 163
marvel.] — He means, I think, to make Theseus realise
that the charge is flatly incredible. "You yourself do
not believe that I have done such a thing ! I know,
and you know, that you do not believe it. If you did,
you would kill me on the spot, not go on talking like
this."
P. 55, 1. 1057, ^° prophet's lot.] — A prophet spoke
from some "sign" or "lot" which he mterpreted.
This might be an actual " lot," drawn or cast ; or by
extension, any other sign, from the flesh of a victim or
from the flight of birds.
P. 60, 1. 1 142, And I, even I, Sec] — The song of
this maiden may have given Racine the hint of his
additional character, Aricie, the princess whom his
Hippolyte loves.
P. 62, 1. 1 195, And down the road we henchmen
followed.] — They walked or ran beside the chariot,
accompanying their master to the frontier. Ancient
chariots, when used for travelling, went slowly.
P. 70, 1. 1391, O breath of heavenly fragrance, &c.]
— This and the next line make one doubt whether
Artemis was supposed to be visible, or only present
as a voice. Cf. p. 6, 1. 86, "Though none may see
thine eyes."
P. 72,1. 1420, My hand shall win its vengeance.] —
By causing the death of Adonis, whom Aphrodite
loved. It is noteworthy how Euripides' moral hatred
of the orthodox Olympian gods breaks out even in
this passage, otherwise so exquisitely beautiful. The
human beings are full of love and mutual forgiveness.
The goddess, radiantly lovely as she is and pure with
the purity of dawn, still thinks of revenge, and — as
appears at her departure — is, in some profoundly tragic
i64 EURIPIDES
sense, unloving : a being to be adored, not to love
back. The last consolation of Hippolytus is the
thought of his perfect devotion to one who in the
nature of things can care for him only a little : " I
have obeyed Her all my days."
The thing that is missing from Artemis is exactly
what is present in the beautiful vase picture of the
Dawn Goddess raising in her arms the body of her
slain son, Memnon.
This last scene is one of those passages which show
the ultimate falseness of the distinction between Classi-
cal and Romantic. The highest poetry has the beauty
of both.
uv^
EOS, THK n.\\VN.(.()|ilil.S>, K.\I>1N<. HI k -I.AIN SON
NOTES ON THE BACCHAE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
The Bacchae^ being from one point of view a religious
drama, a kind of " mystery play," is full of allusions
both to the myth and to the religion of Dionysus.
1. The Myth, as implied by Euripides. Semele,
daughter of Cadmus, being loved by Zeus, asked her
divine lover to appear to her once in his full glory ;
he came, a blaze of miraculous lightning, in the
ecstasy of which Semele died, givmg premature birth
to a son. Zeus, to save this child's life and make him
truly God as well as Man, tore open his own flesh
and therein fostered the child till in due time, by a
miraculous and mysterious Second Birth, the child
of Semelc came to full life as God.
2. The Religion of Dionysus is hard to formulate
or even describe, both because of its composite origins
and because of its condition of constant vitality,
fluctuation, and development.
{a) The first datum, apparently, is the introduction
from Thrace of the characteristic God of the wild
northern mountains, a God of Intoxication, of In-
spiration, a giver of superhuman or immortal life.
His worship is superposed upon that of divers old
Tree or Vegetation Gods, already worshipped in
165
i66 EURIPIDES
Greece. He becomes specially the God of the Vine.
Originally a god of the common folk, despised and un-
authorised, he is eventually so strong as to be adopted
into the Olympian hierarchy as the "youngest" of
the Gods, son of Zeus. His " Olympian " name, so
to speak, is Dionysus, but in his worship he is ad-
dressed by numbers of names, more or less mystic
and secret — Bromios, Bacchios or Baccheus, lacchos,
Eleuthereus, Zagreus, Sabazios, &c. Some of these
may be the names of old spirits whom he has dis-
placed ; some are his own Thracian names. Bromos
and Sabaja, for instance, seem to have been Thracian
names for two kinds of intoxicating drink. Bacchos
means a " wand." Together with his many names,
he has many shapes, especially appearing as a Bull and
a Serpent.
(J?) This religion, very primitive and barbarous,
but possessing a strong hold over the emotions of
the common people, was seized upon and transfigured
by the great wave of religious reform, known under
the name of Orphism, which swept over Greece and
South Italy in the sixth century B.C., and influenced
the teachings of such philosophers as Pythagoras,
Ansteas, Empedocles, and the many writers on puri-
fication and the world after death. Orphism may
very possibly represent an ancient Cretan religion in
clash or fusion with one from Thrace. At any rate, it
was grafted straight upon the Dionysus-worship, and,
without rationalising, spiritualised and reformed it.
Ascetic, mystical, ritualistic, and emotional, Orphism
easily excited both enthusiasm and ridicule. It lent
itself both to inspired saintliness and to imposture. In
doctrine it laid especial stress upon sin, and the
NOTES 167
sacerdotal purification of sin ; on the eternal reward
due beyond the grave to the pure and the impure, the
pure living in an eternal ecstasy — " perpetual intoxi-
cation," as Plato satirically calls it — the impure toiling
through long ages to wash out their stains. It recast
in various ways the myth of Dionysus, and especially
the story of his Second Birth. All true worshippers
become in a mystical sense one with the God ; they
are born again and are "Bacchoi." Dionysus being the
God within, the perfectly pure soul is possessed by the
God wholly, and becomes nothing but the God.
Based on very primitive rites and feelings, on the
religion of men who made their gods in the image
of snakes and bulls and fawns, because they hardly
felt any difference of kind between themselves and
the animals, the worship of Dionysus kept always this
feeling of kinship with wild things. The beautiful
side of this feeling is vividly conspicuous in The
Bacchae. And the horrible side is not in the least
concealed.
A curious relic of primitive superstition and cruelty
remained firmly imbedded in Orphism — a doctrine
irrational and unintelligible, and for that very reason
wrapped in the deepest and most sacred mystery : a
belief in the sacrifice of Dionysus himself, and the
purification of man by his blood.
It seems possible that the savage Thracians, in the
fury of their worship on the mountains, when they
were possessed by the God and became " wild beasts,"
actually tore with their teeth and hands any hares,
goats, fawns, or the like that they came across. There
survives a constant tradition of inspired Bacchanals in
their miraculous strength tearing even bulls asunder
i68 EURIPIDES
— a feat, happily, beyond the bounds of human possi-
bility. The wild beast that tore was, of course, the
savage God himself. And by one of those curious
confusions of thought, which seem so inconceivable to
us and so absolutely natural and obvious to primitive
men, the beast torn was also the God ! The Orphic
congregations of later times, in their most holy
gatherings, solemnly partook of the blood of a bull,
which was, by a mystery, the blood of Dionysus-
Zagreus himself, the " Bull of God," slain in sacrifice
for the purification of man. And the Maenads of
poetry and myth, among more beautiful proofs of their
superhuman or infra-human character, have always to
tear bulls in pieces and taste of the blood. It is
noteworthy, and throws much light on the spirit
of Orphism, that apart from this sacramental tasting
of the blood, the Orphic worshipper held it an abomi-
nation to eat the flesh of animals at all. The same
religious fervour and zeal for purity which made him
reject the pollution of animal food, made him at the
same time cling to a ceremonial which would utterly
disgust the ordinary hardened flesh-eater. It fascinated
him just because it was so incredibly primitive and
uncanny ; because it was a mystery which transcended
reason !
It will be observed that Euripides, though certainly
familiar with Orphism — which he mentions in The
Hippolytus and treated at length in The Cretans
(see Appendix) — has in The Bacchae gone back behind
Orphism to the more primitive stuff from which it
was made. He has little reference to any specially
Orphic doctrine ; not a word, for instance, about
the immortality of the soul. And his idealisation or
NOTES 169
spiritualisation of Dionysus-worship proceeds along the
h'nes of his own thought, not on those already fixed by
the Orphic teachers.
P. 80, 1. 17, Asia all that by the salt sea lies, <?cc.],
i.e. the coasts of Asia Minor inhabited by Greeks,
Ionia, Aeolis, and Doris.
P. 80, 1. 27, From Dian seed.] — Dian = belonging
to Zeus. The name Dionysus seemed to be derived
from AL6<;y the genitive of "Zeus."
P. 81, 1. 50, Should this Theban town essay with
wrath and battle. Sec] — This suggestion of a possi-
bility which is never realised or approached is perhaps
a mark of the unrevised condition of the play. The
same may be said of the repetitions in the Prologue.
Pp. 82-86,11. 64-169. — This first song of the Chorus
covers a great deal of Bacchic doctrine and myth.
The first strophe, " Oh blessed he in all wise,"
&c., descrTBesTKe bliss of Bacchic purity ; the anti-_
strophe gives the two births of Dionysus, from
Semele and from the body of Zeus, mentioning his
mystic epiphanies as Bull and as Serpent. The next
strophe is an appeal to Thebes, the birthplace or
'^TTurse " of the Code's mother, Semele ; the anti-
strophe, an appeal to the cavern in Crete, the birthplace
of Zeus, "the God's father, and the original home of
the mystic Timbrel. The Epode, or closing song, is
full, not of doctrine, but of the pure poetry of the
worship.
Pp. 86-95, 11. 170-369, Tcircsias and Cadmus.] —
Teiresias seems to be not a spokesman of the poet's own
views — far from it — but a type of the more cultured
170 EURIPIDES
sort of Dionysiac priest, not very enlightened, but
ready to abate some of the extreme dogmas of his creed
if he may keep the rest. Cadmus, quite a different
character, takes a very human and earthly point of
view : the God is probably a true God ; but even
if he is false, there is no great harm done, and the
worship will bring renown to Thebes and the royal
family. It is noteworthy how full of pity Cadmus is
— the sympathetic kindliness of the sons of this world
as contrasted with the pitilessness of gods and their
devotees. See especially the last scenes of the play.
Even his final outburst of despair at not dying like
other men (p. 152), shows the same sympathetic
humanity.
Pp. 89 fF., 11. 215-262. — Pentheus, though his case
against the new worship is so good, and he might so
easily have been made into a fine martyr, like Hippo-
lytus, is left harsh and unpleasant, and very close in
type to the ordinary " tyrant " of Greek tragedy (cf.
p. 118). It IS also noteworthy, I think, that he is, as
it were, out of tone with the other characters. He
belongs to a different atmosphere, like, to take a recent
instance, Golaud in Pelle'as et Melisande.
P. 91, 1. 263, Injurious King, &c.] — It is a mark
of a certain yielding to stage convention in Euripides'"
later style, that he allows the Chorus Leader to make
remarks which are not " asides," but are yet not heard
or noticed by anybody.
P. 91, 1. 264, Sower of the Giants' sod.] — Cadmus,
by divine guidance, slew a dragon and sowed the teeth
of it like seed in the "Field of Ares." From the
teeth rose a harvest of Earth-born, or " Giant ""
warriors, of whom Echion was one.
NOTES 171
P. 92, 1. 287, Learn the truth of it, cleared from
the false.] — This timid essay in rationalism reminds
one of similar efforts in Pindar (e.g. 01. i.). It is
the product of a religious and unspeculative mind,
not feeling difficulties itself, but troubled by other
people's questions and objections. (See above on
Teiresias.)
P. 92, 1. 292, The world-encircling Fire.] — This
fire, or ether, was the ordinary material of which
phantoms or apparitions were made.
Pp. 93-95, 11. 330-369. — These three speeches are
very clearly contrasted. Cadmus, thoroughly human,
thinking of sympathy and expediency, and vividly re-
membering the fate of his other grandson, Actaeon ;
Pentheus, angry and " tyrannical " ; Teiresias speakmg
like a Christian priest of the Middle Ages, almost
like Tennyson's Becket.
P. 95, 1. 370. — The goddess 'Ocrta, " Purity," seems
to be one of the many abstractions which were half
personified bv philosophy and by Orphism. It is pos-
sible that the word is really adjectival, "Immaculate
One," and originally an epithet of some more definite
goddess, e.g. as Miss Harrison suggests, of Nemesis.
In this and other choruses it is very uncertain how
the lines should be distributed between the whole
chorus, .the two semi-choruses, and the various indi-
vidual chorcutae.
Pp. 97-98, 11. 402-430. — For the meaning of these
lines, see Introduction, pp. Ixi, Ixii.
P. 100, 1. 471, These emblems.] — There were gene-
rally associated with mysteries, or special forms of
worship, certain relics or sacred implements, without
which the rites could not be performed. Cf. Hdt.
172 EURIPIDES
vii. 153, where Telines of Gela stole the sacred im-
plements or emblems of the nether gods, so that no
worship could be performed, and the town was, as it
were, excommunicated.
P. 103, II. 493 ff.. The soldiers cut off the tressJ] — The
stage directions here are difficult. It is conceivable
that none of Pentheus' threats are carried out at all ;
that the God mysteriously paralyses the hand that is
lifted to take his rod without Pentheus himself knowing
it. But I think it more likely that the humiliation
of Dionysus is made, as far as externals go, complete,
and that it is not till later that he begins to show
his superhuman powers.
P. 104, 1. 508, So let it be.] — The name Pentheus
suggests ' mourner,' from penthos, * mourning.'
P. 105, 1. 519, Acheloiis' roaming daughter.] —
Acheloiis was the Father of all Rivers.
P. 107, 1. 556, In thine own Nysa.] — An unknown
divine mountain, formed apparently to account for
the second part of the name Dionysus.
P. 107, 1. 571, Cross the Lydias, &c.] — These are
rivers of Thrace which Dionysus must cross in his
passage from the East, the Lydias, the Axios, and some
other, perhaps the Haliacmon, which is called " the
father-stream of story,"
P. 108, 1. 579, A Voice, a Voice.] — Bromios, the
God of Many Voices — for, whatever the real deriva-
tion, the fifth-century Greeks certainly associated the
name with /3pe/x,6o, ' to roar ' — manifests himself as a
voice here and below (p. 136).
Pp. 109-112,11. 6o2-64i,Ye Damsels of theMorning
Hills, &c.] — This scene in longer metre always strikes
me as a little unlike the style of Euripides, and inferior.
NOTES 173
It may mark one of the parts left unfinished by the
poet, and written in by his son. But it may be that
I have not understood it.
P. 1 18, 11. 781 fF., Call all who spur the charger, &c.]
— The typical ' Ercles vein ' of the tragic tyrant.
Pp. 1 20- 1 24, 11. 8 1 0 ff. — This scene of the ' hypnotis-
ing'— if one may use the word — of Pentheus probably
depends much on the action, which, however, I have
not ventured to prescribe. Pentheus seems to struggle
against the process all through, to be amazed at him-
self for consenting, while constantly finding fresh
reasons for doing so.
P. 121, 1. 822, Am I a woman, then ?] — The robe
and coif were, in the original legend, marks of the
Thracian dress worn by the Thracian followers of
Dionysus, and notably by Orpheus. The tradition
became fixed that Pentheus wore such a robe and
coif; and to the Greeks of Euripides' time such a
dress seemed to be a woman's. Hence this turn of
the story (cf. above, p. 167).
P. 125, 11. 877-881. — The refrain of this chorus
about the fawn is difficult to interpret. I have practi-
cally interpolated the third line ("To stand from fear
set free, to breathe and wait "), in order (i) to show the
connection of ideas ; (2) to make clearer the meaning
(as I understand it) of the two Orphic formula, " What
is beautiful is beloved for ever," and "A hand uplifted
over the head of Hate." If I am wrong, the refrain
is probably a mere cry for revenge, in the tone of the
refram, " Hither for doom and deed," on p. 132. It is
one of the many passages where there is a sharp anta-
gonism between the two spirits of the Chorus, first,
as furious Bacchanals, and, secondly, as exponents of
174 EURIPIDES
the idealised Bacchic reHgion of Euripides, which is
so strongly expressed in the rest of this wonderful
lyric.
P. 127, 1. 920, Is it a Wild Bull, this ?] — Pentheus,
in his Bacchic possession, sees fitfully the mystic shapes
of the God beneath the human disguise. This second-
sight, the exaltation of spirit, and the feeling of super-
natural strength coine to Pentheus as they came to
the two Old Men. But to them the change came
peacefully and for good ; to Pentheus it comes by
force, stormily and for evil, because his will was against
the God.
P. 131, 1. 976, O hounds raging and blind.] — i.e.
Spirits of Madness. This lyric prepares us for what
follows, especially for Agave's delusion, which other-
wise might have been hard to understand. I have
tried to keep the peculiar metre of the original, the
dochmiac, with a few simple licences. The scheme
is based on «•' •'«■' or -^-w -«■', the latter being much
commoner.
P. 133,11.997-1011. — The greater part of this chorus
is generally abandoned as unintelligible and corrupt.
The last ten lines (" Knowledge, we are not foes,"
&c.) will, I think, make sense if we accept a very
slight conjecture of my own, aivrcovy " let them blow,"
instead of the impossible ael rcov. The four lines
before that ("A strait pitiless mind," &c.) are an
almost literal translation of the MS. reading, which,
however, is incorrect in metre, and therefore cannot
be exactly what Euripides wrote.
P. 134, 1. 1036, And deem'st thou Thebes so beg-
gared.]— The couplet is incomplete in the MS. But
the sense needed is obvious.
NOTES 175
P. 137, 1. 1 1 20, Let it not befall through sin of
mine, iScc] — This note of unselfish feeling, of pity and
humanity, becomes increasingly marked in all the
victims of Dionysus towards the end of the play, and
contrasts the more vividly with the God's pitilessness.
Cadmus is always gentle, and always thinking of the
sufferings of others ; and, indeed, so is Agave, after her
return to reason, though with more resentment against
the oppressor.
Pp. 139-143, 11. 1 165-1200. — This marvellous scene
defies comment. But I may be excused for remarking
( 1 ) that the p>vchological change of the chorus is, to my
mind, proved by the words of the original, and does not
in the least depend on my interpolated stage directions ;
(2) the extraordinary exultation of Agave is part of
her Bacchic possession. It is not to be supposed that,
if she had really killed a lion, such joy would be the
natural thing.
P. 141, after 1. 1 1 83, The Leader tries to speak, Sec] —
It is also possible that by some error of a scribe two
lines have been omitted in the MS. But I think the
explanation given in the text more probable and more
dramatic.
P. 142,1. 1 195, And Pentheus, O Mother?] — The
Leader mentions Pentheus, I suppose, in order de-
liberately to test Agave's delusion, to see if she is
indeed utterly unconscious of the truth.
P. 146, 1. 1267, More shining than before, &c.] —
The sight of the pure heaven brings back light to her
mind — that is clear. But does she mean that the sky
is brighter because of her madness which still remains,
or that it is brighter now, after having been darkened
in her madness ?
176 EURIPIDES
P. 149, 1. 1313, And now I fare forth in dishonour.]
— He has not yet been sentenced to exile, though he
might well judge that after such pollution all his family-
would be banished. But probably this is another
mark of the unrevised state of the play.
P. 151, 1. 1330, For thou must change and be a
Serpent Thing, &c.] — A prophecy like this is a very
common occurrence in the last scenes of Euripides'
tragedies. "The subject of the play is really a long
chain of events. The poet fixes on some portion of
it — the action of one day, generally speaking — and
treats it as a piece of vivid concrete life, led up to by
a merely narrative introduction (the Prologue), and
melting away into a merely narrative close. The
method is to our taste undramatic, but it is explicable
enough. It falls in with the tendency of Greek art
to finish, not with a climax, but with a lessening of
strain " [Greek Literature^ p. 267).
The prophecy was that Cadmus and Harmonia
should be changed into serpents and should lead a
host of barbarian invaders — identified with an Illyrian
tribe, the Encheleis— against Hellas; they should
prosper until they laid hands on the treasures of
Delphi, and then be destroyed. Herodotus says that
the Persians were influenced by this prophecy when
they refrained from attacking Delphi (Hdt. ix. 42).
'U
<x
^77
THE FROGS
OF
ARISTOPHANES
':?
CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY
The God Dionysus.
Xanthias, his slave.
Aeschylus.
Euripides.
Heracles.
Pluto.
Charon.
Abacus, house porter to Pluto.
A Corpse.
A Maidservant of Persephone.
A Landlady in Hades.
Plathane, her servant.
A Chorus of Frogs.
A Chorus of Initiated Persons.
Attendants at a Funeral ; Women worship f'ing lacchus ;
Servants of Pluto, Sd'C
" The play was first produced in Athens at the Feast of the Lenaea
in the year 405 B.C. It obtained the first prize. Phrynichus was
second with ' The Muses,' Plato third with ' The Cleophon: "
'79
THE FROGS
At the hack of the scene is the house o/" Heracles. Enter
Dionysus, wearing high-heeled stage boots and a
tunic of saj^ron silk; over them a lion-skin, in his
hand a club. He is followed by Xanthias, seated
on a donkey and carrying an immense bale of lug(rage
on a porter s pole. They advance for a while in
silence.
Xanthias
{looking round at his burden with a groan).
Sir, shall I say one of the regular things
That people in a theatre always laugh at ?
Dionysus.
Say what you like, except " I'm all squeezed flat."
But mind, not that. That's simply wormwood to me,
Xanthias {disappointed).
Not anything funny ?
Dionysus.
Not *' Oh, my poor blisters ! "
Xanthias.
Suppose I made the great joke ?
Dionysus.
Why, by all means.
i8o EURIPIDES
Don't be afraid. Only, for mercy's sake,
Don't . . .
Xanthias.
Don't do what ?
Dionysus.
Don't shift your luggage pole
Across, and say, " I want to blow my nose."
Xanthias [greatly disappointed).
Nor, that I've got such a weight upon my back
That unless some one helps me quickly I shall sneeze ?
Dionysus.
Oh, please, no. Keep it till I need emetics.
Xanthias.
Then what's the good of carrying all this lumber
If I mayn't make one single good old wheeze
Like Phrynichus, Ameipsias, and Lykis ?
Dionysus.
Ah no ; don't make them.— When I sit down there
[Pointing to the auditorium.
And hear some of those choice products, I go home
A twelvemonth older.
Xanthias [to himself).
Oh, my poor old neck :
Blistered all round, and mustn't say it's blistered.
Because that's funny !
Dionysus.
Airs and insolence !
When I, Dionysus, child of many Jugs,
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS i8i
Must work and walk myself, and have him riding
Lest he should tire himself or carry things !
Xanthias.
Am I not carrying things ?
Dionysus.
They're carrying you.
Xanthias [showing the baggage).
Pm carrying this.
Dionysus.
How?
Xanthias.
With my back half-broken.
Dionysus.
That bag is clearly carried by the donkey.
Xanthias.
No donkey carries bags that / am carrying.
Dionysus.
I suppose you know the donkey's carrying you.
Xanthias [turning cross).
I don't. I only know my shoulder's sore !
Dionysus.
Well, if it does no good to ride the donkey,
Go turns, and let the poor beast ride on you.
i82 EURIPIDES
Xanthias {aside).
Just like my luck. — Why wasn't I on board
At Arginusae ? Then I'd let you have it.
Dionysus.
Dismount, you rascal. — Here's the door close by
Where I must turn in first — and I on foot ! {Knocking.
Porter 1 Hi, porter ! Hi !
Heracles {entering from the house).
Who's knocking there ?
More like a mad bull butting at the door,
Whoever he is . . . {seeing Dionysus). God bless us,
what's all this ?
[^He examines Dionysus minuie/y^ then chokes
with silent emotion.
Boy!
Dionysus {aside to Xanthias).
Xanthias.
What, sir ?
Dionysus.
Did you notice ?
Xanthias.
Notice what ?
Dionysus.
How afraid he was.
Xanthias.
Yes, sir ; {aside) afraid you're cracked !
Heracles {struggling with laughter).
I wouldn't if I possibly covild help it :
I'm trying to bite my lips, but all the same . . . {roars
with laughter).
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 183
Dionysus.
Don't be absurd ! Conic here. I want something.
Heracles.
I would, but I can't yet shake this laughter off:
The lion-skin on a robe of saffron silk !
How comes my club to sort with high-heeled boots ;
What's the idea ? Where have you come from now i
Dionysus.
I've been at sea, serving with Cleisthenes.
Heracles.
You fought a battle ?
Dionysus.
Yes : sank several ships,
Some twelve or thirteen.
Heracles.
Just you two ?
Dionysus.
Of course.
Xa NTH IAS {aside).
And then I woke, and it was all a dream 1
Dionysus.
Well, one day I was sitting there on deck
Reading the Andromeda, when all at once
A great desire came knockmg at my heart,
You'd hardly think . . .
Heracles.
A great desire ? How big ?
i84 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
Oh, not so big. Perhaps as large as Molon,
Heracles.
Who was the lady ?
Dionysus.
Lady ?
Heracles.
Well, the girl ?
Dionysus.
Great Heaven, there wasn't one !
Heracles.
Well, I have always
Considered Cleisthenes a perfect lady !
Dionysus.
Don't mock me, brother ! It's a serious thing,
A passion that has worn me to a shadow.
Heracles.
Well, tell us all about it.
Dionysus
{with the despair of an artist explaining himself to a
common athlete^
No ; I can't.
Tou never . . . But I'll think of an analogy.
You never felt a sudden inward craving
For . . . pease-broth ?
Heracles.
Pease-broth ? Bless me, crowds of times.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 185
Dionysus.
Sec'st then the sudden truth ? Or shall I put it
Another way ?
Heracles.
Oh, not about pease-broth.
I sec It quite.
Dionysus.
Well, I am now consumed
By just that sort of restless cravmg for
Euripides.
Heracles.
Lord save us, the man's dead !
Dionysus.
He is ; and no one in this world shall stop me
From going to see him !
Heracles.
Down to the place of shades ?
Dionysus.
The place of shades or any shadier still.
Heracles.
What do you want to get ?
Dionysus.
I want a poet,
For most be dead ; only the false live on.
Heracles.
lophon's still alive.
Dionysus.
Well, there you have it ;
i86 EURIPIDES
The one good thing still left us, if it is one.
For even as to that I have my doubts.
Heracles.
But say, why don't you bring up Sophocles
By preference, if you must have some one back ?
Dionysus.
No, not till IVe had lophon quite alone
And seen what note he gives without his father.
Besides, Euripides, being full of tricks.
Would give the slip to his master, if need were.
And try to escape with me ; while Sophocles —
Innocent here is innocent in death.
Heracles.
And Agathon, where is he ?
Dionysus.
Gone far away,
A poet true, whom many friends regret.
Heracles.
Beshrew him ! Where ?
Dionysus.
To feast with peaceful kings !
And Xenocles ?
Heracles.
Dionysus.
Oh, plague take Xenocles !
Heracles.
