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THE 
 
 THEATRE OF THE GREEKS, 
 
 A TREATISE 
 
 ON 
 
 THE HISTOKY AND EXHIBITION 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREEK DRAMA, 
 
 WITH VARIOUS SUPTLEMENTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN AVILLIAM DONALDSON, D.D. 
 
 CLASSICAL EXAMINER IN THE U.NIVEKSITY OF LONDON, 
 AND FOEMEELY FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION; 
 
 REVISED, ENLARGED, AND IN PART REMODELLED; 
 WITH KUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS FROM THE BEST ANCIENT AUTHORITIES. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 LONGMAN AND CO.; SIMPKIN AND CO.; J. AND F. H. RIVINGTON ; AVHITTAKER 
 AND CO.; E. P. WILLIAMS; BELL AND DALDY ; D. NUTT ; W. ALLAN ; DEIGHTON, 
 BELL, AND CO. AND MACMILLAN AND CO., CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 18G0. 
 
CamfirttTfl^ ; 
 
 PRINTED BY C. J. CLAY, M.A. 
 AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. 
 
TO 
 
 WILLIAM BODHAM DONNE, ESQ. 
 
 HER MAJESTY'S LICENSER OF PLAYS, 
 
 C^is math 
 
 IS INSCRIBED 
 AS A RECOGNITION OP HIS MANY VALUABLE CONTRIBUTIONS 
 TO DRAMATIC CRITICISM, CLASSICAL SCHOLARSHIP, 
 AND GENERAL LITERATURE; 
 
 AND 
 
 AS A TRIBUTE TO THE GREAT MORAL WORTH, 
 
 THE GENUINE COURTESY, 
 
 AND THE UNAFFECTED KINDNESS, 
 
 WHICH HAVE ENDEARED HIM TO MANY 
 
 SINCERE FRIENDS. ♦ 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2013 
 
 http://archive.org/details/theatreofgreekstOOdona 
 
PKEFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 
 
 TX tliis edition of the TJieatre of the Greels I have been, 
 -^ at last, permitted to deal with the book according to my 
 OAvn judgment, and I have been also allowed sufficient time 
 for making those improvements which I deemed necessary. 
 The result has been, that, instead of long extracts from other 
 authors, preceded by an original introduction, the book is now 
 substantially an independent treatise on the Greek Drama 
 followed by about one hundred pages of supplementally mat- 
 ter. The following reasons will explain why I have felt myself 
 compelled to make this change in the form and character of 
 the work. 
 
 It seems to me, that the convenience of the student will 
 be better consulted by placing before him a continuous dis- 
 cussion on the history and representation of the Greek Drama, 
 than by giving him a certain amount of information in an 
 introductory essay, and requiring him to go to Bentley and 
 Schlegel for the most important details. With regard to 
 Schlegel, the greater part of the extracts from his Lectures, 
 which were incorporated in former editions of this work, con- 
 sisted of an analysis of the different Greek plays ; and as I have 
 now introduced into my own treatise all that is necessary on 
 
 D.T. G. b 
 
VI PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 
 
 this head for the usual purposes of a student, I did not think 
 it desirable to reproduce remarks, which, however acute and 
 original, are rather slight in their texture and not always in 
 accordance with the results of the most recent criticism. I have 
 nevertheless retained many of Schlegel's more general obser- 
 vations, which are still very valuable and interesting, and have 
 introduced these extracts as supplements to different chapters 
 in my own treatise. With regard to Bentley, I should have 
 been most reluctant to omit the passages from his Dissertation 
 on Phalaris, had I thought that by so doing I should diminish 
 the number of those who still make themselves acquainted 
 with that admirable book. But those, who are likely to read 
 the extracts, would be most likely to be attracted by the 
 book itself; and I consider it of great importance, that as 
 many students as possible should study in extenso a work, 
 which not only constitutes an epoch in classical philology, 
 but is the first example and origin of that historical criticism, 
 which has produced and is still producing such important 
 effects on our estimation of ancient literature in general. 
 Accordingly, as the extension given to my own treatise and 
 the expense incurred by the numerous illustrations rendered 
 it necessary that some sacrifice should be made in the letter- 
 press of the book, I have omitted Bentley, in the hope that 
 he will be studied, independently of his contributions to the 
 literary history of the Drama, by all who wish to become 
 critics or scholars. 
 
 On the other hand, I have not only retained the translation 
 of Aristotle's Poetic , on which I have bestowed some additional 
 pains, but have also given extracts from Vitruvius and Julius 
 Pollux, because it appeared that a complete introduction to a 
 scholarlike study of the Greek drama ought to contain what 
 
PKEFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. VII 
 
 the ancients have written on the subject, the more so as I have 
 made frequent references to these three sources of infomiation. 
 
 The last part of the book, which gives an account of the 
 language, metres, and prosody of the dramatists, is no longer 
 a number of detached notes, but has assumed the form of a 
 coherent disquisition. ^Ir Tate's essay, which is identified with 
 this book and records the honest research of that successful 
 and experienced teacher, has been retained out of respect for 
 his memory, no less than on account of its practical value. 
 
 A prominent and distinctive feature of the present edition 
 will be recognized in the numerous illustrations from the best 
 ancient authorities, by which the details of a Greek theatrical 
 performance are reproduced and rendered visible to the student. 
 Some of these have been borrowed from Mr Rich's very useful 
 Companion to tlie Latin Dictionary and Greeh Lexicon. The 
 majority appear for the first time in an English book. Witli 
 regard to the Theatre at Aspendus, which has done more than 
 any ancient monument to substitute reality for conjecture in 
 our notions of the ancient scene, it is to be regretted that 
 Schonbom's photographs are not forthcoming; but Texier's 
 views of the elevation and interior, which are here reproduced, 
 are sufficient to give an adequate idea of the only ancient 
 theatre which has come down to us without material dilapi- 
 dations. 
 
 Thus remodelled and illustrated I venture to believe that 
 the Theatre of tJte Greeks is now in harmony with the existing 
 condition of our knowledge m regard both to Greek literature 
 and to ancient art. It has at any rate assumed the form which 
 I conceive to be most proper for such a work; and as I 
 
VIU PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION. 
 
 hope that the study of the Greek Drama will never be al- 
 together neglected by the countrymen of Shakespeare, I shall 
 be glad to think that I have contributed something towards 
 the pleasant and profitable cultivation of this important 
 branch of classical learning. 
 
 J. W. D. 
 
 Cambridge, Scptcnher 20tk, i860. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PART I. 
 
 A Treatise on the History and Exhibition of the Greek Dra3IA. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 the origin of the greek drama. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 rAGB 
 
 The Keligious Origin of the Greek Drama ...... 3 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 The Connected Worship of Dionysus, Demeter, and Apollo . . . 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 The Tragic Chorus— Arion 27 
 
 Appendix. 
 Orchomenian Inscriptions 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Tragic Dialogue — Thespis 50 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The proper Classification of Greek Plays. Origin of Comedy . . 68 
 
 Table of Dramatic Classification 82 
 
 Appendix. 
 A. W. Schlegel's General Survey of the Drama in diflfcrcnt ages and 
 
 comitries 83 
 
X TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK ir. 
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Greek Tragedians. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Sect. 1. Choerilus, Phrynichus, and Pratinas 91 
 
 2. ^schylus 95 
 
 3. Sophocles 113 
 
 4. Euripides 131 
 
 Appendix. 
 
 Schlegel's Comparison of the Choephoroe of ^schylus with the Electras 
 
 of Sophocles and Euripides 152 
 
 5. Agathon and the remaining Tragedians 159 
 
 CHAPTER ir. 
 
 The Greek Comedians. 
 
 Sect. 1. The Comedians who preceded or were contemporary with 
 
 Aristophanes 164 
 
 2. Aristophanes 177 
 
 3. The Comedians who succeeded Aristophanes . . . 197 
 Chronology of the Greek Drama 205 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 exhibition of the greek drama. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 On the Representation of Greek Plays in general 210 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 On the Representation of certain Tragedies and Comedies in particular . 275 
 
 Appendix to Part I. 
 On the Roman Theatre (from Schlegel's Ylllth Lecture) . . . 306 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. XI 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Extracts from Aristotle, Vitruvius, and Julius Pollux. 
 
 PAGR 
 
 Aristotle's Treatise ox Poetry, translated by Twining . . 317 
 
 Vitruvius on the Structure of the Theatre (Y. ch. vil viii.) . . . 352 
 
 Julius Pollux on the Vocabulary of the Drama (iv. §§ 95 — 154) . . 356 
 
 PAPtT III. 
 
 On the Language, Metres, and Prosody of the Greek Dramatists. 
 
 I. Language 369 
 
 II. Tragic and Comic Metres 377 
 
 III. Prosody 408 
 
 Examination Papers on the Greek Tragedians 413 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 p. -255, line 4, for iv. 12 read vii. 6. 
 
 166, line 10 from bottom, for k6/j./xos read K0fx/A,6^. 
 
 326, line 19, for iroiTjfxdTuv read iradrnxdri^v. 
 
 352, last line but one from the foot, before Tectum supply 4. 
 
LIST OF PLATES. 
 
 1 
 
 Plate 1. Ground Plan of the Theatre at Aspendus (to face 
 p. 222). 
 
 Plate 2. Ditto of the conjectural Theatre (to face p. 226). 
 
 Plate 3. Figures from the Pio-Clementine Mosaic (to face 
 p. 244). 
 
 Plate 4. Figures from the Cyrenaic picture (to face p. 245). 
 View of the Interior of the Theatre at Aspendus 
 Plate 5. (Frontispiece). 
 
 I 
 
PART I 
 
 A TEEATISE 
 
 HISTOKY AND EXHIBITION 
 
 GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 D. T. G. 
 
II 
 
 I 
 
 ll 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 ov ydp Ti vvv 76 KCLX^^s, dXK' del Trore 
 ^77 raura, /coi;5ets olbev i^ 6tov '(pavrj. 
 
 Sophocles. 
 
 TT7E cannot assign any historical origin to the Drama. Result- 
 ' * ing as it did from the constitutional tendencies of the in- 
 habitants of those countries in which it sprang up, it necessarily 
 existed, in some form or other, long before the age of history; 
 consequently we cannot determine the time when it first made its 
 appearance, and must therefore be content to ascertain in what 
 principle of the human mind it originated. This we shall be able 
 to do without much difficulty. In fact the solution of the problem 
 is included in the answer to a question often proposed, — " How 
 are we to account for the great prevalence of idol worship in ancient 
 times?" For, strange as it may appear, it is nevertheless most 
 true, that not only the drama, (the most perfect form of poetry,) 
 but all poetry, sculpture, painting, architecture, and whatever else 
 is beautiful in art, are the results of that very principle which 
 degraded men, the gods of the earth, into grovelling worshippers of 
 wood and stone, which made them kneel and bow down before the 
 works of their own hands. This principle is that which is gene- 
 rally called the love of imitation, — a definition, however, which is 
 rather ambiguous, and has been productive of much misunder- 
 
 1—2 
 
4 THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 standing ^ We would rather state this principle to be that desire 
 to express the abstract in the concrete, that " striving after objec- 
 tivity," as it has been termed by a modern 'writer 2, that wish to 
 render the conceivable perceivable, which is the ordinary charac- 
 teristic of an uneducated mind. 
 
 The inhabitants of southern Europe, in particular, have in all 
 ages shown a singular impatience of pure thought, and have been 
 continually endeavouring to represent under the human form, either 
 allegorically or absolutely, the subjects of their contemplations 2. 
 Now the first abstract idea which presented itself to the minds of 
 rude but imaginative men was the idea of God, conceived in some 
 one or other of his attributes. Unable to entertain the abstract 
 notion of divinity, they called in the aid of art to bring under the 
 control of their senses the subject of their thoughts, and willingly 
 rendered to the visible and perishable the homage which they felt 
 to be due to the invisible and eternal. By an extension of the 
 same associations, their anthropomorphized divinity was supposed 
 to need a dwelling-place ; hence the early improvements of archi- 
 tecture on the shores of the Mediterranean. His worshippers would 
 then attempt some outward expression of their gratitude and vene- 
 ration:- — to meet this need, poetry arose among them*. The 
 same feelings would suggest an imitation of the imagined suffer- 
 ings or gladness of their deity ; and to this we owe the mimic 
 
 ^ The German reader would do well to consult on this subject Von Raumer's 
 Essay on the Poetic of Aristotle (Ahhandl. der Hist. Philologischen Klasse der 
 Ron. ATcad. der Wissensch. 1828). We do not think Dr. Copleston's view of this 
 subject (Prcelectiones Academicce, pp. 28 sqq.) sufficiently comprehensive. 
 
 2 Wachsmuth, Hell. Alterth. ii. 2, 113. 
 
 ^ See Wordsworth's Excursion (Works, V. pp. 160 foil.). 
 
 ^ Thus Strabo says, that "the whole art of poetry is the praise of the gods," 
 7} froirjTiKT] iracra vixvi/jtikt). X. p. 468. (The word o5cra, which is found in all the 
 editions at the end of this sentence, has evidently arisen from a repetition of the 
 first two syllables of the following word wcrai^Tws, and must be struck out. For the 
 sense of the word iifjivrjTiKTf], comp. Plato, Legg. p. 700 A.) And Plato, Legg. vii. 
 799 A, would have all music and dancing consecrated to religion. When Herder 
 says (Werke z. schon. Lit. und Kunst. ii. p. 82), "Poetry arose, not at the altars, but 
 in wild merry dances; and as violence was restrained by the severest laws, an 
 attempt was in like manner made to lay hold, by means of religion, on those drunken 
 inclinations of men which escaped the control of the laws," he does not seem to 
 deny the fact on which we have insisted, that religion and poetry are contempo- 
 raneous effects of the same cause; at all events, he allows that poetry was at first 
 merely the organ of religion. And although V. Cousin endeavours to prove that 
 religion and poetry were the results of different necessities of the human mind, he 
 also contends that they were analogous in their origin. "Le triomphe de Tin tuition 
 religieuse est dans la creation du culte, comme le triomphe de I'idde du beau est 
 dans la creation de Tart," &c. {Cours de Philosophie, p. 21, 2). 
 
THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 5 
 
 dances of ancient Hellas, and the first beginnings of the drama 
 there. 
 
 But although art and religious realism have much in common 
 even in their latest applications, we are not to suppose that all 
 attempts to give an outward embodiment to the religious idea 
 are to be considered as real approximations to dramatic poetry. 
 All art is not poetry, and all poetry is not the drama \ Poly- 
 theistic worship and its concomitant idolatry are the most favour- 
 able conditions for the development of art in all its forms and 
 applications. And conversely, those nations and epochs which 
 have been most remarkable for the cultivation of a pure and spi- 
 ritual religion have been equally remarkable for a prevalent distaste 
 and incompetency for the highest efforts of art. In ancient times, 
 we have the case of the Israelites : for many years they strove with 
 varying success to resist the temptations to idolatry which sur- 
 rounded them on every side, and left to Greece and modern Europe 
 the greatest aid to abstract thought, in the alphabet which we still 
 
 ^ The view which we have taken in the text, of the origin of the fine arts, is, we 
 conceive, nearly the same as that of Aristotle; for it appears to us pretty obvious 
 that his treatise on Poetic was, like many of his other writings, composed expressly 
 to confute the opinions of Plato, who taking the word /nifirjcrLS in its narrowest 
 sense, to signify the imperfect counterfeiting, the servile and pedantic copying of an 
 individual object, argued against iJ.[fjL7](ns in general as useless for moral purposes. 
 Whereas Aristotle shows that if the word fxlfXTjais be not taken in this confined 
 sense, but as equivalent to " representation," as implying the outward realisation of 
 something in the mind, it does then include not only poetry, but, properly speaking, 
 all the fine arts : and /xlfiTjaLS is therefore useful, in a moral relation, if art in general 
 is of any moral use. That he understood fii/uLTja-is in this general sense is clear from his 
 Rhetoric, III. l, § 8 : tcl dvo/xara fiifirj/JLaTci icrriv VTrrjp^e 5^ ij <pu)V7] ttolvtuv fJLifXTjTiKd- 
 rarov tCjv fMopicou rjfjuv dib Kal at r^xi/at crvpeaTrjaav, "q re pa^ySta Koi i] VTOKpiTiKT] Kal 
 al aWai. It was, however, as Schleiermacher justly observes {Anmerkungen zu 
 Platons Staat, p. 543), not of art absolutely that Plato was speaking, but only of its 
 moral efiects ; for doubtless Plato himself would have been most willing to assent to 
 a definition of art which made it an approximation to or copy of the idea of the 
 beautiful (comp. Plat. Resp. VI. p. 484 c) ; and this is only Aristotle's opinion ex- 
 pressed in other words. Von Raumer truly remarks in the essay above quoted, p. 118, 
 "The Trapadeiy/jLa (Poet. XV. 1 1, XXVI. 28), which Aristotle often designates as the 
 object to be aimed at, is nothing but that which is now-a-days called the 'ideal,' and 
 by which is understood the most utter opposite of a pedantic imitation." Herder also 
 was fully aware that although Plato contradicts Aristotle in regard to the Dithyramb, 
 he was speaking in quite a difierent connexion, "in ganz anderer Verbindung" 
 {WerJce z. schon. Lit. u. Kunst. 11, p. 86). We may add, that our definition of ixlfxtj- 
 CL% as a synonym for "art," which has also been given in direct terms by Mtiller 
 {Handh. der Archdol. beginn.), "Die Kunst ist eine Darstellung {/xifj,r}(ni) d, h. eine 
 Thatigkeit durch welche ein InnerHches ausserlich wird," "Art is a representation 
 {fxifir]<Ti.s), i. e. an energy by means of which a subject becomes an object" (comp. 
 I)oi'ians, IV. ch. 7, § 12), is the best way of explaining the pleasure which we derive 
 from the efforts of the fancy and imagination, which, as has been very justly observed, 
 is always much greater when "the allusion is from the material world to the intellec- 
 tual, than when it is from the intellectual world to the material" (Stewart's Elements 
 of the Philosophy of the Mind, 1. p. 306). 
 
n THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 employ. Yet we find that native art was, strictly speaking, non- 
 existent among them. The few symbols which they employed in 
 their early days were borrowed from Egypt or Chaldaea ; and when, 
 in the most flourishing epoch of their monarchy, their powerful 
 and wealthy king wished to build a temple to the true God, he 
 was obliged to call in the aid of his idolatrous neighbours the 
 Tyrians^. Nay more, it would not be fanciful to connect the sub- 
 sequent idolatry of Solomon with his patronage of the fine arts. 
 It is remarkable, too, that the first trace of a dramatic tendency in 
 the lyric poetry of the Israelites is visible in an idyll attributed 
 to the same prince. And far as the book of Job is from any 
 dramatic intention, the dialogues of which it mainly consists must 
 be added to the many proofs which have been adduced of the com- 
 paratively modern date, and foreign origin, of that didactic poem 2. 
 Even the incomplete metrical system of the Hebrews, as compared 
 with the wonderful variety and perfection of Greek prosody, must 
 be regarded as furnishing supplementary evidence of the inartificial 
 character and antimimetic tendencies of the early inhabitants of 
 Palestine.' So also in modern times, long after the drama had 
 ceased to exhibit any traces of its original connexion with the rites 
 of a heathen worship, and when it was looked upon merely as a 
 branch of literature, or as an elegant pastime, in proportion as 
 Christian nations adhered to or abhorred the sensual rites which 
 the Church of Rome borrowed from heathendom, when it assembled 
 its priest-ridden votaries within the newly-consecrated walls of a 
 profane Basilica, — in the same proportion the drama throve or 
 declined, and, in this country, either inflicted vengeance on the 
 hapless author of a Ilistriomastix, or concealed its flaunting robes 
 from the austere indignation of Smectymnuus, 
 
 To return, however, to the more immediate influences of poly- 
 theism and idolatry on the origination of the ancient drama, we 
 observe that the dramatic art, wherever it has existed as a genuine 
 product of the soil, has always been connected in its origin with 
 the religious rites of an elementary worship^; that is, with those 
 enthusiastic orgies which spring from a personification of the powers 
 
 ^ I Kings vii. 13. 
 
 2 Ewald, poetisch. Bilcher des alten Bundes, ill. p. 63. 
 
 ^ In connexion with the Phallic rites of Hindostan and Greece, we may mention 
 that in the South Sea Islands, at the time of Cook's second voyage, a birth was 
 represented on the stage. See Siivern iiher Aristoph. Wolken, p. 63, note 6. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 7 
 
 of nature. This was the case in India \ and in those parts of Italy 
 where scenic entertainments existed before the introduction of the 
 Greek drama. But in Greece this was so, not only in the be- 
 ginning, but as long as the stage existed; and the circumstance, 
 which gave to the Attic drama its chief strength and its highest 
 charms, was its continued connexion with the state-worship of 
 Bacchus, in which both Tragedy and Comedy took their rise. We 
 must not allow ourselves to be misled by our knowledge of the fact 
 that the drama of modern Europe, though derived from that of 
 ancient Greece, exhibits no trace of its religious origin. The 
 element which originally constituted its whole essence has been 
 overwhelmed and superseded by the more powerful ingredients 
 which have been introduced into it by the continually diverging 
 tastes of succeeding generations, till it has at length become nothing 
 but a walking novel or a speaking jest-book. The plays of Shak- 
 speare and Calderon (with the exception, of course, of the Autos 
 Sacramentales of the latter) are dramatic reproductions of the 
 prose romances of the day, with the omission of the religious ele- 
 ment which they owed to the monks 2, just as the Tragedies of 
 ^schylus and Sophocles would have been mere epic dramas, had 
 they broken the bonds which connected them with the elementary 
 worship of Attica. But this disruption never took place. In 
 ancient Greece the drama retained to the last the character which 
 it originally possessed. The theatrical representations at Athens, 
 even in the days of Sophocles and Aristophanes, were constituent 
 parts of a religious festival ; the theatre in which they were per- 
 formed was sacred to Bacchus, and the worship of the god was 
 always as much regarded as the amusement of the sovran people. 
 
 1 "Like that of the Greeks, the Hindu drama was derived from, and formed 
 part of, their religious ceremonies." Quarterly Rev. No. 89, p. 59. The comparative 
 antiquity of the Greek and Indian drama is regarded very diflFerently by the most 
 eminent orientalists. For while Weber thinks it " not improbable that even the use 
 of the Hindoo drama was influenced by the performance of the Greek dramas at the 
 courts of Greek kings" {Indische Skizzen, p. 28), Lassen will not allow such an origin 
 of the Indian drama, which he considers to be of native growth {Indische Alterthums- 
 kunde, ii. p. 1157). Even supposing however that the Indian drama was as old as the 
 time of Asoka II. {Asiat. Res. xx. p. 50; Lassen, 11. p. 502), it is admitted (Lassen, i. 
 616, 625 ; II. 507) that Krishna, who stood in intimate connexion with the origin of 
 the Hindoo theatre, was specially worshipped in the Saurasenic or eastern district 
 (Arrian, Ind. viii. 5), and there is every reason to believe that he was an imported 
 deity ; so that the Indian stage, even if aboriginal, may have derived its most charac- 
 teristic features from the Greek. 
 
 2 Malone's Shakspeare, Vol. iii. pp. 8 sqq. ; Lessing, Geschlchte der Engl. Sckau- 
 liihne (Werke, XV. 209). 
 
8'; THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 This is a fact wliicli cannot be too strongly impressed upon the 
 student : if he does not keep this continually in view, he will be 
 likely to confound the Athenian stage with that of his own time 
 and country, and will misunderstand and wonder at many things 
 which under this point of view are neither remarkable nor unin- 
 telligible. How apt we all are to look at the manners of ancient 
 times through the false medium of our every-day associations ! how 
 difficult we find it to strip our thoughts of their modern garb, and 
 to escape from the thick atmosphere of prejudice in which custom 
 and habit have enveloped us ! and yet, unless we take a compre- 
 hensive and extended view of the objects of archaeological specu- 
 lation, unless we can look upon ancient customs with the eyes of 
 the ancients, unless we can transport ourselves in the spirit to 
 other lands and other times, and sun ourselves in the clear light of 
 bygone days, all our conceptions of what was done by the men who 
 have long ceased to be, must be dim, uncertain, and unsatisfactory, 
 and all our reproductions as soulless and uninstructive as the 
 scattered fragments of a broken statue^. These remarks are par- 
 ticularly applicable to the Greek stage. For in proportion to the 
 perfection of the extant specimens of ancient art in any department, 
 are our misconceptions of the difference between their and our use 
 of these excellent works. We feel the beauty of the remaining 
 Greek dramas, and are unwilling to believe that productions as 
 exquisite as the most elaborate compositions of our own playwrights 
 should not have been, as ours were, exhibited for their own sake. 
 But this was far from being the case. The susceptible Athenian, — 
 whose land was the dwelling-place of gods and ancestral heroes 2, — • 
 to whom the clear blue sky, the swift-winged breezes, the river 
 fountains, the jEgean gay with its countless smiles, and the teem- 
 ing earth^ from which he believed his ancestors were immediately 
 created, were alike instinct with an all-pervading spirit of divinity; 
 — the Athenian, who loved the beautiful, but loved it because it 
 was divine, — ^who looked upon all that genius could invent, or art 
 execute, as but the less unworthy offering to his pantheism'* ; and 
 
 ^ See some good remarks on this subject in Niebuhr's Kleine Sckriften, Vol. I. 
 p. 92, and in his letter to Count Adam Moltke (Lebensn. Vol. ii. p. 91). 
 
 2 Hegesias ap. Strab. ix. p. 396. ^ ^gch. Prom. V. 87 — 90. 
 
 ^ Mr. Grote remarks (Hist, of Greece, viii. p. 444), with special reference to the 
 Athenian drama, that ** there was no manner of employing wealth, which seemed so 
 appropriate to Grecian feeling, or tended so much to procure influence and popularity 
 
THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 9 
 
 considered all lils festivals and all liis amusements as only a means 
 of withdi-awing the soul from the world's business, and turning it 
 to the love and worship of Grod\ how could he keep back from the 
 object of his adoration the fairest and best of his works ? 
 
 We shall make the permanent religious reference of the Greek 
 drama more clear, by showing with some minuteness how it 
 gradually e^'olved itself from religious rites universally prevalent, 
 and by pointing out by what routes its different elements con- 
 verged, till they became united in one harmonious whole of " state- 
 liest and most regal argument^." 
 
 The dramatic element in the religion of ancient Greece mani- 
 fested itself most prominently in the connected worship of Apollo, 
 Demeter, and Dionysus. Thus at Delphi, the main seat of the 
 Dorian worship of Apollo, the combat with the serpent, and ther 
 flight and expiation of the victorious son of Latona, were made the 
 subject of a representation almost theatrical^. And Clemens Alex- 
 andrinus tells us that Eleusis represented by torch-light the rape 
 of Proserpine, and the wanderings and grief of her mother Demeter, 
 in a sort of mystic drama •*. Dionysus, who was worshipped both 
 at Eleusis and at Delphi^, was personated by the handsomest young 
 men who could be found, in a mimic ceremony at the Athenian 
 Anthesteria, which represented his betrothal to the wife of the 
 King Archon^; and there were other occasions, quite unconnected 
 with theatrical exhibitions, in which the Bacchic mythology was 
 made the subject of direct imitation\ But it was not in these 
 forms of worship that the Attic drama immediately originated, 
 however much it may have been connected with them in spirit. 
 The almost antagonistic materials of Dorian and oriental mytho- 
 logy had to seek their common ground, and the lyric chorus of the 
 Dorians had to combine itself with the epos of the Ionian rhapsode, 
 
 to its possessors, as that of contributing to enhance the magnificence of the national 
 and religious festivals." 
 
 1 Strabo, X. p. 467: -q re yap dveais tov vodv dirdyec dirb tQv dvdpcoirlvuv daxo^'n* 
 fidrtav, TOV bk ovtcjs vovv rp^irei irpos to delov. 
 
 2 Milton's Prose Works, p. lor. 
 
 3 Plutarch, Qwjest. Gr. ii. p. 202, Wyttenb, ; Be Defect. Orac. Ii. pp. "tio, 723, 
 Wyttenb. 
 
 •* Cohort, ad Gentes, p. 12, Potter. 
 
 5 Plut. de EI Delpkico, p, 591, Wyttenb. : tov ^ibwaov, y tCov \e\<pCiv ovZh t)Ttov 
 Tj ry 'XiroWoiVL fx^eaTiv. 
 
 ^ Demosth. in iVecpr. pp. 1369, 70; Plutarch, Nlc. c. 3. 
 ' Plutarch, Qucest. Gr. ii. p. 228, Wyttenb. 
 
10 THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 before such a phenomenon as the full-grown Tragedy of ^schylus 
 could become possible. We see these ingredients standing side by 
 side, like oil and vinegar, and not perfectly fused \ in the first 
 Attic tragedy which we open. It is the business of the following- 
 pages to point out how they came together. 
 
 In order to do this in a satisfactory manner, we must constantly 
 bear in mind the important statement of Aristotle^, that "both 
 Tragedy and Comedy originated in a rude and unpremeditated 
 manner; the first from the leaders of the Dithyrambs, and the 
 second from those who led off the Phallic songs." To reconcile all 
 our scattered information on the subject with this distinct and 
 categorical account of the beginning of the Greek drama, we must 
 in the first place confine ourselves to Tragedy. We must see how 
 the solemn choral poetry of the Dorians admitted of a union with 
 the boisterous Dithyramb, which belonged to the orgiastic worship 
 of an exotic divinity. And, we must inquire how the leaders of 
 this lyrical and Dorized Dithyramb became the vehicles of the 
 dramatic dialogues in which the Tragedy of Athens carried on the 
 development of its epic plots. We shall then be able without 
 much difficulty to consider the case of Comedy, which exhibited in 
 its older form the unmitigated ingredients of the noisy Phallic 
 Comus. 
 
 The following, therefore, will be the natural succession of the 
 topics, to which we are invited by an inquiry into the origin of the 
 Greek drama. As its first beginnings are to be sought in a form 
 of religious worship, we must endeavour to ascertain at starting 
 what was the nature of the system which gave rise to a ceremonial 
 capable of dramatic representation. It has been mentioned gene- 
 rally that the religion, which produced the drama, is essentially 
 connected with the worship of the elements, and that the Greek 
 drama in particular manifests itself in the cognate w^orship of 
 Apollo, Demeter, and Dionysus. It will therefore be our first busi- 
 ness to show that the Greek worship of these deities was implicitly 
 capable of producing, and in fact did produce, both the solemn 
 chorus of Tragedy, and the Phallic extravagances of the old Comedy 
 of Athens. As however this comic drama, though expressing more 
 
 ^ ^schyl. Agam. 322: 
 
 "O^os T &\€(.(f>d T iyx^as TavT(^ k6t€i, 
 AixoaraToOvT &v, ov 0iXw, TpoaeuviwoiS, 
 
 ' Poet. c. IV. ; below, Part ir. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS ORIGIN OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 11 
 
 plainly than Tragedy the original form and the genuine spirit of 
 the religion of Bacchus, borrowed its theatrical attire from the com- 
 pleted Tragedy of ^schylus, we must trace the development both 
 of the tragic chorus and of the tragic dialogue before we can speak 
 of Athenian Comedy and its varieties ; and we shall find that the 
 latest form of ancient Comedy, while it approximates to the drama 
 of modern Europe, in the machinery of its plot and incidents, 
 derives its leading characteristics from the last of the great trage- 
 dians, and not only discards all allusions to the Phallic origin of 
 the Comus, but even evades a direct reference to the religious festi- 
 vals with which it was formally connected. Accordingly, the 
 order, in which we propose to treat the subject, will both exhaust 
 the materials at our disposal, without incurring a risk of repetition, 
 and will present the facts connected with the growth of the Greek 
 drama in the legitimate order of cause and effect, and in accordance 
 with the laws of their historical development. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, DEMETER 
 AND APOLLO. 
 
 '4tl re KXvTav Tr^fxirere x^P"'> ^^oi. 
 
 PiNDAB. 
 
 WHATEVER opinion may be entertained respecting the in- 
 digenous character of other Greek deities, there cannot be 
 the slightest doubt that the worship of Dionysus or Bacchus was 
 of oriental origin, and that it was introduced into Greece by the 
 Phoenicians, who, together with the priceless gift of the Semitic 
 alphabet, imparted to the Pelasgian inhabitants of the Mediterra- 
 nean coasts a knowledge of those forms of elementary worship which 
 were more or less common to the natives of Canaan and Egypt. 
 The mythical founder of Thebes, the Phoenician Cadmus, is con- 
 nected with both of these innovations. For while he directly 
 teaches the use of letters \ it is his daughter Semele, who, accord- 
 ing to the tradition, in B.C. 1544 gives birth to Dionysus, the 
 Theban wine-god ^ The genealogy of Cadmus connects him not 
 only with Phoenicia, but also with Egypt, Libya, Cilicia, and 
 Crete ^ And the historical interpretation of the legend is simply 
 
 1 Herod, v. 58; Diod. iii. 67, V. 57; Plia. H. N. vii. 56. 
 
 2 Herod, ii. 145. According to Herodotus, 11. 49, Cadmus himself was a wor- 
 shipper of Dionysus, and taught this religion to Melampus. 
 3 The pedigree is as follows (Creuzer, Symbol, iv. p. 8) : 
 Agenor, son of Neptune and Libya, in Phoenicia. ^ Telephassa. 
 
 Cadmus ^ Harmonia. Phoenix. Cilix. Europa. 
 
 Polydorus. Semele. Autonoe. Agave. Ino. 
 
 ' Jupiter. 
 
 J)ionysus. 
 
CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, DEMETER AND APOLLO. 13 
 
 this, that the Phoenician navigators, who visited every part of 
 the Mediterranean, carrying their commerce and their language 
 to the distant regions of Spain and Britain, succeeded, after some 
 opposition, in establishing their own worship on the main land 
 of northern Greece about the middle of the sixteenth century 
 before our agra. 
 
 In order that we may understand the true and original cha- 
 racter of a religion, which the plastic fancy and eclectic liberalism 
 of the Greeks modified by an intermixture of heterogeneous ele- 
 ments, it will be necessary to consider the forms of faith and 
 worship, which were cultivated by the Phoenicians and other 
 Semitic tribes in the country from which they set forth on their 
 voyages for the purposes of commerce or colonisation. 
 
 Among the Semitic nations, as in all the most ancient com- 
 munities of men, the Sun and Moon were the primary objects 
 of adoration ^ The Sun, on account of his greater power and 
 brightness 2, was worshipped as a male divinity under some one of 
 the names Bel or Baal^ and Meleh, Molech^ Moloch^ Milkom, or 
 Malchan, signifying " Lord" or "King" respectively^. The Moon, 
 with her weaker light and the humidity which accompanied the 
 period of her reign, was regarded as a female deity*, and wor- 
 shipped as Asherah, the goddess of prosperity^, or Astarte, the 
 bright star of heaven^. Each of these deities had its cheerful, 
 as well as its gloomy aspect. The Sun, which ripens the fruit, 
 also burns up vegetation. He is the god not only of generation 
 but also of destruction. The Moon, which gives the fertilizing 
 
 ^ The attributes and worship of these Semitic deities have been well discussed by 
 F. W. Ghillany, die Menschenopfer der alien Hebrder, Niimberg, 1842, pp. 118 sqq. 
 See also F. Nork, Bihlische Mythologie, Stuttgardt, 1842, Vol. i. pp. 12 — 137. 
 
 2 Macrob. Saturn, i. 21, 12 : significantes hunc deura solem esse, regalique potestate 
 sublimera cuncta despicere, quia solem Jovis oculum appellat antiquitas. 
 
 3 See New Cratylus, § 479. That the sun-god was a king was an idea familiar to 
 the Greeks also. Thus ^schylus, Persce, 228: rijXe jrpbs Svcrfiais dvaKTo% 'HXi'ou 
 <pdt.va<xiJ.dTO}u. 
 
 * Plutarch, Is. et Os. c 53; Macrob. Sat. I. [7, 53. 
 
 5 n^LJ^X from "IK^N "to be happy," = 17 fiaKapia. Fuerst, however {Handworterh. 
 I- P- 155)* renders it socia, conjux, i.e. of Baal, as the Phoenician "IDX (Osir) "the 
 husband," is an epithet of the male god. 
 
 ^ Gesenius, Thesaur. p. 1083: "nil fere dubito quin n^iriK^y idem sit quod iriDX 
 Stella, /car' i^oxw stella Veneris, ita ut 'AcrTpodpxv, quomodo Astarte appellatur (Hero- 
 dian. 5, 6, § 10), etymon bene referat." That Astarte was the Moon is distinctly 
 stated by Lucian, de dea Syria, 4 : 'AcxTdpTrjv 5^ iyib doK^oj ^eXTjvairjv ip-fievai. And 
 this is shown by her representation as a homed goddess : see the passages quoted by 
 Gesenius, I. c. 
 
14 THE CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, 
 
 dew, IS also the goddess of the dark hours of night from which 
 she regularly withdraws from time to time her silver light. This 
 division of attributes favoured the introduction of the other planets 
 (for the Sun and Moon were classed with the planets) into the 
 cycle of the deities to be worshipped. In his benignant aspect 
 the Sun was occasionally represented by Jupiter^; as a malig- 
 nant god he was generally superseded by Saturn^ though Mars 
 assumed some of his functions as hostile to the human race^. On 
 the other hand, Astarte was as often represented by the planet 
 Venus as by the Moon*. If Mercury played any part at all it 
 was as a subordinate and inferior manifestation of goodness^. In 
 their supposed order of distance from the earth, the seven so-called 
 planets were arranged as follows: Saturn, the most distant, 
 Jupiter, Mars, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon. And assign- 
 ing each of the 24 hours of the day and the night to a repeated 
 series of the planets in this order, they found that if the first 
 hour of a particular day was assigned to Saturn, the first hour 
 of the following day would belong to the Sun, of the next day 
 to the Moon, and so on in the order preserved to our times by the 
 names of the days of the week^. According to the Semitic mode 
 of viewing the supremacy of the distant and gloomy Saturn, the 
 seventh and last day was consecrated to him^, and when it was 
 discovered that the number six was a perfect number, it was in- 
 ferred that no other period could be assigned to the creation of all 
 things under his auspices^. On the seventh day therefore the 
 
 1 Phaethon was both Jupiter and the Sun. Cf. Cic. de Nat. Beor. li. 10 ; Athen- 
 seus, VII. p. 3'26 B ; Horat. 1 Carm. xvii. 12 : te Jovis impio tutela Saturno refulgens 
 eripuit. Cf. Jul. Firmicus, p. 328. This opposition between Jove and Saturn is pre- 
 served in our adjectives "Jovial" and "Saturnine," derived from the Neo-Platonic 
 school. 
 
 2 Propert. IV. i, 84; Lucan, i. 650; Tac. Hist. v. 4; Juv. vi. 569; Manetho, iii. 
 245 : Kp6vov pXa^epajjyeos aar-qp. 
 
 3 Ovid, Am. 1. 8, 29: stella tibi oppositi nocuit contraria Martis. 
 
 * Cicero, de Natur. Deor. ill. 23 ; Phil. Bybl. ap. Euseb. Prmp. Evang. i. 10 ; 
 Theodoret, ill. Reg. Qucest. 50 ; Augustin, Qu. in Jud. VII. ; Suidas, s. v. 'Ao-Taprrj. 
 
 5 Mercury is regarded as the messenger of the supreme deity, because he is nearest 
 to the Sun and of equal apparent velocity (Cicero, de Natur. Deor. Ii. 20 ad fin. ; Tim. 
 c. 9, p. 505; de Rep. Vi. 17, § 17). He was often identified with Apollo (Macrob. i. 
 19, 16) or with the Sun (ibid. 8). 
 
 ^ Dio Casaius, xxxvii. 19, p. 137, Bekker. The passage is translated at length in 
 the Philol. Mils. i. pp. 2, 3. 
 
 ^ Creuzer, Symbol, ii. p. 186. We find the same number sacred to Apollo and 
 Dionysus, who are other forms of the sun-god; Creuzer, 1. 1. iv. p. 117. 
 
 ^ It seems clear that in the opinion of Plato, who echoed Pythagorean and Hera- 
 cleitean theories more immediately derived from the last, the 6e?ov yevvt^rbv. or the 
 
DEMETER AND APOLLO. 15 
 
 priests clothed in black made an offering to Saturn In his black 
 six-sided templet Similar offerings were made to the planets 
 Mars and Jupiter on the third and fifth days of the week. But 
 although these specialities of planetary worship appeared in the 
 religious systems of most of the Semitic tribes, these nations were 
 always ready to fall back on the general worship of the Sun and 
 the Moon, the latter being also regarded as the goddess of the 
 Earth ; and while the former presided over all the modifications of 
 the rites sacred to Baal or Moloch, the latter appears as his 
 correlative in all that was either savage or lascivious in his peculiar 
 worship. 
 
 As a malig-nant deity, or more specifically as Moloch, the sun- 
 god is tauriform^ and is appeased by the offering of human victims^. 
 In the same capacity his sister deity, whether representing the 
 Moon or the Earth, has the head of a cow^, and is always con- 
 nected, in the oldest forms of her worship, with the same horrid 
 rites. It is very interesting to trace this Semitic development of 
 the idea that the Divine Being is wroth with man and is best 
 appeased with the blood of his noblest creature, as it spreads itself 
 along the Mediterranean till it is checked every where by the 
 purer humanity and juster sentiments of the Greeks^. Both in 
 Palestine and at Carthage Moloch was represented by a metal 
 figure either human with a bull's head or entirely bovine, in which 
 the human victims, generally children, were burnt alive ^. There 
 can be no doubt that the brazen bull of Phalaris at Agrigentum 
 was a remnant of Carthaginian or Phoenician worship established 
 there "^j and that the burning of human victims, inaugurated by 
 Perillus, was due rather to the Semitic worship than to the arbi- 
 trary cruelty of a tyrant, whose name, though treated with living 
 
 world {de Anim. Procr. in Tim. 1017 c, p. 142, Wyttenb.), was indicated by a period 
 which was represented by the perfect number 6, the human creation, or the state, 
 being represented by a series of arithmetical calculations based on this (Plat. Resp. 
 p. 546; see our interpretation of the passage, Trans, of Philol. Soc. Vol. i. No. 8). 
 
 1 Gesenius, Commentar. ilher d. Jesaia, ii. p. 344. 
 
 '•^ Macrobius, Saturnal. i. 21, § 20. 
 
 3 Kenrick, Phosnicia, pp. 315 sqq. 
 
 "* See the figure in Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 1083, and comp. New Cratylus, § 470. 
 
 ° Creuzer, Symbol, ii. 447. 
 
 ^ See the passage quoted from B. Jarchi, ad Jer. Vii. 3T, by Winer, Realw'&rterh. 
 s. V. Molech; the well-known description in Diodor. Sic. xx. 14; and the passage 
 translated from Jalkut in Hyde, Hist. Pel. Vet. Pers. p. 132. 
 
 '' See J. E. Ebert, St/ceX. i. i, pp. 41 — 106, quoted by Creuzer, Symbol. II. p. 447; 
 and Ghillany, Meiischenopf. p. 726. 
 
16 
 
 abhorrence by Pindar i, is perhaps as mythical as that of Busiris^. 
 The fact that this bull was afterwards recognized at Carthage 
 clearly proves its Semitic origin and religious use^. The rescue of 
 Athens from the worshippers of Moloch in Crete is described mythi- 
 cally as the slaying by Theseus of an ox-headed Minotaur, to 
 whom the Athenians were obliged to send every nine years a tribute 
 of seven youths and seven maidens, the sacred number of the 
 Semitic Saturn^. Hercules similarly liberates the Italians from 
 their thraldom to the semi-taurine^ Cacus, who murdered men in a 
 cave or grotto corresponding to the Cretan labyrinth^. The man 
 of brass called Talos, who haunted both Crete and Sardinia, and 
 filew strangers in his red-hot embraces, is another form of the image 
 of Moloch^. Nor was the female goddess without her share in 
 these homicidal rites. The Europa or broad-faced moon, who is 
 borne on the back of a bull to the Minotaur's island Crete, is the 
 same deity as the "Apre/^t? TavpoTroXr] of the coasts of the Euxine^ 
 to whom strangers were sacrificed. The interrupted sacrifice of 
 Iphigenia points to the prevalence of such a rite in her worship. 
 And the name ^OpOaxrla, or ^OpOla, which was given to this god- 
 dess in Lemnos and elsewhere, undoubtedly referred to the loud 
 wailings of her victims, for which the floggings of the Spartan 
 youth were a sort of compromise^. 
 
 1 Pyth. I. 95 ; tov hk raipcji x'^^'^^V Kavr^pa vrfKia vbov ix^po- ^oXaptv /care'xei iravTa 
 ^dris, where he is contrasted with the ^iXb<f)pwv dperd of Croesus. 
 
 2 The tradition that Phalaris feasted on children (Aristot. Eth. Nic. VII. 5, § 2) 
 clearly identifies him with Moloch. It is not improbable that even the name ^dXapis 
 may be connected with the Bacchic attributes ^aX^s and ^dWos (i. e. with the Semitic 
 nbS) and PIT'S)), and that he is merely himself a representative of the AiSwaos Tavpo- 
 K^pcvs. If so, it will be a curious reflection that historical criticism arose in a contro- 
 versy respecting the authenticity of some highly rhetorical epistles in Attic Greek 
 attributed to this imaginary personage ! 
 
 2 See Cicero, in Verrem, iv. 33. 
 
 ■* That the Minotaur was an object of worship is clear from the representation on a 
 vase, which exhibits the monster as about to sacrifice the seven Athenian maidens on 
 an altar (Bottiger, Ideen zur Kunsimyth. Taf. v.). The names of Pasiphae, the 
 mother, and Ariadne- Aridela (Apid^Xav, t7]v 'Apid5v7)v Kprp-es, Hesych.), the sister of 
 the Minotaur, point to his true character as a form of the Sun-god. 
 
 ^ Virgil {^n. viii. 192) merely calls him Semihomo, but we may supply the other 
 half by a reference to Ovid's description of the Minotaur as Semibovemque virum semi- 
 virumque hovem (2 Ar. Am. v. 23). 
 
 ^ When he is called the son of Vulcan, and is said to breathe forth fire, the refer- 
 ence is no doubt to the brazen statue of Moloch. 
 
 7 ApoUod. I. 9, § 26. 
 
 s Kenrick, On Herodotus, ii. 44. 
 
 ^ Creuzer, Symbol, ii. 528. 
 
DEMETER AND APOLLO. 17 
 
 Now it appears that Dionysus or Bacchus, the latter name and 
 its synonym lacchus refen-ing to the outcries attending his worship, 
 first appeared to the Greeks as a tauriform sun-god appeased by 
 human victims \ As late as the classical days of the Greek drama it 
 was customary to address him as appearing in the shape of a bull, 
 or at least with the horns of that animaP. And many of his 
 epithets pointed to the human blood which was shed at his altars. 
 He was called 'H/^aSto? or 'D,fjLo<f)ar/o(;, because he had human sacri- 
 fices at Chios, Lesbos, and Tenedos^, and his name Zaypev'^ is best 
 explained by a similar reference*. Persian prisoners were solemnly 
 offered up to him on the day before the battle of Salamis^ The 
 Delphic oracle sanctioned the yearly sacrifice at Potniae in Boeotia 
 of a beautiful boy to Dionysus, until, as in the story of Iphigenia, 
 a kid was substituted for the victim ^ At the feast called '^Kcepeia, 
 a scourging of women took the place of the human sacrifice to 
 Dionysus at Alea in Arcadia, in the same way as the boys were 
 whipped rather than slain in honour of Artemis Orthosia'. 
 
 The Semitic sun-god and his Greek representative Dionysus 
 were not only worshipped under the form of a wrathful and cruel 
 Moloch, to whom the blood of human victims was an acceptable 
 and even necessary offering. He appeared also as the god of gene- 
 ration and reproduction, as the cause both of human life, and of 
 that annual growth of the fruits of the earth ^, by which human life 
 
 1 See the passages quoted by Ghillany, Menschenopf. p. '225. 
 
 ^ In the BacchcB of Euripides (1008) the chorus says to the god: (pdvridL ravpos, 
 and we have in 1149: ravpov Trporjyqrripa avpLcpopds ^xw^. In the festival of Dionysus 
 of Elis, he was greeted as d^ie ravpe, and invited to come /So^y ttoSl, i.e. with a 
 blessing (Creuzer, Symholik, li. p. 204, IV. p. 56); and similarly he is bidden to approach 
 Kadapaiu) TTodi in Sophocles, Antig. 1143. The authority for the Elean usage is 
 Plutarch, Qu. Gr. xxxvi., who gives the hymn addressed to Bacchus by the Elean 
 women as follows : iXBeiv -qpo) Atiwcre oKiov is vabu ayvbv <jvv Xapirecraiv es pabv ry 
 ^oicp TTodl 6600V dra bis iwadovaLV d^ie ravpe. He adds the question, trbrepov 8ti Kai 
 ^ouyevTj TTpocrayopedovaiv Kai ravpov rbv debv. Euripides defines Bacchus as ravpbKepws 
 debs {Bacch. 100): and he was also called Tavpb/xopcpos, ^ovKepus, Kepaacpbpos, Kepa- 
 To<pvris, XP^^^X^P^^J ^^^ ^^6 Vike. See on this subject F. Streber's elaborate paper, 
 Ueber den Stier mit dem Menschengeskhte auf deni Munzen von Unteritalien und Sicilien, 
 Munich Transactions for 1837, ii. pp. 453 sqq. 
 
 3 Porphyr. de Alst. ii. 55. 
 
 * Creuzer, Symbol, iv. pp. 96 sqq. 
 
 5 Plutarch, TTieniist c. 13. 
 
 6 Pausan. ix, 8. ^ Id. viii. 23. 
 
 s With reference to the functions of Dionysus as the god of all ripe fruits, Plato 
 calls the yevvaia bwupa, or fruits which may be eaten from the trees, as distinguished 
 from the dypoiKos oirwpa, or fruits intended for ulterior applications, by the somewhat 
 strange designation of iraidLd (not Taideia) Atovvaids ddrjaavpiaTos {Legg. 844 d). 
 Hence Bacchus is called devdpirrjs ; Plut. Qu. Sympos. p. 675 F; Athen. ill. 78 B. 
 
 D. T. G. 2 
 
18 THE CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, 
 
 was sustained, above all, as the giver of the grape, which made 
 glad the heart of man, and stimulated him to all that was pleasant 
 and joyous. In this capacity, he was worshipped in his Semitic 
 home as Baal-Peor^ ; in Byblus, and other Semitic cities, he bore the 
 name of Adonis^; and the Jews called him also Thammuz, from 
 the name of the month July, in which his worship, as that of 
 the glowing and triumphant Sun, was more especially celebrated^. 
 In some parts of Asia Minor the Sun, as the fructifying principle, 
 was worshipped as Priapus*, and though this deity was really 
 another form of Dionysus, one of the mythological legends made 
 him the son of Venus, and a doubtful father, either Dionysus 
 or Adonis^. In Palestine, and wherever it appeared, the worship 
 of Baal-Peor was accompanied by frightful immoralities®, and there 
 is every reason to believe that the pure and divine religion of the 
 Jews, which denounced the inhuman rites of Moloch, was based on 
 a still more formal repudiation of the worship of a deity, for 
 whose name the Israelites indignantly substituted the word Boslieth, 
 signifying " shame ^." The sun-god, as the giver of life, was repre- 
 sented under the more decent type of a serpent^ ; but the revolting 
 emblem of the Phallus was openly displayed in every country to 
 which this form of religion had penetrated^; it was a necessary 
 accompaniment of the rural feast of Bacchus in Attica^"; till the last 
 century it existed in all its most repulsive features in the heart of 
 
 ^ y\V^ ?y5 or 'liVS only (Numbers xxv. r sqq., xxxl. i6; Josh. xxii. 17). The 
 name is represented by the Fathers as BeeXtpaycbp or Beljphegor {Etym. M. adv.; 
 Hieron. in Os. c. 9). 
 
 ^ Creuzer, Symb. II. pp. 472 sqq. The name is the common Semitic expression for 
 ** my Lord," and is therefore nearly synonymous with Baal. 
 
 ^ Ezeh. viii. 14. ■* Lobeck, Aglaophamus, p. 499. 
 
 5 Sckol. Apoll. M. I. 932. 
 
 ^ Creuzer, Symbol, ii. 411. 
 
 "^ e.g. Hosea ix. 10, ''They went to Baal-Peor and separated themselves unto that 
 shame, and their abominations were according as they loved." 
 
 8 For the serpent as the Orphic first principle, see Creuzer, Symbol. ll. 224; iv. 83, 
 85 ; for its use as a symbol of Saturn or Moloch, see Creuzer, ibid. III. 69; for its use 
 in the worship of Bacchus and along with the Phallus, see Creuzer, ibid. iv. 137 ; 
 Gerhard, Anthestenen, pp. 158, 160. It was, in fact, a type of the Agathodsemon 
 (Creuzer, iv. p. 55), an Egyptian symbol (Lampridius, Heliogabal. 28), as such adopted 
 by the Israelites {Numb. xxi. 8). Justin MartjT says rather too generally {Apol. i. 
 27, p. 71 a) : irapa Travri rCJv voixi^oiihwv Trap' vixlv deCov 6<pis aifi^oKov ixiya koI fivaTTj- 
 piop dpaypd^erai, but from the context he seems to have understood its meaning. 
 
 ^ See e.g. Herod, ii. 48. That these figures existed in Palestine may be inferred 
 from I Kings xiv. 23; 2 Kings xvii. 10, xxiii. 14; Hos. x. i. For this worship in 
 Italy, see Plin. ff. N. xxviii. 4, 7; August. Civ. Dei, vil. 21, 24, 2; Arnob. IV. 7. 
 
 *? See e.g. Aristoph. Acharn. 243. 
 
DEMETER AND APOLLO. 19 
 
 Christian Italy ^; and the oldest traditions derive the indecency of 
 this adoration of the reproductive powers of nature fi-om the drunk- 
 enness of the vine-god and his festival^. 
 
 It was as a Phallic god and as the giver of wine that Dionysus 
 retained his place in the popular worship of ancient Greece. And 
 in this capacity his worship connects itself indissolubly with the 
 mysteries of Demeter and her daughter, the goddesses of the earth 
 and of the under-world ^ Generally the productiveness of the earth 
 is regarded as the result of a marriage between the god of the sky, — 
 whether he appears as the genial Sun or as the refreshing rain, — 
 and the goddess, who represents the teeming earth, and weds her 
 daughter to Plutus or Pluto, the owner of the treasures hidden 
 below the surface of the ground, either actually, as metallic riches, 
 or potentially, as the germs of vegetable growth*. To the last, this 
 was the leading characteristic of the old Athenian worship of 
 Dionysus, and his spring festival, the Anthesteria, was accompanied 
 by mystic solemnities, pointing at once to this ideal of his reli- 
 gion, and to its Semitic origin^. At this festival the mysteries 
 were enti-usted to the wife of the king Archon, and to fourteen 
 priestesses called yepacpai., whose number is that of the victims 
 sent to the Minotaur, and is obviously Semitic^ As the repre- 
 sentative of the State, and as symbolizing the virgin daughter of 
 Demeter, who returned to earth in the spring, the king Archon' s 
 wife was solemnly espoused to Dionysus^, just as conversely the 
 
 1 At Lsemia, one of the most ancient cities in the kingdom of Naples, situated in 
 the Contado di Molise. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1805, a judgment, as 
 some might think, for this iniquity. 
 
 2 Compaxe Tzetzes, Chiliad, viii. 211: 
 
 ToO olvovpylas evperov, <pr]/j.i, tou XlyvTrriov 
 
 Tov Xwe Kal 'Ocripidos' 
 with the tradition preserved by Berosus respecting the Phallic worship introduced by 
 Ham: "hie est ille Belphegor" (says Cornelius Agrippa, 0/>/). II. p. 63), " idolum 
 omnium antiquissimum, quod et Chamos dictum est, a Chamo filio Xoe, qui, teste 
 Beroso, idcirco Esmna cognominatus est, hoc est, impudicus sive ignominiosus propa- 
 gator." 
 
 3 This subject has been recently discussed by Gerhard, uber die Anthesterien und 
 das Yerhdltniss der attiscken Dionysos zura Koradienst, Berlin, 1858. 
 
 * Petersen, geh. Gottesd. h. d. Griech. 1848, p. 17. 
 
 5 The principal passage for this ceremonial is in the speech against Xeaera, attri- 
 buted to Demosthenes, p. 1370. 
 
 ^ Servius, ad JEneid. vi. 21, MiiUer, Dor. i. 2, 2, § 14, recognizes the worship of 
 Apollo, i. e. of the svm-god in the number 7, and the Ennaeteris in the period of the 
 sacrifice. 
 
 ^ It was only on the day of these espousals, the 12th of Anthesterion, that the 
 temple was opened (Dem. in Necer. p. 1377). 
 
 2—2 
 
20 THE CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, 
 
 Venetian Doge annually married the sea, and she alone was ad- 
 mitted to gaze on the mysterious emblems of the god's worship, 
 on which the welfare of the State was supposed to depend, namely, 
 the sacred serpent and the Phallus \ It is impossible not to recog- 
 nize in this usage some connexion with the story of Theseus and 
 his Cretan expedition. For Ariadne, whom the Athenian hero 
 carries away from Crete and leaves at Naxos, becomes the bride of 
 Dionysus. And the fourteen victims of the Minotaur reappear in 
 the fourteen yepaipat, and in the noble youths and maidens sacri- 
 ficed to the sacred serpent of Bacchus'^. As Semele represents the 
 earth ^, Dionysus appears not only as her son, but also as her hus- 
 band; for in his original form he is the main representative of the 
 fructifying power of heaven. These oscillations in the persons of 
 the sacred allegory need not create any difficulty, for the free play 
 of fancy has combined and recombined the elements of the picture, 
 like the changing figures of a kaleidoscope. 
 
 The forms of elementary worship, in which the powers of the 
 sky and earth were personified, and which we have thus traced 
 from their Semitic origin, were established among the Pelasgian 
 tribes of Greece long before the epoch called the return of the 
 Heracleids, which marks the establishment of a Dorian, or purely 
 Hellenic, race in the country which we call by their generic 
 name. According to the ethnographic results which we adopt 
 as most probable*, the Dorians or Hellenes, properly so styled, 
 were ultimately the same race as the Persians. And they had 
 from the earliest times a sun-god of a very different character 
 from that of the Semitic tribes. The Ormuzd of the Persians was 
 a god of light and purity, an archer-god, the giver of victory and 
 empire, the charioteer of heaven, or the rider of the heavenly 
 steed ^; and the Apollo of the Dorians possessed many of these attri- 
 butes. But although, as an essentially warlike people, and averse 
 from agricultural employments, which they considered the proper 
 occupation of those whom they had conquered with the spear®, 
 
 ^ Gerhard, Myth. 450, i. ^ Id. Anthester. notes 43, 44. 
 
 ^ "Semele denotes the ground, not only according to Diodorus, lii. 61, but also 
 according to the certain derivation of the name, as defx^Xrj, O^ixedXou (of. rjvde/Ji^dXios) ; 
 Welcker, Gotterlehre, i. p. 536." Gerhard, Anthest. note 96. 
 
 * New Cratylus, § 92. Compare Gladstone, Homeric Studies, i. pp. 545 sqq. 
 
 ^ Varroniann^, p. 61, ed. 3. 
 
 ^ See the spirited drinking song by Hybrias, the Cretan, Athen. p. 695 F, and cf. 
 
DEMETER AND APOLLO. 21 
 
 the Dorians were not very likely to adopt for its own sake a 
 merely elementary worship, which is the usual idolatry of the 
 tillers of the soil, their national deity Apollo would of course 
 retain his traditionary position as a sun-god; and it was quite 
 in accordance with the usual procedure that he should supersede 
 the coiTcsponding divinity, whom the northern tribes found esta- 
 blished among their Pelasgian or Achaean subjects. The Dorians, 
 when they conquered any countiy, generally introduced the wor- 
 ship of their own gods, but they endeavoured at the same time to 
 unite it with the religion which they found established in their 
 settlements. Thus they adopted the elementary gods of Laconia, 
 the Tyndaridse, taking care, however, to give their worship a mili- 
 tary and political reference^ so as to make it coincide with the 
 attributes of Apollo, whose office of leader of the army was trans- 
 ferred to them. Similarly xlpollo was made the object of the 
 Hyacinthia, an ancient festival connected with the elementary reli- 
 gion of the aEgidse^. Now the Dorians worshipped, along with 
 Apollo, a female form of that god, called by the same name (with 
 of course a different termination), invested with the same attri- 
 butes, and looked upon as his sister^ This need not sm-prise any 
 one who has paid ordinary attention to systematic mythology ; for 
 we constantly find in all polytheisms sets of duplicate divinities, 
 male and female \ Xow this is most particularly the case with 
 those divinities who were the a'/D^T/Yerat of the different nations. 
 Thus there was both a Romus and a Eoma^, a Vitellius and a 
 VitelHa^ In some instances it may be accounted for from the fact 
 that the original division of the nation has been two-fold^: and in 
 this way we would explain the double form of the national divinity 
 of the Dorians ; for it appears to us that they were not always 
 
 Isocr. Panath. p. 326, Bekker: Aa/ceSatyUwtoi aixeK-qa avre's yecvpyiQii' Kal rexvCov koX 
 aXXuv a-KavTuv. 
 
 "^ See Muller's Dorians, II. ch. 10, § 8, and compare our remarks in the following 
 chapter of this Book. 
 
 2 MuUer's Dor. ii. ch. 8, § 15. 
 
 3 For instance, if Apollo was Loxias, Artemis was Loxo, if he was Hecaergos, she 
 was Hecaerge. See Muller's Dor. 11. ch. 9, § 2, notes (m) and {x) especially. Butt- 
 mann, Mytholog. I. p. 16. 
 
 ** See Xiebuhr, Hist. Horn. I. pp. 100, 10 1. And sometimes deities of doubtful sex : 
 compare Thirlwall in ihePhilol. Museum, Vol. I. pp. 116, 117; and on the androgynous 
 character of Bacchus, see Welcker on the Frogs of Aristophanes, p. 224. 
 
 ^ Maiden's Borne, p. 123. 
 
 ® Niebuhr, Hist. Rom. i. p. 14. ^ Xiebuhr, I. p. 287; comp, 224. 
 
22 
 
 T/)t%atVce9, but that they at first consisted only of the two branches 
 of the family of ^gimius, the Dy manes and the Pamphylians, 
 and that the Heracleids were not till afterwards incorporated among 
 them\ However this may be, the fact is certain ; there were two 
 leading divinities in the Dorian religion. Now in the elementary 
 worship of the Pelasgians and Achseans there were also two divi- 
 nities similarly related. These were the Sun and the Moon, wor- 
 shipped under the related names of Helios and Selene, and by the 
 Pelasgian old inhabitants of Italy, as well under appellations con- 
 nected with the Greek, as under the names of Janus or Dianus, 
 and Diana^. In Greece, however, the original denominations of 
 these divinities fell into disuse at an early period, and were rather 
 employed to designate the natural objects themselves than the celes- 
 tial powers whom they were supposed to typify ; and Dionysus or 
 Bacchus was adopted as a new name for the sun-god, and Deo or 
 Demeter for the goddess of the Moon^. These divinities, as we 
 have seen above, were Phoenician importations ; and, connected as 
 they were in many of their attributes with the old elementary wor- 
 ship of the Pelasgians, they soon established themselves as consti- 
 tuent parts of that worship, and were at length blended and 
 confused with the gods of the country. For Dionysus was the 
 wine-god, and Deo the fertile earth from which the vine sprang 
 up. How natural, then, was the transition from the god who 
 gave wine to mortals, to the Sun to whose influence its growth 
 was mainly owing! But if he ascended from earth to heaven, 
 it was necessary that his sister deity should go with him; and 
 as his bride Ariadne shone among the stars, so might Demeter, 
 Thyone, or Semele, his mother, sister, or wife, be also trans- 
 lated to the Moon, and rule amid the lights of night. Indeed, 
 Bacchus himself is sometimes represented as a night-god, and in 
 Sophocles he is invoked as the choragus, or choir-leader, of the 
 
 1 See Miiller's Bor. I. ch. i, § 8. 
 
 2 "HXios and 1^€\7]vt) are connected like vXr] and silva (cf. the proper name Sila, 
 Paley, ad Propert. p. 52) ; Sol and (Se)luna are the same words under another form. 
 
 On Janus, or Dianus, see Niehuhr, Hist. Bom. i. p. 83 ; Buttmann, Mytholog. ii. 
 p, 73; Doderlein, Lat. Synon. und Etym. 1. p. 6. There was also a "E/caros as well 
 as a 'E/cci7?7 (see Alberti's note on Hesych. s. v. ''EtKaroio). Mr. Scott, of Brasenose 
 College, Oxford, has given a further development of these principles in a very inge- 
 nious and satisfactory essay on the mythology of lo, which appeared in the Classical 
 Museum, No. xii. 
 
 3 That Bacchus was the sun-god clearly appears from the authorities quoted by 
 Welcker {Nachtrag zwr THlogie, p. 190). 
 
DEMETER AND APOLLO. 23 
 
 fire-breatliing stars, as one celebrated by nocturnal invocations \ 
 Thus Bacclius and Demeter were the representatives of those two 
 heavenly bodies by which the husbandmen measured the returning 
 seasons, and as such, though not immediately connected with agri- 
 culture^, are invoked by the learned Virgil at the commencement 
 of the Georgics^ They also represented the earth and its produc- 
 tions: but there is still another phase which they exhibit; they 
 were, in the third place, the presiding deities of the under-world\ 
 Tliis also admits of an obvious interpretation. The Greeks, as a 
 consequence of their habit of imparting actual objective existence 
 with will and choice to every physical cause, considered the cause 
 of anything as also in some measure the cause of its contrary. 
 Thus Apollo is not only the cause, but also the preventer of sudden 
 death^ : Mars causes the madness of Ajax^, he is therefore supposed 
 to have cured the hero of his disease*^; the violent wind which 
 raised the billows also lulls them to rest® ; night, which puts an 
 end to day, also brings the day to light^ ; and Bacchus, the bright 
 and merry god, is also the superintendent of the orphic or black 
 rites ; the god of life, he is also the god of death ; the god of light, 
 he is also the ruling power in the nether regions ^'^, 
 
 The worship of Dionysus ^^ consequently partook of the same 
 variations as that of the sun-god whom he superseded ; and while, 
 on the one hand, his sufferings and mischances were bewailed, 
 on the other hand, as the god of light, wine, and generation, 
 as the giver of life and of all that renders life cheerful, his rites 
 were celebrated with suitable liveliness and mirth. That mimicry 
 should enter largely into such a worship, is only what we should 
 expect ^^. A religion which recognizes a divinity in the great objects 
 
 1 Antig. 1130. ^ Welcker, Naclitrag, p. 191. 
 
 3 I. 5 — 7 : Vos, clarissima mandi 
 
 Lumina, labentem coelo qui ducitis annum, 
 Liber et akna Ceres. 
 * Herod. 11. 123. ^ Miiller's Dor. ii. ch. 6, § 2, 3. 
 
 '' Soph. Aj. 179. '' Id. ibid. 706. ^ Id. ibid. 674. 
 
 ^ Id. Trachin. 94. For this reason, says Eustath. ad Iliad. A. p. 27, Apollo is 
 called the son of Latona, TovreaTi, vvktos. Conversely Horat. Carm. Sec. 10 : 
 Alme sol, curni nitido diem qui 
 Promis et celas. 
 10 Herod. 11. 123. 
 