Pythangelus, then ?
[Dionysus shrugs his shoulders in expressive silence.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 187
Xanthias {to himself).
And no one thinks of me,
When all my shoulder's skinning, simply skinning.
Heracles.
But aren't there other pretty fellows there
All writing tragedies by tens of thousands,
And miles verboser than Euripides ?
Dionysus.
Leaves without fruit ; trills in the emptv air.
And starling chatter, mutilating art!
Give them one chance and that's the end of them,
One weak assault on an unprotected Muse.
Search as you will, you'll find no poet now
With grit in him, to wake a word of power.
Heracles.
How " grit " ?
Dionysus.
The grit that gives them heart to risk
Bold things — like holy Ether, parlour of God,
Or Time's long foot, or souls that won't take oaths
While tongues go swearing falsely by themselves.
Heracles,
You like that stuff ?
Dionysus.
Like it ? I rave about it.
Heracles (reflecting).
Why, yes ; it's devilish tricky, as you say.
Dionysus.
"Ride not upon my soul I " Use your own donkey.
i88 EURIPIDES
Heracles {apologising).
I only meant it was obviously humbug !
Dionysus.
If ever I need advice about a dinner^
I'll come to you !
Xanthias (to himse/f).
And no one thinks of me.
Dionysus.
But w^hy I came in these especial trappings —
Disguised as you, in fact — v^^as this. I want you
To tell me all the hosts with whom you stayed
That time you went to fetch up Cerberus :
Tell me your hosts, your harbours, bakers' shops,
Inns, taverns — reputable and otherwise —
Springs, roads, towns, posts, and landladies that keep
The fewest fleas.
Xanthias (as before).
And no one thinks of me !
Heracles (impressively).
Bold man, and will you dare . . .
Dionysus.
Now, don't begin
That sort of thing ; but tell the two of us
What road will take us quickest down to Hades. —
And, please, no great extremes of heat or cold.
Heracles.
Well, which one had I better tell you first ? —
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 189
Which now ? — Ah, yes ; suppose you got a boatman
To tug vou, with a hawser — round your neck . . .
Dionysus.
A chokey sort of journey, that.
Heracles.
Well, then,
There is a short road, quick and smooth, the surface
Well pounded — in a mortar.
Dionysus.
The hemlock way ?
Heracles.
Exactly.
Dionysus,
Cold and bitter ! Why, it freezes
All your shins numb.
Heracles.
Do you mind one short and steep ?
Dionysus.
Not in the least . . . You know I'm no great walker.
Heracles.
Then just stroll down to Cerameicus . . .
Dionysus.
Well ?
Heracles.
Climb up the big tower . . .
Dionysus.
Good ; and then ?
190 EURIPIDES
Heracles.
Then watch
And see them start the torch-race down below ;
Lean over till you hear the men say " Go,"
And then, go.
Dionysus.
Where ?
Heracles.
Why, over.
Dionysus.
Not for me.
It'd cost me two whole sausage bags of brains.
I won't go that way.
Heracles.
Well, how will you go ?
Dionysus.
The way you went that time.
Heracles {impressively).
The voyage is long.
You first come to a great mere, fathomless
And very wide.
Dionysus [unimpressed).
How do I get across ?
Heracles [with a gesture).
In a little boat, like that ; an aged man
Will you row across the ferry ... for two obols.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS iqi
Dionysus.
Those two old obols, everywhere at work !
I wonder how they found their way down there ?
Heracles.
Oh, Theseus took them ! — After that you'll see
Snakes and queer monsters, crowds and crowds.
Dionysus.
Now don't :
Don't play at bogies ! You can never move me !
Heraci.es.
Then deep, deep mire and everlasting filth,
And, wallowing there, such as have wronged a guest.
Or picked a wench's pocket while they kissed her.
Beaten their mothers, smacked their fathers' jaws,
Or sworn perjurious oaths before high heaven.
Dionysus.
And with them, I should hope, such as have learned
Kinesias's latest Battle Dance,
Or copied out a speech of Morsimus !
Heracles.
Then you will find a breath about your ears
Of music, and a light about your eyes
Most beautiful — like this — and myrtle groves,
And joyous throngs of women and of men.
And clapping of glad hands.
Dionysus.
And who will they he ?
192 EURIPIDES
Heracles.
The Initiated.
Xanthias (aside).
Yes ; and I'm the donkey
Holiday-making at the Mysteries !
But I won't stand this weight one moment longer.
[^He begins to put down his bundle.
Heracles.
And they will forthwith tell you all you seek.
They have their dwelling just beside the road,
At Pluto's very door. — So now good-bye ;
And a pleasant journey, brother.
Dionysus.
Thanks ; good-bye.
Take care of yourself. {To Xanthias, while Heracles
returns into the house) Take up the bags again.
Xanthias.
Before I've put them down ?
Dionysus.
Yes, and be quick.
Xanthias.
No, really, sir ; we ought to hire a porter.
Dionysus.
And what if I can't find one ?
Xanthias.
Then I'll go.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 193
Dionysus.
All right. — Why, here's a funeral, just in time.
[Enter a Funeral on the right.
Here, sir — it's you I'm addressing — the defunct ;
Do you care to carry a few traps to Hades ?
The Corpse [sitting up).
How heavy ?
Dionysus.
What you see.
Corpse.
You'll pay two drachmas ?
Dionysus.
Oh, come, that's rather much.
Corpse.
Bearers, move on !
Dionysus.
My good man, wait ! See if we can't arrange.
Corpse.
Two drachmas down, or else don't talk to me.
Dionysus.
Nine obols ?
Corpse [lying down again).
Strike me living if I will !
[Exit the Funeral.
Xanthias.
That dog's too proud ! He'll come to a bad end, —
Well, I'll be porter.
194 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
That's a good brave fellow.
[They walk on for some time. The scene changes^
a desolate lake taking the place of the house.
Dionysus peers into the distance,
Dionysus.
What is that ?
Xanthias.
That ? A lake.
Dionysus.
By Zeus, it is !
The mere he spoke of.
Xanthias.
Yes ; I see a boat.
Dionysus.
Yes ; by the powers !
Xanthias.
And yonder must be Charon.
Dionysus.
Both.
Charon, ahoy
Ahoy ! Charon, ahoy !
Charon
{approaching in the boat. He is an old, grim, and squalid
Ferryman, wearing a slave's felt cap and a sleeve-
less tunic).
Who seeks for rest from sufferings and cares ?
Who's for the Carrion Crows, and the Dead Donkeys ;
Lethe and Sparta and the rest of Hell ?
ARISTOPHANES^ FROGS 195
Dionysus.
I!
Charon.
Get in.
Dionysus.
Where do you touch ? You didn't say
The Crows ?
Charon [gruffly).
The Dogs will be the place for you.
Get in.
Dionysus.
Come, Xanthias.
Charon.
I don't take slaves :
Unless he has won his freedom ? Did he fight
The battle of the Cold Meat Unpreserved ?
Xanthias.
Well, no ; my eyes were very sore just then . . .
Charon.
Then trot round on your legs !
Xanthias.
Where shall T meet you ?
Charon.
The place of waiting by the Stone of Shivers !
DiONYsui [to Xanthias, who hesitates).
You understand ?
196 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
Oh, quite. {Aside) Just like my luck.
What can have crossed me when I started out ?
[Exit Xanthias.
Charon.
Sit to your oar (Dionysus does his best to obey). Any
more passengers ?
If so, make haste. {To Dionysus) What are you doing
there ?
Dionysus.
Why, what you told me ; sitting on my oar,
Charon.
Oh, are you ? Well, get up again and sit
[Pushing him down.
Down there, — fatty !
Dionysus (doing everything wrong).
Like that ?
And stretch .
Charon.
Put out your arms
Dionysus.
Like that ?
Charon.
None of your nonsense here !
Put both your feet against the stretcher.— Now,
In good time, row !
Dionysus {fluently, putting down his oars).
And how do you expect
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 197
A man like me, with no experience,
No seamanship, no Salamis, — to row ?
Charon.
You'll row all right ; as soon as you fall to.
You'll hear a first-rate tune that makes you row,
Dionysus.
Who sings it ?
Charon.
Certain cycnoranidae.
That's music !
Dionysus.
Give the word then, and we'll see.
[Charon gives the word for rowing and marks
the time. A Chorus of Frogs under the
water is heard. The Feast of Pots to which
they refer was the third day of the Jnthesteria^
and included songs to Dionysus at his temple
in the district called Limnae (" Marshes ").
Frogs.
O brood of the mere and the spring,
Gather together and sing
From the depths of your throat
By the side of the boat,
Co-:lx, as we move in a ring ;
As in Limnae we sang the divine
Nyse'ian Giver of Wine,
When the people in lots
With their sanctified Pots
Came reeling around my shrine.
EURIPIDES
Co-Sx, co-ax, co-ax,
Brekekekex co-ax.
Dionysus.
Don't sing any more ;
I begin to be sore !
Frogs.
Brekekekex co-ax.
Co-ax, co-ax, co-ax,
Brekekekex co-ax !
Dionysus.
Is it nothing to you
If I'm black and I'm blue ?
Frogs.
Brekekekex co-ax !
Dionysus.
A plague on all of your swarming packs.
There's nothing in you except co-ax !
Frogs.
Well, and what more do you need ?
Though it's none of your business indeed,
When the Muse thercanent
Is entirely content,
And horny-hoof Pan with his reed :
When Apollo is fain to admire
My voice, on account of his lyre
Which he frames with the rushes
And watery bushes —
Co-ax ! — which I grow in the mire.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 199
Co-ax, co-ax, co-Sx,
Brekekekex co-Sx !
Dionysus.
Peace, musical sisters !
I'm covered with blisters.
Frogs.
Brekekekex co-ax.
Co-ax, co-Sx, co-ax,
Brekekekex co-ax !
Our song we can double
Without the least trouble :
Brekekekex co-Sx.
Sing we now, if ever hopping
Through the sedge and flowering rushes j
In and out the sunshine flopping,
We have sported, rising, dropping.
With our song that nothing hushes.
Sing, if e'er in days of storm
Safe our native oozes bore us,
Staved the rain off, kept us warm,
Till we set our dance in form,
Raised our hubble-bubbling chorus :
Brekekekex co-ax, co-ax !
Dionysus.
Brekekekex co-Sx, co-ax !
I can sing it as loud as you.
Frogs.
Sisters, that he never must do !
200 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
Would you have me row till my shoulder cracks ?
Frogs.
Brekekekex co-ax, co-ax !
Dionysus.
Brekekekex co-Sx, co-ax !
Groan away till you burst your backs.
It's nothing to me.
Frogs.
Just wait till you see.
Dionysus.
I don't care how you scold.
Frogs.
Then all day long
We will croak you a song
As loud as our throats can hold,
Brekekekex co-ax, co-ax ! !
Dionysus.
Brekekekex co-ax, co-ax ! !
ril see you don't outdo me in that.
Frogs.
Well, you shall never beat ui — that's flat !
Dionysus.
I'll make you cease your song
If I shout for it all day long ;
My lungs I'll tax
With co-ax, co-ax
— I assure you they're thoroughly strong —
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 201
Until your efforts at last relax :
Brelcekekex co-iix, co-Jix ! !
[^No answer from the Frogs.
Brelcekekex co-ax, co-iix ! ! !
I knew in the end I should stop your quacks !
[^The boat has now reached the further shore.
Charon.
Easy there ! Stop her ! Lay her alongside. —
Now pay your fare and go.
Dionysus.
There are the obols.
[Dionysus gets out. The boat and Charon
disappear. Dionysus peers about him.
Ho, Xanthias! . . . Where's Xanthias ? — Is that you?
Xanthias [from the darkness).
Hullo!
Dionysus.
Come this way.
Xanthias {entering).
Oh, I'm glad to sec you !
Dionysus [looking round).
Well, and what have we here ?
Xanthias.
Darkness — and mud.
Dionysus.
Did you see any of the perjurers here,
And father-beaters, as he said we should ?
202 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
Why, didn't you ?
Dionysus.
I? Lots.
[Looking full at the audience.
I see them now.
Well, what are we to do ?
Xanthias.
Move further on.
This is the place he said was all aswarm
With horrid beasts.
Dionysus.
A plague on what he said !
Exaggerating just to frighten me,
Because he knew my courage and was jealous.
What is so flown with pride as Heracles?
Why, my best wish would be to meet with something,
Some real adventure, worthy of our travels !
Xanthias [listening).
Stay ! — Yes, upon my word. I hear a noise.
Dionysus {nervously).
God bless me, where ?
Xanthias.
Behind.
Dionysus.
Go to the rear.
Xanthias.
No : it's in front somewhere.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 203
Dionysus.
Then get in front.
Xanthias.
Why, there I see it. — Save us ! — A great beast. . . .
Dionysus [cowering behind Xanthias).
What like ?
Xanthias.
Horrid ! ... At least it keeps on changing!
It was a bull ; now it's a mule ; and now
A fair young girl.
Dionysus.
Where is it ? Let me at it !
Xanthias.
Stay, sir ; it's not a girl now, it's a dog.
Dionysus.
It must be Empusa !
Xanthias.
Yes. At least its head
Is all on fire.
Dionysus.
Has it a leg of brass ?
Xanthias.
Yes, that it has. And the other leg of cow-dung.
It's she !
Dionysus.
Where shall I go ?
Xanthias.
Well, where shall I ?
204 EURIPIDES
Dionysus
[running forward and addressing the Priest of Dionysus
in his seat of state in the centre of the front row
of the audience^
My Priest, protect me and we'll sup together !
Xanthias.
We're done for, O Lord Heracles.
Dionysus [cowering again).
Oh, don't !
Don't shout like that, man, and don't breathe that
name.
Xanthias.
Dionysus, then !
Dionysus.
No, no. That's worse than the other. . . .
Keep on the way you're going.
Xanthias [after searching about).
Come along, sir,
Dionysus.
What is it ?
Xanthias.
Don't be afraid, sir. All goes well.
And we can say as said Hegelochus,
" Beyond these waves I catch a piece of tail!"
Empusa's gone.
Dionysus.
Swear it.
Xanthias.
By Zeus, she's gone !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 205
Dionysus.
Again.
Xanthias.
By Zeus, she's gone !
Dionysus.
Your solemn oath.
Xanthias.
By Zeus ! !
Dionysus [raising himse/f).
Dear me, that made me feel quite pale.
Xanthias (pointing to the Priest).
And this kind gentleman turned red for sympathy.
Dionysus.
How can I have sinned to bring all this upon me ?
What power above is bent on my destruction ?
Xanthias.
The parlour of God, perhaps, or Time's long foot,
Dionysus [listening as flute-playing is heard outside).
I say!
Xanthias.
What is it ?
Dionysus.
Don't you hear it ?
Xanthias.
What ?
Dionysus.
Flutes blowing.
2o6 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
Yes. And such a smell of torches
Floating towards us, all most Mystery-like !
Dionysus.
Crouch quietly down and let us hear the music.
[They crouch down at the left. Music is heard
far off. Xanthias puts down the bundle.
Chorus {unseen).
lacchus, O lacchus !
lacchus, O lacchus !
Xanthias.
That'^s it, sir. These are the Initiated
Rejoicing somev/here here, just as he told us.
Why, it's the old lacchus hymn that used
To warm the cockles of Diagoras !
Dionysus.
Yes, it must be. However, we'd best sit
Quite still and listen, till we're sure of it.
[There enters gradually the Chorus, consisting of
Men Initiated in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
They are led by a Hierophant or Initiat-
ing Priest^ and accompanied by a throng of
Worshipping Women. They have white
robes, wreaths upon their brows, and torches
in their hands. During their entrance the
hack scene again changes. The lake disappears
and we find ourselves in front of the house oj
Pluto.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 207
Chorus.
Thou that dwellest in the shadow
Of great glory here beside us,
Spirit, Spirit, we have hied us
To thy dancing in the meadow !
Come, lacchus ; let thy brow
Toss its fruited myrtle bough ;
We are thine, O happy dancer ; O our comrade, come
and guide us !
Let the mystic measure beat :
Come in riot fiery fleet ;
Free and holy all before thee.
While the Charites adore thee.
And thy Mystae wait the music of thy feet !
Xanthias.
O Virgin of Demeter, highly blest,
What an entrancing smell of roasted pig !
Dionysus.
Hush ! hold your tongue ! Perhaps they'll give you
some.
Chorus.
Spirit, Spirit, lift the shaken
Splendour of thy tossing torches !
All the meadow flashes, scorches :
Up, lacchus, and awaken !
Come, thou star that bringest light
To the darkness of our rite,
Till thine old men leap as young men, leap with every
thought forsaken
2o8 EURIPIDES
Of the dulness and the fear
Left by many a circling year :
Let thy red light guide the dances
Where thy banded youth advances
To be joyous by the blossoms of the mere !
[All the Chorus has now entered.
HiEROPHANT.
Hush, oh hush ! for our song begins. Let every one
stand aside
Who ow^ns an intellect muddled vv^ith sins, or in arts
like these untried :
If the mystic rites of the Muses true he has never
seen nor sung :
If he never the magical music knew of Cratinus the
Bull-eater''s tongue :
If he likes in a comedy nothing but riot and meaning-
less harlequinade :
Or in matters of politics cannot keep quiet and see
that cabals be allayed.
But blows up spite and keeps it alight to serve his
personal ends :
Or being in power at a critical hour, accepts little
gifts from his friends :
Or goes selling a ship, or betraying a fort, or takes to
the trade of a smuggler,
Attempting again, in Thorycion's sort, — that pestilent
revenue-juggler, —
From Aegina before us to stock Epidaurus with tar
and canva? and hide.
Or tries to persuade some neutral, well paid, for the
enemy's ships to provide :
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 209
Or a teacher of choirs who forgets his position and
damages Hecate's shrines :
Or the robber of poets, the mere politician, who spites
us with pitiful fines
Because we have suitably made him absurd in the
God's traditional rhyme :
Behold, I give word : and again give word : and give
word for the third, last time :
Make room, all such, for our dance and song. — Up,
you, and give us a lay
That is meet for our mirth-making all night long and
for this great festival day.
Chorus.
Forth fare all ;
This mead's bowers
Bear fresh flowers ;
Forth, I call.
Leap, mock, dance, play ;
Enough and to spare we have feasted to-day !
March : raise high
Her whose hands
Save these lands ;
Raise due cry :
Maid, Maid, save these,
Tho' it may not exactly Thorycion please !
HiEROPHANT.
One hvmn to the Maiden ; now raise ye another
To the Queen of the Fruits of the Earth.
To Demeter the Corn-giver, Goddess and Mother,
Make worship in musical mirth.
210 EURIPIDES
Chorus.
Approach, O Queen of orgies pure,
And us, thy faithful band, ensure
From morn to eve to ply secure
Our mocking and our clowning :
To grace thy feast with many a hit
Of merry jest or serious wit,
And laugh, and earn the prize, and flit
Triumphant to the crowning.
HiEROPHANT.
Now call the God of blooming mien ;
Raise the mystic chorus :
Our comrade he and guide unseen,
With us and before us.
Chorus.
lacchus high in glory, thou whose day
Of all is merriest, hither, help our play ;
Show, as we throne thee at thy Maiden's side.
How light to thee are our long leagues of way.
lacchus, happy dancer, be our guide.
Thyself, that poorest men thy joy should share,
Didst rend thy robe, thy royal sandal tear.
That feet unshod might dance, and robes rent wide
Wave in thy revel with no after care.
lacchus, happy dancer, be our guide.
Lo there 1 but now across the dance apace
A maiden tripped, a maiden fair of face,
Whose tattered smock and kerchief scarce could hide
The merry bosom peering from its place.
lacchus, happy dancer, be our guide.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 211
Xanthias.
I always liked to follow some one else :
Suppose we join and dance ?
Dionysus.
Why, so say I.
[They join the Dance.
HiEROPHANT.
[These verses satirise Archedemus^ the politician^
who has never succeeded in making out a clear
Athenian pedigree for himself ; CleistheneSy
who went into mourning for imaginary re-
latives lost at Arginusae ; and Callias^ the
lady-killer^ who professed a descent from
Heracles^ and wore a lion-skin in token
thereof.
Perhaps 'twill best beseem us
To deal with Archedcmus,
Who is toothless still and rootless, at seven years from
birth :
Chorus.
Yet he leads the public preachers
Of those poor dead upper creatures,
And is prince of all the shadiness on earth !
HiEROPHANT.
And Cleisthenes, says rumour,
In a wild despairing humour
Sits huddled up and tearing out his hair among the
graves.
212 EURIPIDES
Chorus.
To believe he would incline us
That a person named Sebinus
Is tossing yet unburied on the waves !
HlEROPHANT.
While Callias, says tattle,
Has attended a sea-battle,
And lionesses'" scalps were the uniform he wore !
Dionysus {to The Hierophant).
You'd oblige us much by telling
Me the way to Pluto's dwelling.
We are strangers newly lighted on your shore.
HlEROPHANT.
No need of distant travel
That problem to unravel ;
For know that while you ask me, you are standing
at the door.
Dionysus {to Xanthias).
Then up, my lad, be packing !
Xanthias.
There's the Devil in the sacking :
It can't stay still a second on the floor !
HlEROPHANT.
Now onward through Demeter's ring
Through the leaves and flowers,
All who love her junketing,
All who know her powers !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 213
Fare forward you, while I go here
With matron and with maiden,
To make their night-long roaming clear
With tossing torches laden.
Chorus {of IForshipping IVomen, as they file off).
Then on 'mid the meadows deep,
Where thickest the rosehuds creep
And the dewdrops are pearliest :
A jubilant step advance
In our own, our eternal dance,
Till Its joy the Glad Fates entrance
Who threaded it earliest.
For ours is the sunshine bright,
Yea, ours is the joy of light
All pure, without danger :
For we thine Elect have been,
Thy secrets our eyes have seen,
And our hearts we have guarded clean
Toward kinsman and stranger !
The HiEROPHANT and the JVonhipping Women go off.
The Men remain^ forming an ordinary Chorus.
Dionysus approaches the central door.
Dionysus.
I ought by rights to knock ; but how, I wonder.
I don't know how they do knock in this country.
Xanthias.
Oh, don't waste time. Go in and do your best.
Like Heracles in heart as well as garb.
214 EURIPIDES
Dionysus {knocking).
Ho there !
[The door opens and a Porter appears^ whose dress
shows him to be Abacus, the Judge of the
Dead.
Aeacus.
Who summons ?
Dionysus.
Aeacus.
Heracles the Brave.
Thou rash, impure, and most abandoned man,
O foul, all foul, yea foulest of the foul.
Who harried our dog, Kerberus, choked him dumb,
Fled, vanished, and left me to bear the blame.
Who kept him ! — Now I have thee on the hip !
So close the black encaverned rocks of Styx
And Acheronian crags a-drip with blood
Surround thee, and Cocytus' circling hounds.
And the hundred-headed serpent, that shall rend
Thy bowels asunder ; to thy lungs shall cleave
The lamprey of Tartessus, and thy reins
And inmost entrails in one paste of gore
Teithrasian Gorgons gorge for evermore !
— To whom, even now, I speed my indignant course !
[The Porter retires.
Dionysus {who has fallen prostrate).
Please !
Xanthias.
What's the matter ? Quick, get up again
Before they come and see you.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 215
Dionysus.
But I feci
Faint. — Put a cold wet sponge against my heart.
Xanthias [producing a sponge).
There ; you apply it.
Dionysus.
Thanks. Where is it ?
Xanthias.
There.
[Dionysus takes and applies it.
Ye golden gods, is it there you keep your heart ?
Dionysus.
The nervous shock made it go down and down !
Xanthias.
You are the greatest coward I ever saw,
Of gods or humans !
Dionysus.
I a coward ? — I had
The presence of mind to ask you for a sponge.
Few had done more !
Xanthias.
Could any one do less ?
Dionysus.
A coward would still be flat there, sniffing salts ;
I rose, called for a sponge, and used the sponge.
Xanthias.
That was brave, by Poseidon !
2i6 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
I should think so. —
And weren't you frightened at his awful threats
And language ?
Xanthias.
I ? I never cared a rap.
Dionysus.
Oh, you're a hero, aren't you ? — and want glory.
Well, you be me ! Put on this lion's hide
And take the club — if you're so dauntless-hearted.
I'll take my turn, and be your luggage-boy.
Xanthias.
Over with both of them ! Of course I will.
[^He proceeds to put on the lion-skin.
Now watch if Xanthias- Heracles turns faint.
Or shows the same " presence of mind," as you.
Dionysus.
The true Melitean jail-bird, on my life I . . .
Well, I suppose I'd better take the luggage.
[The exchange is just effected when the door again
opens and there enters a Maid of Perse-
phone.
Maid.
Dear Heracles, and is it you once more ?
Come in ! No sooner did my mistress learn
Your coming, than she set her bread to bake,
Set pots of split-pea porridge, two or three.
A-boiling, a whole ox upon the coals,
Cakes in the oven, and big buns. — Oh, come in.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 217
Xanthias {(js Heraci.es).
She is very kind ; perhaps some other time.
Maid.
Oh, really ; but I mustn't let you go !
She's doing everything herself! Braised game,
Spices and fruits and stoups of the sweetest wine —
Come in with me.
Xanthias.
Most kind, but . . .
Maid.
No excuses.
I won't let go.— A flute-player, very pretty,
Is waiting for you, and two or three such sv/cet
Young dancing girls,
Xanthias (wavering).
Did you say dancing girls ?
Maid.
Yes. Do come in. — They just were gomg to serve
The fish, and have the table lifted in.
Xanthias.
I will ! I'll chance it ! — Go straight in and tell
Those dancing girls that Heracles is coming !
[The Maid retires again.
Here, boy, take up the bags and follow me.
Dionysus.
Stop, please ! — You didn't take it seriously
When I just dressed you as Heracles for fun ?
You can't be so ridiculous, Xanthias.
Take up the bags at once and bring them in.
2i8 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
What ? Surely you don't mean to take away
Your own gift ?
Dionysus.
Mean it ? No ; I'm doing it !
Off with that lion-skin, quick.
\_Begins to strip off the lion-skin by force.
Xanthias.
Help ! I'm assaulted . . .
[Giving way.
I leave it with the Gods !
Dionysus [proceeding to dress himself again).
The Gods, indeed !
What senseless vanity to expect to be
Alcmena's son, a mortal and a slave !
Xanthias.
Well, take it. I don't care. — The time may be,
God willing, when you'll feel the need of me !
Chorus.
That's the way such points to settle.
Like a chief of tested mettle.
Weather-worn on many seas,
Not in one fixed pattern stopping.
Like a painted thing, but dropping
Always towards the side of ease.
'Tis this instinct for soft places.
To keep warm while others freeze,
Marks a man of gifts and graces.
Like our own Theramenes !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 219
Dionysus.
Surely 'twould the matter worsen,
If I saw this low-bred person
On his cushions sprawling, so,
Served him drinking, watched him winking: —
If he knew what I was thinking —
And he would, for certain, know,
Being a mighty shrewd deviser
Of such fancies — with a blow
P'raps he'd loosen an incisor
From the forefront of my row !
[During this song there has entered along the street
a Landlady, who is soon followed by her
servant^ Plathan^.
Landlady.
Ho, Plathane, here, I want you, Plathanc ! . . .
Here is that scamp who came to the inn before.
Ate sixteen loaves of bread. . . .
Plathane.
Why, so it is :
The very man !
Xanthias [aside).
Here's fun for somebody.
Landlady.
And twenty plates of boiled meat, half-an-obol
At every gulp !
Xanthias [as before).
Some one'U catch it now !
Landlady.
And all that garlic.
220 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
Nonsense, my good woman,
You don't know what you're saying.
Plathane.
Did you thmk
I wouldn't know you in those high-heeled boots ?
Landlady.
And all the salt-fish I've not mentioned yet, . . ,
Plathane {to Landlady).
No, you poor thing ; and all the good fresh cheese
The man kept swallowing, and the baskets with it !
Landlady {to Xanthias).
And when he saw me coming for the money
Glared like a wild bull ! Yes, and roared at me !
Xanthias.
Just what he does ! His manners everywhere.
Landlady.
Tugged at his sword ! Pretended to be mad !
Plathane.
Yes, you poor thing ; I don't know how you bore it !
Landlady.
And we got all of a tremble, both of us,
And ran up the ladder to the loft ! And he.
He tore the matting up —and off he went !
ARISTOPHANES^ FROGS 221
Xanthias.
Just like him, again.
Plathan^..
But something must be done !
Landlady {to Plathan^.).
Run, you, and fetch me my protector, Cleon.
Plathan^
{to the Landlady, as they run excitedly to go of in
different directions).
And you fetch me Hyperbolus, if you meet him. . . .
Then we shall crush him !
Landlady {returning).
Oh, that ugly jaw !
How I should like to take a stone and knock
Those grinders out, that ground my larder dry !
Plathan£ {returning on the other side).
And I should like to fling you in the pit I
Landlady {turning again as she goes off).
And I should like to get a scythe, and cut
That throat that swallowed all my sausages.
Plathan£ {the same).
Well, I'll go straight to Cleon, and this same day
We'll worm them out in a law-court, come what may!
[The Landlady and Plathane go off in different
directions. A painful silence ensues. At length:
Dionysus.
Plague take me ! I've no friend in all the world, . . .
Except old Xanthias 1
222 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
I know, I know !
We all see what you want. But that's enough !
I won't be Heracles.
Dionysus.
Now don't say that,
Xanthias — old boy !
Xanthias.
And how am I to be
Alcmena's son — a mortal and a slave?
Dionysus.
I know you're angry, and quite justly so.
Hit me if you like ; I won't say one word back.
But, mark, if ever again in this wide world
I rob you of this — death and destruction fall
On me myself, my wife, my little ones, —
And, if you like, on the old bat Archedemus !
Xanthias.
That oath will do. I take it on those terms.
Chorus.
Now 'tis yours to make repayment
For the honour of this raiment ;
Wear it well, as erst you wore ;
If it needs some renovating.
Think of whom you're personating,
Glare like Heracles and roar.
Else, if any fear you show, sir.
Any weakness at the core,
Any jesting, back you go, sir.
To the baggage as before !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 223
Xanthias.
Thank you for your kind intention,
But I had some comprehension
Of the task I undertook.
Should the lion-skin make for profit,
He'll attempt to make me dofF it —
That I know — by hook or crook.
Still I'll make my acting real.
Peppery gait and fiery look.
Ha ! Here comes the great ordeal :
See the door. I'm sure it shook !
The ctntral door opens and the Porter^ Aeacus, comes out
with several ferocious-looking Thracian or Scythian
constables.
Aeacus.
Here, seize this dog-stealer and lead him forth
To justice, quick.
Dionysus [imitating Xanthias).
Here's fun for somebody.
Xanthias [in a Heraclean attitude).
Stop, zounds ! Not one step !
Aeacus.
Wliat ? You want to fight ?
Ho, Ditylas, Skeblyas, and Pardokas,
Forward ! Oblige this person with some fighting !
Dionysus
{while the constables gradually overpower Xanthias).
How shocking to assault the constables —
And stealing other people's things !
224 EURIPIDES
Aeacus.
Unnatural,
That's what I call it.
Dionysus.
Quite a pain to see.
Xanthias {now overpowered and disarmed).
Now, by Lord Zeus, if ever I've been here
Or stol'n from you the value of one hair.
You may take and hang me on the nearest tree ! . . .
Now, listen : and I'll act quite fairly by you ;
[Suddenly indicating Dionysus.
Take this poor boy, and put him to the question !
And if you find me guilty, hang me straight.
Aeacus.
What tortures do you allow ?
Xanthias.
Use all you like.
Tie him in the ladder, hang him by the feet,
Whip off his skin with bristle-whips and rack him ;
You might well try some vinegar up his nose,
And bricks upon his chest, and so on. Only
No scourges made of . . . leek or young shalott.
Aeacus.
A most frank offer, most frank. — If my treatment
Disables him, the value shall be paid.
Xanthias.
Don't mention it. Remove him and begin.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 225
Aeacus.
Thank you, we'll do it here, that you may witness
Exactly what he says. {To Dionysus) Put down
your bundle,
And mind you tell the truth.
Dionysus
[zuho has hitherto been speech/ess with horror, now burst-
ing out).
I warn all present.
To torture me is an illegal act,
Being immortal ! And whoever does so
Must take the consequences.
Aeacus.
Why, who are you ?
Dionysus.
The immortal Dionysus, son of Zeus ;
And this my slave.
Aeacus {to Xanthias).
You hear his protest ?
Xanthias.
Yes;
All the more reason, that, tor whipping him ;
If he's a real immortal he won't feel it.
Dionysus.
Well, but you claim to be immortal too ;
They ought to give you just the same as me.
Xanthias.
That's fair enough. All right ; whichever of us
You first find crying, or the least bit minding
Your whip, you're free to say he's no true god.
226 EURIPIDES
Aeacus.
Sir, you behave like a true gentleman ;
You come to justice of yourself ! — Now then,
Strip, both.
Xanthias.
How will you test us ?
Aeacus.
Easily :
You'll each take whack and whack about.
Xanthias.
All right.
Aeacus [striking Xanthias).
There.
Xanthias {controlling himself with an effort).
Watch now, if you see me even wince.
Aeacus.
But I've already hit you !
Xanthias.
I think not.
Aeacus,
Upon my word, it looks as if I hadn't.
Well, now I'll go and whack the other.
[Strikes Dionysus.
Dionysus [also controlling himself).
When ?
Aeacus.
I've done it.
Dionysus [with an air of indifference).
Odd, it didn't make me sneeze !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 227
Aeacus.
It is odd ! — Well, I'll try the first again.
[He crossts to Xa nth I as.
Xanthias.
All right. Be quick. [The blow falls) Whe-ew !
Aeacus.
Ah, why " whe-c\v " ?
It didn't hurt you r
Xanthias {recovering himself).
No ; I just was thinking
When my Diomean Feast would next be due.
Aeacus.
A holy thought ! — I'll step across again.
[Strikes Dionysus, who howls.
Dionysus.
Ow-ow !
Aeacus.
What's that ?
Dionysus {recovering himself).
I saw some cavalry,
Aeacus.
What makes your eyes run ?
Dionysus.
There's a smell of onions !
Aeacus.
You're sure it didn't hurt you ?
228 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
Hurt ? Not it.
Aeacus.
I'll step across again then to the first one.
[Strikes Xanthias, ivho also hozvls.
Xanthias.
Hi-i !
Aeacus.
What is it now ?
Xanthias.
Take out that thorn.
[Pointing to his foot.
Aeacus.
What does it mean ? — Over we go again.
[Strikes Dionysus.
Dionysus
{hurriedly turning his wail into a line of poetry).
O Lord 1 ..." of Delos or of Pytho's rock."
Xanthias [triumphantly).
It hurts. You heard ?
Dionysus.
It doesn't ! I was saying
A verse of old Hipponax to myself.
Xanthias.
You're making nothing of it. Hit him hard
Across the soft parts underneath the ribs.
Abacus [to Xanthias).
A good idea ! Turn over on your back !
[Strikes him.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 229
Xanthias {as before).
O Lord !
Aeacus.
What's that ?
Xanthias [as though continuing).
" Poseidon ruler free
Of cliffs Aegean and the grey salt sea."
Aeacus.
Now, by Demeter, it's beyond my powers
To tell which one of you's a god ! — Come in ;
We'll ask my master. He and Persephassa
Will easily know you, being gods themselves.
Dionysus.
Most wisely said. Indeed I could have wished
You'd thought of that before you had me swished.
{They all go into the house. The Chorus, left
alone on the stage, turns towards the audience.
Chorus.
Semi-Chorus I.
Draw near, O Muse, to the charm of my song.
Set foot in the sanctified place,
And see thy faithful Athenians throng,
To whom the myriad arts belong,
The myriad marks of grace,
Greater than Cleophon's own,
On whose lips, with bilingual moan,
A swallow from Thrace
Has taken his place
And chirps in blood-curdling tone
230 EURIPIDES
On the Gibberish Tree's thick branches high
As he utters a nightingale note,
A tumultuous cry
That he's certain to die
Even with an equal vote !
One of the Leaders.
It behoves this sacred Chorus, in its w^isdom and its
bliss,
To assist the state w^ith counsel. Now our first
advice is this :
AH Athenians must be equal; penal laws be swept
away.
Some of us have been misguided, following Phrynichus
astray.
Now for all of these, we urge you, let full freedom
be decreed
To confess the cause that tripped them and blot out
that old misdeed.
Next, we want no man in Athens robbed of every
native right.
Shame it were that low-born aliens, just for sharing
one sea-fight.
Should forthwith become Plataeans and instead of
slaves be masters —
(Not that in the least I blame you for thus meeting
our disasters ;
No ; I pay respectful homage to the one wise thing
you've done) :
But remember these men also, your own kinsmen,
sire and son,
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 231
Who have ofttimes fought beside you, spilt their blood
on many seas :
Grant for that one fault the pardon which they crave
you on their knees.
You whom Nature made for wisdom, let your ven-
geance fall to sleep ;
Greet as kinsmen and Athenians, burghers true to
win and keep.
Whosoe'er will brave the storms and fight for Athens
at your side !
But be sure, if still we spurn them, if we wrap us in
our pride,
Stand alone and weak, with Athens tossing in the
billow's arm.
After days shall judge the madness that has brought
our land to harm.
Semi-Chorus II.
An' I the make of a man may trow,
And the ways that lead to a fall.
Not long will the ape that troubles us now.
Not long little Clcigenes — champion, I vow,
Of rascally washermen all,
Who hold over soap their sway
And lye and Cimolian clay,
(Which they thriftily mix
With the scrapings of bricks) —
Not long will our little one stay !
Oh, tis well he is warlike and cautious and quick
For if ever from supper he trotted,
Talking genially thick
And without his big stick.
We should probably find him garottcd.
232 EURIPIDES
The Other Leader.
It has often struck our notice that the course our city
runs
Is the same towards men and money. — She has true
and worthy sons :
She has good and ancient silver, she has good and
recent gold.
These are coins untouched with alloys ; everywhere
their fame is told ;
Not all Hellas holds their equal, not all Barbary far
and near.
Gold or silver, each well minted, tested each and
ringing clear.
Yet, we never use them ! Others always pass from
hand to hand.
Sorry brass just struck last week and branded with a
wretched brand.
So with men we know for upright, blameless lives
and noble names.
Trained in music and palaestra, freemen's choirs and
freemen's game's.
These we spurn for men of brass, for red-haired
things of unknown breed.
Rascal cubs of mongrel fathers — them we use at every
need 1
Creatures just arrived in Athens, whom our city,
years ago.
Scarcely would have used as scapegoats to be slaugh-
tered for a show !
Even now, O race demented, there is time to change
your ways ;
Use once more what's worth the using. If we 'scape,
the more the praise
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 233
That we fought our fight with wisdom ; or, if all is
lost for good,
Let the tree on which they hang us, he, at least, of
decent wood !
[T/h- door opem^ and the two slaves^ Aeacus and
Xanthias, return.
Aeacus.
By Zeus, that's what I call a gentleman !
That master of yours !
Xanthias.
Gentleman ? That he is !
There's nothing in his head hut wine and wenches I
Aeacus.
But not to whip you when you were clean convicted,
A slave caught masquerading as his master I
Xanthias {significantly).
I'd like to see him try it !
Aeacus.
There you go !
The old slave trick, that I'm so fond of too.
Xanthias,
You like it, ch r
Abacus.
Like it ? Why, when I get
Behind my master's back and quietly curse him,
I feel just like the Blessed in the Mysteries !
234 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
What about muttering as you go outside
After a whacking ?
Aeacus.
Yes ; I like that too.
Xanthias {with increasing excitement).
And prying into people's secrets, eh ?
Aeacus {the same).
By Zeus, there's nothing like it in the world !
Xanthias.
Oh, Zeus makes brethren meet ! — And what of list'ning
To what the masters say ?
Abacus.
It makes me mad !
Xanthias.
And telling every word of it to strangers ?
Aeacus.
Madder than mad, stark staring crimson madder !
Xanthias.
O Lord Apollo, clap your right hand there.
Give me your cheek to kiss, and you kiss me !
[They embrace ; a loud noise is heard inside trx
house.
But Zeus ! — our own Zeus of the Friendly Jailbirds —
What is that noise . . . those shouts and quarrelling . .
Inside ?
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 235
Aeacus.
That ? Aeschylus and Euripides !
Xanthias.
Eh?
Aeacus,
Yes ; there's a big business just astir,
And hot dissension among all the dead.
Xanthias.
About what ?
Aeacus.
There's a law established here
Concerning all the large and liberal arts,
Which grants the foremost master in each art
Free entertainment at the Central Hearth,
And also a special throne in Pluto's row . . .
Xanthias.
Oh, now I understand !
Aeacus.
To hold until
There comes one greater ; then he must make way.
Xanthias.
But how has this affected Aeschylus ?
Aeacus.
Aeschylus held the throne of tragedy,
As greatest . . .
Xanthias.
Held it ? Why, who holds it now ?
236 EURIPIDES
Aeacus.
Well, when Euripides came down, he gave
Free exhibitions to our choicest thieves,
Footpads, cut-purses, burglars, father-beaters,
— Of whom we have numbers here ; and when they
heard
The neat retorts, the fencing, and the twists.
They all went mad and thought him something
splendid.
And he, growing proud, laid hands upon the throne
Where Aeschylus sat.
Xanthias.
And wasn't pelted off?
Abacus.
Not he. The whole folk clamoured for a trial
To see which most was master of his craft.
Xanthias.
The whole jail- folk ?
Aeacus.
Exactly ; — loud as trumpets.
Xanthias.
And were there none to fight for Aeschylus ?
Abacus.
Goodness is scarce, you know. [Indicating the audi-
ence) The same as here !
Xanthias.
And what does Pluto mean to do about it ?
Abacus.
Why, hold a trial and contest on the spot
To test their skill for certain.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 237
Xanthias [reflecting).
But, I say,
Sophocles surely must have claimed the throne ?
Aeacus.
Not he ; as soon as ever he came down,
He kissed old Aeschylus, and wrung his hand,
And Aeschylus made room on half his seat.
And now he means to wait — or so, at least,
Clidemides informs us — in reserve.
If Aeschylus wins the day, he'll rest content :
If not, why then, he says, for poor Art's sake,
He must show fight against Euripides !
Xanthias.
It is to be, then ?
Aeacus.
Certainly, quite soon.
Just where you stand we'll have the shock of war.
They'll weigh the poetry line by line . . .
Xanthias.
Poor thing,
A lamb set in the meat-scale and found wanting !
Aeacus.
They'll bring straight-edges out, and cubit-rules,
And folded cube-frames . . .
Xanthias.
Is it bricks they want ?
Aeacus.
And mitre-squares and wedges I Line by line
Euripides will test all tragedies !
238 EURIPIDES
Xanthias.
That must make Aeschylus angry, I should think ?
Aeacus.
Well, he did stoop and glower like a mad bull.
Xanthias.
Who'll be the judge ?
Abacus.
That was a difficulty.
Both found an utter dearth of proper critics ;
For Aeschylus objected to the Athenians. . . .
Xanthias.
Perhaps he thought the jail-folk rather many ?
Aeacus.
And all the world beside, he thought mere dirt
At seeing what kind of thing a poet was.
So, in the end, they fixed upon your master
As having much experience in the business.
But come in ; when the master"'s face looks grave
There's mostly trouble coming for the slave.
[They go into the house.
Chorus
{the song is a parody of the metre and style ^Aeschylus).
Eftsoons shall dire anger interne be the Thunderer's
portion
When his foe's glib tusk fresh whetted for blood he
descries ;
Then fell shall his heart be, and mad ; and a pallid
distortion
Descend as a cloud on his eyes.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 239
Yea, words with plumes wild on the wind and with
helmets a-glancing,
With axles a-splinter and marble a-shiver, eftsoons
Shall bleed, as a man meets the shock of a Thought-
builder's prancmg
Stanzas of dusky dragoons.
The deep crest of his mane shall uprise as he slowly
unlimbers
The long-drawn wrath of his brow, and lets loose
with a roar
Epithets welded and screwed, like new torrent-swept
timbers
Blown loose by a giant at war.
Then rises the man of the Mouth ; then battleward
flashes
A tester of verses, a smooth and serpentine tongue,
To dissect each phrase into mincemeat, and argue to
ashes
That high-towered labour of lung !
The door opens again. Enter EuRlPlDES, Dionysus,
and Aeschylus.
Euripides,
No, no ! Don't talk to me ! I won't give way ;
I claim that I'm more master of my art,
Dionysus.
You hear him, Aeschylus. Why don't you speak .?
Euripides,
He wants to open with an awful silence —
The blood-curdling reserve of his first scenes.
240 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
My dear sir, I must beg ! Control your language.
Euripides.
I know him ; I've seen through him years ago ;
Bard of the " noble savage," vi^ooden-mouthed,
No door, no bolt, no bridle to his tongue,
A torrent of pure bombast — tied in bundles !
Aeschylus [breaking out).
Hovi^ say'st thou, Son o' the goddess of the Greens ? —
You dare speak thus of me, you phrase-collector.
Blind-beggar-bard and scum of rifled rag-bags !
Oh, you shall rue it 1
Dionysus.
Stop ! Stop, Aeschylus ;
Strike not thine heart to fire on rancour old.
Aeschylus,
No ; I'll expose this crutch-and-cripple playwright.
And what he's worth for all his insolence.
Dionysus [to attendants).
A lamb, a black lamb, quick, boys ! Bring it out
To sacrifice ; a hurricane's let loose !
Aeschylus {to Euripides).
^ou and your Cretan dancing-solos ! You
And the ugly amours that you set to verse !
Dionysus [interposing).
One moment, please, most noble Aeschylus !
And you, poor wretch, if you have any prudence,
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 241
Get out of the hailstones quick, or else, by Zeus,
Some wortl as big as your head will catch you crash
Behind the ear, and knock out all the . . . Telephus
Nay, Aeschylus, pray, pray control your anger ;
Examine and submit to be examined
With a cool head. Two poets should not meet
In fishwife style ; but here are you, straight off.
Ablaze and roaring like an oak on fire.
Euripides.
For my part I'm quite ready, with no shrinking,
To bite first or be bitten, as he pleases.
Here are my dialogue, music, and construction ;
Here's Peleus at your service, Meleager,
And Aeolus, and . . . yes, Telephus, by all means !
Dionysus.
Do you consent to the trial, Aeschylus ? Speak.
Aeschylus.
I well might take objection to the place ;
It's no fair field for him and me.
Dionysus.
Why not ?
Aeschylus.
Because my poetry hasn't died with me.
As his has ; so he'll have it all to hand. . . .
However, I waive the point, if you think fit.
Dionysus.
Go, some one, bring me frankincense and fire
That I may pray for guidance, to decide
This contest in the Muses' strictest ways ;
To whom, meantime, uplift your hymn of praise !
Q
242 EURIPIDES
Chorus
{while preparations are made for the sacrifice).
All hail, ye nine heaven-born virginal Muses,
Whiche'er of ye watch o'er the manners and uses
Of the Founts of Quotation, w^hen, meeting in fray —
All hearts drawn tense for who wins and who loses —
With wrestling lithe each the other confuses,
Look on the pair that do battle to-day !
These be the men to take poems apart
By chopping, riving, sawing ;
Here is the ultimate trial of Art
To due completion drawing !
Dionysus.
Won't you two pray before you show your lines ?
Aeschylus {going up to the altar).
Demeter, thou who feedest all my thought.
Grant me but worthiness to worship thee !
Dionysus {to Euripides).
Won't you put on some frankincense ?
Euripides {staying where he is).
Oh, thank you ;
The gods I pray to are of other metal !
Dionysus.
Your own stamp, eh ? New struck ?
Euripides.
Exactly so.
Dionysus.
Well, pray away then to your own peculiar.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 243
Euripides.
Ether, whereon I batten ! Vocal chords !
Reason, and nostrils swift to scent and sneer.
Grant that I duly probe each word I hear.
Chorus.
All of us to hear are yearning
Further from these twins of learning,
What dread road they walk, what burning
Heights they climb of speech and song.
Tongues alert for battle savage,
Tempers keen for war and ravage,
Angered hearts to both belong.
He will fight with passes witty
Smooth and smacking of the city.
Gleaming blades unflecked with rust ;
He will seize — to end the matter —
Tree-trunks torn and clubbed, to batter
Brains to bits, and plunge and scatter
Whole arena-fulls of dust !
[Dionysus is now seated on a throne as judge.
The poets stand on either side before him.
Dionysus.
Now, quick to work. Be sure you both do justice to
your cases.
Clear sense, no loose analogies, and no long common-
places.
Euripides.
A little later I will treat my own artistic mettle.
This person's claims I should prefer immediately to
settle.
244 EURIPIDES
I'll show you how he posed and prosed ; with what
audacious fooling
He tricked an audience fresh and green from Phryni-
chus's schooling.
Those sole veiled figures on the stage were first
among his graces,
Achilles, say, or Niobe, who never showed their faces,
But stood like so much scene-painting, and never a
grunt they uttered !
Dionysus.
Why, no, by Zeus, no more they did !
Euripides.
And on the Chorus spluttered
Through long song-systems, four on end, the actors
mute as fishes !
Dionysus.
I somehow loved that silence, though ; and felt it met
my wishes
As no one's talk does nowadays !
Euripides.
You hadn't yet seen through it !
That's all.
Dionysus.
I really think you're right ! But still,
what made him do it ?
Euripides.
The instinct of a charlatan, to keep the audience
guessing
If Niobe ever meant to speak — the play meantime
progressing !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 245
Dionysus.
Ot" course it was ! The sly old dog, to think of how
he tricked us ! —
Don't {to Aeschylus) ramp and fume !
Euripides [excusing Aeschylus).
We're apt to do so wlien the facts convict us !
— Then after this tomfoolery, the heroine, feeling
calmer,
Would utter some twelve wild-bull words, on mid-way
in the drama,
Long ones, with crests and beetling brows, and gor-
gons round the border.
That no man ever heard on earth.
Aeschylus.
The red plague . . . !
Dionysus.
Order, order !
Euripides.
Intelligible — not one line I
Dionysus {to Aeschylus).
Please ! Won't your teeth stop gnashing?
Euripides.
All fosses and Scamander-beds, and bloody
targes flashing,
With gryphon-eagles bronze- embossed, and
crags, and riders reeling,
Which somehow never quite joined on.
Dionysus.
By Zeus, sir, quite my feeling !
246 EURIPIDES
A question comes in Night's long hours, that
haunts me like a spectre,
What kind of fish or fowl you'd call a " russet
hippalector."
Aeschylus {breaking in).
It was a ship's sign, idiot, such as every joiner fixes !
Dionysus.
Indeed ! I thought perhaps it meant that music-man
Eryxis !
[Euripides.
You like then, in a tragic play, a cock ? You think it
mixes ?]
Aeschylus [to Euripides).
And what did you yourself produce, O fool with
pride deluded ?
Euripides.
Not " hippalectors," thank the Lord, nor " tragelaphs,"
as you did —
The sort of ornament they use to fill a Persian
curtain !
— I had the Drama straight from you, all bloated and
uncertain,
Weighed down with rich and heavy words, puffed out
past comprehension.
I took the case in hand ; applied treatment for such
distension —
Beetroot, light phrases, little walks, hot book-juice, and
cold reasoning ;
Then fed her up on solos. . . .
Dionysus [aside).
With Cephisophon for seasoning !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 247
Euripides.
I didn't rave at random, or plunge in and make con-
fusions.
My first appearmg character explained, with due
allusions,
The whole play's pedigree.
Dionysus {aside).
Your own you left in wise obscurity !
Euripides.
Then no one from the start with me could idle with
security.
They had to work. The men, the slaves, the women,
all m.ade speeches.
The kings, the little girls, the hags . . .
Aeschylus.
Just see the things he teaches !
And shouldn't you be hanged for that ?
Euripides.
No, by the lord Apollo !
It's democratic !
Dionysus {to Euripides).
That's no road for you, my friend, to follow ;
You'll find the * little walk ' too steep ; I recommend
you quit it.
Euripides.
Next, I taught all the town to talk with freedom.
Aeschylus.
I admit it.
248 EURIPIDES
'Twere better, ere you taught them, you had died
amid their curses !
Euripides.
I gave them canons to apply and squares for marking
verses ;
Taught them to see, think, understand, to scheme for
what they wanted,
To fall in love, think evil, question all things. . . .
Aeschylus.
Granted, granted !
Euripides.
I put things on the stage that came from daily life and
business.
Where men could catch me if I tripped ; could listen
without dizziness
To things they knew, and judge my art. I never
flashed and lightened
And thundered people's senses out ; nor tried to keep
them frightened
With Magic Swans and Aethiop knights, loud barb
and clanging vizor !
Then look at my disciples, too, and mark what
creatures his are !