 ^^ It seems to us that Qvwvt} or Aiuvt] is the feminine form of Alovvctos, or more 
 anciently Aiuvvaos. 
 
 12 Above, p. 9. The mirror which is given to Bacchus by Vulcan is an emblem of 
 
24 THE CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, 
 
 of nature, — wliicli looks upon the Sun and Moon as visible repre- 
 sentatives of the invisible potentates of the earth, and sky, and 
 under- world, — is essentially imitative in all its rites. The reason 
 why such a religion should exist at all, is, as we have already 
 shown in a general way, also a reason why the ceremonies of it 
 should be accompanied by mimicry. The men who could consider 
 the Sun as the visible emblem of an all-seeing power who from day 
 to day performs his constant round, the cause of light and life ; the 
 Moon, his sister goddess, who exercises the same functions by 
 night ; the two though distant (eKaroi) yet always present powers 
 (TTpocTTaTTjpcot) J thc mcu who could see in the circling orbs of night 
 "the starry nymphs who dance around the pole;" such men, we 
 say, would not be long in finding out some means of representing 
 these emblems on earth. If the Sun and the ever-revolving lights 
 were fit emblems and suggestions of a deity, the circling dance 
 round the blazing altar was an obvious copy of the original sym- 
 bols, and an equally apt representation \ 
 
 The heavenly powers became gods of the earth, and it was 
 reasonable that the co-ordinate natural causes of productiveness 
 should also have their representatives, who would form the atten- 
 dants of the personified primal causes of the same effects. The 
 sun-god therefore, when he roamed the earth, was properly attended 
 by the Sileni, the deities presiding over running streams^; the 
 goddess of the Moon by the Naiades, the corresponding female 
 divinities ; nay, sometimes the two bands united to form one merry 
 train ^ To these Sileni were added a mixture of man and goat 
 
 the mimetic character of his worship — ohu ALOv^iaov ev KaroirTpi^, Plotinus, IV, 3, 12 
 (see the passages quoted by Creuzer in his note on p. 707, i, 3, of his edition). 
 
 1 See the author irepl XvptKQv, apud Boissonade, Anecd. Gr. iv. p. 458; Rhein. 
 Mus. 1833, p. i6q; cf. note on Soph. Ant. 1113, p. 224. Though all polytheisms 
 are connected with the production of the mimetie arts, the modes of imitation differ 
 with the nature of the religion. The symbols of an elementary religion are the 
 objects of imitation ; but in a mental religion, art is called upon to produce from the 
 ideal a visible symbol. The mimicry of action is the result of the former, the 
 mimicry of sculpture of the latter. Hence the primitive gods, who were parts of an 
 elementary worship, were not originally represented by statues (comp, Miiller, 
 Eumen. § 89, 90, 93), "Ye eldest gods," says Ion, 
 
 **Who in no statues of exactest form 
 Are palpable ; who shun the azure heights 
 Of beautiful Olympus, and the sound 
 Of ever-young Apollo's minstrelsy," 
 
 Talfourd's Ion, Act iii. Sc, 2. 
 
 2 Welcker, Nachtrag, p. 214, 
 
 3 Strabo, p, 468, 
 
DEMETER AND APOLLO. 25 
 
 called Satyrs, who were sometimes coiifomided with the former, 
 though their origin appears to have been quite different ; for while 
 the Sileni were real divinities of an elementary religion, the Satyrs 
 were only the deified representatives of the original worshippers \ 
 Avho probably assumed as portions of their droll costume the skin 
 of the goat, which they had sacrificed as a welcome offering to 
 their wine-god^. 
 
 Such was the religion of Bacchus as it appeared in Greece ; and 
 there is no doubt that it was speedily accepted by the Pelasgian 
 and Achgean tribes ; that it presented the duplicate form, which 
 it had exhibited in its eastern home ; that the mixed religion be- 
 came prevalent both within and without the Peloponnese ; and that 
 the Dorians, having a pair of deities corresponding in many re- 
 spects to those objects of elementary worship which they found 
 established in most of the countries they subdued, very naturally 
 adapted their own religion to the similar one already subsisting; 
 and that accordingly Dionysus took or maintained his place by 
 the side of Apollo even in the Delphic worship. 
 
 In addition to the circumstances which adapted the religions 
 themselves to an amalgamation such as we find in their ultimate 
 form, there were features in the rites of Dionysus, even in their 
 most ancient halting-places in Crete and elsewhere, which recom- 
 mended them to the martial tastes of the northern Hellenes. The 
 dances of the Curetes and Corybantes were decidedly military^, 
 and the Bacchic rites, at least as adopted by the Spartans, had 
 a gymnastic character, which accorded well with the rigorous train- 
 ing of the female population in Laconia'*. 
 
 From this brief sketch it will be seen that the connexion of the 
 worship of Dionysus, Demeter, and Apollo, in which we recognize 
 the earliest appearances of dramatic rites, was due to the common 
 
 ^ Strabo, p. 466: tovtovs yap rivas dai/xova^ rj Trpo7r6\ovs BeCjv^ k.t.X. p. 471 : ^'o^ 
 ort ov irpoiroXoL deujv (xovov dXXd Kal avTol deol irpocf-qyopevdrjaav. 
 
 2 Varro, de R. R. I. 2, 18, 19; Virgil, Georg. II. 376 — 383; Ovid, Fast. i. 349 — 
 360; Eurip. Bacch. 138. 
 
 3 Strabo, p. 466. 
 
 * There were races at Sparta between young women in honour of Bacchus. 
 Hesych, : Atoj'i'cridSes. ev "ZTrdpTrj Trap6ivoi, ai ev rois Aiofvciois bpofiov dy upi^ofxepai. 
 Pausan. ill. 13, 7: t(^ 5^ rjpujl' tovt(j) {Aiovvaov ijyep.bvi.) irplv tj t<^ 6€(^ dvov<jLv al 
 Atot-wcrtdSes koI al AevKiinrides [L AevKoirodes], rds 5^ aWas eV5e/ca ds Kal avras Aiofv- 
 CLadas dvoixd^ovcTL, ravraLS dpofxov irporideaai-v dyCjva' dpdv 5^ ovtu crcplcni' rjXdev e/c 
 AeXcpuv. Something of the same kiud appears to be alluded to in Eurip. Bacch. 853 
 sqq. : dp' iv vauvvxl-OiS xopo?? dr/cru irork XevKbv 7r65' dva^aKx^^ovaa. 
 
26 THE CONNECTED WORSHIP OF DIONYSUS, &C. 
 
 elements which they contained and to the readiness to adopt and 
 appropriate the representative forms of human thought, which is 
 universally characteristic of a plastic polytheism. We are now 
 prepared to discuss the choral rites of the Doric Apollo, and to 
 inquire into the circumstances under which the warlike dances of 
 the northern Greeks came to be used in the celebration of reli- 
 gious solemnities consecrated to the Semitic wine-god. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 THE TRAGIC CHORUS.— ARION. 
 
 Dock hurtig in dem Kreise ging's, 
 Sie tanzten rechts, sie tanzten links. 
 
 GoTHE. 
 
 IN the earliest times of Greece, it was customary for the whole 
 population of a city to meet on stated occasions and offer up 
 thanksgivings to the gods for any great blessings, by singing- 
 hymns, and performing corresponding dances in the public places \ 
 This custom was first practised in the Doric states. The main- 
 tenance of military discipline was the principal object of the Dorian 
 legislators; all their civil and religious organisation was subservient 
 to this ; and war or the rehearsal of war was the sole business of 
 their lives ^. Under these circumstances, it was not long before the 
 importance of music and dancing, as parts of public education, was 
 properly appreciated: for what could be better adapted than a 
 musical accompaniment to enable large bodies of men to keep time 
 and act in concert? What could be more suitable than the war- 
 dance, to familiarize the young citizen with the various postures of 
 attack and defence, and with the evolutions of an army? Music 
 and dancing, therefore, were cultivated at a very early period by 
 the Cretans, the Spartans, and the other Dorians, but only for 
 the sake of these public choruses^: the preservation of military 
 
 ^ This is the reason why, according to Pausan, ill. ii, 9, the dyopd at Sparta was 
 called xop'^s- We are rather inclined to believe that the Chorus of Dancers got its 
 name from the place; x^P^^ ^^ only another form of x^p-os: and hence the epithet 
 evp&xppos which is applied to Athens (Dem, Mid. p. 531) as well as to Sparta (Athen. 
 p. 131 C, in some anapaests of Anaxandrides). Welcker's derivation of xopos from 
 X"'/) {Rhein. Mus. for 1834, p. 485) is altogether inadmissible. See farther, New Cra- 
 tylus, § 280 ; Antigone, Introduction, p. xxix. 
 
 2 (XTpaTOTrihov yap (says an Athenian to a Cretan, Plato, Legg. 11. p. 666) iroXiTeiav 
 ^X^Tc' dXX' ovK iu dareai KaTi^K-qKOTwv. All the Dorian governments were aristo- 
 cracies, and therefore necessarily warlike, as Vico has satisfactorily shown, whatever 
 we may think of his derivation of TrdXefios from TroXts (Scienz. Nuov. Vol. II. p. 160). 
 
 3 " We and the Spartans," says Clinias, " ovk dWrjv dv rwa. dwaifieOa i^d7]v t] ^v iv 
 roh xopoTs ifxado/xev ^vv-qdeis dbeiv y€v6fJt.euoi." Plato, Legg. p. 666. 
 
28 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 
 
 discipline and the establishment of a principle of subordination, 
 not merely the encouragement of a taste for the fine arts, were the 
 objects which these rude legislators had in view; and though there 
 is no doubt that religious feelings entered largely into all their 
 thoughts and actions, yet the god whom they worshipped was a 
 god of war\ of music^, and of civil government^, in other words, 
 a Dorian political deity; and with these attributes his worship and 
 the maintenance of their system were one and the same thing. 
 This intimate connexion of religion and war among the Dorians is 
 shown by a corresponding identity between the chorus which sang 
 the praises of the national deity, and the army which marched to 
 fight the national enemies. These two bodies were composed, in 
 the former case inclusively, of the same persons ; they were drawn 
 up in the same order, and the different parts in each were distin- 
 guished by the same names. Good dancers and good fighters were 
 alike termed Tr/jfXee?, i.e. Tr/jo-iXee?, or "men of the vanguard^;" 
 those whose station was in the rear of the battle array, or of the 
 chorus, were in either case called -v/rtXet?, or ''unequipped";" and 
 the evolutions of the one body were known by the same name as 
 the figures of the other". It was likewise owing to this conviction 
 of the importance of musical harmony, that the Dorians teraied the 
 constitution of a state — an order or regulative principle (/cocryLto?). 
 
 1 'AirdWdiu — 'AwiWuu, "the defender" (Miiller's Dor. II. ch. 6, § 6), who caused 
 terror to the hostile army. -^sch. Sept. c. Theh. 147. 
 
 ^ He was particularly the inventor of the lyre — the original accompaniment of 
 Choral Poetry. Pind. Pytli. v. 67 : {\\.x6\\uv) iropev re Kldapiv dlduiai re Moicrav oh B.v 
 ed^Xy, dTToXefiov dyayuv is Trpairidas edvofxlav. 
 
 3 "The belief in a fixed system of laws, of which Apollo was the executor, formed 
 the foundation of all prophecy in his worship." Miiller, Dor. ii. 8, § 10. The Del- 
 phian oracle was the regulator of all the Dorian law-systems; hence its injunctions 
 were called defnares, or "ordinances." See the authorities in Miiller, II. 8, § 8. 
 
 ■* See Varronianus, p. 314; cf. Athen. Xiv. p. 628 f: odeu kuI "ZwKpdTrjs ev to?s 
 TTOi'^fiaci Toi>s KaWicTTa xop^vovTas dpiarovs (prjalv ehac rd TroXi/mia, Xiyuv ovrws' 
 
 01 d^ x^poh KdWiara 6€oi/s tl/jluxtlp, apiaroL 
 
 *Ev Tro\ip.cp' 
 ax^^ou yap watrep e^oirKiaia tis rjv 7} xop^la, k.t.X. 
 
 ^ Miiller thinks (Gotting. Gel. Anz. for 1821, p. 105 1) that they were so called, 
 because they were not so well dressed as the front-row dancers. 
 
 ^ See Miiller's Dorians, B. iii. c. 12, § 10; B. IV. c. 6, § 4. And add to the pas- 
 sages cited by him, Eurip. Troad. 2, 3 : 
 
 ^vda "Nrjpyduu x^poi 
 
 KdWiarov tx^os i ^eXicrcrovaiv ttoSos. 
 Here. Fur. 967 : 6 5' i^eXicrcruv iraiSa kIovos kvkXi^ 
 
 rbpevp-a (1, Trdpev/xa) deiuop ttoSoj. 
 
THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 29 
 
 TIius Herodotus^ calls the constitution of Lycurgus, " the order 
 now established among the Spartans" [rov vvv Karearewra Koo-fiov 
 ToU ^Traprtrjrrp-i) ; Clearchus^ speaks of the Lacedaemonians who 
 were prostrated in consequence of their having trodden under foot 
 the most ancient 07'der of their civil polity (ot rov TraXacorarov r^? 
 TToXiTLKYj^; KocTfjLov <7VfjL7raTT]aavT6<; e^erpa-)(r)\lad7](7av) ; and Archi- 
 damus, in Thucydides^, tells his subjects that their good orde7' (to 
 evKoafjLov) is the reason why they are both warlike and wise ; and 
 concludes his harangue to the allied army, when about to invade 
 Attica, with an enforcement of the same principle"*. 
 
 This description of the Chorus may suffice to show, that, being 
 both regular and stationary, or moving only within the limits of a 
 particular space, it was distinguished, in the latter respect, from the 
 marching troop, which was a regular body of men in a state of pro- 
 gress, and in both respects from the Comus (/ccSyao?), which was a 
 tumultuous procession of revellers. We find the earliest descrip- 
 tion of the stationary Chorus in Homer's "Shield of Achilles^," 
 where, as we shall see presently, the Hyporcheme is intended ; and 
 we have the moving or processional Chorus by the side of the 
 Comus in Hesiod's " Shield of Hercules^." The regularity of the 
 Chorus always necessitated a leader (efap^o?), who was either the 
 musician or some fugleman among the dancers, who " set the ex- 
 ample^" to the others. Thus in a dirge the chief mourner was said 
 " to lead off the lament^;" and even the chief player in a game at 
 
 ^ I. 65. 3 Ap. Athen. xv. p. 681 c. ^ -^ §4. 
 
 ^ II. It: KOfffiov Kal (f)v\aK7]v irepl iravTos iroiov/xevoi €i>l Kocrfxa} xpw/i^oi'S 
 
 (paiveadai. This word k6(t/j.os appears to be appropriated to dancing rather than to 
 music: Kal yap ev hpxh'^^'- *^^^ iropeia KaXbv [ikv ei'O'X'llJ-oo'vvr} Kal Koa/xo^, k.t.\, 
 Athen. xiv. p. 628 d. 
 
 5 Horn. II. XYiii. 590 — 606. « 272—285, 
 
 7 Kiister, de Verb. Med. 1. 23, 11. 5. 
 
 8 The following passages will show the usage of i^dpxoj : 
 
 Iliad XVIII. 50 : at 5^ (STjprf'C^ei) ap.a Trdaai 
 
 'Zrrjdea ireTrXriyovTO' Qiris 5' i^VPX^ yooio. 
 Ibid. 314: ai'Tap 'Axaiot 
 
 Uavvvxioir UdrpoKXow dveaTevaxovTO yoQyres. 
 
 Totcrt 5^ IItj\€l5t]S ddivov e^vpx^ ySoio. 
 Ibid. 604 : doiu: 5^ KV^icrrrjTT^pe /car' ai^roil'S 
 
 MoXttt}? i^dpxovTes idivevov Kara fi^craovs. 
 To which we may add, 
 
 H. XXIV. 720: Trapa 5' elaav dotSoi'S 
 
 Qp-qvu}v i^dpxovs oire (TTOvbecrjav doihrjv 
 
 01 [xh dp" idp7]V€ou, iirl 5^ arevaxovTO yvvoLKei. 
 
 With which compare II. I. 604 ; Odyss. xxiv. 60. The simple dpx^^v occurs in Iliad 
 
 XIX. 12. Archilochus, fr, 38, Liebel. Athen. XIV. p. 628 a: 
 
30 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION, 
 
 ball is said apx^f^Oai, fjLoXirrj';^ ; whence it will be seen that the 
 words fjueXireadac and fjuoXirr), when used in speaking of the old 
 Chorus, imply the regular, graceful movements of the dancers, and 
 the Eumolpids were not singers of hymns, but dancers in the Cho- 
 rus of Demeter and Dionysus^. 
 
 It would appear, then, that music and dancing were the basis of 
 the religious, political, and military organisation of the Dorian 
 states ; and this alone might induce us to believe that the introduc- 
 tion of choral poetry into Greece, and the first cultivation of instru- 
 mental music, is due to them. However, particular proofs are not 
 wanting. The strongest of these may be derived from the fact, 
 that the Doric dialect is preserved in the lyric poetry of the other 
 Grecian tribes. We may notice this in the choral portions of any 
 Attic tragedy. Now it has been sufficiently shown ^ that the lyric 
 poetry of the Greeks was an offspring not of the epos, but of the 
 chorus songs ; and if the lyric poetry of the ^olians and lonians 
 was always (with the exception perhaps of Corinna's Boeotian cho- 
 ruses) written in the Doric dialect, the choral poetry, of which it 
 was a modification, must have been Dorian also*. Nor can any 
 argument against this supposition be derived from the fact that the 
 most celebrated of the early lyric poets were not Dorians; for 
 choral dances existed among the Cretans long before the time of 
 the earliest of these poets ; and it is no argument against the as- 
 sumed origin of an art in one country, to say that it attained to 
 
 'fls AiojvvaoV EvaKTOS koKov i^dp^ai /liXos 
 
 OWa dcdOpafi^ov oivip auyKepavvwdels <ppiva$. 
 Archilochus, fr. 44, Liebel. Athen. iv. p. 180 E: 
 
 Ai;r6s i^dpxojv irphi avKov Aia^iov irairjova' 
 which Miiller, Bor. 11. 8, § 14 (note y), mistranslates. He says: ''there was always 
 a person named e^dpx^^v who accompanied the song on an instrument. Thus Archi- 
 lochus," &c. But i^dpxeiv Trpbs avKov means "to lead off the Paean, either by words 
 or as a dancer, to the accompaniment of the flute played by another person." See 
 Eurip. Alcest. 346: Trpbs M^vv XaKeiv aiikov: so that Toup has rightly introduced vpoi 
 avkbv in Athenseus, p. 447 B {E7n. ad Suid. I. p. 348). Pausan. v. 18, 4, speaking of 
 the chest of Cypselus, TreTroirjVTac S^ Kal t}5ov<xai, Movcrai, Kal 'AiroWcov e^dpx^^v rri% 
 ^5^s Kal <x(j}l(nv iirLypapL/xa yiypaTrrat, 
 
 Aaroidas ovtos rdx' &va^ CKdepyos 'AttoWcjv, 
 
 Movcrat 5' dp-cp' avrov, x'^P'-^'-^ Xopo's, alai Kardpx^i- 
 Sophocl. Vit. p. 2 : (2o0o/cX^s) /xera \vpas yvp^bs d\7]\ip,pLivos rdtt Traiavl^ovai tQv 
 iiriviKlojv i^VPX^' 
 
 1 Odyss. VI. 10 1 ; cf. Athen, i. p. ■20. 
 
 2 Miiller, Hist. Lit. Gr. Vol. i. p. 25. 
 
 3 By Muller, Bor. B. iv. c. 7, § 11. 
 
 ^ The weight of this argument will be readily appreciated by the readers of 
 Niebuhr's Hist. Rom. 1. p. 82, Engl. Transl. 
 
THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 31 
 
 a higher degree of perfection in another \ With regard to Athens 
 in particular, it appears to us, that we have in some sort positive 
 evidence that choruses were not instituted there until the Athenians 
 had recognized the Dorian oracle at Delphi ; for some old Delphian 
 oracles have come down to us^ particularly enjoining these Doric 
 rites, a command which could hardly have been necessary, had 
 they existed at Athens from the first. 
 
 It must be obvious that so long as the choral music and dancing 
 of the Dorians were a religious exercise in which the whole popula- 
 tion took a part, the tunes and figures must have been very simple 
 and unartificial. A few plain regulative notes on the tetrachord, 
 and as much concinnity of movement as the public drill-masters 
 could effect, sufficed for the recitation and performance of Paeans in 
 Laced^mon, Crete, and Delos. But, as a natural consequence of 
 the importance attached to music and dancing, in countries where 
 they formed the basis of religious, political, and military organi- 
 sation, it was not long before art and genius volunteered their ser- 
 vices, and improvements in the theory and practice of instrumental 
 music were eagerly adopted and imported, or cultivated by emulous 
 harpers in the Dorian states. The jEolian colonists of Lesbos, 
 from their proximity to the coast of Asia Minor, were among the 
 first who sought to accommodate the more extensive and varied 
 harmonies of the Phrygians and Lydians to the uses and require- 
 ments of the Dorian chorus. Terpander, of Lesbos, who gained the 
 prize at the Lacedaemonian Carneia in B.C. 676^, substituted the 
 seven-stringed cithara for the old tetrachord; and his contempo- 
 raries, the Grgeco-Phrygian Olympus, and the Boeotian Clonas, 
 exercised an influence scarcely less important on the flute-music of 
 the Greeks. A little later, Thaletas, the Cretan, imported into the 
 choral worship of his own country and Sparta a more impassioned 
 style of music and dancing, which was intimately connected with 
 the rhythmical innovations of Terpander and Olympus'*; and the 
 Lydian Alcman, who was a great poet as well as a great musician, 
 composed songs for the popular chorus, which may be considered 
 as the true beginning of lyric poetry. As these improvements 
 
 ^ See Themistius, Oral, xxvil. p. 337 A, Harduin. : dX\' oi^kv tcus KuXvei ra wap* 
 eripoLi dpxw Xa^ovTa TrXetWos a-TrouS^s Trap' dWois TvyxoLytLV. 
 
 2 Apud Demosth. Mid. p. 531, § 15, Buttm. 
 
 3 Athenseus, xiv. p, 635 E. 
 
 * MuUer, Hid. Lit. Gr. c. xii. § 10. 
 
32 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 
 
 gradually developed themselves, they necessarily superseded the 
 ruder efforts of the old crowd of worshippers ; and the poet, as EijfjLL- 
 ovpjo^, or " state- workm an 1," with his band of trained singers and 
 dancers, at length executed all the religious functions of the col- 
 lective population. 
 
 The most ancient and genuine species of the Dorian choral song 
 was the Pcean, which was not only practised in the rehearsals of the 
 market-place, but carried to the actual field of battle. It was so 
 thoroughly identified with the worship of Apollo, that we cannot 
 doubt for a moment that its original accompaniment was the harp 
 {(popfxiy^) , with which Apollo himself, in the Homeric Hymn, leads 
 a chorus of Cretans; he dances with noble and lofty steps, and 
 they follow him, singing the sweet strains of the lepgean^. But as 
 early as the days of Archilochus the flute had taken the place of 
 the harp as an accompaniment to the P£ean at Lesbos ^ That there 
 was something grave and staid in the original Pgean may be con- 
 cluded from the topics to which it was confined'^; and as late as the 
 time of Agesilaus it was performed at the mournful feast of the 
 Hyacinthia^. Whence Plato speaks with disapprobation of the 
 later practice of mixing up the P^an with the Bacchic Dithyramb^; 
 and in general we observe that the Paean, as devoted to the children 
 of Leto, is kept separate and distinct from the Dythyramb''', even 
 
 1 Od. XVII. 385 : 
 
 T^s yap Srj ^elvov KcCKei dWoOev airos ireXdcov 
 "AWov y' el p,i] tCov ot brjixioepyol ^acriv 
 MduTiv 7] iTjTTjpa KaKiov rj riKTOva bovpwv 
 "H Kal d^cTTLv aoi.h6v, 6' k€v TipTrrjo-tv deldcjv ; 
 
 2 Horn. Hymn. ApoU. 514 sqq. : 
 
 TJPX^ S' &pa <Tcf)i, &va^ Albs vi6s, 'AttoWcou 
 ^bpixiyy^ iu xetpecrcro' ^xwv, dyarbv Kidapl^uiv, 
 KaXd Kol vxpl ^L^ds' ol 5^ prjacrovTes eirovro 
 KprJTes irpbs Uvdw, Kal irjirairjov deidov 
 OtoL re Kp-qrCov xatdoves. 
 Cf. Pind. iV. V. 22 sqq. 
 
 ^ Archiloch. apud Athen. V. p. 180 E. : 
 
 Autos i^dpxojv xpbs avXbv Aia-^tov rairjoua, 
 above, p. 30, note. 
 
 * The ideal of a Paean is very well given in the first Chorus of the (Edipus 
 Tyrannus, 151 sqq. Plutarch (p. 389 b) calls the Paean Terayfi^vrjv Kal (XiJxppova 
 ixovaav. 
 
 5 Xen. Ages. II. 17: ol'/caSe direXdCov eh rd 'TaKlvdia, Sirov irdx^V ^Trb rov x^po- 
 TTOiov rbv TTo.idva t($ de<^ avveTiXeu 
 ^ Legg. iii. p. 700 d. 
 
 "^ See Pindar, Thren. Fr. 10, 103*, according to the emendations which we have 
 elsewhere proposed ; 
 

 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 33 
 
 in those countries where the worship of Bacchus was cultivated 
 along with that of Apollo, and after the time when the charac- 
 teristic Dionysian hjmn was raised to the dignity of lyric 
 poetry. 
 
 From the Dorian Pcean three styles of choral dancing developed 
 themselves at a very early period, and most probably received their 
 cliief improvements under Thaletas in Crete. These were the 
 Gymnopcedic, the Pyrrhic, and the Hyporchematic dances. The 
 jufivoiraLSia, or "festival of naked youths," was held in great 
 esteem at Sparta ^ The immediate object was the worship of Leto 
 and her children, and the music was that of the Pcean. But an 
 heroic and tragic character was given to the solemnity by its formal 
 reference to the victory at Thyrea. The praises of the valiant 
 Spartans, who fell on that occasion, were always sung at the Gym- 
 nopcedia^ and the Exarchus wore the Thyreatic crown^. The ges- 
 ticulations and steps of the boys amounted to a rhythmical imitation 
 of the wrestling match and pancration, which is partly implied by 
 the absence of clothing^. The Gymnopcedic dance was considered 
 as a sort of introduction to the Pyrrhic, just as the exercises of the 
 Palcestra in general were a preparation for military discipline. To 
 be able to move rapidly in armour was a leading accomplishment of 
 the Greek hoplite, and we are expressly told that the Pyrrhic, 
 which was danced by boys in armour, was a rapid dance*. Beyond 
 this rapidity of motion, it had no characteristic steps ; the distinc- 
 tive movements were those of the hands, whence it was called a 
 *' manual gesticulation" (%ei/5oi/o/x/a) , and might be performed by 
 
 "Evrt fih xpi^O'ttXa/cdroi^ AaroOs reK^uv aoidal 
 
 'l7jt[ot] wacdvLdes' 
 
 "EvTi [5^ avjKu'jfj.ou TLcri Kicrcrov <jTi(pavov 
 
 ^ 'EopTTj 5^ el'rts dWri Kal al yv/MvoTraidiai, dia arovS^s AaKe5aijj.ovl.ois dab. Pausan. 
 III. ir, 9. 
 
 ^ Athen. xv. p. 678 b: QvpeariKol' ovtw KaXovvrai crricpavoi rives irapa Aa/ce- 
 daifiovlois, uii (f>r](Xi Hcjai^ios kv ry irepl OvcriCov, xpCkivovs avrovs (pdaKOJU vvv ovoixd^eadat, 
 6uTas e/c (pOLviKcoV (pepeiv §' avrovs, VTrbp.vriij.a rrjs iv Qvp^g. yevoixevrjs vUrjs, rovs irpoard- 
 ras rwv dyo/mevcoy xopwi' ii^ r-§ eoprfj ravry, ore Kal rds TvfxvoTraLbias eiriTeXovcn. 
 Xopol 5' elal rb fxev evirpocrwTrbiv Traiduv, to 8' i^ dplcrrojv dvbpCJv, yvfxuwv opxovfjiivuv, Kal 
 g.d6vro}v QoXt^tov Kal ^A\K/j.duos q^afiaTa, Kal rovs Aiovvaodorou rod Ad/cw;/os vaidvas. 
 See Visconti, Mus. Pio- Clement. Tom. Hi. p. 74, n. 4. 
 
 2 Athen. xiv. p. 631 B. 
 
 * Athen. xrv. p. 630 d. The same is indicated by the Pyrrhic {^ ^ ) and Proccleus- 
 matic (^^^^) feet, which are attributed to this dance. The latter, to which the 
 ivoirXios pv9/j.6s refers, is tantamount to the anapaest, which is the proper rhythm for 
 embateria. 
 
 D. T. G. 3 
 
34 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 
 
 the horsemen as well as by the foot-soldier ^ Connected with the 
 rites of the Curetes in Crete, and of the Dioscuri in Lacedsemon, 
 the Pyrrhic was danced in later times to the notes of the flute ; and 
 the same was the case with the Castoreum and the embateria. But 
 we have positive evidence that the lyre was the original accompa- 
 niment in the Cretan and Spartan marches, and that the flute was 
 substituted only because its notes were shriller and more piercing^. 
 The Hyporcheme was, as its name implies^, a dance expressing by 
 gesticulations the words of the accompanying poem. It had thus, 
 in eifect, two different kinds of leaders. Going back to the earliest 
 description of this dance, we find that not only is the citharist, who 
 sits in the middle of the chorus and sings to his lyre while the 
 youths and maidens dance around him, described as leading off 
 {e^dpx^^v) their /uloXtti], or rhythmical steps and gesticulations, but 
 that there are always two chief dancers, sometimes called " tum- 
 blers" {/cvjSicFTrjTrjpe), by whose active and violent motions the words 
 of the song are expressed, and the main chorus regulated^. These 
 leaders of the chorus seem to have been essential to the Hyporcheme, 
 and particularly to that species of it which was called the " Crane" 
 {'y£pavo<i), where they led forward the two horns of a semicircle 
 until they met on the other side of the altar of Apollo^. The 
 Hyporcheme originated in Crete, and was thence imported into 
 Delos, where it seems to have retained its primitive characteristics 
 even in the days of Lucian^. Though connected originally with 
 the religious rites of Apollo*^, it was subsequently introduced into the 
 worship of Bacchus by Pratinas *, and into that of Minerva of Iton 
 by Bacchylides^. 
 
 1 This must be the meaning of what Pindar says of Bellerophon and Pegasus, 
 0. XIII. 86: dyaj3as 5' evdvs evoirXta xaA/cw^ets 'iiraL^ev. Cf. Virg. Oeorg. III. 115 sqq. : 
 
 Frena Pelethronii Lapithae gyrosque dedere 
 Impositi dorso, atque equitem docuere sub armis 
 Insultare solo, et gressus glomerate superbos. 
 
 2 Miiller, Dor. Book iv. c. 6, § 6, 7. On the orgiastic nature of the flute-music 
 see Aristot. Pol. viii. 7, § 9. 
 
 3 See Gesner, on Lucian de Salted,. (Tom. v. p. 461, Lehmann). 
 
 *• Compare II. xviii. 591 — 606 {Od. iv. 17 — 19) with Hymn. Apoll. 182 — 206. 
 
 ^ See the passages quoted by Miiller, Dor. ii. 8, § 14, note g. 
 
 ^ De Saltat. § 6: 'Ei/ Ar]\(^...irai5iou x°P°^ aweXddvres iyr' av\($ Kal Kiddpq, ol jxh 
 iX^P^^oP} VTrcjpxovyro de ol apiaroi, irpOKpidivres i^ avrCov. to. 'yovv Tots xopots ypa<p6- 
 fxeva To^Tois g!a/j.aTa, V7ropxri,u^Ta ^/caXetro : where 01 dpLO-Toi manifestly agree with the 
 Kv^KXTTjTTJpes, which was another name for particularly active dancers. 
 
 7 See Menandr. de Encom. p. 27, Heeren: roi)s [j.^v ydp els 'ATriXXajj^a iraLavat Kal 
 viropxVP-o-T'^ vofii^oixev. 
 
 ^ Athen. p. 617. ^ Fragm. ed. Neue, p. 33. 
 
THE TRAGIC CHOEUS. — ARION. 35 
 
 We have treated more at length of these three sorts of choral 
 dances, because each of them had its representative in the dramatic 
 poetry of a later age. This appears from a curious passage in 
 Athena3us, probably derived from some author of weight^; " There 
 are," he tells us, " three dances in scenic poetry, the Tragic, the 
 Comic, and the Satyric; and likewise three in lyric poetry, the 
 Pyrrhic, the Gymnopcedic, and the Hyporchematic ; and the Pyrrhic 
 indeed corresponds to the Satyric, for they are both rapid;" (he 
 had given just before a reason for the rapidity of the Satyric 
 dance). "Now the Pyrrhic is considered a military one, for the 
 dancers are boys in armour; and swiftness is needed in war for 
 pursuit and flight. But the Gymnopcedic dance is similar to the 
 Tragic which is called emmeleia; both these dances are conspi- 
 cuously staid and solemn. The Hyporchematic dance coincides in 
 its peculiarities with the Comic, and they are both full of mer- 
 riment," 
 
 The Bacchic hymn, which was first raised to the rank of choral 
 and lyric poetry among the Dorians, was the Dithyramh, which 
 is regularly opposed to the Pcean"^. Originally, no doubt, it was 
 nothing more than a Comus, and one too of the wildest and most 
 Corybantic character. A crowd of worshippers, under the influence 
 of wine, danced up to and around the blazing altar of Jupiter. 
 They were probably led by a flute-player, and accompanied by the 
 Phrygian tamborins and cymbals, which were used in the Cretan 
 worship of Bacchus ^ The subject of the song was properly the 
 birth of Bacchus*, but it is not improbable that his subsequent 
 adventures and escapes may have been occasionally celebrated^; 
 and it is a reasonable conjecture that the Coryphaeus occasionally 
 assumed the character of the god himself, while the rest of the 
 
 ^ Athen. p. 630 D. He quotes Aristocles, Aristoxenus, and Scamo. With regard 
 to the Hyporcheme cf. Athen. 21 D: 17 hk BadOWeios [lipxv<^i-^] IXapcoripa' Kal yap 
 vir6pxVP-<^ Ti- TOVTov dtaridecrdac. 
 
 2 Plut. De EI Delphico, p. 593: fii^o^bav yap, Alax'j'Xos (prjal, irpiirei di9ijpafx.^ov 
 6/J,apTeip (TTLiyKOLVov Aiouijcru)' tQ bk \_' kiroKKwvL] iraiava Teray/x^urjv Kal auKppova fiovaav. 
 Ibid. p. 594 : t6v iikv 6XK0P eviavrhv irataui xP^^t^'- ""epi rds dvaias, dpxofJ.iuov S^ 
 X^cfxCivos iireyelpavres didvpa/x^op, rbv S^ iraiava KaraTraOcravTes rpeh ju.7}vas dur' eKeivov 
 TOVTOV KaTaKaXovvTac t6u debv. See also above, p, 32, note 7. 
 
 3 Euripides, Bacch. 123 — 133, distinctly identifies the worship of Bacchus with the 
 Corybantic adoration of Demeter. 
 
 * Plato, Legg. iii. p. 700 B : Traiioves ^Tcpov, Kal &Wo Aiovitrov y^veais, ot/iai, 
 diOvpa/x^os \ey6fM€vos. 
 
 ^ This may be inferred from Herod, v. 67: Kal 8r] vpSs, rk irddea avrov TpayiKottn 
 XopoT<ri iyipaipov tov p.h Ai6vv<Tov oii TifiiiovTe^, rbv B^ "khprjaTOv. 
 
 3—2 
 
56 
 
 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 
 
 chorus or comus represented his noisy band of thyrsus-bearing 
 followers ^ Whatever opinion we may agree to form respecting 
 the etymology of the name, it is at least clear, from any justifiable 
 analysis of the word At-dvpafjL^o<;, that it was addressed to the 
 king of the gods^; and Bacchus belonged, as we have already seen, 
 to a branch of Greek religion which admitted an assumption of his 
 character on the part of his votaries. 
 
 Arion, a celebrated cithara-player {Ki6ap(pB6<;) of Methymna in 
 Lesbos, who flourished in the days of Stesichorus and Periander, 
 {t. e. about 600 b. c.) is generally admitted to have been the inventor 
 of the C7/cUc chorus {kvk\lo<; %opo9), in which the Dithyramb was 
 danced around the blazing altar by a band of fifty men or boys^, 
 to a lyric accompaniment. So intimately is Arion connected with 
 this improvement, that he is called the son of Cycleus. We must 
 be very careful not to confuse between this invention, or adaptation, 
 of Arion' s, and the improvements introduced into the older style 
 of Dithyrambic poetry, some one hundred years later, by Lasos of 
 Hermione, the teacher of Pindar and the rival of Simonides*. It 
 is quite clear that the Dithyramb of Lasos gave rise to the style of 
 poetry which existed under that name for many years, after the full 
 development of Tragedy and Comedy, and which is always distin- 
 guished from the dramatic chorus. Instead of passing from the 
 
 ^ Bacchus is called 6 ^^ap%os by the Chorus of Bacchanalians in Euripides (Bacck. 
 141), and it seems obvious that the dithyramb must have endeavoured to represent the 
 6La<xos in all its parts. 
 
 2 We have elsewhere discussed the etymology of this veord at some length (New 
 Cratylus, §§317 sqq.) and have endeavoured to show that it is the word dvpaix^os — 
 dpiapi^os appended to the dative of Zevs ; that the termination is dpL^os^'iafi^os, a 
 word denoting a dance of people in close order, or a hymn sung by such a body ; and 
 that the root dvp = dpi is the same as that which is found in d6p-cos. To this opinion 
 we still adhere. The only doubtful point, as it appears to us, is the explanation of 
 the root of Ovpaos. Hartung {Classical Museum, vi. p. 372 sqq.) proposes to connect 
 dvpapL^os with dopv^os. If the one were really a by-form of the other, it would be 
 66pvfM^o$, not dvpafijSos. Cf. Kdpvp-^os, Wvpi^os, &c. As however the dithyrambic 
 dance was called rvp-^acria. (Jul. Poll. IV, 104: rvp^aaia 5^ e/caXetro to 6pxvi^"' Tb 
 didvpafJiPiKdv), and as the root 6vp-, dop-, dpo-, Opt-, might be connected with that of 
 T^p^T], turha, from which this TvpjSaaia is formed, a question might arise whether the 
 name of the dvpaos was derived from the tumultuous clamours (dpSos, dpoiw, dpiXKos, 
 &c.) of the diaaos of Bacchus ; or whether it was expressive of the symbolical meaning 
 of the Bacchic staff with its accompaniments. 
 
 3 Schol. Find. 01. xiii. 16. Simon. Epigr. 76: 
 
 fii€ivo(pi\ov 6^ rts vlbs 'Apiareidrjs ixopvyei 
 JlevTrjKOi'T' dudpQv KoXd [ladbvri X°PV' 
 
 4 Some of the older grammarians were unable to make this distinction. Thus the 
 Scholiast on Aristophanes (Aves, 1403) says: 'AvriiraTpos d^ Kal 'El'u<pp6vios h roh viro- 
 fMvrjfiacri (pacrt tovs kvkXIovs xopoijs cTTrjcraL irpCorou Adcrou Tov'^pp-iovia, oi d^ dpxo-i'bTepoi 
 'EWdviKOS Kal AiKaiapxos 'kplova Tbv MrjOvfJ-voLou. 
 
THE TEAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 37 
 
 flute of the Comiis to the lyre of the Chorus, it multiplied the ap- 
 poggiaturas of the flute accompaniment^. Instead of assuming more 
 and more a dramatic form, it is expressly described as having been 
 distinguished from Tragedy and Comedy by its expository style, 
 and by the pre-eminence given to the poet's own individuality". 
 Instead of approximating to the language of ordinary life, it became 
 more and more turgid, bombastic, affected, and unnatural. Even 
 Lasos himself indulged in an excess of artificial refinement. He 
 composed odes, from which the sibilants were studiously excluded ; 
 and his rhythms were conveyed in prolix metres, which dragged 
 their slow length along, in full keeping with the pompous phraseo- 
 logy, which was to the last days of Greek literature regarded as a 
 leading characteristic of the Dithyramb^. Pindar, the great pupil 
 of Lasos, speaks with disapprobation of this style of Dithyramb, 
 which however, his own better example failed to correct : '' For- 
 merly," he says, "the Dithyramb crawled along in lengthy rhythms, 
 and the s was falsified in its utterance'*." Again, while the Dithy- 
 ramb, as reformed by Arion, clung to the antistrophic and epodic 
 forms introduced into the chorus by his contemporary Tisias, who 
 derived his better-known surname Stesichorus from the stability 
 which he thus gave to the movements of his well-taught body of 
 dancers^, the Dithyramb of Lasus eventually became monostrophic, 
 
 1 Plut. Mus. p. 666, Wyttenb. : Ada-os 5^ 6 'Ep/xLOvevs etj rrjv Sidvpafx^LKrju dyoryTjp 
 fi€Ta(XT'r}(Tas tovs pvdfiovs Kal rrj rQ>v avXwv irdXvcpwviq. KaraKoKovBrjcras TrXeloai re (pd6y- 
 yois Kal 5c€ppi./x/j.4voLS xPV<^<^/^^os et's fxerdOecnu ttjv TvpovTrdpxovaav rjyaye fiovaiK-Ziu. 
 
 2 Plat, de Eejmbl. in, p. 394 C : 6tc ttjs iroL-qcews re koI fj-vdoXoyias 17 fih did [iiiir}' 
 crews 0X17 ecrrtV, (Jiairep av X^76is rpayixibia re Kal KOJfXipSia, r/ 5^ 5t' d7ra77eXtas avTou tov 
 iroL7}TOv, evpoLS d' du avrrju p-dXiard irov ev didvpdfi^ois. 
 
 ^ See Aristoph. Pax, 794 — 7; Aves, 1373 sqq. Hence Sidvpafi^dbdris signifies 
 tumid and bombastic. Plato, Cratyl. p. 409 c. Cf. Hipp. Maj. p. 292 C. Dionys. 
 Hal. de culm, vi Dem. p. 1043, 10. Philostrat. p. "21, 6: XSyoiv idiau ov ^idvpaix^wb-rj, 
 on which the Scholiast, published by G. I. Bekker (Heidelbergae, 1818), says: didvpafi- 
 ^wdrj auud^Tois dj^Sfiaai cre/j.uvvofxh'rjv Kal e/croTrwrdrots irXdafiaai iroLKiXXoixivTiv' tolovtoi 
 yap oi 8t6vpa/x(3oi are 5iopvcriu}v reXeruiv dtpcop/xrjfx^poi. 
 
 ^ Fraym. 47: JJplu [xh elpwe axoivoTiueid t doiZd dLdvpdfi^uv 
 Kal TO adv Ki^daXou dvdpdnroLaiv dwb aro/xdrajv. 
 The adjective a-xot-vorepris refers to rhythm, as appears from Herraogenes, de Invent. IV. 
 4 (Vol. III. p. 158, Walz), who after defining the Kofxfia and the kQXov says: t6 5^ 
 virep TO T^pwcKov cxoLvoTeves KeKXrjTai xPV'^'-l^'^v Trpooi/jLiois /xaXiaTa Kal rats tQv 
 irpooiixlwv Trepi^oXats. The second line alludes to the u>bal d(nyp.oc of Lasus : see 
 Athen. viii. p. 455 c. 
 
 ^ See the explanations given by the grammarians and lexicographers of the pro- 
 verbial phrases irdvra oktuj, Tpia I^Trjaixopov, and ovbe rd Tpia 'ETrjcrtx^pov yLyvujaKeis. 
 With regard to the significance of his name, as applicable to the Bacchic Chorus in 
 particular, it is worthy of remark that when the Delphic oracle (apud Dem. Mid. p. 531) 
 enjoins the establishment of the Dorian form of Dionysiac worship at Athens, it 
 expressly uses the phrase larduai x°P^^- 
 
38 THE TRAGIC CHORUS.— ARION. 
 
 and returned in form to the primitive Comus, in the same proportion 
 as it reverted to its original mimicry^. Above all, while the Di- 
 thyramb of Arion, influenced by the sedateness of the Doric muse, 
 shook oiF by degrees all remembrances of the drunken frolics in 
 which it took its rise, the other Dithyramb retained to the end 
 many of its original characteristics. Epicharmus, who was a con- 
 temporary of Lasos, alludes to it in precisely the same manner as 
 Archilochus, who flourished two hundred years earlier. That 
 ancient poet says, that " he knows how to lead ofl* the Dithyramb, 
 the beautiful song of Dionysus, when his mind is dizzy with the 
 thunder of wine^." Epicharmus tells us that "there is no Dithy- 
 ramb, if you drink water^" And Simonides, the rival of Lasos, 
 describes the Dithyramb as sung by noisy Bacchanalians crowned 
 with fillets and chaplets of roses, and bearing the ivy-wreathed 
 thyrsus^. 
 
 Although Arion was a Lesbian, it was in the great Dorian city 
 of Corinth that he introduced his great choral improvements. In 
 enumerating the various inventions which were traced to that city, 
 Pindar asks: ''Where else did the graces of Bacchus first make 
 their appearance with the ox-driving Dithyramb?" alluding to 
 the ox which was sacrificed as a type of the god, who was also 
 worshipped under this form^. The account which is given of 
 the specific improvements imported into the Dithyramb by Arion, 
 though brief, is very distinct; and it is quite possible, from the 
 
 1 Aristotle, Probl. XIX. 15, p. 918, Bekker: fiaWov yap rep fiiXet avdyKti fxifieiffdai 
 rj Toh prjfxaatv' 816 Kal ol Sid^pafi^ot, irreidr] fiifiyjTiKol eyivovTO, ovk^ti ^x^i'C"' olvtl- 
 crTp6(povs, TTpdrepov dk eXxov. 
 
 2 Above, p, 29, note 5. 
 
 3 Apud Athen. p. 628 b: 
 
 ovK 'i(TTL dtdijpafi^os, oKx v8o}p tt/tjs. 
 * Simonides, Frag. 150, Bergk, Anthol. Pal. 11. p. 542: 
 
 noXXd/fi Stj (f)v\rj% 'AKafxavTidos iu %opoio'tJ' "^Qpai 
 
 ' Ai>(v\6\v^au Kia(70(p6poi.s iirl dLdvpdfxjSois 
 Ai AiouvaLddes, ixlrpaLcn 5e Kol pjdojp diJoTots 
 
 XocpQv doidQv iaKLaaav \nrapdv Weipav, 
 Ot TOuSe rpivoda (xcfiiai /xdprvpa Ba/cx^w didXwv 
 QrjKap' ^LKvvveis 5' 'AvTLyeurjS ididacKev dvdpas. 
 The student, however, must take care to remember that the Dithyramb never actually 
 became a Comus after it had once been raised to the dignity of a Chorus. Even 
 Pindar's processional songs, though nominally performed by a Comus, were invested 
 with the dignity of choral poetry, and Comedy itself became at last choral. See note 
 on Pindar, Fragm. 45, p. 344. 
 5 Olymp. XII. 1 8 : 
 
 Toi Aiojvvo'ov TTodev i^etpapeu 
 "Zvp j3or]\dTq, xaptres bi.dvpdiJ.^(^', 
 See above, p. 17, note 2. 
 
THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 39 
 
 notices which have come down to us, to draw up an accurate 
 description of this Bacchic chorus as it was exhibited at Corinth in 
 the days of Periander. 
 
 Of our authorities, the two most explicit are the earliest and the 
 most recent, which stand related to one another as text and com- 
 mentary. Herodotus tells us that " Arion was the most eminent 
 cithara-player of his time, and that he was the first, as far as 
 Herodotus knew, who made poems for the Dithyramb, who gave 
 a name to these poems, and regularly taught the Chorus ; and that 
 he did this at Corinth \" The lexicographer Suidas gives the same 
 information, but at greater length, and in such a manner as to show 
 that Herodotus was by no means his only authority. He says : 
 *' Arion, the Methymnsean, a lyric poet, the son of Cycleus, was 
 born about the 38th Olympiad. Some have told us that he was a 
 scholar of Alcman. He is said to have been the inventor of the 
 tragic style ; and to have been the first to introduce a standing- 
 chorus, and to sing the Dithyramb ; and to give a name to what 
 was sung by the Chorus ; and to introduce Satyrs speaking in 
 versed" As these accounts are in strict agreement with one another, 
 and with all the scattered and fragmentary notices of Arion which 
 we meet with elsewhere 3, we may conclude that we have here a 
 true tradition, and proceed to interpret it accordingly. It appears, 
 then, that the following were the improvements which the Me- 
 thymnffian citharoedus introduced into the Corinthian Dithyramb. 
 1. He composed regular poems for this dance ^. Previously, t]ie 
 leaders of the wild irregular Comus, which danced the Dithyramb, 
 bewailed the sorrows of Bacchus, or commemorated his wonderful 
 birth, in spontaneous effusions accompanied by suitable action, for 
 which they trusted to the inspiration of the wine-cup. This is 
 the meaning of Aristotle's assertion that this primitive Tragedy 
 was "extempore" (avroa'x^eBiaa-TLKri^), and some such vicAV of the 
 
 ^ Herod. I. -23: ' kpiova — ebvra KiOapifdbv tCov Tore eovrojv ovSevbs dejjrepov' Kal 
 didvpajx^ov, TrpCjTOv avdpixnrwv rdv -q/xeis td/xeu, iroL-qaavTo. re Koi ovofidcravTa Kal didd^avTa 
 if KopifBu}. 
 
 2 Suidas : 'Apluv 'M-rjOvfJ.vatos, XvpiKos, Kv/cXe'ws viSs, yeyove Kara t7]v \r{ oXv/MTridda' 
 Tives 5e Kai ixndrjrrjv'WKixdvos laToprjaau avrbv . ^ypaxpe 8^ aafiara, wpooifxta eis ^tttj /3'. 
 "K^yerai 5^ /cat rpayiKOv rpoirov evperrjs yeviaOaL, Kal irpwros x^P^^ aTrjcrai. Kal diOvpafM^ov 
 q.(Tai Kal dvofxdaai to (^do/xevou virb tov xopov Kal aaTvpovs elaeveyKdv ^fxfj.erpa Xiyovras. 
 
 3 Dio, II. p. loi ; Phot. Cod. 239, p. 985; Schol. Find. 01. xiii. 18; Schol. 
 Aristoph. Aves, 1403. 
 
 ^ This is the true force of the phrases Troirjcrac, q^aai t6 didvpafi^oi'. 
 ° Aristot. Poet. c. iv. 
 
40 THE TRAGIC CHORUS.^ — ARION. 
 
 case is necessary to explain Archiloclius' boast that lie can play the 
 part of leader in the Dithyramb when the wine is in his head^; for 
 this presumes a sudden impulse rather than a premeditated effort. 
 Arion, however, by composing regular poems to be sung to the 
 lyre, at once raised the Dithyramb to a literary position, and laid 
 the foundations of the stately superstructure which was afterwards 
 erected. 2. He turned the Comus, or moving crowd of worshippers, 
 into a standing Chorus^ of the same kind as that which gave Stesi- 
 chorus his surname. In fact, the steps of the altar of Bacchus 
 became a stage on which lyric poetry in his honour was solemnly 
 recited, and accompanied by corresponding gesticulations. 3. He 
 was the inventor of the tragic style {rpajiKov rpoirov evperTjf;). 
 This means that he introduced a style of music or harmony adapted 
 to and intended for a chorus of Satyrs^. For the word Tpayo<;, 
 " he-goat,'^ was another name for crdrvpos, the goat-eared attendant 
 of Bacchus^; and we have just seen that Suidas specifies the ap- 
 pearance of satyrs " discoursing," or holding a sort of dialogue, 
 in verse, as one of the peculiarities of Arion's new Dithyramb. 
 4. He gave a name to what was sung by the Chorus ^ What 
 name ? Not BtOvpa/jL^o^;, for that was the common designation in 
 the time of Archilochus, some one hundred years before. As Arion 
 substituted for the riotous Comus a stationary and well-trained 
 Chorus, that which was sung — the dotSri — could not be a Kco/juojSLa 
 or Comedy; but, as being the hymn of a Chorus of rpdyoc or 
 "satyrs," it was naturally termed a Tpa'ycphla^. This name could 
 have nothing to do with the goat, which was the subsequent prize 
 
 1 See the lines of Archilochus quoted above, pp. 29, 30. 
 
 2 Suidas : xop^v crr^crat. Schol. Pind. : ^crrrjae S^ avrbv [rbv k6kKiov xo/'O'']- This 
 standing chorus nevertheless might perform et,e\iyixol and other evolutions on the 
 ground to which it was limited. The Chorus, as a whole, was stationary, though the 
 separate dancers were in motion. 
 
 2 On the TpoTToi, "styles" or "harmonies" of Greek music, the student may con- 
 sult Miiller, Hist. Lit. Gr. I. p. 152 [202]. 
 
 ■* Hesych, : Tpdyovs' (rarvpovs — 5ta to rpdyuu cjra ^x^'*'* Etym. M. : rpayii}8ia 8tc 
 Ta TToXXd oi x^pot e/c (raTvpwu auviaTavTo, ovs eKaXovu rpdyovs. 
 
 ^' Herodotus says, 6uo,u.daavTa tov didvpa/j-^ou : but Suidas more definitely, dvopidaai 
 TO adofxevov viro rod x^pov. 
 
 6 It is pretty clear that Tpayipdia was the name of a species of lyrical poetry ante- 
 cedent to, and independent of the Attic drama. See Bockh in the Appendix to this 
 Chapter. Welcker, Nachtrag, p. 244: "The lyrical Tragedy was a transition step 
 between the Dithyramb and the regular drama. It resembled the Dithyramb in re- 
 presenting by a chorus Dionysian and other myths (hence the Pseans of Xenocritus 
 were called mytlis, because they related heroic talcs), and differed from it in being 
 sung to the lyre, and not to the flute." 
 
THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 41 
 
 of the early Attic Tragedy; for we are expressly told, that in 
 Arion's days the ox was the prized Nor could it imply that the 
 goat was the object of the song, as if rpa'ycoho^ signified a man o? 
 rpayov delSei^. For, as /a6apQ)86<; means a man who sings to the 
 cithara, so rpaycoho^; and k(o/xq)S6(; denote the singer whose words 
 are accompanied by the gesticulations or movements of a chorus 
 of Satyrs, or a comus of revellers. That the form of Doric Chorus, 
 which Arion first adapted to the Dithyramb, was the Pyrrhic, ap- 
 pears from what has been stated above ^. It was probably not till 
 the days of Thespis that the Gymnopcedic dance appeared as the 
 Tragic Emmeleia. In Arion''s time the tragic style was still a form 
 of the Dithyramb, strictly confined to the worship of Bacchus, to 
 which tlie poet had been habituated in the early days of his Les- 
 bian life"*, formally satyric in the habiliments of its performers, and 
 in every sense a new and important branch of the Dorian lyric 
 poetry. 
 
 About the time when Arion made these changes in the Dithy- 
 ramb at Corinth, we read that a practice began to obtain in the 
 neighbouring city of Sicyon which could not be altogether uncon- 
 nected with Arion's '^ tragic style." The hero Adrastus was there 
 honoured with Tragic Choruses. And the tyrant Cleisthenes, for 
 political reasons, restored these choruses to Bacchus °. The ten- 
 dency, which was thus checked, shows that the Ditliyrambic 
 Chorus of Arion had proved itself well adapted for the represen- 
 tation of tragic incidents, and especially of those misfortunes which 
 were traceable to an evil destiny; for Adrastus was a type of 
 unavoidable suffering^, brought down by the unappeasable ven- 
 geance of heaven ; and every reader of the later Greek Drama is 
 aware that this was a main ingredient in the plots of the more 
 finished Tragedies, in which the divine Nemesis was always at 
 
 1 Athen. p. 456 d ; Schol. ad Find. 01. xiii. 18. 
 
 2 This is E,itter's opinion ; ad Arist. Poet. p. 113. 
 
 3 It appears too from Aristophanes (Bance, 153) that Kinesias, who was a cele- 
 brated Dithyrambist, was also renowned for his Pyrrhics. 
 
 ■* Bahr, ad Herod. I. c. 
 
 ^ 01 bk "ZiKvwvioi. iibdeaau fieyaXucTTl Kapra TLfig^v rbv ''ASpT](rrov...Td re dr] &Wa oi 
 ^iKVUJVioi iTL/LLOJu TOP "AdpTjcTTOV, Kal dr] rrpSs, to. Trddea avrov rpayiKoTcri x^poTcn eyi- 
 paipov' Tov p.kv Alovvcov ov tl/j.^(x}pt€S, top 5^ "AdprjcTTOv. ^Xeiadevrjs 5^ xopous fx^v ry 
 ALOvvacf airibwKe, rrju 8k dWrjp dvairjv t(^ MeXaviinrijj' raura jxh is "AdprjUTOv oi ire- 
 ■jro'njTO. Herod. V. 67. 
 
 6 His name, as is well known, indicated as much. See Antimach. p. 71 (apud 
 Strab. p. 588). 
 
42 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 
 
 work. There may, therefore, be some foundation for the claims 
 set up by the Sicyonians\ By transferring the Bacchic Chorus 
 to the celebration of other heroes, they made a step even beyond 
 Arion towards the introduction of dramatic poetry properly so 
 called ; and it is very possible that Epigenes of Sicyon may have 
 been the first of a series of sixteen lyrical dramatists ending with 
 Thespis2, to whom, as we shall shortly see, we owe the actor ^, the 
 dramatic dialogue, the stage, and the epic elements of the Athenian 
 Tragedy. 
 
 The only specimens of the Greek choral poetry which have 
 come down to us complete are a certain number of the Epinician 
 or triumphal Odes of Pindar, who was born three years after 
 ^schylus, who was more than once an honoured guest at Athens 
 after the establishment there of the tragic drama, and whose inter- 
 course with -^schylus, in Attica and in Sicily, is attested by more 
 than one indication of borrowed phraseology. We cannot therefore 
 conclude the present chapter without endeavouring to ascertain how 
 far the performance of one of Pindar's Epinician Odes partook of 
 a dramatic or histrionic character. 
 
 We have already seen, on the authority of Plato, that the melic 
 poem presumed a direct communication from the poet himself — it 
 was St aira'yyekla'; avrov rod TroirjTov, in other words, it represented 
 the author of the poem as speaking in his own person, and was 
 therefore distinguished from the imitative dialogue of dramatic 
 poetry '^. Now the iTTiviKiov in particular belonged to the class 
 of e^Kwyi^ia^ which by the nature of the case implied a festive meet- 
 ing^ and more than any other form of melic poetry allowed the 
 bard freely to introduce his own personality. It does not, however, 
 follow from this that the poet was always present in person, and 
 
 1 rpayipdias evperal /xh Xlkvujvloi, reKeaiovpyol d^ 'AttlkoL Themist. Orat. XXVII. 
 
 337 B- 
 
 See also Athen. XIV. p. 629 A : 'A/z^tW — dyeaOai 07;(7tv iv "EXiKdvt iraldoju dp- 
 XVCeLS [xera (nrov^ris Traparid^fievos dpxaiov €Triypa/ji.p,a rode' 
 
 'Afj-<p6Tep\ wpxe^/J-av re Kal iv Mwtrats edibaaKov 
 
 "AvSpas, 6 S' avK-qras -ijv "Avukos ^LoKevs' 
 
 Elfii 8^ Ba/cxeiSas St/cuwi'tos. v pa OeoTcn 
 
 Tots ^iKvQpL Kokov TOUT^ aireKeLTo y^pas. 
 
 2 Suidas in Q^criris. 
 
 3 Athen. Xiv. p, 630 c: auvi(TTr)Ke 5k Kal ^arvpcKT] iraaa woirjais t6 iraXaibp iK 
 XopQv, (is Kal T] t6t€ rpayii^hla' dioTrep ov8k viroKpiTas elxo?'. 
 
 ■* Plat. Resp. III. 394 c. Ast interprets drayyeXia as "ea exponendi ratio qua 
 poeta lyricus utitur qui suis ipse verbis omnia refert, suae ipse mentis sensa explicat." 
 s Below, Chapter v. 
 
THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARIOX. 43 
 
 took an immediate part in the public performance of his ode. On 
 the contrary, as the triumphal ode was generally celebrated in the 
 victor's native city, and sometimes repeated from time to time 
 on the anniversary of his success, the poet would more frequently 
 than otherwise be absent, and if the ode contained any direct 
 aTrayyekLa from the author, he must have been represented by the 
 leader of the chorus, who thus became, to all intents and purposes, 
 an actor or the exponent of an assumed personality. It is probable 
 in itself that there was a class of persons, who laid themselves out 
 for this species of impersonation, and the fact that it was so is 
 proved by the Orchomenian Inscription (Xo. 1583), quoted in the 
 Appendix to this chapter. We find there that a certain Theban 
 named Xicostratus gained the prize at the Charitesia as kco/jlmSo^ 
 in regard to the eiTLvUia, i.e. not the celebration of the victory, as 
 Bockh supposes, but the songs composed for that celebration. For 
 in order to sing the eiriKw^lav dvSpoov Kkvrav oTra, as Pindar calls 
 it*, it was necessary that there should be a K(ofJb(ph6<^, a leader of the 
 band, that is, either the poet himself who is mentioned in the 
 following inscription^, or some professional leader, like this Xicos- 
 ti-atus. There is sufficient e^Tidence in Pindar's odes to prove that 
 the cLTrwyyeXla of the poet himself was thus undertaken by a pro- 
 fessional representative, who was distinct from the teacher of the 
 Chorus. 
 
 There are two of Pindar's Epinicia, the sixth Olympian and 
 the second Isthmian ode, in which the poet directly addresses the 
 ')(opohLhaaKaXo<^. In the fifth strophe of the former he says^: ''now 
 urge your comrades, ^neas, first to sing of Hera Parthenia, and 
 then to make known whether we truly escape from the old re- 
 proach — Boeotian sow! For you are a true messenger, the des- 
 patch-staff of the fair-haired Muses, a sweet mixing- cup of loudly 
 uttered songs. Then tell them to remember Syracuse and Ortygia." 
 There is every reason to believe that this ode was sung at Stym- 
 phalus in Arcadia. Agesias had driven the mule-car himself at 
 Olympia, otherwise the allusion to his danger^ would have no 
 meaning ; but the chariot driven by his friend Phintis formed part 
 of the triumphal procession which accompanied the performance 
 of the ode, as appears from the address to the charioteer ^ The 
 
 1 PytJi. X. 6. ^ 1-47: '''a iTrwiKta KU),a(fdiQv TroirjTTj^. 
 
 2 vv. 87 sqq. * vv. 9 — 11. ° vv. 22 sqq. 
 
44 THE TRAGIC CHORUS. — ARION. 
 
 "unenvying citizens V' who are represented as taking part in the 
 song of victory, are of course the Arcadians, tacitly opposed to the 
 envious Syracusans, who slew Agesias three years after his victory, 
 and who are implied in tlie statement that "envy impends from 
 others envying him 2." That Pindar could not have been present 
 at the Arcadian festival is clear from his calling ^neas "a messen- 
 ger" {dyy6\o<^) and "a despatch-staff" {o-kutoXt)); and that ^neas 
 was not the KQ)/xa>B6^, but merely the ')(opohiha(TKaXo<i, is proved from 
 this address to him. From the words immediately preceding: 
 " Tlieba whose delightful water I will drink when I weave a varied 
 strain for warriors^," it appears that Pindar was at Thebes when 
 he was meditating another hymn on the Olympic victory of 
 Agesias, which was to be performed at Syracuse under the auspices 
 of Hiero ; for the avSpe^ alxt^r^rai undoubtedly refer to Agesias, 
 who is described as distinguished by his military excellences no 
 less than by his connexion with the prophetic clan of the lamidge*. 
 In the other case, where the 'xppohihaorKoXo^ is addressed, namely, 
 at the end of the second Isthmian ode, although Thrasybulus, the 
 son of the deceased victor Xenocrates, is accosted in the second 
 person in the preceding stanzas^, the concluding epode is directed 
 to the trainer of the choir, Nicasippus, and the poet speaks as 
 though all that had gone before was a message to be delivered 
 to Thrasybulus, when Nicasippus next saw him. He says^: "let 
 him not be prevented by the envious hopes of others from speaking 
 his father's praise and publishing these hymns" (the second Isth- 
 mian and another composed for recitation at Agrigentum), "for I 
 have not made them to tarry in one place (like a statue, as he says 
 elsewhere^) but to pass to and fro among men. Communicate (or 
 impart®) these injunctions, Nicasippus, when you shall have come 
 to my respected friend." 
 
 From these passages it appears that the KcofjuoiBo^; of the Epini- 
 cian Ode sometimes directly represented the person of the poet. 
 
 1 V. 7 : eTTLKvpaais d((>66vuv dcrruv iv IfiepTah dotSats. 
 
 2 V. 74 : [xQifios e/c 5' BXKwv Kpefiarai (fydoveovrwv. 
 
 3 vv. 85 — 87 : Qrj^av, rds epareivhu vdojp 
 
 TTLO/xai, dpdpdcriv alxp-araiaL irXiKWU 
 ttolkVKov VflVOV. 
 
 We have maintained, in our note on this passage, that iriop-ai must be future here : 
 and have compared Isthni. v. 74 : irlcrw acpe AipKas dyvov ildojp. 
 
 * vv. 17, 18. ^ vv, I, 31. ^ vv. 43 — 48. 7 Nem. v. i. 
 
 ^ dirovupLOv. The scholiast says it means duayvudi, "read," as in Soph. Fragm. 
 150: <jv 8' iv dpouoLai ypap.p.dTis}v irrvxas 'ix^v dtroveipLOV. 
 
ORCHOMENIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 45 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER III. 
 ORCHOMENIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 1583. 
 
 "Mvacrbo} dpxovTos, dyo^vo- 
 deriovTos riov X.apiTeialcjv 
 'Eudpios tQ HdvTUJVo^, rvbe 
 evlKwaav to. Xapireiaia' 
 
 caXTriyKTas 
 ^iXTpos ^iXipw 'A6av€?os, 
 
 Kdpov^ 
 EtpciSas "ZcjKpd-Los QecjSeTos, 
 
 TToeiras 
 Mrjariop "Mrjaropos ^uKaievs, 
 
 pa\^dFii5os 
 Kpdrwu KXlcopos Qei^eTos, 
 
 avXecrds 
 Hepiyiveis 'HpaKXidao Kov^iK-rjvSs, 
 
 avXdFvdos 
 Aa/xTQpeTos TXavKcj 'ApyTos, 
 
 KidapiaTas 
 ' Ay eXoxos 'Aa-KXaTrioyivtos AtoXeuj dirb "Movplvas, 
 
 KidapdFvSos 
 AafJ-drptos 'AfxaXutu) AloXevs dirb ISlovplvas, 
 
 TpaydFvSos 
 'Acr/c\a7rt65w/)os TLovO^ao TapavT?pos, 
 
 KOj/xdFvdos 
 "^iKdarpaTOS ^iXocrrpdrio Qei^e'cos, 
 
 TO. eirLviua /cwyU.dFv5os 
 Ei^apxos E[t]po56ra; Kopwv^vs. 
 