Phormisius is his product and the looby lump
Megainctus,
All trumpet, lance, moustache, and glare, who twist
their clubs of pine at us ;
While Cleitophon is mine, sirs, and Theramenes the
Matchless !
Dionysus.
Theramenes ! Ah, that's the man ! All danger
leaves him scratchless.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 249
His friends may come to grief, and he be found in
awkward fixes,
But always tumbles right end up, not aces — no : all
sixes !
Euripides.
This was the kind of lore I brought
To school my town in ways of thought ;
I mingled reasoning with my art
And shrewdness, till I fired their heart
To brood, to think things through and through ;
And rule their houses better, too.
Dionysus.
Yes, by the powers, that's yery true !
No burgher now, who comes indoors.
But straight looks round the house and roars :
"Where is the saucepan gone ? And who
Has bitten that sprat's head away ?
And, out, alas ! The earthen pot
I bought last year, is not, is not !
Where are the leeks of yesterday ?
And who has gnawed this olive, pray ? "
Whereas, before they took his school.
Each sat at home, a simple, cool.
Religious, unsuspecting fool.
And happy in his sheep-like way!
Chorus.
Great Achilles, gaze around thee!
'Twill astound thee and confound thee.
Answer now : but keep in bound the
250 EURIPIDES
Words that off the course would tear,
Bit in teeth, in turmoil flocking.
Yes : it's monstrous — shameful — shocking-
Brave old warrior. But beware !
Don't retort with haste or passion ;
Meet the squalls in sailor fashion.
Mainsail reefed and mast nigh bare ;
Then, when safe beyond disaster
You may press him fiercer, faster.
Close and show yourself his master.
Once the wind is smooth and fair !
Dionysus.
0 thou who first of the Greeks did build great words
to heaven-high towers,
And the essence of tragedy-padding distilled, give vent
to thy pent-up showers.
Aeschylus.
1 freely admit that I take it amiss, and I think my
anger is just.
At having to answer a man like this. Still, lest I
should seem nonplussed.
Pray, tell me on what particular ground a poet should
claim admiration ?
Euripides.
If his art is true, and his counsel sound ; and if he
brings help to the nation,
By making men better in some respect.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 251
Aeschylus.
And suppose you have done the reverse,
And have had upon good strong men the effect of
making them vi^eaker and worse,
What, do you say, should your recompense be ?
Dionysus.
The gallows ! You needn't ask him.
Aeschylus.
Well, think what they were when he had them from
me I Good six-footers, solid of limb.
Well-born, well-bred, not ready to fly from obeying
their country's call.
Nor in latter-dav fashion to loiter and lie, and keep
their consciences small ;
Their life was in shafts of ash and of elm, in bright
plumes fluttering wide.
In lance and greaves and corslet and helm, and hearts
of seven-fold hide !
Euripides (aside).
Oh, now he's begun and will probably run a whole
armourer's shop on my head !
[To Aeschylus) Stop I How was it due in especial
to you, if they were so very — well-bred r
Dionysus.
Come, answer him, Aeschylus ! Don't be so hot, or
smoulder in silent disdain,
Aeschylus {crushingly).
By a tragedy ' brimming with Ares ! '
252 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
A what ?
Aeschylus.
The * Seven against Thebes.'
Dionysus.
Pray explain.
Aeschylus.
There wasn't a man could see that play but he
hungered for havoc and gore.
Dionysus.
Tm afraid that tells in the opposite way. For the
Thebans profited more,
It urged them to fight without flinching or fear, and
they did so ; and long may you rue it !
Aeschylus.
The same thing was open to all of you here, but it
didn't amuse you to do it !
Then next I taught you for glory to long, and against
all odds stand fast ;
That was "The Persians," which bodied in song the
noblest deed of the past.
Dionysus.
Yes, yes ! When Darius arose from the grave it
gave me genuine joy.
And the Chorus stood with its arms a-wave, and
observed, " Yow — oy, Yow — oy ! "
Aeschylus.
Yes, that"'s the effect for a play to produce ! For
observe, from the world's first start
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 253
Those poets have all been of practical use who have
been supreme in their art.
First, Orpheus withheld us from bloodshed impure,
and vouchsafed us the great revelation ;
Musaeus was next, with wisdom to cure diseases and
teach divination.
Then Hesiod showed us the season to plough, to sow,
and to reap. And the laurels
That shine upon Homer's celestial brow are equally
due to his morals !
He taught men to stand, to march, and to arm. . . .
Dionysus.
So that was old Homer's profession ?
Then I wish he could keep his successors from harm,
like Pantacles in the procession,
Who first got his helmet well strapped on his head,
and then tried to put in the plume !
Aeschylus.
There be many brave men that he fashioned and bred,
like Lamachus, now in his tomb.
And in his great spirit my plays had a part, with their
heroes many and brave —
Teucers, Patrocluses, lions at heart ; who made my
citizens crave
To dash like them at the face of the foe, and leap at
the call of a trumpet ! —
But no Stheneboia I've given you, no ; no Phaedra,
no heroine-strumpet !
If I've once put a woman in love in one act of one
play, may my teaching be scouted !
254 EURIPIDES
Euripides.
No, you hadn't exactly the style to attract Aphrodite !
Aeschylus.
Pm better without it.
A deal too much of that style she found in some of
your friends and you,
And once, at the least, left you flat on the ground !
Dionysus.
By Zeus, that"'s perfectly true.
If he dealt his neighbours such rattling blows, we
must think how he suffered in person.
Euripides.
And what are the public defects you suppose my poor
Stheneboia to worsen ?
Aeschylus [evading the question with a jest).
She makes good women, and good men's wives, when
their hearts are weary and want ease,
Drink jorums of hemlock and finish their lives, to
gratify Bellerophontes !
Euripides.
But did I invent the story I told of — Phaedra, say ?
Wasn't it history ?
Aeschylus.
It was true, right enough ; but the poet should hold
such a truth enveloped in mystery,
And not represent it or make it a play. It''s his duty
to teach, and you know it.
As a child learns from all who may come in his way,
so the grown world learns from the poet.
Oh, words of good counsel should flow from his voice —
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 255
Euripides.
And words like Mount Lycabettus
Or Fames, such as you give us for choice, must needs
be good counsel ? — Oh, let us,
Oh, let us at least use the language of men !
Aeschylus.
Flat cavil, sir ! cavil absurd !
When the subject is great and the sentiment, then, of
necessity, great grows the word ;
When heroes give range to their hearts, is it strange
if the speech of them over us towers ?
Nay, the garb of them too must be gorgeous to view,
and majestical, nothing like ours.
All this I saw, and established as law, till you came
and spoilt it.
Euripides.
How so ?
Aeschylus.
You wrapped them in rags from old beggarmen's bags,
to express their heroical woe,
And reduce the spectator to tears of compassion !
Euripides.
Well, what was the harm if I did ?
Aeschylus [evading the question as before).
Bah, your modern rich man has adopted the fashion,
for remission of taxes to bid ;
" He couldn't provide a trireme if he tried ; " he im-
plores us his state to behold.
256 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
Though rags outside may very well hide good woollens
beneath, if it's cold !
And when once he's exempted, he gaily departs and
pops up at the Fishmongers' stalls.
Aeschylus {continuing).
Then, next, you have trained in the speechmaking
arts nigh every infant that crawls.
Oh, this is the thing that such havoc has wrought in
the wrestling-school, narrowed the hips
Of the poor pale chattering children, and taught the
crews of the pick of the ships
To answer back pat to their officer's nose ! How
unlike my old sailor of yore,
With no thought in his head but to guzzle his brose
and sing as he bent at the oar !
Dionysus.
And spit on the heads of the rowers below, and garott
stray lubbers on shore !
But our new man just sails where it happens to blow,
and argues, and rows no more !
Aeschylus.
What hasn't he done that is under the sun.
And the love-dealing dames that with him have
begun ?
One's her own brother's wife ;
One says Life is not Life ;
And one goes into shrines to give birth to a son !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 257
Our city through him is filled to the brim
With monkeys who chatter to every one's whim ;
Little scriveners' clerks
With their winks and their larks,
But for wrestle or race not a muscle in trim !
Dionysus.
Not a doubt of it ! Why, I laughed fit to cry
At the Panathenaea, a man to espy,
Pale, flabby, and fat,
And bent double at that.
Puffing feebly behind, with a tear in his eye ;
Till there in their place, with cord and with brace.
Were the Potters assembled to quicken his pace ;
And down they came, whack I
On sides, belly, and back.
Till he blew out his torch and just fled from the race !
Chorus.
Never were such warriors, never
Prize so rich and feud so keen :
Dangerous, too, such knots to sever :
He drives on with stern endeavour.
He falls back, but rallies ever,
Marks his spot and stabs it clean !
Change your step, though ! Do not tarry
Other ways there be to harry
Old antagonists in art.
Show whatever sparks you carry,
Question, answer, thrust and parry —
Be they new or ancient, marry,
Let them fly, well-winged and smart !
258 EURIPIDES
If you tear, from former cases,
That the audience p'raps may fail
To appreciate your paces
Your allusions and your graces,
Look a moment in their faces !
They will tell another tale.
Oft from long campaigns returning
Thro' the devious roads of learning
These have wandered, books in hand
Nature gave them keen discerning
Eyes ; and you have set them burning !
Sharpest thought or deepest yearning —
Speak, and these will understand.
Euripides.
Quite so ; I'll turn then to his Prologues straight,
And make in that first part of tragedy
My first review in detail of this Genius !
[His exposition always was obscure.]
Dionysus.
Which one will you examine !
Euripides.
Which ? Oh, lots !
First quote me that from the Oresteia, please.
Dionysus.
Ho, silence in the court ! Speak, Aeschylus.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 259
Aeschylus {quoting the first lines of the Choephoroi).
" Guide of the Dead, warding a father's way,
Be thou my h'ght and saviour, where I pray,
In this my fatherland, returned, restored."
Dionysus {to Euripides).
You find some false lines there ?
Euripides.
About a dozen !
Dionysus.
Why, altogether there are only three !
Euripides.
But every one has twenty faults in drawing !
[Aeschylus begins to interrupt.
Dionysus.
No, stop, stop, Aeschylus ; or perhaps you'll find
Your debts run up to more than three iambics.
Aeschylus {raging).
Stop to let him speak ?
Dionysus.
Well, that's my advice.
Euripides.
He's gone straight off some thousand miles astray.
Aeschylus.
Of course it's foolery — but what do / care ?
Point out the faults.
26o EURIPIDES
Euripides.
Repeat the lines again.
Aeschylus.
"Guide of the Dead, warding a father's way, , . ,'*
Euripides.
Orestes speaks those words, I take it, standing
On his dead father's tomb ?
Aeschylus.
I don''t deny it.
Euripides.
Then what's the father's way that Hermes wards ?
Is it the way Orestes' father went,
To darkness by a woman's dark intent?
Aeschylus.
No, no ! He calls on Eriounian Hermes,
Guide of the Dead, and adds a word to say
That office is derived from Hermes' father.
Euripides.
That's worse than I supposed ! For if your Hermes
Derives his care of dead men from his father, . . ,
Dionysus {interrupting).
Why, resurrectioning's the family trade !
Aeschylus.
Dionysus, dull of fragrance is thy wine!
Dionysus.
Well, say the next ; and [to Euripides) you look out
for slips.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 261
Aeschylus.
"Be thou my light and saviour where I pray
In this my fatherland returned, restored."
KURIIUDES.
Our noble Aeschylus repeats himself.
Dionysus.
How so ?
Euripides.
Observe his phrasing, and you'll see.
First to this land " returned " and then " restored " ;
' Returned ' is just the same thing as ' re,>tored.'
Dionysus.
VVhv, yes ! It's just as if you asked your neiglibour,
' Lend me a pail, or, if not that, a bucket.'
Aeschylus.
Oh, too much talking has bemuzzed your brain !
The words are not the same ; the line is perfect.
Dionysus.
Now, is it really ? Tell me how you mean.
Aeschylus.
Returning home is the act of any person
Who has a home ; he comes back, nothing more ;
An exile both returns and is restored !
Dionysus.
True, by Apollo ! {To Euripides) What do you say
to that ?
262 EURIPIDES
Euripides.
I don't admit Orestes was restored.
He came in secret with no legal permit.
Dionysus.
By Hermes, yes ! {aside) I wonder what they mean !
Euripides.
Go on then to the next. [Aeschylus is silent,
Dionysus.
Come, Aeschylus,
Do as he says : {to Euripides) and you look out for
faults.
Aeschylus.
" Yea, on this bank of death, I call my lord
To hear and list. ..."
Euripides.
Another repetition !
" To hear and list " — the same thing palpably !
Dionysus.
The man was talking to the dead, you dog,
Who are always called three times — and then don't
hear.
Aeschylus.
Come, how did you write prologues ?
Euripides.
Oh, I'll show you.
And if you find there any repetitions
Or any irrelevant padding, — spit upon me !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 263
Dionysus.
Oh, do begin. I mustn't miss those prologues
In all their exquisite exactitude !
Euripides.
"At first was Oedipus in happy state.'*
Aeschylus.
He wasn't ! He was born and bred in misery.
Did not Apollo doom him still unborn
To slay his father ? . . .
Dionysus [aside).
His poor unborn father ?
Aeschylus.
"A happy state at first," you call it, do you ?
Euripides [contemptuously resuming).
" At first was Oedipus in happy state.
Then changed he, and became most desolate."
Aeschylus.
He didn't. He was never anythini: else !
Why, he was scarcely born when they exposed him
In winter, in a pot, that he might never
Grow up and be his father's murderer.
Then off he crawled to Polybus with sore feet,
Then married an old woman, twice his age,
Who further chanced to be his mother, then
Tore out his eyes : the lucky dog he was I
264 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
At least he fought no sea-fight with a colleague
Called Erasinides !
Euripides.
That's no criticism.
I write my prologues singularly well !
Aeschylus.
By Zeus, I won't go pecking word by word
At every phrase ; I'll take one old umbrella,
God helping me, and smash your prologues whole I
Euripides.
Umbrellas to my prologues ?
Aeschylus.
One umbrella !
You write them so that nothing comes amiss.
The bed-quilt, or the umbrella, or the clothes-bag.
All suit your tragic verse ! Wait and I'll prove it.
Euripides.
You'll prove it ? Really !
Aeschylus.
Yes.
Dionysus.
Begin to quote.
Euripides.
" Acgyptus, so the world-wide tale is spread,
With fifty damsels o'er the salt sea fled.
And, reaching Greece ..."
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 265
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone !
Dionysus.
What's that about the umbrella ! Drat the thing !
Quote him another prologue, and let's see.
Euripides.
"Dionysus, who with wand and fawn-skin dight
On great Parnassus dances in the light
Of leaping brands, ..."
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone !
Dionysus.
Alas! again the umbrella finds our heart!
Euripides [heginmng to reflect anxiously).
Oh, it won't come to much, though ! Here's another,
With not a crack to stick the umbrella through !
" No man hath bliss in full and flawless health ;
Lo, this one had high race, but little wealth ;
That, base in blood, ..."
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone !
Dionysus.
Euripides !
Euripides.
Well ?
Dionysus.
Better furl your sails ;
The great umbrella bellies in the wind I
266 EURIPIDES
Euripides.
Bah, I disdain to give a thought to it !
I'll dash it from his hands in half a minute.
\^He racks his memory.
Dionysus.
Well, quote another ; — and avoid umbrellas.
Euripides.
" From Sidon sailing forth, Agenor's son,
Cadmus, long since, ..."
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone !
Dionysus.
Oh, this is awful ! Buy the thing outright.
Before it riddles every blessed prologue !
Euripides.
I buy him off?
Dionysus.
I strongly recommend it.
Euripides.
No ; I have many prologues yet to cite
Where he can't find a chink for his umbrella.
" As rapid steeds to Pisa bore him on,
Pelops the Great, ..."
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 267
Dionysus.
What did I tell you r There it sticks again I
You might let Pelops have a new one, though —
You get quite good ones very cheap just now.
Euripides.
By Zeus, not yet ! I still have plenty left.
" Oineus from earth, ..."
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone.
Euripides.
You must first let me quote one line entire !
" Oineus from earth a goodly harvest won,
But, while he prayed, ..."
Aeschylus.
Found his umbrella gone 1
Dionysus.
During the prayers I Who can have been the thief?
Euripides [desperately).
Oh, let him be 1 I defy him answer this —
"Great Zeus in heaven, the word of truth has
flown, ..."
Dionysus.
O mercy ! His is certain to be gone !
They bristle with umbrellas, hedgehog-wise.
Your prologues ; theyVe as bunged up as your eyes !
For God's sake change the subject. — Take his songs !
268 EURIPIDES
Euripides.
Songs ? Yes, I have materials to show
How bad his are, and always all alike.
Chorus.
What in the world shall we look for next ?
Aeschylus' music ! I feel perplexed
How he can want it mended.
I have always held that never a man
Had written or sung since the world began
Melodies half so splendid !
(Can he really find a mistake
In the master of inspiration ?
I feel some consternation
For our Bacchic prince's sake !)
Euripides.
Wonderful songs they are ! You''ll see directly ;
I'll run them all together into one.
Dionysus.
ril take some pebbles, then, and count for you.
Euripides {singing).
" O Phthian Achilles, canst hark to the battle's man-
slaying shock,
Yea, shock, and not to succour come ?
Lo, we of the Mere give worship to Hermes, the
fount of our stock,
Yea, shock, and not to succour come ! "
Dionysus.
Two shocks to you, Aeschylus, there !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 269
Euripides.
"Thou choice of Achaia, wide-ruling Atrides, give
heed to my schooling !
Yea, sliock, and not to succour come."
Dionysus.
A third shock that, I declare !
Euripides.
"Ah, peace, and give ear! For the Bee-Maids be
near to ope wide Artemis' portals.
Yea, shock-a-nock a-succour come !
Behold it is mine to sing of the sign of the way fate-
laden to mortals ;
Yah, shocker-knocker succucum I "
Dionysus.
0 Zeus Almighty, what a chain of shocks !
1 think I'll go away and take a bath ;
The shocks are too much for my nerves and kidneys !
Euripides.
Not till you've heard another little set
Compounded from his various cithara-songs.
Dionysus.
Well then, proceed ; but don't put any shocks in !
Euripides.
" How the might twin-throned of Achaia for Hellene
chivalry bringeth
Flattothrat toflattothrat !
The prince of the powers of storm, the Sphinx there-
over he wingeth
Flattothrat toflattothrat !
270 EURIPIDES
With decdful hand and lance the furious fowl of the air
Flattothrat toflattothrat !
That the wild wind-walking hounds unhindered tear
Flattothrat toflattothrat !
And War toward Aias leaned his weight,
Flattothrat toflattothrait ! "
Dionysus.
What's Flattothrat ? Was it from Marathon
You gathered this wool-gatherer's stuff, or where ?
Aeschylus.
Clean was the place I found them, clean the place
I brought them, loath to glean with Phrynichus
The same enchanted meadow of the Muse.
But any place will do for him to poach,
Drink-ditties of Meletus, Carian pipings,
And wakes, and dancing songs. — Here, let me show
you !
Ho, some one bring my lyre ! But no ; what need
Of lyres for this stuff? Where's the wench that plays
The bones ? — Approach, Euripidean Muse,
These songs are meet for your accompaniment !
Dionysus.
This Muse was once ... no Lesbian ; not at all !
Aeschylus [singing).
" Ye halcyons by the dancing sea
Who chatter everlastingly,
While on your bathing pinions fall
The dewy foam-sprays, fresh and free ;
And, oh, ye spiders deft to crawl
In many a chink of roof and wall,
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 271
While left and right, before, behind,
Your fingers wi-i-i-i-ind
The treasures of the labouring loom,
Fruit of the shuttle's minstrel mind,
Where many a songful dolphin trips
To lead the dark-blue-beak^d ships.
And tosses with aerial touch
Temples and race-courses and such.
O bright grape tendril's essence pure.
Wine to sweep care from human lips ;
Grant me, O child, one arm-pressure ! "
[Breaking off.
That foot, you see ?
Dionysus.
I do.
Aeschylus.
And he ?
Euripides.
Of course I see the foot !
Aeschylus.
And this is the stuff to trial you bring
And face my songs with the kind of thing
That a man might sing When he dances a fling
To mad Cyrcnc's flute !
There, that's your choral stuff! But I've not
finished,
I want to show the spirit of his solos !
272 EURIPIDES
[Sings again ; mysteriously,
" What vision of dreaming,
Thou fire-hearted Night,
Death's minion dark-gleaming.
Hast thou sent in thy might ?
And his soul was no soul, and the Murk was his
mother, a horror to sight !
Black dead was his robe, and his eyes
All blood, and the claws of him great ;
Ye maidens, strike fire and arise ;
Take pails to the well by the gate.
Yea, bring me a cruse of hot water, to wash off this
vision of fate.
Thou Sprite of the Sea,
It is e'en as I feared !
Fellow-lodgers of me.
What dread thing hath appeared ?
Lo, Glyk^ hath stolen my cock, and away from the
neighbourhood cleared !
[m/d/y.
(Ye Nymphs of the Mountain give aid !
And what's co^iie to the scullery-maid ? )
[Tearfu/Iy.
And I — ah, would I were dead ! —
To my work had given my mind ;
A spindle heavy with thread
My hands did wi-i-i-ind.
And I meant to go early to market, a suitable buyer
to find !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 273
[Junost xueeping.
— But he rose, rose, in the air
On quivering blades of flight ;
He left me care, care ;
And tears, tears of despair.
Fell, fell, and dimmed my sight !
[Recovering himself; in Jlorid^ tragic style.
Children of Ida's snows,
Cretans, take up your bows,
And ring the house with many a leaping limb !
And thou, fair maid of bliss,
Dictynna, Artemis,
Range with thy bandogs through each corner dim ;
Yea, Thou of twofold Fires,
Grant me my deep desires.
Thou Zeus-born Hecate ; in all men's eyes
Let the detective sheen
Flashed from thy torches keen.
Light me to Glykc's house, and that lost fowl surprise ! "
Dionysus.
Come, stop the singing !
Aeschylus.
I've had quite enough !
What I want is to bring him to the balance ;
The one sure test of what our art is worth !
Dionysus.
So that's my business next ? Come forward, please ;
I'll weigh out poetry like so much cheese !
274 EURIPIDES
A large pair of scales is brought forward^ while the
Chorus sing.
Chorus.
Oh, the workings of genius are keen and laborious !
Here's a new wonder, incredible, glorious !
Who but this twain Have the boldness of brain
To so quaint an invention to run ?
Such a marvellous thing, if another had said it had
Happened to him, I should never have credited ;
I should have just Thought that he must
Simply be talking for fun !
Dionysus.
Come, take your places by the balance.
Aeschylus and Euripides.
There !
Dionysus.
Now, each take hold of it, and speak your verse,
And don't let go until I say " Cuckoo."
Aeschylus and Euripides
{taking their stand at either side of the balance).
We have it.
Dionysus.
Now, each a verse into the scale !
Euripides [quoting the first verse of his ^'^ Medea"").
" Would God no Argo e'er had winged the brine."
Aeschylus [quoting his " Philoctetes ").
" Spercheios, and ye haunts of grazing kine !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 275
Dionysus.
Cuckoo ! Let go. — Ah, down comes Aeschvlus
Far lower.
Euripides.
Why, what can be the explanation ?
Dionysus.
That river he put in, to wet his wares
The way wool-dealers do, and make them hea\ier !
Besides, you know, the verse you gave had wings !
Aeschylus.
Well, let him speak another and we'll see.
Dionysus.
Take hold again then.
Aeschylus and Euripides.
There you are.
Dionysus.
Now speak
Euripides {quoting his "Jntigone").
" Persuasion, save in speech, no temple hath."
Aeschylus {quoting his " Niobe ").
" Lo, one god craves no offering, even Death."
Dionysus.
Let go, let go !
Euripides.
Why, his goes down again !
276 EURIPIDES
Dionysus.
He put in Death, a monstrous heavy thing !
Euripides.
But my Persuasion made a lovely line !
Dionysus.
Persuasion has no bulk and not much weight.
Do look about you for some ponderous line
To force the scale down, something large and strong.
Euripides.
Where have I such a thing, now ? Where ?
Dionysus
{mischievously quoting some unknown play of Euripides).
I'll tell you ;
"Achilles has two aces and a four!" —
[Aloud) Come, speak your lines ; this is the final bout.
Euripides [quoting his " Meleager ").
" A mace of weighted iron his right hand sped."
Aeschylus [quoting his " Glaucus ").
" Chariot on chariot lay, dead piled on dead.
Dionysus [as the scale turns).
He beats you this time too !
Euripides.
How does he do it ?
Dionysus.
Two chariots and two corpses in the scale —
Why, ten Egyptians couldn't lift so much !
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 277
Aeschylus {breaking out).
Come, no more line-for-lines ! Let him jump in
And sit in the scale himself, with all his books,
His wife, his children, his Cephisophon !
I'll back two lines of mine against the lot !
The central door opens and Pluto luith his suite comes
forth.
A Voice.
Room for the King !
Pluto {to Dionysus),
Well, is the strife decided ?
Dionysus {to Pluto).
I won't decide I The men are both my friends ;
Why should I make an enemy of either ?
The one's so good, and I so love the other !
Pluto.
In that case you must give up all you came for !
Dionysus.
And if I do decide ?
Pluto.
Why, not to make
Your trouble fruitless, you may take away
Whichever you decide for.
Dionysus.
Hearty thanks !
Now, both, approach, and I'll explain. — I came
Down here to fetch a poet : " Why a poet ? "
That his advice may guide the City true
278 EURIPIDES
And so keep up my worship ! Consequently,
I'll take whichever seems the best adviser.
Advise me first of Alcibiades,
Whose birth gives travail still to mother Athens.
Pluto.
What is her disposition towards him ?
Dionysus.
Well,
She loves and hates, and longs still to possess.
I want the views of both upon that question !
Euripides.
Out on the burgher, who to serve his state
Is slow, but swift to do her deadly hate,
With much wit for himself, and none for her.
Dionysus.
Good, by Poseidon, that ! — And what say you ?
[To Aeschylus.
Aeschylus.
No lion's whelp within thy precincts raise ;
But, if it be there, bend thee to its ways !
Dionysus.
By Zeus the Saviour, still I can't decide !
The one so fine, and the other so convincing !
Well, I must ask you both for one more judgment ;
What steps do you advise to save our country ?
Euripides.
I know and am prepared to say !
Dionysus.
Say on.
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 279
Euripides.
Where Mistiust now has sway, put Trust to dwell.
And where Trust is, Mistrust ; and all is well.
Dionysus.
I don't quite follow. Please say that again.
Not quite so cleverly and rather plainer.
Euripides.
It we count all the men whom now we trust,
Suspect ; and call on those whom now we spurn
To serve us, we may find deliverance yet.
Dionysus.
And what say you r
Aeschylus.
First tell me about the City ;
What servants does she choose ? The good ?
She loathes them !
Dionysus.
Great Heavens,
Aeschylus.
And takes pleasure in the vile ?
Dionysus.
Not she, but has perforce to let them serve her !
Aeschylus.
What hope of comfort is there for a City
That quarrels with her silk and hates her hodden ?
Dionysus.
That's just what you must answer, if you want
To rise again !
28o EURIPIDES
Aeschylus.
I'll answer there, not here,
Dionysus.
No ; better send up blessing from below.
Aeschylus.
Her safety is to count her enemy's land
Her own, yea, and her own her enemy's j
Her ships her treasures, and her treasure dross !
Dionysus.
Good ; — though it all goes down the juror's throat !
Pluto {interrupting).
Come, give your judgment !
Dionysus.
Well, I'll judge like this ;
My choice shall fall on him my soul desires!
Euripides.
Remember all the gods by whom you swore
To take me home with you, and choose your friend !
Dionysus.
My tongue hath sworn; — but I'll choose Aeschylus!
Euripides.
What have you done, you traitor ?
Dionysus.
I ? I've judged
That Aeschylus gets the prize. Why shouldn't I r
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 281
Euripides,
Canst meet mine eyes, fresh from thy deed of
shame ?
Dionysus.
What is shame, that the . . . Theatre deems no
shame ?
Euripides.
Hard heart ! You mean to leave your old friend dead ?
Dionysus.
Who knoweth if to live is but to die? . . .
If breath is bread and sleep a woolly lie ?
Pluto.
Come in, then, both.
Dionysus.
Again ?
Pluto.
To feast with me
Before you sail.
Dionysus.
With pleasure ! That's the way
Duly to crown a well-contented day !
[They all depart Into the house.
Chorus.
0 blessed are they who possess
An extra share of brains 1
'Tis a fact that more or less
All fortunes of men express ;
As now, by showing
An intellect glowing,
282 EURIPIDES
This man his home regains j
Brings benefit far and near
To all who may hold him dear,
And staunches his country's tear,-
All because of his brains !
Then never with Socrates
Make one of the row of fools
Who gabble away at ease,
Letting art and music freeze,
And freely neglect
In every respect
The drama's principal rules !
Oh, to sit in a gloomy herd
A-scraping of word on word.
All idle and all absurd, —
That is the fate of fools !
Re-enter Pluto, Dionysus, Aeschylus, and Attend-
antSy who join with the Chorus to form a pro-
cession.
Pluto.
Then farewell, Aeschylus ! Go your ways,
And save your town for happier days
By counsel wise ; and a school prepare
For all the fools — there are plenty there !
And take me some parcels, I pray ; this sword
Is for Cleophon ; these pretty ropes for the Board
Of Providers. But ask them one halter to spare
For Nicomachus ; one, too, is Myrmex's share.
And, along with this venomous
Draught for Archenomus,
Take them my confident prayer,
ARISTOPHANES' FROGS 283
That they all will come here for a visit, and stay.
And bid them be quick ; for, should they delay,
Or meet my request with ingratitude, say
I will fetch them myself, by Apollo !
And hurry the gang of them down with a run
All branded and chained — with Leucolophus' son
The sublime Adimantus to follow 1
Aeschylus.
I will do as you wish. — And as for my throne,
I beg you let Sophocles sit there alone,
On guard, till perchance I return some day ;
For he — all present may mark what I say —
Is my Second in art and in wit.
And see, above all, that this Devil-may-care
Child of deceit with his mountebank air
Shall never on that imperial chair
By the wildest of accidents sit !
Pluto.
With holy torches in high display
Light ye the Marchers' triumphal advance ;
Let Aeschylus' music on Aeschylus' way
Echo in song and in dance 1
Chorus.
Peace go with him and joy in his journeying ! Guide
ye our poet
Forth to the light, ye Powers that reign in the Earth
and below it ;
Send good thoughts with him, too, for the aid of a
travailing nation.
So shall we rest at the last, and forget our long
desolation,
284
EURIPIDES
War and the clashing of wrong. — And for Cleophon,
why, if he'd rather,
Let him fight by himself with his friends, in the far-
off fields of his father.
[They all go off in a procession^ escorting Aeschylus.
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS
P. 179, 1. I, Xaiithias.] — A common slave's name
from Xanthus, the chief town of Lycia, or possibly
from ^av66<:, " auburn," " red-headed." Northern
slaves were common.
P. 180, 11. 14, 16, Phrynichus, Ameipsias, Lykis.] —
Contemporary comic poets. Phrynichus was com-
peting with his "Muses" against Aristophanes on the
present occasion, and won the second prize. Ameipsias'
Connos won the first prize over the Clouds, and his
Revellers over the Birds.
P. 182, 1. 33, Why wasn't I on board at Argin-
usae ?] — All slaves who fought in that battle had been
set free. It and its consequences loom so large in The
Frogs that it is desirable to give some account of them.
It was a great victory. Seventy Spartan ships were
destroyed and the admiral, Callicratidas, slain. But it
was not properly followed up, and it was dearly bought
by the loss of twenty-five triremes, with nearly the
whole of their crews, amounting to about five thousand
men. It was believed that with more care many of
these men might have been saved, and most of the
dead bodies collected for burial. The generals were
summoned home for trial for this negligence. They
pleaded bad weather, and also that they had given
orders to the trierarchs (or captains) to see to recover-
ing the men overboard. The trierarchs were thus
286 EURIPIDES
forced in self-defence to throw over the generals, and
it happened that they had among them the famous
orator and " Moderate " politician, Theramenes. He,
naturally, led the case for his fellow-trierarchs, and
succeeded in showing that the order to see to the
shipwrecked men was sent out much too late, after
the storm had arisen. A coincidence intensified the
general emotion. The Feast of the Apaturia, de-
voted to family observances and the ties of kindred,
chanced to occur at the time of the trial. Whole
kindreds were seen in mourning. (It was rumoured
afterwards that impostors were hired by the enemies
of the generals to go about in black, wailing for
imaginary relatives — like Sebinus below (p. 212) —
" floating unburied on the waves ! ") The generals
were condemned, and six of them, including Erasinides
(p. 264), executed. Theramenes " came off scratch-
less " (p. 248), except in reputation.
P. 183, 1. 48, Cleisthenes.] — Noted for his effemi-
nate good looks. He may or may not have been in
command of a ship.
P. 183, I. 53, The Andromeda.] — See Appendix.
Molon was a very tall actor who performed in it.
P. 185, 1. 64, Seest then the sudden truth.] — From
"Euripides' Hypsipyle. Acted 41 1-409. See Appendix.
P. 185, 1. 72, For most be dead, &c.] — From Euri-
pides' Oineus. See Appendix.
P. 185, 1. 73, lophon.] — Son of Sophocles. Fifty
plays are attributed to him by Suidas, among others a
Bacchae or Pentheus^ from which we have the frag-
ment : " This I understand, woman though I be ; that
the more man seeketh to know the Gods' mysteries,
the more shall he miss knowledge." He won the
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 287
second prize in 428, when the Hippolytus obtained
the first.
P. 186, 1. 83, Agathon.] — The much-praised tragic
poetjforwhose first victory in B.C. 41 6 the "Symposium"
of Plato's dialogue professes to be held. He left Athens
" to feast %vith peaceful Kings,'''' i.e. with Archelaus of
Macedon, in B.C. 407, at the age of forty, immediately
lifter Aristophanes' attack on him in the Gerytades, and
before his influence had established itself on Athenian
tragedy. He is a butt in the Thesmophoriasusae also.
P. i86, 1. 86, Xenocles.] — Son of Carcinus. No
critic has a good word for him, though he won the
first prize in 415 over Euripides' Troades. He is
nicknamed " The Dwarf,'' " Datis the Mcde," and
" Pack-o'-tricks " {hoih€Ka^ir)-)(avo^). One line of his
seems to be preserved, from the Licymnius —
" 0 bitter fate, 0 fortune edged with gold.''"'
P. 186, 1. 87, Pythangelus.] — Nothing whatever
is known of this man except the shrug of Dionysus'
shoulders. And that has carried his name to 2500
years of " immortality " !
P. 187, 1. 89, Other pretty fellows.] — Among them
would be Plato. Other celebrated men of this time
who in their youth tried writing tragedies were
Antiphon, Meletus the accuser of Socrates, Critias the
Oligarch, and Thcognis his colleague, Dionysius the
tyrant of Syracuse ; later. Crates the philosopher, and
perhaps the great Diogenes.
P. 187, 1. 100, O holy Ether.] — "I swear by the
holy Ether, home of God," from Euripides' Melanippe
the IFise. See Appendix.
P. 187, 1. 100, Foot of Time.] — The phrase occurs
288 EURIPIDES
very boldly in Bacchae^ 888 (translated "stride"), but
that play was not yet published. Euripides had said,
" On stepped the foot of Time," in the Alexandras^
acted B.C. 415.
P. 187, 1. 1 01, Souls that won't take oaths, while
tongues, &c.] — See Hippolytus^ 612 (p. 33). The fre-
quent misrepresentations of this line are very glaring,
even for Aristophanes. Cf. Frogs^ I47i> Thesm. 275;
also Plato, Theaet. i54d, and Symp, i()()a., who, however,
refers to the phrase sympathetically.
P. 187, 1. 105, Ride not upon my soul.] — The
source of this quotation is not known.
P. 189, 1. 124, The hemlock way.] — The ordinary
form of capital punishment at Athens was poisoning
with hemlock. Socrates in the Phaedo describes the
gradual chilling of his body after drinking it.
P. 189, 1. 129, Cerameicus.] — The Potter's Quarter
of Athens. The " great tower " is probably that built
by Timon the Misanthrope in this quarter. It would
command a view, for instance, of the torch races at
the feasts of Prometheus and Hephaestus, and at the
Panathenaea, which ran " from the Academy to the
City through the Kerameicus " (Pausanias, I. xxx. 2,
with Frazer's note).
P. 190, 1. 139, For two obols.] — Two obols con-
stituted the price of a day's work as legally recognised
by the early Athenian democracy. It was the pay-
ment made for attendance at the Jury Courts, and
distributed to poor citizens to enable them to attend
festivals. Hence it was also the price of entry to the
theatre. It was probably also the original payment
for attendance at the Ecclesia, or serving in garrison,
or on ship-board, in cases where payment was not
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 289
made in rations. The payments were greatly altered
and increased (owing to the rise in prices) during the
war and the fourth century.
Charon traditionally took one obol, the copper coin
which was put in the dead man's mouth. But
Theseus, the fountain-head of the Athenian con-
stitution, has introduced the Two-obol System in
Hades !
P. 191, 1. 151, Morsimus.] — Son of Philocles and
grand-nephew of Aeschylus, was a doctor as well as
a tragic poet. No one has a good word for his poetry,
and no fragments — except one conjectural half line —
exist.
P. 191, 1. 153, Kinesias.] — A dithyramhic poet of
the new and florid school of music, from whom Aris-
tophanes can never long keep his hands. He had
frail health and thin legs; and you could not "tell
right from left" in his music. The parodies of his
stvle in the Birds are rather charming. Plato de-
nounces him and his music in the Gorgias (50 1 e). But
it is interesting to observe that he was the author of
a law reducing the extravagance and sumptuousness
of choric performances — which does not look like
"corrupt " art.
P. 192, 1. 158, The Initiated.] — Persons initiated
in the Eleusinian Mysteries, as in those of Orpheus
and others, had their sins washed away, saw a great
light not vouchsafed to other eyes, and had eternal
bliss after death.
P. 192, 1. 159, The donkey, holiday-making.] —
Much as a costermonger's donkey with us celebrates
its master's Bank Holiday by extra labour.
P. 194, 11. 186 f., Lethe and Sparta and the rest of
290 EURIPIDES
Hell.] — I suspect that in A'>]6r}^ ireBlov, ovov nroKaf;^
Taivapovy we have a reference to a proposal, by some
member of the war party, to take the offensive against
Sparta by sailing round the Laconian coast — as Tol-
mides had done — and landing at AeuKrj'^ irehiov, ovov
<yvddo<i (Strabo, 8, 363), and Taivapov.
P. 195, 1. 191, The battle of the Cold Meat Unpre-
served.] — Arginusae, see above, p. 285. Ophthalmia
seems to have been a common cause of disablement
or malingering in Greek soldiers. See Hdt. vii. 229.
P. 202, 1. 282, What is so flown with pride] — "as
man's weak heart ?" So says Odysseus of himself in
the opening of Euripides' Philoctetes. See Appendix.
P. 203, 1. 293, Empusa.] — A vague phantom ap-
pearing in dark places, whose chief characteristic was
to be constantly changing, so that whenever you
looked it seemed different. Like other phantoms, she
was sent by Hecate. Aeschines' mother was so nick-
named (Dem. xviii. 130) as being (i) changeable,
always devoted to some new religion ; (2) associated
with uncanny mysteries.
P. 204, 1. 303, Hegelochus.] — An actor who per-
formed the hero's part in Euripides' Orestes, B.C. 408.
He ought to have said, "I catch a tale of peace."
He seems to have pronounced 'yaXrjv opw, in Orestes^
v. 279, so that it sounded like <ya\7Jv opSi, "I see a
weasel." We hear much of this slip. See Sannyrion,
fr. 8, and Strattis, fr. i and 60.
P. 205,1. 311, Parlour of God.] — See on p.187, l.ioo.
P. 206, 1. 320, Diagoras.] — Diagoras of Melos,
nicknamed "the atheist," who was condemned to
death for his attack on the Mysteries, but happily
escaped to Pellene and the Peloponnese,
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 291
P. 207, 1. 338, Roasting pig.] — Pigs were sacrificed
before the Mysteries. Cf. Peace^ 374 —
"Lend me three drachmas for a sucking pig !
I must be purified before I die."
P. 208, 1, 353, The Mere.] — Ai/ivai, the district
between the three hills — Acropolis, Areopagus, and
Pnyx — where the ' Lenaion,' or ' Wine-Press,' and
the shrine and precinct of Dionysus have been re-
cently discovered.
P. 208, 11. 354 ff. — The Hierophant's address is ap-
parently a parody of some similar warning off of the
impure at the Mysteries before the addresses to Korc
(the Maiden), Demcter, and lacchus. As to the
allusions : Cratinus is the celebrated comic poet, pre-
cursor and rival of Aristophanes. He was personally
a burly and vigorous "Beef-eater," and the word is
additionally suitable in this context because the cere-
monial eating of an ox's flesh, being sacramentally
the flesh of Dionysus, the Mystic Bull of Zeus, was
an essential part of the Orphic Mysteries. There
were contests with bulls at the Eleusinian also. —
Lobeck. Agl. p. 206, note c.
P. 208, 1. 363. — Thorycion is unknown except for
the allusions in this play.
P. 209, I. 366, A teacher of Choirs.]— He alludes
to a ribald anecdote about the poet Kinesias (p. 289).
P. 209, 1. 367, Pitiful fines.] — Many laws were
passed restricting the licence and the expensiveness of
comedy, e.g. by Archinos, Agyrrhius, and Arche-
d^mus.
P. 214, 1. 464, Aeacus.] — This character and his
speech seem to be parodied from the Peir'ithous^ a
tragedy attributed either to Euripides or to Critias
292 EURIPIDES
(acted after 411), where the real Heracles is con-
fronted and threatened by the real Aeacus. "Gorgons"
and "lampreys" are suitable in the infernal regions;
but " lampreys of Tartessus " in Spain were a well-
known delicacy, and the " Gorgons " of the Attic
district Tithras were apparently something human and
feminine — like the Hostess who appears presently.
P. 216, 1. 501, Melitean.] — The quarter of Athens
called Melite possessed a temple of Heracles, and
perhaps a rough population.
P. 216, 1. 505, Split-pea porridge, 5c c] — Heracles,
nearly always a comic figure on the Athenian stage
(perhaps, as Professor Ridgeway suggests, because he
was a " Pelasgian " hero), has gross and simple tastes
in his food. Xanthias, I think, refuses out of caution,
feeling that Persephone will detect his imposture, and
then is overcome by temptation.
P. 218, 1. 531, Alcmena's son, &c.] — A tragic line,
but of origin unknown.
P. 218, 1. 541, Theramenes.] — This interesting man
owes his bad name in The Frogs to his conduct with
regard to the impeachment of the generals after
Arginusae (see pp. 248, 286). But he had made a similar
impression, and earned his nickname of " The Buskin "
— which goes equally well on either foot — in 411,
when he first was a leader in the Oligarchic Revolu-
tion, and then turned against it, and even spoke
in accusation of his late associates, Antiphon and
Archeptolemus, when they were being condemned
to death. It would have been the same story in the
second Oligarchic Revolution of 404, had not the
extreme Oligarchs saved themselves by murdering
him. A " Moderate "" at a time when faction was
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 293
furiously high, he is continually found supporting
various movements until they " go too far." Aristotle
{Const, of JthfNS, cap. 28) counts him with Nicias and
Thucydides, son of Melesias, as one of the " three
best statesmen in Athenian history," and has an in-
teresting defence of his character. He was certainly
a man of great culture, eloquence, ability, and per-
sonal influence. And his policy has a way of seeming
exactly right. Yet he is unpleasantly stained with
the blood of his companions, and one is not surprised
to find the tone of Aristophanes towards him pecu-
liarly soft and venomous, unlike his ordinary loud
railing.
P. 221, 11. 569, 570, Cleon . . . Hyperbolus.] — It
is interesting to observe the duties — even in cari-
cature— of a TTpoardrrj'i rov SjjfjLoVy or Champion of
the Demos. He fought the causes of the oppressed.
P. 222, 1. 588, Archedcmus.] — See above, p. 21 1.
P. 223, 1. 608, Ditylas, Skeblyas, Pardokas.] — The
barbarous names seem to be Thracian or Scythian.
Police work in Athens was done by Scythian slaves.
P. 224, 1. 616, Question this poor boy.] — A man's
slaves would generally know about his movements.
Hence it was a mark of conscious innocence for an ac-
cused person to offer his slaves to be examined. They
were examined under torture, or threats of torture, in
order that they might fear the law as much as they
feared their master, and were guaranteed protection
against his anger if they told the truth. The master
usually stipulated that no severe or permanently inju-
rious torture should be used. Xanthias generously
offers to let them maltreat Dionysus as much as ever
they like !
294 EURIPIDES
P. 224, 1. 621, No scourges made of leeks or young
shalott.] — Why should any one imagine scourges
made of such things ? Because such things were used
for certain ceremonial scourgings ; for instance, Pan's
statues were whipped with squills (Theoc. vii. 106),
the scapegoats [pharmakoi) in Ionia with fig-twigs and
squills (Hipponax, fr. 4-8), the disgraceful boor in
Lucian [Agaitist the Boor^ 3 ; cf. Fugit^ 33, and Vera
Hist., ii. 26) with mallow.
P. 225, 1. 628, An illegal act, being immortal.] —
A parody of the law. It was illegal to torture a
citizen.
P. 225, 1. 634, He won't feel it.] — There appears
to be some inconsistency about this very funny
scene. Dionysus does seem to feel it as much as
Xanthias.
P. 227, 1. 651, Diom^an Feast.] — Held in honour of
Heracles (whom Xanthias is personating) at the deme
Diomeia every four years.
P. 228, 1. 661, Hipponax.] — An earlier writer of
satire. The next quotation is said to be from the
Laocoon of Sophocles.
P. 229, 1. 679, Cleophon.] — The well-known belli-
cose and incorruptible demagogue, who opposed peace
in 410 (after the victory of Cyzicus), in 406 (after the
victory of Arginusae), and in 405 (after the disaster of
Aegospotami). Cleophon is said to have come drunk
into the Agora and vowed that " he would cut oflf the
head of any one who mentioned the word ' peace.' "
He was shortly afterwards either assassinated or judici-
ally murdered by the Moderates and Oligarchs. The
point of these intentionally obscure and nonsensical
lines seems to be : (i) that Cleophon talked bad Attic,
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 295
like a barbarian, and was in fact of Thracian birth ;
(2) that he went about whining — and well he might 1
— that his political enemies meant to twist the law
somehow so as to have him condemned to death. An
equally divided vote counted by rights as an acquittal.
See also the last two lines of this play.
P. 230, 1. 688, All Athenians shall be equal, &c.] —
That is, an amnesty should be granted to those impli-
cated in the Oligarchical Revolution led by Phry-
nichus in 41 1.
P. 230, 1. 694, Become Plataeans.] — When Plataca
was dcstrovcd by Sparta in 431, the refugees were
granted rights of Athenian citizenship and eventually
given land (421) in the territory of Skione in Chal-
cidice. The slaves who were enfranchised after
Arginusae were apparently sent to join the Plataeans.
P. 232, 11. 718-720, Is the same towards men and
money.] — Mr. George Macdonald has convinced me
that such is the meaning of this passage. Gold
coins were struck at this period (b.c, 407 ; Scholiast
quoting Hellanicus and Philochorus), and were, to
judge from those specimens now extant, of exceptional
purity. Bronze coins also were struck (Schol. on
V. 725) in the year 406-5, and apparently found
unsatisfactory, as they were demonetised by the date
of the Ecclesiazusae, B.C. 392 (Eccl. 8i6 ff.). Sec
Kohler in Zeitsch. filr Numismatik^ xxi. pp. 1 1 S.
Others take the general sense to be : —
"It has ofren struck our notice that this city draws
the same
Line between her sons true-hearted and tlic men
who cause her shame,
296 EURIPIDES
As between our ancient silver and the stuff we now
call gold.
Those old coins knew naught of alloys ; everywhere
their fame was told.
Not all Hellas held their equal, not all Barbary far
and near,
Every tetradrachm well minted, tested each and
ringing clear."
This would be very satisfactory if there was any
reason to suppose either that (i) there was an issue of
base gold at this time, or (2) the new bronze coinage
was jestingly called " the new gold."
P. 232, 1. 730, Red-haired things.] — Northerners,
especially from the Athenian colonies on the coast of
Thrace. Asiatic aliens are comparatively seldom
mentioned in Attic writers.
P. 232, 1. 733, Scapegoats.] — ^apjxaKoiy like " Guy
Fawkeses." Traditions and traditional ceremonies
survived in various parts of Greece, pointing to the
previous existence of an ancient and barbarous rite of
using human " scapegoats," made to bear the sins of
the people and then cast out or killed. See the frag-
ments of Hipponax, 4-8. It is stated by late writers
that in Athens two criminals, already condemned to
death and ' full of sin,' were kept each year to be
used in this way at the Feast of Thargelia. The
sins of the city were ritually laid upon them ; they
were, in ceremonial pretence, scourged before exe-
cution ; their bodies were burnt by the sea-shore
and their ashes scattered. The evidence is given in
Rohde, Psyche^ p. 366, 4. It is preposterous, to my
thinking, to regard this as a " human sacrifice " — a
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 297
thing uniformly referred to with horror in Greek
literature.
P. 234, 1. 756, Zeus of the Friendly Jailbirds.] —
A deity invented to meet the occasion of their swearing
friendship.
P. 237, 1. 791, Clidemides informs us.] — The joke
is now unintelligible. Even the Alexandrian scholars
did not know who Clidemides was. He may, for
instance, have been some fussy person who toadied
Sophocles and liked to give news about him.
P. 237, 11. 799 ff., Straight-edges and cubit-rules,
&c.] — The art of scientific criticism, as inaugurated
by Gorgias, Prodicus, Thrasymachus, and afterwards
developed by Isocrates and Aristotle, would seem
absurd to Aristophanes ; the beginnings of physics
and astronomy and grammar are similarly — and less
excusably — satirised in the Clouds.
P. 238, 11. 814-829. — The parody of Aeschylus is
not so brilliant as that upon Euripides, whom Aristo-
phanes knew to the tips of his fingers (pp. 270 seqq.).
The " Thunderer " and " Thoughtbuilder '' is Aeschy-
lus ; the "Man of the Mouth," Euripides.
P. 240, 1. 837, Bard of the noble savage.] — Aeschy-
lus drew largely from the more primitive and wild
strata of Greek legend, as in the Prometheus and
Suppliants. The titles and fragments of the lost
plays show the same tendency even more strongly.
P. 240, 1. 840, How sayst thou. Son of the Goddess
of the Greens.] — A parody of a line of Euripides
(possibly from the Telephus\ where "Sea" stood in
place of " Greens." Euripides' mother, Cleito, was
of noble family (twv a^oSpa eiryei/w^) and owned land.
For some unknown reason it was a well-established
298 EURIPIDES
joke to call her a " Greengroceress." (Cf. Ach. 457,
478; Knights, 18 fF.; Thesm. 387, 456, 910, and
the " beetroot and book juice," below, p. 246.) Pos-
sibly the poet was at some time of his life a vegetarian.
P. 240, 1. 842, Blind-beggar-bard ; crutch-and-cripple
playwright.] — Euripides seems to have used more or
less realistic costumes. With him the shipwrecked
Menelaus looked shipwrecked, the lame Telephus
lame ; Electra, complaining of the squalor of her
peasant life, was dressed like a peasant-woman. It is
curious how much anger this breach in the tradition
seems to have created. We are told that Aeschylus
dressed all his characters in gorgeous sacerdotal robes.
Yet I wonder if we moderns would have felt any
very great difference between his Philoctetes or
Telephus (in both of which cases the lameness is
essential) and that of Euripides.
P. 240, 1. 844, Strike not thine heart, &c.] — A
tragic line, the source not known.
P. 240, 1. 847, A black lamb.] — As sacrificed to
appease Typhon, the infernal storm-god.
P. 240, 1. 849, Cretan dancing-solos.] — Possibly a
reference to his Cretan tragedies [The Cretans, The
Cretan Women) ; perhaps merely a style of dancing
accompanied by song.
P. 241, 1. 855, Knock out all the Telephus.] — (Cf.
"That'll knock the Sordello out of him"), i.e. his
brains, which consist of Telephus in masses. No play
of Euripides is so often mocked at.
P. 242, 1. 877, Founts of Quotation.] — Literally
" makers of Gnomae " or quotable apophthegms.
P. 244, 1. 910, Phrynichus.] — The tragic poet, pre-
decessor of Aeschylus, not the oligarchical conspirator.