 1584. 
 
 O't'Se iviKuv rbv dyQva tCjv Xapiryjalup' 
 
 craXinaTrfs 
 Mrjpis ' AvoWupiov 'Aptiox^vs dirb "Maidpdpov, 
 
 KTJpV^ 
 
 ZwtXos ZojlXov nd0toy, 
 
 pa\fyu}dbs 
 '^ovp.-qpios l^ovfirjPLOV ' Adrjpotos, 
 
 TroirjTTjs eirCjp 
 'Afiipias ArjixoKXhvs Orj^aios, 
 
 avXr]TT)S 
 'Av6XX6doTOi 'AiroXXoddrov Kpv<^cuos, 
 
 avX(^5bs 
 
46 OECHOMENIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 'P65i7r7ros ''Podlinrov 'Apyeios, 
 
 Ki6apiaT7]s 
 ^avlas 'AwoWoddipov toO ^aviov, AloKcvi dirb Kijfirjs, 
 
 KidapcfiSbs 
 AyfiTirpios TlapfiepicrKOv KaXxv^^J'tos, 
 
 Tpayq}86s 
 'IirTTOKpdTTjS 'ApLCTTOflhoVS 'PoStos, 
 
 KUfJLCfdbs 
 
 Ka\\i(TTpaTos 'E^aK^cTTOv 9?;/3a?oj, 
 
 7rotT]TT]s liarvpuu 
 'Afitvias AT]fiOK\eovs Qrj^aios, 
 
 VTTOKptTrjS 
 
 Aiop66eos Awpodiov TapavT?vos, 
 
 TTOiTjTTjs rpayudiQv 
 Ho<Pok\t]S 2o0okX^ovs 'Ad-nvaioi, 
 
 VTTOKpLTTJS 
 
 Ka^iptXos Qeoddjpov Q-q^aios, 
 
 TroirjTT]S KU}/x({}di.u>v 
 ' AX^^avdpos 'ApKXTiojpos 'AdTjvatos, 
 
 V7rOKpiTT]S 
 
 "ArraXos 'ArrctXou 'Adrjuaios. 
 OiSe evlKOiv rov veixrirbv ay (bvot. tCov '0/xo\ojto}i/' 
 
 TToidas avXrjras 
 AlokXtjs KaWifxifiXov Qr]^ai09, 
 
 iraidas ijye/xopas 
 ^Tparcvos 'EiVvlKov QrjjSacos, 
 
 dvdpas avXijTks 
 AiokXrjs KaWifxrjXov Qrj^aios, 
 
 dvdpas ijye/j.dpas 
 'P65i7r7ros 'FoSiinrov 'Apyeios, 
 
 Tpayuidbi 
 'JinroKpdTrjs 'Apiaro/M^uovs 'P65ioy, 
 
 KaXXlcrrpaTos 'E^a/c^crrou Qrj^oLOi, 
 
 TO, eiriviKLO. /cw/xt^SicDf ttoitjttjs 
 
 *AX4^aydpos 'Apia-riuivos 'Adrjvaios. 
 
 These two Inscriptions were formerly in a chapel of the Virgin at Orchomenus 
 in Bceotia. The stones are now removed. The first Inscription is written iu Boeotic, 
 and is supposed by Bockh to be of older date than Olymp. 145 (B.C. 220). 
 
 To the foregoing Inscriptions we will add a third ; a Thespian Inscription, engraved 
 in the later age of the Roman emperors, which relates to the same subject; and 
 then give the inferences which Bockh has drawn from these three interesting ago- 
 nistic monuments. 
 
 1585. 
 ^AyaOrj t^xV- 
 *EvelKUV iirl ^Xaovtcp UavXelvq} dyuivoderovvTi Movawv, ^[tt'] 
 &PXOVTI 'M.T]TpoSu!p({} T(y 'Op[7}]<n(p6pou' 
 TTOirjTTjs wpoaodiov 
 
ORCHOMENIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 47 
 
 Evfxdpuv 'AXe^dvdpov QeawuC/s 
 Kal 'AvrKpQu 'A6r)vaios, 
 K-qpv^ 
 no/ATTTjlbs Ticoai/xov Qeairie^s, 
 
 craXTTLKTas 
 Zu}aLfxo<: 'Ett'lktov Qrj^aios, 
 
 iyKCJ/xioypdcpos els rbu AvroKparopa 
 UoijirXios 'AuTUPios Md^ifMos N€[a;]/co/3et'r?7S, 
 
 iyKdificou eis Movcras 
 JlolJTrXios 'AvT(Jovio$ Md^t/ios Ne[a;]/cope^T7js, 
 
 TroL7]T7]s els Tov A'UTOKpdropa 
 AlfiiXios 'EttUttjtos Koplvdios, 
 
 TToirjp.a els ras ^lovaas 
 Aa/n.6veiKos Adjioivos QeaTrievs, 
 
 paxpcpdos 
 'EvTVxi-ai'os Kopbdtos, 
 
 TTvdavXas 
 ^d/3tos 'Avrta/cos Kopiudios, 
 
 K[i^6apL(TTas 
 Qeodivpos QeodoTov Net/co/AT?5ei;j 
 
 [/cwytiySos waXaids /cw/i^S^as] 
 
 rpayipSbs waXaids rpaycpdias 
 ' A7roXX(bpios ' ATToXXuii'tou 'Acnr^udios, 
 
 'irOL7]T7]S KaLPTJS KUfi^dlas 
 
 'AvTC(pQu 'Adrjvacos, 
 
 vwoKpiT7]s KaLvrjS KWixi^blas 
 'AuTC(pCjv ^Adrjvatos, 
 
 7rot7?[T7j]s Kaivris rpayiisdias 
 ^Apr^/xuv 'Apr^/xwfos 'AOrjualos, 
 
 VTTOKpLTTjs KaivTJs Tpayojdias 
 "* Ayadijixepos UvOokX^ovs ^Adrjvaios, 
 
 Xopa^Xv^ 
 "0<Tio$ Uepya/MTjvSs, 
 
 veap(j}hbs 
 A. KXciStos 'AxtXXei's KopivOios, 
 
 (XOLTvpoypdcpos 
 M. AlfilXcos 'TrjTTios, 
 
 *5ia irdvT(j3v 
 "Evfidpoju ' AXe^dj^dpov Qeainevs. 
 
 These Inscriptions were first printed by Bockh at the end of bis treatise on the 
 Public Economy of Athens. We subjoin some of the remarks which he there makes 
 upon them (liter Band, p. 361 fol.), 
 
 "Before I leave these two Inscriptions, I maybe pennitted to make a few remarks 
 on the games mentioned in them. We find in both, first of all, trumpeters and a 
 
 " Hand dubie formulae sententia est, kunc inter omnes victorcs esse prcestantissi- 
 judicatum, victorem inter victores ; unde ultimo loco scriptus est." — Bockh in loc. 
 
48 ORCHOMENIAN INSCRIPTIONS. 
 
 herald, who began the games : their art was doubtless an object of contest in most 
 sacred games, and the heralds in particular contended with one another in the gymnic 
 games (Cicero, Fam. v. 1 2) ; which may perhaps have been the principal reason why 
 the ancients had trumpeters and heralds, whom no one of the present day could have 
 matched in strength of voice, Comp. Pollux, IV. 86 — 92; Athen. x. p. 415 F, seqq, ; 
 JElian, V. H. I. 26. These are followed by the Epic poet, together with the Rhap- 
 sodist who recited his poem : then we have the flute-player and harper with the 
 persons who sang to these instruments respectively. Next come, in both Inscriptions, 
 Tragedians and Comedians. At the new Charitesia, however, three additional dra- 
 matic ^games are mentioned: iroiTjTTjs Sari/pwj' and v-rroKpiTrjs, TroLrjrrjs Tpayi^jdiQiv and 
 inroKpiTrjs, ttoltjttjs KojficpdLQv and VTroKpiTrjS. At the Homolo'ia in the second Inscrip- 
 tion, Tragedians and Comedians occur, and for the celebration of the victory (ra 
 i-mviKLa) another Comedy, but without actors. It is sufficiently clear from this, that 
 when merely Tragedians and Comedians are mentioned, without actors, as is so often 
 the case in authors and Inscriptions, we are not to understand a play, but only a 
 song : if, however, a Play is to be signified, this must first be determined by some 
 particular addition. As soon as an actor {vwoKpLT-qs) is mentioned, we understand by 
 Tragedy and Comedy a dramatic entertainment. For a long time Tragedians and 
 Comedians alone appeared in the Charitesia at Orchomenus, and it is only in later 
 times that we find there all the three kinds of dramatic representations, when the 
 theatre of Athens had extended its influence on all sides ; nevertheless, even then the 
 tragic and comic poets are Athenians, and only the satyrical poet a Theban. But 
 Tragedians and Comedians, as lyric bards, were to be found everywhere from the 
 most ancient times. This has not been properly attended to, and many passages 
 in ancient writers have consequently been considered as enigmatical or suspicious. 
 In the list of Pindar's Works, given by Suidas, we have seventeen dpa/xara rpayiKa. 
 I have no doubt that Pindar wrote Tragedies, but they were lyric poems, and not 
 Dramas. With this remark, we recognize at once what is true or false in this account. 
 Simonides of Ceos is said by the Scholiast on Aristophanes, by Suidas and Eudocia, 
 to have written Tragedies, which Van Goens (p. 51) doubts; but what objection can 
 be raised to this statement, if we only understand in it lyrical and not dramatic 
 Tragedies ? Whether the Tragedies of the younger Empedocles (see Suidas in 'E^ttc- 
 doKXijs, comp. Sturz, Empedocl. p, 86, seqq., where, however, there are all sorts of 
 errors) were just such Dorian lyric Tragedies, or real dramatic exhibitions, I leave 
 undecided. Arion seems to have been considered as the inventor of this lyric goat- 
 aong, since the introduction of the tragic manner [rpayiKhs rpbTros) is ascribed to this 
 Dithyrambic poet, although he is said to have added satyrs to the chorus as acting 
 persons (comp. Fabric. B. Gr. Vol. 11. p, 286, Harles' edition). It is admitted that 
 the Drama grew out of a lyric entertainment, and was formed from the chorus ; but it 
 is not so generally known that among the Dorians and ^olians a lyric Tragedy and 
 Comedy existed before, and along with the dramatic, as a distinct species, but people 
 usually referred merely to the rude lyrical beginnings in the Festal games. Tlius 
 tragedies before the time of Thespis remained a thorn in the eyes of critics, which it 
 was needful to have taken out; and Bentley's services {Opusc. p. 276) in this respect 
 have been very highly estimated. But let not us be deceived by it. The Pelopon- 
 nesians justly claimed Tragedy as their property (Aristot. Poet, iii.): its invention 
 and completion as a lyrical entertainment belongs undoubtedly to the Sicyonians, 
 whose Tragedies are mentioned by Herodotus (v. 67, comp. Themist. XIX. p. 487) : 
 on which account the invention of Comedy also is sometimes attributed to the Sicyo- 
 nians (Orest. Anthol. Part 11. p. 328, 326); and Thespis may very well have been 
 
ORCHOMEXIAX INSCRIPTIONS. 49 
 
 the sixteenth from the lyric Tragedian, Epigenes (Suidas in Qeawis and ovdku Trpos 
 Aiovvaov). Aristocles, in his book about the choruses, said very well (Athen. xiv. 
 630 c): 'LvveaT-qKei bk Kal aarvpiKT] irdaa 7roir]cn.s roTraXaibv e/c x^P^^, ws Kal 17 rdre 
 Tpayu}dia- didirep ov5e viroKpLTas elxov. Just so Diogenes (III, 56) relates, certainly not 
 out of his own learning, that before Thespis the chorus alone played in Tragedy 
 (Siedpa/JidTt^e). This Tragedy, consisting of chorus only, was brought to perfection in 
 very early times, and before the people of Attica, to whom alone the dramatic Tragedy 
 belongs, had appropriated the Drama to themselves : of course only romancers, like 
 the author of the Minos, or dialogue of law, have placed the latter far above Thespis ; 
 a position against which I have expressed my opinion on a former occasion {Gi'. Trag. 
 Princip. p. 254). All that I have said is equally applicable to Comedy: in our 
 Inscriptions we find a lyrical Comedy before the dramatical at Orchomenus; and 
 lower down, the dramatical Comedy is introduced, as from Attica, along with which 
 an actor is mentioned: the former was the old peculiarity of the Dorians and -.^olians, 
 among whom lyric poetry for the most part obtained its completion. Even if we pass 
 over Epicharmus, and the traces of a lyric Comedy in the religious usages of Epidaurus 
 and ^gina (Herod. V. 83), the Dorians, and especially the Megarians, might still 
 have had well-founded claims to the invention of Comedy, which, according to Ari- 
 stotle, they made good. Besides, the view which we have taken of the lyrical Comedy 
 sufficiently proves that the name is derived, not from Koifjirj, but from the merry kCjixos : 
 such a one took place at the celebration of the victory, and consequently we find in 
 our Inscriptions rd einviKia KUfxaVvhos, and rd ewivlKLa KtopiCfdiQv iroirjTTjS, who is 
 certainly in this place a dramatic Comedian, Alexander of Athens. We cannot, how- 
 ever, call Pindar's songs of victory old Comedies : and the greater is the distinction 
 between the lyric and the dramatic Comedy, the less entitled are we to draw, from 
 this view, any conclusions in favour of the opinion that the Pindaric poems were 
 represented with corresponding mimicry." 
 
 Bockh has reprinted these Inscriptions in his Corpus Inscnpttionum, Tom. I. 
 PP- 7^3 — 1> with some additional remarks in defence of his view from the objections 
 of Lobeck and Hermann. 
 
 D T. G. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE.— THESPIS. 
 
 C^est surtout dans la Tragedie antique, que VFpopee ressort de partout. Elle monte sur 
 la scene Grecque sans Hen perdre en quelque sorte de ses ]}roportions gigantesques et 
 demesurees. Ce que chantaient les rhapsodes, les acteurs le declament. Voild tout. 
 
 Victor Hugo. 
 
 IN addition to the choruses, which, together with the accom- 
 panying lyrical poetry, we have referred to the Dorians, 
 another species of entertainment had existed in Greece from the 
 very earliest times, which we may consider as peculiar to the 
 Ionian race; for it was in the Ionian colonies that it first sprang 
 up. This was the recitation of poems by wandering minstrels, 
 called rhapsodes (pa^lroiBol) ; a name probably derived from the 
 cesacus^, a staff (pa/SSo^;) or branch {epvo^Y of laurel or myrtle, 
 which was the symbol of their office. Seated in some conspicuous 
 situation, and holding this staff in the right hand, the rhapsodes 
 chanted in slow recitativo, and either with or without a musical 
 accompaniment^, larger or smaller portions of the national epic 
 poetry, which, as is well known, took its rise in the Ionian states; 
 and, in days when readers were few, and books fewer, were well- 
 nigh the sole depositories of the literature of their country. 
 
 1 Hesych. : ataaKos. 6 ttjs 6d4)prjs /cXctSos 6u Karix^^vre^ i'fivovv to^s deovs. Plutarch, 
 Sympos. p. 615: '^HiSoj' (^br]v rod Qeov — eKaarw fivpaivrjs didofieurjs 7]v"AcraKov, OLfxai dia 
 t6 4^€iu Tov de^dfxeuov, eKaXovv. Welcker has established most clearly (Ep. Cycl. 
 p. 364) that paiZ/ajSos is another form of pairLcncdbs — pa^dipdos. Comp. XP^'^^P'P^''^''-'^} 
 ^-pa^-evs, and pair-i^eadaL, as applied to Homer by Diog. Laert. (ix. i). 
 
 ^ Hence they were also called apvi>}Soi, i. e. epvaidoL 
 
 2 It is difficult to determine the degree of musical accompaniment which the 
 rhapsodes admitted ; the rhapsode, as such, could hardly have accompanied himself, 
 as one of his hands would be occupied by his rod. We think Wachsmuth is hardly 
 justified in calling {Hellen. Alterth. 11. 2, 389) Stesandrus, who sang the Homeric 
 battles to the cithara at Delphi, a rhapsode (Athen. xiv. p. 638 a). Terpander was 
 the first who set the Homeric Poems to regular tunes (see Mtiller's Dor. IV. 7, § 11). 
 On the recitation of the rhapsodists in general, the reader would do well to consult 
 Welcker, Ep>. Cycl. pp. 338 fol. ; Grrote, Hist. Gr. Vol. ii. pp. 184 foil. 
 
THE TEAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 51 
 
 Their recitations, however, were not long confined to the Epos. 
 All poetry was equally intended for the ear, and nothing was 
 written but in metre: hence the Muses were appropriately called 
 the children of Memory. Now, the Epos was soon succeeded, but 
 not displaced, by the gnomic and didactic poetry of Hesiod, which, 
 as has been justly observed, was an ornamental appendage of the 
 older form of poetry \ These poems therefore were recited in the 
 same way as the Epos^, and Hesiod himself was a rhapsode^. If 
 the Margites, in its original form, belonged to the epic period of 
 Greek poetry, it cannot be doubted that this humorous poem was 
 also communicated to the public by means of recitation. The 
 Epos of Homer, with not a little borrowed from the sententious 
 poetry of Hesiod, formed the basis of the tragic dialogue ; and in 
 the same way the Margites contained within itself the germs of 
 Comedy. The change of metre, which alone rendered the transi- 
 tion to the other forms more simple and easy, is universally attri- 
 buted to the prolific genius of Archilochus, one of the greatest 
 names in the history of ancient literature. This truly original poet 
 formed the double rhythm of the trochee from the equal rhythm of 
 the dactyl, and used this metre partly in combination with dactyls, 
 and partly in dipodite of its own, which were considered as ulti- 
 mately equivalent to the dactylic number^. He soon proved that 
 his new verses were lighter and more varied than the old heroic 
 hexameters, and employed them for nearly equivalent purposes. 
 At the same ,time, he formed the inverse double rhythm of the 
 iambic from the anapgest, or inverted dactyl, which was the natural 
 measure of the march, and was probably used from very early days 
 in the songs of the processional comus\ Here again he had an 
 admirable vehicle for the violent satire, in which he indulged, and 
 which found its best justification in the scurrilities and outrageous 
 personalities that were bandied to and fro at the feasts of Demeter 
 
 1 Wachsmuth, Hellen. AltertJmmsJc. ii. 2, p, 391. 
 
 2 Plato, Legff. ii. p. 658. 
 
 ^ Pausan. IX, 30, 3: Kadrjrat 5^ Kal 'Haiodos KtOdpau iirl tois ySvaaii' ^x^^> ovbh tc 
 olKeLOv'li(ri.6daj (p'oprjfia' drjXa yap dr) Kal i^ ai/Twu tQu eirOiv otl eirl pd^dov dd^prjs ydev. 
 Hesiod could not play on the lyre, x. 7, 2: X^yerat 8^ KafHaiodov direkadrivaL tov 
 dyuuiafxaros are ov Kidapi^eiu 6/jlou rfj ySfj dedcdayfj-euou. 
 
 ■* It is expressly testified by Aristot. lihet. in. i, § 9, that the tragic poets passed 
 from the trochaic to the iambic verse, the former having been the original metre in 
 dramatic poetry. 
 
 ^ See Donaldson's GreeJc Grammar, 647, 651, 656. 
 
 4—2 
 
52 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 in his native island of Paros\ and paved the way for the coarse 
 banter of the old Comedy at Athens. The iambic verse, however, 
 was very soon transferred from personal to general satire, from the 
 invectives of the Margites, and from the fierce lampoons of Archilo- 
 chus, to the more sweeping censures and more sententious generali- 
 ties of gnomic and didactic poetry. Simonides of Amorgus, who 
 flourished but a little later than Archilochus^ used the iambic 
 metre in the discussion of subjects little differing from those in 
 which Hesiod delighted. For example, his general animadver- 
 sions on the female sex are almost anticipated by the humorous 
 indignation of the Theogony^. But in other passages he approaches 
 to the sententious gravity of the later tragedians. Thus, his reflec- 
 tions on the uncertainty of human life might be taken for a speech 
 from a lost tragedy, if the dialect were not inconsistent with such 
 a supposition''. And the same remark is still more applicable to 
 some of the trochaics and iambics of Solon, who lived to witness 
 the first beginnings of Tragedy. Now all this iambic and trochaic 
 poetry was written for rhapsodical recitation: for though we must 
 allow (as even the advocates of the Wolfian hypothesis are willing 
 to adniit^) that the poems of Archilochus were committed to writ- 
 ing, it cannot be denied that the means of multiplying manuscripts 
 in his time must have been exceedingly scanty; and that, if his 
 opportunities of becoming known had been limited to the number 
 of his readers, he could hardly have acquired his great reputation 
 as a poet. We must, therefore, conclude that his poems, and those 
 of Simonides, were promulgated by recitation; and as such of them 
 as were written in iambics would not be sufficiently diversified 
 
 1 Miiller, Hist. Litt. Gr. c. xi. § 5, p. 132. 
 
 2 Archilochus is first heard of in the year 708 B.C. (Clinton, F. H. I. p. 175), and 
 Simonides the elder is placed by Suidas 490 yeai'S after the Trojan era (b.c. 693. See 
 Rhein. Mus. for 1835, p. 356). It is interesting to observe how the poetry of the 
 colonists in Asia Minor seems to have crept across, step by step, to Attica and other 
 parts of old Greece. Homer represents the greatest bard and rhapsode of the Homeric 
 confraternity in Chios; Hesiod was an ^olian of Cyme; Arion a Lesbian; and the 
 isles of Paros, Amorgos, and Ceos produced Archilochus and the two Simonides'. 
 
 ^ Cf. Hesiod, Theog. 591 sqq. Simonides of Amorgos, Fragm,. 6, Bergk. The 
 5th fragment of Simonides, quoted by Clemens Alex. Strom. VI. p. 744 : 
 VvvaiKos ovdeu XPV/^' o.vr]p Xyji'^erai 
 'Bcr^X'^s d/xeivov ov8^ piyiov kuktjs' 
 is merely a repetition in Iambics of what Hesiod had previously written in Hexameters 
 {Op. et D. 700) : 
 
 Oi) ixkv yap TL yvuaLKos dpr]p X?;t^er' d/xeivov 
 T-^s dyadr]s, rrjs S' adre KaK'tjs ov piyiov &\\o. 
 * Simonid. Fr. r. 5 Wolf, Proleg. § 17. 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 53 
 
 in tone and rhythm to form a musical entertainment, we may 
 presume that the recitation of their pieces, even if they were 
 monologues, must have been a near approach to theatric decla- 
 mation. 
 
 Fortunately we are not without some evidence for this view 
 of the case. We learn from Clearchus\ that " Simonides, the 
 Zacynthian, recited {eppa-yjr^SeL) some of the poems of Archilochus, 
 sitting on an arm-chair in the theatres;" and this is stated still 
 more distinctly in a quotation from Lysanias which immediately 
 follows: he tells us that '' Mnasion, the rhapsode, in the public 
 exhibitions acted some of the iambics of Simonides " (eV Tai^: 
 hel^ecTL TMV Xl/jlcovlSov Ttva<^ la/i/Scov viroKpiveadaL^). Solon, too, 
 who lived many years after these two poets, and Avas also a 
 gnomic poet and a writer of iambics, on one occasion committed 
 to memory some of his own elegiacs, and recited them from the 
 herald's bema^. It is exceedingly probable, though we have 
 no evidence of the fact, that the gnomes of Theognis were also 
 recited. 
 
 The rhapsodes having many opportunities of practising their 
 art, and being on many occasions welcome and expected guests, 
 their calling became a trade, and probably, like that of the Persian 
 story-tellers, a very profitable one. Consequently their numbers 
 increased, till on great occasions many of them were sure to be 
 present, and different parts were assigned to them, wdiich they 
 recited alternately and with great emulation : by this means the 
 audience were sometimes gratified by the recitation of a whole 
 poem at a single feast\ In the case of an epic poem, like the Iliad, 
 this was at once a near approach to the theatrical dialogue ; for if 
 one rhapsode recited the speech of Achilles in the first book of that 
 poem, and another that of Agamemnon, we may be sure they did 
 their parts with all the action of stage-players. 
 
 1 Athen. XIV. p. 620 c. 
 
 2 This word is very often used of the rhapsode. For example, we have in Arist. 
 Eket. III. I, § 3 : Kal yap ets tt}v rpayiKTju /cai pa^pwhiav 6\pk TraprjXdeu {i] viroKpiaLs)' 
 vireKplvovTO yap avrol ras Tpaycpdias oi TroLTjral to irpQTOv. See Wolf, Prolegom. 
 p. cxvi ; Heyne, Excursus, ill. 2. It is also a,pplied to the recitation of the Ionic 
 prose of Herodotus, which may be considered as a still more modern form of the 
 Epos. Athen. Xiv. p. 629 d: 'Ictcrwf 5' ev rplTi^) irepl twu 'AXe^dvdpov iepQv eV 'AXe^- 
 avdpeig. (pTjai ev rtp /xeydXcp dedrpcp vvoKpivaadai 'Hyrjcriau rbv /cw/xwSov rd 'H/9o5otou. 
 
 3 Plutarch, Solon, VIII. 82. 
 
 * Plato, Ilippai'ch. p. 228: 'lir-Kapxv, 6s. ...rd '0/j.rjpou ^7rr]...7]udyKa(X€ tovs pa\p({}- 
 5ovs TravadrjvaioLS e^ VTroXrjxf/ews e0e^^s avra hiCivai aiawep vvv (ti ovtoi TroLOVCFiv. Com- 
 pare Diog. Laert. i. 57, and Suidas v. viro^oX-q. 
 
54 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 With regard to the old iambic poems we may remark, that they 
 are often addressed in the second j)erson singular. We ventm-e 
 from this to conjecture, and it is only a conjecture, that these frag- 
 ments were taken from speeches forming parts of moral dialogues, 
 like the mimes of Sophron, from which Plato borrowed the form of 
 his dialogues^; for on the supposition that they were recited, we 
 have no other way of accounting for the fact. 
 
 At all events, it is quite certain, that these old iambic poems 
 were the models which the Athenian tragedians proposed to them- 
 selves for their dialogues^. They were written in the same metre, 
 the same moral tone pervaded both, and, in many instances, the 
 dramatists have borrowed not only the ideas but the very words of 
 their predecessors^. The rhapsode was not only the forerunner of 
 the actor, but he was himself an actor {yTTOKpiTr]^ ^) . If, therefore, 
 
 1 Plato Is said to have had Sophron under his pillow when he died. Sophron — 
 mimorum quidem scriptor, sed quem Plato adeo probavit ut suppositos capiti libros 
 ejus cum moreretur habuisse tradatur. Quintil. I, lo, 17. See Spalding's note. 
 
 ^ This is expressly stated by Plutarch, de Musicd, Tom. x. p. 680: in de tQv 
 iajJL^eiwv TO ra [xkv Xeyeadai rrapa ttjv Kpovcnv, tch, 5e adeadai 'A/)%t\ox6j' (paai /caraSet^ai, 
 eW ovTia x/oTjo-acr^at rovs TpayiKovs. Do not the first words apply to a rhythmical 
 recitation by the exarchus, followed by a musical performance by the chorus? 
 
 ^ Whole pages might be filled with the plagiarisms of the Attic tragedians from 
 even the small remains of the gnomic poets. The following are a few of the most 
 striking. 
 
 Archiloch. p. 30, 1. i, Liebel: 
 
 Xp'OfJ'O'Tiav deXiTTOu ovMv iariv, ovd' arruixoTov' 
 is repeated by Soph. Antig. 386: 
 
 dva^, ^poTOLatv ovdeu ear ainJo/xoTov. 
 ^sch. Eumen. 603 : 
 
 TO, TrXeicrr' afieivou ev(ppoaLv dedey/xeur)' 
 from Theognis, v. 762 (p. 52, Welcker): 
 
 c55' elvaL kuI ajxdvov^ ev^pova dvpibv ix^^'''^^- 
 ^sch, Agam. 36: 
 
 rd 5' ciXXa aiyu}' fSovs iirl yXuiTTTjS fxeyas' 
 from Theognis, 65 1, Welcker : 
 
 jSoCs fxoi iirl yXdoacrrjs Kparepi^ irodl Xd^ eTrtjSawoju 
 iVxet KiOTiWeiu Katirep eTncrdpLevov. 
 Soph. Antig. 666: 
 
 ToOSe [apxovTos] XPV k\^€iv 
 Kal afiiKpa Kal dUaia kuI ravavria' 
 (i. e. fxeydXa Kal adiKo), from Solon's well-known line : 
 
 'kpx^v cLKGve Kal 5i/cata K&dtKa, as it ought to be read. 
 ^ When Aristotle says {Rhet. ill. 1 ) : ets t7]v rpayiKTjv Kal pa\pb:biav 6\//e iraprjXOev 
 (7/ vTroKpiacs), vireKplvovTO yap avrol rds TpayCjjdias oi iroi'qTal rb irpCJTov, he evidently 
 means by the word viroKpiais the assumption of the poet's person by another ; which 
 we conceive to have been the original, as it is the derived, meaning of the word. 
 Compare vTropxtjP'O; &c. We think it more than probable that the names of the actors, 
 7rp(x}TayupiaTr]i, &c. were derived from the names of the rhapsodes who recited in 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE.— THESPIS. 55 
 
 the difference between the lyric Tragedy of the Dorians and the 
 regular Tragedy of the Athenians consisted in this, that the one 
 had actors [vTroKpnal) and the other had none, we must look for 
 the origin of the complete and perfect Attic drama in the union of 
 the rhapsodes with the Baccliic chorus. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the worship of Bacchus was 
 introduced into Attica at a very early period^; indeed it was 
 probably the religion of the oldest inhabitants, who, on the invasion 
 of the country by the lonians, were reduced, like the native 
 Laconians, to the inferior situation of ireploiicoi, and cultivated the 
 soil for their conquerors. Like all other Pelasgians they were 
 naturally inclined to a country life, and this perhaps may account 
 for the elementary nature of their religion, which with its votaries 
 was thrown aside and despised by the ruling caste. In the quad- 
 ripartite division of the people of Attica the old inhabitants formed 
 the tribe of the ^gicores or goatherds, who worshipped Dionysus 
 with the sacrifice of goats. But though they were at first kept 
 in a state of inferiority and subjection, they eventually rose to an 
 equality with the other inhabitants of the country. There are 
 very many Attic legends which point to the original contempt for 
 the goatherd's religion, and its subsequent adoption by the other 
 tribes. This is indicated by the freedom of slaves at the Dionysian 
 festivals, by the reference of the origin of the religion to the town 
 Eleutheree, by the marriage of the King Archon's wife to Bac- 
 chus^; and we may perhaps discover traces of a difference of 
 castes in the story of Orestes at the Anthesteria. It was natural, 
 therefore, that the ^gicores, when they had obtained their free- 
 dom from political disabilities, should ascribe their deliverance to 
 their tutelary god, whom they therefore called 'EXei^^epo? : and in 
 later times, when all the inhabitants of Attica were on a footing of 
 equality, the god Bacchus was still looked upon as the favourer of 
 the commonalty, and as the patron of democracy. 
 
 succession (e4 VTroK-qxpeojs) in the pa\pio^Qiv ayCoves. See Pseudoplat. Hipparch. p. 228, 
 and the other passages quoted by Welcker, Ep. Cycl. pp. 37 r fol. 
 
 ^ On the early worship of Bacchus in Attica sae Welcker's NacJitrag, pp. 194 fol. 
 and Phil. Mus. 11. pp. 299 — 307. 
 
 '^ Kol avT-q T] yvvT] V[uv Wve to. dpprjTa lepa vir^p r?}? TroXews, Kol elSev a ou 
 
 .irpoarJKev avT7]v bpav ^evrju ovcrav, kuI Toiavrri odaa elarfKdev ol ovbels d'XXos ' Adrjvaiwu 
 TOGOVTWv 'dvTwv elcTepX'^TaL dW ij tou ^acriX^ws yvurj, i^copKOJcr^ re rds yepaipds rds 
 VTTTjpeTovaas to?s iepots, i^edodr) 5e t (^ AL0u6(Tip yvvq, '4irpa^e be virep t'^s TroXews 
 Tct Trdrpia rd vpb^ tovs Oeovs, TroXXd /cat dyia Kal dirdpprjTa. Pseud. Deniosth. in Necer. 
 pp. 1369—70. Above, p. 19. 
 
56 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 As we have before remarked, it was not till the Athenians had 
 recognized the supremacy of the Delphian oracle, that the Dorian 
 choral worship was introduced into Attica, and it was then applied 
 to the old Dionysian religion of the country with the sanction of 
 the Pythian priestess, as appears from the oracle which we have 
 quoted ahove, and from the legend in Pausanias, that the Delphian 
 oracle assisted Pegasus in transferring the worship of Bacchus from 
 Eleutherce to Athens \ Consequently the cyclic chorus would not 
 be long in finding its way into a country so predisposed for its 
 reception as Attica certainly was; and there is every reason to 
 believe that the Dorian lyric drama, perhaps with certain modifi- 
 cations, accompanied its parent ^. 
 
 The recitations by rhapsodes were a peculiarly Ionian entertain- 
 ment, and therefore, no doubt, were common in Attica from the 
 very earliest times. At Brauron, in particular, we are told that 
 the Iliad was chanted by rhapsodes^. Now the Brauronia was a 
 festival of Bacchus, and a particularly boisterous one, if we may 
 believe Aristophanes \ To this festival we refer the passage of 
 Clearchus, quoted by Athenteus^, in which it is stated that the 
 rhapsodes came forward in succession, and recited in honour of 
 Bacchus. By a combination of these particulars, we can at once 
 establish a connexion between the worship of Bacchus and the 
 rhapsodic recitations. Before, however, we consider the important 
 inferences which may be derived from these facts, we must enter a 
 little into the state of affairs in Attica at the time when the Thes- 
 pian Tragedy arose. 
 
 The early political dissensions at Athens were, like those be- 
 tween the pojoulus and the 2)lehs in the olden times of Roman 
 history, the consequences of an attempt on tlie part of the inferior 
 
 ■^ I. 2, 5 : <rvue\d^€TO 84 ol /cat to iv AeX^ois [xavTeiov. 
 
 2 It seems that the oscilla on the trees referred to the hanging of Erigone, which 
 probably formed the subject of a standing drama with mimic dances like the Sicyonian 
 Tragedies, with which the dramas of Epigenes were connected. Welck. Nachtrag, 
 p. 224. 
 
 3 Hesych. : BpavpcopioLS. rijv 'IXtdSa fidoy paipcpSol iu Bpavpu>ui rrjs ^Attiktjs. Kal 
 Bpavpcxjuia eoprr] 'Apr^/xtSt Bpavpwviq, dyeraL Kal Oierai al'|. Does this mention of the 
 sacrifice of a goat point to the rites of the ^gicores ? 
 
 * Pax, 874, and Schol. 
 
 5 At the beginning of the Seventh Book, p. 275 B: ^^ay-qaLa, ol be ^ayrjaLOTroa-ia 
 TrpoaayopevovaL r-qu eoprrjv. e^iXnre de avrrj, KaOdrrep t] tQv pa\f/cx}5uiv, -qu -qyov Kara Tr\v 
 tQiv AiovvcrluiV iv ■^ irapLovres eKaaroi rq) Bet^ olov rt/^V direreKovv rrju paxpcpdtav. 
 Welcker reads eKdaru} tG)v deCJv, and takes quite a different view of this passage, 
 except so far as he agrees with us in referring it to the Brauronia {Eii. Cycl. p. 39^)' 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 57 
 
 orders in an aristocracy of conquest^ to shake off their civil dis- 
 abilities, and to put themselves upon an equality with their more 
 favoured fellow-citizens. Solon had in part effected this by taking 
 from the Eupatrids some of their exclusive privileges, and esta- 
 blishing a democracy in the place of the aristocracy. xVt this time, 
 Athens was divided into three parties: the UeBtalot, or the landed 
 aristocracy of the interior; the UdpaXoL, the people dwelling on 
 the coast on both sides of Cape Sunium; and the AcaKpcot or 'Tirep- 
 oLKpioc, the highlanders who inhabited the north-eastern district 
 of Attica^. The first party were for an oligarchy, the last for 
 a democracy, and the second for a mixtiu'e of the two forms of 
 government ^ The head of the democratical faction was Pisistratus, 
 the son of Hippocrates, of the family of the Codrids, and related 
 to Solon : he was born at Philaid^, near Brauron, and therefore 
 was by birth a Diacrian. Having obtained by an artifice the sovran 
 power at Athens, he was expelled by a coalition of the other two 
 factions. After a short time, however, Megacles, the leader of the 
 Paralians, being harassed [TrepieXavvo/jievo^^) by the aristocratic 
 faction, recalled Pisistratus and gave him his daughter in maiTiage. 
 The manner of his return is of the gi'eatest importance in reference 
 to our present object. " There was a woman," says Herodotus, 
 " of the P^anian deme, whose name was Phya : she was nearly 
 four cubits in stature, and was in other respects comely to look 
 upon. Having equipped this woman in a complete suit of armour, 
 they placed her in a chariot, and having taught her beforehand how 
 to act her part in the most dignified manner possible {koI irpoSi- 
 ^avT6<; a'^T]/jLa olov tl e/xeWe evirpeirecrraTov cpalveaOac e)(ovaa^), 
 they drove to the city." He add?, that they sent heralds before 
 her, who, when they got to Athens, told the people to receive with 
 good-will Pisistratus, whom Athena herself honoured above all 
 
 1 See Arnold's ThucycUdps, Vol. I. p. 620. We tliink the fact that one of the 
 classes in Attica was called the "Hopletes," points to a conquest of Attica in remote 
 times by the lonians. 
 
 ^ Herod. I. 59: aTacna^ovTuv rdv irapd\u:u /cat twv €K tou irediov ' Adrjvaioov . . .tQv 
 virepaKplwv irpoaTcis. 
 
 •^ Plutarch, Sol. xill. p. S5 : riv yap rb fxh twv ALO.Kpiojv yevos drjfjLOKpariKUTepov, 
 6\iyapx'-K^TO.T0v 6e to tCjv Ylediewv, rplTOL 5e ol Yidpakoi. /xeaou rivd koL ixefXLyp.evov 
 alpovfj.€voL TToXiTeias Tpoirov. Comp. Arnold's note on Thucyd. II. 59. 
 
 4 Herod. I. 60. 
 
 5 See the passages quoted by Ruhnken on Timceus, sub v. (TXT^/iartfo/Licj'os (pp. 245 — 
 6), to which add Plat. Besp. p. 577 a: e/cTrXTjTrerat vtto ttjs tCov rvpavpiKOJv Trpoard- 
 aeus rjv -rrphs rovs t^o) (TXVf^<'-'^''^ovTai...€v oh fxaXiara yv/xvbs Slv ocpdeir] rrjs rpa- 
 ycKTJs (TKevTJs. 
 
58 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 men, and was bringing back from exile to her own Acropolis. Now 
 we must recollect who were the parties to this proceeding. In the 
 first place, we have Megacles, an Alcmgeonid, and therefore con- 
 nected with the worship of Bacchus^ ; moreover, he was the father 
 of the Alcmseon, whose son Megacles married Agariste, the daughter 
 of Cleisthenes of Sicyon, and had bj her Cleisthenes, the Athenian 
 demagogue, who is said to liave imitated his maternal grandfather 
 in some of the reforms which he introduced into the Athenian 
 constitution^ One of the points, which Herodotus mentions in 
 immediate connexion with Cleisthenes' imitation of his grand- 
 father, is the abolition of the Homei^tc rhapsodes at Sicyon, and his 
 • restitution of the Tragic Choruses to Bacchus. May we not also 
 conclude that Megacles the elder was not indifferent to the policy 
 of a ruler who was so nearly connected with him by marriage? 
 The other party was Pisistratus, who was, as we have said, born 
 near Brauron, where rhapsodic recitations were connected with the 
 worship of Bacchus; the strong-hold of his party was the Tetrapolis, 
 which contained the town of (Enoe^, to which, and not to the 
 Boeotian town of the same name, we refer the traditions with 
 regard to the introduction of the worship of Bacchus into Attica^; 
 his party doubtless included the ^gicores (who have indeed been 
 considered as identical with the Diacrians^), and these we have 
 seen were the original possessors of the worship of Bacchus ; 
 finally, there Avas a mask of Bacchus at Athens, which was said to 
 be a portrait of Pisistratus®; so that upon the whole there can be 
 little doubt of the interest which he took in the establishment of 
 the rites of the -^gicores as a part of the state religion. With 
 regard to the actress, Phya, we need only remark that she was a 
 garland-seller', and therefore, as this trade was a very public one, 
 could not easily have passed herself off upon the Athenians for a 
 
 ^ See Welcker's Nachtrag, p. 2 50. 
 
 ^ Herod, v. 67: raOra 5e, doKeeLv e^xol, i/xi/jJero 6 KX. ovros top ewvrov fx-qrpoird- 
 TOpa, KX. TOP "ZiKUiJovos rvpavvov. J^XeLcrO^vrjs 'yap...pa\p(^bovs ewavae iu HlkvcHvl dycovi- 
 '^eadat rQv '0[xr)peiwv iirewv eiVe/ca. Mr. Grote has shown good reasons for believing 
 that the poems recited at Sicyon as Homeric productions were the Thebais and the 
 Epigoni. Hist. Gr. Vol. ii. p. 173, note. 
 
 3 See the passages quoted by Elmsley on the Heracl. 8 r . 
 
 ^ The Deme of Semachus was also in that part of Attica, 
 
 ^ See Wachsmuth, I. i, p. 229; Arnold's Thucydkles, pp. 659 — 60. 
 
 ^ 6'7roii /cat to 'Kdyjurjai. tov Alovuctov irpbcwirov eKeivov rtves (pamv eiKova. Athenteus, 
 XII. p. 533 c. 
 
 7 (TT€(f)av6iru)\Ls H rjv. Athen. Xiii. p. 609 c. 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE.— THESPIS. 59 
 
 goddess. The first inference wliicli we shall draw from a combina- 
 tion of these particulars is, that the ceremony attending the retui-n 
 of Pisistratus was to all intents and purposes a dramatic represen- 
 tation ^ of the same kind with that part of the Eumenides of 
 JEschylus, in which the same goddess Athena is introduced for 
 the purpose of recommending to the Athenians the maintenance 
 of the Areopagus^. 
 
 Before we make any further use of the facts which we have 
 alluded to, it will be as well to give some account of the celebrated 
 contemporary of Pisistratus to whom the invention of Greek 
 Tragedy has been generally ascribed. Thespis was born at 
 Icarius^, a Diacrian deme^, at the beginning of the sixth centmy 
 B. c.^ His birth-place derived its name, according to the tradition, 
 fi'om the father of Erigone^; it had always been a seat of the reli- 
 gion of Bacchus, and the origin of the Athenian Tragedy and 
 Comedy has been confidently referred to the drunken festivals of 
 the place "^t indeed it is not improbable that the name itself may 
 point to the old mimetic exliibitions which were common there ^. 
 Thespis is stated to have introduced an actor for the sake of resting 
 the Dionysian chorus^. This actor was generally, perhaps always, 
 himself^''. He invented a disguise for the face by means of a 
 pigment, prepared from the herb purslain, and afterwards con- 
 structed a linen mask, in order, probably, that he might be able to 
 sustain more than one character ^\ He is also said to have intro- 
 duced some important alterations into the dances of the chorus, and 
 
 1 Solon (according to Plutarch, c. xxx.) applied the term viroKplveadaL to another 
 of the artifices of Pisistratus, Diogen. Laert. Solon, I. saj-s : Qecxiriv eKuAvaev (6 SoXwi/) 
 rpayuidias dyeiv re Kal diddcTKetu cos ducocpeXij ttjv xpevdoXoyiap. 6t' ovv HeialaTpaTos 
 eavTov KaTerpua-ef, iKeWeu p.kv ^(prj ravra <pvvai. 
 
 2 This seems to be nearly the view taken of this pageant by Dr. Thirl wall, Hist, of 
 Greece, Vol. ii. p. 6o. Mr. Keightley is inclined to conjecture frum the meaning of 
 the woman's name (Phya — size) that the whole is a myth. 
 
 3 Suidas, QiaiTLS, 'iKapiov TroXews 'Attiktjs. 
 * Leake on the Demi of Attica, p. 194. 
 
 ^ Bentley fixes the time of Thespis' first exhibition at 536 B.C. 
 
 6 Steph. Byz. T/capta; Hygin. Fab. 130; Ov. Met. vi. 125. 
 
 ^ Athen. II. p. 40: ciTro fxedrjs Kal i] ttjs KUfxo}dias Kal tt]s rpayusbias evpeais iu 
 
 'I/Ca/3ty TTJS 'A.TTiK7JS €Vp^dr). 
 
 ^ See Welcker, Nachtrag, p. 222. 
 
 ^ "Tcrrepov 5e Qeawis eva VTroKptTrjv i^evpev inrep toO diavairaieadai rbv x^P^^' I^^og. 
 Laert. Plat. lxvi. 
 
 1° Plutarch, 80I. XXIX: 6 ZoXwi/ ededaaro rbv Qiainv avrbv viroKpLvo/xevou Cicirep 
 Wos ■^v TOLs rraXaioTs. See also Aiist. Hhet. ill. i, and Li v. vii. 2. 
 
 ^1 Welcker, Nachirarj, p. 271 ; Thirlwall's History of Greece, Vol. ll. p. 126. 
 
60 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 his figures were known in the days of Aristophanes ^ These are 
 almost all the facts which we know respecting this celebrated man. 
 It remains for us to examine them. It appears, then, that he was 
 a contemporary of Pisistratus and Solon. He was a Diacrian, and 
 consequently a partizan of the former ; we are told too that the latter 
 was violently opposed to him^. He was an Icarian, and therefore 
 by his birth a worshipper of Bacchus. He was an viToKpirr}^ ; and 
 from the subjects of his recitations it would appear that he was 
 also a rhapsode^. Here we have again the union of Dionysian 
 rites with rhapsodical recitations which we have discovered in the 
 Brauronian festival. But he went a step farther: his rhapsode, 
 or actor, whether himself or another person, did not confine his 
 speech to mere narration ; he addressed it to the chorus, which 
 carried on with him, by means of its coryphaei, a sort of dialogue. 
 The chorus stood upon the steps of the thymele, or altar of Bacchus; 
 and in order that he might address them from an equal elevation, 
 he was placed upon a table {iXeo^) ^ which was the predecessor of 
 the stage, between which and the thymele in later times there was 
 always an intervening space. The waggon of Thespis, of which 
 Horace writes, must have arisen from some confusion between this 
 standing-place for the actor and the waggon of Susarion^. Themis- 
 tius tells us that Thespis invented a prologue and a rhesis^. The 
 former must have been the prooemium which he spoke as exarchus 
 of the improved Dithyramb; the latter the dialogue between him- 
 self and the chorus, by means of which he developed a myth 
 
 1 Aristoph. Ves^. 1479. 
 
 2 Plutarch, Sol. xxix. xxx. and p. 59, note i. 
 
 ^ The names of some of his plays have come down to us : they are the Tlevdev^, 
 "AOXa UeXiou, 7} ^opjSds, 'lepeh, 'Hi'^eot (Jul. Poll, VII. 45; Suid. s. v. QeawLs). 
 Gruppe must have founded his supposition that Ulysses was the subject of a play of 
 Thespis {^Ariadne, p. 129) on a misunderstanding of Plut. Sol. xxx. in which he was 
 preceded by Schneider {De Orir/inihus Trag. Gr. p. 56). 
 
 ^ See Welcker, Nachtrag, p. 248. We think that the joke of Dica^opolis (Arist. 
 Acharn. 355 sqq.) is an allusion to this practice. Solon mounted the heralds bema, 
 when he recited his verses to the people. ^V. Plut. c. 8). 
 
 ^ See Welcker, Nachtrag, p. 247. Gruppe saj's quaintly, but, we think, justly 
 {Ariadne, p. 122), "It is clear enough that the waggon of Thespis cannot well con- 
 sist with the festal choir of the Dionysia ; and, in fact, this old coach, which has been 
 fetched from Horace only, must be shoved back again into the lumber-room." The 
 words of Horace are {A. P. 275 — 277) : 
 
 Ignotum tragicse genus invenisse Camoenae 
 Dicitur et plaustris vexisse poemata Thespis, 
 Quae canerent agerentque peruncti faecibus ora. 
 
 *» p. 316, Hard. : Qia-rcLi 5^ vpoXoyov re kuI prjcnv e^eOpeu. 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 61 
 
 relating to Bacchus or some other deity or hero\ Lastly, there is 
 every reason to believe, that Thespis did not confine his represen- 
 tation to his native deme, but exhibited at Athens^ 
 
 From a comparison of these particulars respecting Thespis with 
 the facts which we have stated in connexion with the first return of 
 Pisistratus to Athens, we shall now be able to deduce some further 
 inferences. It appears, then, that a near approximation to the 
 perfect form of the Greek Drama took place in the time of Pisistra- 
 tus : all those who were concerned in bringing it about were 
 Diacrians, or connected with the worship of Bacchus ; the innova- 
 tions were either the results or the concomitants of an assumption 
 of political power by a caste of tlie inhabitants of Attica, whose 
 tutelary god was Bacchus, and were in substance nothing but an 
 union of the old choral worship of Bacchus, with an offshoot of the 
 rhapsodical recitations of the Ionic epopoeists ^. 
 
 We can understand without any difficulty why Pisistratus 
 should encourage the religion of his own people, the Diacrians or 
 ^gicores ; and why Solon, who thought he had given the lower 
 orders power enough'*, should oppose the adoption of their worship 
 as a part of the religion of the state ; for in those days the religion 
 and privileges of a caste rose and fell together. It might, however, 
 
 ^ This is the sense which the word pija-i? bears in Horn. Odyss. xxi. 290, -291 ; 
 
 aiTap cLKOveLS 
 
 Tj/xerepuu [xvOoiv Kal pT](Tto'i. 
 .^Eschyl. Suppl. 610: TOidvS' iweide pijaiv dp.(p' i]/j.u>v \^yo}v. 
 See Welcker, Nachtr. p. 269. The invention of the p-^crts seems also to be referred to 
 by Aristotle, when he says {^Poei. c. 4): Xe'^ews 5e y€yop.ev7]s. 
 
 2 Nachtrag, p, 254. 
 
 3 The conclusions of Gruppe are so nearly, in effect, the same as ours, and so well 
 expressed, that we think it right to lay them before our readers {Ariadne, p, [2 7>. 
 "Thespis developed from these detached speeches of the Choreutre, especially when 
 they were longer than usual, a recitation by an actor in the form of a narrative ; a 
 recitation, and not a song. Thespis, however, was an inhabitant of Attica, an Athe- 
 nian, and as such stood in the middle, between the proper lonians and the Dorians. 
 The formation of the epos was the peculiar property of the former, of lyric poetry that 
 of the latter. So long as tragedy or the tragic chorus existed in the Peloponnese, 
 they were of a lyrical nature. In this form, with the Doric dialect and a IjTical 
 accompaniment, they were transplanted into Attica ; and here it was that Thespis first 
 joined to them the Ionic element of narration, which, if not quite Ionic, had and 
 maintained a relationship with the Ionic, even in the language." We may here remark, 
 that all the old iambic poets wrote strictly in the Ionic dialect. Welcker has clearly 
 shown this by examples in the case of Sinionides of Amorgus, (See Rheinisch. 
 Museum for 1835, p. 369.) 
 
 "* Solon, ed. Bach, p. 94 : Atj/xo; iJ.ev yap ^8uKa roaov Kparo^ oacov iwapKe?. Is not 
 Niebuhr's translation of this line wrong ? (Hist. Rom. Vol. II, note 700.) Comp. 
 /Esch. Agamemn. 370: 
 
 ^OTw dirrniavTov wcrre KairapKelv eO Trpatridojv Xaxovra. 
 
62 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 be asked why Pisistratus and his party, who evidently in their en- 
 croachments on the power of the aristocracy adopted in most cases 
 the policy of the Sicyonian Cleisthenes, should in this particular 
 have deviated from it so far as to encourage the rhapsodes, whom 
 Cleisthenes, on the contrary, sedulously put down on account of the 
 great predilection of the aristocracy for the Epos^ This deserves 
 and requires some additional explanation. Pisistratus was not only 
 a Diacrian or goat- worshipper : he was also a Codrid, and therefore 
 a Neleid ; nay, he bore the name of one of the sons of his mythical 
 ancestor, Nestor : he might, therefore, be excused for feeling some 
 sort of aristocratical respect for the poems which described the wis- 
 dom and valour of his progenitors. Besides, he was born in the 
 deme Philaidse, which derived its name from Phila^us, one of the 
 sons of Ajax, and he reckoned Ajax also among his ancestors : this 
 may have induced him to desire a public commemoration of the 
 glories of the ^antidas, just as the Athenians of the next century 
 looked with delight and interest at the Play of Sophocles^: and we 
 have little doubt but he heard in his youth parts of the Iliad recited 
 at the neighbouring deme of Brauron^. If we add to this, that by 
 introducing into a few passages of the Homeric poems some striking- 
 encomiums on his countrymen, he was able to add considerably to 
 his popularity, and that it is always the policy of a tyrant to en- 
 courage literature^, we shall fully understand why he gave himself 
 so much trouble about these poems in the days of his power ^. 
 Solon also greatly encouraged the rhapsodes, and shares with Pisis- 
 tratus the honour of arranging the rhapsodies according to their 
 natural and poetical sequence^: we must not forget, too, that Solon 
 
 ^ Wachsmuth, Hell. Alt. ii. 2, 389. 
 
 2 See Rheinisch. Mus. for 1829, p. 62. 
 
 2 See Nitzsch, Indag. 'per Od. Interpol, prcepar. p. 37; Hist. Horn. p. 165; 
 Welcker, Ep. Cycl. p. 393. 
 
 •* "Debbe un principe/' says Machiavelli {il Principe, cap. xxi. fin.), *'ne' tempi 
 convenienti dell' anno tenere occupati i popoli con feste e spettacoli ; e perchfe ogni 
 cittk h divisa o in arti o in tribti, debbe tener conto di quelle university." 
 
 ^ Quis doctior iisdem illis temporibus, aut cujus eloquentia litteris instructior fuisse 
 traditur, quam Pisistrati? qui primus Homeri libros, confuses antea, sic disposuisse 
 dicitur ut nunc habemus. Cicer. de Orat. in. 34. 
 
 Ileicricrrparos 'iiry] ra 'Ofirjpov hLeaTraajxiva re koL oXkaxov /JLvrjfMovevS/xei'a yjdpoi^eTO. 
 Pausan. vii. 26, p. 594. 
 
 "Tcrrepov HeiaicTTpaTos avvayayi^u airecprjve T-qv 'IXtdSa Kal T7]u 'Odvacretav. ^lian, 
 V. H. XIII. 14. 
 
 See also Joseph, c. Ap)ion. 1, 2 ; Liban. Panegyr. in Julian. T. i. p. 170, Eeiske; 
 Suidas, V. "O/jiTjpQs; and Eustath. p. 5. 
 
 6 Comp. Diog. Sol. I. 57, with Ps. Plat. Hip-parch, p. 228 B. 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 63 
 
 was one of those writers of gnomic poetry, whom we have con- 
 sidered as the successors of the Epopoeists, and from whose writings 
 the Attic tragedians modelled their dialogue. Now we know that 
 Pisistratus endeavoured, as far as was consistent with his own de- 
 signs, to adopt the constitution of Solon, and always treated his 
 venerable kinsman with deference and respect. May not a wish to 
 reconcile his own plans with the tastes and feelings of the super- 
 seded legislator have operated with him as an additional reason for 
 attempting to unite the old epic element with the rites of the Dio- 
 nysian religion, which his political connexions compelled him to 
 transfer from the country to the city ? may not such a combination 
 have been suggested by his early recollections of the Brauronia? 
 did the genius of the Icarian plan the innovation, or was he merely 
 instrumental towards carrying it into effect ? was the name Thespis 
 originally borne by this agent of Pisistratus, or was it rather a sur- 
 name, derived from the common epithet of the Homeric minstreP, 
 and implying nothing more in its connexion with the history of the 
 drama, than that it arose from a combination such as we have 
 described ? 
 
 But whatever reason we may assign for the union of the rhap- 
 sody with the Bacchic chorus, it seems pretty clear that this union 
 was actually effected in the time of Pisistratus. And herein con- 
 sists the claim of Thespis to be considered as the inventor of Attic 
 Tragedy. Arion's satyrical chorus, and even the lyric drama of 
 Epigenes, may have been imitated at Athens soon after their intro- 
 duction in the Peloponnesus. The cyclic chorus was performed as 
 a separate affair till the latest days of Athenian democracy^, and 
 the Pyrrhic dance, which was adopted by the Satyrs, was also a 
 
 1 Horn, Od. I. 328 : 
 
 Tov 5' virepw'Cbdev <ppeal awdero dicTrtv doidi)!/ 
 KovpT] 'I Kapioio. 
 
 VIII. 498 : 
 
 ws dpa TOt irpd^pojv 6eds Loiraae 6e<nriv dotSi^u. 
 
 XVII. 385 : 
 
 Tj Kal d^aiTLv doidbv, 6 Keu TepTrrjcnv ddbwv. 
 
 See Buttmanii's Lexilogus, I. p. 166. It was very common to invent names for 
 persons from their actions, or for persons to change their own names according to 
 their profession. Thus Helen is called the daughter of Nemesis, Arion the son of 
 Cycleus, and Tisias changed his name into Stesichorus, by which alone he is known at 
 the present day (above, p. 37, and see Clinton's F. H. Vol. I. p. 5) ; so that Thespis 
 may even be an assumed name. 
 
 2 Lys. dTToS. 5w/)o5. p. 698. 
 
64 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 distinct exhibition ^ Nay, the Homeric rhapsody was recited by 
 itself on the proper occasion ; that is to say, generally at the great 
 Panathen^ea^: nor would the Homeric hexameter have been so 
 well suited to a dramatic dialogue as the trochaic tetrameter and 
 senarius, which the vigorous and sententious poetry of Archilochus 
 and the elder Simonides had made well known and popular in 
 Attica and in the -^gean. Whether anticipated or not by Su- 
 sarion, in the employment of the Iambic metre in dramatic speeches, 
 Thespis may claim the merit of having been the first to combine 
 with the Bacchic chorus, which he received from Arion, a truly 
 epic element, and he was clearly the first who made the rhapsode 
 appear as an actor sustaining different characters, and addressing 
 the audience from a fixed and elevated stage. At first he may 
 have been contented, like the exarchi of the improved Dithyramb, 
 with personating Bacchus, and surrounding himself with a chorus 
 of Satyrs; but there is every reason to believe that he soon ex- 
 tended his sphere of myths, and that his plots were as various as 
 those of his successors. 
 
 Bentley was interested in the establishment of his proposition 
 that Thespis did not write his plays, and naturally manifested the 
 eagerness of a pleader rather than the impartiality of a judge ^. 
 There is no antecedent improbability in the statement of Donatus 
 that Thespis wrote tragedies. Solon, and, much earlier, Archilo- 
 chus and Simonides committed their poems to writing ; and in the 
 days of Pisistratus it is not likely that a favourite rhapsode would 
 leave his compositions unpublished. The destruction of Athens, in 
 B.C. 480, made the older specimens of Attic literature very scarce, 
 but there must have been some remains of his writings in the time 
 of Sophocles, otherwise that poet would hardly have published 
 strictures on him and Choerilus^, which, as we may infer from his 
 criticisms on ^schylus^, in all probability referred to the harshness 
 of their style. Aristophanes speaks of him precisely in the same 
 terms as he does of Phrynichus, predicating an antiquated stiffness 
 of both these old Tragedians^. We may grant that the lines attri- 
 
 1 Lys. u. s. ; Schol. Aristojoh. Nub. 988. 
 
 2 Lycurg. c. Leocr. p. 161 ; Plat. Hipparch. p. 228 b; ^lian, V. H. viii. 2. 
 
 3 Dissertation on Phalaris, pp. 237 sqq. 
 
 ^ Suid. s. V. So^o/cXtjs : irepl tov xopov Trpbs Q^ainv /cat XoipiXop dyoovi^op.ei'os. 
 
 5 See Miiller, Hist. Lit. Gr. Vol. i. p. 340, and our note on tlie translation. 
 
 '^ Comp. Ve.'ip. 220: dpxo-LOfieXi.a-tdwuocppuvLxVP^^'''^ f^^^V> " antiquated honey-sweet 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 65 
 
 buted to Thespis by Clemens Alexandriims ^ contain internal evi- 
 dence of their spuriousness, but there is no presumption against the 
 authenticity of the quotations in Plutarch ^ and Julius Pollux^, be- 
 yond the ill-founded hypothesis, that Thespis composed only ludi- 
 crous dramas. This hypothesis, as we have seen above, rests on 
 the old confusion between Thespis and Susarion. The forgeries of 
 Heraclides Ponticus are themselves no slight proof of the originally 
 serious character of the Thespian drama; for if his contemporaries 
 had really believed that Thespis wrote nothing but ludicrous 
 dramas, a scholar of Aristotle Avould hardly have attempted to im- 
 pose upon the public with a set of plays, altogether different in 
 style and title from those of the author on whom he wished to pass 
 them off. The fact is, that the choral plays from which the Thes- 
 pian drama was formed were satyrical, for the Dithyramb in the 
 improved form which it received from Arion was performed by a 
 chorus of satyrs "^ ; and there is little doubt that Thespis may have 
 been a satyric poet before he was a tragedian, in the more modern 
 sense of the word : but Chamseleon seems to have expressly men- 
 tioned the fact, that Thespis passed from Bacchic to Epic subjects^. 
 With regard to the titles of his plays preserved by Suidas and 
 Julius Pollux, they are not really open to cavil. For even sup- 
 posing that they refer rather to the apocryphal compositions of 
 Heraclides than to the lost tragedies of the old Icarian, there is no 
 reason for concluding that the titles were not borrowed by the 
 fabricator from obsolete but genuine dramas. Unless we are pre- 
 pared to maintain, against the prevalent tendency of all the autho- 
 rities, that Thespis never wrote or acted a play of grave or pathetic 
 character, we cannot assert that he was unlikely to have brought 
 
 and popular ditties from the Phoenissse of Phrynichus/' with a passage in a, subse- 
 quent part of the same play (1479) : 
 
 opxovfjievos T7]$ vvKTos cvbev Traijerai 
 
 TapxcLi' eKelv oh QicFins rjycovi^ero. 
 
 1 Clem. Al. Strohi. v. p. 675, Potter. 
 
 2 Plut. de Audiendis Poetis, p. 134, Wj^ttenb. 
 
 ^ Jul. Poll. VII. 45. Another fragment has been lately published from a papyrus 
 by Letronne, Fragmens iiiedits d'anciens poetes Grecs, Par, 1838, p. 7; ovk e^adprjaas 
 old'' idibv de croi X^7w, where e^adpeu is dira^ Xeyofiepou. 
 
 ^ Above, p. 40. 
 
 ^ This seems to be the proper interpretation of the pa.ssage in Photius, Lex. s. v. 
 oiideu vpbs rov Atouvcrou — to irpbcrdev eis rbv Aiovvaov ypd(pouT€S tovtois rjywvl^ovTO 
 arrep Kai aarvpLKo. iXeyero' varepou 5e /xera^SavTes eis rpayusdlas ypdcpeiv Kara /niKpov eli 
 fiv9ovs Kal laropias erpaTr-qaav /xt^Keri rod QeoO fxvrj/JLOvevouTes, odev Kal irrecpdji'r/crav 
 K.T.X. Kal XafiatXeuv ev T(f vepl Qeaindos. Below, p. [69], note I. 
 
 D. T. G. 5 
 
66 THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 
 
 forward dramas, bearing the titles in question — namely, " Pen- 
 theus;" "the Funeral Games of Pelias," or "Phorbas;" "the 
 Priests;" "the Youths;" indeed it would not be difficult to show 
 that these subjects were very well adapted for the narrative speeches 
 which must have abounded while the actor was limited to the per- 
 sonation of one character at a time. 
 
 With regard to the violent and ludicrous dances, which were 
 attributed to Thespis, and of which Aristophanes gives a somewhat 
 ludicrous picture at the end of his " Wasps \" we have only to 
 remark that all antiquated postures, attitudes, and movements, 
 appear ridiculous to those whose grandfathers practised them. 
 Apollo himself is described as leading the Paean with high and 
 springy steps 2; and the gymnop^dic dance, in which the Tragic 
 Emmeleia took its rise, must have been originally distinguished 
 by the agility which it prescribed. In the early days of the 
 drama a great deal of energetic and expressive gesticulation was 
 expected from the chorus, and even in the time of ^schylus it 
 is recorded that Telestes, the ballet-leader of that poet, invented 
 many new forms of 'xeipovofxla or manual gesticulations, and that 
 in the " Seven against Thebes" he represented the action of the 
 piece by his mimic dancing^. 
 
 The statement of Suidas, that Phrynichus was the first who 
 introduced women on the stage (j7TpwTo<s yvvaiKelov TrpoacoTrov elar)- 
 yayep), which Bentley, perhaps purposely, mistranslates, is no 
 reason for concluding that Thespis never wrote a Tragedy called 
 " Alcestis," were there any real evidence to show that this was the 
 title of one of his plays ; for it would have been perfectly easy 
 to handle that subject in the Thespian manner, that is, with 
 more narrative than dialogue, without the introduction of Alcestis 
 herself''. Indeed we cannot conceive how she could be introduced 
 as talking to the chorus, whom she does not once address in the 
 play of Euripides, and there was no other actor for her to talk with. 
 
 1 V. 1848 sqq. ; Bentley, Phalaris, pp. 265 sqq. " 
 
 2 Above, p. 32, note 2. 
 
 3 Welcker, Nachtrag, pp. ■266, 7; Athen. I. p. 21 F: Kol TAects U rj TeXeaTTjs, 6 
 dpxv^'^odcddcTKaXos, woXXa i^euprjKe (rxTj^aara dKpcjs rah X^P*^^ ''«■ 'Keyo/xei'a beLKWo^aats 
 'ApiCTOKKris yovu (prjalu on TeXecrT-rjs 6 Alax^^ov opxV'^'^V^ ovtws tJu Texvirrjs wcrre 
 
 , 6J' ry dpx^'^o'dai tovs 'Etttci eVi Qrj^as (pauepa Troirja-at. rd Trpdy/xara di opxvceus. See 
 Heindorf, ad Plat. Cratyl. § 51. 
 
 4 In the Suppliants, one of the most archaic of the extant plays of /Eschylus, no 
 female character is introduced on the stage, although all the interest centres in the 
 daughters of Danaus, who form the chorus. 
 
THE TRAGIC DIALOGUE. — THESPIS. 67 
 
 Of course, there could be no theatrical contests in the days 
 of Thespis^ : but the dithyrambic contests seem to have been im- 
 portant enough to induce Pisistratus to build a temple in which 
 the victorious choragi might offer up their tripods^, a practice which 
 the victors with the tragic chorus subsequently adopted. 
 
 1 Plutarch, Sol. xxix. 
 
 ^ Il{>6iov, lepov 'AttoXXwi'os 'Adrjurjo-ip virb TletcncrTpaTov yeyovSs' ets 5 rods rplirodas 
 eTideaav oi ti^ kvkXIo} x^P^ vcK7jcravTe$ to, QapyrjXia. Photius. Conip. Thucyd. ii. 15, 
 VI. 54. 
 
CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 THE PROPER CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK PLAYS. 
 ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 
 
 The best actors in the world, either for tragedy, comedy, histoid, 'pastoral, pastoral- 
 comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-histoi'ical-pastoral, 
 scene individahle, or poem unlimited. For the law of writ and the law of liberty 
 these are the only men. Shakspeare. 
 
 IT is generally stated that there were three kinds of Greek Plays, 
 and three only — Tragedy, Comedy, and the Satyrical Drama. 
 It will be our endeavour in the present chapter to examine this 
 classification, and to see whether some better one cannot be pro- 
 posed. With a view to this it will be proper to inquire into the 
 origin of the comical and satyrical dramas, just as we have already 
 investigated the origin of Tragedy, and to consider how far the 
 Satyrical Drama differed from or agreed with either the Tragedy 
 or Comedy of the Greeks. 
 
 The word Tragedy — rpar/oi^ca — is derived of course from the 
 words Tpdyo^ and 0^877. The former word, as we have already 
 seen, is a synonym for adrvpo^^ : for the goat-eared attendant 
 of Dionysus was called by the name of the animal which he re- 
 sembled, just as the shepherd or goatherd was called by the name 
 of the animal which he tended, and whose skin formed his clothing^. 
 Tpajo)Bia is therefore not the song of a goat, because a goat was 
 the prize of it; but a song accompanied by a dance performed 
 by persons in the guise of satyrs, consequently a satyric dance; 
 and we have already shown how Tragedy in its more modern sense 
 arose from such performances. At first, then. Tragedy and the 
 
 1 See above, p. 40, note 4. 
 
 * The word Tltyrus signifies, according to Servius, the leading ram of the flock ; 
 according to other authorities it means a goat: and some have even supposed it to be 
 another form of Satyrics. See the passages quoted by Miiller, Dor. iv. ch. 6, § 10, 
 note (e). 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 69 
 
 Satyrical Drama ^ye^e one and the same. When, however, the Tra- 
 gedy of Thespis had lirmlj establishtd itself, and Comedy was 
 not yet introduced, the common people became discontented with 
 tlie serious character of the new dramatic exhibitions, and missed 
 the merriment of the country satyrs; at the same time they thought 
 that their own tutelary deity was not sufficiently honoured in per- 
 formances which were principally taken up with adventures of 
 other personages : in the end they gave vent to their dissatisfaction, 
 and on more than one occasion the audience vociferously com- 
 plained that the play to which they were admitted had nothing 
 to do with Bacchus \ The prevalence of this feeling at length 
 induced Pratinas of Phlius, who was a contemporary of ^schy- 
 lus, to restore the tragic chorus to the satyrs, and to write dramas 
 which were indeed the same in form and materials with the Tragedy, 
 but the choruses of which were composed of satyrs, and the dances 
 pyrrhic instead of gymnop^edic^. This is the drama which has 
 been considered by some as s])ecifically different both from Tragedy 
 and Comedy, but which was in fact only a subdivision of Tragedy^, 
 written always by Tragedians, and, we believe, seldom* acted but 
 along with Tragedies^. 
 
 We have already referred to the statement that the Comedy of 
 the Greeks arose from the Phallic processions, just as their Tragedy 
 
 ^ In his opening Syraposiacal disquisition, Plutarch thus speaks : "Clairep oZv, 
 ^pvvixov Koi AtVxuXoy Trjv rpaycpdiav els fxvdovs Kal irddrj irpoayovTcov, eXexdv' '^^ ravra 
 irpbs rov ^idwaov ; — ovtw% ^ixoiye TroWaKis direlv irapeaTT) irpos roi)j 'iXKOvras ets tA 
 cvp.iro(na rbv Kvpievovra — -^1] dvOpojire, t'l ravra irpbs rbv ^Lovvaov ; — Sympos. I. I. 
 
 Zenobius gives this explanation of the phrase Ov5kv irpbs rbv ^ibvvaov.'—llQiv xo/owi/ 
 f| d/)x?7S €idL<jp.evu}u bidvpap^ov ^deiv els rbv Alovvctov, ol iroirjral varepov eK^dvres rrjs 
 avvrjdeias ravrrjs Atavras Kal Kevravpovs ypdcpecv eirex^povv. "Odev ol 6eup.evoi (XKui- 
 TTTovres iXeyov, Ovbev irpbs rbv Aidvvcrov. Aid. yovv rovro rovs "Earvpovs varepov ^do^ev 
 avrois Trpoeicrdyetv, 'iva /jlt] doKuxriv eirCkavddveadai rov deov. p. 40. 
 
 Suidas, in his explanation of the same saying, after mentioning the opinion by 
 which it was referred to the alterations of Epigenes the Sicyonian, adds : hiXriov bk 
 ovrcjj' To irpbadev els rbv Alovvctov ypdcpovres, rovrois rjywvi^ovro, dvep Kal HarvpiKa 
 iXeyero' varepov 51 p-era^dvres els to rpaycpdias ypd(pei.v, Kara piKpbv els pvdovs Kal 
 iaropias erpdnr^aav, p.7]K&i rov Aiovvaov pLv-qpovevovres' — odev rovro Kal iTre(pu}V7]aav. 
 Kal XapaiXeuJv ev r(p irepl Qta-mSos rd TrapaTrXrjcrca laropei. So also Photius, above, 
 p. 65, note 5. 
 
 2 Above, p. 35. 
 
 ' Demetrius says (de Elocut. § 169, Vol. ix. p. 76, Walz) : 6 5^ yiKcos ex^ph. 
 rpaycpSias' ov5k yap eTrivorjaeLev dv ris rpayuidiav iral^ovaav, itrel cdrvpov ypd'^ei 
 dvrl rpayuibias. 
 
 * K Pratinas wrote only eighteen tragedies to thirty-two satyrical dramas, some of 
 the latter must have been acted alone. See Welcker, Trilogie, pp. 497 — 8. 
 
 ' It has been plausibly conjectured that the satyrical drama was originally acted 
 before the Tragedy. Welk. Nachtr. p. 279. 
 
70 CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK PLAYS. 
 
 did from the Dithyramb \ Its progress, however, and its successive 
 advances from rudeness to. perfection, are involved in so much 
 obscurity, that even Aristotle is unable to tell us any thing about 
 it; but he is willing to concede that it was started in Sicily 2, 
 or primarily in Megaris^. And this appears very probable; for 
 not only was Susarion, who is generally admitted to have been 
 the earliest comic poet*, a native of Tripodiscus in Megaris, but 
 continual allusions are made in ancient writers^ to the coarse 
 humour of the Megarians and their strong turn for the ludicrous, 
 qualities which they seem to have imparted to their Sicilian 
 colonists. 
 
 But whatever may have been the birth-place of Greek Comedy, 
 it is quite certain that it originated in a country festival : it was 
 in fact the celebration of the vintage, when the country people went 
 round from village to village, some in carts^, who uttered all the 
 vile jests and abusive speeches with which the Tragedy of Thespis 
 has been most unjustly saddled ; others on foot, who bore aloft the 
 Phallic emblem, and invoked in songs Phales the comrade of Bac- 
 chus'^. This custom of going round from village to village sug- 
 gested the derivation of Comedy from kw^t), and Aristotle has been 
 misled by his own learning into an apparent approbation of this, on 
 many accounts, absurd etymology®. One reason which has been 
 advanced in defence of this etymology is extraordinarily ridiculous. 
 We are told^ that the word cannot be derived from atco/xo?, because 
 
 ^ Above, p. 10, Thus we read that Antheas the Lindian /cWyuyStas eirolei koI 
 6X\a TToWa ev to^tu) r^J rpoiri^ tCjp TronjfMdTCJv, d ^^VPX^ ''^'^ //.ex' avrov (paXko(popov<XL. 
 (Athen. p. 445 B.) 
 
 2 Ai fih odv TT)s rpayudias /zera/3acreis, Kal 5i' uv eyivovro, 01) XeXTjOaaiv. i] 5^ 
 KU/xqjdLa, 5td to p.r} (Xirovdd^ecrdai e^ dpxv^, ^XaOe. Kal yap x^pov /cWjuySw;/ 6^^ Trore 6 
 dipx^v ^duKcv, dX\' ideXopral rjaav ij^ri bk (rx?7/iaTd TLva avTTjS ixoijcrrji, oi Xeyo/xevoi 
 auTTjs TTOLrjTal p-vrjixovevovTai' ris bk Trpoaojira dir^bwKev, 7/ Xoyovs, ij irX'qdyj vwoKpLTdv, 
 Kal 6<xa TOiavTa, rjyvd-rjTai. Tou S^ fiddovs iroteiv 'ETrt'xapAtos Kal ^dpfiis rip^av to p-h 
 odv e^apxv^ ^k 2t/ceXtas ^X^e. Aristot. Poet. v. 
 
 ^ T'^s p.kv KOi}p.(x35ias ol Meyapeis, o'l re evTavda, cos ^irl ttjj trap a^TOis dTjfiOKpaTias 
 yevofxePTjs, Kal ol e/c liiKeXlas. Poet. III. 5. 
 
 * Proleg. Aristoph. Kiist. p. xi : Tr}v Kiap-oiblav rjvpTJadai 0a(ri virb "Zovaapioivo^. 
 
 ^ See Miiller's Dorians, iv. 7, § i. 
 
 ^ Schol. Lucian. Zei>s TpayipSos (vi. p. 388, Lehmann) : iv ttj eopTrj tCjv Aiovvcricov 
 trapb. Tols 'A6r]Paiots ewl d/io^cDj' Kad-qp-epoi '^crKwirTov dXXi^Xovs Kal iXoidopovpTO iroXXd. 
 See the passages in Creuzer's note on Lydus, de Mens. p. 127, ed. Rother. 
 
 ^ The reader will see these particulars in Aristoph. Acha7'n. 240 sqq. 
 
 ^ TTOLOvfiepoi rd opSpLora (T7]p.€iop, ovtol p.h yap {UeXoTropp-rjaioi) Koofxai rds TrepioiKlSas 
 KoXeiv (f>acrip, 'Kd-rjpatoi bk drjfiovs. cos KOjpupSoijs, ovk awb toO Kcop-d^eiu Xe^^e^ras dXXd 
 T'Q KaTCL /fci/ias TrXdpT] dTip,a^op,ipovs ck toO dareos. Poet. c. III. 
 
 ® By Schneider {de Orig. Comm. p. 5). 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 71 
 
 one of the meanings of that word is r) fxer olvov whr}. This would 
 scarcely be an argument if it were only the signification of the 
 word Koofio^i : but this is so far from being the case, that it is not 
 even the primary or most usual meaning of the word. Kco/jlo^;^ 
 signifies a revel continued after supper. It was a very ancient 
 custom in Greece for young men, after rising from an evening 
 banquet, to ramble about the streets to the sound of the flute or 
 the lyre, and with torches in their hands ; such a band of revellers 
 was also called a kw/jlo^. Thus ^schylus says''^, very forcibly, that 
 the Furies, although they had drunk their fill of human blood in 
 the house of the Pelopidce, and though it was now time that they 
 should go out like a /cc5/zo9, nevertheless obstinately stuck to the 
 house, and would not depart from it. And as the band of revellers 
 " flown with insolence and wine," as Milton says^, not unfrequently 
 made a riotous entrance into any house where an entertainment 
 was going on*, the verb eTreLaKco/jid^ct) is used metaphorically by 
 Plato to signify any interruption or intrusion, whether it be the in- 
 vasion of a philosophical school by mere pretenders to science^, or 
 the evasion of the proper subject of inquiry by the introduction of 
 extraneous matter^. Hence the word Kc3//,o9 is used to denote any 
 band or company. In a secondary sense, it signifies a song sung 
 either by a convivial party or at the Bacchic feasts (not merely in 
 honour of the god, but also to ridicule certain persons), or lastly, 
 by a procession in honour of a victor at the public games. By a 
 still further transition, /cw/xo? is used for a song in general ; and a 
 peculiar flute tune, together with its corresponding dance, was 
 known by this name. It was in the second sense of the word that 
 the Bacchic reveller was called a KWfxcoho^i, namely, a comus-singer, 
 according to the analogy of rpayojBo^, i\apa)S6(i, &c., in which the 
 first part of the compound refers to the performer, the second to the 
 
 1 See Welcker in Jacobs' edition of Philostratus, p. 202. The remarks in the text 
 are an abstract of what he says on the signification of this word. He supposes, how- 
 ever, that /cw/uwSos is derived from the secondary sense of the word, in which he agrees 
 with Kanngiesser (Koiii. Bilhn. p. 32), 
 
 2 Agamemnon, 1161, Wellauer : 
 
 Kal fxrjv TreTTW/ccus y us dpaavveadat wXiov 
 Bporeioj' aifia KQfios ev do/j-ois /xeuet 
 Avaire/xTTTos ^^w avyyovcju ^'EpLvi^vbiv. 
 
 3 Par. L. I. 502. 
 
 ^ Like Alcibiades in Plato's Sympos. p. 212 c. 
 ^ Resp. p. 500 B : Toits ^^ojdeu ov Trpoa-iJKOv eireKXKCKiaixaKOTas. 
 
 ® Thecetet. p. 184 A: Kal rb fieyiaTov, ov eveKa 6 X670S uipfMrjTai, iwtaT'qfirjs -rripi., tL 
 ttot' iariv, Slctk^tttov yivTqrat. vwo tQu eireLaKUfJ-a^ovTuv Xoyoji'. 
 
72 CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK PLAYS. 
 
 song, and as rpayoySla signifies a song of satyrs, so Kcof^oiBla means 
 a song of comiTS. It is clear, from the manner in wliicli the Athe- 
 nian writers speak of tlie country Dionysian procession, that it was 
 considered as a comus^ ; and we think this view of the case is con- 
 firmed by the epithet ^vyKcofio^, which Dicseopolis applies to Phales 
 as the companion of Bacchus '^ 
 
 The Phallic processions, from which the old Comedy arose, seem 
 to have been allowed in very early times in all cities ; Aristotle tells 
 us that they still continued in many cities even in his time^, and 
 the inscriptions quoted above '^ prove that a lyrical Comedy had 
 developed itself from them. In the time of the orators, the Wv- 
 (j^aWoL were still danced in the orchestra at Athens^, and we 
 learn from the speech of Demosthenes against Conon, that the 
 riotous and profligate young men, who infested the streets, delighted 
 to call themselves by names^ derived from these comic buffooneries. 
 But probably they were always more common in the country, 
 which was their natural abode ; and if a modern scholar^ is right 
 in concluding from the words of the Scholiast on Aristophanes®, 
 that there were two sorts of Phallic processions, the one public, 
 the other private, we cannot believe that the private vintage cere- 
 monies ever found their way into the great towns. Pasquinades of 
 the coarsest kind seem to have formed the principal part of 
 these rural exhibitions 9, and this was probably the reason wliy 
 Comedy was established at Athens in the time of Pericles; for 
 the demagogues, wanting to invent some means of attacking their 
 political opponents with safety, could think of no better way of 
 efiecting this than by introducing into the city the favourite country 
 sports of the lower orders, and then it was, and not till then, that 
 
 ^ Thus in an old law quoted by Demosthenes (c. Mid. p. 517), we have 6 kQ/xos 
 Kal ol /cw//.y5oi. 
 
 2 Acharn. 263 : ^aXrjs, iraXpe Bukx^ov, 
 
 3 TO, 0aXXifcct a in kuI vdv iv 7roXXa?s tup iroXecov Sca/xipei vojiU^Sfxeva. Aristot. 
 Poet. c. IV. 
 
 ■* Above, pp. 45 sqq. 
 
 ^ Hypeiides apud Harpocrat. v. '106(f)a\\oi. 
 
 ^ They termed themselves 'lOvcpaWoi and AvroXriKvdoi. Demosth. Conon, 194 
 (1261). Cf. Athen. xiv. p. 622; Lucian, ii. 336. 
 
 '' Schneider, de Orig. Com. p. 14. 
 
 ^ Acharn. 243 (p. 775, 1. 32, Dind,): TreiaOhres odu toXs 7jyy€\fJ.4vois oi 'AO-qvaioi 
 ^dWovs I5ig. Kal dr}fMO(Tia KarecrKevaaav Kal tovtois iy^paipov tov debv. 
 
 ^ Platonius, irepl dLa<popas Kijipufi^iCov: 'TrroO^aeis fikv yap t^j TraXatas K(a/x(p8ias 
 fiaav avrai rb arparTjyoTs einTLp.q.v, k. t, X. 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 73 
 
 the performance of Comedies became, like that of Tragedies, a public 
 concern^. When it was formally established as a distinct species 
 of drama at Athens, the old Comedy was supplied, like Tragedy, 
 with a chorus, which, though not so numerous or expensively 
 attired as the tragic, was as carefully trained and as systematic in 
 its songs and dances. In effect, it was the same modification of 
 an original comus as that which performed the Epinicia of Pindar. 
 It appears from several passages that the comic actors were ori- 
 ginally unprovided with masks, but rubbed their faces over with 
 wine-lees as a substitute for that disguise^. 
 
 The Tragedy and Comedy of the Greeks had, therefore, an 
 entirely different origin. We must in the next place consider what 
 were their distinctive peculiarities, how far they differed intrinsi- 
 cally, and whether any of the remaining Greek plays cannot be 
 considered as belonging strictly either to Tragedy or Comedy. 
 We shall do this more satisfactorily, if we first set" forth the defi- 
 nitions which have been given by Plato and Aristotle. Plato has 
 rather alluded to, than expressed, the distinction between Tragedy 
 and Comedy in their most perfect form, but his slight remarks 
 nevertheless strike at the root of the matter. Comedy, he considers^ 
 to be the generic name for all dramatic exhibitions which have 
 a tendency to excite laughter ; while Tragedy, in the truest sense 
 of the word, is an imitation of the noblest life, that is, of the actions 
 of gods and heroes. As a definition, however, this account of 
 Tragedy, although excellent as far as it goes, is altogether incom- 
 plete. Aristotle's, on the other hand, is quite perfect. He makes 
 the distinction, which Plato leaves to be inferred, between the 
 
 ^ Xopbv KWfJLw^^v oxp^ TTore 'ihwKev 6 apx^v. Aristotle, above, p. 70, note 2. 
 
 Gruppe labours under some extraordinary mistake in supposing {Ariadne, p. 123) 
 that Comedy was not originally connected with religion. 
 
 ^ Hence a comedian is called rpvyifdos, "a lee-singer," It does not appear that 
 masks were always used even in the time of Aristophanes, who acted the part of Cleon 
 in the 'ItttttJs without one. In later times, however, it was considered disreputable 
 to go in any comus without a mask. Demosth. Fals. Leg. p. 433: roxj Karapdrov 
 'Kvprj^iujvos 6s eV rats Trofnrals duev toG irpoauiirov KOJ/xd^ei. 
 
 2 Leffr/. VII, p, 817: oaa p-h oZv irepl yiXwrd iari vaiyvia, a dr] K(j}p.Lohiav Travres 
 
 \^yop.€u p.ip.Tjais rod KaWiarov Kal dpicTTov ^iov 6 dr) (pap.eu irdvres ye 6vt(jjs 
 
 etvai Tpayu}diav ttju dXrjdeaTdTrjv. The KoKKiaro^ Kal dpiaros ^lo% signifies the life of a 
 man who is in the highest degree KoXoKayaOos, and this term exactly expresses the 
 persons who figured in the plays of ^schylus and Sophocles ; for, as Dr, Thirlwall 
 remarks, in his beautiful paper On the Irony of Sophocles, "None but gods or heroes 
 could act any prominent part in the Attic tragedy" {Phil. 3fns. ii. p. 493), And 
 this is perhaps the reason why Plato, in another passage {Gorgias, p, 502 A), talks of 
 17 aep.vr] Kal dav/xaarr] 77 ttjs rpayqsdias Trolrjcns. 
 
74 CLASSIFICATION OP GREEK PLAYS. 
 
 objects of tragic and comic imitation, and adds to it the consti- 
 tuent characteristic of Tragedy, namely, that it effects by means 
 of pity and terror the pm-gation of such passions ^ Aristotle's 
 definition of Tragedy is so full and comprehensive, that it has 
 been adopted even by modern writers as a description of what 
 modern Tragedy ought to be^; there is one particular, however, 
 which he has not expressly stated, and which is due rather to the 
 origin of Greek Tragedy than to its essence, we mean the necessity 
 for a previous acquaintance on the part of the audience with the 
 plot of the Tragedy : this it is which most eminently distinguishes 
 the Tragedies of Sophocles from those of Shakspeare, and to this is 
 owing the poetical irony with which the poet and the spectators 
 handled or looked upon the characters in the piece ^. Aristotle 
 is supposed by his commentator Eustratius, to allude to this in 
 a passage of the Ethics*: we are disposed to believe on the con- 
 trary, that he is referring to the different effects which events 
 related in a Tragedy, as having taken place prior to the time of 
 the events represented, and those events which are represented by 
 action, produce on the minds of the spectators : for example, the 
 calamities of (Edipus, when alluded to in the QEdipus at Colonus, 
 do not strike us with so much horror as when they are represented 
 in the (Edipus at Thebes. 
 
 If, however, all the prominent characters in the true Tragedy 
 were gods or heroes, it follows that the Uepaac of ^schylus, and 
 the MiXrjTov aXcoG-L<; and ^olvLaaat of Phrynichus, were not 
 Tragedies in the truest sense ^, and must be referred to the class of 
 
 ^ 7] Sk KWfJuphLa iariv, uicnrep diroixev, fji,tjxr]cn.s (pav\oTip())p jxiv, ov fievroi Kara 
 iraaav KaKcav, dXXd rod alcrxpov ecm to ye\o7ov fidpiov. Poet. c. V. — ^arip odv rpayuidia 
 fAifXTjais irpd^€0}S crvovdaias kuI reXelas, fxeyeOos ixo^arjs — ^— dpdivTiou Kal ov 5i' 
 aTTayyeXias, di eXiov Kal <p6^ov irepalvovcra rrju tQu tolovtwv TradrjfxdTuv KaOapaiv. 
 Poet. c. VI. 
 
 2 Kurd's definition {On the Province of the Drama, p. 164) is a mere copy of 
 Aristotle. Schiller, who has a better right to declare ex cathedra what Tragedy ought 
 to be, than any writer of the last century, thus defines it: *' That art which proposes 
 to itself, as its especial object, the pleasure resulting from compassion, is called the 
 tragic art in the most comprehensive sense of the word." Werke, in einem Bande, 
 p. 1 176. 
 
 3 See Dr. Thirlwall's Essay On the Irony of Sophocles. 
 
 * I. II, § 4: dia^epei Se twv -rraOoJu '^Kaarov rrepl ^Quras rj TeXevT'qaavTas (rvju.^aiueiv 
 TroXi> fxaXXov ij to. irapdvoixa Kal deivd Trpovwapxeiv rah rpayciidtais rj irpdrrecrdai. 
 
 ^ Niebuhr, Hist. Home, Vol. i. note 1150: "The Destruction of Miletus by Phry- 
 nichus, and the Persians of ^schylus, were plays that drew forth all the manly 
 feelings of bleeding or exulting hearts, and not tragedies : for these the Greeks, before 
 the Alexandrian age, took their plots solely out of mythical story. It was essential 
 that their contents should be known beforehand : whereas the stories of Hamlet and 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 75 
 
 Histories, which exist in all countries where the drama is much 
 cultivated, as a subordinate species of Tragedy : the other Tragedies 
 we may call myths or fables ^ as distinguished from the true stories, 
 to which they bore the same relation in the subdivision of Ionian 
 literature, that the Epos bore to the history of Herodotus. 
 
 In the course of time, another rib was taken from the side of 
 the primary Tragedy, and Tragi-comedy sprang up under the 
 fostering care of Euripides, which was probably the forerunner of 
 the ikapoTpa<y(t)hLaL of Rhinthon, Sopatrus, Sciras, and Blgesus^. 
 One old specimen of this kind of play remains to us in the "AXfcrj- 
 aTL<; of Euripides, which was performed as the satyrical drama of a 
 Tragic Trilogy, 438 B.C., and we are inclined to consider the 
 Orestes as another of the same sort^. It resembled the regular 
 Tragedy in its outward form, but contained some comic characters, 
 and always had a happy termination. 
 
 Of the Satyrical Drama we have already spoken : we cannot, 
 liowever, quit the subject of Tragedy and its subordinate forms, 
 without noticing a play called EtXajre? ol iirl Tacvapo), which was, 
 according to Herodian^ a satyrical drama. This statement has 
 occasioned some difficulties. It has been asked^, were the Helots, 
 who doubtless composed the chorus, dressed like satyrs, or mixed 
 up with satyrs? But if it was a satyrical drama, what mytho- 
 logical subject is reconcilable with a chorus of Helots? and on 
 the same supposition, how could the comedian Eupolis, to whom 
 Athena3us6 ascribes the play, have been its author? for a trespass 
 by a comedian on the domains of the tragic muse, to whom the 
 satyrical drama belonged, was, especially in those times, something 
 
 Macbeth were unknown to the spectators ; at present, parts of them might be moulded 
 into tragedies like the Greek; that is, if a Sophocles were to rise up." 
 
 1 The words of Suidas, quoted above, appear to allude to this distinction ; /car a 
 fjLiKpbv et's fxijdovs Kai la to pi as iTpaTrrjaav. 
 
 2 Muller's Dor. iv. ch. 7, § 6. 
 
 3 In an argument to the Alcestis, published from a Vatican MS. (No. 909) by 
 Pindorf, in 1834, we find the following words: T6 dpa/Jia iiroLTjOr] l^. idi8dx07] iirl 
 TXavKlvov iipxovTos to X. irpCoTos -qv 'LocpoKKrjs, devTepos Evpnridris Kprjacrais, 'AXK/xaiQvi 
 Tcp 5ta "^a)0t5os, TifKecpa}, 'AX/CTjcrrtSt. to 5e dpdfxa KCjfJLiKOJTepav ^x" '''V KaTa<TK€vr)v. 
 The last sentence is a repetition in effect of the statement in the Copenhagen argument. 
 (Matthise, vii. p. 214.) On the date see Welcker, Rheinisch. Mus. for 1835, p. 508; 
 Clinton, F. H. Vol. i. p. 424. 
 
 ^ See Eustathius on Iliad ii. p. •297. 
 
 ^ By Miiller in Was fur eine Art Drama waren "die Jleloten"? Niebuhr's Khein, 
 Mus. III. p. 488, 
 ^ IV. p. 138. 
 
76 CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK PLAYS. 
 
 quite unheard of. There is, it must be admitted, some difficulty 
 in this, and principally in regard to the last question. The Helots, 
 with their dresses of goatskin or sheepskin, and their indecent 
 dances in honour of Bacchus, were very fit substitutes for the 
 satyrs, and it is quite possible to conceive that a Dionysian myth 
 might be represented in a play, the chorus of which consisted of 
 Helots. From the statement, however, that Eupolis was the author, 
 and from the purely comic and criticizing tone of one of the frag- 
 ments \ we are disposed to conclude that Herodian is mistaken 
 in calling it a satyrical drama, and that he has been misled by 
 the resemblance between the guise of the Helots, and that of the 
 satyrs; whereas the play was a regular Comedy with a political 
 reference, perhaps not unlike the Aafcehalixove^ of the same author. 
 
 The Comedy of the Greeks first attained to a distinct literary 
 and political importance in the country which witnessed its final 
 development in a form corresponding to that of its modern repre- 
 sentatives. Whatever may have been the value of the writings of 
 Epicharmus, they have not reached our time except in fragments. 
 For us, Greek Comedy, both in itself, and in its Koman transcrip- 
 tions, is the Comedy of Athens. So far as we are acquainted with 
 its literary history, it owes its first development and completion 
 to the political and social condition of that great democratic metro- 
 polis; and it is so intimately connected with all that is characteristic 
 of Attic life, that the greatest scholars of Alexandria, Lycophron 
 and Eratosthenes, wrote formal and elaborate treatises on the sub- 
 ject. Considered, then, as peculiarly Athenian, the Comedy of the 
 Greeks admits of subdivision into three species, or rather three suc- 
 cessive variations in form, which are generally distinguished as 
 tlie Old, the Middle, and the New Comedy. These three subdivi- 
 sions must be considered separately, and with a brief review of 
 their distinctive characteristics. 
 
 The Old Comedy was, as we have already seen, the result of a 
 successful attempt to give to the waggon-jests of the country comus 
 a particular and a political bias. Its outward form was burlesque 
 in its most wanton extravagance. Its essence, or to use the words 
 of Yico^, its eterna jpropieta^ was personal vilification. Not merely 
 the satire of description, the abuse of words; but the satire of repre- 
 
 1 In Athen. xiv. p. 638. 
 
 2 Scienza Nuova, in. p. 638: *'La satira serbb quest' etei'na pi'opieta, con la qual 
 ella nacquC; di dir villanie ed ingiurie." 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 77 
 
 sentation. The object of popular dislike was not merely called a 
 coward, a villain, a rogue, or a fool, but he was exhibited on the 
 stage doing everything contemptible and suffering everything ludi- 
 crous. This systematic personality, the lafjb^oKrj ISea'^ of the old 
 popular farce, would not have sufficed to obtain for Comedy an 
 adequate share of attention from the refined and accomplished 
 democracy, which established itself at Athens during the admi- 
 nistration of Pericles. It was necessary that the comic poet who 
 would gain a hearing in the theatre at Athens should borrow from 
 Tragedy many of its most striking peculiarities — its choral dances, 
 its masked actors, its metrical forms, its elaborate scenery and 
 machines, and above all that chastened elegance of the Attic dialect, 
 which the fastidiousness of an Athenian citizen required and ex- 
 acted from the poets and orators. The comedy became a regular 
 drama, recalling indeed a recollection of the old phallic comus by 
 an extravagant obscenity of language and costume, but often pre- 
 senting an elegance in the dialogues and a poetic refinement in 
 the melic portions, which would have borne a comparison with the 
 best efforts of the contemporary tragic muse. Upon this stock 
 the mighty genius of Aristophanes grafted his own Pantagruelism, 
 which has in every age, since the days of its reproducer Eabelais, 
 found in some European country, and in some form or other, 
 a more or less adequate representative, — Cervantes, Qaevedo, 
 Butler, Swift, Sterne, Voltaire, Jean Paul, Carlyle, and South ey. 
 By Pantagruelism we mean— in accordance with the definition 
 which we have elsewhere given of the term^ — an assumption of 
 Bacchanalian buffoonery as a cloak to cover some serious purpose. 
 Babelais, who invented the word to express a certain literary deve- 
 lopment of the character sustained by the court-fools in the middle 
 ages, must have been quite conscious that he was reproducing, 
 as far as his age allowed, not only the spirit but even the outward 
 machinery of the Old Comedy. At any rate he adopts the disguise 
 of low buffoonery for the express purpose of attacking some form of 
 prevalent cant and imposture; and this was consistently the ob- 
 ject of Aristophanes. Whether he professedly takes Aristophanes 
 as his model, and as the lamp to light him on the way^ may 
 
 1 Aristot. Poet. 5. 
 
 2 In the Quarterly Review, No, CLXI. pp. 137 sqq. 
 
 ^ We have shown in the paper on Pantagruelism already cited, that the reference 
 to Aristophanes and Cleanthes as the lanterns of honour (Rabelais, v. c. 33) is derived 
 
78 CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK PLAYS. 
 
 be regarded as an open question ; "but there can be no doubt that 
 the manner and the object of the cure of Meudon were identical 
 with those of the great comedian of Athens ; and that the name 
 of Pantagruelist, invented by the one, accurately describes the lead- 
 ing characteristics of his main prototype. The chief difference 
 between the Old Comedy of Athens, as represented by Aristophanes, 
 and the modern manifestations of the same riotous drollery, as a 
 cover for some serious purpose, which it might be premature, un- 
 safe, or generally inexpedient to disclose, must be sought in the 
 peculiar relations which subsisted between the old comedian and 
 his democratic audience during the short period of the Old Comedy's 
 highest perfection, namely, the interval between the commencement 
 of the Peloponnesian war and the Sicilian expedition, when the 
 irritable Demos was so conscious of his power and was so exhila- 
 rated by his good fortune that, like the kings of the middle ages, 
 he was willing to tolerate any jokes at his own expense, if the 
 satirist would only pay him tlie compliment of adopting the thin 
 veil of caricature, and pretend to put forward as an outpouring of 
 privileged folly what he really meant to be taken as the most 
 serious remonstrance or the most biting reproof\ 
 
 It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to draw a clearly defined line 
 of demarcation between the latest writers of the Old and the earliest 
 writers of the Middle Comedy. We cannot say of them that this 
 author Avas on old comedian ; that a middle comedian : they may 
 have been both, as Aristophanes certainly was, if the criterion 
 was the absence or presence of a Parahasis'^, or speech of the 
 chorus in which the audience are addressed in the name of the 
 poet, and without, in many cases, any reference to the subject of the 
 
 from Varro {L. L. v. 9, p. 4, Miiller), wlio is speaking of Aristophanes, the grammarian 
 of Byzantium, and of the grammatical studies of the Stoics ; but Rabelais, like his 
 commentators, may have misunderstood Varro. 
 
 1 Aristophanes openly avows this mixture of the serious and the ridiculous in his 
 later comedies, when he no longer practised it with the same objects. Ran. 391 : kol 
 TToWci ixh yeXoTd fj.' elTrelv ttoXXo, 5e cr7roi'5a?a. Eccles. 1200; (XfiLKpov 5' viroO^adac Toh 
 KpcTOLffL ^ouXo/xar rots ao(poh iih tCjv ao(pQv ixeixv7)[iivovs Kpipeiv ifjt,^' roh yeXQat S' 
 Tjd^cos 5ia Tov yeXcora KplveLv epii. 
 
 2 Ta ras xapajSdaei^ ovk ^x^^'''^ ididdxdv e^ovaias dvo rod drip,ov p.e6t.(yTaixevr)s /cat 
 dXiyapxl-cis Kparovar^s. Platonius. With regard to the attempt of Meineke {Quccsiion. 
 Scenicce, Sp. ill. p. 50) to prove that Antiphanes was a new comic poet, because he 
 mentioned the p.aTTvr) (Athen. XIV, p. 662 f), we may remark, that the word cannot 
 be used as a criterion to enable us to distinguish between two schools of comedians, 
 for it is mentioned by Nicostratus, the son of Aristophanes (see Clinton in Phil. Mus. 
 I, p. 560), and the dainty was not unknown to Aristophanes himself, who uses the word 
 /iarrvoAoixos {Nuh. 451). 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 79 
 
 play. Nor will the proper interpretation of tlie law Trepl rod firj 
 ovo/jLacrrl KcofioiBelv^ enable us to distinguish between the comedians 
 as belonging to one class or the other. As to the comedies them- 
 selves, however, we may safely conclude on the authority of Plato- 
 nius, that the Middle Comedy was a form of the old, but differed 
 from it in three particulars ; it had no chorus, and therefore no 
 parabasis, — this deviation was occasioned by the inability of the 
 impoverished state to furnish the comic poets with choragi : living 
 characters were not introduced on the stage, — this was owing to 
 the want of energy produced by the subversion of the democratic 
 empire : as a consequence of both these circumstances, the objects of 
 its ridicule were general rather than personal, and literary rather 
 than political. If, therefore, we were called upon to give to the 
 Old and Middle Comedy their distinctive appellations, we should 
 call one Caricature, and the other Criticism; and if we wished to illus- 
 trate the difference by modern instances, we should compare the for- 
 mer to the Lampoon, the latter to the Review. The period to which 
 the writers of the Middle Comedy belonged, may be defined generally 
 as that included between the termination of the Peloponnesian war 
 and the overthrow of Athenian freedom by Philip of Macedon, from 
 B.C. 404 to B.C. 340. The numerous comedies which appeared in 
 this interval, especially those belonging to the latter half of the 
 period, were chiefly occupied in holding up to light and not ill- 
 natured ridicule, the literary and social peculiarities of the day. 
 The writers seized on what was ludicrous in the contemporary 
 systems of philosophy. They parodied and travestied not only 
 the language but sometimes even the plots of the most celebrated 
 tragedies and epic poems. And, in the same spirit, they not un- 
 frequently took their subjects directly from the old mythology. In 
 their satires on society they attacked rather classes of men, than 
 prominent individuals, of the class. Courtesans, parasites, and 
 
 ^ Mr. Clinton, in the Introduction to the second volume of his Fasti Ilellenici 
 (pp. xxxvi, &c.) has shown that the generally received idea, which would distinguish 
 the Middle from the Old Comedy by its abstinence from personal Scatire, is completely 
 at variance with the fragments still extant; and that the celebrated law — tov firj 
 duofiaarl Kw/xipSelv rivd — simply forbade the introduction of any individual on the stage 
 by name as one of the dramatis personce. This prohibition, too, might be evaded by 
 suppressing the name and identifying the individual by means of the mask, the dress, 
 and external appearance alone. " This law, then, when limited to its proper sense, is 
 by no means inconsistent with a great degree of comic liberty, or with those animad- 
 versions upon eminent names with which we find the comic poets actually to abound" 
 {Fast. Hell. p. xlii). The date of the law is uncertain; probably about B.C. 404, 
 during the government of the Thirty. 
 
80 CLASSIFICATION OF GREEK PLAYS. 
 
 wanton revellers with their pic-nic feasts, were freely represented 
 in general types \ and the self-conceited cook, with his parade of 
 culinary science, was a standing character in the Middle Comedy^. 
 Athenian politics were generally avoided ; but these poets did not 
 scruple to make sport of foreign tyrants, like the Dionysii of Syra- 
 cuse and Alexander of Pher^e^. Their style was generally pro- 
 saic'*, and they usually confined themselves to the comic trimeter. 
 But long systems of anapgestic dimeters v/ere sometimes introduced, 
 and in their parodies and travesties they imitated the metres of 
 the poets whom they ridiculed. 
 
 The New Comedy commenced, as is well known, with the 
 establishment of the supremacy of Philip^, and flourished at 
 Athens during the period distinguished as that of the Macedonian 
 rulers, who are called the DiadocM and Epigoni ; it belongs, there- 
 fore, to the interval between the 110th and 130th Olympiads, i.e. 
 between B.C. 340 and B.C. 260. We can see in Plautus and Terence, 
 who translated or imitated the Greek writers of this class, satisfac- 
 tory specimens of the nature of this branch of Comedy. It corre- 
 sponded as nearly as possible to our own comic drama, especially to 
 that of Farquhar and Congreve, which Charles Lamb calls the 
 Comedy of Manners, and Hurd the Comedy of Character. It arose 
 in all probability from an union of the style and tone of the Euri- 
 pidean dialogue witli the subjects and characters of the later form, 
 the Middle Comedy. The particular circumstances of the time had 
 given a new direction to the warlike tendencies of the Greeks. In- 
 stead of serving in the ranks of the national militia and fighting in 
 free warfare at home, the active, restless or discontented citizen found 
 a ready welcome and good pay in the mercenary armies kept up by 
 the Greek sovereigns of Asia and Egypt. Such a soldier or leader 
 of mercenaries, having returned from abroad, with a full purse, an 
 empty head, and a loud tongue, became a standing character in the 
 
 1 See the anecdote about Antiphanes, Ath. Xiii. pr. 
 
 2 This was the principal character in the jEolosicon, one of the latest plays of 
 Aristophanes, and it is alwaj^s re-appearing. 
 
 3 As in the Dionysius of Eubulus and the Dionysalexandrus of the younger Cratinus. 
 * Anonym, de Comm. III. : ttjs 5e fJLea-rjs KOifiipSias ol TroiTjral 7rXd(r/x.aror fih ovx 
 
 iiypavTo ttoltitlkov, Blo. 5^ ttjs awridovs iovres XaAtas XoyLKas ^xoiio-t rds dperdi, cJcrre 
 ffTrdHov 7roL7]TLKbv xo-pa.KTrjpa elvai Trap' avrois. 
 
 5 Meineke says (Hist. Crit. Com. p. 435) that he dates the commencement of the 
 new comedy from the period immediately preceding the battle of Chceroneia, and that 
 the anunymous writer on comedy (p. xxxii) is not quite accurate in saying r/ via iirl 
 'A\e^du5pov eixe ttju &Kp.r}v. 
 
ORIGIN OF COMEDY. 81 
 
 New Comedy. The other characters, the greedy parasite, the clever 
 and unprincipled slave, and the scheming or tyrannical courtesan, 
 may have appeared in the Middle Comedy ; but they are the new- 
 comedian's indispensable staff. And now for the first time the 
 element of love becomes the main ingredient in dramatic poetry \ 
 The object of the young man's passion is not the free-born Athenian 
 maiden, but some accomplished eralpa, or an innocent girl, who is 
 ostensibly the slave or associate of the eralpa, but turns out at the 
 end of the piece to be the lost child of some worthy citizen^. A 
 good deal of ingenuity is shown in the contrivance of these un- 
 expected recognitions (dvayvcoplaeL^), and here also the drama of 
 Euripides had furnished the comedian with his model. The "heavy 
 father," as he is called on our stage, is generally an indispensable 
 personage, and in the intrigues of the piece he is often the dupe of 
 the manoeuvring slave, or led by some incidental temptations into 
 the very vices and follies which he had reproved in his son. The 
 greatest care is taken in the delineation of these characters, and 
 there can be little doubt that they represented accurately the 
 most prominent features of the later Attic society. The di-ama 
 under such circumstances did not attempt to make men better 
 than they were, and it is to be feared that the comic stage did 
 little more tlian present in the most attractive colours the lax 
 morality of the age. 
 
 It is not our intention to speak of the dramas and quasi-dramas 
 of a later age ; it may however be of some assistance to the student, 
 if we subjoin a general tabular view of the rise and progress of 
 the proper Greek Drama. 
 
 1 Ovid, Fast, ii, 369 : Fabula jucundi nulla est siue amore Menandri. 
 
 2 See Rist. of Gr. Liter. Vol. in. pp. 2 sqq. 
 
 D. T. G. 
 
TABLE OF DRAMATIC CLASSIFICATION. 
 
 DORIAN ELEMENT. 
 
 Choruses in honour of Apollo. 
 
 IONIAN ELEMENT. 
 
 Rhapsodical Recitation of Homeric Poems. 
 
 Lyrical Poetiy in connexion with tliese Choruses. Unaccompanied Recitation of Iambics. 
 
 Transfer of these to Bacchus. 
 
 The Dithyramb becomes Lyrical. 
 
 A Satyrical Chorus introduced by Arion, 
 
 Union of the Clioral Worship of Bacchus, 
 with Rhapsodical Recitations at the 
 Brauronia. 
 
 Union of the Satyrical Dithyramb with 
 Rhapsodical Recitation, i. e. of the 
 epto/AjSos with the ia|a(3os. 
 
 Union of the Iambic Lampoon with the 
 Comus, and establishment of a regular 
 Comic Chorus. 
 
 Dialogue between the Rhapsode and the Chorus. The Old Comedy, or Comedy of Caricature. 
 
 Another Actor added by ^schylus: 
 The jEschylean Trilogy, 
 
 A third by Sophocles: 
 The perfect Athenian Tragedy. 
 
 The Middle Comedy, or Comedy of Criticism. 
 
 The New Comedy, or Comedy of Manners. 
 
 First Variety. Second Variety. Third Variety. Fourth Variety. 
 The Tragedy The Satyrical The History. The Tragi-comedy. 
 proper. Drama. 
 
A. Vi'. SniLEGEI.'S GENERAL SURVEY OF THE DRAMA. 83 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER Y. 
 
 A. W. SCHLEGEL'S GENERAL SURVEY OF THE DRAMA IX 
 DIFFERENT AGES AND COUNTRIES. 
 
 It is well known that about three and a half centuries ago the study of ancient 
 literature was revived by the diffusion of the Greek language (the Latin never became 
 extinct) : the classical authors were brought to light and rendered universally acces- 
 sible by the art of printing ; the monuments of ancient genius were diligently disin- 
 terred. All this supplied manifold excitements to the human mind, and formed a 
 marked epoch in the history of our mental culture; it was fertile in effects, which 
 extend even to us, and will extend to an incalculable series of ages. But at the same 
 time the study of the ancients was perverted to a deadly abuse. The learned, who 
 were chiefly in possession of it, and were incompetent to distinguish themselves by 
 works of their own, asserted for the ancients an unconditional authority ; in fact with 
 great show of reason, for in their kind they are models. They maintained, that only 
 from imitation of the ancient writers is true salvation for human genius to be hoped 
 for ; in the works of the moderns they appreciated only what was, or seemed to be, 
 similar to those of the ancients ; all else they rejected as barbarous degeneracy. Quite 
 otherwise was it with the great poets and artists. Lively as might be the enthusiasm 
 with which the ancients inspired them, much as they might entertain the design of 
 vying with them, still their independence and originality of mind constrained them to 
 strike out into their own path, and to impress upon their productions the stamp of 
 their own genius. Thus fared it, even before that revival, with Dante, the father of 
 modern poetry : he avouched that he took Virgil as his teacher, but produced a work 
 which, of all mentionable works, most differs in its make from the JEneid, and in our 
 opinion very far surpassed his fancied master, in power, truth, compass, and profound- 
 ness. So was it likewise, at a later period, with Ariosto, who has perversely been 
 compared with Homer: nothing can be more unlike. So, in art, with Michel- An gelo 
 and Raphael, who nevertheless were unquestionably great connoisseurs in the antiques. 
 As the poets for the most part had their share of scholarship, the consequence was a 
 schism in their own minds, between the natural bent of their genius, and the obliga- 
 tion of an imaginary duty. "Where they sacrificed to the latter, they were commended 
 by the learned: so far as they followed the bent of the former, they were favourites 
 with the people. That the heroic lays of a Tasso and a Camoens still survive on the 
 lips of their fellow-countrymen is assuredly not owing to their imperfect aflSnity with 
 Virgil, or even with Homer ; in Tasso it is the tender feeling of chivalrous love and 
 honour, in Camoens the glowing inspiration of patriotic enthusiasm. 
 
 Those ages, nations, and ranks, which found the imitation of the ancients most to 
 their liking, were precisely such as least felt the want of a self- formed poetry. The 
 result was dead school-exercises, which at best can excite but a frigid admiration. 
 Bare imitation in the fine arts is always fruitless of good : even what we borrow from 
 others must, as it were, be bora again within us, if ever it is to issue forth in the 
 
 6—2 
 
84 A. w. schlegel's general survey of the drama. 
 
 nature of poetry. What avails the dilettantism of composing Avith other people's 
 ideas ? Art cannot subsist without Nature, and man can give his fellow-men nothing 
 but himself. 
 
 Genuine successors of the ancients and true co-rivals with them, walking in their 
 path and working in their spirit by virtue of congenial talents and cultivation of mind, 
 have ever been as rare as your handicraftsmanlike insipid copyists were and are 
 numerous. The critics, bribed to their verdict by the mere extrinsicality of form, 
 have for the most part very liberally sanctioned even these serviles. These were 
 "correct modern classics," while the great and truly living popular poets, whom a 
 nation, having once got them, would not consent to part with, and in whom moreover 
 there were so many sublime traits that could not be overlooked, these they were fain 
 at most to tolerate as rude wild geniuses. But the unconditional separation thus 
 taken for granted between genius and taste is an idle evasion. Genius is neither more 
 nor less than the faculty of electing, unconsciously in some measure, whatever is most 
 excellent, and therefore is taste in its highest activity. 
 
 Pretty much in this way matters proceeded, until, no long time since, some think- 
 ing men, especially Germans, set themselves to adjust the misunderstanding; and at 
 once to give the ancients their due, and yet fairly recognize the altogether different 
 peculiarity of the moderns. They did not take fright at a seeming contradiction. 
 Human nature is indeed in its basis one and indivisible, but all investigation declares 
 that this cannot be predicated in such a sense concerning any one elementary power in 
 all nature, as to exclude a possibility of divergence into two opposite directions. The 
 whole play of vital motion rests upon attraction and repulsion. Why should not this 
 phenomenon recur on the great scale in the history of mankind likewise? Perhaps in 
 this thought we have discovered the true key to the ancient and modern history of 
 poetry and the fine arts. They who assumed this, invented for the characteristic 
 spirit of modern art, as contrasted to the antique or classical, the designation romantic. 
 And not an inappropriate term either : the word is derived from romance, the name 
 originally given to the popular languages which formed themselves by intermixture of 
 the Latin with the dialects of the Old-German, in just the same way as modern 
 culture was fused out of the foreign elements of the northern national character and 
 the fragments of antiquity, whereas the culture of the ancients was much more of one 
 piece. 
 
 This hypothesis, thus briefly indicated, would carry with it a high degree of self- 
 evidence, could it be shown that the self-same contrast between the endeavour of the 
 ancients and moderns does symmetrically, I might say systematically, pervade all the 
 manifestations of the artistic and poetic faculty, so far as we are acquainted with 
 the phases of ancient mind : that it reveals itself in music, sculpture, painting, archi- 
 tecture, &c, the same as in poetry: a problem which still remains to be worked out in 
 its entire extent and compass, though much has been excellently well remarked and 
 indicated in respect of the individual arts. 
 
 To mention authors who have written in other parts of Europe, and prior to the 
 rise of this " School " in Germany, — in music, Rousseau recognized the contrast, and 
 showed that rhythm and melody were the prevailing principle of the ancient, as 
 harmony is of the modern music. But he is contracted enough to reject the latter ; 
 in which we cannot at all agree with him. With respect to the arts of design, 
 Hemsterhuys makes a clever apophthegm : " The ancient painters seem to have been 
 too much sculptors, the modern sculptors are too much painters," This goes to the 
 very heart of the matter ; for, as I shall more expressly prove in the sequel, the spirit 
 of all ancient art and poetry is plastic, as that of the modern is picturesque. 
 
A. w. schlegel's general survey of the drama. 85 
 
 I will endeavour, by means of an example borrowed from another art, that of 
 architecture, to illustrate what I mean by this harmonious recognition of seeming 
 opposites. In the middle ages there prevailed, and in the latter centuries of that sera 
 developed itself to the most perfect maturity, a style of architecture which has been 
 denominated Gothic, but ought to have been called Old-German. When, upon the 
 revival of classic antiquity in general, imitation of the Grecian architecture came up, 
 which often indeed was but too injudiciously applied, without regard had to difference 
 of climate and to the destination of the edifices, the zealots for this new taste con- 
 demned the Gothic style altogether, reviled it as tasteless, gloomy, barbarous. In the 
 Italians, if anywhere, this was excusable : considering their many hereditary remains 
 of ancient structures, and also their climatical affinity with the Greeks and Romans, 
 partiality for ancient architecture lay, as it were, in their very blood. But we northern 
 people are not to be so easily talked out of those powerful, solemn impressions which 
 fail upon us at the very entering into a Gothic cathedral. Eather we will endeavour 
 to account for these impressions and to justify them. A very little attention will 
 satisfy us that the Gothic architecture bespeaks not only extraordinary mechanical 
 skill, but a marvellous outlay of inventive genius ; upon still closer contemplation we 
 shall recognize its profound significance, and perceive that it forms a complete finished 
 S3'stem in itself quite as much as does that of the Greeks. 
 
 To apply this to the matter in hand. The Pantheon is not more different from 
 Westminster Abbey or St. Stephen's in Vienna, than is the structure of a tragedy of 
 Sophocles from that of a play of Shakespeare. The comparison between these miracles 
 of poetry and architecture might be carried out still further. But really does admira- 
 tion of the one necessitate us to have a mean esteem of the other? Cannot we admit 
 that each in its own kind is gi'eat and admirable, though this is, and is meant to be, 
 quite another thing from that? It were worth making the attempt. We do not wish 
 to argue any man out of his preference for the one or the other. The world is wide, 
 and has room enough in it for many things that differ, without their interfering with 
 one another. But a preference originating in views directed to one side alone of the 
 question, a preference conceived one knows not why nor wherefore, is not what makes 
 a connoisseur. No : the true connoisseur is he who can suspend his mind, free and 
 unconstrained, in liberal contemplation of discrepant principles and tendencies, re- 
 nouncing the while his own individual partialities. 
 
 It might suffice for our present purpose, to have thus barely indicated the exist- 
 ence of this striking contrast between the antique or classical and the romantic. But 
 as exclusive admirers of the ancients still persist in maintaining that every deviation 
 from these models is a mere whim of the "new school" of critics, who speak in a 
 mysterious way about it, but cannot manage to make it dependent upon any valid 
 idea, I will endeavour to give an explanation of the origin and spirit of the romantic, 
 and then let it be determined whether the use of the term and recognition of the thing 
 be thereby justified. 
 
 The mental culture of the Greeks was a finished education in the school of nature. 
 Of a beautiful and noble race, gifted with impressible senses and a cheerful spirit, 
 under a mild sky, they lived and bloomed in perfect health of being, and, favoured by 
 a rare combination of circumstances, achieved all that could be achieved by the limitary 
 creature man. Their whole system of art and poetry is the manifestation of this 
 harmony of all powers. They invented the poetry of joy. 
 
 Their religion consisted in deification of nature in its various powers, and of the 
 earthly life: but this worship, which fancy, among other nations, darkened with 
 hideous shapes hardening the heart to cruelty, assumed among this people a form of 
 
86 A. w. schlegel's general survey of the drama. 
 
 grandeur, dignity, and mildness. Here superstition, elsewhere the tyrant of human 
 endowments, seemed glad to lend a hand to their most free development; it cherished 
 the art by which it was adorned, and out of idols grew ideals. 
 
 .But greatly as the Greeks succeeded in the Beautiful and even the Moral, we can 
 concede to their culture no higher character than that of a refined and dignified sen- 
 suality. Of course this must be understood in the general and in the gross. Occa- 
 sional dim forebodings of philosophers, lightning-gleams of poetic inspiration, these 
 form the exception. Man can never altogether turn his back upon the Infinite ; some 
 evanid recollections will testify of the home he has lost ; but the point to be considered 
 is, what is the predominant tendency of his endeavours? 
 
 Religion is the root of man's being. Were it possible for him to renounce all 
 religion, even that which is unconscious and independent of the will, he would become 
 all surface, no heart nor soul. Shift this centre in any degree, in the same degree 
 will the system of the mind and affections be modified in its entire line of effect. 
 
 And this was brought about in Europe by the introduction of Christianity. This 
 sublime and beneficent religion regenerated the decrepit worn-out old world, became 
 the leading pzinciple in the history of the modern nations, and at this day, when many 
 conceit themselves to have out-grown its guidance, they are more influenced by it, in 
 their views of all human affairs, than they are themselves aware. 
 
 Next to Christianity, the mental culture of Europe, since the commencement of 
 the middle ages, was decidedly influenced by the German race of northern invaders, 
 who infused new quickening into a degenerated age. The inclemency of northern 
 nature drives the man more inward upon himself, and what is lost in sportive develop- 
 ment of the sensitive being is amply compensated, wherever there are noble endow- 
 ments, in earnestness of spirit. Hence the frank heartiness with which the old 
 German tribes welcomed Christianity; so that among no other race of men has it 
 penetrated so deeply into the inner man, approved itself so energetic in its effects, and 
 so interwoven itself with all human sensibilities. 
 
 The rugged but honest heroism of the northern conquerors, by admixture of Chris- 
 tian sentiments, gave rise to chivalry, the object of which was to guard the practice of 
 arms, by vows which were looked upon as sacred, from that rude and base abuse of 
 force into which it is so apt to decline. 
 
 One ingredient in the chivalrous virtue was a new and more delicate spirit of 
 love, considered as an enthusiastic homage to genuine female excellence, which was 
 now for the first time revered as the acme of human nature, and, exalted as it was by 
 religion under the form of virgin maternity, touched all hearts with an undefinable 
 intimation of the mystery of pure love. 
 
 As Christianity did not, like the heathen worship, content itself with certain 
 exterior performances, bvit laid claim to the whole inner man with all its remotest 
 thoughts and imaginations, the feeliug of moral independence took refuge in the domain 
 of Jionour; a kind of secular morality which subsisted along with that of religion, 
 and often came in collision therewith, but yet akin to it in so far as it never calculated 
 consequences, but attached absolute sanctity to principles of action elevated as articles 
 of faith above all inquisition of a misplaced ratiocination. 
 
 Chivalry, love, and honour are, together with religion itself, the subjects of that 
 natural poetry which poured itself forth with incredible copiousness in the middle 
 ages, and preceded a more conscious and thoughtful cultivation of the romantic spirit. 
 This sera too hud its mythology, consisting in chivalrous fables and religious legends, 
 but its marvellous and its heroism formed a perfect contrast to those of the ancient 
 mythology. 
 
A. w. schlegel's general survey of the drama. 87 
 
 Some writers, in other respects agreeing with us in our conception and derivation 
 of the peculiar character of the moderns, have placed the essence of the northern 
 poetry in melancholy, and, rightly understood, we have no objection to this ^iew of 
 the matter. 
 
 Among the Greeks, human nature was self-satisfied ; it had no misgiving of defect, 
 and endeavoured after no other perfection than that which it actually could attain by 
 the exercise of its own energies. A higher wisdom teaches us that human nature, 
 through a grievous aberration, has lost the position originally assigned to it, and that 
 the sole destination of its earthly existence is to struggle back thither, which, however, 
 left to itself, it cannot. The old religion of the senses did but wish to earn outward 
 perishable blessings; immortality, as far as it was believed, stood shadow-like in the 
 obscure distance, a faded dream of this sunny waking life. Under the Christian view, 
 it is just the reverse: the contemplation of the infinite has annihilated the finite; 
 life has become the world of shadows, the night of being ; the eternal day of essential 
 existence dawns only beyond the grave. Under such a religion, that mysterious fore- 
 boding which slumbers in every feeling heart dannot but be wakened into distinct 
 consciousness that we are in quest of a happiness which is unattainable here, that no 
 external object will ever be altogether able to fill the capacity of the soul, that all 
 enjoyment is a fleeting illusion. And when the soul sits down, as it were, beside 
 these waters of Babylon, and breathes forth its longing aspirations towards the home 
 from which it has become estranged, what else can be the key-note of its songs but 
 heaviness of heart? And so it is. The poetry of the ancients was that of possession, 
 ours is that of longing desire : the one stands firm on the soil of the present ; the 
 other wavers betwixt reminiscence of the past, and bodeful intimations of the future. 
 Let not this be understood to imply that all must flow away in monotonous lamenta- 
 tion, the melancholy always uttering itself audibly, and drowning all besides. As 
 under that cheerful view of things which the Greeks took, that austere Tragedy of 
 theirs was still a possible phenomenon ; so that romantic poetry, which originated in 
 the difierent views I have been describing, could run along the whole scale of the 
 feelings, even up to the highest note of joy ; but stiU there will always be an inde- 
 scribable something in which it shall carry the marks of its origin. The feeling of the 
 moderns has, on the whole, become more deep and inward, the fancy more incorporeal, 
 the thoughts more contemplative. To be sure, in nature the boundaries run into one 
 another, and the things are not so sharply defined as one is under the necessity of 
 doing in order to eliminate a theoretical idea. 
 
 The Grecian ideal of human nature was, perfect unison and proportion of all 
 powers, natural harmony. The moderns, on the contrary, have arrived at the con- 
 sciousness of the disunion there is within, which renders such an ideal no longer 
 possible ; hence the endeavour of their poetry is to make these two worlds, between 
 which we feel ourselves to be divided, the world of sense and the world of spirit, at 
 one with each other, and to blend them indissolubly together. The impressions of 
 sense shall be hallowed, as it were, by their mysterious league with higher feelings, 
 while the spirit will deposit its bodings or indescribable intuitions of the infinite, in 
 types and emblems derived from the phenomena of the visible world. 
 
 In Grecian art and poetry there is an original unconscious unity of form and 
 matter; the modern, so far as it has remained faithful to its own proper spirit, 
 attempts to bring about a more thorough interpenetration of both, considered as two 
 opposites. The former solved its problem to perfection, the latter can satisfy its 
 ad infinitum endeavour only in a way of approximation, and by reason of a certain 
 semblance of incompleteness, is the rather in danger of being misappreciated. 
 
88 A. w. schlegel's general survey of the drama. 
 
 Wha,t is dramatic ? To many the answer may seem obvious: " Where different 
 persons are introduced speaking, but the poet himself does not speak in his own 
 proper person." But this is no more than the exterior pre-requisite of the form ; the 
 form is that of dialogue. But the persons of a dialogue may express thoughts and 
 sentiments without operating a change on each other, and so may leave off at last 
 each in the same mind as at the beginning ; in such a case, however interesting the 
 matter of the discussion may be, it cannot be said to excite any dramatic interest. 
 I will exemplify this in the philosophic dialorjue, a quiet species of discussion not 
 intended for the stage. In Plato, Socrates asks the inflated sophist Hippias, " What 
 is the beautiful ? " He is forthwith prepared with his shallow answer, but presently 
 finds himself compelled by Socrates' ironical objections to abandon his first definition, 
 and stumble about clutching after other ideas, and finally to quit the field, shamed by 
 the exposure of his ignorance, and out of temper at finding more than his match in 
 the philosopher. Now, this dialogue is not merely instructive in a philosophical 
 point of view, but entertaining as a drama in miniatui'e. And justly has this lively 
 progress in the thoughts, this stretch of expectation for the issue, in one word, this 
 dramatic character, been extolled in the dialogues of Plato. 
 
 Hence already we are in a condition to apprehend wherein the great charm of 
 dramatic poetry consists. Activity is the true enjoyment of life, nay more, is life 
 itself. Mere passive enjoyments may lull into a listless complacency, which however, 
 if there be any stirrings of interior sensibility, cannot long be free from the inroad of 
 ennui. Now, most people by their position in life, or, it may be, from incapacity for 
 extraordinary exertions, are tethered within a narrow round of insignificant engage- 
 ments. Day follows day, one like another, under the sleepy rule of custom; life 
 progresses without perceptible motion, the rushing stream of the youthful passions 
 stagnating into a morass. From the self-dissatisfaction which this occasions, they 
 seek to make their escape in all kinds of games, which always consist in some occu- 
 pation, some self-imposed task, in which there are difl&culties to be overcome, but 
 withal not troublesome. Now, of all games, the play is unquestionably the most 
 entertaining. We see others act, if we cannot act to any great purpose ourselves. 
 The highest subject of human activity is man, and in the play we see men measuring 
 their powers upon each other as friends or foes ; influencing each other in their capa- 
 city of rational and moral beings, through the medium of opinion, sentiment, and 
 passion ; definitely ascertaining their mutual relations, and bringing them to a decisive 
 position. By abstraction and pretermission of all that is not essential to the matter 
 in hand, namely, of all those daily wants and consequent petty distractions which in 
 real life break in upon the progress of essential actions, the poet contrives to con- 
 dense within small compass much that excites attention and expectation. Thus he 
 gives us a picture of life that resuscitates the days of j'^outh, an extract of what is 
 moving and progressive in human existence. 
 
 But this is not all. Even in lively oral narration it is common to introduce the 
 persons speaking, and to vary tone and expression accordingly. But the gaps which 
 these speeches would leave in the hearers' mental picture of the story, the narrator 
 fills up by a desci-iption of the concomitant actions or other incidents, in his own 
 name. The dramatic poet foregoes this assistance, but finds abundant compensation 
 in the following invention. He requires that each of the characters of his story 
 should be personated by a living individual; that this individual should, in sex, age, 
 and form, come as near as may be to the fictitious individual of the story, nay, 
 should assume his entire personality ; that he should accompany every speech with 
 
A. w. sciilegel's general survey of the drama. 89 
 
 the appropriate expression of voice, mien, and gesture, and moreover annex thereto 
 those visible actions, of which otherwise the audience would need to be apprised 
 by narrative. Still farther : these vicegerents of the creatures of his imagination 
 are required to appear in the costume belonging to their assumed rank, and 
 to the times and country in which they lived ; partly for the sake of closer resem- 
 blance ; partly, because even in dress there is something characteristic. Lastly, he 
 requires that they should be environed by a locality in some measure similar to that in 
 which he makes the incidents to have taken place, because this also helps to realize the 
 fiction ; that is to say, he will have scenery. Now here is a theatre complete. It is 
 plain that the very form of dramatic poetry, that is, the exhibition of an action by 
 dialogue without the aid of narrative, implies the theatre as the necessary complement. 
 We grant, there are dramatic works not originally designed for the stage, and indeed 
 not likely to be particularly effective there, which nevertheless read excellently. But 
 I very greatly question whether they would make the same vivid impression upon 
 a reader who had never witnessed a play nor heard one described. We are habituated, 
 in reading dramatic compositions, to fancy to ourselves the acting. 
 
 The invention of the theatre and theatrical art seems a very obvious and natural 
 one. Man has a great turn for mimic imitation ; in all lively transposing of himself 
 into the situation, sentiments, and passions of others, he assimilates himself to them 
 in his exterior, whether he will or no. Children are perpetually going out of them- 
 selves ; it is one of their favourite sports to copy the grown people they have oppor- 
 tunity of observing, or indeed whatever else comes into their heads ; and with their 
 happy pliancy of imagination, they can make all alike serve their turn, to furnish 
 them with the insignia of the assumed dignity, be it that of a father, a schoolmaster, 
 or a king. There remains but one step more to the invention of the Drama; namely, 
 to draw the mimic elements and fragments clear off from real life, and confront the 
 latter with these collectively in one mass ; yet in many nations this step never was 
 taken. In the very copious description of ancient Egypt in Herodotus and others, 
 I do not recollect any indication of this. The Etruscans on the contrary, so like the 
 Egyptians in many other particulars, had their theatrical games, and, singular enough, 
 the Etruscan term for "actor," histrio, has survived in living languages even to the 
 most recent times. The whole of Western Asia, the Arabians and Persians, rich as 
 their poetical literature is in other departments, know not the Drama. Neither did 
 Europe in the middle ages : upon the introduction of Christianity the old dramas of 
 the Greeks and Romans were set aside, partly because they had reference to heathen 
 ideas, partly because they had degenerated into shameless immorality; nor did they 
 revive until nearly a thousand years later. So late as the fourteenth century we find 
 in that very complete picture which Boccaccio has given of the then existing frame of 
 society, no trace whatever of plays. Instead of them they had simply their Conteurs, 
 Menestriers, and Jongleurs. On the other hand, it must by no means be supposed that 
 the invention of the Drama was made only once in the world, and was passed along 
 from one nation to another. The English circumnavigators found among the 
 islanders of the Southern Ocean (a people occupying so low a grade in point of intel- 
 lectual capacity and civilisation) a rude kind of drama, in which a common incident of 
 life was imitated well enough to be diverting. To pass to the other extremity of the 
 world: that nation from which perhaps all the civilisation of the human race emanated, 
 I mean the Indians, had their dramas for ages before that country was subjected to 
 any foreign influence. They possess a copious dramatic literature, the age of which 
 ascends backward nearly two thousand years. Of their plays (Nataks) we are at 
 present acquainted with one specimen only, the charming Sacontala, which, with all 
 
90 A. w. schlegel's geneeal survey of the deama. 
 
 the foreign colouring of its native climate, in its general structure bears such striking 
 resemblance to our romantic drama, that we might suspect the translator, Sir William 
 Jones, of having laboured to produce the resemblance, out of his partiality for 
 Shakspeare, were not the fidelity of his translation attested by other scholars. In the 
 golden times of India the exhibition of these Nataks delighted the splendid imperial 
 court at Delhi ; but under the misery of their many oppressions, dramatic art in that 
 country seems at present to lie extinct. The Chinese, on the contrary, have their 
 standing national theatre : standing indeed, it may be conjectured, in every sense : 
 I make no question but in the establishment of arbitrary rules and nice observance of 
 unimportant conventionalities they leave the most correct of the Europeans far 
 behind them. 
 