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 299
P. 244, 1. 911, Sole veiled figures.] — In the extant
plays the silent Prometheus and the silent Cassandra
are wonderfully impressive. Achilles (in the Phrygians)
and Niobe (in the Niobe) seem to have been 'dis-
covered ' sitting silent at the opening of the play.
The Adrastus of Euripides' Suppliants (v. 104 ff.) is
exactly similar ; the silences of Heracles [Her. v. 12 14)
and Hecuba [Hec. v. 485), in the plays that bear their
names, are different.
P. 246, 1. 931, A question comes in night's long
hours.] — From Hippolytus^ v. 375. A hippalector
(horse-cock, a kind of flying horse with a bird's tail,
see p. 284), was mentioned in the Myrmidons of
Aeschylus ; both the adjective (translated " russet,"
but perhaps meaning "shrill") and the noun were
obscure, and the phrase is often joked upon ; e.g.
Birds^ 805, of the basket-seller Dieitrephes, who, from
being nobody
" Rose on wicker wings to captain, colonel, cavalry
inspector,
Till he holds the world in tow and ranks as russet
hippalector,"
— where "scarlet" or "screaming" would suit better.
P. 246, 1. 934, Eryxis.] — Unknown. The next
line is considered spurious by some critics, as being
inconsistent with Euripides' general argument.
P. 246, 1. 937. — A "tragelaph," "goat-stag," was a
name for the figures of antelopes, with large saw-like
horns, found on Oriental tapestry.
P. 246, 1. 941, Treatment for such distension . . .
fed it up on solos.] — This account is generally true.
Euripides, as an artist, first rationalised and clarified
300 EURIPIDES
his medium, and then re-enriched it. He first reduced
the choric element and made the individual line much
lighter and less rich. Then he developed the play of
incident, the lyrical ' solo singing,' and the back-
ground of philosophic meditation.
P. 246, 1. 944, Cephisophon.] — A friend of Euri-
pides (not a slave, as his name shov^^s), known chiefly
from a fragment of Aristophanes —
" Most excellent and black Cephisophon,
You lived in general w^ith Euripides,
And helped him in his poetry^ they say."
A late story, improbable for chronological reasons,
makes him a lover of the poet's wife.
P. 247, 1. 952, That's no road, Szc] — Euripides in
later life severely attacked the democratic party. E.g.
Orestes, 902-930. See introduction to The Bacchae.
P. 248, 1. 963, Magic Swans.] — It is not known
in what play Aeschylus introduced the swan-hero
Cycnus. Memnon, the 'Aethiop knight,' occurred
in two plays, the Memnon and the Soul-weighing.
P. 248, 1. 964. — The difference between the pupils
of Aeschylus and Euripides is interesting. Aeschylus
turned out stout, warlike, old-fashioned Democrats ;
Euripides, " intellcctuels " of Moderate or slightly oli-
garchical politics.
P. 248, 1. 965, Phormisius.] — One of the Demo-
cratic stalwarts who returned with Thrasybulus.
He proposed the amnesty of 403, recalling the exiles.
He was afterwards ambassador to Persia. He is
described as bearded, shaggy, and of truculent aspect,
and died (according to gossip) in a drinking bout. A
sort of Mapad(ovofid^r]<i person, loyal and unsubtle.
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 301
P. 248, 1. 965. — Megainetus is not elsewhere men-
tioned, and the meaning of the word yuaiA^)?, "looby
lump," is obscure. It seems to be a slave's name, and
also the name of a bad throw at dice.
P. 248, 1. 967, Cleitophon.] — One of the coadjutors
of Theramenes in the Oligarchical Revolution of
411 (y/r. Rtp. Ath. 29, 3). He also gives his name
to a fragmentary Platonic dialogue, where he argues
that Socrates is of inestimable value in rousing the
conscience of the quite unconverted man, but worse
than useless to the converted man who seeks positive
guidance. Cleitophon is there connected with Lysias
and Thrasymachus, both of them Democrats. His
political attitude would therefore seem to be like that
of Theramenes. This party may be taken to repre-
sent the general views of Euripides, Thucydides,
Isocrates, and Aristotle, and indeed, apart from certain
personal prejudices and a dislike to intellectualism, of
Aristophanes himself. In general, as Mr. Neil says in
his introduction to the Knights, " Attic literature is on
the side of the Moderates, in favour somewhat vaguely
of a restricted franchise and clearly of a Panhellenic
peace" (involving a more liberal treatment of the
Allies). The closer Platonic circle was in a different
position. Many of its members were compromised by
the bitterer Oligarchic Revolution of 404, and sepa-
rated from Moderates as well as Democrats by a river
of blood.
P. 248, 1. 967. — For Theramenes, see above, p. 292.
P. 249, 1. 970, Not aces — no ; all sixes.] — E.g. it
looked as if Theramenes was fatally compromised by
the non-recovery of the bodies at Arginusae ; instead
of which he contrived to make himself leader of the
302 EURIPIDES
agitation on that very subject. (The reading, however,
is doubtful.)
P. 249, 1. 992, Great Achilles gaze around thee] —
" on the spear-tortured labours of the Achaeans, while
thou within thy tent . . . " — From the Myrmidons of
Aeschylus.
P. 252, 1. 1026. — The Persae was, as a matter of
fact, performed in 472, before the Seven against Thebes
(467) ; nor does the exact exclamation " Yow-oy,"
lavol, occur in it. But various odd quasi-Persian forms
do : o2, ooLf load.
P. 253, 1. 1031, Those poets have all been of practi-
cal use, &c.] — This passage, dull and unintelligent as
it seems (unless some jest in it escapes me), is not
meant to be absurd. It implies an argument of this
sort : " All poetry, to be good, must do something
good ; " a true statement as it stands. " Homer and
the ancients do good to people." No one would
dare to deny this, and no doubt it is true ; he does
them good by helping them to see the greatness and
interestingness of things, by filling their minds with
beauty, and so on ; but the ordinary man, having a
narrower idea of good, imagines that Homer must
do him " good " in one of the recognised edifying or
dogmatic ways, and is driven to concluding that
Homer does him good by his military descriptions
and exhortations !
Aeschylus proceeds, "I am like Homer because I
describe battles and brave deeds, and similar things
that are good for people. Euripides is unlike Homer,
because he describes all sorts of other thinj!;s, which
are not in Homer, and are therefore probably trash ;
at any rate some of them are improper ! "
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 303
This is ordinary philistinism. Aeschylus struck
Aristophanes as being like Homer, not because they
were both warlike, but chiefly because they were both
great well-recognised poets of the past, whom he had
accepted in his childhood without criticism. He
attacks Euripides for making him think and feel in
some new or disturbing way, or perhaps at a time
of life when he does not expect really to think and
feel at all. Probably the contemporaries of Aeschylus
attacked him in just the same way. He made people
think of the horrors of victory and of vengeance ;
he made a most profound and un-Homeric study of
the guilty Clytaemnestra. But Aristophanes, when
in his present mood, resembles that modern critic
who is said to have praised Shakespeare for writ-
ing " bright, healthy plays with no psychology in
them."
P. 253, 1. 1036, Pantaclcs.] — A lyric poet, one of
whose victories is recorded on an extant inscribed
pillar (Dittenberger, 410). The "procession" was
doubtless at the Panathenaea six months before.
P. 253, 1, 1039, Lamachus.] — The general who died
so heroically in the Sicilian expedition. He is attacked
in the Acharnians as representative of the war party,
partly perhaps because of his name (" Love-battle " or
" Host-fighter "). He is treated respectfully in Thesm.
841.
P. 253, 1. 1043, Stheneboia.] — See Appendix.
Phaedia, heroine of the Hippolytiis.
P. 253, 1. 1044, A woman in love in one act of one
play.] — An exaggeration. Clytaemnestra is in love
with Aegisthus, as any subtle reading of the Agamem-
non shows ; but other passions are more prominent.
304 EURIPIDES
and love in Aeschylus is on the whole treated with
reserve and stiffness. There was, however, a famous
speech of Aphrodite in the Danatdes^ explaining her-
self as a world-force. And Euripides would probably
have shrunk from writing such lines as MyrmidonSy
fr. 135, 136, and from representing Semele's pregnancy
as Aeschylus seems to have done in the play called
by her name (see Naiick), a great deal more than
Aeschylus would have shrunk from the delicate psy-
chology of Euripides' Phaedra. In the dramatic
treatment of female character Aeschylus was really
the pioneer who opened the road for Euripides.
The Clytaemnestra of the Agamemnon probably differs
from the women of earlier poets in just the same
way as Phaedra differs from her, and to a far greater
degree.
P. 254, 1. 1046, Once . . . left you flat on the
ground.] — The allusion is entirely obscure.
P. 254, 1. 105 1, To gratify Bellerophontes.] — That
hero, in a fury, had wished that all women might
poison themselves.
P. 255, 1. 1058, The language of men.] — Euripides,
as represented, agrees with Wordsworth. The general
voice of poetry is clearly against both.
P. 256, 1. 1074, And spit on the heads, &c.] — One
of the passages which show that Aristophanes could
see the other side when he chose. Your stout, igno-
rant pre-sophistic farmer or sailor was a bit of a brute
after all !
P. 256, 1. 1080, Goes into shrines.] — Auge. See
Appendix for all three.
P. 256, 1. 1 08 1, Her own brother's wife.] — Canac^
in the Aeolus,
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 305
P. 256, 1. 1082, Life is not Life.] — See below, p. 343,
from the Po/yuius. The same sentiment occurs in
the Phrixus.
P. 258, 1. 1 109, If you fear from former cases, &c.]
— The meaning may also be that they have a book
in their hands at the time, viz. a copy of the play.
So Van Lceuwen : " These verses were added in the
second performance of The Frogs. At the first per-
formance . . . this part of the play had been over the
heads of some, perhaps many, of the audience. But
now, says the Chorus, this objection is removed; copies
of the play are in every citizen's hand."
P. 258, I. 1 124, Oresteia.] — The prologue quoted
is that of the Choephori ; Oresteia (" The Orestes-
poetry "), seems to have been another name for that
play. We apply the word to the whole trilogy —
Agamemnon^ Choephori, Eumenides. The growth of
formal titles for books was a very slow thing. Pro-
bably Aeschylus scarcely " named " his plays much
more definitely than Herodotus and Thucydides
"named" their histories. Even Euripides' plays
sometimes bear in the MSB. varying names : Bacchae
or Pentheusy Hippolytus or Phaedra. By the time of
Plato regular names for plays must have been estab-
lished, as he named his dialogues in evident analogy
from plays.
P. 259, 1. 1 126, Warding a father's way.] — A
phrase really obscure. Commentators differ about the
interpretation.
P. 260, 1. 1 1 50, Dionysus, dull of fragrance, &c.] —
Apparently a tragic line.
P. 263, I. 1182, At first was Oedipus, kc] — Pro-
logue to Euripides' Antigone.
U
3o6 EURIPIDES
P. 264, 1. 1 1 96, Erasinides.] — One of the com-
manders at Arginusae. There was one piece of bad
luck that Oedipus missed.
P. 264, 1. 1200, One umbrella.] — Literally "one
oil cruse." An ancient Athenian carried a cruse of
olive oil about with him, both to anoint himself with
after washing and to eat like butter with his food.
Naturally he was apt to lose it, especially when
travelling. I can find no object which both ancient
Greeks and modern Englishmen would habitually use
and lose except an umbrella.
The point of this famous bit of fooling is, I think,
first, that Euripides' tragic style is so little elevated
that umbrellas and clothes-bags are quite at home in
it ; secondly, that there is a certain monotony of
grammatical structure in Euripides' prologues, so that
you can constantly finish a sentence by a half-line
with a verb in it.
The first point, though burlesquely exaggerated, is
true and important. Euripides' style, indeed, is not
prosaic. It is strange that competent students of
Greek tragic diction should ever have thought it so.
But it is very wide in its range, and uses very collo-
quial words by the side of very romantic or arcliaic
ones — a dangerous and difficult process, which only a
great master of language can successfully carry through.
Cf. the criticism on the 'light weight' of his lines,
below, pp. 273 flF.
As to the second point, it is amusing to make out
the statistics. Of the extant Greek tragedies, the
following can have XtjkvOiov airocikeae stuck on to
one of the first ten lines of the prologue : Aesch. Prom.
8, Sept. 6, Bum. 3 (a good one, rj Brj to fjL-rjrpb'i
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 307
XrjKvdiop aTTcoXeaevjy and several other lines ; Soph.
O. T. 4, E/. 5, Track. 3 and 6, Antig. 2 and 7
{ap otaO'' oTi Zev<; \. a.) ; Euripides, Tro. 10, Hec. 2,
PAufw, 7, Hi/ld^ 2 and 4, i/^r. 9, //f/. 4, £■/. 10, /. J.
54 ( = 6), and /. T. 2, quoted here. Thus all three
tragedians have such passages in the opening of about
half their extant plays, and the " monotony," if such
it be, belongs rather to the style of the tragic prologue
than to Euripides.
A third allusion seems to have been felt by the
ancient writers on rhetoric. Ai]kv9o^ and XijkvOlov
(Synesius p. 55), in the sense of "paint-flask" (Latin
ampulla), were cant terms for "ornament in dic-
tion." Euripides' tragic heroes, with their plain
style of speech, seem to have lost their paints. I do
not think Aristophanes meant this.
P. 264, 1. 1206, Aegyptus, &c.] — The first words,
it is said, of the Archelaus, though Aristarchus, the
famous Alexandrian scholar, says that the Archelaus
as published in his time had a different prologue
without these words. Apparently there were two
alternative prologues ; of. the Iph'tgema in Aulis,
P, 265, 1. 121 1, Dionysus, &c.] — Opening of the
Hypsipyle. It went on : "amid the Delphian maids."
P. 265, 1, 1 21 7, No man hath bliss, ^v'c] — Opening
of the Stheneboea. It went on : " Rich acres holds to
plough."
P. 266, 1. 1225, Cadmus long since] — "his way
to Thcbe won." Opening of the Phrixus.
P. 266, 1. 1232, Pelops the Great] — "a royal bride
had won." Opening of the Iphigenia in Tauris, still
extant.
P. 267, 1. 1238, Oineus from earth.] — From the
3o8 EURIPIDES
Meieager^ but not (according to the Scholiast) the first
words. It went on : " Left one due deed undone,
Praising not Artemis."
P. 267, 1. 1244, Great Zeus in heaven, &c.] — Open-
ing of Melanippe the JVise. It went on : " Was sire
to Hellen," and therefore did not really admit the
XrjKvdcov tag.
P. 267, 1. 1247, ^s bunged up as your eyes.] — There
are various allusions to Euripides' bodily infirmities in
his extreme old age.
Pp. 268 ff., 11. 1264 ff. — Aristophanes parodying
Aeschylus is not nearly as brilliant and funny as when
parodying Euripides. The lines here are all actual
lines of Aeschylus : a refrain is made of a line which
is good sense when first used, but easily relapses into
gibberish. The plays quoted are, in order, the
Myrmidons^ Raisers of the Dead^ Telephus (?), Priestesses^
Agaynemnon (v. 104) ; then, for the cithara songs,
Agamemnon (v. 1 09), Sphinx, Agamemnon (v. ill).
Sphinx (?), Thracian Women.
P. 270, 1. 1294, War towards Aias.] — Obscure and
perhaps corrupt.
P. 270, 1. 1296, Was it from Marathon, &c.] — " Did
you find that sort of stuff' growing in the marsh of
Marathon when you fought there ? " Aeschylus
answers : " Never you mind where I got it. It
was from a decent place ! " The metre of the song,
and presumably the music, is Stesichorean.
P. 270, 1. 1308, No Lesbian.]—/.^, she is very unlike
the simple old Lesbian music of Sappho and Alcaeus ;
but there is a further allusion to the supposed impro-
prieties of Lesbian women.
P. 270, 1. 1309, Ye halcyons, &c.] — This brilliant
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 309
parody contains a few actual Euripidcan phrases ; cf.
/. T. 1089—
" O bird, that whechng o'er the main
By crested rock and crested sea
Cryest for ever pitcously,
O Halcyon, I can read thy pain," ^'c.
and El. 435 seqq.^ "Where the tuneful dolphin winds
his way before the dark-blue-beaked ships." "The
shuttle's minstrel mind " is said by the Scholiast to be
from the Meleager.
P. 271, 1. 1 3 14, Wi-i-i-ind.] — A musical "shake,"
This particular word elXla-croj is scanned el-eCkiaa oj
(and actually so written in one MS.) in El. 437, the
passage cited above ; and a papyrus fragment of the
Orestes has ax? written (atu? with two musical notes
above it. Of course the thing is common in lyric
poetry, both Greek and English, but decidedly rarer
in Aeschylus than in Euripides.
P. 271, 1. 1323, That foot.] — The metrical foot,
7repi/3aXX', an anapaest rather irregularly used : I
imitate the effect in " arm-pressure."
P. 271, 1. 1328, Cyrene.] — Not much is known of
her, and that not creditable.
P. 272, 1. 1 331, Thou fire-hearted Night, &c.] —
Cf. the solo of Hecuba [Hec. 68 seqq.). The
oxymoron (" his soul no soul ") and the repetitions
are very characteristic of Euripides, though common
enough in Aeschylus {e.g. Aesch. Suppliants^ 836 ff.,
where there are seven such repetitions). It is not
Euripides, but Greek tragedy in general, that is hit by
this criticism.
P. 273, 1. 1356, Cretans take up your bows, »Scc.] —
310 EURIPIDES
From Euripides' Cretans, according to the Scholiast,
but he does not specify the hnes.
P. 273, 1. 1365, Bring him to the balance : the one
sure test.] — This is indeed the one test — and a fairly-
important one — in which Euripides must be utterly
beaten by Aeschylus. Every test hitherto has been
inconclusive.
P. 277, after 1. 1410, Room for the King, &c.] — I
have inserted this line. There seems to be a gap of
several lines in our MSS.
P. 277, 1. 1 41 3, The one's so good,] = viz. Euripides,
and " I so love " Aeschylus. — Euripides was 0-0(^09,
being master of the learning, including conscious poeti-
cal theory, which had not fully entered into the ideals
of the educated Athenian in Aeschylus' time.
P. 278, 1. 1422, Alcibiades,] — He was now in his
second exile. Appointed one of the three generals
of the Sicilian expedition in 415, he was called back
from his command to be tried for " impiety " (in con-
nection with the mutilation of the Hermae). He fled
and was banished ; then he acted with Sparta against
Athens in order to procure his recall. Upon the out-
break of the Oligarchic Revolution of 411, the fleet,
which remained democratic, recalled Alcibiades. He
commanded with success for three years, returned to
Athens in triumph in 408, and was formally appointed
Commander-in-Chief. The defeat at Notium in 406,
for which his carelessness was considered responsible,
caused him to be superseded, and he retired to the
castles which were his private possessions in the
Chersonese, maintaining an ambiguous political atti-
tude, but on the whole friendly to Athens. He was
mysteriously assassinated in 404. The divergent
COMMENTARY ON THE FROGS 311
advice of the two poets is clear and probably charac-
teristic. Euripides says, " Have no dealings with such
a shifty and traitorous person ; " Aeschylus says,
"Make all the use you can, even with some risk,
of every good fighter." And this would, no doubt,
be Aristophanes' view, to judge from the Parabasis
of this play (pp. 230-232).
P. 278, 1. 1425, She loves and hates, &:c.] — Said to
be parodied from a line in The Sentinels {(ppovpoc) by
Ion oi Chios.
P. 278, 1. 1434, The one so wise, kc] — I do not
think that any real distinction is drawn between ao(})(o^,
" wisely," and aat^w';, " truly" or " convincingly."
P. 279, 1. 1443, Where Mistrust is, &c.] — The re-
spective lines of advice are the same as before. Euri-
pides says, " Purge your governing bodies and keep
the morale of the state sound " ; Aeschylus says,
"Fight your hardest and think of nothing but
fighting."
P. 280, 1. 1468, Mv choice shall fall, Jvjc] — Seems to
be a tragic line.
P.280, 1. 1 47 1, My tongue hath sworn.] — Hippolytus^
V. 612 (see above, p. 288).
P. 281, 1. 1474, Canst meet mine eyes, Sec] — From
Euripides' Aeolus (see Appendix).
P. 281, 1. 1477, Who knoweth if to live, c^:c.] —
From the Polyuius (cf. above, p. 256).
P. 282, 1. 1482, Then never with Socrates, (Sec] — A
most interesting attack on the Socratic circle for lack
of brains — of all charges ! Plato, Critias, and " other
pretty fellows" (sec p. 287) wrote tragedies, and no
doubt seemed to old stagers like Aristophanes to break
" the drama's principal rules."
312 EURIPIDES .
P. 282,11. 1504 ff.jThis sword is forCleophon.] — Viz.
to kill himself with (see on Cleophon above, p. 294).
The "Board of Providers" was specially appointed to
raise revenue by extraordinary means after the Sicilian
disasters. Myrmex and Archenomus are otherwise
unknown. Nicomachus was a legal official against
whom Lysias wrote his speech, No. XXX, Adei-
mantus is a better known figure. A disciple of Prota-
goras, he was a general in 407 and in actual command
at the defeat at Notium. He was appointed general
again after the condemnation of those concerned in
the battle of Arginusae ; continued in his command
next year, and was responsible, through incompetence
or deliberate treachery, for the annihilation of the
Athenian fleet by Lysander at Aegospotami (404).
P. 283, 1. 1528, Peace go with him, &c.] — The
dactylic hexameter metre is rather characteristic of
Aeschylus, and so is the solemnity of these last lines —
so charmingly broken by the jest at the very end.
P. 284, 1. 1533, Fields of his father.] — The leader of
the extreme ' patriotic ' party was supposed to be a
foreigner — of Thracian descent.
EROS WITH A LYRE
P- 313
^/3
APPENDIX ON THE LOST PLAYS
AEOLUS
Acted before 421 B.C. The plot is based on
Homer's description {Oriyssey, x., beginniniz) of the
* floating isle, where lived Aeolus, son of Hippotas,
the Wind-King, with his six sons and six daughters,
shut off from the world by a brazen wall, for ever
feasting amid the wailing of his winds. And the six
daughters he gave to his six sons to wife.'
In a Homeric fairy-tale, the last statement produces
no moral shock. And in some early Greek societies,
as later among the Ptolemies, the marriage of brother
and sister was lawful ; while, on the other hand, the
marriage of first cousins was in some societies for-
bidden. Classical Athenian feeling agreed with our
own on the subject.
In Euripides' tragedy, the eldest son, Macareus, loved
his sister Canace. Aeolus discovered what he regarded
as his daughter's guilt, and sent her by a slave a naked
sword, with no message. Macareus, hearing of the
discovery, threw himself at his father's feet. The old
King broke out upon him : —
Aeolus.
Canst meet mine eyes, fresh from thy deed of shame ?
Macareus.
314 EURIPIDES
Macareus prays for his sister's life and for mercy.
Love is above custom, and his father's moral indigna-
tion has its base in custom. The old King argues and
is beaten ; his rage flickers out ; he feels his weakness: —
" God help us all ;
'Tis an old gibe, and bitter true withal —
Wc old men are as nothmg, every one ;
A little noise, a shape against the Sun,
Something that gropes and wanders like a dream.
And seeing our wits are very slow, we deem
Slowness is wisdom ! "
He relents. Macareus hastens to Canacc's chamber,
to tell her that her life is spared. He finds her lying
in her blood, takes the same sword and dies with her.
Some words remain of the speecli of the messenger
who tells of their deaths : —
" This Cvprian,
She is a thousand thousand changing things;
She brings more pain than any god ; she brings
More joy. I cannot judge her. May it be
An hour of mercy when she looks on me ! "
The play is naturally a frequent theme of attack.
See Clouds^ 137 1 ; also p. 256, 1. 1080.
ALEXANDR08.
Acted B.C. 414, with the Troadn.
Hecuba, Queen of Troy, dreamed that she gave
birth to a burning brand. So when her child was
born, it was exposed by the priests' orders on Mount
Ida, after being named Alexandros. The boy was
rescued and bred up by shepherds, who named him
Paris. Priam and Hecuba, however, believe him
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 315
dead, and are haunted by remorse. Some one remon-
strates with Hecuba on her folly : —
"To lie
In new-shed tears for sorrow long gone by."
At last they determine to hold a funeral feast in
honour of the lost son. It will also serve to display the
prowess of their other sons. Amid other preparations,
Priam sends his servants to buy a certain splendid bull
that has been seen on Mount Ida guarded by a young
unknown herdsman. The herdsman, who is, of
course, Alexandres, follows them, and so comes to
contend at his own funeral games. Many strangers
also contend.
A messenger tells the result to Priam. The foreign
competitors have been duly defeated. So far it is
well for Troy : —
"But for thee, O wearer of the crown,
The arm that should have conquered is struck down.
And that wliich skilled not conquers ! The prize falls
Not to thy children, Priam, but thy thralls."
The young herdsman, who is a slave, like all other
herdsmen, has vanquished every one. They taunt him.
The Prince Deiphobus calls to the other sons of Priam
not to tolerate the slave's insolence, and draws sword
upon him. The herdsman breaks out : —
" O cowards and caitiffs, oh, not slaves in name.
But lives bred deep in slavery and shame. . . ."
He flies to the altar-hearth of Priam's palate, where
he is somehow recognised by his sister, the prophetess
Cassandra.
The fragments are full of discussions of slavery and
its injustices.
3i6 EURIPIDES
ANDROMEDA.
Acted B.C. 412, seven years before The Frogs. This
play was very celebrated, and is remarkable as being
almost the only simple and unclouded love story that
Euripides ever v^^rote. Kepheus, King of Ethiopia,
having in some way offended the gods, his daughter
Andromeda was, by their command, exposed in chains
upon a cliff to be devoured by a sea-monster. Perseus,
returning from the slaying of the Gorgon Medusa,
passed near and saw what he took to be a statue
carved in the rock : —
"What clifiris yonder, islanded above
Wild foaming seas ? And on the face thereof.
Is it the image of a virgin, white
And marble, for some cunning hand's delight
Hewn in the living rock ? "
He approaches and speaks to her : —
Perseus.
O Chained Maiden, my heart bleeds for thee !
Andromeda.
Who speaks ? Who art thou, that canst pity me ?
He learns her doom and offers to fight the sea-
monster : —
"O virgin, if I save thee, wilt thou keep
Remembrance of me ? "
Andromeda.
Wouldst thou make me weep
With dreams of hope that never can be won ?
Perseus.
Deeds that men dreamed not of, have yet been done !
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 317
It is perhaps in this context that the beautiful lines
occur : —
"Methinks it is the morrow, day by clay,
That cows us, and the Coming Thing alway
Greater than things to-day or yesterday."