 With all this extensive diffusion of theatrical entertainments, it is surprising to 
 find what a difference there exists in point of dramatic talent between nations equally 
 favoured in other respects. The talent for the Drama would seem to be a peculiar 
 quality, essentially distinct from the gift of poetry in general. The contrast between 
 the Greeks and Romans in this respect is not to be wondered at ; for the Greeks were 
 quite a nation of artists, the Romans a practical people. Among the latter, the fine 
 arts were introduced only as a corrupting article of luxury, both betokening and 
 accelerating the degeneracy of the times. This luxury they carried out on so large 
 a scale, in respect of the theatre, that perfection in essentials must have been neglected 
 in the rage for meretricious accessories. Even among the Greeks dramatic talent was 
 any thing but universal : in Athens the Theatre was invented, in Athens it was ex- 
 clusively brought to perfection. The Doric dramas of Epicharmus form but an 
 inconsiderable exception to this remark. All the great dramatic geniuses of Greece 
 were born in Attica, and formed their style at Athens. Widely as the Grecian race 
 diffused itself, felicitously as it cultivated the fine arts almost wherever it came, yet 
 beyond the bounds of Attica it was fain to admire, without being able to compete 
 with, the productions of the Attic stage. 
 
BOOK IL 
 
 LITERARY HISTORY OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 CHAPTEH I. 
 THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 
 
 SECTION" I. 
 CHCERILUS, PHRYNICHUS, AND PRATINAS. 
 
 Use begets Use. 
 
 Guesses at Tkuth. 
 
 AS soon as Tragedy had once established itself in Greece, it 
 made very rapid advances to perfection. According to the 
 received dates, the first exhibition of Thespis preceded by ten 
 years only the birth of ^Eschylus, who in his younger days con- 
 tended with the three immediate successors of the Icarian. Chce- 
 EILUS began to represent plays in the 64th 01. 523 B.c.^, and in 
 499 B. c. contended for the prize with Pratinas and ^schylus. 
 It is stated that he contended with Sophocles also, but the dif- 
 ference in their ages renders this exceedingly improbable, and the 
 mistake may easily have arisen from the way in which Suidas 
 mentions the book on the chorus which Sophocles wrote against 
 him and Thespis ^ It would seem that Tragedy had not altogether 
 departed from its original form in his time, and that the chorus 
 
 ^ XotptXos, 'Adrjvaios, rpaytKos, ^d' oXv/XTTLcidi Kadels els dyQuas Kal ediSa^e fih 
 dpdfiara TrevTrjKOvra Kal p . iulKrjae 5^ ty' . Suidas. 
 
 ^ See Nake's Chcerilus, p. 7. Suidas : 1,0(poK\7Js iypa\pe \6yov KaTokoydo-qv irepi 
 rod xopoO Trpos Qeainv Kal XoiplXou o^ywvi'gbp.evos. 
 
92 CHCERILUS, PHRYNICHUS, AND PEATINAS. 
 
 was still satyric, or tragic in the proper sense of tlie word^ 
 Choeriliis is said to have written 150 pieces 2, but no fragments 
 have come down to us. The disparaging remarks of Hermeas 
 and Proclus do not refer to him, but to his Samian namesake^, 
 and he is mentioned by Alexis^ in such goodly company, that we 
 cannot believe that his poetry was altogether contemptible. One 
 of his plays was called the Alope, and it appears to have been 
 of a strictly mythical character^. Some improvements in theatrical 
 costume are ascribed to him by Suidas and Eudocia^. 
 
 Phrynichus was the son of Polyphradmon, and a scholar of 
 Thespis'''. The dates of his birth and death are alike unknown: 
 it seems probable that lie died in Sicily^. He gained a tragic 
 victory in 511 B. c.^ and another in 476, when Themistocles was 
 his choragus^*^: the play which he produced on this occasion was 
 probably the Phoenissa^, and iEschylus is charged ^^ with having 
 made use of this tragedy in the composition of his Persas, which 
 appeared four years after, a charge Avhich ^schylus seems to 
 rebut in ''the Frogs" of Aristophanes 'I In 494 B.C. Miletus 
 was taken by the Persians, and Phrynichus, unluckily for himself, 
 
 ^ 7}vlKa fj-eu j8acrtXei)s rj// XoipiXos iu "LaripoLS. Anonym, ap. Plotium de Thetris, 
 
 V- ^633- 
 
 2 The numbers in Suidas are, however, in this instance, not to be depended on, as 
 they are not the same in all the MSS. 
 
 ^ See Nake's Ckceriliis, p. 92. 
 
 * Athen, iv. p. 164 c; 
 
 'Ofj<peb% 'hecrriv, '^aio^os, Tpayu}Sia, 
 'KoipiXos, "Op-rfpos, 'Eirixappos, avyypdp.p.aTa 
 IJavTodavd. 
 
 ^ Pausan. I. 14, § 3: 'KoipiXijj 5e 'A6T}vaiq} 5pap.a TroirjaavTi 'AXoirrju ^ar elpyjpiua 
 KepKVova ehai Kai TpnrTb\€p,ov ddekcpovs, k.t.X. ■■ 
 
 ^ ovTOS Kara TLvas tocs irpoawirdoLS /cat rfi crKevrj tQv aroKQv eTrexeipvc^v. 
 
 "^ ^p6vtxo^, lloXvcppddpovo^, t] 'Miuvpov ol S^ XopoKXeovs' 'Kd-qvatos, rpayiKSs, 
 fiaOrjTrjs Q^awLdos. Suidas in ^pvv. 
 
 The first of the names mentioned here for the father of Phrynichus is the correct 
 one. See Schol. Arist. Av. 750; Pausan. X. 31, 2. The name also appears under the 
 form Phiadmon. Prol. Arisioph. p. xxix. 
 
 8 Clinton, F. H. Vol. ii. p. xxxi, note (t). 
 
 ^ efi'/ca eirl rrjs ^f oXvpiTiddos. Suidas. 
 
 I*' ^EpLKTjae dc [QepiaroKXrjs] Kai x^pvy^^' rpayubo^s, peydXiju t^St} t6t€ crirovdrjv Kai 
 (piXoTipiav Tou dyQvos 'ix^vros. Kai irlvaKa ttjs vlk7}$ c.i'idr}Ke, Toiavrrjv iiriypa^r]!/ 
 ^XO^Ta'—QepiaTOKXrjS ^pedppios ix^PVy^h i^pvuLX'^^ idldaaKci', 'ASelpauros ripx^v. 
 Plutarch, in Thcmist. c. V. 
 
 ^1 By Glaucus, in his work on the subjects of the plays of ^schylus: see Arg. ad 
 Persas. 
 
 ^^ dXX odv iyil) ph is to KaXbv eK tou koXov 
 
 ■fjveyKOV ai}d\ tva pr] tov avTov ^pvulx'ji 
 Xeip-Qva MovffQv iepbv 6(p6etr)u hpiiriav. Ran, i'294 — 1296. 
 
CHCERILUS, PHRYNICIIUS, AND PRATIXAS. 93 
 
 selected the capture of that citj as the subject of a historical 
 tragedy. The skill of the dramatist, and the recent occurrence 
 of the event, affected the audience even to tears, and Plnynichus 
 was lined 1000 drachma^ for having recalled so forcibly a painful 
 recollection of the misfortunes of an ally\ We have already 
 mentioned the introduction of female characters into Tragedy by 
 Phrynichus : he seems, however, to have been chiefly remarkable 
 for the sweetness of his melodies^, and the great variety and 
 cleverness of his figaire dances^. The Aristophanic Agathon 
 speaks generally of the beauty of his dramas'^, though of course 
 tliey fell far short of the grandeur of Jilschylus^, and the perfect 
 art of Sophocles. The names of seventeen tragedies attributed 
 
 ^ 'AOtjvolol fiev yap dijXov eiroirjcrav virepaxGeaO^vTes ry 'MiK-rp-ov aXucret, rrj re fiWr; 
 TToWaxri, Kol brj iroifjaavTi <^pwix^ bpajxa MtXTyroy oKojcriv, Kal didd^avri, is SdKpvd re 
 iirece to di-qrpov, kol e^rjixlijoa-dv fxiv, tl's dva/xurj^xavra OLKrjl'a KaKd, X'-^'-V^'- Spo-XJ^fjO'i-' Kat 
 iweTatap fnjKert p.Tjdeua xpS-adai tovtu) rep dpd/nari. Herod, VI. 21. 
 ^ 'Ytvdev, (haTrepel fxeXiTTa, 
 
 ^piviXOS dp.^poaicov 
 [xekeiov dw€^6crK€T0 Kapirov, del 
 (pepoju y\vK€?av (f5dv. Aristoph. Av. 748. 
 Philocleon, the old Dicast, as we are told by the chorus of his brethren, 
 riyeiT hv aBcou ^pvvixov Kal ydp eartv dvrip 
 (t>CKix:b6s. Vesp. 269. 
 And a little before, these fellow-dicasts are represented by Bdelycleon as summoning 
 their aged colleague at midnight. 
 
 IxLvvpi^ovres fieXrj 
 
 dpxo.i-o/ji.eXiaL8ojuo(ppvuLxvP<^T(^- v. 219. 
 Ilapa Ta /xeXr] Kal ttjv 'Li.bQva Kal rbv ^pvvLxov Kal rd epard ip.L^€v, olov dpxa?a fxeXr} 
 ^pwixoy epard ko.I 'rjdea...^pvPLX0S 5e eyeuero rpayipbias TronjrrjS, os eypa-^e opdp.a 
 ^oiviaaas, ev (p fxe/JLvrp-ai 'Ziocoviuv. rd 5^ /xeX-q [to de peXill etre did rrjv yXvKVT-qra 
 rod TToirjTov. Schol. in loc, " Scribendum — /zeXi — cum 8uida in dpxoAOS et fiLvvpi^w. 
 Quod Aristarchum in codice suo legisse ex annotatione Scholiastje cognoscitur. Aves, 
 748: ^I'Oey uxjirepel p.eXt.TTa ^pvvixos k.t.X." — Dindorf. See above, p. 64, note 6. 
 
 ^ Plutarch {Symp. in. 9) has preserved part of an epigram, said to have been 
 w-ritten by the dramatist himself, in which he thus commemorates the fruitfulness of 
 his fancy in devising figure-dances : 
 
 Zxi7,uaTa 5' bpx'^o'i-S Toaa /jlol irbpev, oacr' iwl irovrip 
 KvfxaTa TTOietTai x^'/^'^''"' ^"-"'l 0X077. 
 * TlteshioiJtor. 164 sqq. 
 
 ^ The difference between Phrynichus and ^^schylus is distinctly stated in several 
 passages of the Paince: 
 
 roi)s beards 
 
 i^Tjirdra, fjLojpovs Xa^Cov irapd ^pvvix'^ rpatpevTas. 909. 
 Upon which the Scholiast remarks, diraTeCov ydp, ws d(peXi(XTepos 6 ^pvvLxos. 
 
 The same fact is also forcibly declared in the address of the Chorus to ^-Eschylus 
 in the same comedy : 
 
 dXV (3 irpuTos rCjv ''EXXrjucou Trvpyuaas prj/xaTa <xep.vd 
 Kal Koa/J.r]aas TpaytKov Xrjpou. 1004. 
 That the word Xijpos does not imply anything merely comical and ludicrous in tlie 
 tragedies before ^schylus, is clear from the use of the word Xyjpelv, in v, 923. 
 
94 CHCERILUS, PHRYNICHUS, AND PRATINAS. 
 
 to him have come down to us, but it is probable that some of 
 these belonged to the other two writers who bore the same name. 
 
 We learn from Suidas the following particulars respecting 
 Pratinas. He was a Phliasian, the son of Pjrrhonides or En- 
 comius, a tragedian, and the opponent of Choerilus and jEschylus, 
 when the latter first represented. As we have already stated \ 
 he was the first writer of satyrical dramas as a distinct species of 
 entertainment; and we may connect this circumstance with the 
 place of his birth; for Phlius was near Corinth and Sicyon, the 
 cradles of the old tragedies of Arion and Epigenes. On one 
 occasion, while he was acting, his wooden stage gave way, and 
 in consequence of that accident, the Athenians built a stone theatre. 
 He exhibited fifty dramas, of which thirty-two were satyrical. 
 The Phliasians seem to have taken' great delight in these per- 
 formances of their countryman^, and according to Pausanias^, 
 erected a monument in the market-place in honour of " Aristias, 
 the son of Pratinas, who with his fatlier excelled all except 
 -^schylus in writing satyrical dramas." Pratinas also wrote 
 Hyporchemes^ His son Aristias inherited his father's talents, 
 and competed with Sophocles^. 
 
 ^ Above, p. 69. 
 
 2 See Schneider, De Orig. Trag. p. 90. ^ II. 13, 
 
 ^ Atlien. XIV. p. 617 c: Tiparlvas hk 6 $Xtt£(Tios, avkrjTQv Kal xopeircDi' /xiadocpopcou 
 KarexovTwv ras 6pxv<^Tpas, ayavaKTelv rivas irrl rip rods avXrjras firj avvavketv toTs 
 Xopois, Kaddirep riv irdrpLov, dWd toi)j x^P^^^ (TVpaSeiv rots avXrjTois' dv odu elxe Ov/xbu 
 /card tQv raura ttqlqtuvtwv 6 UpaTivas ificpavi^ei 5td rovde rod VTropxVfxaros. Tts 6 
 66pvj3os ode, K.r.X. 
 
 Miiller suggests {Hist. Lit. Gr. i. p. 295 [390]) that this Hyporcheme may have 
 occurred in a satyrical drama. But we have seen above, pp. 35, 69, that the Satyric 
 corresponded rather to the Pyrrhic than to the Hyporchematic dance. 
 
 ^ Auct. Vit. Sophocl. 
 
CHAPTER L 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 Et cligitls tria tura tribus suh limine ponit. 
 
 Ovid. 
 
 7r?SCHYLUS, tlie son of Eupliorion, was born at Eleusls^ in 
 j!^i~^ the fourth year of the 63rd Olympiad (b.c. 525). In his 
 boyhood he was employed in a vineyard, and, while engaged in 
 watching the grapes, with his mind full of his occupation, and 
 inspired with reverence for the god of the vintage, felt himself 
 suddenly called upon to follow the bent of his own genius, and 
 contribute to the spectacles which had just been established at 
 Athens in honour of Dionysus^. He made his first appearance as 
 
 ^ Vit. Anonym., given in Stanley's edition of this jjoet, and the Arundel Marble. 
 The invocation to the Eleusinian goddess, which he is made to utter by Aristophanes, 
 may refer to the place of his birth : 
 
 Arj/XTjTep, 7] dpi^paaa ttjv ifXTju ippiva, 
 
 'Rival fie Twv aCbv d^iov fivarrjpiwv. Ranee, 884. 
 
 These lines would seem to show that he had been initiated into the mysteries, 
 which is quite at variance with the defence which he set up when accused before the 
 Areopagus. See Clem, Al. quoted below. 
 
 2 "E^t; 5^ kiax^^os fxeipcLKLou ov KaBevbetv iv dyp(^ (pvXdaacov cyraipvXds, Kai ol 
 Libwaov i-maTdpTa, KeXeuaai rpaycfdiav TroLetv. ws S^ rjv rjfxepa {ireidecrdaL yap iOeXeiv) 
 paara rjSrj veipu^/xevos voLeLv. ovros jj-kv ravra '4\eyev. Pausan. I. 21, 2. 
 
 To this employment of the poet were probably owing the habits of intemperance 
 with which he has been charged, and also his introduction on the stage of characters 
 in a state of drunkenness. Athenseus tells us (X. p. 428): Kai rbv AlaxvXov iyu} c/iaLrju 
 B.V TOVTO dLafxaprdveLU' TrpQros yap eKetuo$ Kal oux, cos 'ivLol (pacnu, Evpiiridrjs Traprjyaye 
 TTjv Twv p.e6vbvTwv 6\f/Lv ds Tpayq}8iap. ev yap roXs 'Ka^elpoLS elcrdyei rovs irepl rbv 
 'Idcova p^eOvovras. a S' euros 6 Tpa.ya}dL07roibs iiroleL, ravra rots iipcocTL irepUd-qKe' 
 p.edTucov yovv iypacpe rds rpayaidias' dib Kal So0o/c\?5s avrqi /xe^u(p6p.€vos ^Xeyeu 6ti, "^fl 
 Alax^Xe, el Kal rd biovra irouls, dXX' odv ovk elcws ye iroieTs' us icrrope? Xap-aiXicov h 
 T(p irepl Alax^Xou. The same observation of Sophocles is given in the same words, 
 I, p. 22, and is probably taken^ as Welcker suggests {l^ril. p. 254, note) fi'om Sopho- 
 cles' treatise on the chorus. 
 
 This failing is also mentioned by Plutarch: /cat top Alax^Xop <paal rpayci^dias 
 TrlvovTO. Toutp Kal 8tadepp.aip6p.epop. Symp. I. 5 ; by Callisthenes ; oi ydp, Cos rbp 
 
96 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 a tragedian in B.C. 499', when, as we have already stated, he con- 
 tended with Choerilus and Pratinas. Nine years after this he dis- 
 tinguished himself in the battle of Marathon^, along with his 
 brothers Cynegeirus and Ameinias, and the poet, who prided him- 
 self upon his valour more than upon his genius, looked back to 
 this as to the most glorious action of his life^. In 484 B.C. he 
 gained his first tragic victory, and in 480 B.C. took part in the 
 battle of Salamis, in which Ameinias gained the dpiarela : he also 
 fought at Plat^ea. He celebrated the glorious contests which he 
 had witnessed, in a tragic trilogy with which he gained the prize 
 (472 B.c.)^. After all that has been written on the subject^, we 
 are of opinion that ^schylus made only two journeys to Sicily. 
 The first was in 468 B.C. according to the express testimony of 
 Plutarch ^ ; and took place immediately after his defeat by young 
 Sophocles, though it is difficult to believe Plutarch's assertion, 
 that he left Athens in disgust at this indignity. As, however, it 
 is stated that he went to the court of Hiero*^, and brought out a 
 play at Syracuse to please that king, who died in 467 B.C., he 
 must, if he was at Athens to contend with Sophocles, have started 
 for Sicily immediately after the decision ; and he was then at 
 
 Alax^^ov 6 KaWtadivT]^ ^(pyj irov, Xiyoov rots Tpayu}dias ev oivq} yparpeiv, i^opfjt,u>vTa Kal 
 avadepixaivouTa tt]v ■^vx'qv. Lucian, Encom. Demosth. ; and by Evistathius, Odyss. 6', 
 p. 1598. 
 
 That he subsequently departed from his original reverence for the religion of 
 Bacchus, we shall show in the text, and this was probably occasioned by his military 
 connexion with the Dorians, and the love which he then acquired for the Dorian 
 character and institutions. 
 
 1 Suidas in Max- 
 
 2 'El' P'O.xv crvvrjyoivl<xaTo Klcrx^^os 6 Trot^TTjs [er]d}[;'] uv AAAII. Marm. Arund. 
 No. 49; Vit. Anonym. 
 
 3 Pausan. Attic. I. 4; Athenaaus, xiv. p. 627. In the epitaph which he is said to 
 have composed for himself, he makes no mention of his tragedies, and speaks only of 
 his warlike achievements : 
 
 AtVxi^Xoj/ EiKpop'Mvos ''kOrivaiov To^e Kevdei 
 
 'Mvriixa KaratpdliJievov irvpo^bpoLO ViXas. 
 'AXktjv d' evboKLjiov Mapaddviov dtXcros av eiVot, 
 Kai ^advxo-i-rrieLS Mrjdos iiriaTa/xevos. 
 ^ Gruppe thinks (Ariadne, p. 154) that the Prometheus was acted first at Syra- 
 cuse, and afterwards at Athens, under the poet's own superintendence: the Perseis, 
 which we are here alluding to, fii-st at Athens, and afterwards in Sicily. 
 
 ^ By Bockh, de Grcecce Tragcedicc Principibus, c. iv. v. ; Blomfield. Prcef. Pers. 
 pp. xvi sqq. ; Hermann, de Eumen. Choro, ii. pp. 155 sqq. ; Welcker, Trilogie, pp. 516 
 fol. ; Lange, de JEschyli Vila, pp. 15 sqq. 
 6 Plutarch, Cimon, viii. 
 
 ^ 'ATTTJpe dk els 'Jepwpa tov XiKcXias Tvpawov. Vit. Anonym. So Pausanias: Kal 
 es 'ZvpaKoixxas Trpbs 'lepcoua Aiax^Xos Kal ili/JLCovidris iffToXr^aav. I. 1. Also Plutarch: 
 Kat yap Kal ovtos [Alcrxi'Xos'} eh ^iKeXtav airrjpe Kal "Ztfiuvidrjs Trporepov. De Exilio. 
 
^SCHYLUS. 97: 
 
 Athens, if Plutarch has given us coiTect information. He probably 
 spent some time in Sicily on his first visit, as would appear from 
 the numbers of Sicilian words which are found in his later plays \ 
 The other journey to Sicily he is said to have made ten years 
 after (458 B.C.), and for this a very sufficient reason has been 
 assigned. In that year he brought out the Orestean trilogy ; and 
 in the Eumenides, the last play of the trilogy, showed so openly 
 his opposition to the politics of Pericles and his abettor Ephialtes^, 
 that his abode at Athens might easily have been made not only 
 unpleasant, but even unsafe, especially as his fondness for the 
 Dorian institutions, his aristocratical spirit, and his adoption of the 
 politics of Aristeides, had doubtless made him long before obnoxi- 
 ous to the demagogues. 
 
 He died at Gela two years after the representation of the 
 Orestea, i.e. in B.C. 456^. It is said*, that an eagle having mis- 
 taken his bald head for a stone, dropped a tortoise upon it in order 
 to break the shell, and that the poet was killed by the blow : but 
 the story is evidently an invention, most unnecessarily devised to 
 account for the natural death of a persecuted exile nearly seventy 
 years old. 
 
 Another reason has been assigned for ^schylus' second journey 
 to Sicily. It is founded on a statement, alluded to by Aristotle^, 
 and given more distinctly by Clemens Alexandrinus and ^Elian®, 
 
 ^ Ol'/c dyvou) 5e, on oi irepi tt]i> ^iKeXlau KaroLKOVvres dax^^^poi' KoXovai tqv 
 avaypov. Xiax^Kos yovv h ^opKicn, irapeiKa^uv tov Hepcrea to) dypicj tovtu) crvt, (prjaiv 
 
 'E8u 5' ii dvTpov dcrx^Sw/Dos ws. 
 "Ort 6e Max'j\o'i, btaTpLxj/a^ ip 'ZtKeXig. iroWais /cexpTjrat (f)0}va1t "LiKeXals, 
 ovbev davfxaarov. Athen. IX. p. 402 B. — To the same effect Eustathius : 'Kprjais 5^ 
 (paaiv daxeoibpou Trap" AiVxiAy diarpi^avTL h Zi/ce\/g /cat dhbru Ad Odyss. p. 1872. 
 — And Macrobius : Ita et Dii Palici in Sicili^ coluntur ; quos primum omnium 
 -^schylus tragicus, tir utique Sicidus, in literas dedit, &c. &c. Saturnal. v. 19. 
 
 Some Sicilian forms are to be found in his extant plays : thus, -rreddpa-Los, -rre^alx- 
 fiLOL, rreddopoi, fxdaawv, fid, &c. for fxerdpa-LOS, p.eTaixjJ^LOL, fieT^ujpni, fxel^cov, fJ-ip-ep, &c. 
 See Blomfield, Prom. Vine. 277, Gloss., and Bockh, de Trag. Grcec. c. v. 
 
 '^ See Miiller's Eumeniden, § 35 fol. 
 
 2 'A0' ov AiVxt^Xos 6 TTonrjTrjs, ^idocras ^tt) [AjAIIIIIT, iTeXevrrjaev kv [FeXji? ttJs 
 [2i]«:eX/as Itt; H[A]AAAAIII, 6.pxovTo^ ' Ad-i)vri(TL KaWiov rod irporipov. Mar. Arund. 
 No. 50. 
 
 ^ Vit. Anonym.; Suidas in X.eKwvrj pLvwv; Valer. Max. IX. 2; M\\a.T\, Hist. Aninial. 
 VII. 16. 
 
 ^ Ethic. III. 1 : 8 oe TrpdrreL, dyvo-qcjeiev dv ris' olov Xeyovrh (pacriv iKireaeiv avrovi, 
 ^7 ovK eidepai. on dwopp-qra rjv, (Joairep At'cxt^Xo? rd /JLvariKd. 
 
 •' AtVxi^Xos (says Clemens) rd ixvar-qpta iwl aKrjvijs i^eiirwv, ii/ 'Apeio) irdyu} KpiOels 
 ovTdJS d(pdadT), iindei^as avrbv fXTj /j.€fxvT)fj.ipou. Strom. ll. — ^^lian tells the tale in a 
 somewhat different way ; a more romantic one of course : AtVxi^Xos 6 Tpayu}d6s eKpivero 
 dcre^eias iiri nvi dpdp.an. 'YiToip.wv ow 6vnop 'AdrjpaiiOP, ^dWetu ai'TCP Xidois, 'A/iet- 
 
 D. T. G. 7 
 
98 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 that ^schylus was accused of impiety before the Areopagus, and 
 acquitted, as ^lian says, in consequence of the services of his 
 brother Ameinias, or, according to Aristotle and Clemens, because 
 he pleaded ignorance. Eustratius tells us^ from Heraclides Ponti- 
 cus that he would have been slain on the stage by the infuriated 
 populace, had he not taken refuge at the altar of Bacchus ; and 
 that he was acquitted by the Areopagus in consequence of his 
 brother Cynegeiriis intercession. This reason for his second de- 
 parture from Athens is quite in accordance with the former ; for if 
 he had incurred the ill will of the people and the demagogues, 
 nothing was more natural than that he should have been made 
 amenable to the same charges, which a similar faction afterwards 
 brought against Alcibiades^. And there is something in the in- 
 tervention of the Areopagus, between the people and their intended 
 victim, which may at once account for the attempt to overthrow it, 
 which, we conceive, shortly followed this trial, as also for the bold 
 stand which ^schylus made on behalf of that tribunal. 
 
 There are great discrepancies respecting the number of plays 
 written by jEschylus. The writer of the life prefixed to his 
 remains assigns seventy plays to him, Suidas ninety, and Fabricius 
 more than 100. Of these, only seven remain. 
 
 The most remarkable improvements which ^schylus intro- 
 duced into Tragedy are the following : he added a second actor, 
 limited the functions of the chorus, and gave them a more artificial 
 character : he made the dialogue, which he created by the addition 
 of a second actor, the principal part of the drama ^: he provided 
 
 via.'i 6 veuirepos d5eX06s, 5iaKa\v\pdfji.evos to IfJidTiov edei^e tt]u tttjxw 'iprjixov rrjs x^'-P^^- 
 "Etvx^ Se apKTTe^wv ev HaKa/jui'L 6 'AfMetuias d.7roj8e/3\7;/ca)s tijv x^^P^> '^ct' TrpQros ^ kdrj- 
 vaiiav tQv dpiareioju '^tvx^v. 'ETrei Se dbov ol dLKaaral rod dvhphs to TrdOos, vireixvqadT)- 
 cav tQ)v '^p-yojv a^Tov Kai dcprJKav tov kl(Jxv\ov. Var. Hist. v. 19, 
 
 1 In his commentary on Aristotle, loc. cit. fol. 40. He mentions the names of 
 five plays on which these charges were founded, the To^orides, the Tepeias, the I,i(Tv^os 
 7r€TpoKv\i<TTrjs, the 'I(pLy4ueia, and the Oldlirovs. But we know nothing of the dates of 
 these plays, Comp. Welcker, Tril. 106, 276. 
 
 2 Thucyd. vi. 53; Andocid. de Myster. Comp, Droysen, in the Rhein. Museum 
 for 1835, pp. 161 fol. 
 
 •^ These first three improvements are stated by Aristotle, Poet. c. iv, 16 (below, 
 Part II.) : koL to re tCjv vttokpltQv ttXtjOos i^ iubs els duo irpCoTos AiVxi^Xos rjyaye, 
 Kol TO, TOV xopov TjXdTTcoae Kal tov \6yov irpujT ay u}vl(XT7]v irapeaKevacre. The first is 
 given also by Diogen, Laert. Vit. Plat.: eiairis epa viroKpLTT]v e'^evp€v...Kal de^Tepou 
 AlcrxvXos. The names of his two actors are given in an old life prefixed to one of the 
 
 editions. 'ExpTjo'aro 5^ viroKpiTrj TrpcoTov jxkv KeXdvdpu} deuTepov avT<^ Trp6a7]\p€ 
 
 M-LovLCTKov TOV XttX/fiSca. Hermann has made an extraordinary blunder with regard 
 to the latter part of the quotation from Aristotle: ha has actually supposed that 
 trpwT ay wvLCTT-qv is an epithet, though it is obvious from the position of the article, that 
 
^SCIIYLUS. 99 
 
 his Tragedy witli all sorts of imposing spectacles \ and intro- 
 duced the custom of contending with Trilogies, or with three plays 
 at a time. He seems also to have improved the theatrical costumes, 
 and to have made the mask more expressive and convenient, while 
 he increased the stature of the performers by giving them thick 
 soled boots {dp^vXat, Kodopvot'). In short, he did so much for the 
 drama, that he was considered as the father of Tragedy^, and his 
 plays were allowed to be acted after his death ^. 
 
 We shall find, in the remaining Tragedies of ^schylus, most 
 ample confirmation of what we have said respecting his political 
 opinions, and also of Cicero's statement, that he was a Pytha- 
 gorean s. Even the improvements which are due to him are so 
 
 it is a tertiary predicate (Donalds. Gr. Gr. 489 sqq.), and is used tropically, just as 
 Aristotle elsewhere uses x^PVY^^^) &c. metaphorically. Compare Plut. 3fii.s. p. 667, 
 Wyttenb. : TrpuTayojPLcrTovarjs tt}s Troirjcreus, tCou 5' avXrjTU)]/ virripeTOVvTwv tols didaaKO.- 
 Xots. 
 
 1 Primum Agatharchus Athenis, ^schylo docente tragcediam, scenam fecit, et de 
 ea commentarium reliquit. Vitruv. Prsef. Lib. Yii. 
 
 2 Post hunc [Thespin] personae pallgeque repertor honestae 
 ^schylus, et modicis instravit pulpita tignis, 
 
 Et docuit magnumque loqui, nitique cothumo. Horat. Epist. ad Pis. 279. 
 So Suidas : Alax^^os evpe TrpoawTreta deij^a Kal xpw/iacrt Kexpicrp-eva ^eiv tovs rpayi- 
 Ko6s, Kal rats dpj3v\ac5, rats Ka\ovp.ivaLS e/i/Sdratj, KexpV'^dai. The Aristophanic 
 -^schylus alludes to these improvements in the costumes. Ran. 1060. Compare 
 Athen. i. p. 21, and Philost. Vit. Ax>oll. VI. 11: iadripLacri re irpQiTos eKoajxTjcxev a 
 7rp6cr(f>opou TJpuai re Kal 7}pwtcriv ijadrjaOac. Vit. Gorg. I. 9 : iadrjrl re t7}v rpayipdlav 
 KaracTKevdaas Kal dKpijSavTi v-^riKd^, Kal rjpibojv etdeaip. There are many allusions to 
 the dp^uXai of the actors in the Greek Tragedians themselves. 
 
 ^ — "Odev ^Adrjva'ioi irarepa pkv avrbv ttJs rpayijjdlas rjyovvTO. Philost. Vit. 
 Apoll. VI. II. And thus the Chorus in the Ranee address him : 
 
 'AW tS IT p Cot OS tQv '^HWtivuv Tvpydjcras p-qpara crep.vd, 
 "Kal KoapLTjcrat rpayiKov Xijpop. v. 1004. 
 So Quintilian: Tragcedias ^^J'^'mms in lucem ^schylus protulit. X. i. 
 '^ " 'E^'dXow 5e Kal redpeZra els Aiopvaia. Td yap tov Alax^Xov xf/rjcpiaapipuv 
 dpebidda-KeTO, Kal epiKa €K KaiPTJs. Philostr. Vit. Apoll. vi. 11. — Also, Vit. Anonym. — 
 Aristophanes alludes to this custom of re-exhibiting the dramas of ^schylus in the 
 opening of the Achar7iians, where Dicaeopolis complains : 
 d\X udvPTjdrjv erepop ad rpaywdcKOP, 
 ore 577 KexvPV TrpoadoKu>p top Alax^^op, 
 6 5' dpe^irep' ' ecaay', c3 Qeoypi, top x^P^'^-' v. 9 &c. 
 Upon which the Scholiast remarks: rt^^s 5e peylaTTjs ^tvx^ -n-apd 'Adrjpaiocs 6 Alax'J- 
 \os, Kal p.6pov avTOv to, dpdp.aTa \prj(piapaTi. koip(3 Kal /ierd ddpaTOP ididd<7K€T0. The 
 allegation of the poet {Ranee, 868) : 
 
 "Ort 7} TTolrjais ovxl (TVPT^dpTjKe pot, 
 is also supposed by the Scholiast to refer to this decree. Quintilian assigns a very 
 different reason for this practice, when, speaking of ^schylus as ' rudis in plerisque et 
 incompositus,' he goes on, 'propter quod correctas ejus fabulas in certamen deferre 
 posterioribus poetis Athenienses permisere, suntque eo modo multi coronati.' x. i. 
 What authority he had for such an assertion does not now appear." Former Editor. 
 
 5 Veniat JEschylus, non poeta solum, sed etiam Pythagoreus ; sic enim accepimus. 
 Cicero, Tvsc. Disp. 11. 9. 
 
 7—2 
 
100 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 many proofs of his anti-democratical spirit. For though he seems 
 to have first tm*ned his attention to the drama, in consequence 
 of his accidental connexion with the country worship of Bacchus, 
 yet in all his innovations we shall detect a wish to diminish the 
 choral or Bacchic element of the Tragedy, and to aggrandize the 
 other part, by connecting it with the old Homeric Epos, the 
 darling of the aristocracy : indeed he used to say himself, that 
 his dramas were but dry scraps from the great banquets of Homer\ 
 and it was owing to this that he borrowed so little from the Attic 
 traditions, or from the Heracleia and Theseis, of which Sophocles 
 and Euripides afterwards so freely availed themselves 2. We have 
 another proof of his willingness to abandon all reference to the 
 worship of Bacchus in his way of treating the dithyrambic cliorus, 
 which the state gave him as the basis of his Tragedy. He did not 
 keep all this chorus of fifty men on the stage at once, but broke 
 it up Into subordinate choruses, one or more of which he employed 
 in each play of his Trilogy^. Even his improvement of the costume 
 was a part of the same plan ; for the more appropriate he made 
 the costumes of his actors, the farther he departed from the dresses 
 worn in the Bacchic processions ; which, however, to the last kept 
 their place on the tragic stage '^. And may not the invention of 
 the Trilogy have been also a part of his attempt to make the X6709, 
 or theatrical declamation^, the principal part in liis tragedy [irpwr- 
 a'ycovLcnrjs;)'^ We think w^e could establish this, if our limits 
 admitted a detailed examination of the principles which governed 
 
 " In philosopliical sentiments, ^schylus is said to have been a Pythagorean. In 
 his extant dramas tlie tenets of this sect may occasionally be traced ; as, deep venera- 
 tion in what concerns the gods, Ar/am. 360 ; high regard for the sanctity of an oath 
 and the nuptial bond, Bumen. 208 ; the immortality of the soul, Choeph. ^lo ; the 
 origin of names from imposition and not from nature, Agani. 683 ; Prom. V. 85, 852 ; 
 the importance of numbers, Prom. Vinct. 457; the science of physiognomy, A gam. 
 769; and the sacred character of suppliants, Suppl. 342; Bum. 226," Former Editor. 
 
 Corap. a paper in the Class. Journal, No. xxii. pp. 207 fol. "On the Philosoi)hical 
 sentiments of ^schylus." 
 
 ^ Athen. Vlll. p. 347 E : ra tqv koXov kol Xafxirpou Alax^^ov 8s rds avrou rpayw- 
 dia^ Tefxdxv eXvai ^Xeye tGjv 'Ofxrjpov //.eydXiou SeiTruoju. 
 
 ^ See Welcker, Triloc/ie, p. 484. In style and representation, however, Sophocles 
 was much more Homeric than -^schylus, who probably paid attention only to the 
 mythical materials in general, and according to their Epic connexion. TrUogie, p. ^85. 
 
 •^ See Miiller's Eumeniden, near the beginning of the first essaj''. 
 
 4 Ibid. § 32. 
 
 •^ That this is the meaning of \6yos, in the passage of Aristotle, is sufficiently 
 clear ; for \oye7o:f was the stage on which the actor, as distinguished fi'om the chorus, 
 performed. 
 
.ESCHYLUS. 101 
 
 the composition of au ^Escliylean Trilogy^: at present we shall 
 merely suggest, that the invention of a irpokcr/o^ and a prjacf;, 
 attributed to Thespis, points to two entrances only of the Thespian 
 actor ; and that the Tpi\(r/ia, in its old sense, may have been 
 originally a TrpoXoyo^, and two \6yoi> or prjaeu^, instead of one ; 
 consequently, an increase of business for the vwoKpLTr]^, Now, 
 when ^schylus had added a second actor, each of these \070fc 
 became a SLaXoyo^^, or Spa/ia : and it would be natural enough 
 that jEschylus, if he had the intentions which we have attributed 
 to him, should expand each of these hiokoyoL into a complete play, 
 and break up the chorus into three parts, assigning one to each 
 dialogue, and subordinating the whole choiTis to the action of the 
 piece. There is something in favour of this view in the probable 
 analogy between the first piece of a Trilogy and the prologue of 
 Thespis, which we consider to have been certainly of less impor- 
 tance than the prjac^. " It is credible," says an ingenious writer^, 
 "that when the new Trilogy first came out, only the middle piece 
 received an accurate dialogical and dramatic completion ; whereas, 
 on the contrary, the introductory and concluding pieces were less 
 removed from the old form, and besides remained confined to a 
 more moderate compass." This is borne out by all that we know 
 of the earlier Trilogies of ^schylus, in which the first play has 
 generally a prophetic reference to the second ; and the third, 
 though important in a moral and religious point of view, is little 
 more than a finale^, whereas all the stirring interest is concentrated 
 in the Middle Tragedy : Travrl p^eacp to Kpdro^ Geo? wTracrev, say 
 tlie chorus in the Eumenides, and this principle is the key as well 
 to the trilogy of ^schylus as to the morals of Aristotle. Besides, 
 the leading distinction between the ^Eschylean Tragedy and the 
 Homeric Epos is, that the latter contains an uninterrupted series 
 of events, whereas the former exhibits the events in detached 
 groups ''. In this also we are to seek for the relation subsisting 
 between the drama of ^schylus and the plastic arts, of which he 
 
 ^ Welcker has done a great deal towards settling this question aesthetically {Trilo- 
 rjie, pp. 482 — 540). 
 
 2 Gruppe, Ariadne, p. 147; compare Welcker, Trilogie, p. 490. Henuann 
 (Opii.sc. II. p. 313) admits this of the musical importance. 
 
 3 See Welcker, Tril. pp. 491, 492. 
 ■* Hid. pp. 486 foil. 
 
102 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 was always full, to wKich he often alludes^, and which perhaps he 
 practised himself^. Now, in all ages of art the pyramidal group 
 has been considered the most beautiful : the reader need only recal 
 to his mind the ^ginetan pediment, the Laocoon, and the most 
 beautiful of Raphael's pictures ; for instance, the upper part of 
 the Transfiguration, the Sistine Madonna, and the Mater pulcrce 
 dilectionis. It may have been the object of JEschylus to realize 
 this. But as he always subjoined a satyrical drama to the three 
 Tragedies, and was very eminent in that species of composition', he 
 must have aimed, in his Trilogies, rather at internal symmetry 
 than at external completeness. 
 
 But, in addition to all these evidences, from the general form 
 of the Tragedies of ^schylus, of a Dorian spirit warring against 
 their once Dorian element, the chorus ; there is no lack of passages 
 in his plays which point directly to his fondness for the Dorians* 
 and for Aristeides^ and which show that the maxims of Solon 
 were deeply engraved on his memory^. It is also highly interest- 
 ing to trace in his few remaining Tragedies the frequently occurring 
 allusions to his military and other public employments. For as 
 
 ^ For instance, Agamem. 233 : irpiirovad 6' ws iv ypa<pais. 
 405 : evfjidpcpwv 5^ KoXocraQv 
 
 ^X^^TC-'' X'^P'-^ avhpl. 
 775: Kapr aTTOfiotJcrcos rjcrda yeypap.p.ipos. 
 Eumen. 50: dtbv ttot' rjdT] ^ivius yeypa[iiiipa% 
 
 piyKovcri 5' ov TrXaaroiaL (pv<xidfia(ri,p. 
 284: Tld7]<xiv dpdhv T] KaTr)pe(f)ri iroda. 
 (Comp. Miiller, Eumeniden, p. [12). 
 
 Supplices, 279: Kvirpios x"-P°''<'^'^P "'"' ^'' yvpaiKciois tvttois 
 eZ/fcbs iriirXTjKTaL tcktovojv Trpos apahxav. 
 458 : vioLS Trba^i ^pirea Kocrfiijaai rdde. 
 
 2 This is implied in the improvements which he made in the masks, dresses, &c. 
 
 3 As the trilogies were acted early in the year, it is probable that the night began 
 to close in before the last piece and the satyrical drama were over. This may account 
 for Prometheus, the fire-kindler (which was probably a torch-race, Welcker, THl. pp. 
 120, 507), being the satyrical drama of the Perseis; for the torch-procession at the 
 end of the Eumenides, and for the conflagration at the end of the Troades. Comp. 
 Gruppe, Ariadne, p. 361. 
 
 ^ Comp. Pers. 179, 803. ^ See Miiller, Eumeniden, § 138. 
 
 ^ The following is one of many passages in which the words of Solon are nearly 
 repeated by -^schylus. 
 Solon, p. 80, Bach : 
 
 irXovTOv 5'' oi^hv ripfia irecpaafjiivou civdpd(n Ketrai' 
 
 ot yap vvv yjp.Civ irXetaToy ^x^^"'"' P^^'' 
 dnrXdcriov cnreijbov(n' tls B,u Kopiaeiev aTravras; 
 Agamenm. 972 : fjt,d\a ydp toi tm TroXXas vyielas 
 aKbpecrrov Tipp,a. 
 
^SCilYLUS. 103 
 
 we easily detect in the writer of the Divina Commedia the stem 
 Florentine, who charged in the foremost ranks of the Gnelfian 
 chivahy at the battle of Campaldino^, so may we at once recognize, 
 in the tone of ^schylus' Tragedies, the high-minded Athenian, 
 the brother of Ameinias and Cynegeirus, whose sword drank the 
 blood of the dark-haired Medes at Marathon and Salamis. His 
 poems are full of military and political terms-; he breathes an 
 unbounded contempt for the barbarian prowess^, and he introduces 
 on the stage the grotesque monsters whose images he had often 
 seen among the spoils of the Persians*. Even his high-flown 
 diction is a type of his military character, for many of his words 
 strike on the ear like trumpet-sounds. The description given of 
 his language by Aristophanes is so vivid, and at the same time 
 so true, that we must endeavour to lay it before our readers in 
 an English dress. The chorus of initiated persons is speaking of 
 the prospect of a contest between ^Eschylus and Em'ipides ; they 
 express their expectations thus^: 
 
 Surely unhearahle w^ratk icill rise in the thanderer's bosom, 
 When he perceives his inval in art, that treble-toned babbler. 
 Whetting his teeth: he xcill then, driven frantic with angei', 
 Roll his eye-balls fearfully. 
 
 Then shall we have plume-jl uttering strifes of hehneted speeches, 
 BreaJc-nech grazings of galloping words and shavings of actions, 
 While the poor wight averts the great geniusnionger's 
 Diction high and chivalrous. 
 
 Bristling the stiffened mane of his nech-enveloping tresses. 
 Dreadfully wrinkling his brows, he will bellovj aloud as he utters 
 Fii^mly rivetted words, and will tear them up plankivise, 
 Breathing with a Titan's breath. 
 
 ^ In ([uella battaglia memorabile e grandissima, che fu a Campaldino, lui giovane 
 e bene stimato si trovb nell' armi combattendo vigorosaraente a cavallo nella prima 
 schiera. Aretin. Vita di Dante, p. 9. 
 
 ^ We allude to such phrases as /xaKapojv irpvTavLS, ^a(n\rj^ dloTroi., arpaTLois 
 i<f>opoL, (pLXofiaxoi ^pa^TJs. 
 
 3 For instance, in the SupipUces, 727, 8, 930 sqq. 
 * Aristoph. Ran. 937 : 
 
 ovX linraXeKTpvopas, /J.a A", ouSe rpayeXdcpovi direp ci, 
 O.V Tolat TrepnreTdafxaa-iP rolt MTjSt/coiS ypdcpovcriu. 
 5 Aristoph. Ran. 814. It may be as well to remind the student, that ^schylus is 
 here compared to a lion, Euripides to a wild boar. Great contempt for Euripides is 
 expressed in 1. 820, in the opposition of (puiros applied to him, to dv5p6s appKed to 
 ^schylus ; 1. 824 intimates the diflBculty of pronouncing the long words of ^Eschylus, 
 which are afterwards compared to trees torn up by the root, as opposed to the twigs 
 and branches with which the rolhng-places were generally strewed. (904.) 
 Tov 5' dvacnrwvT^ avToirpe/xvoii 
 Toh XoyoLaiu 
 
 epLTfidoirra cvaKehdv ttoX- 
 Xas dXivdrjOpas eirOiv. 
 
104 .ESCHYLUS. 
 
 Then ivill that smooth and cUligenl tongue, the touchstone of verses, 
 Twisting and twirling about, and moving the snaffle of envy, 
 Scatter his words, and demolish, with subtle r^nement, 
 Doughty labours of the lungs. 
 
 In addition to the many other allusions to nautical matters 
 in ^schylus, the importance which he attaches to Zeus Soter, 
 the god of mariners, is of itself a sufficient indication of his sea- 
 faring life^. 
 
 Though JEschylus does not seem to have had much relish 
 for the Dionysian rites or for an elementary worship of Bacchus, 
 he was a highly religious man, and strongly attached to the Dorian 
 idolatry, on which Pythagoras founded his more spiritual and 
 philosophical system of religion 2. 
 
 It is an established fact, that ^schylus borrowed, in his later 
 days, the third actor, and the other improvements of Sophocles. 
 The time at which he adopted the modifications introduced by 
 his younger contemporary is of importance with reference to the 
 chronological arrangement of his extant plays, which it is our next 
 business to consider. 
 
 Although it is certain that ^schylus exhibited his Tragedies in 
 tetralogies or connected sets of three with a satyrical after-piece, 
 we have only one of his trilogies, the latest of them, and the 
 satyrical dramas are altogether lost. The other four plays which 
 have come down to us seem to have been the center-pieces of the 
 Trilogies to which they belonged. No one of them can be referred 
 to the first twelve years of his dramatic career. But three of the 
 four exhibit his Tragedy in its original form, with only two speak- 
 ing persons on the stage ; one of them, in the opinion of some 
 critics, leaves it doubtful whether he had as yet adopted the 
 Sophoclean extension of the stage-business; and the three con- 
 stituting his Trilogy of the Orestea give us the Greek Tragedy 
 in the fullest development to which it ever attained. 
 
 1 See Mliller, Eumeniden, § 94 foil. It appears to us, from the fact mentioned by 
 Strabo (ix. p. 396), that there was a temple of Zeus Soter on the shore of the Peiraeus, 
 and from the words of Diphilus (Athen. p. -229 b) : 
 
 VTTo TovTov VTrefMV^' (we would read vir^vv^') evSvs eK^e^7}K6Ta, 
 TT]v de^Lav ev4^a\ov ifipr]a6'r]v Aids 
 
 I1 WTTJpOS. 
 
 that this Zeus Soter was the god of mariners, to whom they offered up their vows 
 immediately on landing. Comp. Agamemn. v. 650 : tvxv 5^ aoorrjp vavv diXova' i<p4' 
 ^€T0, and see our note on Pindar, Olymp. viii. 20 sqq. p. 54. 
 
 2 See Miiller, Eumeniden, u, s. and elsewhere ; and Klausen's Theologumena 
 jEschyli. — And in connexion with the remarks on ^schylus' love of sculpture, see 
 above, p. 24, note i. 
 
^SCHYLUS. 105 
 
 The earliest extant play of ^schylus seems to have been the 
 Persce. It is expressly stated that the tetralogy, to which it be- 
 longed, and which consisted of the PMaeus, the Persce, the Glaucus 
 Potnieus, and Prometheus Pyrcceus, was performed in the archonship 
 of Menon, B.C. 472 \ The direct reference to the great events, 
 which had taken place some seven years earlier, places the Persce 
 in tlie same category with the ^likr]rov "AXcocrt? of Phrynichus ; 
 but while the latter commemorated a grievous disaster, ^Eschylus 
 celebrated glorious victories, and he was enabled, as we may infer 
 from the names of the other plays in the Trilogy, to connect these 
 topics of contemporary interest with a wide field of mythology and 
 vaticination. The Phineus, who gave his name to the introductory 
 drama, was the blind soothsayer, who predicted to the Argonauts 
 tlie adventures which would befal them in that first attack upon 
 Asia by the Greeks, and it would be easy for the poet to interweave 
 with this a series of prophecies referring to the glorious overthrow 
 of the counter-expedition of Xerxes. The scene of the extant 
 play, which forms the center-piece of the Trilogy, is laid at Susa, 
 where the Queen-dowager Atossa, prepared for coming disaster 
 by an ominous dream, receives from a Persian messenger the details 
 of the battle of Salamis, and of the retreat of the defeated army 
 aCiOss the Strymon. After this the shade of Darius appears, and 
 predicts the battle of Plata?a. The piece concludes witli the appear- 
 ance of Xerxes himself in a most unkingly plight, and he and the 
 chorus pour forth a K6fjLfio<^ or dirge, deploring the sad consequences 
 of his attempt to subjugate Greece. The third play was called 
 Glaucus, and the didascalia states that it was the Glaucus Potnieus, 
 There was also another play of ^schylus called the Glaucus Pon- 
 tius, and some scholars have contended that this was the third 
 Tragedy in the Trilogy under consideration^. We cannot recognize 
 the necessity for such an alteration of the document as it has come 
 do^-n to us: for there is no more difficulty in connecting the 
 Glaucus Potnieus with the Persce, than there is in establishing a cor- 
 respondence of plot between the latter and the Glaucus Pontius. It 
 is sufficient to remark that the apparition of Darius was evoked 
 for the purpose, as it seems, of predicting the battle of Platsea 
 
 ^ Argument. Pers. : iirl Mevwvos Tpayudwv AiVxi^Xos ivcKa ^lu€7, Hepaais, TXavKO) 
 
 UoTViei, UpO/X7]6€?. 
 
 ^ Welcker, Tril. pp. 311 sqq. 471; Nachtrarj, p, 176; Mliller, Hist. Gr. Lit. i. 
 P- 425. 
 
106 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 (vv. 800 sq.). Now Potni^ was on the road from Thebes to Plat«a\ 
 and the few fragments of the play called Glaucus Potrdeus certainly 
 do not authorize us in denying that some of the many legends, 
 of which Potnige was the traditionary home, might have been 
 brought into connexion with the battle of Plataaa. The incident in 
 the fate of Glaucus himself, namely, that he was torn to pieces by 
 his own steeds, is undoubtedly referred to in one of the fragments^ ; 
 and when we remember the dream of Atossa, and how Xerxes is 
 overthrown by the visionary horses which he yokes to his chariot^ 
 it is quite conceivable that some prophetical inferences may have 
 been drawn from the downfal of Glaucus in the chariot-race at the 
 funeral games of Pelias^. In any case, it is clear that the Per see 
 with its contemporary references stood between two plays which 
 derived their names and probably their action and circumstances 
 from the mythical traditions of ancient Hellas. With regard to 
 the Per see itself, it has been well remarked^ that " in this instance 
 the scene is not properly Grecian ; it is referred by the mind to 
 Susa, the capital of Persia, far eastward even of Babylon, and four 
 months' march from Hellas. Remoteness of space in that case 
 countervailed the proximity in point of time; though it may be 
 doubted, whether, without the benefit of the supernatural, it would, 
 even in that case, have satisfied the Grecian taste. And it certainly 
 would not, had the reference of the whole piece not been so in- 
 tensely Athenian." 
 
 The next in point of date of the extant plays of ^schylus 
 was the Seven against Thehes, which is stated to have been acted 
 after the Persoe^, but must have appeared in the lifetime of Aris- 
 teides, who died not later than B.C. 468. For the beautiful verses 
 respecting Amphiaraus were considered at Athens to refer to that up- 
 right statesman ^ This play, as Aristophanes makes its author call 
 
 ^ Pausan. IX. 8; Strabo, p. 409. 
 
 2 e. g. Fragm. 30 ; see Hermann, de uEschyli Glaucis, Opusc. il. p. 63. 
 
 » Pers. t8i. 
 
 ^ Pausan, vi. 20, § 19. As rapd^nnros, Glaucus may have been serviceable accord- 
 ing to Greek superstition in the defeat of the cavalry of Mardonius. 
 
 ^ De Quincey, Leaders in literature and traditional errors affecting them, p. 66. 
 
 ^ Aristophanes says {Ran. 1058): elra StSd^as Iiep<jas fiera tovto, speaking of the 
 Seven against Thebes, but the Schol. informs us: rb de etra /cat to /xera tovto, ov 
 d^Xovcriv aKoveiv irpos rds dibaaKaXias, dW if 'L(r(p r(p Kal tovto edida^a /cat to 'eTepov. 
 And again {ad v. 1053): oi Hipaai irpoTepov dediday/xiuoL eiolv elTa oi eTrrd irrl Qrj^as. 
 
 7 Plut. Apophthegm. Reg. p. 186 B (739 Wyttenb.) : klcx^'Xov 7rotri<TavTOS els 'A/a- 
 (pidpaov 
 
^SCHYLUS. 107 
 
 it, was truly full of warlike spirit ^ but its construction is eminently 
 simple. The dialogue is mainly sustained by Eteocles, the young 
 king of Thebes, who receives intelligence of the seven champions 
 about to attack the seven gates of his city, and appoints a warrior 
 to meet each of them, reserving his brother Polyneices for himself. 
 The play ends with an announcement of the victory of Thebes ; 
 and Antigone and Ismene, in conjunction with the chorus, pour forth 
 a lament over their two brothers who have fallen in the fratricidal 
 strife. Antigone, in particular, declares her resolve to bury Poly- 
 neices in spite of the prohibition of the Theban senate (1017). And 
 while the first play of the Trilogy, probably the (Edipus, must have 
 developed the circumstances leading to the paternal curses, to which 
 Eteocles makes such emphatic reference at the beginning of the 
 Seven against Thebes (v. 70), the fate of Antigone must have been 
 introduced into the last play, no doubt the Eleusinians, the main 
 topic of which was the interference of Theseus to procure the 
 burial at Eleuther^ and Eleusis of the Argives who fell before 
 Thebes'^ 
 
 The most contradictory opinions have been maintained respect- 
 ing the chronology of the Prometheus. For while one critic contends 
 that it is the oldest of the extant plays of ^schylus, and was 
 exhibited soon after 01. 75, 2, B.C. 478^, another eminent scholar 
 says that it " was in all probability one of the last efforts of the 
 genius of ^schylus, for the third actor is to a certain extent 
 employed in it^." The reason alleged for this late date of the 
 play — namely, the assumed employment of a third actor — falls 
 to the ground when we adopt the probable supposition^ that 
 
 o() yap 8oK€LV dpiaro? dW elvai OeXei, 
 ^adeHav dXoKa 5td (ppeuos Kupwov/xeuos, 
 d(p' •^s TO, Kedvd ^Xaardvei ^ovXev/Mara' 
 Kai Xeyo/x^vwv to^tuv Travres els 'ApLcrTeidrjv diripXexpav. 
 
 1 Ran. 1054: dpafxa xoirjaas "Apews fiearov. 
 
 2 Plutarch, Thes. c. 29: awi-rrpa^e de (OTjaeis) Kal 'Adpda-TCf rrjv dvalpecriv rdv virh 
 T-§ Kadp-eia ireabvTWv, oix, ws 'E^upnri^-qs eiroliqaev if rpaycpdig., fidxv rwu Qrj^aioiv Kpa- 
 TTjcras, dXXa Trelaas Kai cireL(Tdp.evos...Ta(pal 5^ rCov p.h voWCjv iv 'EXevOepaTs deiKvovrat, 
 tQv 5k Tjyep-Svcjv TrepV'EXevcy^i'a, Kal tovto Qrjaiws' Adpaario x^-pi-f^'^P'-^i'ov. KarafxapTvpovai 
 Sk Twv Evpnridov 'jKeridcov ol kiax^Xov 'EXevalvioL, iv oh Kal ravra X^ycoj' 6 Qrjaeds 
 TreiroirjTaL. 
 
 3 G. F. Schoinann, des jEschylos gefesselter Prometheus, pp. 79 sqq. 
 
 4 Miiller, Hist. Gr. Lit. i. p. 432 . 
 
 5 Welcker, Tril. p. 30; Hermann, Opusc. il. p. 146 ; ad^sch. p. 55. It is curious 
 that Schoinann, who argues for the oldest date of the Prometheits, disallows this sup- 
 position, and imagines that one of the choreutse took the part of the third actor (u. s. 
 
108 iESCHYLIIS. 
 
 Prometlieus, who does not speak during the dialogue between Vul- 
 can and his coadjutor, Strength, was represented by a lay figure 
 attached to the rock scenery, behind whose mask the protagonist 
 spoke during the rest of the play. The reasons, which induce us to 
 take a middle course between these conflicting opinions and to 
 place the Prometheus third among the extant plays of ^schylus, 
 are briefly as follows. The references to Sicily, the Sicelisms of the 
 language, and the covert allusions to Sicilian afl'airs, especially the 
 description of the great eruption of ^tna^, seem to point to an 
 epoch subsequent to the poet's first visit to Sicily in b. c. 468. On 
 the other hand, the sarcastic allusions to tyrants and courtiers^ are 
 not likely to have appeared in a play acted in Sicily, or indeed 
 during the life-time of Hiero, and this consideration wdll induce us 
 to place the Tragedy after B.C. 467. But it seems reasonable to 
 conclude that the elaborate description of the subject of another 
 Trilogy ^ would hardly have been put into the mouth of Prometheus, 
 if that series of plays had been already acted. And as we shall see 
 that the Sujy^pUces^ the center play of the Trilogy about the daugh- 
 ters of Danaus, must have been performed about B.C. 461, we must 
 place the Prometheus at some time between that date and the poet's 
 return from Sicily. If we must fix a particular date, we can sug- 
 gest none better than the year B.C. 464, when the news would 
 reach Athens that Themistocles had entered the service of the Per- 
 sian king^. The warrior of Marathon and Salamis, and the friend 
 of Aristeides, would at such a time with peculiar force utter that 
 abomination of treason, which the poet puts into the mouth of his 
 chorus^. This noble Tragedy, the Prometheus hound^ which ex- 
 
 pp. 85 sqq.). Such a parachoregema cannot be imagined in the very earliest days of 
 the Greek Drama. 
 
 1 vv. 367 sqq. : evOev €Kpayr](rovTai irore 
 
 TTora/iOi TTvpos ddiTTouTes dypiaLS ypdOoLS 
 TTJs KaWtKapwou St/ceX/as \eupovs yvas. 
 ■It is true that this eruption took place B. C. 478, but the description points to a recent 
 view of the effects, rather than to a recent hearsay of the fact. For the Sicelisms in 
 the Prometheus see Blomfield's Gloss. 277. And for allusions to Hiero 's affairs see 
 Droysen's Translation, p. 568. 
 
 ^ See e. g. 917: cre^ou, irpocrevxov, dunrre tov Kparovvr^ del. 
 3 Cf. vv. 830 sqq., with the Sujjplices as it stands. 
 
 ^ Themistocles arrived in Persia soon after the death of Xerxes in B.C. 465, during 
 the influence of Artabanes. See Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 40. 
 ^ 1048 sqq. : toi>s irpodoTas yap /xiaelu '^fiadov, 
 
 KOVK iart vbaos 
 TTJad^ rjvTi.v' dTTewTvaa /xdWoi^. 
 
^SCHYLUS. 109 
 
 hibits Prometheus fettered to the mountain side, but still defying 
 the power of Jove and refusing to divulge the oracle of Themis, 
 on which the continuance of that power depended, was preceded 
 bj Prometheus the fire-hringer. in which the labours of Prometheus 
 on behalf of mankind were fully exhibited, and was followed by 
 Prometheus unbound, in which Prometheus is released by Hercules 
 and reconciled to Jove, to whom he now discloses the prophecy that 
 Thetis would give birth to a son more powerful than his father, 
 and so releases him from the consequences of his intended marriage 
 with that sea-goddess. 
 
 The remaining single play, the Suj^pUants, belonged to a tri- 
 logy, which some have called the Danais, and which undoubtedly 
 related to the wholesale murder of 49 of the oO sons of ^gyptus 
 on their marriage-night. The first play, which is supposed to have 
 been the Egyptians, represented of course the circumstances which 
 led to the flight of Danaus and his 50 daughters from Egypt. The 
 Suppliants exhibits the exiles seated before a group of altars at 
 Argos, and shows how they were received by King Pelasgus and 
 his people, and how the attempt of the Egyptian herald, to carry 
 them back to Egypt by force, was resisted by the hospitable 
 Greeks. In the last play, called the Danaides, ^schylus must 
 have detailed the feigned reconciliation of the two brothers, the 
 marriage of their two progenies, and its fatal consequences ^ There 
 is reason to believe that the piece ended, like the Eumenides, with 
 a fonnal trial, or rather with two trials. On the one hand, it seems 
 clear that the 49 homicidal daughters, together with their father 
 who instigated the deed, were publicly tried at the suit of ^gyp- 
 tus^; and the feeling, with which the poet regards their case in the 
 Suppliants^, leaves it hardly doubtful that they were acquitted on 
 the ground that they had no other means of escaping the incestuous 
 marriage forced upon them by ^Egyptus-^. But if they were justi- 
 fied, Hypermnestra must have been culpable, and there seem to be 
 good grounds for the inference that she was rescued from the 
 dilemma by the intervention of Venus, who is known to have 
 
 1 See Hermann's paper, de ^schyli Danaldibus, Opusc. II. pp. 319 sqq. 
 
 2 Eui'ip. Orcsf. 862 : ov (pad irpQiTOV Aavabv Al-yvvTU} 5i/cas 
 
 didovr' ddpoTcrat Xabu is kolvcls edpas. 
 ^ Suppl. 3S : irp'ii/ TTore XeKrpuv uu Qep-LS eipyei 
 
 <X(p€T€pi^dfX€i>ov iraTpabe\(pdav 
 
 Trjvd' deKOVTWv e-mSrjvaL. 
 * Hermann, Opusr. ii. p. 330. 
 
1 10 ^SCHYLUS. 
 
 appeared in the play^ and to have claimed a part of the blame for 
 the universal t/xe/oo?, to which Hypermnestra yielded when the love 
 for Lynceus made her disobey her father 2. Whether the play intro- 
 duced any reference to the device of a foot-race to determine the 
 re-marriage of the homicidal widows^, there is no means of de- 
 ciding. It is remarkable that the same verb is used in the SuppUces 
 to denote the assignment of a handmaiden to each of the chorus'*, 
 and in the story of the mythographer, to denote the assignment of 
 a husband to each of the 50 cousins^. With regard to the former 
 circumstance, we are not to suppose that a crowd of 100 dancers 
 appeared in the orchestra or on the stage. But as the chorus was 
 probably the same in all three plays, and as reference is made to 
 the number of 50^, it is not improbable that the whole number of 
 choreutas may have been employed in each play, some of them sus- 
 taining the action on the stage, and others executing dances in the 
 orchestra. The date of this Trilogy is approximately determined 
 by distinct references in the Supijliants to amicable relations be- 
 tween the popular party at Argos and the Athenians ^, and to the 
 anticipated results of a conflict between Greeks and Egyptians^. 
 And as the war with Egypt began in B.C. 462, and the alliance 
 between Athens and Argos came into operation in B.C. 461, we 
 may fix the latter year for the performance of this Trilogy^. 
 
 In these separate plays we see no traces of the employment of a 
 third actor. It has been shown already that a simple expedient 
 
 1 Athen. p. 600 a: kol 6 de/xvoTaros AiVxi^^os eu tois Aavataiv avTr\v Trapdyei rrjp 
 'A(ppodiT7}v \4yovaav 
 
 ipa ixkv ayvbs ovpavos rpQaac x^oj'a k. t. X. 
 tQuB' €'y(h TrapacTLOS. 
 
 2 Prom. 864 : p.lau 5e iraidwu t/xepos OeX^ei to fxr] 
 
 KTeivai avvevvov. 
 
 3 Pind. IX. Pyth. 116; Apollodor. i. i, 5, § 12. 
 
 ^ Suppl. 984 : rdcraeade, cpiXai Sfxootdes, oi'Vws 
 
 ws 60' €Kd(TTT} dieKXrjpcocrev 
 Aavabs depairovTiba (pepvrjv. 
 ^ Apollod. II, I, 5, § I : (hfxo\6yeL tovs ydfxovs Kal 8(.€K\r]pov ras Kopas. 
 6 Prometh. 855; Suppl. 316. 
 ^ JSiq^pl. 699 : <pv\d(X(roL Ti/xioiai rifids 
 
 rb 8rj/XLcv, rb tttoXlv Kparvvci, 
 Trpop-adeOs t evKoivofxrjTcs dpxd' 
 ^^voiai r' ev^vp.j36Xovs vplv e^oirXi^eiv "A/977, 
 5t'/cas drep Trrj/j-druv dcSoXeu. 
 8 Cf. 761 : ^>j^\ov 5^ icdpiros cu vlko. arrdxvv. 
 
 953: dXX' dpcrevdt tol rijade yrjs olKrjTopas 
 evprjaer', oii rriuovTas iK Kpi0u)u p-eOv. 
 ^ Miiller, Eicmeniden, p. 125. 
 
^SCHYLUS. Ill 
 
 would enable two actors to perform the introductory scene of the 
 Prometheus. Even in the Supplices the Protagonist had only to 
 play Danaus and the Egyptian herald, and the Deuteragonist had 
 no character to sustain except Pelasgus. And yet in the complete 
 Trilogy, the Orestea^ which is known to have been acted in B.C. 
 458 \ and which has many dramatic features in common with the 
 Trilogy to which the Supplices belonged, we have the three actors 
 in every play. We do not of course know whether this extended 
 machinery was employed in any earlier play, which is now lost. 
 But it seems reasonable to conclude, from the specimens which we 
 have, that ^schylus did not borrow this most characteristic im- 
 provement of his rival Sophocles till quite the close of his own 
 dramatic career. And it is just possible that the Orestea may have 
 been the first and last example of this condescension to the esta- 
 blished fashion at Athens. In a subsequent chapter we will fully 
 analyze the sti-ucture of this great effort of the genius of ^schylus, 
 and will endeavour to indicate all the details of the stage business^. 
 Here it will be sufficient to call attention to the connexion of the 
 Trilogy with the political principles of iEschylus. The four sepa- 
 rate plays are, as we have seen, the middle pieces in the Trilogies to 
 which they belonged. But the extant Trilogy makes every tiling 
 work up to the final Tragedy. Clyt^mnestra kills her husband on 
 the plea that he had slain Iphigenia, but really because she had 
 conspired with jiEgisthus to usurp his throne. She is Lady Mac- 
 beth and Queen Gertrude of Denmark both in one. Having been 
 guilty of this homicide, she ought, according to Greek usage, to 
 have gone into exile, and this is the doom pronounced upon her by 
 the senators of Argos^. This sentence she sets at nought, and 
 reigns at Argos in spite of the laws of God and man. Outraged 
 religion, then, speaking by the voice of Apollo, orders the son of 
 Agamemnon, as the proper avenger of blood, to put her and ^Egis- 
 thus to death. It is clear that this command, rather than any vin- 
 dictive feeling, is the influencing motive with Orestes ; and there- 
 fore when the Erinyes, as the avenging goddesses, who alone could 
 prosecute Orestes, he being legally justified, demand his punish- 
 ment, Apollo, with the sanction of Zeus, pleads his cause before 
 the Areopagus at Athens; and while his human judges, by an 
 
 ^ Argum. : ididdxdv to dpafia iirl dpxovros 4>t\o/cXeoi;s (5Xi'//7rtd5t tt' ^t€i ^'' irpCoTOS 
 AiaX' 'Ayo-fi. XoTj^. Evfieu. Ilpwret aaTvpiKU}' exop'O'yei ScwkXt^s ' A(pi.bve{)S. 
 2 Book III. chapter li. ■* Choeph. 900 sqq. 
 
112 iESCHYLUS. 
 
 equality of votes, neither acquit nor condemn him, Athena, or 
 divine wisdom, who was also the divine patroness of Athens, gives 
 a casting vote in his favour, and at the same time appeases the 
 Eumenides by promising them a perpetual seat in the Areopagus, 
 where every one who owned himself guilty of homicide would be 
 ipso facto condemned, without any liberty of pleading, as Orestes 
 had done, excuse or justification. This seems to have been in ac- 
 cordance with the practice of that venerable tribunal ; whereas the 
 Ephet£e, when they sat at the Delphinium, or temple of Apollo, the 
 justifying advocate of Orestes, took cognizance of those cases of ad- 
 mitted homicide, which were defended on some valid plea of justifi- 
 cation ; and when they sat at the Palladium, or temple of Athena, 
 — the presiding judge who acquitted Orestes, — they took cogni- 
 zance of those cases of homicide, in which an accident or absence 
 of malicious intention was pleaded by the culprit ^ Now at the 
 time when the Orestea was acted, the Areopagus, which, besides its 
 judicial functions, was an oligarchical tribunal exercising an autho- 
 rity not unlike that of the censors at Bome, and which especially 
 claimed the right of passing sentence on charges of impiety [aae- 
 ^€La), had just been reduced to its jurisdiction in homicide by 
 Pericles and his partizan Ephialtes^, who not only objected gene- 
 rally to its senatorial power, but had reason to fear its becoming an 
 instrument of the Lacedeemonian party in mooting that charge of 
 inherited sacrilege which was always hanging over the head of the 
 great democratic leader^. Whether ^schylus, both by his favour- 
 able reference to the Argive alliance, which was formed at this 
 time'', and by his prediction of the perpetuity of the remaining 
 privileges of the Areopagus, endeavoured to conciliate the hatred of 
 the contending factions^, or whether he was engaged with Cimon 
 in an attempt to rescind the measures of Pericles and Ephialtes, 
 which led to the ostracism of Cimon ^ and to the retirement of 
 ^schylus from Athens, can perhaps hardly be determined with 
 any certainty*^. There can be no doubt, however, of the reference 
 of the Eumenides to these contemporary incidents in the history of 
 Athens. 
 
 1 Grote, Hist. Gr. lli, pp. 103 sqq. 2 Thirlwall, Vol. IV. pp. 12 sqq, 
 
 ^ Id. p. 24. 4 I ^ jjj ^YiQ year before the Orestes was acted. 
 
 ^ Grote, Hist. Gr. v, p, 499, note. ^ Plutarch, Cimon, c. 17. 
 
 '' Miiller's opinion, Eumenid. § 35 sqq,, that the criminal jurisdiction of the Areo- 
 pagus was taken away by Ephialtes, is controverted by Thii'lwall and Grote. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 Trjs TpayLKTJs Movarj? darepa ^eKpdiriou, 
 IToXXd/ciS iu dv/xe\r]cn Kal iv cTKrji'fjcn redrjXws 
 
 BXaiffbs ' Axo-pvlr-qs Kicrabs ^pei/^e ko/jltjp, 
 Tufx^os Ix" '<^'^' yv^ oXtyov ixipos' dXX' 6 irepicrcrds 
 
 Aluv ddavoLTOis depKerai iv aeXiaiv. 
 
 SiMillAS. 
 
 SOPHOCLES, the son of Sopliilus or Sophillus, was born at 
 Colonus, an Attic deme about a mile from the city, in (B.C.) 
 495. His father, who was a man of good family, and possessed 
 of considerable wealth^, gave him an excellent education. His 
 teacher in music was the celebrated Lamprus, and he profited 
 so much by his opportunities, that he gained the prize both in 
 music and in the Palaestra ^. He was hardly sixteen years old 
 when he played an accompaniment on the lyre to the P^an, which 
 the Athenians sang around the trophy erected after the battle of 
 Salamis ; in other words, he was the exarchus, and possibly, 
 therefore, composed the words of the ode^. His first appearance, 
 as a tragedian, was attended by a very remarkable circumstance. 
 Cimon removed the bones of Theseus from Scyrus to Athens 
 
 1 Leasing {Leben des Sophocles, scimmlichte Sdiriften, Vol, vi. pp. 282 sqq.), to 
 whom we are indebted for nearly all the particulars which we have given in the text, 
 quotes (note C) Plin. H. N. xxxvii. 11 : principe loco genitum Athenis. 
 
 2 KaXws re iTrai8ev6rj Kal erpdcpr) iv eviropiq. dieTrovrjdT] d^ iv Tratal /cat Trepl 
 
 TraXalarpav Kal [xovaLK-qv, i^ u>v dpLcporepuv iarecpafudr], cSs (prjaiv "larpos. idiOdx^V 8i 
 TTju p.ovaLK7]u TTapd KdixTTpu}. Vit. Anonym. 
 
 ^ 2o0o/cX^s 5^ TTpos T(^ KaXbs yeyeprjadat ttjv ulpau -qv koI dpxvo'TiK^v dedidayfiivos 
 Kal /xovaiKrjv ^tl irah (^v irapd Ad/xirpu). /xerd yovv tt]v iv 1,aXa/uuvi vav/xaxi-a.^ Trepl 
 rpoTraiov yv/xvos dXrjXt^ufievos ix-'pevae /xerd Xvpas' ol 5e iv i/iartw (paai. Kal rbv 
 Qdfj.upLv oibdaKwv avrbs iKiOdpLcrev' d/cpws bi iacpaipiaev, on ttjv 'SavcriKaav KadiJKe. 
 Athen. I. p. 20. 
 
 Merd ttjv iv "ZaXajxivc vavfiaxiav 'AOrjvaiojv xepl rpoTraiov 6vt<j}v, yuerd Xijpas yvfxvbi 
 dXrjXiixixivo^ to?s Traiavi^ovai tuv innviKiuv i^vpX^- Vit. Anon. 
 
 D. T. 6. 8 
 
114 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 (468 B. 0.^). He arrived at Athens about the time of the tragic 
 contests, and ^schylus and Sophocles were among the com- 
 petitors. The celebrity of the former, and the personal beauty, 
 rank, popularity, and known accomplishments of the latter, excited 
 a great sensation. When therefore Cimon and his nine colleagues 
 entered the theatre of Bacchus, to perform the usual libations, the 
 Archon, Apsephion, instead of choosing judges by lot, detained 
 the ten generals in the theatre, and having administered an oath 
 to them, made them decide between the rival tragedians. The 
 first prize was awarded to Sophocles, and, as we have seen, 
 ^schylus departed immediately for Sicily I This decision does 
 not imply any disregard of the JEschylean Tragedy on the part 
 of the Athenians. The contest was, as has been justly observed, 
 not between two individual works of art, but between two species 
 or ages of art^; and if, as we think has been fully demonstrated*, 
 the Trij>toleinus was one of the plays which Sophocles exhibited 
 on that occasion, we can readily conceive that, when the minds 
 of the people were full of their old national legends, the subject 
 which the young poet had chosen, and the desire to encourage 
 his first attempt, would be sufficient to overweigh the reputation 
 of his antagonist, coupled as it was with anti-popular politics, 
 especially as the ^schylean Tragedy lacked that freshness of 
 
 ^ Marm. Par. No. lvii. : d0' ov "ZiocpoKXij^ 6 ^o<piX\ov 6 ck KoXojvov iviKriae rpayiji- 
 dig,, iruu dju AAIIIII, ^ttj HHIII, dpxoPTos 'Adrivrjaiv 'AxJ/rjcpiouos. "These were the 
 greater Dionysia, or the Aiovv(Xt.a ra kv darei, in the month Elaphebolion ; because 
 the Archon Eponymus, Apsephion, presided; and, 6 ixkv &px(^v diaridrjai, AiovvaLa, 6 Si 
 PaffiXevs (conf, Aristoph. Acharn. 1224, et Schol. ad loc.) irpo^ar-qKe Krfvaiwv. Pollux, 
 VIII. 89, 50." Clinton, F. H. 11, p. 39, 
 
 '^ "YidevTo 5' eh pLvr)ixt}v avrov, Kal rrju tQv rpayqjdwu Kpiatu dvo/jLacrrriv yevofiivrjv' 
 vpiorrju yap SidaaKaXiau rod "Zo^okX^vs ^tl viov Kadivros, ^kcpexpliav {sic), 6 dpxiov, (piXo- 
 veiKias oijffTjs Kal irapard^ews tG}v BeaTwv, Kpiras fJikv ovk iKXrjpojae rod dyQvos' cos 5^ 
 Kifiuv ixera rdu cvcTTparriyQiv irpoeXdwv els rb d^arpov eiroirjcxaro t(^ 6e(^ rots vevopLLff- 
 fihas (Tiroudds, ovk d<j)rjKev avrovs aTreXdelv, dXX' bpKdacras, ijvdyKacre Kadiaai Kal Kptvai 
 S^Ka 6uTas, dirb (pvXijs, fxids ^Kaarov 6 [ikv odu dyojv Kal did rb ruiv KpirQu d^lcii/xa rrju 
 <f>iXoTi/XLav VTrep4j3aXe. viK-qaavTos be 'Lo(poKX^ov$, X^yeraL rbv Alax^Xou irepiiradrj yevb- 
 fievou, Kal ^ap^ios iv^yKovra, xjP^vov oh ttoXiju 'Adrjvrjcri biayayeii', eXr otx^crdaL 5t' opyrjv 
 els 1,i.KeXiav. Plutarch, Cimon, c. Vlll. 
 
 There is probably an allusion to this in Aristoph. Ran. 1109 sqq., where the 
 chorus says, that the military character of the spectators fits them to be judges of the 
 contest between ^schylus and Euripides, earparevixevoi ydp elai. 
 
 ^ Welcker, Trilogie, p, 513. 
 
 ^ By Lessing, Lehen des Sophocles (note I), from a passage in Plin. II. N. xviii. 7 : 
 Sophoclis Triptolemus ante mortem Alexandri annis fere 145. But Alexander died 
 323 B.C., and 323+ 145=468. On the Triptolemus in general, see Welcker, Tril. 514 
 (who thinks it was certainly not a satyrical drama), and Niebuhr, ffist. Rom. Vol. I. 
 pp. 17, 18. The arguments adduced by Gruppe {Ariadne, pp. 358 foil.) to prove that 
 the Rhesus was the play which Sophocles exhibited on this occasion, are all in favour 
 of Lessing's opinion. 
 
SOPHOCLES. 1 1 5 
 
 novelty and loveliness of youth which hung around the form and 
 the poetry of the beautiful son of Sophillus. Sophocles rarely 
 appeared on the stage, in consequence of the weakness of his 
 voice ^: we are told, however, that he performed on the lyre, in 
 the character of Thamyris, and distinguished himself by the 
 grace with wdiich he played at ball in his own play called 
 Nausicaa^. In 440 B. c. he brought out the Antigone, and we 
 are informed that it was to tlie political wisdom exhibited in that 
 play, that he owed his appointment as colleague of Pericles and 
 Thucydides in the Samian war^. On this occasion he met with 
 Herodotus, and composed a lyrical poem for that historian\ It 
 does not appear that he distinguished himself in his military 
 capacity^. He received many invitations from foreign courts, but 
 loved Athens too well to accept them. He held several offices 
 in his old age. He was priest of the hero Alon^, and in the 
 year 413 b. c. was elected one of tlie irpo^ouKoi. This was a 
 board of commissioners, all old men, which was established im- 
 mediately after the disastrous termination of the Syracusan expe- 
 dition, to devise expedients for meeting the existing emergencies'''. 
 
 ^ UpQiTov KaToXvcras ttjv VTroKpiaiv rov ttoltjtov Sta ttjv iblav tVxi'O^wj'iai'. Vit. 
 Anonym. 
 
 ^ See the passage of Athen (i. p, 20) quoted above. ''The Nausicaa was, accord- 
 ing to all appearances, a satyric drama. The Odyssee was in general a rich store- 
 house for the satyrical plays. The character of Ulysses himself makes him a very con- 
 venient satyrical impersonation." Lessing, Lehen des Sophocles, note K (Vol. vi. p. 34'2)- 
 
 3 Strabo, xiv. p. 446; Suidas, v. MiXtros; Athen. Xiii. p. 603 f; Scholiast, 
 Aristoph. Pax, v. 696; Cic. de Off. I. 40; Plutarch, Pericl. c. viii. ; Plin. H. N. 
 XXXVII. 2; Val. Max. iv. 3: all testify that the true cause is assigned by Aris- 
 tophanes of Byzantium in the argument to the Avtigone: <^a(rl 5^ top 2o0o/cXea 
 Tj^iuxrdai TTJs h 'Zdixi^ (TTparrjylas evdoKLfj^rjcravTa iv rfj dLdaaKoXig. ttjs 'Avriydvrjs. A 
 similar distinction was conferred upon Phrynichus, ^lian, V. H. iii. 8. It is probable 
 that Sophocles conciliated the favour of the more popular party, by the way in which 
 he speaks of Pericles, v. 662, and they were perhaps willing to take the hint in v. 175, 
 where, we may observe in passing, <ppovrfixa signifies "political opinions," as in the 
 phrases, e/xiridois (()pov7]jj.a<nv, Tot6u8* ep.bv (pp6vr]p,a, taov ^povwv, which occur in the 
 same play. On the meanings of (ppovetv and (ppourjpLa in Sophocles, see the notes on 
 the translation of the Antigone, pp. 155, 168. 
 
 ^ Plutarch, An seni, &c. c. 3. iv. 153, Wyttenb. On this subject the student may 
 consult the Introduction to the Antigone, p. xvii, and Transactions of the Philol. Soc. 
 I. No. 15, where it will be seen that Herodotus was an imitator of Sophocles. 
 
 •^ At least if we may credit the tale told of him by Ion, a contemporary poet 
 (Athenaeus, xiii. 604), where he is made to say of himself: MeXerw arpaT-qye^v, J 
 avhper iTreidi^Trep HepticX'^s Troietv pLep ^cpr] pt.€, arpaTTjyeTv d' ovk lirlcrTaadai. 
 
 ^ "E<rxe Zh koI ttjv rod "AXojvos iepuxxvprju, 8s rjpus rjv /xerd '' A ct KKrj-mov Trapa Xeipcovi. 
 Vit. Anonym. 
 
 Thucyd. VIII. i : ^'at o.pxy]v riva. rOiv Trpea^vrepojp avdpQv eXeadai oltlvcs irepl twp 
 irap'jvTwv ws hv Kaipbs tJ Trpo^ovXeva-ovai. We consider these irpd^ovXoL to have been 
 most probably elected to serve as ^vyypacpijs (Thucyd. viii. 67), for it was the ^vy- 
 ypa^Tjs who brought about the revolution, and we learn from Aristotle (see below) 
 that Sophocles contributed to it in his character of irpo^ovXos. 
 
 8—2 
 
116 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 The constitution of such a committee was necessarily aristocratic \ 
 and two years after, B.C. 411, Sophocles, once the favourite of 
 the people and the colleague of Pericles, fell into the plans of 
 Peisander and the other conspirators, and consented in the temple 
 of Neptune, at his own Colonus, to the establishment of a council 
 of four hundred ; in other words, to the subversion of the old 
 Athenian constitution'"^. He afterwards defended his policy on 
 the grounds of expediency^. Nicostrata had borne him a son, 
 whom he named lophon : he had another son Ariston, by Theoris 
 of Sicyon, whose son, Sophocles, was a great favourite with his 
 grandfather and namesake. From this reason, or because, ac- 
 cording to Cicero, his love for the stage made him neglect his 
 affairs, his son lophon charged him with dotage and lunacy, 
 and brought him before the proper court, with a view to remove 
 him from the management of his property. The poet read to 
 his judges a part of the (Edipus at Colonus, which he had just 
 finished, and triumphantly asked "if that was the work of an 
 idiot?" Of course the charge was dismissed^. We are sorry to 
 say that this very pretty story is a mere fabrication, for the 
 (Edipus at Colonus must have been acted, at least for the first 
 time, before the breaking out of the Peloponnesian war^. So- 
 phocles died in the very beginning of the year 405 b. c. ; according 
 to Ister and Neanthes he was choked by a grape, which the actor 
 Callippides brought him from Opus, at the time of the Anthesteria. 
 Satyrus tells us that he died in consequence of exerting his voice 
 too much while reading the Antigone aloud ^: others say that his 
 
 1 Aristot. Polit. VI. 5, lo: 5e? yap dvai rb avvdyou rb Kvpiov rrjs TroXtretas. KoXecrat 
 5' &6a fih irpb^ovXoL 5ia Tb irpolSovXeijeiv- Sttou 5^ rb irXijOos eari, (SovXt] fidWov. 
 
 2 Thucyd, VIII, 67 : ^vviKKrjaav t7]v eKKXrjaiau els rbv KoXcouSv {^an 8k lepbv ILocu- 
 Zdvos 'i^w TToAews airexov aradiovs fidXiaTa 5e/ca) k.t.X. 
 
 Kai crvfj.7repaii>6/j.€uov, eav epihrrffia troirj rb cvp,7r ipaa/xa, ttjv alriau eiireiv' oXov 
 'Lo4>okXt)s epurdo/xevos virb IleLadvdpov, " el ^do^ev avTi^, biairep /cat rots oXXols vpo^oij- 
 XoiS, KaTaaTTjcraL roijs rerpaKoalovs ;'" ^(pTj. — ''Ti§^ ov irov7]pd aoc ravra edoKei ehat;" 
 ^(pV- " OvK odv (TV ravra ^vpa^as rd 7roj'7?pd;" " Nai," ^(prj, " ov yap rjv dXXa /SeXrtw." 
 Aristot. Jihet. iii. 18. 
 
 ** Vit. Anonym.; Cicero, de Seneciute, § 7; Val. Max. viii. 
 
 * See Reisig, Enarrat. (Ed. Col. pp. v sqq. ; J. W. Suvern, On some historical 
 and 'political allusions in Ancient Tragedy, pp. 6, 8 ; Lachmann, in the Ehe in. Mus. for 
 1827, pp. 313 fol. ; Hermann in Zimmermann's Zeitschrift, 1837, No. 98, pp. 803 sqq., 
 inclines to the opinion that the (Edip. Col. was written before, but not published till 
 after, the Peloponnesian war. 
 
 ^ We have seen that l(rxvo4>(jouia was attributed to Sophocles : if it arose from 
 delicate lungs, this account of his death is probable enough. There are chronological 
 objections to the other two statements. See Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 85. 
 
SOPHOCLES. 117 
 
 joy at being proclaimed tragic victor was too much for his decayed 
 strength. His family burial-place was Decelea, and as that town 
 was in the possession of the Lacedaemonians, it was not possible 
 to bring him there until Lysander, having heard from the deserters 
 that the great poet was dead, permitted his ashes to rest with those 
 of his ancestors. There is a legend, that Bacchus appeared twice 
 to Lysander in a dream, and enjoined him to allow the interment 
 to take placed According to one account, they placed the image 
 of a Siren over his tomb, according to another, a bronze swallow. 
 Ister informs us that the Athenians decreed him an annual sacrifice. 
 He wrote, besides Tragedies, an elegy, pseans, and a prose-work on 
 the chorus, against Thespis and Cho^rilus. Only seven of his 
 Tragedies have come down to us ; but an ingenious attempt has 
 been made to show that the Rhesus^ which is generally attributed 
 to Euripides, was the first of the plays of Sophocles^ 
 
 With regard to tlie whole number of plays composed by Sopho- 
 cles, we have the authority of Aristophanes, of Byzantium, that 
 130 were ascribed to liim, of which seventeen were spurious. It 
 has been objected^ to this large number, that the Antigo7ie, which 
 was acted in 440, was the thirty-second play; and as Sophocles 
 began to exhibit in 468, and died in 405, he would have written 
 eighty-one pieces in the last thirty-six years of his literary life, and 
 only thirty-two in the first twenty-seven years ; whereas it is not 
 likely tliat he would have written more in his declining years than 
 in the vigour of his life : and it has been conjectured that he wrote 
 only about seventy plays. Reasons have, however, been given'*, 
 which incline us to believe that Aristophanes is correct in assign- 
 ing to him 113 genuine dramas. For, in the first place, the mean- 
 ing of the words, on which this objection is founded, is not suf- 
 ficiently clear : it is not certain that the grammarian is not referring 
 to Tragedies only, and in that case, even supposing that Sophocles 
 wrote five separate plays in that time, we sliould have to add nine 
 satyrical dramas to make up the Tetralogies, and thus we should 
 
 1 See Vita Anonym. Pausanias, i. 21, § i, gives a somewhat different story. A6'7e- 
 TCt 5e 2o0o/c\^oi'S TeXevTT^aavTOS €<rj3d\\eiv els ttjv 'Kttlkt]v AaKedai/iovlovs, Kal ccpwv 
 rhv ijyovfxevou Ihetv einaTdvTa oi Aiovvaou KeXeveiv TL[xah, 6'crat KadecrrriKaaLV eirl tols 
 TedveQai, t^v 'LeLpriva. Tr]u 'Siav ri/xav. kuL oi rb 6vap llo(poK\ia Kal T7]v 'Zo<j)OK\iovs 
 TToi-qaiv icpalvero ^x^'^- 
 
 2 Gruppe, Ariadne, pp. 78-) — 305. 
 
 ^ By Bockh, de Or. Trafj. Princip. pp. 107 — 109. 
 
 ^ By Clinton, Phil. Museum, I. pp. 74 fol. 
 
118 SOPHOCLES. ' 
 
 not liave a very disproportionate number of trilogies for the remain- 
 ing thirty-six years. Besides, we have a list of 114 names of 
 dramas attributed to Sophocles, of which ninety-eight are quoted 
 more than once as his, and it is exceedingly unlikely that many of 
 these should have been written by his son lophon, or his grandson, 
 the younger Sophocles. It will be recollected too, that, in the 
 earlier part of his life, Sophocles was much engaged in public af- 
 fairs ; he was a general, at least once^, and went on several embas- 
 sies 2; this, in addition to the greater facility in writing, which he 
 might have acquired by long practice, would account for his pen 
 being more prolific in the latter part of his life. He obtained the 
 first prize eighteen^, twenty'*, or twenty-four times ^, and it is not 
 probable that his first and second prizes taken together were much 
 fewer than thirty. Now it seems that about twenty-four of the 
 dramas, the names of which have come down to us, were satyrical : 
 we may suppose that he wrote about twenty-seven satyrical dramas 
 on the whole : this would give us twenty-seven Tetralogies, or 108 
 plays, and there remain five single plays to satisfy the statement of 
 Suidas, that he contended with drama against drama. This state- 
 ment we shall now proceed to examine. It certainly does not im- 
 ply that he never contended with Trilogies, for it is known that he 
 wrote satyrical dramas, which in his time were never acted by 
 themselves. One of the conjectures, which have been proposed 
 with respect to the meaning of the words of Suidas, is, that Sopho- 
 cles opposed to the Trilogies of ^schylus three Tragedies, not inti- 
 mately connected with one another, like the -/Eschylean plays, but 
 each complete in itself^. This presumes, however, that Suidas un- 
 derstood the word rerpaXoyla in a technical sense, as expressing 
 the distinguishing peculiarity of the JEschylean Trilogy with its ac- 
 companying satyric drama. We cannot believe that the gram- 
 marian had any such accurate perception of the real nature of the 
 trilogy. Nevertheless, the fact may have been such, although 
 Suidas did not know it : for nothing is more likely than that the 
 custom of contending with single plays, which Sophocles, perhaps 
 
 1 Justiu says (lib. in. 6) that he served against the Lacedaemonians. 
 3 Kal iv irpea^eiais i^r)Td^eTO. Vit. Anonym. 
 3 Diodor. xin. 103. 
 
 ^ Nt/cas fKajSev dnoaiv ws (prjai Kapvcmos' iroWaKis 5^ Kal devTepeta Aa/9e. VU. 
 A nonym. 
 
 5 Suidas. " Welcker, ly'thjgie, p. 51. 
 
SOPHOCLES. 119 
 
 sparingly, adopted, arose from his having given to each of the 
 plays in his Trilogies an individual completeness which the consti- 
 tuent parts of an .Eschylean Trilogy did not possess. We shall de- 
 rive some further reasons for believing this from a consideration of 
 the general principles which guided the art of Sophocles. 
 
 That he did act upon general principles is sufficiently proved, 
 by the fact that he wrote a book on the dramatic chorus. The ob- 
 jection, which (according to Chamteleon) he made to ^schylus, 
 that even when his poetry was what it ought to be, it was so only 
 by accident^, is just such a remark as a finished artist would make 
 to a self-taught genius. But we might conclude, without any ex- 
 trinsic authority, from a moderate acquaintance with his remaining 
 Tragedies, that he is never beautiful or sublime, without intending 
 to be so : we see that he has a complete apprehension of the proper 
 means of arriving at the objects of tragical imitation : he feels that 
 his success depends not upon his subject, but upon himself; he has 
 the faculty of ''making with right reason;" in short, he is an artist 
 in the strictest sense of the word^. "Sophocles," says one who has 
 often more than guessed at truth, "is the summit of Greek art; 
 but one must have scaled many a steep before one can estimate his 
 height : it is because of his classical perfection that he has gene- 
 rally been the least admired of the great ancient poets ; for little of 
 his beauty is perceptible to a mind that is not thoroughly princi- 
 pled and imbued with the spirit of antiquity 3." The ancients 
 themselves fully appreciated Sophocles: his great contemporary 
 Aristophanes will not expose ^schylus to the risk of a contest 
 with a man to whom he has voluntarily given up a part of the 
 tragic throne, and to Avhom he delegates his authority when he 
 returns to the upper world"*: his numerous victories and the im- 
 provements which ^Eschylus found it necessary to borrow from 
 him, are all so many proofs of the estimation in which he was held 
 by his countrymen: but it is to be feared that few, if any, of his 
 modern readers, will ever be able to divest themselves completely 
 of all their modern associations, and thus set a just value upon 
 
 1 See Athen. i. 22, X. 428, quoted in the sect, on .Eschylus. 
 
 2 Aristot. Eth. Nicom. vi, p. 11 40, 1. 10, Bekker : Icrrt Se Tix^n Trdcra wepi yeveaiv 
 Kal rb Tex,vd^€Lu, Kal deojpelv, Sttws Blv yevrjrai tl tQiv iv8€xo/J.^v(jJv /cat elvac Kal /jlt] elvai 
 
 Kal (5v 7) dpxh e" t(^ ttolovvtl d\Xd /Utj Iv ry iroLOV/xeuu}. i] /neu ofv rex"^ uiffTep eiprjrai 
 
 e^ts res fjL€Td Xoyov iroi.r]TiKr] ian. 
 
 3 Gmsses at Truth, Vol. i. p. 267. Comp. Miillcr, Hist. Lit. (h\ c. xxiv. § 13. 
 * Comp. Aristoph. Ran, 790, 15 15. 
 
120 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 productions so entirely and absolutely Greek as the Tragedies of 
 Sophocles. If we would understand them at all, we must always 
 bear in mind that he was the successor of ^schylus ; that he in- 
 tended rather to follow up and improve upon his predecessor and 
 contemporary, than to create an entirely new species for himself. 
 Art always follows at the heels of genius. Genius creates forms of 
 beauty; art marshals them, and sets them in order, forming them 
 into groups and regulating the order of their successive appearances. 
 Genius hews rude masses from the mines of thought, but art gives 
 form and usefulness to the shapeless ore. JEschylus felt what a 
 Greek Tragedy ought to be, as a religious union of the two ele- 
 ments of the national poetry; and he modelled bold, colossal groups, 
 such as a Phidias might have conceived, but not such as a Phidias 
 would have executed. Sophocles, with a highly cultivated mind, 
 and a deep and just perception of what is beautiful in art, was en- 
 abled to effect an outward realization of his great contemporary's 
 conceptions ; and what was already perfected in the mind of ^schy- 
 lus, this he exhibited, in its most perfect form, before the eyes of 
 all Athens. The Tragedy of Sophocles was not generically dif- 
 ferent from that of ^schylus ; it bore the same relation to its fore- 
 runner that a finished statue bears to an unfinished group. For 
 when Sophocles added a third actor to the two of ^schylus^ he 
 gave so great a preponderance to the dialogue, that the chorus, or 
 the base on which the three plays stood, was unable any longer to 
 support them ; in assigning to each of them a separate pedestal, he 
 rendered them independent, and destroyed the necessary connexion 
 which had previously bound them together ; so that it became from 
 thenceforth a matter of choice with the poet, whether he repre- 
 sented with Trilogies or with separate plays. As we have before 
 said, we think Sophocles did both : the number of his satyrical 
 dramas shows that his exhibitions were principally Tetralogies, and 
 we are willing to accept the statement in Suidas, that he sometimes 
 brought out his Tragedies one by one. What ^schylus, following 
 liis natural taste, practised in the internal economy of his pieces, 
 for instance, in the exclusion of every thing beneath the dignity of 
 Tragedy, this Sophocles adopted as a rule of art, to be applied or 
 departed from as the occasion might suggest. The words which 
 
 1 Tpeis d^ [viroKpiras] Kal aKrjpoypacpiav I,0(I)0k\7]s. Arist, Poet. IV, i6. Tbv 5^ 
 TplTOv [i'TTOKpiTriv'] 1,o(pOK\T]S, Kal avvtnXrjpMaev rrjv Tpayipdlau. Diog. Lacrt. in Plat. 
 
SOPHOCLES. 121 
 
 Landor puts into his mouth express what appear to us to have been 
 his general feelings ^ "I am," says he, in reference to the master- 
 works at Athens, " on] j the interpreter of the heroes and divinities 
 who are looking down upon me." He felt himself called upon to 
 make an advance in the tragic art, corresponding to those improve- 
 ments which Phidias had made upon the works of his immediate 
 forerunners: he did so, and with reference to the same objects. 
 The persons who figured in the old legends, and in the poems of 
 the epic Cycle, were alone wortliy in liis ophiion of the cothurnus ; 
 and if ever an inferior or ludicrous character appears in his Tra^-e- 
 dies, he is but a slavish instrument in the poet's hands to work out 
 the irony of the piece; a streak of bright colour thrown into the 
 picture, in order to render more conspicuous its tragic gloom. 
 
 Besides the addition of a TpiTaycjoviarr)^^, some other improve- 
 ments are ascribed to this poet; he seems to have made the 
 costumes more appropriate, to have introduced scene-painting, 
 and to have altered the distribution of the chorus. 
 
 The public character of Sophocles was, as we have seen, rather 
 inconsistent. In the earlier years of his political life he was a 
 partizan of Pericles, and his plays contain many passages evidently 
 written with a view to recommend himself to that statesman. In 
 the Antigone he advises the Athenians to yield a ready and 
 implicit obedience to the man whom, for the time being, they had 
 placed over themselves^; and if, as we believe, the (Edipus at 
 Colonus was written just before the breaking out of the Pelopon- 
 nesian war, it is more than probable that the refusal of Theseus 
 to deliver up CEdipus, though a polluted person, has reference 
 to the demand made by the confederates with regard to the 
 expulsion of Pericles^. 
 
 The private character of Sophocles was unfortunately very far 
 from faultless. He was a notorious sensualist'^, and, in his later 
 
 1 Lander's Imaginary Conversations, ii. p. 142. 
 
 2 Which is also attributed to ^schylus (Themistius, p. 316). 
 
 ^ 670. 'AX\' bv TToXis aT7jcr€L€ rovde XP^ KXvecj/ 
 
 Kal apLLKpa Kal dUaia koI Tduavria. 
 See Introduction to the Antigone, p. xv. 
 
 4 Comp. (Ed. Col. 943 sqq. with Thucyd. I. 126, 127. Lachmann in the Rhein. 
 Mus. for 1827, pp. 327 fol. 
 
 5 Cic. Offic. I. 40; de Senect. ^7j Athen. xii. p. 510; xiii. p. 592; xiii. p. 603; 
 Plato, I. Resp. p. 329 b. 
 
122 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 days, rather avaricious ^ He possessed, however, those agreeable 
 qualities which are very often found along with habits of vicious 
 indulgence; he was exceedingly good natured, always contented 2, 
 and an excellent boon companion^. His faults were due rather to 
 his age and country than to any innate depravity. His Tragedies 
 are full of the strongest recommendations of religion and morality ; 
 and we know no ancient poet who has so justly and forcibly 
 described the infallibility and immortality of God, as opposed to 
 man's weakness, ignorance, and liability to error ^: or who has set 
 the beauty of piety and righteousness, and the danger and folly 
 of impiety and pride, in a stronger and clearer light than he has^. 
 
 To characterize the man and his works in one word, calmness 
 is the prominent feature in the life and writings of Sophocles. In 
 his politics, an easy indifference to men and measures ; in his 
 private life, contentment and good nature ; in his Tragedies, a total 
 absence of that wild enthusiasm which breaks down the barriers 
 of common sense, are the manifestations of this rest of mind : his 
 spirit was 
 
 Like a breath of air, 
 Such as is sometimes seen, and hardly seen. 
 To brush the still breast of a crystal lake^. 
 
 He lived, as it were, in the strong hold of his own unruffled mind, 
 and unmoved, heard the pattering storm without^. His very 
 
 1 'Epyu^s. irpCiTov 5' 6' ri irpaTTei So0o/cX^t7S avrjpeTO. 
 
 ^pvyatos. €vdai/jLov€i' irdax^'- 5^ OavjxacrTbv. 
 "EpfXTJs. To ri; 
 
 UpvyoLOS. eK roO 1,o<poK\^ovs yiyveraL ^iixojvlbris. 
 'Ep/A-^s. Si/ttwj'/5T7s ; ttcDs; 
 llpvyoLLOS. "On, yipwv wV Koi (rairpbs, 
 
 Kipdovs e/cart kB.v eirl pnrbs ttX^oi. Pax, 695 sqq. 
 
 2 Aristoph. Ran. 82. 
 
 3 See the amusing anecdote from Ion, Athen. xiii. p, 603 E, 
 
 4 We allude to Antig. 604, which is generally misunderstood. The connexion of 
 ideas in the passage is as follows : " What mortal transgression or sin is Jupiter liable 
 to, Jupiter the sleepless and everlasting god? But mortal men know nothing of the 
 future till it comes upon them." We should certainly read virep^aaia in the nomi- 
 native case. Tts virep^acria /care'xet reav dvva<nv ; is equivalent to red Bvpaais Kar^x^i 
 oHiTLva vwep^aalav. Compare Theognis, 743 — 6, which Sophocles had in his head : 
 
 Kai TovT, ddavaTOJv jSaaiXeD, ttws eari diKawv 
 
 "'Epycop 6(rTis avrjp ^ktos €(hv ddiKuyv, 
 Mri Tiv' virep^aa-LYiv fcarexwj', fxrjS' 6pK0V akiTpbv, 
 
 *AXXd diKaios ewv, fxr) rd diKaia irddr} ; 
 
 5 See the beautiful chorus in CEd. Tyr. 863 sqq, 
 " Wordsworth {Excursion, p. 90). 
 
 ' He says himself, in a fragment of the Tijmpanistce (No. 563) : 
 4>eu, <p€v, ri To{'Tov X^PP-^ f^^^^o^ ^^ Xa/?ois, 
 
SOPHOCLES. 123 
 
 burial created peace out of war, and hostile armies held a truce, 
 as the tomb closed upon one loved by all Athens, admired by 
 all Greece, and destined to teach and delight the civilized world 
 in ages yet to come. 
 
 Of the seven plays of Sophocles, which have come down to us, 
 only two are referred by express testimony to fixed dates — the 
 Antigone, which, as we have seen, was acted in B.C. 440, and the 
 PMloctetes, which appeared in B.C. 409 ^ Although it is stated that 
 the (Edipus Coloneus was first acted, after the death of the poet, in 
 B.^c. 401, and though, as we have seen, a pretty story refers its 
 composition to the end of the poet's life, it is almost generally 
 agreed among scholars that it belongs to the most vigorous period 
 of his life, though it may have received additions and modifications 
 at a later period^. With the exception then of the Antigone and 
 Philoctetes, we have only internal evidence to fix the succession of 
 the extant Tragedies. And here we cannot, as in the case of ^s- 
 chylus, divide tlie plays into distinct groups indicating an earlier 
 and a later period of dramatic art. They all exhibit the tragic 
 power of Sophocles in its full maturity, and they all exemplify that 
 wonderful power of drawing upon the most recondite treasures of 
 the Greek language which made Sophocles a favourite with Virgil, 
 the only Latin poet who exhibits the same combination of profound 
 thought and elaborately chastened style ^. It is true that Sopho- 
 cles, in an important citation of his words preserved by Plutarch, 
 recognized three epochs in his own style — first, the tumid grandeui*, 
 which he had borrowed from ^schylus; secondly, a harsh and 
 artificial employment of terms, which he had introduced himself; 
 
 Tov 7^s iTn\(/a(>(TavTa Kad^ viro crTeyrj 
 
 irvKvrjs oLKOVcrat xpeKcidos evSovay <ppevi. 
 It is clear that this^ like many other passages referring to escape from the sea, 
 expresses the feelings, and in part the language of those, who were initiated into the 
 Eleusinian mysteries. Cf. Eurip. Bacch. 900; Demosth. Coron. p. 516 a; Lucret. 11. 
 init. ; Cic. Att. 11. 7. 
 
 1 Arff. Philoct. : ididdxOv eirl TXavKlvTov, -rrpCoTos rjv Zo(pOK\r]S. 
 
 2 See Bernhardy, Grundriss, 11. p. 788. 
 
 3 Virgil says {Eclog. viii. 10): 
 
 Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno. 
 And there are examples in his poetry of a very close imitation of the peculiarities of 
 the Sophoclean style. There are at least four imitations of the line in the Ajax, 674 : 
 
 heLvCov drj/xa TTvev/j-dTuv iKoifii(T€ 
 
 arhovTa irbvTov — 
 namely, Eclog. il, 26 ; Georg. iv. 484 ; JEn. I. 66, v. 763 ; and the figure in Georg. 
 III. 243, nigramque alte subjectat arenam, is clearly borrowed from Soph. Antig. 590 : 
 Kt\ai.vdv dXvo, KoX bvao^v^fiov. 
 
124 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 and thirdly, tlie style which he considered best and most suited to 
 the representation of human character ^ If we are right in sup- 
 posing that this citation really gives us the words of Sophocles, and 
 that we must therefore take the participle hiaireTrai'xw^ in its old 
 Attic rather than in its subsequent Hellenistic sense ^, it will im- 
 ply either that both the first two styles belonged to the very earliest 
 period of his literary career^, or that he had merely amused him- 
 self with sporting in those styles'*; and in either case we can hardly 
 suppose that they are to be found in Tragedies subsequent to the 
 Antigone. On the other hand, all the extant Tragedies, even the 
 Philoctetes^ which is known to have been produced by Sophocles in 
 his old age, exhibit traces of that intentional obscurity with regard 
 to which it has been well observed^, that " Sophocles often plays 
 at hide-and-seek with the significations of words, in order that the 
 mind, having exerted itself to find out his meaning, may comprehend 
 it more vividly and distinctly when it is once arrived at." The 
 claim, which Sophocles makes for the style of his mature age, 
 namely, that it is the best adapted for the delineation of human 
 character, is combined, by the echo of an old and able criticism, 
 with a recognition of his elaborate art and ingenuity^. And we 
 are inclined to the belief that he never shook ofi" entirely the pecu- 
 liarities of his second style ; but that, as he advanced in life, he 
 combined with it more and more a readier flow of dramatic oratory, 
 such as we find in his contemporary Euripides^. As far as this 
 comparative facility admits of recognition, it may help us to class 
 with the Antigone, as his earliest extant play, the Electra, which is 
 
 ^ Plutarch, de Profect. Virt. Sent. p. 79 b : 6 1:io^ok\tjs fKeye, rhv Alcrx^Xov diaire- 
 Traixoi^s 6yK0v, etra to iriKpbv Kal Kardrexvov ttjs avrou KaraaKevTJs, els rpirop -i^drj rb r?7J 
 X^^ews /xera^aWtLu eWos oirep eaTiv r]9iK(J)TaTou Kal j3e\Ti(rTov. The substitution of 
 avTov for avrou, and the introduction of els before rpirov, are due to Miiller, Hist. 
 Gr. Lit. I. p. [340] 449. In a note to Miiller we have explained KaTacFKev-q in its op- 
 position to \i^LS, as above. 
 
 2 Moeris, p. 158: epeo-x^X"'' 'Arrt/cws* Ziairall^eLv/'EWriviKQis. Cf. Etyni. M. p, 621, 
 54 : nXdrwj' ^laTrai^et ttjv \^^lv Cos jSap^apov. 
 
 ^ This is Milller's translation: "Having put away along with his boyish days." 
 
 ■* This seems to be in accordance with the only use of the word by an author of 
 the classical age : Plato, Leges, Vl. 769 A : /caXws toIvvv hv riixiv i] irpea^vTQv ^/xcppoji/ 
 TTaidia p-expi- devp' Slu e'lr) ret vvv diaTreiraia/JLiur]. 
 
 5 Miiller, Hist. Gr. Lit. i. p. [356] 469. 
 
 ^ Vit. Sophocl. ad Jin.: TjdoTroLel 8^ Kal iroiKlWei Kal rots iirivo-qfiacn rexviKQis 
 Xpvrai, 'OfXTjpiKTju iK/Lia-rrdfieuos xapii'. olSe 5^ Kaipbv av/uL/xerpTJa-ai Kal irpdy/xaTa uar' 
 ix fxiKpov TjfXLO-TLxlov rj Xe'^ews jxids i)\ov rjOoTroielv TrpbauTOU. 
 
 "^ Miiller, I. p. [356] 470, refers especially to the speeches of Menelaus, Agamem- 
 non, and Teucer in the Ajax, and to CEdipus' defence in the CEdiims Coloncus. 
 
sojphocles. 125 
 
 its counterpart in representing the contrast of two sisters, and so 
 making the third actor play an important and essential character in 
 the development of the drama. The Tracliirdce, seems to claim the 
 third place on accomit of the difficulty of the language, and other 
 featiu-es of strong resemblance to the Antigone. Then we should 
 class together the (Edipus Tyrannus and the (Edipus Coloneus 
 with their connected subjects and not dissimilar mode of treatment. 
 And we should associate the Pliiloctetes with the ^ya^, in wliich 
 also Ulysses appears as the leading instrument in the development 
 of the plot. We will briefly characterize the separate plays 
 considered in this order of succession. 
 
 In the Antigone the main object is to show the contrast between 
 the heroine, who insists on burying her brother against the will of 
 the state represented by Creon, and the latter, who violates the 
 laws of heaven by denying the rites of sepulture to Polyneices and 
 burying Antigone alive. Both, in a certain sense, have justice on 
 their side, and therefore both excite the sympathy of the audience ; 
 both, in another sense, are guilty of violating the law — the princess 
 the law of man and the king the law of God — and therefore the 
 tragical results in botli cases assume the form of a righteous doom. 
 The plot is rendered more interesting by the contrast of the cha- 
 racters of the two sisters, Antigone and Ismene, and by the intro- 
 duction of the love of H^mon, Creon's son, for his cousin An- 
 tigone. In this latter incident the play approaches nearly to some 
 of the characteristics of the romantic drama. And on the whole 
 there is perhaps no Greek Tragedy which makes a stronger appeal 
 to the feelings, and which is more exquisitely finished in all its 
 parts, than the Antigone of Sophocles. If the Agamemnon of ^s- 
 chylus approximates in some points to the grandeur of Macbeth, 
 there is much in the Antigone to remind us of Romeo and Juliet^, 
 
 The Elecira, which Dioscorides classes with the Antigone as 
 exemplifying the highest perfection of the art of Sophocles 2, is in 
 
 ^ The present ivriter has endeavoured to exhibit all the characteristics of this 
 master-piece of Greek Tragedy in an edition and translation of the Antigone, published 
 in 1848. 
 
 2 Anth. Pal. VII. 37: 
 
 a. TVfj.^os 65' ear , i^vdpoiire, 'ZocpoKKios, 6v jrapa 'Movauv 
 lp7)v Trap6eai7}P, lepos i3v, fKaxov 
 OS fJ.e Tov e/c ^Xlovvtos, ^tl rpi^oXov irareovTa, 
 
 irplvLvov, is XP^'<^^^^ cxvf^'^ fxedrjp/xoa-aro, 
 Kai XewTrju ividvaeu aXovpyida' tov de davovTOS 
 eiWerov 6pxv<^TW tV^' dj'^Trai/ca Troda. 
 
126 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 many respects the counterpart of that play. The strongest emotion 
 displayed is the sisterly love of the heroine for her brother Orestes, 
 whom she supposes to have perished ; and the contrast between 
 Electra and Chrysothemis corresponds exactly to that between An- 
 tigone and Ismene. There is another strong sentiment in Electra's 
 sorrow for her murdered father, and in the heroic resolve of the 
 lonely and persecuted maiden to slay ^gisthus with her own hand. 
 The highest point of tragic interest is reached when Electra, having 
 uttered her beautiful address to the urn, which, as she supposes, 
 contains the ashes of her brother, is raised from despair to over- 
 powering joy by recognizing liim in the stranger who had himself 
 given her the simulated remains of Orestes. The matricidal cata- 
 strophe at the end is terrible without being extravagant, and the 
 manner in which ^Egisthus, who had come home confidently hoping 
 to hear that Orestes was dead, is obliged to lift the covering from 
 the corpse of Clyt^emnestra, produces a striking effect, without 
 falling into melo-dramatic vulgarity. 
 
 If the Electra resembles the Antigone in the prominence which 
 it gives to sisterly affection, and in the contrast between the pairs 
 of sisters in each play, the TracMnice is not without very striking 
 indications of a similarity of manner and conception which refers it 
 to the same period in the poet's literary activity. Characters and 
 descriptions in both plays seem to have a certain resemblance ^ 
 Both plays have an 6p')(7jaTiK6v or dancing song instead of a stasi- 
 mon^. The exaltation of the power of love is similarly expressed 
 in both^. And figures of speech^, and even phraseology^ in the 
 one play, sound like echoes of something similar in the other. But 
 while the Antigone is perhaps the most vigorous and perfect of the 
 plays of Sophocles, the TracMnice is undoubtedly his feeblest effort. 
 
 )S, oX/Sios cIjs dyadrjv ^Xaxes ardcriv ij 6' evl x^P^'-^ 
 
 KovpLfxos, e/c TToiTjs rj8e dtbacTKaXiris ; 
 a. etre ctol 'AvTiy6v)]v direlv (p'Ckov, ovk clv dpApToi^, 
 
 eire Kal 'H.XeKTpav' dficpoTepat. ydp dKpov. 
 
 1 Lichas reminds us of the Sentinel in the Antigone, and Hyllus pleading with his 
 father for Deianeira is the counterpart of Haemon, as the advocate of his bride. The 
 silence of Deianeira on hearing of her husband's fate is paralleled by that of Eurydice, 
 and the descriptive speeches are framed on the same model. 
 
 2 Cf. Antig. 1115 sqq. ; Track. 205 sqq. 
 
 3 Cf. Antig. 781 sqq.; Track. 497 sqq. 
 ^ Cf. Antig. 586 sqq, ; Track. 112 sqq. 
 
 ° As in the almost unique examples of the tertiary predicate ddaKpvTos (Antig. 881 ; 
 Track. 106) for uia-Tf ov daKpvovcriv (Greelc Graminar, art. 498). 
 
SOPHOCLES. 127 
 
 It tiu-ns entirely on the justifiable jealousy of Deianeira, who 
 really loves her husband Hercules, and, fearing that he had given 
 his affections to lole, sends him the poisoned shirt of Xessus, in the 
 sincere belief that it will operate as a love-charm. It produces, as 
 the treacherous Centam- intended, the most exquisite sufferings, 
 and Hercules is laid on the funeral pile to consume his mortal 
 frame, and so to escape his misery, and to receive immortal life. 
 But Deianeira slays herself on learning the consequences of an 
 error, which, as her son declares, she had committed with the best 
 intentions ^ And Hercules, who had at first broken forth into the 
 most violent imprecations against his wife, recognizes the decree of 
 fate in the calamity in which she had been the unwilling agent. 
 
 There are none of the plays of Sophocles which exhibit more 
 strikingly than the two which bear the name of (Edipus, that 
 solemn irony which the genius of a modern scholar has detected in 
 the frame- work of this poet's Tragedies 2. This irony consists in 
 the contrast, which the spectator, well acquainted with the legend- 
 ary basis of the tragedy, is enabled to draw between the real state 
 of the case and the conceptions supposed to be entertained by the 
 person represented on the stage. It is this contrast, regarded from 
 different points of view, which makes the two plays about Oedipus 
 the counterparts of one another, and induces us to think that, 
 whether they were or were not written nearly at the same time^, 
 they were intended by the poet to form constituent parts of one 
 picture. 
 
 The (Edipus Tyrannus represents the king of Thebes, in the 
 full confidence of his own glory ^ at the beginning of the play, but 
 brought step by step to the consciousness of the horrible guilt in 
 which he had unawares involved himself. '' The wrath of heaven," 
 says the expositor to whom we have referred^, "has been pointed 
 against the afflicted city, only that it might fall with concentrated 
 force on the head of a single man ; and he who is its object stands 
 alone calm and secure : unconscious of his own misery he can 
 afford pity for the unfortunate : to him all look up for succour : and, 
 
 ^ Track. 1 1 36: a-Kav to XPVf^' VP'-^P'''^> XPV<^to- /J-<jJ/J-^>^V- 
 
 2 Thirlwall, On the Irony of Sophocles, Philol. Mus. 11. pp. 483 sqq. 
 
 3 The silence of Jocasta (1075) brings this play into a connexion of manner with 
 the Antigone and Trachinice. 
 
 * 8: 6 Tract KKeivbt OtStVoi's KoKovuevos. 
 ^ Tliirlwall, p. 496. 
 
128 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 as in the plenitude of wisdom and power, he undertakes to trace 
 the evil, of which he is himself the sole author, to its secret 
 source." The greatest dramatic ingenuity is shown in the manner 
 in whicli CEdipus investigates the dreadful reality, and the hearer, 
 though acquainted with the plot, shudders when CEdipus becomes 
 at last conscious that he is about to hear the whole extent of his 
 calamity ^ The powerful and self-confident king of the early part 
 of the play becomes the blind and helpless outcast of the con- 
 cluding scene; but his sins were involuntary 2, and his punishment 
 and humiliation are his own act; so that the sufferer leaves the 
 stage an object of the spectator's compassion, and a fit hero for the 
 drama which renders poetic justice to this poor child of fate. 
 
 In the CEdipus Coloneus the exiled king appears supported by 
 his affectionate daughter Antigone, and dependent on the charity of 
 strangers. His outward condition could not be more helpless and 
 pitiable. But he is on the verge of his predicted resting-place. 
 The sanctuary of the awful goddesses, who persecuted tlie volun- 
 tary matricide Orestes, is opened to him, the unwilling murderer of 
 his father, as a place of repose in which he would exercise a pro- 
 tecting power over the land whicli received him. The Thebans, 
 who had expelled him as a polluted person, strive in vain to get 
 him back; his son Polyneices, whom he regarded as a parricide^, 
 seeks his protection, but is rejected with imprecations ; and Q^]dipus 
 descends to his sacred tomb, summoned by thunder from on high^, 
 and led by Hermes and the goddess of the shades^, to the spot 
 where he would be for ever the protecting genius of the land of 
 Attica^. 
 
 The Ajax represents the consequences of the frenzy into which 
 that hero was driven by the disappointment of his claims to the 
 armour of Achilles. Under the influence of a strong delusion, 
 which Athena, in the prologue, states that she had brought upon 
 him, he attacks the flocks and herds of the Greek army while he 
 imagines that he is slaying or leading away captive his successful 
 rival Ulysses and the chieftains who had sliglited him. On coming 
 to his senses he calmly resolves on self-destruction as the only 
 means of withdrawing himself from the disgrace and punishment 
 
 ^ (Ed. Tijr. 1 1 69: TT/jos ai}T(2 y eifil rc^ 8eiv(^ Xeyeiv — K&ycjoy' aKoieiV. 
 2 (JEd. Col. 266: TO, y ipya fxov TrewovdoT ecrrt [xaXKov rj dedpaKdra. 
 ^ 1361: aov (pove(j3S ixefivTjfihos. 
 4 1456 sqq. " 1547, 8. 
 
SOPHOCLES. 129 
 
 which he has Incurred. After a fine scene, in which he takes leave 
 of his son Eurysaces, he withdraws to a distant part of the camp, 
 professedly for the purpose of purifying himself from the stains of 
 his senseless bloodshed, and of burying the sword of Hector. The 
 chorus rejoices in the hope that his temper is soothed and softened, 
 and that all will be well. In the meantime, his brother Teucer, 
 who has passed through the camp on his return from an expedition, 
 and has there seen the prophet Calchas, sends a messenger to insure 
 the hero's detention at home, because the soothsayer has declared 
 that Athena is persecuting Ajax for that day only, and that he will 
 be saved if he survives it. The chorus proceed to search for him. 
 The scene having changed, we see Ajax, who, after an energetic 
 speech, falls upon his sword. And his body is found by his 
 friends, whose lamentations are interrupted by the successive arrival 
 of Menelaus and Agamemnon, who come to forbid his burial. The 
 contest between Teucer and these chieftains is terminated unex- 
 pectedly by the intervention of Ulysses, the bitterest foe of the 
 deceased warrior, who comes forward to proclaim his excellences, 
 and to plead for the respect due to his remains. And in this way 
 a Tragedy, on which the poet has expended all the resources of his 
 art, is brought to a conclusion, which satisfies the prepossessions of 
 the Athenian audience, by a proper apotheosis of their national 
 hero. 
 
 In the PMloctetes, Ulysses appears as the hated adversary of 
 another great warrior ; but though the issue of the play is in ac- 
 cordance with the object of his designs, the crafty and politic chief- 
 tain does not gain the character for generosity, which is accorded 
 to him at the end of the Ajax. It was by his advice that Philoc- 
 tetes had been left on the island of Lemnos, because his wound had 
 made him a noisome pest in the camp. But as it is declared that 
 Troy will not fall without the arrows of Hercules, which Philoctetes 
 possesses, Ulysses volunteers, in company with the young Neopto- 
 lemus, to bring him back to the army. Neoptolemus is at first 
 persuaded to become the instrument in the deceit which Ulysses 
 has determined to practise. But his young and generous nature 
 recoils. He discloses the meditated treachery to Philoctetes, and 
 the cunningly laid plan for getting the wounded archer to Troy is 
 utterly frustrated. Here is the dignus vindice nodus^; and Her- 
 
 1 Horace, Ars Poet. 191. 
 D. T. G. ^ 
 
130 SOPHOCLES. 
 
 cules descends from Olympus to command Philoctetes to go to Troy 
 and share with Neoptolemus in the glory of its capture. The op- 
 position between the three characters is thus reconciled, and they 
 are all justified : Ulysses in his public-spirited policy, Neoptolemus 
 in his straightforward veracity, and Philoctetes in his natural re- 
 sentment. It is to be observed, however, that this use of the Deus 
 ex macMna, which is found only in the latest play of Sophocles, 
 and which is considered to have been mainly due to Euripides, is in 
 itself an indication of declining dramatic power ^ 
 
 ^ Cic. de Nat. Deor. i. 20, § 52: '^Ut tragic! poet?e, quura explicare argument! 
 exitum non potestis, confugitis ad deum." 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 EURIPIDES. 
 
 JEschjlus ruft Titaner herauf und Gotter heruvter ; 
 Sophocles filhrt anmuihifj der Ileldinnen lieih'n und Ilcroen; 
 Endlich Euripides schwatzt ein sophistischer Rhetor am Marlde. 
 
 A. W. SCHLEGEL. 
 
 01 fxhv yap dpxcuoL ttoKltlkQs eirocovv Xiyovras, ol 5e vvu prjropiKQs. 
 
 Aeistoteles. 
 
 Lile as many substances in nature, which are solid, do putrify and corrupt into worms; 
 so it is the property of a good and sound knowledge, to putrify and dissolve into a 
 number of subtle, idle, unwholesome, and, as I may term them, vermiculate questions, 
 lohich have indeed a hind of quickness, and life of spirit, but no soundness of matter 
 or goodness of quality. Bacon. 
 
 EURIPIDES, the son of Mnesarchus, was born in tlie island of 
 Salamis, on the day of the glorious sea-fight (b. c. 480) ^ His 
 mother, Clito, had been sent over to Salamis with the other Athe- 
 nian women when Attica was given np to the invading army of 
 Xerxes 2; and the name of the poet, which is formed like a patro- 
 nymic from the Euripus, the scene of the first successful resistance 
 to the Persian navy, shows that the minds of his parents were full 
 
 ^ Diog. Laert. II. 45 : 'r]P-^P9- ko-^^ V^ ofEWrjves evavp^axovv ev 'ZaXajuTui. Plutarch. 
 Sympos. Vlll. i : irex^V xaO' rjv ripipav ol "EXXrjves irpi-^avTo tovs Il^pcras. Suid. 
 The Parian marble places bis birth five years earlier, and we shall see in the passage of 
 A.ulus Gellius, quoted below, that his age was not known with certainty while he was 
 yet alive. 
 
 2 He belonged properly to the deme Phlyse of the Cecropid tribe, but he, perhaps, 
 had some land in Salamis, and sometimes resided there. " Philochorus refert," says 
 Aulus Gellius, "in insula Salaraine speluncam esse tetram et horriJam, quam nos 
 vidimus, in qua Euripides tragoedias scriptitarit." Noct. Ait. xv. 20. (Whenever we 
 have quoted no other authority, it will be presumed that we refer either to the life of 
 Euripides by Thomas Magister, or to the anonymous life published by Elmsley, from 
 the Ambrosian MS., and printed at the end of his edition of the Bacchce.) 
 
 9—2 
 
132 EURIPIDES. 
 
 of tlie stirring events of tliat momentous crisis. His father was 
 certainly a man of property, else how could his son have been a 
 pupil of the extravagant 1 Prodicus? It would appear that he was 
 also born of a good family 2. But this is no argument, as Philo- 
 chorus supposes^, against the implications of Aristophanes^, and 
 the direct statement of Theopompus^, that his mother was a seller 
 of herbs ; for it is quite possible that his father may have made a 
 marriage of disparagement. Like Sophocles, he was well edu- 
 cated. He attended the lectures of Anaxagoras, Prodicus, and Pro- 
 tagoras ; and was so well versed in the gymnastic exercises of the 
 day, that he gained two victories in the Eleusinian and Thesean 
 athletic games when only seventeen years old. Mnesarchus had 
 intended that he should enter the lists of Olympia among the 
 younger combatants, but some objection was raised against him on 
 the score of age, and he was excluded from the contest^. To his 
 other accomplishments he added a taste for painting, which he cul- 
 tivated with some success ; a few specimens of his talents in this 
 respect were preserved for many years at Megara. He brought out 
 his first Tragedy, tlie Peliades, in (B.C.) 455', consequently at an 
 earlier age than either of his predecessors. He was third on this 
 occasion, but gained the first prize fourteen years after®, and also in 
 
 * See Rhein. Mus. for 1832, p, 2 2 fol. 
 
 2 Athenseus, x. p. 424. 3 Apud Suid, Evpnr. 
 
 * UpoirrjXaKt^o/M^uas opQa vixas virb 
 
 'Evpnridov, toO ttjs XaxavoTrojXrjTpias. Tliesmoph. 386. 
 Again, speaking of Euripides, the female orator says — 
 "Aypia yap rjp-ois, (S yvvacKes, dpq! /ca/cct, 
 "At' ev dypioiai tols Xaxdvois aurbs rpacpeis. 455. 
 Dicseopolis, in the Acharnians, among his other requests, says to Euripides— 
 
 HiKavbiKO. fioi, 86s, fJLTjTpodev dedeyfi^voi. 454. 
 The same insinuation is more obscurely conveyed in the Equites — 
 Ni/c. TTcDs hv ovv TTore 
 
 WiiTOLp!' hv avrb drJTa KOfx\pevpLirLKQ)'i ; 
 Arjfi. M?7 fioi ye, /xtj fioi, p.T] diacTKavdiKicrris. I'J. 
 And in the Ranee: 
 
 Aiax- "AX7?^es, J ttol ttjs dpovpaias 6eov ; 839. 
 ^ Euripidis poette matrem Theopompus agrestia olera vendentem victum quaesisse 
 dicit. Noct. Alt. xv. 20. 
 
 ^ Mnesarchus, roborato exercitatoque filii sui corpore, Olympiam certaturura inter 
 athletas pueros deduxit. Ac primo quidem in certamen per ambiguam setatem 
 receptus non est. Post Eleusinio et Thesseo certamine pugnavit et coronatus est. 
 Aul. Gell. Noct. Att. xv. 20. 
 
 '' Arund, Marble, No. 61. It appears, however, that he had applied himself to 
 dramatic composition before this. Aul. Gell. XV. 20. See Hartung, Euri'pides Resti- 
 tutus, I. pp. 6 sqq. 
 
 s Ai'und, Marble, 6r. 
 
EURIPIDES. 133 
 
 428 B.C., when the Hlppolytus was represented \ though he does 
 not appear to have been often so successful 2. His reputation, how- 
 ever, spread far and wide, and if we may believe Plutarch, some of 
 the Athenians, who had survived the disastrous termination of the 
 Svracusan expedition, obtained their liberty or a livelihood by 
 reciting and teaching such passages from the poems of Euripides as 
 they happened to recollect^. We shall show by and by that Euri- 
 pides was one of the advocates for that expedition ; and we are told 
 that he wrote a funeral poem on the Athenian soldiers who fell in 
 Sicily. Late in life he retired to Mag-nesia, and from thence pro- 
 ceeded to Macedonia, where his popularity procm^ed him the pro- 
 tection and friendship of King Archelaus. It is not known what 
 induced him to quit Athens, though many causes might be as- 
 signed. The infidelity of his two wives, Melito and Choerila, 
 which is supposed to have occasioned the misogynism for which he 
 was notorious, may perhaps have made him desirous of escaping 
 from the scenes of his domestic discomforts, especially as his mis- 
 fortunes were continually recalled to his remembrance by the taunts 
 and jeers of his merciless political enemy, Aristophanes'^. Besides, 
 
 1 Argument to the Hippol. : idLddx^V errt ' A/xeivoi^os apxovro? c\vjj.7n.ddt ir^ ^rei 
 rerdpTU). TrpuTos EvpcTridrjs' devrepos 'locpQv TpiTOS "Icjv. 
 
 2 Suidas says he gained only five victories, one of which was with a posthumous play. 
 ^ "Evioi 5e /cat 5t' ^upnridrjv iaudtjcrav. MaXicra ydp, cbs ^olk€, tQv euros 'Y^Wrjvwv 
 
 eToOrjaav avrou tt)v /xovaap ol irepi "^LKeXiav /cat /MKpa tQv dtpiKvovixivujv eKdcTore 5ely- 
 fiara Kal yevfiara ko/xl^ovtcju eK/jLavdavoures. dyairrjrQs /xeTedidoaav dWrjXois. Tore 
 yoDv (padL tQv (XiodevTuv otKade avx^ovs dairdaaffdai rbv EvpiTridrju (piXocppouojs, Kal 
 di7)ye1adat tovs p-h, on dovXevovres dcpelOrjcrav, eKdiddtavres, oaa tCov eKelvov TroL-qp.dTwv 
 ifxep-uTivTo, rovs 5', on wXauwpLeuoi p-erd Tr]v p-axv^) Tpapijs /cat vdaros p-ereXa^ov tQv 
 pLeXQv (^(xaPTes. Cv Set Stj davp-d^eiv, 8n rovs Kavpiovs (paai. TrXoiov irpoccpepopevov to7s 
 Xip-ecTLV, virb XrjaTpLduju hLU)Kop.evov, p.r] dex^crdai to Trpuroy dXX' dTreip^/eiV elra p.evTot 
 dLaxupSavop-evovs, el yipdocrKOvaiP acr/xara tuv 'Evpnridov, (prjcrdpTOjp eKeipup, ovtu Trapelvai 
 KarayayeTp to ttXoiop. Plutarch, Nicias, cxxix. We have perhaps an additional proof 
 of the lasting popularity of Euripides in Syracuse, in the fact that Archomelus, who 
 composed an epigram in B.C. 220, on the great ship of Hiero {Anih. Pal. Appendix 
 15), and who was therefore more or less connected with Sicily, writes thus on the 
 poet's inimitable excellence {Anth. Pal. vii. 50, p. 321): 
 
 TT]P EvpLTTid^u} p.rp-* ^. X^o p.T}T eTTi^dXXov, 
 
 bva^arov dudpcoirois oXp.op, doidodera, 
 Xeir) p.ep ydp iSelp /cat ewiKpOTos' ^p 54 rts avTTjv 
 
 ela^aiPTj, X'^'^^^oD Tprjx^T^pv ctkoXottos' 
 7]P 8^ ra M7;5et77S AlrjTidos UKpa X^pd^V^, 
 
 dp.p-Qp.wp Keiarj pepdep' ^a (rTe(^dpovs. 
 
 * Ban. 1045 : 
 
 Eurip. 0J5e ydp TfU ttjs 'A(ppooiTr]s ovdep aoi' 
 
 jrEschyl. p.r]d4 y iirel-q' 
 
 'AW eirl col tol /cat toTs ao?ai.p ttoXXt] ttoXXov Vt/ca^^ro. 
 
 "ficrre ye Kavrbv ae KaT oiv i^aXep. 
 Bacchus. X77 TOP At'o tovto yi tol 677' 
 
 *A ydp is Tas aXXorpias eiroieis, avTos TOVTOiaiP enX-qyrjs. 
 