He slays the monster, and in discharge of his pro-
mise prepares to restore Andromeda to her parents.
But she does not care to return ; she loves him : —
"Take me, O Stranger, for thine handmaiden
Or wife or slave ! "
It is not clear who speaks the lines : —
"We cast us on this torrent, love, to meet
Another soul beneath the torrent's feet ;
And if that soul be good, oh, life is sweet ! "
There is some parleying with Kepheus, who seems
to be a covetous and crafty old king ; but love wins
the day, and Perseus carries off Andromeda to be his
queen in Argos.
The play opened, it would seem, without a pro-
logue, showing the heroine chained to the cliff, and
watching for the first glimmer of dawn with the
words, " O holy Night, how long is the wheeling of
thy chariot I " There are fragments of a long lyrical
scene between Andromeda and some Maidens, broken
into by the babbling of Echo — the Echo of the cliffs
and caves — which are full of romantic beauty : —
"Oh, by the coolness of the caverned stone,
By all its gentleness.
Thou Echo, Echo, mocking my distress,
Peace ! Let me weep alone.
Alone with them that love me, till all my tears
be run."
3i8 EURIPIDES
The long celebrity of the play is shown by a
pleasant story of Lucian's about the tragedy-fever
that once fell upon the people of Abdera, so that they
went about declaiming iambics "and especially sang
the solos from the Andromeda^ and went through the
great speech of Perseus, one after another, till the city
was full of seven-day-old tragedians, pale and haggard,
crying aloud : —
*Er6s, high monarch over gods and men,
Oh, lest thy lovers perish, turn again
Beauty to be not Beauty any more ;
Or give us joyous strength to stand before
Her face, and climb the grievous paths, O thou
Who madcst them, wherein we falter now ! ' "
ANTIGONE.
The date is uncertain. The plot is said to have
been much the same as in Sophocles' great tragedy :
viz. Creon, ruler of Thebes, has ordered that the dead
body of Polyneices, the unjustly exiled prince, who
has returned to fight against his country, shall be cast
out to dogs and not buried ; Polyneices' sister Anti-
gone defies the law, and with her own hands buries
the body, and is doomed to death. Creon's son,
Haemon, slays himself for love of her. But in Euri-
pides, we are told, " being discovered burying her
brother's body with Haemon, she is given to him in
marriage and bears a child, Maeon " (Soph. Ant. Argu-
ment^ cf. Schol. ib. 1350). Dionysus seems to have
appeared at the end, from which Hartung concludes
that probably Antigone appealed to Haemon to help
her in burying the body of Polyneices ; both were
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 319
discovered ; then either both were condemned to death,
or perhaps she onlv was condemned, but Hacmon
determined to die with her, when Dionysus appeared,
rebuked Creon, and commanded that the two lovers
should be pardoned and united in marriage.
There is another story in Hyginus, possibly derived
from Euripides, m which it is Haemon's duty to
watch the body and put to death any person found
trying to burv it. Antigone is brought to him for
execution. He hides her away on Mount Kithaeron
and secretly marries her, while pretending that she
is dead. Eventually their son comes to Thebes, and
is recognised by Creon through the mark on his body
which shows that he is of the Dragon's Seed. But
the plav from which this story is taken must, of
course, take place when the son of Haemon and
Antigone is a grown youth. And one of our frag-
ments seems clearly to refer to the body of Poly-
neices as recently slain : —
" Death is the end and bar of human hate.
'Tis plain to every eye. What man shall sate
His wrath with torment of the grey hill stone,
Stabbing until it smart ? Or win one groan
From the dead flesh that knowsnot scorn nor wrong?"
ARCHELAUS.
This play, not produced during the poet's lifetime,
was probably written in his last years. It celebrates
the legendary ancestor of his host, Archelaus of
Macedon.
Archelaus, a descendant of Heracles, and son of
320 EURIPIDES
Temenus, King of Argos, being driven into exile by
his brothers, comes into Macedonia, beggared, wan-
dering as a goat-herd. Kisseus, the King of Mace-
donia, is being hard pressed in war by his barbarian
neighbours ; " the plain is a-gleam with their fires."
The goat-herd seems to have met with some adven-
ture and distinguished himself. Kisseus offers him a
place in his army. The goat-herd offers to take
command of it and to defeat the foe, if the King
will promise him his daughter in marriage, and with
her the reversion of the kingdom ! The King pro-
tests. Archelaus reveals who he is ; tells of his birth
and nurture, and how his father Temenus had trained
him to follow in the paths of Heracles. Either
Archelaus, or possibly some third person, espousing
his cause, urges that a Heraclid prince even in poverty
is worthy of the King's daughter : —
"In a child's eye the goodness of the good
Shines ; and it is a prize, that hardihood,
More precious in a bridegroom than much gold,
The poor man's jewel, never lost nor sold.
His father's gentleness ! "
The goat-herd is young, poor, strong-witted — the
three together should make the King reflect. Wealth
is often a positive hindrance : —
" Sweetness of days and rest and dallying
Have never lifted any fallen thing.
City nor house."
The King at last agreed, but when Archelaus had,
by miracles of valour or divine protection, destroyed
his enemies, was unwilling to fulfil his promise. Some
counsellor or other advised him to assassinate the
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 321
stranger ; his daughter pleaded the other way in vain.
A plot was made to lead the young chief over a pit
full of burning coals, lightly covered, into which
he should fall. A slave of the King's (or of the
Princess's ?) warned Archelaus. He sent word in-
stantly asking the King to meet him alone for
an important purpose. The King came. Archelaus
reproached him with his treachery, and threw him
into his own pit. Amid the tumult that followed,
Heracles appeared and commanded Archelaus to fly
with a goat for his guide and build a town called after
the goat's name (Aegae), of which he should be king.
Presumably he wedded the princess.
AUGE.
Acted after B.C. 415. Auge, daughter of Aleus,
king of some town in Arcadia, was a priestess of
Athena. During a midnight dance in honour of the
Goddess, Heracles, passing that way on his wanderings,
saw Auge, not knowing who she was, ravished or
beguiled her, and went his ways, leaving her his ring
as a token. The priestess went back to her temple,
and eventually bore a child, which she kept concealed
in the sacred places. A plague fell upon the land,
and was judged by the prophets to be due to a defile-
ment of Athena's house. The King, Aleus, forced
his way — against the priestess''s protest — into the
temple, found the babe and learned all the story. He
had the babe thrown out to wild beasts on the moun-
tains of Arcadia, and ordered Auge to be cast into
the sea, or down a precipice. At this moment Heracles,
returning from his quest (the Stymphalian Birds, or
322 EURIPIDES
the Augean Stables ?), passed by again, asked for
hospitality from Aleus, and recognised the ring on the
finger of the doomed princess. He rescued Auge,
made amends by sacrifice to Athena, and, searching
the mountains, found the child alive and being suckled
by a wild deer, from which miraculous fortune he
gave it the name Telephus (as though drj-eXa^oq).
The fragments suggest that Auge requited with real
love what was only a passing and ignoble fancy in
Heracles. She seems to have no feeling of guilt, nor
any hatred against her seducer. Her rebellious outburst
against her own Virgin Goddess was celebrated : —
" Arms black with rotted blood.
Are sweet to thee, and dead men's wreckage good
To deck thy temples ! Only Auge's babe
Frights thee with shame ! "
And love seems to have been in question somewhere : —
" For whoso deems him not a God, this Love,
Yea, an enthroned Power all gods above,
'Tis a wry soul ; or, having never sought
Nor felt things beautiful, he knoweth not
The Spirit that moveth mightiest over men."
THE CRETANS.
The date of this play is uncertain and the story far
from clear. It dealt with the love of Pasiphae for
" The Bull," and the Chorus was composed of Cretan
Mystae, or ascetic saints, devoted to the worship of
Idaean Zeus and Zagreus.
The Bull was originally a God, probably (to judge
from the excavations) the chief Cretan God j Pasiphae
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 323
seems to have been a Moon Goddess, but may quite
possibly be the Queen of the land mystically wedded
to the Bull God. The presence of a Chorus of
Mystae makes it conceivable that Euripides treated
his monstrous story from this point of view — as a
solemn religious mystery. Ordinary writers on
mythology make the Bull a miraculous sea monster
sent by the wrath of Poseidon. Many authors,
howcxer, such as Plutarch and Palaephatus, rationalise
the story, and make Taurus (Bull) the name of a
soldier or pirate. Johannes Malalas makes him a
notary I We cite in full his severely rationalised
version (iv. p. 105).
" At which times lived Daedalus and Icarus, who
were celebrated because of Pasiphaii, wife of Minos
the King, and Taurus, her notary, by whose seduction
she bore a son, him called Minotaurus, Daedalus and
Icarus having helped her intrigue. So Minos the
King imprisoned her in a chamber" — this represents
the labyrinth — "with two bondmaids, and gave her
food, never seeing her more ; and she, from affliction
at being deposed from her royal honour, was smitten
with disease and died. And Daedalus and Icarus
were slain. Icarus while flying from his prison fell
into the sea from his ship" — not from his melting
wings! — "while Daedalus was executed. Euripides
the poet put out a play about Pasiphae." It is a
question whether Euripides kept the miraculous and
monstrous elements of the story or no. See Verrall
in Classical Review^ 1 902.
It seems to me that Phaedra in the Hippdytus^ when
she mentions her mother's love story, is evidently
referring to a human passion, Taurus being a soldier
324 EURIPIDES
or pirate. But in The Cretans I think it probable that
Euripides plunged wholesale, and perhaps with hostile
intentions, into a " religious mystery " of a barbaric
and monstrous kind. Plutarch evidently thought of
Taurus as a Bull.
The first words of the Chorus of Mystae are pre-
served ; addressing Minos, they are full of " mystic "
allusions, most of which will be fairly clear to those
who have read The Bacchae : —
" Child of Europa's Tyrian line,
Zeus-born, who boldest at thy feet
The hundred citadels of Crete,
I seek to thee from that dim shrine.
Roofed with the Quick and Carven Beam,
By Chalyb steel and wild bull's blood
In flawless joints of cypress wood
Made steadfast. There in one pure stream
My days have run, the servant I,
Enhallowed, of Idaean Jove :
Where midnight Zagreus roves, I rove ;
I have endured his thunder-cry ;
Fulfilled his red and bleeding feasts ;
Held the Great Mother's mountain flame ;
I am Set Free, and named by name
A Bacchos of the Mailed Priests.
Robed in pure white, I have borne me clean
From man's vile birth and coflfined clay,
And exiled from my lips alway
Touch of all meat where life hath been."
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 325
HYPSIPYLE.
Acted between 411 and 409 B.C. In the first scene
a nurse is seen with a child in a meadow before a great
cave. She plays with it, and sings with the accom-
paniment of the child's rattle. She describes how the
baby has been playing in the meadow : —
"Up by the caverned bower,
Plundering, ravishing, flower on flower,
This and the next one — all are good —
On with the joyous heart, the wild
Infinite want, of babyhood.
O cast thine arms about me. Child ! "
This nurse is really Hypsipyle, Princess of Lemnos,
who had saved her father many years before in the
general massacre of the men in that island, and sent
him secretly away in a boat together with her two
infant sons. For this she has been sold into slavery,
and after passing from city ro city, has become a bond-
maid to Eurydice, Queen uf Nemca, whose baby she
is now guarding. There arrives presently a king with
some soldiers, who beg to be shown the way to a spring
of water. It is Adrastus of Argos, leading his army
against Thebes, and his people are dying of drought.
Hypsipyle leaves the child to show them the way to
the only spring that has not been dried up ; and when
she returns the baby is dead, killed by a serpent !
Adrastus kills the serpent, and goes with the slave to
tell the tidings to the Queen Eurydice. Eurydice,
wild with grief, is going to put the nurse to death.
Adrastus intercedes for her ; the Queen should not be
326 EURIPIDES
judge in her own cause. And beyond that, she should
be patient : —
" And hearken, Queen. I have one counsel still.
There lives no man on earth but hath much ill
In living. Aye, we see our children die,
And beget others, and forget, and lie
Ourselves in the earth. And then must men com-
plain,
Seeing the dust draws back to dust again !
For so 'tis written ; like the grassy leas
In the mowing. Life is mown ; and this man is,
And that man is not. Step by step to rue
These paths that all things born must travel through,
What doth it profit any soul ? And that
Which must be, who may chide or rage thereat ? "
(Adrastus in tragedy is always a type of somewhat
proverbial eloquence, a superior Polonius.) The
Queen consents to abide by the decision of an impar-
tial stranger. There are two youths from Lemnos
who chance to be staying as guests of her husband at
the palace ; let them be judges. The two youths
hear the cause, and decide that the slave is guilty, and
may, if her mistress so wills, be put to death, when,
by some chance word, they discover that she is Hyp-
sipyle. They are themselves the two sons whom she
had sent off in the boat with their grandfather Thoas.
She has already been led off to death. They draw
their swords, rescue her from the retainers, reveal
themselves by showing, apparently, the mark of a
vine leaf on their bodies ; then make their way to the
sea-shore and fly with her to Lemnos. At the end, it
would seem, Dionysus appears on a cloud, ordains the
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 327
burial of the slain child with great pomp and the
worship of him under the name of Archemorus, "Be-
ginner of Death " ; his fate is an evil omen to the
march of Adrastus.
MELANIPPE.
There were two plays of Euripides called by this
name, and afterwards distinguished by the surnames
Melanippe the JVhe and Melanippe the Prisoner. The
dates are very uncertain, but both seem to be late
plays.
(i) Melanippe the JFise. Acted before 411, as
it is referred to in the Lysistrata of Aristophanes.
There was born to King Aeolus and Hippo, the half-
divine daughter of the Centaur Cheiron, a dark and
marvellously beautiful child, Melanippe. While
Aeolus was away from his kingdom, banished for a
manslaying, Melanippe was loved by the God Posei-
don, and bore him two children, who by the God's
command were exposed on a mountain and reared by
the wild kine. When Aeolus returned, some shep-
herds found the babes being suckled by the kine and
brought them to the King. He consulted the aged
Hellen, or some prophet, who decided that the thing
was a portent and must be expiated by burning the
two babes. The King summoned his daughter Mela-
nippe, and charged her with the preparations for the
children's death. She recognised them, and pled
against the prophet, urging that there were no such
things as " portents," expounding the order of nature
as revealed to her by her half-divine mother : —
"It is not my word, but my mother's word,
How Heaven andEarth were once one form, but stirred
328 EURIPIDES
And strove, and dwelt asunder far away :
And then, re-wedding, bore unto the day
And light of life all things that are, the trees,
Flowers, birds and beasts, and them that breathe
the seas.
And mortal Man, each in his kind and law."
Eventually in her despair she suggests that perhaps
they are the children of some unhappy girl, who has
exposed them through shame. Her pleading is re-
jected. She goes away and returns clad in black, like
the children, avows that they are hers, and demands
to die with them. Aeolus in fury has her blinded
and flung into a dungeon. The children are given
back to the shepherds to cast out again on the moun-
tain. It is not clear how this play ended. The
divine Hippo seems to have appeared ; but, though
she may have saved the children's lives, she can
scarcely have given more than a far-oiF promise of
consolation to Melanippe.
(2) Melanippe the Prisoner. Produced probably
about B.C. 417. The shepherds had not the heart to
do the King's command. And it so chanced that
Metapontus, King of Icaria in Attica, had recently
threatened his wife, Theano, that if she continued
childless he would put her away. She obtained Mela-
nippe's children from the shepherds, and passed them
as her own. Later on, however, she bore two chil-
dren herself, and began to hate those that were not
her own, the more so because Metapontus specially
loved them. Eventually, while the King and the
sons of Melanippe were away sacrificing to Artemis,
Theano told her secret to her brothers, and induced
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 329
them to plot the death of her two foster-sons. They
laid an ambush, but when it came to fighting were
slain themselves. (A large fragment of the messen-
ger's account of this scene is preserved on a loose
sheet of very ancient parchment from Egypt.) The
sons of Melanippe, learning through their enemies'
taunts some fragment of their story, fled without
sheathing their swords to the Boeotian shepherds
from whom, as it now seemed, they were sprung.
From them they learn the whole truth ; they are
princes after all, but of another house. They call on
the shepherds to follow them, cross the borders to
Boeotia, and find their mother languishing and blind
in her dungeon ; she greets her first deliverer with
the words : —
" O man, canst thou not let the dead lie dead.
And pass the old spilt tears unharvested ?"
They reveal themselves and are setting her free,
when the aged tyrant Aeolus arrives to forbid them.
They slay him, and carry Melanippe off to the
borders again, when they are met by Metapontus
seeking vengeance for his wife's brothers and for
herself. For she m grief and remorse has taken her
own life. At this point Poseidon appears, explains
all, commands the ceasing of strife, and restores the
sight of Melanippe. He ordains the founding of a
sort of pilgrim city — afterwards named Mctapontion
— in Italy, and the marriage of Melanippe to Meta-
pontus the King. It is perhaps he who gives to the
sons of Melanippe their names Aeolus and Boeotus.
A rather interesting fragment about divine justice
seems in style to suit the lips of the wise Melanippe,
330 EURIPIDES
though in substance it would come better from the
young men in the midst of their vengeance. Some
persons, presumably the Chorus, seem to have said
that men's sins did not escape eventual punishment,
but were all registered in the sky ; to whom comes
the answer :—
" How think you ? Are they separate winged things.
The sins of men ; and rise each on his wings
Up to the throne, where in a folded book
Some angel writes, that God some day may look
And utter judgment due ? Not all God's sky
Were wide enough to hold that registry ;
Not God's own eye see clear to deal each sin
Its far-off justice. She is here, within,
Not distant nor hereafter ; with each deed
Its judgment fellow-born, would ye but heed.
MELEAGER.
Acted before 415. Althaea, wife of Oeneus, King
of Calydon, when she bore the Prince Meleager, had
seen the Three Fates prophesying in her chamber,
and saying that the child's life should waste away as
a certain burning brand in the fire was consumed.
She sprang up and saved the brand and kept it.
Many years afterwards, Oeneus having offended
Artemis, the goddess in vengeance sent a monstrous
wild boar to waste his land. The Prince Meleager
proclaimed a hunt to slay the boar.
Here the play opens. Many chieftains came to
the hunt, and among them the Spartan virgin
Atalanta, a huntress and warrior, strong and wise.
Meleager fell in love with the virtue and courage
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 331
of Atalanta. His wife, Cleopatra, daughter of
Marpessa, seems to have been a weak and timid
woman. He talked to his mother about Atalanta.
How 2;rand a life to be Atalanta's husband and the
father of such children as hers must be ! The
ordinary life of women corrupts them, and makes
it impossible for brave sons to be born, even to men
who have led heroic lives : —
"And so I pondered, one life strong and brave,
One weak and low, what issue shall they have ?
But two strong souls, how good the fruit should be !
That too is a possession, manifold
And beautiful, yea, better than fine gold,
Mother. For heavy gold hath wings to fly.
But a good son and true, even though he die,
Is a deep treasure for the house laid up ;
A tablet on the walls of life ; a cup
That fails not, to the twain that made him live."
Althaea, a passionate and ' natural ' woman, is
angry, and jealous of Atalanta. There are several
fragments stating that the good woman is not she
who vies with men, but she who stays within doors
and works at the loom. Atalanta herself, who has
heard nothing of Meleager's feelings, is attacked and
put on her defence. How can she ever expect to
be a good wife ? She answers in thoughts exactly
like Meleager's. She craves nobility in life : —
"And should I come to wedlock — which I pray
God send me not ! — how should I be as they
Who live dim days in chambers closed apart ?
My children shall be higher in their heart !
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Surely long days of hardihood, and toil
Well wrought, in man or woman, are the soil
The best fruit springs from."
Presently the hunt sets forth, many of the hunters,
especially Althaea's brethren, chafing at a woman's
companionship. Atalanta struck the boar first ;
Meleager slew it. The head was awarded him as
the prize of valour, and he gave it to Atalanta.
The two brethren of Althaea, in rage at this, laid
an ambush for Atalanta and robbed her of her prize.
She cried for aid, instinctively calling to Meleager,
though she did not know he was near. He heard
and came to the rescue. The brethren fought, and
he slew them both. When the news was brought
to Althaea, she, in grief for her brethren and wild
jealousy of Atalanta, brought out the fatal brand and
cast it into the fire. Meleager wasted to death. She
repented too late, and promised the dying Meleager
various posthumous honours. He answers : —
" Let thy good deeds be done
To them that live. Death maketh every one
The same. Earth and a Shadow. In that stress
The Nothing reeleth back to Nothingness."
Althaea is in mad despair. Some one, perhaps the
despised Cleopatra, perhaps Atalanta herself, counsels
her to die ; how can she bear to live after such deeds ?
But she cannot rise to the common manliness of
facing death. An overpowering cowardice paralyses
her. True, her life is blasted ; yet —
" Even so
'Tis well in the sunshine. And to lie below,
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 333
With dead things, in the dark, will that be well ? —
I know the dreams of it are horrible . . .
I am old now ; but, oh, with my last breath
I spit it from me ! I will not pray for death ! "
OENEUS.
An early play, acted before 425. The aged
Oeneus, after the death of all his sons, was left friend-
less and alone in Calydon. His kinsman Agrios
('Savage') and the sons of Agrios drove him from
the throne and persecuted him with barbarous jests
and insolence. At last the old King fled in disguise
and hired himself out as a shepherd at the borders of
his kingdom.
Meantime his grandson, Diomedes, son of Tydeus,
has grown in exile up to man's estate, and returns
with his friend Sthenelus to Calydon to see his grand-
father. The two fall in with a man who had been a
servant in the palace. He tells them of the dethrone-
ment and persecution of the old King ; of the insults
of the drunken sons of Agrios. (Euripides may have
met with some such story of real life among the un-
civilised tribes of Aetolia ; there are many such in the
East at the present day.) How they brought him
into the banquet hall, and
" Cast, as the mirth increased,
Wine dregs and missiles of the tumbled feast
At the old man's head ; and when one struck him,
there
Posted was I, to crown the caster's hair.
As cottab-tossers in the game are crowned ! "
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The passage is quoted by Athenaeus for the purpose
of illustrating the game of ' cottabos.' Full of fury,
the two friends search for the King. They find him
in his shepherd's disguise, and with difficulty break
through his mistrust and reserve.
DlOM^DES.
Where be thy kin ? How pinest thou here alone ?
Oeneus.
Nay, most be dead. Only the false live on.
A man might trust his sons ; they would not fail
In love. But love that kinsmen bear, turns pale
Beside love of themselves.
Diomedes names him as Oeneus ; the old man thinks
he is trapped and seeks to fly, but Diomedes reveals
himself. Here is the son who may be trusted ! A
rapid plot is made. Diomedes and Sthenelus gather
some men, attack and rout Agrios and his sons, and
re-establish Oeneus on his throne. Agrios himself is
taken prisoner. Diomedes, fierce as always, is for
taking full revenge and slaying him ; but Oeneus,
made merciful by suffering, intercedes for his life.
Agrios is condemned to exile. He cannot bear his
humiliation, and slays himself.
PEIRITHOUS.
This play, though generally quoted as the work of
Euripides, was considered spurious by some Alexan-
drian scholars, and by some attributed to the " tyrant "
Critias. The fragments seem to me not Euripidean,
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 335
though it is rather odd that Aristophanes should
elaborately parody a scene of Critias without any
visible relevancy.
Peirithoiis fell in love with Persephone, the Queen
of the Dead, and went to Hades to carry her off. His
friend Theseus accompanied him. Peirithoiis was
seized and bound, and watched over by a ravening
serpent. Theseus, left free, would not forsake his
friend, but stayed in Hades : —
" Fettered, where his comrade fell,
By Honour's iron chains impalpable."
At last Heracles came to Hades on his expedition to
fetch Cerberus. He slew the serpent and begged
Pluto to let Peirithoiis free, which Pluto did, being
moved by the valour of Heracles and the faithfulness
of Theseus.
PELEUS.
Acted before 417 and, probably, after 425. The
argument of the play is quite uncertain. Peleus was
introduced as in exile and poverty, probably his third
exile, at the hands of Acastus and his plotting wife.
A story in Dictys Cretensis (vi. 7), tells how Neopto-
Icmus, being wrecked on Cape Sepias, found there his
grandfather Peleus, living in exile in a cave. They
recognised one another, and arranged a plot against
Acastus and his sons, inventing a false tale of Neopto-
lemus' death. In the end Acastus comes to the cave
to murder Neoptolcmus, and is seized. The old and
wise Peleus reproaches him with all his evil deeds, and
then forgives him. He, overcome by remorse, gives up
the throne to Neoptolemus. Some of these incidents
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would suit our fragments, in which, for instance,
there seems to be a recognition-scene (fr. 622, 3).
But the play is chiefly known for the character of
Peleus, a sort of hero-sage, stripped of all the world's
goods, and content. It is he, no doubt, who says : —
" Prosperity, I make no count thereof,
A thing God's finger, passing, blotteth off.
Easier than a picture ! — But to be
Oneself a thing of Evil ! Verily,
There is no waste of darkness on the face
Of the wide world, no locked and silent place
Under the sod, where one born vile may sit
To hide his nature, nay, nor flee from it.
PHILOCTETES.
Acted B.C. 431, with the Medea. The play evi-
dently served as a model to the Philoctetes of Sophocles
(409 B.C.), and was itself based on that of Aeschylus.
Philoctetes, the comrade of Heracles, and now the
inheritor of his bow and arrows, when sailing with
the Greeks to Troy, was bitten in the foot on the
island of Lemnos by a supernatural snake sent by
Hera. The wound was something abnormal, and
seemed infectious (' Smell ' is the ancient word, but
infection is what is meant). Therefore, at the advice
of Odysseus, the Greeks left the sick man on the
island with his bow and arrows, and sailed away.
A shepherd called Actor found and tended him.
Nearly ten years after, an oracle declared that victory
in the Trojan war would be with those who pos-
sessed Philoctetes and the arrows of Heracles. The
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 337
question was how to approach the injured and furious
hero.
The Trojans also, unfortunately, know of the
oracle, and are sure to make an effort to win Philoc-
tctes to their side.
Here the play begins. Odysseus appears in dis-
guise upon the island. He and Diomcdcs have under-
taken the task. Diomcdes is actuated by a boyish
thir^t for adventure and peril, he himself, as it seems
to him now, by some worse folly, some mere senseless
ambition or restlessness — he, the man of wisdom !
" And am I then
So wise, who might have dwelt with simple men.
One in the flock, untroubled, gathering
Like joys and fortunes with the subtlest king ?
What is so flown with pride as the weak heart
Of man ? It hangs on them that move apart
And do great deeds and suffer ; Men of Men,
Names them amid their cities . . ."
The fierce solitary appears ; he docs not recognise
Odysseus, but sees that he is a Greek, and is about
to shoot him, when Odysseus saves himself with a
ready lie. He represents himself as a friend of the
dead Palamcdes, whom Odysseus had destroyed ; he
is now flying from Odysseus himself. This is the
one road to Philoctetes' sympathy, and the plotter
is accepted as a friend. At this moment an em-
bassy of Trojans appears, led by Paris. They beg
Philoctetes' aid, offering him great gifts and dwelling
upon his wrongs. The disguised Odysseus is in a
difficult position (cf. the Telcphm^ p. 347). At the
y
338 EURIPIDES
risk of discovery he answers them. True, the Greeks
have behaved shamefully, and he hates them ; but
still an honourable man must not join his country's
enemies. Philoctetes is touched and rejects the
Trojans' appeal. If the Greeks have done him
wrong, is Paris much better ?
" Hadst thou but known to rein
Thine heart, I had been spared long years of pain."
The Trojans depart, and Philoctetes, worn with
emotion, falls into a spasm of his disease. The
peasant Actor arrives, and aided by Odysseus, tends
the suffering man till he falls asleep. Hereupon
Odysseus sends Actor to fetch Diomedes, and, as
soon as he is gone, takes the bow and arrows. When
Philoctetes wakes the bow and arrows are gone,
and Diomedes is there with Actor. Diomedes,
having no weapons to fear, openly announces his
mission, and appeals in a long speech to Philoc-
tetes' patriotism. Nothing is said about Odysseus.
Philoctetes refuses with fury. If he had but his
bow, Diomedes would rue the day he met him !
Diomedes presses him further. Is it right that the
bow of Heracles should be wasted here on sea-birds,
instead of shining in battle ? Philoctetes half con-
sents to come to Troy on one condition 5 they must
expel from the camp the arch-villain Odysseus. Here
the disguised Odysseus, it would seem, in another
act of far-reaching insight that seems like folly, reveals
himself and hands back the bow and arrows, but
begs Philoctetes before he slays him to listen to his
defence. Then, in a greatly admired speech, he
coolly lays bare his mind to his raging and puzzled
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 339
enemy ; blames some of his actions, explains others,
shows Philoctctes what is right, and then, with in-
difference, bids him slay him if he list ! At the end
Philoctctes, bitterly indignant, cannot slay him in
cold blood and yet cannot forgive him, when the
goddess Athena appears on a cloud and commands a
reconciliation.
The prologue of this play is paraphrased entire by
Dio Chrysostom, who speaks of the whole tragedy
with enthusiasm.
PHRIXUS.
The date is quite uncertain. Athamas, King of
Roeotia, having once been loved bv the divine Nephele
(" Cloud "), took afterwards a mortal wife, Ino. Ino
was jealous of Nephele's children, Phrixus and Helle,
and made a plot against them. She scorched the seed-
corn, so that the harvest failed, and inquiries had to
be made of the oracle at Delphi. A bribed servant
of her own was sent as envoy.
Here the play begins. The servant has returned
with a forged answer demanding that Phrixus shall
be sacrificed as a sin-offering for the land. Athamas
receives the oracle with dull suffering : —
" Or again
If this were but the morning of my pain.
Had I not voyaged year-long seas of it,
Belike I should have raged, as the first bit
Chafes a young colt to rage and strive. But now
My mouth is hard, and misery stings but slow."
He will not obey the oracle, and decides that it
must be kept secret, especially from Phrixus. Ino
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professes to aid him in this, for Phrixus' sake and her
own : —
" Stepdames' fancies bring no good,
Men say, to children born of other blood ;
I will watch well that none so deem of me."
There are also several fragments describing what a
comfort she is, or wishes to be, to her husband, and
how she shares all his cares ! She, of course, contrives
that Phrixus shall hear of the oracle. He, on hearing
it, insists at once that it shall be obeyed. It would be
mere baseness to refuse to die for his country ; and,
after all, is the sacrifice so great ?
" Who knoweth if this thing that men call Death
Be Life, and our Life dying — who knoweth ?
Save only that all we beneath the Sun
Are sick and suffering ; and those foregone
Not sick, nor touched with evil any more."
All is ready for the young prince's death, when the
bribed messenger, moved by his nobleness, confesses
all. Athamas in fury hands over Ino and her child
Melikertes to Phrixus to slay. The end is not clearly
made out. It would seem that Ino, who had been one
of the mystic 'Nurses of Dionysus,' calls upon that
god for help. He sends a sudden maddening darkness,
in which Phrixus and Helle fly frenzied to the forest
and Ino escapes. She escapes, however, only to throw
herself and her child off a cliff into the sea, while
Phrixus and Helle are healed of their madness by
Nephele, the long-lost Cloud-mother, and borne away
to the land of Colchis on a Flying Ram with a Fleece
of Gold. This sequel probably occurs in the prophetic
speech of some divine personage, Dionysus or Nephele,
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 341
at the end. Possibly there were two different end-
inc;^, one with Dionysus and one with Nephcle, since
the Schohast to Aristophanes speaks of " the second
Phrixusr
POLYIDUS.
Acted later than 415. A fanciful folk-tale, which,
both by its general construction and by the style and
metre of the fragments, would seem to have taken the
place of a Satyr play rather than a tragedy.
PolyiJus, the Cretan seer, explains in the prologue
his strange plight. Minos's child, Glaucus, has sud-
denly disappeared, and the King has been seeking for
a seer to find him again. He has tried all his prophets
by putting a test to them — the interpretation of a
certain prodigy that has occurred, a calf which changes
colour from white to red and then to black during
the day. Polyidus showed that this referred to the
mulberry tree, which passes through the same colours
— though what exactly it meant about the mulberry
tree we are not told. Minos thereupon said : " You
are a true prophet ; find my son or I will kill you ! "
"The artist and the master hath a yoke
Always more hurting than the common folk.
Set out at gaze in the midst, where all may fling
Blame ; 'tis a hard and not a liappy thing ! "
And these particular circumstances are even worse !
The seer has, however, done his best to make ready
for his auguries.
"This is the hour. And, ah ! What see I there r
A great sea-eagle, wave-worn wanderer.
Shoreward alit. — The child's fate seeks dry land !
Had he drawn seaward, rising from the strand,
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This dweller of the waves, that would have said :
'The thing thou seekest in the sea lies dead.'
But now his haunts and food he hath let be
And flown to earth. That is his word to me :
' The billows know not of thy child.' "
Eventually he sees the boy's name-bird, an owl
[Glanx\ sitting on a great jar of honey and driving
away the bees. He knows at once that this jar —
Greek jars could be as large as the largest cask — holds
the body of the child. He has fallen in and been
drowned !
The King is pleased, but not satisfied. Polyidus
must now restore the child to life. This, he protests,
is utterly beyond his power. A gorgeous funeral is
prepared, apparently on the stage. The royal burial-
place is opened, and all the boy's dearest possessions
are put in it — a superstitious extravagance which
Polyidus condemns. When all is ready, the King
bids the guard throw Polyidus himself into the sepul-
chre ; he can restore the boy to life or else die with
him, just as he chooses ! He is given a sword, and
thrown living into the great tomb.
Eventually he comes out with the boy alive. What
has happened is this. As the prophet sat meditating
in the tomb he saw a snake come towards the boy's
body, and promptly killed it. Presently a female
snake appeared, and finding her mate dead, crept out
and returned carrying in her mouth an herb, which she
laid on the dead snake. The snake came to life.
Polyidus noticed the herb, followed the snake to find
where it grew, and brought the boy also to life
with it.
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 343
It is hard to make out whether the herb
grew inside the tomb, or if Polyidus was able to
get out.
It is the seer waiting for his end with resignation
who speaks the lines : —
" Who knoweth if to live is but to die
And death life's gate to them that have passed by ? "
(Cf. the Phrixui.)
STHENEBOEA.
Acted before 423. Stheneboea, wife of Proetus,
King of Tiryns, fell in love with the hero Bellerophon
of Corinth, who had come to her husband to be puri-
fied of an unintentional manslaying. He rejected her
love, and she in terror slandered him to her husband,
who sent him to lobates, King of Lycia or Caria,
with a sealed letter, bidding lobates contrive his
death. lobates sent Bellerophon against the fire-
breathing Chimaera, but he slew it and returned safe.
lobates eventually recognised his innocence, and
showed him Proetus's letter.
The play opens at Tiryns, during Bellerophon's
absence. He is believed to be dead ; the Queen's
mind runs constantly upon him, in remorse and
love. One fragment refers to the ancient custom of
giving dead and broken things to the spirits of the
beloved dead ; her nurse speaks : —
"No cruse nor phial falls, but she will see
And between still lips murmur, ' Let it be
For Him that came from Corinth ! ' "
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Once caring little for music or art, now she is full
of them : —
" Love teacheth poesy, and all the lore
Of songcraft, where no Muse hath dwelt before."
She reproaches herself for caring for one who is pro-
bably dead ; who, if alive, hates her : —
" So rages she at love, and wails alone,
And that rebuked Hunger, moan by moan,
Creeps closer, strangling."
At this point news comes that Bellerophon has re-
turned. He summons the King to speak with him,
and Stheneboea is left wondering. How much does
he know? Why has he returned? No doubt in
order to denounce her. The King comes back and
takes counsel with her. She sees at once that she has
not been betrayed . . . yet ! The King tells her
how Bellerophon has seen the letter, and has come in
a cold fury to reproach them both for their treachery.
The King has begged forgiveness and feigned recon-
ciliation ; but is it safe ? Terror has again the upper
hand with Stheneboea ; the only thing, it seems to
her, is to slay Bellerophon outright. She advises
the King to lay an ambush. It may be, though the
fragments do not prove it, that she hopes this time
to have the chance either to save Bellerophon if he
really cares for her, or let him be slain if he hates
her. Proetus goes out to gather his men. At this
moment Bellerophon appears, asks to see Stheneboea
alone, says he loves her, and asks her to fly ! She
rapturously consents, and warns him of the second
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 345
plot against his life. He takes her away ; then,
having her in his power, tells how he loathes
her :—
"Thou Viper of Hell, thou Woman — what were
worse
To call thee, or what name more like a curse ? "
He carries her off on his winged steed, Pegasus, and
flings her into the sea. Her body is afterwards washed
up on the shore of Melos. Bellerophon returns for
the last time to hurl denunciations upon Proetus and
all the human race, and goes away to end his life in
desert places.
Stheneboea is, unless my reading errs, one of Euri-
pides's sympathetic sinful heroines, like Phaedra and
Medea. The stern righteousness of Bellerophon
shades away towards the gloom of melancholy mad-
ness in which, according to Homer and Euripides's
tragedy, Bellerophontes^ he died, " eating his own heart,
avoiding the footprint of man."
TELEPHUS.
Acted B.C. 438. The plot was somewhat as follows:
Telephus, son of Heracles and Auge (see p. 321), has
become King of Mysia, having been adopted by King
Teuthras. The Greeks on the way to Troy, driven
out of their course, have landed by mistake in Mysia,
and Telephus has defeated them with slaughter,
though he himself has been wounded in the left
thigh by Achilles with the miraculous spear of
Chiron. The Greeks have retired to Aulis, have
sacrificed Iphigenia, and owing to the incessant storms
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have gone back to Mycenae and almost abandoned
the hope of attacking Troy.
Telephus's wound will not heal, and an oracle
has told him that " The wounder shall cure." He
determines to go to Mycenae, where the Greek
chiefs are now assembled, and try to get his enemy
Achilles to cure him. Here the play begins. Dis-
guised as a beggar, and lame from his wound, he
arrives at Agamemnon's palace and begins playing
his dangerous part : —
" Aye, I must seem a beggar churl, and be
My very self, the self that none shall see ! "
He asks the Queen Clytaemnestra for hospitality, and
finds with satisfaction that she hates her husband. It
seems that he reveals himself and secures her secrecy.
The chiefs are at a council, and will soon return.
Agamemnon and Menclaus come first. They are
quarrelling over the Trojan expedition, Menelaus re-
proaching his brother''s vacillation, Agamemnon refus-
ing to suffer more for Menelaus' sake. The stranger
is presented to them, and explains that he was once in
better plight : —
" Being master of a ship, and put to land
In Mysia ; and there a foeman's hand
Gave me this gash."
Meantime Odysseus has arrived. He somehow sus-
pects the truth, or at least suspects that the pretended
beggar is a spy. He questions him a little ; then, as
a trap, turns the conversation again to the projected
war, and urges Agamemnon to make the expedition
not against Troy, but against Mysia — a rich land, and
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 347
one to which great vengeance is owing. The chiefs
seem inclined to assent. Telephus, in agony for the
fate of his country, asks leave, beggar though he is, to
speak among the princes : —
"And take it not in wrath, ye flowers of Greek
Valiance, that I, a beggared man, should seek
To ope my lips among great Kings."
He pleads the cause of Mysia and of Telephus. He
found the Greeks ravaging his land, and without more
question dashed out to repel them : —
" He wronged us there, ye say.
Say then what had been right ! . . .
. . . Had ye that day
Seen what he saw, would ye have borne it thus
In calm ? Well wot I, no ! And Telephus
Shall not strike back as ye have struck withal ?
Have ye no heart, ye Princes? "
This' unpatriotic' language infuriates every one. Odys-
seus, now sure of the stranger's identity, denounces
him. The Greeks draw their swords to slay him as
an enemy and a spy. Telephus springs to the hearth,
snatches up the baby Orestes, who is lying there in
his cradle, and vows to dash out the child's brains if
any one touches him before he has said his say. Then,
standing at bay, with his enemies round him, he pleads
openly for himself, explaining that he is not a spy and
has come only for the healing of his wound. Aga-
memnon has already given his oath to help him. If
they do help him, he will show them the way to Troy;
if they slav him the young prince shall be slain too.
Clytaemnestra takes his side — professing a mother's
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anxiety for the babe, though she seems to have said
earlier, " I hate the vile seed of a villain King! " The
chiefs are still hesitating w^hen Achilles arrives ; he
declares he knows no leechcraft, and besides vv^ill hear
of no compromise with an enemy. The fate of Tele-
phus seems to be sealed, when Calchas the prophet
arrives also and announces that it is decreed that Troy
cannot be taken without Telephus's help, and that
the oracular phrase, " The wounder shall cure," refers
not to the man, but to the spear that wounded. A
salve is to be compounded of the scrapings of the
spear, and Telephus shall be made whole.
The Telephus, though rather a melodrama than a
tragedy, is in various ways characteristic of Euripides.
It represents his great boldness and ingenuity of plot ;
his swift theatrical effects, such as the snatching up
of the baby and the speech afterwards ; his vein of
rebellious criticism towards established dignities, as
shown in the quarrels of the heroes among themselves,
the hatred of Clytaemnestra for her husband, the
stupid patriotism that resents Telephus's arguments.
Our very jejune fragments unfortunately do no jus-
tice to the eloquence of Telephus, of which we hear
much from other sources. Crates, the cynic philo-
sopher, is said to have been moved to giving up the
world by admiration of the heroic beggar in this play.
TEMENIDAE.
The date is uncertain, but the fragments are late in
style.
The basis of the plot is probably the story of Hyr-
netho, daughter of Temenus, and her brothers, as
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 349
told by Pausanias. Tcincnus the Hcraclid, King of
Argos, employed DeVphontcs, son of Antimachus, as
captain of his men in preference to his own sons,
gave him his daughter Hyrnetho, and made him ruler
of Epidaurus. The slighted sons rebelled against
Temcnus, and the eldest, Kisus, became king in his
stead, "The other sons knew that they could not
wound Deiphontes more deeply than by parting
him from Hyrnetho. So Ccrynes and Plialces came
to Epidaurus ; but the youngest brother, Argaeus,
disapproved of the plot. Reining up their chariot
under the city wall, they sent a herald asking their
sister to come and speak with them. When she came
they fell to accusing Deiphontes of many things, and
besought her earnestly to come back to Argos, pro-
mising her among the rest that they would wed her to
a far better husband than Deiphontes, lord of a greater
following and wealthier lands. Stung by these words,
Hyrnetho spoke up to them. She said Deiphontes
was a dear husband to her, and had been a blameless
son-in-law to Temenus ; but as for them, they were
the murderers of Temenus rather than his sons ! They
answered never a word, but laid hold of her, and plac-
ing her in the chariot galloped away. Word came to
Deiphontes, and he hastened to the rescue ; and the
Epidaurians joined in the hue and cry. Coming up
with the fugitives, Deiphontes shot Cerynes dead, but
Phalces clung so tight to Hyrnetho that Deiphontes
feared to shoot lest he should kill her. So he grappled
with him and strove to wrench her away. But Phalces
held on, and in that iron grip his sister expired, for
she was with child. When he saw what he had done
to his sister, he drove his chariot furiously away before
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the whole country-side should gather upon his track.
But DeTphontes and his children took up Hyrnetho's
dead body and bore it to the place that was afterwards
called Hyrncthion. And they made a shrine for her
and bestowed honours upon her." — (Pausanias, ii. 28,
Frazer's translation, slightly abridged.)
This is a story that obviously represents some
Epidaurian ritual, and the extant fragments of the
Temenidae do not fit it particularly well ; but it seems
to be the foundation of the play. Perhaps in the play
Temenus was dead, and the good youngest brother,
Argaeus, was killed in battle. This would explain : —
" War is a hungry God, yet doth not crave
All things. He loves the bodies of the brave,
But casts the craven back. So cometh red
Plague on the land, but good name to the dead."
And Hyrnetho is perhaps speaking of Cerynes or
Phalces in the lines : —
" A crooked spirit, a churl's door hard set
Against Love's knocking, nimble to forget
What true men brood on ! Hardly shalt thou find
In men, though brothers of one kith and kind,
One true friend to the dead. For coveting
Is fierce, and duty but a gentle thing ;
And the old magic of the eyes hath sway
No more, when the live man hath gone his way
And the house is not."
The words, however, would suit even better a slander-
ous accusation against Deiphontes, making out that he
was in some way false to his kinsman and benefactor,
Temenus.
APPENDIX ON LOST PLAYS 351
THESEUS.
Acted before 422. The fragments are few and
the plot not clear. Hartung makes out something
like the following : Ariadne, daughter of Minos,
speaks the prologue, bewailing her father's cruelty,
and telling of the tribute of seven youths and maidens
annually paid to him by Athens, to be cast into the
labyrinth and eventually slain by the Minotaur. A
shepherd announces to her the arrival of a ship with
a new batch of victims. The ship has a name
written upon its prow or sail. He cannot read,
but he describes awkwardly, as best he can, the
characters : —
"No skill
Have I of letters, but can tell at need
What shapes I saw and signs, that thou may'st read
Their meaning. — First, a perfect round, and through
The heart of it one pricL The second, two
Posts, with one rail midway that held them there
Upright. The third was curled like curling hair.
The fourth, one standing stave, wherefrom there came
Three lying stiff. The fifth was hard to name ;
Two separate lines at first, that fell and passed
Into one trunk together. And the last
Was like the third."
It is, of course, the name 'Theseus' {'•HiEyi).
A fragment of a speech of Theseus narrates how he
has sailed " to the very hem of Europe's robe " to
meet this monster who devours the Athenian youths,
and how he has prepared himself for suffering by
meditation and training — a celebrated little bit of
philosophy. Ariadne is smitten with love for the
352 EURIPIDES
heroic stranger, and gives him a clue of thread, by
which, if he slays the monster, he will be able to
retrace his steps out of the labyrinth. All this he
does, and Ariadne prepares to fly with him. At
the end Athena appears, doubtless preventing the
pursuit and vengeance of Minos, and warning
Theseus that Ariadne shall not be his, but must be
left on the island of Naxos to become the bride of
Dionysus.
It is doubtless in this connection that the interesting
lines occur : —
" Another Love there is in human kind,
A thing of honesty, of the pure mind
And true. — Oh, would that Love could only love
Beautiful Spirits and the truth thereof
And mercy ; and leave Her to walk her ways,
God's golden Cypris, without curse or praise ! "
-if-^.
APHRODITE ON THK SWAN.
^
INDEX
TO THE INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY
Actors —
Molon, 286
Hegelochus, 190
Adeimantus, 312
Adrastus, xxviii, 326
Aeschylus, xxii, xxv, 297, 300
Oretteia, 305
Philoctetet, 336
repetitions, 309; cf. 261
treatment of love, 304
weight of lines, 310
pupils of, 3C0
politics, 301, 311
Aethra, xxx
Agathon, 287
Agave, Iv, i-
higher
Agave, Iv, 175
Alcibiades, 310
Ameipsias, 285
Aphrodite —
in Euripides, 155
A, Pandemos, 156
in Aeschylus, 304
contrasted with <
love, 352
Arginusae, battle of, 285 f., 290
Artemis, 163
Athens, xxv-xxviii, xxxix, lii
rt pasilm
Bacoiae, XX, li, liv-lxv
Bruhn, E., vii
Bull, the Bacchic, 168, 169, 174
of Minos {tte Taurus)
Cadmus, 170, 171, 175
Cephisophon, 300
Cerameicus, 288
Cleidemides, 297
Cleitophon, 301
Cleophon, 294, 312
Coins, 295
Critias, 287, 291, 311, 334
Curse, how carried, 161 ; cf.
xxxiv, xxxv
DtMOPHON, xxix {set Theseus,
sons of)
Diagoras, 290
Dictynna, 157
Dictys Cretensis, 335
Dio Chrysostom, 339
Dionysus, fasiim —
myth, 165
religion of, iviii itq.^ 165-
169
appearance on stage, 90,
99, 179, 196, &c.
possession by, 174
Dochmiac metre, 174
Donkey at Mysteries, 289
Dramatists expressing own feel-
ings, Iviii
Dramaturgy —
use of proper names, 157
value of chorus, 160
preparations, 174
lights thrown back, 161
conventionality, 170
co-itumes, 298
stage directions, ix, 172
general d. of Euripides,
299 f., 348 (Telephus)
particular points, 158, 159,
160, 175
354
INDEX
Ecclesiaxusae, 295
Echo, 317
Empusa, 290
Erasinides, 305
Eryxis, 299
Euripides —
Alcesth, xxxvi
Andromeda, 1, and App.
Antigone, 305, and App.
Archelaus, lii
Cretans, 298, and App.
Cretan Women, 298
Electra, xxxvi, 1, Ivii, 309
Hecuba, xxxvi, xlv-xlix,
299, 309
Heracles, xxxiii-xxxv, 299
Heraclidae, xxviii, xxix
Hlppolytus , xix, XX, 299
Ion, xliii
Iphigenia in Aulis, 1, liii
Jphigenia in Tauris, 309
Orestes, xliii
Phoenissae, xliv
Suppliants, x X v i i i-x x x i i,
xxxvii, 299
Telephus, 298, and App.
Troades, xxxvi, xliii
early plays and late, xxxvi, 1
supposed immoral writing,
159 (Phaedra's Nurse),
160 ('twas not my soul
that swore); cf. 187,
288, 303 (Stheneboea and
Phaedra)
infirmities of body, 308
mother, 297
policy, 301, 311; cf, Aes-
chylus
pupils, 300, 301
expressions about women,
331 ; cf. 34, 254, 303
See also Dramaturgy
Geldart, "W. M., vii
Gorgias, 297
Hall, F. W., vii
Harrison, Miss J. E., vii, xv_
xvii, 171
Hegelochus, 290
Heracles, 292, xxxiii-xxxv; The
H. (see Euripides)
Heralds, xxx
Hippalector, 284, 299
Hippolytus, The {see Euripides)
Hipponax, 294, 296
Homer, 302, 303, 313, 345
' Hosia,' 171
Hyginus, 162, 319
Hypnotising, 173
Ideals of Athens, xxiii-xxviii
lophon, 286
Isocrates, 297, 301
Johannes Malalas, 323
KiNEsiAS, 287, 291
Lamachus, 313
A.7)k60lov airixiXecTe, 306, 307
Lesbian music, 308
Letters of alphabet, 351
Limna —
at Athens, 291
in Trozen, 157
Lucian, 294, 318
Macdonald, G., 295
Marathon, 300, 308
Marcus Aurelius, Ixviii
Meadow, mystic, 156
Memnon, 164, 300
Mere [see Limna)
Moderates, policy of, 301 [see
also Theramenes)
Mysteries, 171, 291, 324
donkey at, 289
Names of books, 301;
Neil, R., 301
Nicomachus, 312
Nysa, 172
Oresteia, 305
Orphism, Iviii se(]., 166-169, 173
Palaephatus, 323
Pantacles, 303
Parody, 291, 308
INDEX
355
Pausanias, i6i. i88, 349
Peloponncsian War, xxii, xxxix
Pentheus, 170, 171
<papnaKol, 296
Philistinism, 303
Phormisius, 300
Phrynichus, tragicus, 298
comicus, 285
oligarcha, 295
Pindar, xxii, 171
FiritJtous, The, 29 1
Plataeans, 295
Plato, Ix, 167, 287, x88, 289,
301, 311
Playwrights (lee Dramaturgy),
alio 286, 287, 311
Plutarch, 323
Poetry, doctrines about, 302
Politics of Aeschylus and
Euripides, 301, 311
Prodicus, 297
Prophecy, 176
Purity, 171 [see Dionysus and
Orphism)
Pythangelus, 287
Racine, xix, xx, 163
Ridjjeway, 292
Rohdc, 296
Sannvrion, 290
Scapegoats, 296
'Shakes' in music, 309
Shelley, Ixiii
Socrates, 311
Sophocles, xxii, 294, 318, 336
Strattis, 290
Supplication, essence of, 157
Taurus, 'the Bull,' 158, 323
Technique (see Dramaturgy)
Teiresias, 169, 171
Text, questions of, vii, xlv, 156,
157. 172, 174.175. 310
Theocritus, 294
Theramenes, 292, 286, 301
Theseus, representing Athens,
xxix seq., xxxiii-xxxv,
289
sons of, xxix, xlix
in Hippohjtus, 162
Thorycion, 291
Thrasymachus, 297
Thucydides, xxv, xxxix-xliii,
xlv, Ixi
Torture, 293
Tragic writers, lesser, 287, 311
Translation, viii
'Two obols,' 288
Van Leeuwen, vii, 305
Verrall, xliii, 156, 323
' Wi-i-i-iND,' 309
Woman's dress of Pentheus,
173 ; cf. 167
Wordsworth, 304
Xenocles, 287
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