134 EURIPIDES. 
 
 lie appears to have been very intimate with Socrates and Alci- 
 biades, the former of whom is said to have assisted him in the 
 composition of his Tragedies^; and when Alcibiades won the 
 cliariot race at Olympia, Euripides wrote a song in honour of his 
 victory 2. That Socrates was, even at this time, very unpopular, is 
 exceedingly likely^; and Alcibiades was a condemned exile. Per- 
 haps, then, Euripides only followed the dictates of prudence in 
 withdrawing from a country where his philosophical, as well as 
 his political sentiments, exposed him to continual danger. At the 
 court of Archelaus, on the contrary, he was treated with the great- 
 est distinction, and was even admitted to the private counsels of the 
 king. He wrote some plays in Macedonia, in one of which (the 
 Bacchce) he seems to have been inspired by the wild scenery of the 
 country^ where he was residing; and the story, according to which 
 he is torn to pieces by dogs*^, just as his hero Pentheus is rent 
 asunder by the infuriated Bacchanals, arose perhaps from a con- 
 fusion between the poet and the last subject on which he wrote. It 
 is clearly a fabrication, for Aristophanes in the Frogs would cer- 
 tainly have alluded to the manner of his death, had there been any 
 
 ^ ''Laertius (in Socrat.) has preserved a couplet which cunningly brings this 
 charge : 
 
 ^piyes, earl Kaivbv dpcifxa tovt^ "ElvpLiridov, 
 ''Ot Kul TO, (ppdyav VTroTidrjai lluKpdTrjs. 
 AUusion is made to the same imputation in a line of Antiphanes (Athen. IV. 134) : 
 '0 TO. K€(pd\ata avyypdcpuu EupiTriS??, 
 where Kefpakaia are the sententious sayings which Socrates was reputed to have 
 furnished, ^lian {Var. Hist. 11. 13) states that Socrates seldom went to the theatre, 
 except to see some new Tragedy of Euripides performed. 
 
 This philosophising in his dramas gave Euripides the name of the stage pJdlo- 
 soplier; Euripides, auditor Anaxagorse, quem philosophum Athenienses scenicum 
 appellaverunt. Vitruv. viil. in prsef." — Former Editor. See Dindorf, in Poet. Seen. 
 P- 574. 
 
 ^ Plutarch, Alcihiad. c. XI. : Keyei 5' 6 Eupi7ri5>;s h ry qlcr/xari ravra' 
 Se 5' deiao/xai, (S K.\eiuiov irai. 
 KaKbv d m-a" KdWiarov 5' 8 
 Mrjdels ctXXos 'EXXdvcov 
 "Ap/nart TTyodJra dpa/xelv Kal devrepa 
 Kal rpira ^rjvai 5' dirov-qrl, 
 Tpls (rT€<p6&r' iXaia 
 KdpvKL ^oav Trapadovvat. 
 ^ Archelaus invited Socrates also to his court. Aristot. Ehet. ii. 73. 
 ^ Aristot. Rhet. ill. 15. 
 
 •■^ See Elmsley on the argviment, p. 4. In v. 400, we should read UeWav for 
 Ila^oz'. 
 
 '' Hennesianax Colophonius (Athen. xiii. 598) ; Ovid, Ibis, 595 ; Aul. Gell. Noct. 
 Attic. XV. 20; Val. Max. ix. 12. — Pausanias (i. p. 3) seems to doubt the truth of the 
 common account. Dionysius Byzantius expressly denies it (Anthol. in. 36). 
 
EUiuriDES. 135 
 
 thing remarkable in it. He died B.C. 406, on the same day on 
 which Dionysius assumed the tyranny^. He was buried at Pella, 
 contrary to the wislies of his countrymen, who requested Archelaus 
 to send his remains to Athens, where however a cenotaph was 
 erected to his memory with this inscription : 
 
 yivd/jia fiev 'EWa? airaa ^vptTrlSoV oarea 8' tV^et 
 
 Trj l^laKehwv' y yap he^aro ripfia ^lov. 
 Harpk S' 'EXXaSo? 'EXXa9, WOi^vaC TrXetcrra Be Moucra? 
 
 Tep-v/ro,?, i/c TToWcov Kol Tov eiraivov e%ei. 
 
 Euripides was the last of the Greek Tragedians properly so 
 called. '• The sure sign of the general decline of an art," says 
 an able ^T.'iter, " is the frequent occurrence, not of deformity, 
 but of misplaced beauty. In general. Tragedy is corrupted by 
 eloquence, and Comedy by wit^." This symptom of the decline 
 of Tragedy is particularly conspicuous in Euripides, and so much 
 of tragical propriety is given up for the sake of rhetorical display, 
 that we sometimes feel inclined to doubt whether we are reading 
 the works of a poet or a teacher of elocution ^ It is this quality of 
 Euripides which has in all ages rendered him a much greater 
 favourite than either ^schylus or Sophocles ; it is this also which 
 made the invention of Tragi-comedy by him so natural and so easy; 
 it is this which recommended him to Menander as the model for 
 the dialogue of his Xew Comedy ; and it is for this that Quintilian 
 so strongly recommends him to the notice of the young aspirant 
 after oratorical fame'*. In the middle ages too, Euripides was infi- 
 
 1 See CHnton, F. H. ii. p. 8r. 
 
 2 Lord Macaulay in the Ediahurgh Review, No. XC. p. 278. 
 
 3 Euripides seems to have been quite prepared to defend the long speeches which 
 he introduces into his plays. In the Orestes, where there is a complete rhetorical 
 dvTiXoyia, he makes his hero say (640) : 
 
 XeyoL/j.' av -qdrj' ra fxaKpa rujv a/xiKpwv Xoyuv 
 
 iirlirpoadiv icrri Kai aaipij /xaWov KXveiv. 
 * Sed longe clarius illustraverunt hoc opus Sophocles atque Euripides ; quorum in 
 dispari dicendi via uter sit poeta melior, inter plurimos quaeritur. Idque ego sane, 
 quoniam ad prsesentem materiam nihil pertinet, injudicatura relinquo, Tllud quidem 
 nemo non fateatur necesse est, iis, qui se ad agendum coraparant, utiliorem longe 
 Euripidem fore. Namque is et in sermone (quod ipsura reprehendunt, quibus gravitas 
 et cothurnus et sonus Sophoclis videtur esse sublimior) magis accedit oratorio generi : 
 et sententiis densus, et in iis, quae a sapientibus tradita sunt, psene ipsis par, et in 
 dicendo ac respondendo cuilibet eorum, qui fuemnt in foro diserti, comparandus. In 
 affectibus vero cum omnibus mirus, turn in iis, qui miseratione constant, facile prae- 
 cipuus. Hunc et admiratus maxime est (ut ssepe testatur) et secutus, quamquam in 
 opere diverse, Menander. Inst. Orat. x. i. 67. C. J. Fox remarks {Correspondence, 
 edited by Lord John Russell, ill. 178) that of all poets Euripides appeared to him 
 the most useful for a public speaker. 
 
136 EURIPIDES. 
 
 nitely better known than the two other great Tragedians ; for the 
 more un-Greek and common-place and rhetorical and hair-splitting 
 the former was, the more attractive was he likely to prove in an 
 age when scholastic subtleties were mistaken for eloquence, minute 
 distinctions for science, and verbal quibbles for sure evidences of 
 proficiency in the ars artiuw}. We cannot wonder then that Dante, 
 who calls his Latin Aristotle " the master of those that know'^," 
 and an Italian version of Moralia " his own ethics^," should make 
 no mention of ^schylus and Sophocles in his survey of the shades 
 of departed poets, but should class the rhetorical Euripides, and 
 the no less quibbling Agathon, among the greatest of the poets of 
 Greece\ Bat if it be easy to explain how the quasi-philosophical 
 character of Euripides gained him so much popularity among his 
 less civilized contemporaries, the Sicilians and Macedonians, and 
 among the semi-barbarous Europeans of the middle ages, we shall 
 have still less difficulty in explaining how he came to be so unlike 
 the two great writers who preceded him ; one of whom was in 
 his later days the competitor of Euripides. We have already in- 
 sisted at some length upon the connexion between the actors of 
 Sophocles, jEschylus, and their predecessors, and the Homeric 
 rhapsode. Now the rhapsodes were succeeded by a class of men 
 whom, for want of a more definitive name, it has been customary to 
 
 ^ In one form of verbal quibbling, the habit of punning on similar sounds, Euri- 
 pides is not more responsible than ^schylus and Sophocles, and Shakspere has 
 followed them in this respect. Valckenaer says {ad Phcen. p. 187) : " Amat Tragicus 
 noster irvfioXoyeTp, atque ob earn insaniam merito quoque fuit a comicis irrisus." 
 This exclusive censure of Euripides is answered by Lobeck (ad Soph. Aj. 430) ; see 
 also Ehnsley on Eurip. Baccli. 508. And the practice is so common in all the trage- 
 dians that it furnishes a constant problem for the ingenuity of translators, who are not 
 always very happy in their substitutions of English for Greek in reproducing this 
 play upon words. For instance, it is absurd in ^sch. Again. 671, to translate the 
 play upon the name of Helen in the epithets k\ha.v<i, ^Xavdpos, eX^irToXis, by "a Hell 
 to ships, a Hell to men, and a Hell to cities;" for this does not really recall the 
 proper name: if we said "a knell to ships," &c. we should at any rate have a refer- 
 ence to a common abbreviation of the name Helen (Nell). Similarly in Euripides, 
 JBacchce, 367: Jlevdeiis S' ottws jult] ir^vdos elaoiaet dofiois rots o-otcri, might be rendered: 
 "Take heed, lest Pentheus makes your mansion a pent-house of grief," instead of 
 seeking a longer paraphrase. And a similar rendering might apply to v. 508. 
 
 2 Inf. IV. 131. 
 
 ' Ivf. XI. 80, referring to Aristot. Eth. Vii, i. That Dante read Aristotle's 
 Ethics in the Italian t.anslation of Taddeo d" Alderotto, surnamed Vljpjpocratista, may 
 be inferred from the Convito, 1. 10, p. 39. 
 
 4 Pur gat. xxii. 106: 
 
 Eurifide v' fe nosco e Anacreonte, 
 
 Simonide, Agafone, e altri piile 
 
 Greci che gik di lauro ornar la fronte. 
 
EURIPIDES. 137 
 
 call sophists \ and sometime the sophist and the rhapsode were 
 united in the same person : indeed so completely were they identi- 
 fied in most cases, that Plato makes Socrates treat Hippias the 
 sophist, who was also a rhapsode, and Ion the rhapsode, who seems 
 to have been a sophist too, with banter and irony of precisely the 
 same kind. Since then Euripides was nursed in the lap of 
 sophistry, was the pupil and friend of the most eminent of the 
 sophists, and perhaps to all intents a sophist himself, we cannot 
 wonder that he should turn the rhapsodical element of the Greek 
 Drama into a sophistical one: in fact, the transition was not only 
 natural, but perhaps even necessary. It may, however, be asked, 
 how is this reconcileable with the statement that Socrates assisted 
 Euripides in the composition of his Tragedies ? for Socrates was, if 
 we can believe Plato's representation of him, the sworn foe of the 
 sophists. We answer that Socrates was, in the more general sense 
 of the word, himself a sophist ; his opposition to the other sophists, 
 w^hich has probably been exaggerated by his pupils and apologists, 
 to whom we owe nearly all we know about him, is no proof of a 
 radical difference between him and them : on the contrary, it is 
 proverbial that there are no disagreements so rancorous and impla- 
 cable as those between persons who follow the same trade with 
 different objects in view. That Socrates was the least pernicious 
 of the sophists, that, if he was not a good citizen, he was at least 
 an honest man, we are very much disposed to believe ; but in the 
 eyes of his contemporaries he differed but little from the rest of the 
 tribe : Aristophanes attacks him as the head of the school, and per- 
 haps some of the comedian's animosity to Euripides may have 
 arisen from his belief that the tragedian was only a Socrates and 
 a sophist making an epideixis in iambics^. 
 
 Euripides was not only a rhetorical sophist. He also treated 
 his audience to some of the physical doctrines of his master Anaxa- 
 goras^ For instance, he goes out of his way to communicate to 
 them the Anaxagorean discovery, that the sun is nothing but an 
 
 1 The young student will find some interesting remarks on these personages in 
 Coleridge's Friend, Vol. in. p. 112 fol. See also the articles on Prodicus in Nos. I. 
 and IV. of the Rhein. Mus. 1832. 
 
 2 Aristophanes speaks of him thus : 
 
 Sre br} KarrjXO' 'Evpiiridrjs ^ireSelKwro 
 TOis XiOTTodvTais, k.t.X. Ranee, 771. 
 ' On the allusions which Euripides makes to the philosophy of Anaxagoras, the 
 reader of this poet should consult Valckenaer's Diatribe, pp. 25 — 58. 
 
138 EUEIPIDES. 
 
 ignited stone ^ : lie tells tliem that the overflowing of the Nile is 
 merely the consequence of the melting of the snow in ^Ethiopia^, 
 and that the sether is an embodiment of the Deity ^ 
 
 In his political opinions Em^ipides was attached to Alcibiades 
 and to the war party ; and in this again he was opposed to Aristo- 
 phanes, and, we may add, to the best interests of his country. He 
 endeavours to inspire his countrymen with a contempt for their for- 
 midable enemies the Spartans'^, and with a distrust of their good 
 faith^ ; in order that tlie Athenians might not, through fear for their 
 prowess, scruple to continue at war with them, and might, through 
 suspicion, be as unwilling as possible to make peace. We find him 
 also united with the sophist Gorgias and the profligate Alcibiades 
 in urging the disastrous expedition to Sicily; for he wrote the 
 Trilogy to which the Troades belonged, in the beginning of the year 
 415^, in which that expedition started, manifestly with a vi^v to 
 encourage the gaping quidnuncs of the Agora to fall into the ambi- 
 tious schemes of Alcibiades, by recalling the recollection of the suc- 
 cess of a similar expedition, undertaken in the mythical ages ; and 
 it has been conjectured that his wiser opponent wrote the Birds 
 in the following year to ridicule the whole plan and its ori- 
 ginators^ 
 
 Besides obliterating the genuine character of the Greek Tragedy, 
 by introducing sophistry and philosophy into the dialogue, Euripides 
 degraded it still farther by laying aside all the dignity and koXo- 
 KayaOla which distinguished the costumes and the characters of 
 iEschylus and Sophocles, by vulgarizing the tragic style ^, by intro- 
 ducing rags and tatters on the staged, by continually making men- 
 tion of the most trivial and ordinary subjects", and by destroying 
 the connexion which always subsisted, in the perfect form of the 
 
 1 Oi-est. VI. 984, and the fr. of the Phaethon. 
 
 2 Helen, i — 3, fr. of the Archclaus, 
 ^ Troad. 878 seqq. 
 
 * For instance, in his ridiculous exhibition of Menelaus in the Troades, and in the 
 Orestes. See particularly Orest. 717 sqq. ; Aiidrom. 590. 
 
 ^ Andromache, 445 seqq. 
 
 c See Clinton, F. H. 11. p. 75. 
 
 ^ See J. W. Siivern's interesting Essay on the Birds of Aristophanes. 
 
 8 See Miiller, Hist Lit. Gr. I. p. 336 [483]. In Hercid. Fur. 859, it is clear that 
 o-TctSta dpajxovixai, the reading of Elor. 2, is a gloss on the genuine G-TadLodpofxrjau}, 
 which ought to be restored. And in Electr. 84 1, we ought certainly to read rjXdka^e 
 
 6' (hs dvTjCrKCOV <p6vtp. 
 
 » Ran. 841 sqq. ^^ Ih. 980 sqq. 
 
EURIPIDES. 139 
 
 drama, between the chorus and the actors'. With regard to his 
 system of prologues, which Lessing most paradoxically considers as 
 showing the perfection of the drama, we need only mention that 
 Menander adopted it from him, and point to the difference between 
 this practice and that of ^schylus, Sophocles, and Shakspere, in 
 order to justify the ridicule which Aristophanes unsparingly heaps 
 upon them as factitious and unnecessary parts of a Tragedy. 
 
 Like the other sophists, Euripides was altogether devoid of 
 religious feelings; his moral character will not bear a searching 
 scrutiny; and, unlike the good-tempered, cheerful Sophocles, he 
 displayed the same severity of manner which distinguished his 
 never-smiling preceptor, Anaxagoras. On the whole, were it not 
 for the exceeding beauty of many of his choruses, and for the proof 
 which he occasionally exhibits of really tragic power, we should be 
 unable to understand the admiration Avith which he has inspired 
 the most cultivated men in different ages ; and looking at him from 
 the point of vicAV occupied by his contemporaries, we must join 
 with Aristophanes, not only in calling him, what he undeniably 
 was, a bad citizen^, and an unprincipled man, but also in regardino* 
 him as a dramatist, who degraded the moral and religious dignity 
 of his own sacred profession. At the best, he is one of those 
 poets, who appear to the greatest advantage in selections of ele- 
 gant extracts. "His works," says an eminent critic^, "must be 
 regarded less in their entirety than in detail. In single passages 
 there is much that in itself is excellent, deeply moving, and 
 masterly, which, if part of a whole, is liable to censure. We might 
 almost maintain, that, with Euripides, those very parts are most 
 beautiful, which he introduced as superfluous additions, merely be- 
 cause he could not resist the temptations offered by certain situa- 
 tions ; though, indeed, it sometimes happens that the overabundant 
 heaping- together of materials impedes the development of the in- 
 dividual parts, and that the episodes fail in making their due 
 impression, from a want of proper extension. Tragic effect to 
 be perfect requires completeness in preparation, development, and 
 
 ^ Kat Tou X'^P^^ ^^ '^^^ ^^' vxo\aj3e7v tQv virOKpiTdv /cat /ULopiou elvat tov 6\ov, Kai 
 (TVvayojui^ea-daL, fir} ujatrep 'Evpnridrjs, dW uicnrep So0o^'\^7S. Aristot. Poet. XVIII. 21. 
 
 2 On the connexion of Euripides and Socrates with the mischievous Girondisra of 
 the middle-class party at Athens, we have written elsewhere {Quarterly Review, No. 
 CLXi. Vol. 71, p. 116; continuation of Miiller's Hist. Lit. Gr. Vol. ii. p. 165, new ed.). 
 
 3 F. Jacobs, Hellas; or the home, histo7'y, literature and art of the Greeks. Trans- 
 lated by J. Oxenford, p. 2 35. 
 
140 EURIPIDES. 
 
 solution ; but for tliis there is frequently a want of room with Euri- 
 pides. In tlie Troades, for instance, there is such a quantity of 
 matter that the death of Polyxena can only be narrated in a few 
 words. Thus, in this Tragedy, the effect of the tragic incidents is 
 destroyed by the overabundance which makes tliem neutralize each, 
 other." In accordance with these remarks the same author has 
 very ably contrasted the feebler art of Euripides with the rude 
 vigour of ^schylus, and the graceful dignity of Sophocles. " If," 
 he says\ " we take a comparative view of the heroes of Greek 
 Tragedy, we find that in ^schylus the mighty subject matter is 
 not always satisfactorily developed — that in Euripides the luxu- 
 riance of the matter often predominates over the form — that in 
 Sophocles, on the contrary, the matter is so completely propor- 
 tionate to the form, that, with all its abundance, it adapts itself 
 without constraint, and, as it were of its own accord, to the law of 
 order. With the first, nature is grand and powerful, but art is 
 somewhat unwieldy ; with the second act is somewhat too lax and 
 pliant ; with Sophocles, art rules over a free and beautiful nature, 
 ^schylus pays homage to grandeur without grace, Euripides only 
 seeks the fascinating, Sophocles combines dignity and beauty in 
 intimate union. The first fills us with words, the second with 
 compassion, Sophocles with noble admiration. The whole plan of 
 their works corresponds to their different aims, ^schylus, at the 
 very commencement, often raises himself to a height which only his 
 own gigantic mind can hope to surmount ; Sophocles leads us on 
 gradually ; Euripides, through successive sections, repeats the same 
 tones of touching sorrow, -^schylus proceeds rapidly from his 
 preparation to the catastrophe ; Sophocles, as he approaches the 
 catastrophe retards his steps ; Euripides, with uncertain tread, pur- 
 sues an uncertain goal, rather heaping up misfortune than rendering 
 it more intense, ^schylus is simple without art ; with Sophocles 
 simplicity is a result of art ; with Euripides variety often predo- 
 minates to the injury of art. The mighty and extraordinary events, 
 which are the focus of the action with his predecessors, are often 
 with Euripides no more than strengthening rays, and the incidents 
 are, not unfrequently, more tragical than the catastrophe. The im- 
 molation of a daughter torn from her mother's arms, the murder 
 of an innocent boy, the voluntary death of a wife on her hus- 
 
 1 Hellas, p. 236. 
 
EURIPIDES. 141 
 
 band's funeral pile, the sacrifice of a youth for his country, of a 
 maiden for her family, — all these with Euripides are mere inci- 
 dents of the action \" 
 
 Thanks to accident, or the corrupted taste of those to whom 
 we owe all of ancient literature that we possess, the remaining 
 plays of Euripides are more than all the extant dramas of ^s- 
 chylus and Sophocles taken together. Of his many compositions, 
 fifteen Tragedies^, two Tragi-comedies^, and a satyrical drama", 
 have come down to us; and the fragments of the lost plays are 
 very numerous. 
 
 It appears that Euripides, like the other two great tragedians, 
 exhibited his dramas in Tetralogies, and in more than one instance 
 we have among his extant plays those which formed a portion of 
 the same theatrical representation. We do not, however, derive 
 much advantage from this. His Tetralogies were not, like those of 
 jEschylus, bound together by a community of subject and treat- 
 ment, and except as a chronological fact, the juxta-position of par- 
 ticular dramas is quite unimportant to the reader of his works. 
 
 The order, in which the extant plays of Euripides were pro- 
 duced, may be ascertained to a certain extent either from direct 
 statements resting on the didascalise or from internal evidence. In 
 making a few remarks on the particular plays, we shall be content 
 in the main with the results of the most recent and elaborate inves- 
 tigation of the subjects 
 
 The earliest extant play of Euripides is the Rhesus, which, as 
 we have already mentioned, has been attributed to Sophocles, and 
 regarded as one of his earliest dramas*^. On the other hand, it has 
 been supposed that four actors are required in the scene in which 
 Paris appears immediately after Diomedes and Ulysses have left 
 the stage and while Athena is still there, and it has been suggested 
 accordingly that it belongs to the later Athenian stage, perhaps to 
 the school of Philocles*^. It must be confessed that there are 
 
 ^ There is a severe criticism on Euripides in the Foreign Quarterly Review, No. 
 XLVIII, Professor Blackie refers to this article as his own {^schyliis, I. p. xxxvii). 
 Schlegel's comparison of the related plays of the three Tragedians is given in an 
 Appendix to this chapter. 
 
 2 Or 1 6, if the Rhesus is reckoned one of his. 
 
 * The Orestes and the Alcestis. * The Cyclops. 
 
 ^ J. A. Hartung, Euripides Restitutus, Vol. i. 1843; Vol, ii. 1844. 
 
 ^ Gruppe, Ariadne, pp. 285 sqq. 
 
 7 MUller, Hist. Lit, Or. i. p. 501, note. 
 
142 EUEIPIDES. 
 
 serious objections to its genuineness^; but Euripides certainly wrote 
 a play called the Rhesus, which Attius imitated in his Nyctegersis'^^ 
 and it is expressly stated that tliis was one of his earliest efforts^. 
 That the present play was this juvenile production has been warmly 
 maintained by two of the admirers of Euripides^, and it has been 
 referred to the year B. c. 466 ^. 
 
 The undoubtedly genuine Drama, which bears the name of 
 Alcestis, was acted as the after-piece to the Trilogy of the Cressce, 
 the Alcmceon in Psophide and the Telephus^ in B.C. 438^. Though 
 the main incident, the voluntary death of Alcestis as a vicarious 
 substitute for her husband Admetus, is eminently pathetic and 
 tragical, the character of Hercules is conceived in the spirit of 
 comedy, and the rescue of Alcestis from the grave nullifies all the 
 emotions excited by the first part of the play. 
 
 The Heracleidce is referred to the period immediately before the 
 Peloponnesian war B. c. 434, and is supposed to allude in many pas- 
 sages to the divine assistance on which the Athenians could rely, 
 and to the probable discomfiture of any presumptuous invaders^. 
 It is conjecturally placed in the same Tetralogy with the Peleus 
 and u3l^geusj and the satyrical drama Eurystheus^, The subject of 
 the play is the generous protection which the Athenians accorded 
 to the Heracleidge, and the incident of the sacrifice of Macaria is 
 introduced to give some special pathos to a piece which is otherwise 
 somewhat tame and common-place. 
 
 It is known that the Medea was acted in the archonship of 
 Pythodorus B.C. 431, and that it was the first play of a Tetralogy 
 which included the Philoctetes, Dictys, and the satyrical drama of 
 "the Reapers" {^epLaraiy. The Medea is the most faultless of 
 the dramas of Euripides, and has really many excellences. Its 
 object is to depict the jealousy of a divorced and outraged wife, and 
 the dreadful vengeance which she exacts on the rival who has 
 
 1 Valckenaer, Diatribe, 9, lo; Hermann, Opusc. III. pp. 262 sqq. 
 
 2 Hartung, i. p. 15. 
 
 '^ Crates, aj^. Schol. Rhes. 575: Kpar?;s ayvoelv (prjal rbv 'Eiupiwidrju ttjv irepl to. 
 fxeriupa dewpiav Sid rb viov ^tl elvat, 6Ve rbv ' Ftjo-qv e5iSao"/ce. 
 
 * Vater, Vindicue Ehesi, and Hartung. 
 
 ^ Hartung, I. p. 8. 
 
 ^ See the didascalia in Cod. Vatic, quoted above, p. 75, note 3. 
 
 ' Hartung, I. pp. 288 sqq. Miiller, Hist. Gi\ Lit. I. p. 488 (new ed.), refers it to 
 the time of the battle of Deli um, B.C. 421. 
 
 s Hartung, p. 289. ^ Argnm. Med, 
 
EURIPIDES. 14S 
 
 superseded her. It lias been well remarked^ that " the scene which 
 paints the struggle in Medea's breast between her plans of revenge 
 and her love for her children, will always be one of the most touch- 
 ing and impressive ever represented on the stage." Its dramatic 
 value is proved by the success of the modern plays and operas in 
 which the injured wife murders, or intends to murder her children, 
 as an appropriate punishment of a faithless husband^. 
 
 Euripides obtained the first prize with his Hippolytus Crowned in 
 the archonship oi Ameinoii or Epameinon B.C. 428^. This play, like 
 the Medea, has been revived with great success on the modern 
 stage ^, and, in spite of great faults, it produces a considerable effect 
 on the reader. The plot turns on the criminal love of Phaedra for her 
 step-son Hippolytus, the Joseph of classical mythology. As in the 
 similar cases of Bellerophon and Peleus, the scorned and passionate 
 woman seeks the ruin of the chaste young man, but in this instance 
 she also commits suicide. The father, Theseus, is induced to believe 
 in his son's guilt. And the innocent hero is torn to death by his 
 own steeds, who are frightened by sea-monsters sent against them by 
 Neptune, and his death having been thus effected by the malice of 
 Aphrodite and the blind compliance of the sea-god, the chaste 
 goddess Artemis appears ex machina to do poetic justice to the 
 innocent victim. 
 
 It has been conjectured that the Cyclops, our only remaining 
 satyrical drama, belonged to the same Tetralogy as the Hipjpoly- 
 tus, which also, it is supposed, contained the Bellerophontes and the 
 Antigone^, The Bellerophontes is recommended for this juxta- 
 position by its similarity of subject, with of course a difference of 
 treatment. The Antigone of Euripides liad a fortunate termina- 
 tion, as far as Hsemon and the heroine were concerned^, and the 
 fragments seem to point to a tyranny of love, which is quite at 
 
 1 Miiller, Hist. Lit. Gr. i. p. 485 {new ed.). 
 
 2 It is only necessary to mention the Tragedy Medee and the operas Medea and 
 Norma. 
 
 3 Argum. IIippol. 
 
 ^ In Racine's Pliedi'e. The great French dramatist says, in the preface to his 
 play: "Je ne suis point ^tonnd que ce caract^re (de Ph^dre) ait eu un succfes si 
 heureux du temps d'Euripide, et qu'il ait encore si bien r^ussi dans notre sifecle, 
 puisqu'il a toutes les qualitds qu'Aristote ddmande dans le h^ros de la trag^die, et qui 
 sont propres k exciter la compassion et la terreur." 
 
 •^ Hartung, i. pp. 385 S(][q. 
 
 " Aristoph. Byz. in Arr/um. Antig. Soph.; KelraL Be ij fivOoTroua Kal irap' EyptTriS?; 
 ev 'ApTtyouri' irXijv e/cet (pcopadetcra /xera tov A'ifMouos didorai irpbs yd/xou KOivuviau Kal 
 TLKTeL TOV Mai/jLoua. 
 
144 EURIPIDES. 
 
 variance with the moral of the Hippolytus^, In general there is very 
 little reason for connecting the two plays. The Cyclops is placed 
 at the same epoch with the Hippolytus, because it seems to have 
 been acted before the expedition to Syracuse 2; but this is a very 
 slender argument. The plot of the Cyclop>s, of which we have 
 given an analysis in a subsequent chapter, is merely a dramatic 
 version of the adventure with Polyphemus in the ninth book of 
 the Odyssey. 
 
 The Ion is referred^ to about B.C. 427, because it alludes unmis- 
 takably to the porch at Delphi, which the Athenians decorated as a 
 memorial of Phormio's victories'*, and actually mentions Rhium 
 where the trophy stood^; it probably alludes also to the relations 
 between Athens and their colonists on the coast of Asia Minor ^, 
 which had become very critical in the 88th 01. The plot of the 
 Ion is interesting and ingeniously developed. It turns on the 
 recognition by Creusa of her own son by Apollo in the young 
 priest Ion, whom she had endeavoured to poison by the instrumen- 
 tality of a faithful domestic, under the belief that he was the child of 
 her husband Xuthus, and a bastard intruder on the ancient honours 
 of her family. That the Ion was exhibited in the same Tetralogy 
 with the Ino and I/rechtheus, and the satyrical drama Sciron, is in- 
 ferred from considerations more or less precarious^. 
 
 The date of the Hecuba is fixed to B. c. 424 by two parodies of 
 its language in the Nuhes of Aristophanes®, which show that it must 
 have appeared before B.C. 423, and by a reference in the play itself^ 
 to the sacred rites of Delos, which the Athenians took into their own 
 hands in B.C. 425. So that the play must have fallen between these 
 two years ^^. And it is conjectured^^ that the other plays of the 
 Tetralogy were the Alcmena or Licymnius, Phistlienes or the Pelo- 
 
 I See Fragments, vi. and vii. ^ Hartung, i. p. 388. 
 '^ By Bockh, de Gr. Trag. Princ. p. 191. 
 
 ^ Ion, 184 sqq. ^ V. 1592. 
 
 ^ V. 15S1: ot rCivhe 6' a3 
 
 TratSes yevofxevoi. ^vv XP^^V Treirpiofiivcp 
 
 KVKXddas iiroiKriaovac vrjaalas iroXeis 
 
 X^pcyovs re irapaXovs 3 adei^os TTj/mrj x^o^^ 
 
 dldwaiv. 
 7 Hartung, l. pp. 451 sqq. » 718, 11 65. » 466 sqq. 
 
 ^*^ It is also supposed that there is an allusion to the Spartan disaster at Pylos in 
 649: ariveL dk Kal rts d/x(pl rbv eijpoov Evpdorav 
 
 AaKaiva TrokvdaKpvTOS iv ddfxois Kopa. 
 
 II Hartung, i. pp. 542, 546. 
 
EURIPIDES. 145 
 
 -pidce, and the satyrical drama called Theseus^ the latter of which 
 must have been of similar import to the Sciroii of the immediately 
 previous Tetralog}'. 
 
 The Hecuba, which has always been one of the most popular 
 plays of Eui'ipides, introduces the aged queen of Troy as a marked 
 and vigorous character. After her daughter Polyxena has been 
 torn from her to be sacrificed at the tomb of Achilles, the corpse of 
 her only remaining son Polydorus is cast up by the waves, and she 
 learns that he has been murdered by the treacherous king of Thrace, 
 Polymestor, to whom he had been intrusted along with some trea- 
 sure. She entices the perfidious wretch and his children into her 
 tent, and there slays them and puts out his eyes ; and she then suc- 
 cessfully defends her act when called to an account before Aga- 
 memnon. Besides the character of Hecuba, who appears as a sort 
 of philosopher of the Euripidean school, the noble resignation of 
 Polyxena is made to interest the spectators by a display similar to 
 that which we find in the Heradeidce and the Ipliigenia at Aidi's. 
 
 Some allusions to the inconveniences of old age^ place the Her- 
 cules Furens among the later compositions of Euripides, and certain 
 references to his wish for peace with Thebes and Sparta ^ strengthen 
 the hypothesis that the play was acted about B.C. 422. It is con- 
 jectured^ that the other plays of the Tetralogy were the Tememdes, 
 the CrespJiontes^, and a satyrical drama called Cercyon. In many 
 parts the Hercules is singularly vigorous and efi'ective, but its dra- 
 matic merits are seriously compromised by its want of unity in the 
 subject and action. The first part of the play is occupied with the 
 liberation of the family of Hercules from the persecutions of Lycus ; 
 and then Lyssa or madness appears as the only explanation of the 
 frenzy, in which Hercules slays his wife and children. 
 
 The reference, which the chorus of the Iphigenia at Tauri, sup- 
 posed to consist of Delian women, makes to the island of Delos and 
 
 ^ See V. 639 sqq., especially v. 678: Irt rot yepcoi/ dotSos KeXabel ixvafxoavvav, 
 which may be compared with yEschylus, Agam. v. 104. 
 
 2 vv. 471, 1 1 35, 1303. ^ Hartung, ii. p. 21 sqq. 
 
 ^ The Cresphonfes refers in one of the choral fragments both to the advancing age 
 of the poet and his longing for peace {Fmgvi. xv) : 
 elpdva ^aOvirXovre 
 
 S^doiKa de jxt] Trplu ttouols 
 
 vwep^aXrj fxe yyjpas 
 
 TTplv aav Trpoaiddu xaplecrcrav Lcpav k. t. \, 
 
 D. T. G. 10 
 
146 EUKIPIDES. 
 
 to the worship of Apollo there ^, may have been prompted by the re- 
 storation of the Delians to their island, which the Athenians carried 
 out in B.C. 421 in obedience to an oracle^; and, if so, the play may 
 have been performed about this time. It is conjectured^ that the 
 Phrixus, Epo^eus, and Alope were the other plays of the Tetralogy. 
 The IpMgenia at Tauri exhibits happier situations and greater 
 taste in the execution than perhaps any play of Euripides. The 
 poet avoids the awkwardness of making the pure and elevated 
 priestess a sacrificer of her unfortunate countrymen. The duty of 
 Iphigenia is only to consecrate the victims ^ and it has so happened 
 that no Greek has been driven to the inhospitable coast, before the 
 arrival of Orestes^. The mutual recognition of the brother and 
 sister, the plan of flight, and the deep devotion of Orestes to his 
 friend Pylades, sustain the interest of the piece, which has furnished 
 materials for the greatest Tragedy of Pacuvius^, and for a singu- 
 larly beautiful reproduction by Goethe'^. 
 
 The Surplices makes the Argive ruler contract an alliance with 
 Athens, by which all his descendants are to be bound ^. This must 
 surely refer to the treaty between Athens and Argos, brought about 
 by Alcibiades in B. c. 420. For Euripides and Alcibiades were in 
 some sort of connexion with one another. A few years previously 
 (b. c. 424) , Alcibiades had won the prize at Olympia, and Euripides 
 had written the ode for him^. It is probable therefore that Euri- 
 pides might use his stage-opportunities for recommending the poli- 
 tical action of Alcibiades ; and the general subject of the play, the 
 services rendered by Theseus in procuring from the Thebans the 
 interment of the Argive warriors, may have been intended to pro- 
 mote the newly established relations between Argos and Athens. 
 The reference to the three classes in the state is quite in the spirit 
 of Alcibiades himself ^^. 
 
 The Andromache describes the persecution of the widow of 
 Hector, now married to Neoptolemus, by Menelaus and his daughter 
 Hermione, the intervention of Peleus to protect her, the abduction 
 of Hermione by Orestes, and the assassination of Neoptolemus by 
 the latter. At the end Thetis appears ex macliina to promise the 
 
 1 1096 sqq. 2 Thucyd. V. 32, cf. c. i. ^ Hartung, ii, p. 142. 
 
 * V. 617 sqq. ^ V. 244 sqq. ^ The Didoresies. 
 
 "^ The IpJiigenie auf Tauris. 
 
 ^ V. 1 192 sqq. ^ Plut. Vit. Alcihiad. c. ir. 
 
 1*^ Comp. Siippl. 247 with Thucyd. vi. 18, § 7. 
 
EL'KIPIDES. 147 
 
 deification of Peleus, and the future sovranty of Andromaclie's de- 
 scendants among the Molossi. There is a distinct reference in this 
 play to the deceit into which the Spartan ambassadors were led by 
 Alcibiades during the negociations of B.C. 420 ^ and there seems 
 little doubt that, as the Bujpplices recommends the alliance with 
 Argos, the Andromache favours the rupture with Sparta, both 
 brought about by Alcibiades in the same year; and both plays have 
 been accordingly referred, with the (Enomaus and the former Auto- 
 lycusy to a Tetralogy produced in B.C. 419^. 
 
 It is known that the Troades was brought out in B.C. 415 with 
 the Alexander^ the Palamedes, and the satyrical drama Sisyjphus^. 
 The play refers distinctly to the expedition to Sicily, which sailed 
 in this year*; and it is not improbable that the whole Tetralogy 
 was filled with allusions which would be transferred from the suc- 
 cessful attack on Troy to the expected capture of Syracuse. There 
 is no play even of Euripides which exhibits such a want of 
 dramatic concentration. It is rather a series of incidents than the 
 proper development of one leading idea. The allotment of Cassan- 
 dra to Agamemnon, and her prophecies ; the sacrifice of Polyxena, 
 dismissed with a few words, because it had previously appeared in 
 the Hecuba ; the flinging of Astyanax from the walls of the city, 
 and the sorrow of Andromache; the singular argumentation of 
 Hecuba and Helen before ]\lenelaus; and the final picture of the 
 conflagration of Troy, form an unconnected succession of scenes, 
 any one of which might have been worked up by dramatic genius 
 into a complete play. 
 
 The six remaining Tragedies may be grouped in pairs. 
 That the Electra and the Helena were acted together with the 
 Andromeda in B.C. 412, seems to be established by an adequate 
 induction. For the Andromeda was acted eight years before the 
 Ranee of Aristophanes^, i.e. in B.C. 412. Then again, the Helena was 
 acted with the Andromeda^. Finally, the conclusion of the Electra 
 prepares the hearer for the new version of the history of Helen. 
 
 ^ Comp. Thucyd, v. 45 with Androm. 445 : \iyovT€^ dWa fih yXuxra-ri, 4>povo\JVTe<. 
 6' SXKcL. 
 
 " Hartung, II. p. 76 sqq. 
 
 3 ^lian, 7. H. 11. 8. ^ y, 220. 
 
 ^ Schol. Aristoph. Ran. 53 : ■^ yap 'AvSpofieda dydocf erei TrpoyJKrac. 
 
 ^ Schol. Thcsmoph. 1012 : crvvdedidaKTaL yap {i] 'Ai/5pow^5a) tt? 'EX^utj. 
 
 10—2 
 
148 EUKIPIDES. 
 
 whicli is given in the play of that name ^, and the ThesmopJioriazusce 
 of Aristophanes, which was brought out in B.C. 411, speaks of 
 '' the new Helen" with distinct reference to this play 2. It is there- 
 fore tolerably certain that the Electra and Helena were connected 
 plays, and were acted in B.C. 411. There is less reason for the 
 supposition^ that the Busiris was the satyrical drama of this Te- 
 tralogy. In the Electra, as in the Helena, Euripides departs from 
 the established traditions. The former heroine is married to a 
 common countryman, and is exhibited as a good economical house- 
 wife. The motives for the murder of ^gisthus by Clyt^mnestra 
 are purely vindictive, and instead of being justified on religious 
 grounds, the Dioscuri, who appear ex machina at the end, insinuate 
 that Apollo, in recommending the deed, uttered an unwise oracle". 
 The Helena of Euripides gives us a modification of the view of 
 Stesichorus^, which is quite at variance with that of Euripides him- 
 self in the Troades, The plot is occupied with the elopement of 
 the innocent and injured heroine from Egypt, where she had resided, 
 while the Greeks were fighting for her at Troy, and Menelaus, with 
 the help of Theonoe, the prophetic sister of the Egyptian king, 
 effects the escape of his wife from the Pharaoh who wished to 
 marry her. 
 
 The Orestes, which was a tragi-comedy of the same class as 
 the Alcestis^, was acted in the archonship of Diodes, B.C. 408"^, 
 and must have been the fourth play of the Tetralogy to which it 
 belonged. The third play was the Phmmssce^. The other two 
 
 1 12 So: IIpwT^ws yap e/c 56/awi' 
 
 rJKeL XtTToOcr' AtyvTTov, ov8'' rjXdev ^p^yas' 
 
 Zeus 5', cos ^pis y^voLTO Kal (povos ^poTois, 
 
 etboSXov 'E\evr)s e^eTre/x;/'' es "IXiou. 
 In V. 1347 there is probably an allusion to the fresh expedition to Syracuse under 
 Demosthenes. 
 
 2 850 : T7}v Kaivrjv 'EXeurju fxt/xrjcrofiai. ^ Hartung, II. p. 360. 
 ^ Electra, 1244 : 
 
 SUaia p.h vvv rjd'' ^x^'' <^'^ ^' "uxt Spas, 
 ^01(36$ re $or/3os, dW dua^ yap icr' €/J,6i, 
 GiyQi' co(pbs 5' uv ovk ^xPV^^ '^^i <xo(pd. 
 ^ According to Stesichorus Helen never left Greece, but it was her eidcoXov, (pda-fxa, 
 which went to Troy. According to Euripides the gods formed a false Helen who went 
 to Troy, while the true one was carried to the Egyptian king Proteus by Hermes. 
 
 ^ Argum. alt. : to irapov dpdfia e/c rpayiKov koiixikov. Cod. Havn. ap. Matth. VII. 
 p. 114: irapd Tocs TpayiKois e/c/SdWerai 3 re 'Opiarrjs Kal ij ''A\Kr](TTis,..^<TTi fidWou 
 KOJfxuidias ix^P-^^-"- 
 
 '' Schol. Orest. 371 ; cf. ad 772. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 1481 : iv Toj Tpirci) dpa/xarL ovtos cprjatv h t(^ X^PV ^V ''KdS/zos ^^oXe " 
 (i. €. Phosniss. 638). 
 
EURIPIDES. 149 
 
 were the Antiope and the Hypsipyle^, In the Phoenissce we have 
 the same subject as that of the Seven against Thebes exhibited in 
 the Euripidean style. At the same time, there are unmistakable 
 indications of the writer's acquaintance with the (Edipus Coloneus. 
 The introduction of Polyneices, the expulsion of QEdipus, and An- 
 tigone's resolve to accompany her father, were perhaps suggested 
 by Sophocles ; the determination to bury Polyneices comes from 
 ^'Eschylus. But Euripides has involved himself in a contradiction 
 by making the expulsion of Qildipus subsequent to the mutual 
 fratricide, so that one hardly sees how Antigone can perform the 
 double part, which Sophocles has arranged for her without any 
 such inconsistency. There are some fine scenes in the play. The 
 altercation between the two brothers is spirited. The view of the 
 besieging host from the roof of the palace is well conceived. And 
 the death of Menoeceus would be affecting, if it were not a mere 
 repetition of the self-sacrifice of Macaria in the Heradeidce. There 
 is hardly any real Tragedy in the Orestes. The crazy matricide, 
 about to be freed by the Argives and deserted by Menelaus on 
 whom he had placed his reliance, seeks to avenge himself on Helen ; 
 and when she vanishes to heaven, he takes her daughter Hermione 
 as a substitute, and is about to slay her, when the Dioscuri appear 
 and command him to marry the damsel. The cowardice of the 
 Phrygian slave is positively ludicrous, and was perhaps intended to 
 excite the mirth of the audience. 
 
 After the death of Euripides in B.C. 406, the plays, which he 
 wrote for representation in Macedonia — the Iphigenia at Aulis, the 
 Alcmceon at Corinth, the Bacchce, and the Archelaus — were pro- 
 duced as new Tragedies at Athens by the younger Emipides, who 
 Avas probably the nephew of the great Tragedian-. It is not im- 
 probable that they had been already performed at Pella, for the 
 Bacchce is full of allusions to Macedonian scenery^, and the Ip?ii- 
 genia may have been suggested to him during his stay in Magnesia 
 on his route to the north ^. These two plays, which have come 
 
 ^ Scbol. Arist. Ran. 53 : Sto, ri jxt] aWo ti tQu 5t' 6X1701; didaxd^vruv Kal koXuv, 
 'T\l/nrv\T]s, ^oivt-crauiv, ' A^rtoTTT/s ; iTreidrj ov avKocpavTrjTa t]v to. roLavra. 
 
 2 Schol. Arist. Han. 67, where the younger Euripides is called the son of his name- 
 sake. The 'A\K/xaiuv 8ia Kopivdov is so called to distinguish it from the 'A\K/J.aiuv dta 
 ^(jjcpidos acted together with the Alcestis, 
 
 ^ Cf. vv. 400 where read UeWav. 565 sqq. 
 
 ^ Vit. cod. Medial, coll. Ainbi'a<i. Hartung, II. p. 510. 
 
150 EURIPIDES. 
 
 down to us, not without considerable mutilations, may be reckoned 
 among the happiest dramatic efforts of Euripides. In the Ipliigenia, 
 Euripides excites our interest and touches our feelings by a very 
 lively picture of the circumstances attending the sacrifice of the 
 princess. Agamemnon's vain attempts to save his daughter, the 
 knightly courage of Achilles, who is willing to fight the whole 
 army on her behalf, the indignation of Clyta^mnestra, and the self- 
 devotion of Iphigenia, who, after pleading in the prettiest and most 
 pathetic speech for her life, at last solves all the difficulties by offer- 
 ing herself as a voluntary sacrifice, form a dramatic development, 
 which is found in few of the poet's earlier plays, and which has made 
 this Tragedy a model both for Ennius, and for Eacine and Schiller. 
 The text unfortunately is not only mutilated but deformed by taste- 
 less interpolations. The prologue, as it stands, is in a great state of 
 confusion. It begins with a dialogue in anapaests (vv. 1 — 48), then 
 follows a monologue of the usual Euripidean style (vv. 49 — 114), 
 after which the dialogue in anapgests is resumed until the entrance 
 of the chorus (v. 164) ^ On the other hand, it appears, from a 
 quotation by ^lian^, that we have lost the epilogue, in which 
 Artemis appeared and promised to make the sacrifice of Iphigenia 
 illusory, and it has long been held that the concluding scene, as we 
 have it, is an interpolations. There are besides many corruptions 
 in detail"^. With the exception of some lacunae in the last scene, 
 the Bacchce is in a much better state of preservation than the sister 
 Tragedy. It details the miserable end of Pentheus, who stands 
 alone in obstinate resistance to the worship of Bacchus, when all 
 
 ^ Hartung, in his edition of this play, Erlang. 1837, begins the first scene with 
 Agamemnon's speech (v. 47), omitting the five concluding lines. 
 ^ De Animal. VII. 29 : 6 S^ 'Evpiiribrf^ ev ry 'Ifpiyeveiq,' 
 
 iXa^ov 5' 'Axatwi' x^P'^^'-^ ipOrjcro} (piXais [1. \d6pq,'] 
 Kepovaaav, tjv acpd^ovTes avxrjcrovcrL arjv 
 cr(pd^€i.v duydrepa. 
 
 From the use of the futures hdrjao) and avxv<^ovcn it has been supposed by some 
 critics that these words must have been part of the prologue ; but (rrju must refer to 
 ClytiBmnestra, who could not have been so addressed till the conclusion of the play. 
 
 ^ Porson, Prcef. Hec. p. xxi, [18], speaking of the two readings of Iph. Aid. 1579, 
 says : " si me rogas, utra harum vera sit lectio, respondeo, neutra. Nee quicquam 
 mea refert; quippe qui persuasus sim, totam earn scenam abusque versu 1541 spuriam 
 esse, at a recentiore quodam, nescio quando, certe post yEliani tempora, suppositam." 
 
 ^ See Bbckh, Gr. Tr. Princ. c. xvii. ; the editions of Hermann, Lips. 1831 ; Har- 
 tung, Erlang. 1837; Monk, Cantabr. 1840; also W. Dindorf, Zeitsch. f. d. Alter- 
 thumswiss. Nov. 1839; Seyffert, de dupl. rec. Iph. A., Hal. 1831 ; Bartsch, de Eur. 
 Iph. A. Vrat. 1837; Zirndorfer, Diss, de Iph. A. Marburg, 1838. 
 
EUKIPIDES. 151 
 
 liis family have yielded a willing assent to the new religion. This 
 solemn warning against the dangers of a self-willed OeoyLay^ia seems 
 to have made this drama highly suggestive to those intelligent and 
 educated Jews, who first had a misgiving with regard to the 
 wisdom of their opposition to Christianity^. And the devout and 
 religious tone of the play would almost make us suppose that Euri- 
 pides himself, at the close of his life, had become converted from 
 the sophistic scepticism of his earlier years ^ It is probable that 
 the Bacchce was always a favourite play in Macedonia, where it 
 was first produced. Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, 
 openly played the part of the mother of Pentheus^, and Alexander 
 himself was able to make an apposite quotation from the text of 
 this Tragedy^. 
 
 1 This important reference was first made by the writer of these pages in a work 
 entitled, Christian OHhodoxy reconciled with the conclusions of modern Biblical 
 Learning, Lond. 1857, pp. 291 — -294, 
 
 ^ cf. vv. 200 : ovdev ao(pi^6/j.€ada ro?ai daifxoac, k.t.\, 
 
 '^' 393 • '''0 (^O(pov S' ov aocpia, 
 
 TO T€ /XT] dvrjTa (ppoveXv 
 /Spaxi'S alwv. 
 V. 880 : opjiidTai fioXis dX\' S^ojj 
 
 TncTTov TO 7e detov adevos k.t.X. 
 3 Plutarch, Vit. Alex. c. 2. 
 ^ Id. Ibid. c. 53 : el-rre7u odu tov ' AXe^avSpou otl KaT EvpL7r'L0T]v' Thv Xa^ovTO. tQu 
 
 KaXas d(popfJiai ov [ley ^pyov ev Xeyeiv. 
 See Bacch. vv. 266, 267. 
 
152 ^SCHYLUS' CHOEPHOROE. 
 
 APPENDIX TO CHAPTER I. §§ 2, 3, 4. 
 
 A. W. SCHLEGEL'S COMPARISON OF THE CHOEPHOECE OF yESCHY- 
 LUS WITH THE ELECTRAS OF SOPHOCLES AND EURIPIDES. 
 
 The relation which Euripides bears to his two great predecessors will be set in 
 the clearest light by a comparison between their three plays, which happily are still 
 extant, upon the same subject, namely, Clytaemnestra's death by the avenging hand of 
 Orestes. 
 
 The scene of ^schylus' Choephoroe is laid in front of the royal palace; the tomb 
 of Agamemnon appears on the stage. Orestes enters with his trusty Py lades, and opens 
 the play (which unhappily is somewhat mutilated at the beginning) with a prayer to 
 Mercury and a promise of revenge to his father, to whom he consecrates a lock of his 
 hair. He sees a procession of females clad in mourning attire issuing from the 
 palace ; and thinking he recognizes his sister among them, he steps aside with Pylades, 
 to reconnoitre them before he shows himself. The Chorus, consisting of captive 
 Trojan maidens, in a speech accompanied by gestures of woe, reveal the occasion of 
 their mission to Agamemnon's tomb, namely, a frightful dream of Clytasmnestra's : 
 they add their own dark presentiments of vengeance impending over the blood-guilty 
 pair, and bewail their lot in being obliged to serve unrighteous lords, Electra con- 
 sults the Chorus whether she shall do the bidding of her hostile mother, or pour out 
 the ofifering in silence, and then by their advice she too addresses a prayer to infernal 
 Mercury and the soul of her father, for herself and the absent Orestes, that he may 
 appear as the avenger. During the pouring out of the libation, she and the Chorus 
 make a lament for the departed hero. Presently, discovering the lock of hair, of a 
 colour resembling her own, and foot-prints round about the tomb, she lights upon the 
 conjecture that her brother has been there; and while she is beside herself with joy at 
 the thought, he steps forward, and makes himself known. Her doubts he completely 
 overcomes by producing a garment woven by her own hand ; they abandon themselves 
 to their joy ; he addresses a prayer to Jupiter, and makes known how Apollo, under 
 most terrible menaces of persecution by his father's furies, has called upon him to 
 destroy the authors of Agamemnon's death, in the same manner as they had destroyed 
 him, namely, by subtilty. Now follow odes of the Chorus and Electra, consisting 
 partly of prayers to the deceased king and to the infernal deities, partly calling to 
 mind all the motives to the act enjoined \ipon Orestes, and, above all, the murder of 
 Agamemnon. Orestes inquires about the vision which induced Clytsemnestra to send 
 the offerings, and is informed that she dreamed she had a child in the cradle, which 
 child was a dragon which she laid to her breast, and suckled with her own blood. 
 He, then, will be this dragon; and he explains more particularly how he will steal 
 into the house as a disguised stranger, and take both ^gisthus and herself at 
 unawares. With this intention he departs, accompanied by Pylades. The subject of 
 the ensuing ode is, the boundless audacity of mankind, and especially of women in 
 their unlawful passions ; which it confirms with dreadful examples from mythic story, 
 and shows how avengincj Justice is sure to overtake them at last. Orestes, returning 
 
^SCHYLUS' CH0EP1I0R(E. 153 
 
 as a stranger with Pylades, craves admission into the palace ; Clytaemnestra comes 
 out, and being informed by him that Orestes is dead, at which tidings Electra makes 
 a show of lamentation, she invites *him to enter and be her guest. After a short 
 prayer of the Chorus, enters Orestes' nurse, and makes a lament for her nursling ; 
 the Chorus inspires her with a hope that he yet lives, and advises her to send 
 -lEgisthus, for whom Clytaemnestra has dispatched her, not Avith, but without, his 
 body-guard. As the moment of danger draws near, the Chorus offers a petition to 
 Jupiter and Mercury that the deed may prosper. u3^gisthus enters, holding conversa- 
 tion with the messenger, cannot yet quite persuade himself of an event so joyful to 
 him as Orestes' death, and therefore hastens into the house, where, after a short 
 prayer of the Chorus, we hear his dying cry. A servant rushes out, and gives the 
 alarm before the door of the women's abode, to warn Clytaemnestra. She hears it, 
 comes out, calls for a hatchet to defend herself ; but as Orestes without a moment's 
 delay advances upon her with the bloody sword, her courage fails, and most affect- 
 ingly she holds before him the breast at which she, his mother, suckled him. Hesitat- 
 ingly he asks counsel of Pylades, who in a few lines urges him on by the most 
 powerful considerations: after a brief dialogue of accusation and self- vindication, he 
 drives her before him into the palace to slay her beside the corpse of ^gisthus. The 
 Chorus, in a solemn ode, exults in the consummated retribution. The great doors of 
 the palace are thrown open, and disclose, in the chamber, the slain pair laid together 
 on a bed. Orestes orders the servants to unfold, that all may see it, the long trailing 
 garment in which his father, as he drew it on and was muffled in its folds, received 
 the murderous stroke of the axe: the Chorus beholds on it the stains of blood, and 
 breaks out into a lamentation for Agamemnon's murder. Orestes, feeling that his 
 soul is already becoming confused, avails himself of the time that is still left to 
 vindicate his act : he declares that he will repair to Delphi, there to be purified from 
 his blood-guiltiness, and forthwith flees, full of horror, before his mother's Furies, 
 whom the Chorus does not yet see, and deem a phantom of his brain, but who leave 
 him no more rest. The Chorus concludes the play with a reflection on the scene of 
 murder thrice repeated in that royal house since the Thyestean banquet. 
 
 The scene of Sophocles' Electra is also laid in front of the palace, but without 
 Agamemnon's tomb. At day-break enter as from abroad, Pylades, Orestes, and his 
 keeper, who on that bloody day had been his preserver. The latter gives him instruc- 
 tions, as he introduces him to the city of his fathers : Orestes replies with a speech 
 upon the commission given him by Apollo, and the manner in which he means to 
 execute it, and then addresses a prayer to the gods of his native land, and to the 
 house of his fathers. Electra is heard sobbing within ; Orestes wishes to greet her 
 immediately, but the old man leads him away to present an offering at the grave of 
 his father. Electra comes out; in a pathetic address to heaven she pours forth her 
 griefs, and, in a prayer to the infernal deities, her unappeased longing for revenge. 
 The Chorus, consisting of virgins of the land, approaches to administer consolation. 
 Electra, alternating song and speech with the Chorus, makes known her unabatable 
 sorrow, the contumely of her oppressed life, her hopelessness on account of Orestes' 
 many lingerings, notwithstanding her frequent exhortations, and gives faint hearing 
 to the encouraging representations made by the Chorus. Chi-ysothemis, Clytaem- 
 nestra's younger, more submissive, and favourite daughter, comes with a grave- 
 offering, which she is commissioned to bear to her father's sepulchre. An altercation 
 arises between the sisters concerning their different sentiments: Chrysothemis tells 
 Electra that v^gisthus, now absent in the country, has come to the severest resolu- 
 
154 SOPHOCLES' ELECTEA. 
 
 tions respecting her; to which the other bids defiance. Then she proceeds to relate 
 how Clytaemnestra has had a dream that Agamemnon was come to life again, and 
 planted his sceptre in the floor of the house, whence there sprang up a tree that over- 
 shadowed the whole land ; whereby she was so terrified, that she commissioned her to 
 be the bearer of this grave-ofi'oring. Electra advises her not to regard the commands 
 of her wicked mother, but to offer at the tomb a prayer for herself, her brother and 
 sister, and for the return of Orestes to take vengeance: she adds to the oblation her 
 own girdle and a lock of her hair. Chrysothemis promises to follow her advice and 
 departs. The Chorus augurs from the dream that retribution is nigh, and traces back 
 the crimes committed in this house to the arch-sin of its first founder, Pelops. Clytasm- 
 nestra chides her daughter, to whom, however, perhaps from the effect of the dream, 
 she is milder than usual : she justifies what she did to Agamemnon ; Electra attacks 
 her on that score, but without violent altercation on either side. After this, Clytaem- 
 nestra, standing beside the altar in front of the house, addresses her prayer to Apollo 
 for welfare and long life, and secretly for the destruction of her son. Now enters 
 the keeper of Orestes, and, in the chai-acter of messenger from a Phocian friend, 
 announces the death of Orestes, entering withal into the most minute details, how he 
 lost his life at the chariot-race in the Pythian games. Clytgemnestra scarcely con- 
 ceals her exultation, although at first a touch of maternal feeling comes over her, and 
 she invites the messenger to partake of the hospitality of her house. Electra, in 
 touching speeches and songs, abandons herself to her grief; the Chorus in vain 
 attempts to console her. Chrysothemis returns from the tomb overjoyed, with the 
 assurance that Orestes is near at hand, for she has found there the lock of his hair, 
 his drink-offering, and wreaths of flowers. Electra's despair is renewed by this 
 account; she tells her sister the dreadful tidings which have just arrived, and calls 
 upon her, now that no other hope is left them, to take part with her in a daring deed, 
 and put ^gisthus to death ; this proposal Chrysothemis, not possessing the courage, 
 rejects as foolish, and, after a violent altercation, goes into the house. The Chorus 
 bewails Electra now so utterly desolate; Orestes enters with Pylades and some 
 servants who bear the urn which, it is pretended, contains the ashes of the dead 
 youth. Electra prevails upon him by her entreaties to give it into her hands, and 
 laments over it in the most touching speeches ; by which Orestes is so overcome, that 
 he can no longer conceal himself : after some preparation, he makes himself known to 
 her, and confirms the discovery by showing her the signet-ring of their father. She 
 gives vent, in speech and song, to her unbounded joy, until the old man comes out, 
 rebukes them both for their imprudence, and warns them to refrain themselves. 
 Electra with some difficulty recognizes in him the faithful servant to whom she had 
 entrusted Orestes for preservation, and greets him thankfully. By the old man's 
 advice, Orestes and Pylades hastily betake themselves with him into the house to 
 surprise Clytaemnestra while she is yet alone. Electra offers a prayer in their behalf 
 to Apollo: the ode of the Chorus announces the moment of retribution. From within 
 the house is heard the shriek of the dismayed Clytasmnestra, her brief entreaties, her 
 wailings under the death-blow. Electra, from without, calls upon Orestes to finish 
 the deed : he comes out with bloody hands. The Chorus sees ^gisthus coming, and 
 Orestes hastes back into the house to take him by surprise, ^gisthus inquires about 
 the death of Orestes, and from Electra's equivocal replies is led to believe that his 
 corpse is within the house. He therefore orders the doors to be thrown open to 
 convince those among the people who bore his sway with reluctance, that there is no 
 more hope from Orestes. The middle entry is thrown open, and discloses in the 
 
EURiriDES' ELECTRA. 155 
 
 interior of the palace a covered body lying on a bed. Orestes stands beside it and 
 bids yEgisthus uncover it : lie suddenly beholds the bloody corpse of Clytsemnestra, 
 and finds himself lost past redemption. He desires to be allowed to speak, which, 
 however, Electra forbids. Orestes compels him to go into the house, that he may 
 slay him on the selfsame spot where ^gisthus had murdered his father. 
 
 The scene of Euripides' Electra lies, not in Mycenae, but on the borders of the 
 Argolic territory, in the open country, in front of a poor solitary cottage. The 
 inhabitant, an old peasant, comes out, and in the prologue tells the audience how 
 matters stand in the royal house ; partly what was known already, but moreover, 
 that not content to treat Electra with ignominy and leave her un wedded, they had 
 married her beneath her rank to him ; the reasons he assigns for this procedure are 
 strange enough, but he assures the audience he has too much respect for her to debase 
 her in reality to the condition of his wife. They are therefore living in virgin wed- 
 lock. Electra comes out, before it is yet day-break, bearing on her head, which is 
 shorn in servile fashion, a pitcher with which she is going to fetch water ; her husband 
 conjures her not to trouble hei'self with such unwonted labours, but she will not be 
 kept from the performance of her housewifely duties, and the two depart, he to his 
 work in the field, she upon her errand. Orestes now enters with Pylades, and in a 
 speech to his friend states that he has already sacrificed at his father's grave, but that 
 he does not venture into the city, but wishes to look about for his sister (who, he is 
 aware, is married and lives hereabout on the frontier), that he may learn from her the 
 posture of affairs. He sees Electra coming with the water-pitcher, and retires. She 
 strikes up a song of lamentation over her own fate and that of her father. The 
 Chorus, consisting of rustic women, comes and exhorts her to take part in a festival 
 of Juno, which she however, in the dejection of her sorrow, and pointing to her 
 tattered garments, declines. They offer to lend her a supply of holiday gear, but she 
 is fixed in her purpose. She espies Orestes and Pylades in their lurking-place, takes 
 them for robbers, and is about to flee into her cottage; upon Orestes coming forth 
 and stopping her, she thinks he is going to kill her; he pacifies her and gives her 
 tidings that her brother lives. Hereupon he inquires about her situation, and then 
 the whole matter is drilled into the audience once more. Orestes still forbears to 
 make himself known, but merely promises to do Electra's commission to her brother, 
 and testifies his sympathy as a stranger. The Chorus think this too good an oppor- 
 tunity to be lost of gratifying their own ears also with a little news from town ; 
 whereupon Electra, after describing her own miserable condition, depicts the wanton 
 and insolent behaviour of her mother and ^gisthus : this wretch, she says, capers 
 upon Agamemnon's grave and pelts it with stones. The peasant returns from his 
 work, and finds it not a little indecorous in his wife to be gossiping with young men ; 
 but when he hears they are the bearers of intelligence from Orestes, he invites them 
 into his house in the most friendly manner. Orestes, at sight of this worthy man, 
 enters into a train of moral reflections, how often it does happen that the most 
 estimable men are found in low families, and under an unpromising exterior. Electra 
 reprove's her husband for inviting them, knowing as he does that they have nothing in 
 the house ; he is of opinion that even were it so, the strangers would goodnaturedly 
 put up with it ; but a good housewife can always manage to get together all sorts of 
 dishes, her stores will surely hold out for one day. She sends him to Orestes' old 
 keeper, and former preserver, who lives hard by in the country, to bid him come and 
 bring along wnth him something for their entertainment. The peasant departs with 
 saws upon riches and moderation. Off flies the Chorus into an ode upon the expedi- 
 
156 EURIPIDES' ELECTRA. 
 
 tion of the Greeks against Troy, prolixly describes all that was graven on the shield 
 of Achilles which his mother Thetis brought him, but winds it up however with the 
 wish that Clytagmnestra may be punished for her wickedness. 
 
 The old keeper, who finds it right hard work to climb up-hill to the house, brings 
 Electra a lamb, a cheese, and a skin of wine; hereupon he falls a weeping, not 
 forgetting, of course, to wipe his eyes with his tattered garments. In replying to 
 Electra s questions, he relates how at the grave of Agamemnon he had found traces of 
 an oblation together with a lock of hair, and therefore he conjectures that Orestes 
 has been there. Hereupon ensues an allusion to the mode of recognition used by 
 -(S^schylus, namely by the resemblance of the hair, the size of the foot-marks, the 
 garment, which are demonstrated, all and several, to be absurd. The seeming impro- 
 bability of the ^schyiean anagnorisis perhaps admits of being cleared up ; at all 
 events one may easily let it pass ; but a reference like this, to another author's treat- 
 ment of the same subject, is the most annoying interruption, the most alien from 
 genuine poetry that can possibly be. The guests come out; the old keeper recon- 
 noitres Orestes with a scrutinizing eye, knows him, and convinces even Electra that 
 it is he, by a scar on his eyebrow received from a fall in his childhood — so this is the 
 superb invention for which ^schylus' is to be cashiered !— they embrace, and abandon 
 themselves to their joy during a short ode of the Chorus. In a lengthy dialogue, 
 Orestes, the old man, and Electra concert their plans, ^gisthus, the old man 
 knows, has gone into the country to sacrifice to the Nymphs : there Orestes will steal 
 in as a guest and fall upon him by surprise. Clytaemnestra, for fear of evil tongues, 
 has not gone with him : Electra ofiers to entice her mother to them by the false 
 intelligence of her being in childbed. The brother and sister now address their united 
 prayers to the gods and their father's shade for a happy issue. Electra declares she 
 will make away with herself if it should miscarry, and for that purpose will have 
 a sword in readiness. The old man departs with Orestes to conduct him to ^gisthus, 
 and afterwards to betake himself to Clytsemnestra. The Chorus sings the Golden 
 Earn, which Thyestes stole from Atreus by the help of the treacherous wife of the 
 latter, and how he was punished for it by the feast made for him with his own chil- 
 dren's flesh, at the sight of which the Sun turned out of his course : a circumstance, 
 however, concerning which the Chorus, as it sapiently adds, is very sceptical. From 
 a distance is heard a noise of tumult and groans, Electra thinks her brother is over- 
 come, and is going to kill herself. But immediately there comes a messenger, who, 
 prolixly and with divers jokes, relates the manner of ^gisthus' death. Amidst the 
 rejoicing of the Chorus, Electra fetches a wreath with which she crowns her brother, 
 who holds in his hand the head of ^^gisthus by the hair. This head she in a long 
 speech upbraids with its follies and crimes, and says to it, among other things, " it is 
 never well to marry a woman with whom one has lived before in illicit intercourse ; 
 that it is an unseemly thing when a woman has the mastery in the family," &c. 
 Clytsemnestra is seen approaching, Orestes is visited by scruples of conscience con- 
 cerning his purpose of putting a mother to death, and concerning the authority of 
 the oracle, but is induced by Electra to betake himself into the cottage there to 
 accomplish the deed. The queen comes in a superb chariot hung with tapestry, and 
 attended by her Trojan female slaves. Electra would help her to descend, but this 
 she declines. Thereupon she justifies what she had done to Agamemnon by reference 
 to the sacrifice of Iphigenia, and requires her daughter to make her objections ; all 
 which is in order to give Electra an opportunity of holding a captious, quibbling 
 harangue, in which, among other things, she upbraids her mother with having sat 
 
COMPAKISON OF THE THREE PLAYS. 157 
 
 before her mirror, and studied her toilette too much while Agamemnon was away. 
 Clytaemnestra is not angry, although Electra plainly declares her purpose of putting 
 her to death if ever she should have the power ; she inquires about her daughter's 
 confinement, and goes into the cottage to perform the ceremonies of purification. 
 Electra accompanies her with a sarcastic speech. Then w^e have a choral ode upon 
 retribution, the cry of the murdered woman within the house, and the brother and 
 sister return stained with blood. They are full of remorse and despair at what they 
 have done, afflict themselves by repeating to each other their mother's lamentable 
 speeches and gestures; Orestes will flee into foreign lands, Electra asks ''who will 
 marry me now ? " The Dioscuri, their uncles, appear in the air, vituperate Apollo for 
 his oracle, command Orestes, in order to secure himself from the Furies, to go and 
 have himself tried by the Areopagus ; they also prophesy his further destinies. They 
 then ordain a marriage between Electra and Py lades, her first husband to be taken 
 with them to Phocis and handsomely provided for. After reiterated wailings, the 
 brother and sister take a life-long farewell of each other, and the play comes to an 
 end. 
 
 It is easy to perceive, that ^schylus has grasped the subject on its most terrific 
 side, and borne it back into the domain of the gloomy deities, in which he so much 
 delights to take up his abode. Agamemnon's grave is the murky centre, whence the 
 avenging retribution emanates ; his gloomy ghost, the soul of the whole poem. The 
 very obvious exterior imperfection, of the play's dwelling too long on one point 
 without perceptible progress, becomes in fact a true interior perfection : it is the 
 hollow stillness of expectation before a storm or earthquake. It is true there is much 
 repetition in the prayers, but their very accumulation gives the impression of a great 
 unheard-of purjDOse, to which human powers and motives alone are inadequate. In 
 the murdering of ClytEemnestra and in her heartrending speeches, the poet, without 
 disguising her crimes, has gone to the utmost verge of all that he had a right to 
 demand of our feelings. The crime which is to be punished is kept in view from the 
 very first by the tomb, and at the conclusion is brought still nearer to the eye of 
 memory by the unfolding of the fatal garment : thus Agamemnon, even after full 
 revenge, is murdered, as it were, afresh before the mental eye. Orestes' betaking 
 himself to flight betrays no undignified remorse or weakness ; it is only the inevitable 
 tribute which he must pay to offended Nature. 
 
 How admirably Sophocles has managed the subject I need only remark in general 
 terms. What a beautiful preface he has made, in those introductory scenes to that 
 mission of Clytsemnestra's to the tomb with which JEschylus begins at once ! With 
 what polished ornament he has invested the whole, for example in the story of the 
 games ! How skilfully he husbands the pathos of Electra — first, general expressions 
 of woe, then, hopes derived from the dream, their annihilation by the intelligence of 
 Orestes' death, new hopes suggested by Chrysothemis only to be rejected, and, last of 
 all, the mourning over the urn ! The noble spirit of Electra is finely set off" by the 
 contrast with her tamer sister. Indeed the poet has given quite a new turn to the 
 subject by directing the interest principally to Electra. A noble pair he has made of 
 this brother and sister; allotting to the female character invincible constancy and 
 devotedness, the heroism of endurance ; to the male, the beautiful vigour of a hero's 
 youthful prime. To this the old man in his turn opposes thoughtfulness and expe- 
 rience : the circumstance that both poets leave Py lades silent^ is an instance how 
 greatly ancient art disdained all useless redundancy. 
 
 1 [Pylades speaks in the Clioeph. 900 sqq.— ] 
 
158 COMrAKISON OF THE THREE PLAYS. 
 
 But what especially characterizes the tragedy of Sophocles, is the heavenly serenity 
 amid a subject so terrific, the pure breath of life and youth which floats through the 
 whole. The radiant god Apollo, who enjoined the deed, seems to shed his influence 
 over it; even the day-break at the opening of the play is significant. The grave and 
 the world of shades are kept afar off" in the distance ; what in ^schylus is eff'ected 
 by the soul of the murdered monarch, proceeds here from the heart of the living 
 Electra, which is gifted with equal energy for indignant hatred and for love. Remark- 
 able is the avoidance of every gloomy foreboding in the very first speech of Orestes, 
 where he says, he feels no concern at being thought to be dead, so long as he knows 
 himself to be alive in sound health and strength. Nor is he visited either before or 
 after the deed by misgivings and compunctions of conscience ; so that all that con- 
 cerns his purpose and act is more sternly sustained in Sophocles than in ^schylus ; 
 the terrific stroke of theatrical effect in the person of ^gisthus, and the reserving this 
 person to await an ignominious execution at the end of the play, is even more austere 
 than any thing in u3^]schylus' play. The most striking emblem of the relation the 
 two poets bear to each other is afforded by Clytsemnestra's dreams : both are equally 
 apt, significant, ominous ; ^schylus' is grander but horrible to the senses ; that of 
 Sophocles, terrible and majestically beautiful withal. 
 
 Euripides' play is a singular instance of poetical or rather uupoetical obliquity ; to 
 expose all its absurdities and contradictions would be an endless undertaking. Why, 
 for instance, does Orestes badger his sister by keeping up his incognito so long ? How 
 easy the poet makes his labour, when, if any thing stands in his way, he just shoves 
 it aside without further ceremony — as here the peasant, of whom, after he has sent up 
 the old keeper, nobody knows where he is all this while ! The fact is, partly Euri- 
 pides wanted to be novel, partly he thought it too improbable that Orestes and Pylades 
 should despatch the king and his wife in the midst of their capital city ; to avoid this 
 he has involved himself in still grosser improbabilities. If there be in the play any 
 relish whatever of the tragic vein, it is not his own, it belongs to the fable, to his 
 predecessors, and to tradition. Through his views it has ceased at least to be a tragedy ; 
 he has laboured every way to lower it down to the level of a '^family-picture," as the 
 modern phrase is. The effect attempted in Electra's indigence is sad claptrap : he 
 betrays the knack of his craft in her complacent ostentation of her own misery. In 
 all the preparatives to the deed there is utter levity of mind and want of inward 
 conviction : it is a gratuitous torturing of one's feelings that ^gisthus with his 
 expressions of goodnatured hospitality, and Clytsemnestra with her kindly compassion 
 towards her daughter, are set in an amiable point of view, just to touch us in their 
 behalf : the deed is no sooner accomplished but it is obliterated by a most despicable 
 repentance, a repentance which is no moral feeling at all, but a mere animal revulsion. 
 Of tha calumniations of the Delphian oracle I shall say nothing. As the whole play 
 is annihilated thereby, I cannot see for what end Euripides wrote it at all, except it 
 were that a comfortable match might be got up for Electra, and that the old peasant 
 might make his fortune as a reward for his continency. I could only wish Pylades 
 were married out of hand, and the peasant fingered a specified sum of money told out 
 to him upon the spot in hard cash : in that case all would end to the audience's satis- 
 faction like a common comedy. 
 
 Not to be unjust however, I must add the remark, that the Electra is perhaps of 
 all Euripides' extant plays the very vilest. Was it rage for novelty that led him here 
 into such vagaries ? No doubt it was a pity that in this subject two such predecessors 
 had forestalled him. But what forced him to measure himself with them, and to 
 write an Electra at all ? 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 SECTION V. 
 
 AGATHON AND THE REMAINING TRAGEDIANS. 
 
 'E7rt0i;X\t'5es ravr^ icrrl Kal crrWyCtyX/iara, 
 "KeXiSSvuv [lovaela, Xu^Tjral t^x^V^) 
 "A (ppovda doLTTOV, tju fxbvov x^P^^ Xd^ri. 
 
 Aristophanes. 
 
 IN addition to the seven Tragedians, of whom we have at- 
 tempted to give some account, a list of thirty-four names of 
 tragic poets, so called, has been drawn up^ Of these, very few are 
 worthy of even the slightest mention, and we have but scanty 
 information respecting those few, of whom we might have wished 
 to know more. 
 
 Ion, the son of Orthomenes of Chios, was, according to Suidas, 
 not only a tragedian, but a lyric poet and philosopher also. He 
 began to exhibit in B.C. 451, and wrote twelve, thirty, or forty 
 dramas. The names of eleven have been collected ^ He gained 
 the third prize when Euripides was first with the Hippolytus in 
 B.C. 428 ^ He wrote, not only Tragedies, but elegies'^, dithy- 
 rambs^, and an account of the visits paid by eminent men to his 
 native island^. Though he did not exhibit till after Euripides had 
 commenced his dramatic career, and though he was, like that poet, 
 a friend of Socrates'^, we should be inclined to infer, from his having 
 written dithyrambs, that he belonged to an earlier age of the 
 
 ^ By Clinton, F. H. ii. pp. xxxii. — xxxv. 
 
 ^ By Bentley {Epistola ad Millium.) ^ Argum. Hippolyti. 
 
 ■* Athenaeus, X. p. 436. ^ Aristoph. Pax, 798. 
 
 ^ Athenteus, iii. p. 93. '' Diogenes Laert. ir. p. 23. 
 
160 AGATHON AND THE 
 
 dramatic art, and that his plays were free from the corruptions 
 which Em-ipides had introduced into Greek Tragedy : it is, indeed, 
 likely that a foreigner would copy rather from the old models, than 
 from modern innovations. He died before Euripides, for he was 
 dead when Aristophanes brought out the Feace^ (b.c. 419). 
 From an anecdote mentioned by Athen^us, that he presented 
 each Athenian citizen with a Chian vase, on one occasion, when 
 lie gained the tragic prize^, we may infer that he was a man of 
 fortune. 
 
 Aristarchus, of Tegea, who first exhibited in B.C. 454, de- 
 serves to be mentioned as having furnished models for tlie imita- 
 tions of Ennius. 
 
 AcH^US, of Eretria, must also be considered as belonging to 
 an earlier age of the tragic art than Euripides, whose senior he 
 was by four years. He wrote forty-four, thirty, or twenty-four 
 dramas, but only gained one tragic victory^. His countryman 
 Menedemus considered him the best writer of satyrical dramas after 
 .iEschylus^. 
 
 Agathon was, like his friend Euripides, a dramatic sophist. 
 He is best known to us from his appearance in the Banquet of 
 Plato, which is supposed to have been held at his house on 
 the day after the celebration of his tragic victory. This appears 
 to have taken place at the Lengea, in the archonship of Euphe- 
 mius, B.C. 416^. He is introduced to us by Plato* as a well- 
 dressed, handsome young man, courted by the wealth and wis- 
 dom of Athens, and exercising the duties of hospitality with all 
 the ease and refinement of modern politeness. In the Epideixis, 
 in praise of love, which he is there made to pronounce, we are 
 presented with the artificial and rhetorical expressions which his 
 friend^ Aristophanes attributes to his style "^j and which we might 
 
 ^ Schol. Pac. 837: oTL 6 iJLh'lwv ^'5t; ridvriKe, d^Xov. 
 ^ Athenseus, I. p. 4. 
 
 ^ Suidas. ■* Diog. Laert. ii. p. 133, 
 
 ^ Athenseus, v. p. 217 A: ixl apxopros 'Evcpri/xov (rrecpauovTai \i]valois. 
 ^ It will be recollected, that Aristophanes is introduced at Plato's Banquet among 
 the other intimates of Agathon. 
 
 Apvoxovs TLOivai, dpafxaros dpxds' 
 
REMAINING TRAGEDIANS. 161 
 
 have expected from a pupil of Gorgias^ Aristotle tells us^ tliat 
 lie was the first to introduce into his dramas arbitrary choral songs, 
 which had nothing to do with the subject; and it appears from 
 the same author that he sometimes wrote pieces with fictitious 
 names, which Schlegel justly concludes were something between 
 the idyl and the newest form of Comedy^. He was residing at 
 the court of Archelaus when Euripides died^ : the cause of his de- 
 parture from Athens is not known. He is represented as a delicate 
 and effeminate person in Aristophanes' play, called the Secr/iocfiopcd- 
 ^ovaai^ ] and it is, perhaps, only the intimacy subsisting between 
 Aristophanes and him which has gained for him the affectionate 
 tribute of esteem which the comedian puts into the mouth of 
 Bacchus^, and has saved him from the many strictures which he 
 deserved, both as a poet and as a man. The time of his death is 
 not recorded. 
 
 Xenocles, though, he is called an execrable poet"^, gained 
 a tragic prize with a Trilogy, over the head of Euripides, in 
 B.C. 415^. He was the son of Carcinus, a tragedian of whom 
 nothing is known, and is continually ridiculed by Aristophanes. 
 His brothers, Xenotimus and Demotinus or Xenoclitus, were choral 
 dancers. 
 
 Ka/XTrret 5^ vias dt/'tSas iirQu^ 
 To, 5^ Topvevei, ra 5^ KoWo/xeXeiy 
 Kal yucjfioTVTreT, KavTOfOfid^ei, 
 Kal KTjpoxiJTeX, /cat yoyyvWei, 
 Kal xoaj/eiyet. Thesmoph. 49. 
 
 ^ It appears from the Banquet that he was Gorgias' pupil : his imitation of Gorgias 
 is mentioned by Philostratus, de Soph. I. : 'Ayddiou 6 t^s rpayipdlas TroLrjTTjs dv 7] /cw/iy- 
 6ta co(f>6v re /cat KaXKLewri olde (in allusion to the last quotation) rroWaxou tCov ta/i/3etwi/ 
 yopytd^ec : and by the Clarkian Scholiast on Plato (Gaisford, p. 173) : epupLdro 8^ tt]v 
 KOfiipOTTjTa TTJs \e^€OJS Topyiov rod prjTopos, 
 
 ^ Tots 5^ XoiTTOis TO. a86/ji.€va ov p,aX\ov tov fi66ov, tj dXkrjs rpaycpdias iaTL' 61' 8 
 i/x^6\ifji.a q.8ovai., irpuTov dp^avTos 'Aydduyos toco6tov. Aristot. Poet, xviii. 22. 
 
 3 Lect. V. ad fin. One of these was called the Flower. Aristot. Poet. ix. 7. 
 
 ^ Schol. ad Aristoph. Ban. 85; ^lian, 7. //. ir. 21, xiil. 4; Clark. Scliol. Plato. 
 P- 173- 
 
 ^ Thesmoph. 29 sqq. 191, 192. 
 
 ^ Ran. 84: 'H/9. 'Ayddcov 8k TodaTLv; At. aTroXiTrcii' (x diroix^Tai, 
 
 ^ Ayadb^ TroirjTr]^ Kal wodavos rois 0iXots. 
 
 '' Aristoph. Han. 86; Thesm. 169. 
 
 s ^lian, V. H. ii. 8. On 'the son of Cleomachus' (A then. Xiv. 638 f) who 
 defeated Sophocles, see Meineke, Fragm. Com. Ant. p. 28 ; Muller, Hist. Lit. Gr. i. 
 p. 505 (new. ed.). 
 
 D.T.G. 11 
 
162 AGATHON AND THE 
 
 lOPHON, the son of Sophocles, is described by Aristophanes* 
 as a man whose powers were, at the time of his father's death, 
 not yet sufficiently proved to enable a critic to determine his lite- 
 rary rank. He appears, however, to have been a creditable dra- 
 matist, and gained the second prize in 428 B.C., when Emipides 
 was first and Ion third ^. 
 
 EuPHORiON, the son of ^schyliis, deserves to be mentioned as 
 having obtained the first prize, when Sophocles gained the second, 
 and Euripides the third. He probably produced, on this occasion, 
 one of his father's posthumous Tragedies, with which he is said 
 to have conquered four times. He did, however, occasionally bring 
 out Tragedies of his own composing 3. 
 
 Euripides and Sophocles, the nephew and grandson respec- 
 tively of their namesakes, are said to have exhibited, either for 
 the first or for the second time, some of the dramas of their rela- 
 tives. The younger Sophocles reproduced the (Edijpus at Colo- 
 nus, in 401 B.C.'*; and first contended in his own name 396 B.c.^ 
 Euripides the younger is said to have published an edition of 
 Horner^. 
 
 Meletus, the accuser of Socrates, is stated to have been a 
 tragedian '^, and a writer of drinking songs ^. (Edipus was the 
 subject of one of his plays ^ 
 
 Ch^remon, who flourished about B.C. 380, was celebrated for 
 his Centaur, in which he mixed up the drama with the styles of 
 epic and lyric poetry then fashionable ^''. He had a great talent for 
 description, but his works were better suited for the closet than for 
 the stage ^^ 
 
 ^ Ran. 73 sqq. ^ Arg. Ilippolyti. ^ Suidas, V. Eixpopicjv. Argument. Medece. 
 
 ^ Elms, ad Bacck. p. 14, and Suidas. 
 
 ^ Diodor. Sic. Xiv. 53. ^ Suidas. 
 
 ^ Schol. Ran. 1337 : rpayiKbs woirjTTjS 6 M^Xtjtos' ovtos 5^ iariv 6 Sw/cpcirr; ypaipd- 
 fxevos' Kco/xipdeLTai d^ ws rj/vxpos iv rfj iroLrjaei kuI ws wovrjpbs rbv Tpbirov. 
 
 ^ Ran. 1297. 9 Gaisford, Led. Platon. p. 170. 
 
 i*> Aristot. Poet. i. ; Athenssus, xiii. p. 608. " Aristot. Rhef. tit. ic. 
 
REMAINING TRAGEDIANS. 163 
 
 SosiCLES, of Syracuse, gained seven victories, and wrote 
 seventy-three Tragedies. He flom-ished in the reigns of Philip 
 and Alexander of Macedon^. 
 
 The tyrants Critias and Dionysius the elder, and the rheto- 
 rician Theodectes obtained some eminence as Tragedians. 
 
 In the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, seven tragic poets 
 flourished at Alexandria, who were called the Pleias^ ; their 
 names were, Homerus, Sositheus, Lycophron, Alexander 
 Etolus, ^antides, Sosiphanes, and Philiscus^ It is quite 
 uncertain, however, how far their works possessed an independent 
 and original character ; it is probable that the best of these trage- 
 dies were servile imitations of the great Attic models*, and some of 
 them may have been mere centos, not altogether unlike the Christus 
 Patiens of Gregorius Nazianzenus^. 
 
 1 Suidas. He is not in Clinton's list. 
 
 2 The Alexandrian custom of making Pleiads or groups of seven for ''the stars" 
 of the day, is shown also by the well-known enumeration of the seven wonders of the 
 world. 
 
 ^ The authorities do not agree in their lists of these tragedians. There are four 
 different catalogues (Clinton, F. H. in, p. 502) ; Homerus, Philiscus, and Lycophron 
 appear in all four ; Alexander yEtolus and Sositheus in three ; -^antides has three 
 testimonies, and Sosiphanes has two; and Dionysides, who is substituted for Sosi- 
 phanes in one of the lists, is attested by Strabo, xiv. p. 675. 
 
 ^ In the list of Lycophron's tragedies we have two plays entitled CEdipus, and 
 others called jEoIii^s, Andromeda, Hercides, Supplices, Hiptpolytus, Pentheus. 
 
 5 "The Alexandrine scholars also took to manufacturing tragedies ; but if we may 
 form a judgment from the only extant specimen, Lycophron's Alexandra, which 
 consists of an interminable monologue, full of vaticination and lumbered with obscure 
 mythology, these productions of a would-be-poetical dilettantism were utterly lifeless, 
 untheatrical, and every way flat and unprofitable. The creative power of the Greeks 
 in this department was so completely defunct, that they were obliged to content them- 
 selves with repetitions of the old masterpieces," On the Alexandra, which was not a 
 tragedy, as Schlegel supposes, see Hist. Lit. Gr. 11. pp. 437 foil. 
 
 11—2 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 ON THE GREEK COMEDIANS. 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 THE COMEDIANS WHO PKECEDED OR WERE CONTEMPORARY WITH 
 
 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 Qtiorwm Comosdia prisca virorum est. 
 
 HOEATIUS. 
 
 FROM the first exhibition of Epicharmus to the last of Posi- 
 dippus, the first and last of the Greek comedians, is a period 
 of about 250 years ; and between these two poets, one hundred 
 and four authors are enumerated^, who are all said to have written 
 Comedies. The claims of some of these, however, to the rank of 
 comedians are very doubtful, and two who are contained in the list, 
 Sophron and his son Xenarchus, were mimographers, and as such, 
 were not only not comedians, but hardly dramatists at all, in the 
 Greek sense of the word. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that Greek Comedy did not 
 attain to a distinct literary form until it became Athenian ; and that, 
 in its Attic form, it presents itself in three successive varieties — the 
 Old, the Middle, and the New Comedy. The Sicilian Comedy, 
 which, in some of its features, resembled the Middle, rather than 
 the Old Comedy, found its origin in the same causes as the latter, 
 being immediately connected with the old farces of Megara and 
 the rustic buffooneries, which were common to the whole of Greece. 
 The absence, indeed, of a distinct political reference deprived it of 
 that ingredient which gave its greatest significance to the plays of 
 Aristophanes and his principal Athenian contemporaries during 
 
 ^ By Clinton, F. II. ir. pp. xxxvi — xlvii. 
 
PREDECESSORS OR CONTEMPORARIES OF ARISTOPHANES. 165 
 
 the first half of the Peloponnesian war, and on this account we 
 cannot class the dramatic efforts of the Siceliotes with those of the 
 Attic poets. But the Sicilian Comedy comes first in chronological 
 order, and Aristotle connects Crates with Epicharmus. Before 
 therefore we speak of the Attic comedians, we must give some 
 account of Epicharmus and his school. 
 
 Epicharmus, the son of Helothales, whom Theocritus calls 
 the inventor of Comedy \ and who, according to Plato^, bore the 
 same relation to ^Comedy that Homer did to Tragedy, was a 
 native of Cos^ and went to Sicily with Cadmus, the son of 
 Scythes, about the year 488 B.C. After residing a short time 
 at the Sicilian Megara'^, he was removed to Syracuse along with 
 the other inhabitants of that town, when it was conquered by 
 Gelo in B.C. 484. Diogenes Laertius states that Epicharmus was 
 only three months old when he went first to Sicily : but this is con- 
 tradicted by his own statement, that the poet was one of the audi- 
 tors of Pythagoras*, who died in 497 B.C., by the statement of 
 Aristotle^, that he was long before Chionides and Magnes, and by 
 the fact that he was a man of influence in the reign of Hiero, who 
 died eighteen years after the date of Epicharmus' arrival in Sicily. 
 Besides being a Pythagorean and a comic poet, he is said to have 
 been a physician, as was also his brother. This has been consi- 
 dered an additional proof of his Coan origin*^. He was ninety 
 
 ' "A re <j)(jova Awptos, x^^VP> o rav Koi/xciidiav 
 
 Fivpoov ''Eirixo.piJ.or 
 'fi Ba/c%6, x^^'^^ov VLV olvt' dXaOivov 
 
 Tlv w5' dvedrjKaf, 
 Tol XvpaK6<yaai? euidpvuTat neXw/sets rf iroXec, 
 
 or dvdpi TToXtra, 
 "Zujpbv yap elx^ XPVf^oLTwv, fxe/xvafjiivoL 
 
 TeXeiu eirlx^ipa. 
 HoXXi yap ttottolv ^odv rots Traicrlu elire xpri(np.a. 
 MeydXa xctpts avT($. Epig. XVII. 
 2 Thecetet. p. 152 e : ol dKpoi ttJs Troirjcrews eKarepas, Kiofxasbia^ p-ev 'EtrixO'PfJ.oi, 
 rpayipdias 8^ "Op.r]pos. 
 ^ Diog. Laert. viii. 78. 
 
 ** See Miiller, Dorians, i. 8, § 5, note (q), and iv. 7, § "2. 
 ^ Diog. u. s. : Kul ovTos rjKOVde Uvdayopov. 
 
 ^ 'EKeWev [e/c StK-eX^as] yap rjv 'Eirlxapp.o's 6 TrotT/xTj?, iroXXu} irpSrepos uv Xi.o}vi8ov 
 Kol MdyvrjTos. Arist. Poet. ill. 5. — Chionides, on the authority of Suidas and Eudo- 
 cia, began to exhibit B.C. 487: Aristotle's expression, ttoXXc^ Trporepos dou Xiojuidov, 
 would therefore almost induce us to carry back the date of Epicharmus' first Comedy 
 still higher than B. c. 500. 
 7 Miiller, Dor. iv. 7, § ■2. 
 
166 THE COMEDIANS WHO PRECEDED OR WERE 
 
 or ninety-seven years old wlien lie died\ The Comedies of Epi- 
 charmus'' were partly parodies of mythological subjects, and as 
 such, not very different from the dialogue of the satyrical drama ; 
 partly political, and in this respect may have furnished a model 
 for the dialogue of the old Athenian Comedy. He must have made 
 some advance towards the Comedy of Character, if it be true that 
 the Mencechmi of Plautus was founded upon one of his plays ^, and 
 Mullcr has therefore well remarked"*, that although " the Sicilian 
 Comedy in its artistic development preceded the Attic by about 
 a generation, yet the transition to the middle Attic Comedy, as 
 it is called, is easier from Epicharmus than from Aristophanes, 
 who appears very unlike himself in the play which tends towards 
 the form of the Middle Comedy." It is not stated expressly 
 that he had choruses in his Comedies; it seems, however, pro- 
 bable from the title of one of them (the Kco/j,acrTai) that he had^. 
 His style was not less varied than his subjects; for while, on the 
 one hand, he indulged in the wildest buffoonery, he was fond, on 
 the other hand, of making his characters discourse most philo- 
 sophically on all topics, and we may discern in many of his 
 remaining lines that moral and gnomic element which contributed 
 so much to the formation of the dialogue in the Attic Tragedy^. 
 Aristotle charges him with using false antithesis'^, the eifect per- 
 haps of his acquaintance with the forced and artificial rhetoric 
 of the Sicilians. The titles of thirty-five of his Comedies are 
 known®. 
 
 Although Epicharmus is mentioned as the inventor of Comedy, 
 
 1 Diog. Laert. (viii. 78) gives the former number ; Lucian (INIacrob. xxv.) the 
 latter. 
 
 2 On the nature of the Comedy of Epicharmus, see Miiller, Dor. TV, 7, §§ 2, 3, 4 ; 
 Mist. Lit. Gr. 11. pp. 44 [56 new ed.] sqq. 
 
 3 Prolog. MencBchni. 12. ^ Hist. Lit. Gr. 11. p. 46 [59 new ed.]. 
 5 See above, p. 71. 
 
 ^ See the passages in Clinton, F. H. Ii. p. xxxvi. note (g). 
 
 '' Rhetoric, iii. 9. 
 
 ^ These titles are as follows : 
 
 I. 'A\kvu)u, 2. "AfJiUKO^, 3. 'AraXavTai, 4. Ba/cxai, 5. Bovcripis, 6. Ta Kal QaXaa(xa, 
 7. L.l6vv<xol, 8. 'E\7ris ■;7 IWovtos, 9. "H/Sas yd/uLos, 10. 'HpaKXijs tlapdcpopos, ir. Ki^/cXwi/', 
 12. KcofiacTTat 77 "HcpaiaTOS, 13. M^yapis, 14. Movaai, [5. Nt6/3?7S ydfios, 16. 'Odvaaei/s 
 avTOfxoXos, 17. 'Odva-aeds uavayos, 18. Upo/xrjdevs UupKaevs, 19. Xeipiji'es, 20. liKlpoov, 
 21. 20i'7^, 22. TpQes, 23. ^i\oKTriTr]s, 24. ' Ay pucrrXvoi, 25. 'Apvayai, 26. AicpiXos, 
 27. 'EopT-/i, 28, Qeupol, 29. Aoyos rj AoyLK-q, 30. NStrot, 31. 'OpTja, 32, HeplaWos, ^^. 
 Uepaai, 34. Ilidoou, 35. Xvrpat. See Fabricius, II. p. 300, Harles, where however 
 there are some repetitions of names. 
 
CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 167 
 
 it is probable tliat Phormis\ or Pliormus^, preceded liim by a few 
 Olympiads ; for he was the tutor to the children of Gelon, Hiero's 
 predecessor. He is supposed to have been the same with the 
 Phormis of Maenalus, who distinguished himself in the service of 
 Gelo and Hiero in a military capacity^. From the titles of his 
 plays, it is presumed that they were mythological parodies'^. 
 He is said to have been the first to cover the stage with pui-ple 
 skins^ 
 
 DiNOLOCHUS, according to Suidas the son, according to others 
 the scholar of Epicharmus, flourished about B.C. 487. He was a 
 native of Syracuse or Agrigentum : probably he was born at the 
 latter place, and represented at S}Tacuse. ^lian says he con- 
 tended with Epicharmus^. 
 
 While the Doric Comedy was rapidly advancing to perfection 
 in Sicily, a comic drama originally perhaps of much the same kind, 
 sprang up in Attica. This was the old Comedy, which was repre- 
 sented by a list of forty poets, and some three hundi-ed plays, 
 including in the calculation the great name of Aristophanes. 
 Eeserving him and his works for a separate chapter we shall here 
 enumerate the leading poets of the old Comedy, who were his pre- 
 decessors or contemporaries. 
 
 Chionides, who is called the first writer of the old Athenian 
 Comedy, was a contemporary of the Sicilian comedians'. To 
 judge from the three titles which have come down to us — the 
 "Hpwe?, Uepaat y ' AcrcrvpiOL, and the Hrw^^^ot, we should conclude 
 that his Comedies had a political reference, and were full of per- 
 sonal satire ; and, from an allusion in Yitruvius®, we may infer, 
 
 1 Aristot. Poet. III. 5 ; v, 5. 
 
 ^ Atlienaeus, xiv. 652 a; Suidas ^opjios. 
 
 3 Pausan. v. 27, i. Bentley thinks he is the same with the poet : not so Miiller, 
 Dor. IV. 7, § 2, note (g). 
 
 ^ Three of them were called Ke0atos, 'AXKvoves, and 'Wiov TrSpdrjcris. 
 
 ^ Suid. Comp. Aristot. EtJdc. IV. 2, 20. 
 
 6 ^lian, ff.A. VI. 51. 
 
 ^ Suidas, s. v. Xwpidrjs, says that he was the TrpooTayuvijTris rrjs apxalas KcofioiSlas, 
 and that he exhibited eight years before the Persian war, i. e. in B, C. 488. Aristotle 
 therefore, or rather, his interpolator (Poet. ill. 5), must be misinformed when he says 
 that Epicharmus flourished long before Chionides and Magues. 
 
 ^ "Hffic ita esse plures philosophi dixerunt, non minus etiam poeta^; qui antiquas 
 
168 THE COMEDIANS WHO PRECEDED OR WERE 
 
 that tliey were gnomic like those of Epicharmus. The same 
 appears to have been the character of the Comedies of his country- 
 man and contemporary Magnes, from whom Aristophanes bor- 
 rowed the titles of two of his plays, the Bdrpaxoc and "Opvide^, 
 and perhaps the form of all of them. Magnes gained many 
 victories in his younger days : but when he was old, says Aristo- 
 phanes \ he was cast aside, merely because the edge of his satire 
 was blunted. 
 
 Of EcPHANTlDES we know little more than that for some 
 doubtful reason he was called KaTri^/o?^, and that he was one of the 
 oldest and most celebrated of the early comedians. We have the 
 title of only one of his plays, the ^drvpoi^. The Ilvpavvo<^, men- 
 tioned as a play of 'E/^^az^?;?, has been assigned to him ; but the 
 true reading is probably 'AvTc^dvr]<;^. 
 
 Cratinus, the son of Callimedes, was born at Athens, B.C. 519^. 
 It is stated that he succeeded Magnes ; he must, therefore, have 
 commenced his dramatic career late in life®. We do not know the 
 date of any of his Comedies earlier than the 'Ap^tXo^j^ot : and 
 since allusion was made in that Comedy to the death of Cimon 
 (B.C. 449), it must have been represented after that event '^. By a 
 decree prohibiting Comedy, which was passed in the year 440 B.C., 
 and was not repealed till the year 436 B.C., he was prevented from 
 producing any Comedies or plays in that interval^. After the 
 repeal of this decree in 436 B.C. Cratinus gained three comic vic- 
 tories. In 425 B.C. he was second with the Xetfia^ojULevoty Aristo- 
 phanes being first with the 'A'^apvfj<^, and Eupolis third with the 
 'NovfiTjvlat^. In 424 B.C. he gained the second prize with the 
 
 comoedias Greece scripserunt, et easdem sententias versibus in scena pronuntiaverunt, 
 Eucrates, Chionides, Aristophanes," &c. Vitruv. Pi-aef. in lib. vi. 
 
 1 Equit. 520: 
 
 TovTo jxh et'Scbs airaOe 'M.d'YvrjS a/xa rais TroXtats Karioijaais, 
 *"0s rrKeXara %o/3cDi' tQv avrnrdXcov vLktjs ^aTTjcre Tpbiraia, 
 ndcras 6' vjjuv <pwvas ids, Kal xpdWcou, Kal irrepvyi^cov, 
 Kal Xvdi^oju, Kal ^Tjvi^ccu, Kal ^airrd/xevos ^arpaxdoLS, 
 OvK i^rjpKeaev' dXXd TekevTdv iirl yripcjs, ou yap e(j) rj^y]^, 
 'E^e^Xrjdr] vpea^uTrjs dSv, 8tl toO aKdnrreiu air e\ei(j)d'i). 518. 
 
 2 Meineke, Hist. Crlt. Corn. I. p. 36. ^ Athen. I. p. 96 C. 
 ^ Meineke, I.e. p. 37. 
 
 ^ He died in 422 B. c, at the age of ninety-seven. Lucian, Macrob. c. xxv. 
 ^ See Clinton, F. H. 11. p. 49. '' See Plutarch, Cimon, c. x. 
 
 ^ Schol. Aristoph. Acliai-n, 67. ^ Argum. Acharn. 
 
CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 169 
 
 '^arupoc, Aristophanes being first with the 'Itttt^?, and Aristo- 
 menes third with the "TXo^opoi or ^0\o<^vpiJioi^. In 423 B.C. Cra- 
 tinus gained the first prize with the YIvtIvt} : Ameipsias was second 
 with the Kovvo^, and Aristophanes third with the NecjieXat^. The 
 old poet died the year after this victory 3. The names of forty of 
 his Comedies are known "*. He appears to have been an exceed- 
 ingly bold satirist^, and was so popular that his choruses were sung 
 at every banquet by the comus of revellers^. The model for his 
 iambic style was doubtless Archilochus*^, whom he regarded as a 
 type of his own profession, and whom he multiplied, as he might 
 have done any other ideal, in the chorus of one of his plays (the 
 ^Kp^ikoxoi). To his audacious frankness, even Aristophanes 
 appeared to be infected with the mincing rhetoric of Euripides^. 
 There is reason to believe that Cratinus, in imitation of Sophocles, 
 increased the number of comic actors to three ^. Of his private 
 character we know nothing, save that he was a great tippler, and 
 recommended the use of wine both by precept and by example ^^. 
 
 1 Argum. Equit. ^ Argum. Nub. 
 
 3 Lucian, Macroh. xxv. ; Proleg. Kilst. p. xxix. 
 
 4 Fabric, ii. p. 431, Harles. 
 
 5 Comp. Horat. I. Serm. iv. i sqq. with Persius, I. 123. 
 ^ Aristoph. Equit. 526 sqq. 
 
 Elra Kpariuov ixefxvqfiivo^, 8s ttoXXo; pevaas tot' iiralvq} 
 Ata tQv d(pe\u!U Tredicov '^ppet, Kal ttjs crrcto'ews irapaavpoov 
 'Ecpdpei TCLS Spvs Kal ras irXarduovs Kal tovs ix^povs TrpodeXvfipovs' 
 "A aai S' ovK rjv iv (xvpiTroo-io}, ttXV Af^POI STKOHEAIAE, 
 Kai TEKTONES ETIlAAAMfiN TMN12N- oi-Vcos vudrjaeu iKeiuos. 
 "Nvpl 5' vfieis avTou opQvres TrapdXrjpovur' ovk iXeeXre, 
 'E/cTTtTTToi'crwj' Twu TjKiKTpwv, Kal Tov t6vov ovk ^t' euduTos, 
 T(2u 6' apfioviwu diaxaaKovaQv' dWd yipcjv <Jov irepiippei, 
 "ficTTrep Kouuas, crrecpavou jiev '^X'^v avov, hi-^ei 5' dTroAwXai?, 
 'Oj' xPW ^'■^ ''""■^ TTpoTepas viKas iriveLv iv ti^ lipvTaveiip, 
 Kat jxy] Xrjpeiv, dXXa dedadai Xnrapbv irapb. ry Aiov^acp. 
 Comp. Buttm. Mythol. ii. 345 foil. 
 
 "^ His fragments abound in direct imitations of the great iambographer. See 
 Cratin. Archilock. Fr. viii, ix. ; Pytine, Fr. xi. &c. The verb avyKepavvdcj in Pyt. 
 Fr. VIII. is Archilochian ; see above, p. 30. 
 
 ^ He asks this question of his rival {Fragm. Incert. CLV.) : 
 
 T/ 5^ (Tv: KOfxxpos ris 'ipoiTO dear-q^, 
 
 'TiroXeTTToXoyos, yvcj/Ju8iu}KTr]s, €vpnri.dapL(7T0<pavl^a}V. 
 To which Aristophanes answers (Fragm. ccoxcvii.) : 
 
 Xpw/xai yap auToO tov crTSfxaros Tip aTpoyy{)Xip, 
 
 To()s vovi 5' dyopaiovs tjttov tj Keivoi iroiQ. 
 
 ^ Anon, de Com. p. xxxii. Comp. Meineke, Qucestiones Scenicos, i. p. 19. 
 
 1'' Comp. Horat. I. Epist. xix. i ; Aristoph. Pax, 687 (700) and Schol. ; Meineke, 
 Fragm. Com. Vol. 11. p. 119. 
 
170 THE COMEDIANS WHO PEECEDED OR WERE 
 
 Crates is said to have been originally an actor in the plays of 
 Cratinus^; he could not, however, have followed this profession 
 very long, for we learn from Eusebius that he was well known as a 
 comedian in 450 B.C., which was not long after Cratinus, if he 
 could be called in any sense the successor of Magnes, began to 
 exhibit. He was the first comedian at Athens who departed from 
 the satyrical form of Comedy, and formed his plots from general 
 stories ^ The names of twenty-six of his Comedies are known^ 
 Aristophanes speaks in the highest terms of his wit and ingenuity ''. 
 His brother Epilycus was an epic poet and comedian ^ 
 
 Pherecrates is mentioned as an imitator or rival of Crates, 
 whose actor he is said to have been ; and an admirable emendation 
 of the corrupt passage, which is our chief account of him, assigns 
 his first victory to the archonship of Theodorus, B.C. 438^. Al- 
 though the same authority says that he abstained from personal 
 vituperation*^, the fragments of his plays show that he attacked 
 Alcibiades, the tragic poet Melanthius, Polytion, and others. He 
 was distinguished by the elegance of his style, and is called 
 'ATTt/cwTaro?^. Perhaps his name is most familiar to scholars as 
 the inventor of the Pherecratean metre, which he calls a contracted 
 anapaestic verse ^, and which he probably formed by omitting the 
 first two times in the paroemiac^^. We have the names of between 
 15 and 20 of his Comedies. 
 
 ^ Schol. Aristoph. Equit. (p. 567, Dindorf). 
 
 2 Tuji' he 'Adrjuyatv Kpdrrjs rrpuros rjp^ev dcp^/jLevos T^s lafi^iKrjs I5^as, KadoXov Troietv 
 \6yovs rj /jl66ovs. Aristot. Poet. IV, 7. 
 '^ Fabricius, ii. p. 429, Harles. 
 ^ Aristoph. Fqioit. 537: 
 
 *0s aTTo afXLKpas Sairdvrjs v/j.as dpLaTi^ojv diriireiXTrev 
 ''Airb Kpafx^ordrov aropiaTos /wdrrwj' daTeioTdras iwcvolas. 
 ^ Suid. KpaTTji. 
 
 6 Anon, de Com. p. xxix. : ^epeKparrfs 'AdrjvoLos viKa iirl Oiarpov (1. iirl Qeodujpov 
 Dobree) yevopLCvos 6 Se (om, 6 Dobr.) viroKptTTjS e^rjXuKe KpdTTjra. 
 '^ Tov p.kv Xotdopeiu d-TriaTT]. 
 
 ^ Athen, VI. p. 268 E; Suid. s. v. 'Adrjvala; Phrynichus Sophist, ap. Steph. Byz. 
 s. V. 'Kdrivai, p. 34, Meineke. 
 
 9 Ap. HephcBst. X. 5 ; xv. 15 ; Schol. Ar. Nub. 564 : 
 ap8pes TTpSacrx^Te top vovv 
 e^€vprjp.aTL Kaiv(^ 
 avp.7rTiJKrois dvairaiaTois. 
 ^•^ As the parcemiac is itself catalectic, the omission of a syllable at the beginning 
 makes it avpLTrrvKTOs, i. e. "folded in at both ends." 
 
CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 171 
 
 Phrtnichus, the comic poet, who must be carefully distin- 
 guished from the tragedian of the same name, exhibited first in 
 the year 435 b. c.^ He was attacked as a plagiarist in the ^op/Mo- 
 (fyopoc of Hermippus, which was written before the death of 
 Sitalces, i. e. before 424 B. c- In 414 b. c. when Ameipsias was 
 first with the Kcofiaarai, and Aristophanes second with the "Opvc- 
 ^69, Plnyniclius was third with the ^lovoTpoiro^^, In 405 B.C. 
 Philonides was first with the Bdrpaxot of Aristophanes, Phrjni- 
 chus second with the ^,lovcraL, and Plato third with the K\€0(f)cov^. 
 He is ridiculed by Aristophanes in the Barpaxoc for his custom of 
 introducing grumbling slaves on the stage ^. The names of ten of 
 his pieces are known to us ^. 
 
 Of Hermippus, the son of Lysis, we know nothing save that 
 he was opposed to Pericles", and on one occasion prosecuted 
 Aspasia for impiety^. His brother Myrtilus was also a come- 
 dian^. 
 
 EuPOLis was not much older than Aristophanes. It is stated 
 by Suidas that he was seventeen years old when he began to ex- 
 hibit ; and if we may conclude from another statement^", that he 
 produced his first Comedy in the archonship of Apollodorus, he 
 must have been bom about the year 446 B.c.-^^ The success of his 
 Comedy, called ^ovfiT^vLac, in 425 B.C., has been already mentioned. 
 Two of his Comedies, the ^iapLKa<; and the KoXa/ce?, appeared in 
 421 B.C. The Avt6\vko<; came out in the following year, when 
 perhaps he wi*ote the Warpdrevroi also, for that play appears to 
 have preceded the Elprjvr} of Aristophanes, which was acted in 
 
 1 Suid. ^pvv. — idlda^e to irp-^TOv iiri irar' oXv/xiriddos. Clinton would read tt^'. 
 
 2 Clinton, F. H. II. p. 67. 3 ^rg. Av. ^ Arg. Pmu. 
 ° Aristoph. Ran. 12 sqq. 
 
 'Eo.vdias. TL brjT^ eSet /xe ravra to, cTKevr] (pepeiv, 
 
 etirep ttoit^cw fJ.T]5eu uvTrep ^pvvixos 
 
 etude TTOieTu, Kal Avkis, k 'A/uLerlias, 
 
 (XKevrj (pepova'' eKdaTOT ev Kwixi^bia ; 
 Aiovvcros. p.7] vvv Troirjcrys' ws iyoj dewp-evos, 
 
 OraV TL TOt/TOJV tQv <T0(f)L(yix6.TWV ?5w, 
 
 irXelv rj 'uiavTc^ irpea^vTepos direpxop-on. 
 ^ Fabricius, II. p. 483, Harles. 
 
 7 See the Anapaests in Plutarch, PericUs, xxxiii. 
 
 8 Plutarch, Pericles, cxxxi. xxxn. This was about the year 432 B. c. 
 
 9 Suid. My/3Ti?y.oj. i- Prolegom. ArUtoph. p. xxix. 
 " Clinton, F. H. 11. p. 63. 
 
172 THE COMEDIANS WHO PRECEDED OR WERE 
 
 419 B.C.^ According to one account he was thrown overboard by 
 Alcibiades on his way to Sicily in 415 B. c, in consequence of 
 some invectives against that celebrated man, which he had intro- 
 duced into one of his Comedies. This story is improbable in itself; 
 and it is, besides, refuted by two circumstances : Eratosthenes ad- 
 duced some Comedies which he had written after the year 415 B.c.^, 
 and Pausanias tells us that his tomb was on the banks of the 
 Asopus in the territory of the Sicyonians^. According to another 
 account, he fell in a sea-fight in the Hellespont ; and -^gina is 
 said to have been the place of his burial. The titles of twenty -four 
 of his Comedies have been preserved^. Eupolis was very personal 
 and scurrilous, and almost every one of his plays seems to have 
 been written to caricature and lampoon some obnoxious individual. 
 The Mapt/ca? was a professed attack upon the demagogue Hyper- 
 bolus^; in the Avt6\vko<; he ridiculed the handsome pancratiast of 
 that name^ ; in the Ao-TparevTOL, which was probably a pasquinade, 
 directed against the useless and cowardly citizens of Athens, Me- 
 lanthius was denounced as an epicure"^ ; the BaTrrai dealt very 
 hardly with Alcibiades^; and in the KaKwve^ he inveighed against 
 Cimon, both in his public and private character, because that 
 statesman was thought to incline too much to the Spartans, and 
 showed in every action a desire to counteract the democratical 
 principle, which was at work in the Athenian constitution^. Ari- 
 
 ^ See Clinton, under these years. Autolycus was a sort of Agathon ; like Agathon 
 lie obtained a victory at the public games, and is the hero of a symposium (Athen. v. 
 187 r, 217 D, and Xenoph. Symposium)', and, like Agathon, he was courted for his 
 personal attractions, Athen. p. i88 A. 
 
 2 Quis enim non dixit, Ei/'ttoXij', tov t^s dpxaias, ab Alcibiade, navigante in Sici- 
 liam, dejectum esse in mare? Redarguit Eratosthenes. Adfert enim, quas ille post 
 id tempus fabulas docuerit. Cicero ad A tt. vi. i . 
 
 3 Pausan. 11. 7, 3. 4 Fabricius, 11. p. 445, Harles. 
 
 ^ Schol. Ntth. 591: edtdoixOr} Kad' 'Tirep^oXov fiera tov KXiuvos ddvarov. See 
 also the passage from the 'lirirrjs quoted below. 
 
 ^ Athen. V. 216, where Eupolis is said to have brought out this piece under the 
 name of Demostratus, probably the same as Demopceetus, a comic poet mentioned by 
 Suidas, V. X'^P"^* There were two editions of the Autolycus. 
 
 7 Schol. Aristoph. Pax, 808. 
 
 ^ Themist. p. no B. The words of Juvenal, 11. 91, if they refer to this Comedy, 
 would imply that the obscene rites of Cotytto were the objects of his censure — 
 Talia secreta coluerunt orgia tseda 
 Cecropiam soliti Baptce lassare Cotytto. 
 On the Cotyttia and the Baptae, see Buttmann, Mythol. 11. p. 159 sqq. and Meineke, 
 Hist. Crit. p. 119 sqq, 
 
 ^ Plutarch, Cim. XV. With regard to the name of the Comedy, we may remark, 
 that Cimon had called his son Lacedsemonius (see Thucyd. I. 45), and that the name 
 of the son was often an epithet of the father. Miiller, Dor. i. 3, § 10, note (f). 
 
CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 173 
 
 stophanes, too, seems to have been on bad terms with Eupolis, 
 whom he charges with having pillaged the materials for his Mapt/ca? 
 from the 'Itttt^?^, and with making scurrilous jokes on his prema- 
 ture baldness 2. Eupolis appears to have been a warm admirer of 
 Pericles as a statesman and as a man^, as it was reasonable that 
 such a Comedian should be, if it is true that he owed his unre- 
 strained license of speech to the patronage of that celebrated 
 minister. We may form an idea of the style of Eupolis from the 
 Horsemen and Frogs of Aristophanes, which had many points 
 in common with the Maricas and Demi of this poet. For 
 as in the Maricas Hyperbolus, so in the Horsemen Cleon is 
 represented as an intriguing and influential slave of the people, 
 and in both Comedies the worthy Xicias appears as an under- 
 valued and superseded domestic. As in the Frogs of Aristo- 
 phanes, Bacchus visits the lower world to seek out and restore to 
 Athens one of the older and better tragedians, so in the Demi 
 of Eupolis, Myronides is made to bring back Solon, Miltiades, and 
 Pericles, to their unworthy and degenerate countrymen. 
 
 Other ^Titers of the Old Comedy are mentioned as the prede- 
 cessors or contemporaries of Aristophanes; but we know little 
 more of them than their names ; though it is probable that many 
 of them (for instance, Ameipsias, who twice conquered Aristo- 
 phanes) were (at least in the opinion of their contemporaries) by 
 no means deficient in merit. 
 
 Of those poets of the Old Comedy, who survived the fall vigour 
 of Athenian democracy and lived till the period of transition to the 
 
 1 OvTOL 5' ws ctTral irape^wKev \aj3riv 'Twip^oXos, 
 TovTOv deiXacov KoXerpCoa' del Kai ttjv /xrjrepa. 
 Ei'TToXts fxev rov "^lapiKdu Trpwrcarou wapeiXKvaev 
 'EKarpe-^as tovs 7]/j.eT€povi 'iTTTre'as /ca/c6s KaKws, 
 Upoadels avT(p ypavu p.edvcn)v, rod KopSaKos eiVex', ^v 
 ^pivLXOS TrdXat TreTroirjX) ^v to ktjtos rjadLev. Nubes, 551 sqq. 
 
 Eupolis, however, had reasons for recriminating. See Meineke, Hist. Cnt. p. loi, and 
 below, Section II. 
 
 2 See the Schol. on Nub. 532.: 
 
 oi)5' ^(TKu^pe TOVS (paXaKpovs. 
 
 3 Eupolis, Arifjiois' 
 
 Kparccrros ovros iycuer dvOpfhiro^v Xeyeiv. 
 'Ovore irapeXdot, oicrirep dyadol bpofxrjs, 
 'E/c 5e/ca irohOiv fjpei Xeyuu tovs prjropas. 
 B. Haxvv X^yeis fxiu, irpos 5e y' avrov T<p Tax^i- 
 Het^w TLS iireKddi'gev eirl rocs x^''^f<^"'' 
 OoTws iKTjXei, Kal p.bvos tCiv prjTopoju 
 To Kevrpov ry/carAetTre rots dKpoio/x^vois. 
 Schol. Aristoph. Acharn. p. 794, Dindorf. See Meineke, Fragm. 11. 458. 
 
174 THE COMEDIANS WHO PRECEDED OR WERE 
 
 Middle Comedj, the most eminent were Plato, Theopompus, and 
 Strattis. 
 
 Plato, commonly known as 6 kwixiko^, to distinguish him from 
 his great namesake the philosopher, first exhibited in B.C. 427^, 
 and as he alluded in one of his plays to the appointment of Agyr- 
 rhius as general of the army at Lesbos 2, he must have been 
 flourishing in B. C. 389. In his Peisander he described himself 
 as having laboured for others, like an Arcadian mercenary ^ And 
 this has been interpreted as indicating his poverty \ It may, how- 
 ever, simply mean that Plato did not at first represent under his 
 own name; but, like Aristophanes and Ameipsias, published his 
 dramas anonymously, until in the parabasis to the Peisander he 
 thought it expedient to assert his literary claims^. There seems 
 to be little doubt that Plato was one of the most distinguished of 
 the contemporaries of Aristophanes. His style is described as 
 "brilliant^" Though he inclined to the type of Middle Comedy 
 in his later years, his earlier plays were full of political satire, and 
 Dio Chrysostom mentions him along with Aristophanes and Cra- 
 tinus as a specimen of the abusive personalities to which the 
 Athenians were willing to listen'. His attacks were directed 
 against demagogues like Cleon, Hyperbolus, Cleophon, Peisander, 
 and Agyrrhius, against the general Leagrus, and the rhetoricians 
 Cephalus and Archinus. And, like Eupolis, he ventured to ridi- 
 cule Aristophanes himself ^ He left twenty-eight Comedies^, some 
 of which bore the names of the persons against whom they were 
 directed''. 
 
 1 Cyrill. ad Julian, i. p. 13 B. 
 
 ^ Plutarch, Pra;c. resp. ger. p. 801 B. For Agyrrhius and his appointment see 
 Xen. ffell. iv. 8, 31 ; Died. Sic. xiv. 99. Cf. Schoi. Eccles. 102. 
 
 3 Suidas, s. v. 'Ap/cdSas fXLfjLoifMevoi,. 
 
 "* Suidas says 5ta ireviav 'ApKadas fjLtfx.e'LcrdaL ^(ptj, but there is nothing to show that 
 this was the assertion of Plato himself. 
 
 5 Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. p. 162. 
 
 ^ BekJcer. Anecd. p. 1461 : 6 to xapa/cr^pa Xafx-rrporaTos. Cf. Suidas, s. v. UXdruv. 
 
 "^ Orat. XXXIII. p. 4, Reiske. 
 
 8 Schol. Plat. p. 331, Bekker : Kiofi'-odelTai 5^ otl to ttjs Wip-qvrjs KoXoaaiKov ^^rjpev 
 dyaXfia Ei/'ttoAis AvtoX^kcx}, UXoltcov Nkats. 
 
 ^ Anon, de Com. p. xxxiv. ; Bekker, Anecd. u. s. Suidas enumerates 30, but two 
 of these, the Ad/cw^/es and Ma/x/uidKvdos, were merely two editions of the same play, 
 
 1° As the KX€o<pu;v, the 'Ttt^p/SoXos and the Ueiaapdpo^. 
 
CONTEMPORARY WITH ARISTOPHANES. 175 
 
 Theopompus, the son of Theodectes, Theodoras, or Tisamenus, 
 is said to have been a contemporary of Aristophanes, but, if we 
 may judge from the titles of twenty of his plays, which have been 
 preserved, his style must have been chiefly that of the Middle 
 Comedy. 
 
 Strattis, who began to exhibit about B.C. 412, and wrote 
 about twenty plays, two of which, the Medea and Phosmssce, derived 
 their titles and probably their subjects from tragedies by Euripides, 
 is chiefly interesting from the fact that he entertained a warm 
 admiration for the tragi-comedies of that poet, especially the 
 Orestes which he called hpafia Se^ccorarov^, a circumstance which 
 tends to confirm our belief that Euripides exercised a paramount 
 influence over the later writers of Attic Comedy. 
 
 Besides the fifteen names which we have mentioned, the fol- 
 lowing poets are assigned to the Old Comedy. 
 
 1. Telecleides, a contemporary and opponent of Pericles. 
 
 2. Philonides, a friend and coadjutor of Aristophanes. 
 
 3. Archippus, who gained the prize in b. c. 415, and was 
 chiefly celebrated for a play called the Fishes in which he ridi- 
 culed the fish-dinners of Athens. 
 
 4. Aristomenes, who competed with Aristophanes in B.C. 424 
 and 392. 
 
 5. Callias, a younger contemporary of Cratinus. 
 
 6. Lysippus, who won the prize in b. c. 435, and whose 
 play called the Bacchce gained some reputation. 
 
 7. Leucon, who competed with Aristophanes and Eupolis 
 in B.C. 422 and 4212. 
 
 8. Metagenes, who is known by the names of some five or 
 six Comedies, and seems to have enjoyed a considerable repu- 
 tation. 
 
 9. Aristagoras, who edited the Kvpau of Metagenes with the 
 new title M.ajbbfidKv6o<;, to which Aristophanes alludes. 
 
 10. Aristonymus, a contemporary of Aristophanes, best known 
 by his play called The Shivering Sun (''HXto? pcycov), 
 
 1 Schol. Eurip. Oresf. 278. 2 Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. p. 217. 
 
176 PEEDECESSOES OE CONTEMPOEAEIES OP AEISTOPHANES. 
 
 11. ALCiEUS, a writer of mythological Comedies. 
 
 12. EuNicuS (or ^Nicus), whose Comedies A7iteia or Antheia 
 and The Cities are attributed to other writers ^ 
 
 13. Canthaeus, a contemporary of Plato the Comedian, to 
 whom one of his plays is attributed. 
 
 14. DioCLES of Phlius, of the same age as Cantharus. 
 
 15. NicOCHAEES, son of Philonides, wrote mythical Comedies, 
 and belonged to the Middle Comedy as well as to the Old. 
 
 16. NicoPHON, a younger contemporary of Aristophanes, but 
 a poet of the mythical school. 
 
 17. Philyllius^, a careless poet, inclining to the style of the 
 Middle Comedy. 
 
 18. PoLYZELUS, a poet of mythical Comedy. 
 
 19. Sannyeion, a contemporary of the later poets of the Old 
 Comedy, by whom he is ridiculed. 
 
 20. Apollophanes, a contemporary of Strattis. 
 
 21. Epilycus, author of the (7omZ/5CM5. 
 
 22. EuTHYCLES, author of the Profligates and Atalanta, 
 
 23. Demeteius, wrote after the Peloponnesian war. 
 
 24. Cephisodoeus, author of the Amazons, Antilais, Tro- 
 ^phonius and the Hog. 
 
 25. AuTOCEATES, author of the Tymjpanistce. 
 
 1 Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. pp. ^50, 260. 
 
 2 Philyllius is said to have been the first to introduce torches on the stage (Schol. 
 Aristoph. Plut. 1195); and it is remarkable that he used the word ava\<pd^r}TOS as a 
 synonym for d/xd6')]Tos ypafM/xdrwy [Antiatticista, p. S3). 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 
 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 le suys, moyennant ung peu de Pantagruelisme {vous enUndez que c'est certaine guayete 
 desperit confide en mepriz des choses fortuites) sain et degourt; prest a hoyre, si 
 voulez. Eabelais. 
 
 OF the works of the other comedians we possess only detached 
 fragments; but eleven of the plays of Aristophanes have 
 come down to us complete. This alone would incline us to wish 
 for a fuller account of the writer, even though the intrinsic value of 
 his remaining Comedies were not so great as it really is. Unfor- 
 tunately, however, we know much less about Aristophanes than 
 about any of his distinguished contemporaries, and the materials 
 for his biography are so scanty and of so little credit, that we 
 willingly turn from them to his works, in which we see a living- 
 picture of the man and his times. The following are the few par- 
 ticulars which are known regarding his personal history ^ His 
 father's name was Philippus^, not Philippides, as has been inferred 
 from the inscription on a bust supposed to represent him^. Of the 
 rank and station of his father we know nothing ; it is presumed, 
 
 1 The reader will find a full and accurate discussion of all questions relating to the 
 life of Aristophanes down to the representation of the Clouds in Eanke's Com- 
 mentatio de Aristophcmis Yitd, prefixed to Thiersch's edition of the Plutus. See also 
 Bergk in Meineke's Fragm. ii. pp. 893 — 940, 
 
 2 This is stated by all the authorities of his life — namely, his anonymous biogra- 
 pher, the writer on Comedy in the Greek prolegomena to Aristophanes, the Scholiast 
 on Plato, and Thomas Magister. 
 
 ^ The inscription is ' Xp(.(XTo<pdvrj% ^CKLTriribov. That this statue is not genuine is 
 now generally agreed. See Winckelmann, II. p. 114. The fact that his son's name 
 was Philippus is an evidence that it was also the grandfather's name. Ranke, 
 clxxxiv. 
 
 D. T. G. 12 
 
178 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 however, from liis own silence, and that of his enemies, that it was 
 respectable. More than one comitry claims the honour of being his 
 birth-place. The anonymous writer on Comedy says merely that 
 he was an Athenian ; the author of his life, and Thomas Magister, 
 add that he was of the Cydathen^ean Deme, and Pandionid Tribe. 
 Suidas tells us, that some said he was from Lindus in Ehodes, or 
 from Camirus; that others called him an iEgyptian\ and others 
 an ^ginetan. All this confusion seems to have arisen from the 
 fact, that Cleon, in revenge for some of the invectives with which 
 Aristophanes had assailed him, brought an action against the poet 
 with a view to deprive him of his civic rights [^evla^ jpacj^r)). 
 Now the defence, which Aristophanes is said to have set up on this 
 occasion, shows the object of Cleon was to prove that he was not 
 the son of his reputed father Philippus, but the offspring of an 
 illicit intercourse between his mother and some person who was not 
 an Athenian citizen. Consequently his nominal parents are tacitly 
 admitted to have been Athenian citizens, and, as Cleon failed to 
 prove his illegitimacy, he must have been one likewise. That he 
 was born at Athens cannot but be evident to every one who has 
 read his Comedies. Would a mere resident alien have laboured so 
 strenuously for the good of his adopted country ? Would one who 
 was not a citizen by birth have ventured to laugh at all who did 
 not belong to the old Athenian (f>paTpLai^? and how are we other- 
 wise to account for the purely Athenian spirit, language, and tone 
 which pervade every line that he wrote ? It would not be difficult 
 to explain why these different countries have been assigned as the 
 birth-places of Aristophanes. With regard to the statement that 
 he was a Ehodian ; he is very often confounded with Antiphanes 
 and Anaxandrides, the former of whom was, according to Dio- 
 nysius, a Ehodian, and the latter, according to Suidas, was born at 
 Camirus. The notion that he was an Egyptian may very well 
 have arisen from the many allusions which he makes to the people 
 of that country, and their peculiar customs. With regard to the 
 statement of Heliodorus that he was from Naucratis, it is possible 
 that writer may be alluding to some commercial residence of his 
 ancestors in that city, but his words do not imply that either Aris- 
 
 ^ Heliodorus Trepl 'A/cpoTroXfws (apud Athen. VI. p. 229 E) says that he was of 
 Naucratis in the Delta. 
 2 Han. 418 ; Avcs, 765. 
 
AKISTOPHANES. 179 
 
 tophanes or his parents were born there. His ^ginetan origin has 
 been presumed from the passage in the Achaomtans, in which his 
 actor Callistratus (Avho was the nominal author of the play) alludes 
 to his being one of the KKr^pov^oL, to whom that island had been 
 assigned^. We have positive evidence that he was one of them, 
 and tlie fact that these /cXTjpov^oc w^ere generally poor^ would show 
 that Callistratus is alluding to himself, and not to Aristophanes; 
 and even if he were, this would be no proof that Aristophanes 
 was not a citizen, for all the KKrjpovxoi continued to enjoy their 
 civic rights^. The remains of Aristophanes are sufficient to show 
 that he had received a first-rate education. There is no positive 
 evidence for the opinion'', that he was a pupil of Prodicus. The 
 three passages in his remaining Comedies^, in which he mentions 
 that sophist, do not show the usual respect of a disciple for his 
 master, and the coincidence in name, and probable similarity of 
 subject, between the'^Xlpat of Aristophanes and The Choice of Her- 
 cules by Prodicus, are perhaps a proof that the Comedian parodied 
 and ridiculed, rather than admired and imitated, the latter^. 
 
 The literary career of Aristophanes natarally divides itself into 
 three periods, defined by the corresponding changes of social and 
 political life at Athens. As Attic Comedy rose and fell with the 
 democratic domination of the state, even the genius of its greatest 
 representative could not control the outward influences to which he 
 Avas exposed. The waning vigour of popular freedom necessarily 
 affected the political character of Comedy, and deprived the para- 
 hasis or address to the audience of its unconstrained liberty of 
 speech. On the other hand, the fatal catastrophe of Syracuse, 
 while it destroyed the flower of the citizens, so seriously diminished 
 the resources of the state, that the di-amatic entertainments could 
 no longer be exhibited with the same lavish expenditure. From 
 both causes, the chorus of Comedy became insignificant, till, at 
 
 ^ Thucyd. ii. 27 ; Diod. Xii. 44. Callistratus was one of them, Aristophanes not, 
 Schol. Acharn. 654, p. 801, Dind. : ov^els larop-qKev lis ev Alyiuri K^KTrjTal tl 'Apia- 
 TO(pdvT]S, dXV ^oi/ce ravra irepl KaWiaTpdrov Xeyeadou, 6s KeKXTjpovxv^^ ^f Alyiprj [xerh. 
 rr)v dvdaTaaiv AlyLVTjTQv virb ^Ad7}valu}v. 
 
 ^ Bockh, Econ. of Ath. Vol. 11, p. 172, note 521, Engl. Tr. 
 
 3 Bockh, Ec. II. p. 174. ■* Of Riickert on Plat. Symp. pp. 280 sqq. 
 
 ^ Aves, 692; Ntibes, 360; fr. Ti'agonist. No. 418, Dindorf. 
 
 ^ On the *fipai of Aristophanes and Prodicus, see Welcker in the Rkein. Mus. for 
 1833, p. 576. He thinks that the connexion between the "^flpai of these two authors 
 is merely accidental, p. 592. 
 
 12—2 
 
180 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 last, tliere was the literary paradox of a KcofKpSla without its kco/jlo^. 
 The eleven extant Comedies of Aristophanes may be arranged in 
 three groups corresponding to the three periods, to which we refer. 
 In the first period, which extends to the time of the Sicilian expe- 
 dition, we have six Comedies, all of which represent the unimpaired 
 genius of the poet, and the complete machinery of the comic stage. 
 These are the Acharnians, the Horsemen, the Clouds, the Wasjjs, 
 the Peace, and the Birds. The second period, which corresponds 
 to the later years of the war, is represented by three dramas, in 
 which the political element and the chorus are both diminished in 
 prominence and importance. These are the Lysistrata, the Thes- 
 mopJioriazuscB, and the Frogs. The third and concluding period, 
 which followed the downfal of the Athenian empire, exhibits the 
 genius of Aristophanes in its feeblest form, and has transmitted to 
 us only two Comedies, the Ecclesiazusm and the Plutus, in which 
 the choral element is altogether insignificant, and the plots are 
 derived from the ideal world rather than from the actualities of 
 Athenian life, which furnished the materials for the Comedies of 
 the first period. 
 
 Aristophanes brought out his first Comedy, the Banqueters, 
 (AatraXet?) in B.C. 427^; and it is from the known date of this 
 play that we must infer his birth-year. It is stated ^ that he was 
 at this time little more than a boy [o-'^e^ov /j.€cpaKLcrKo<;). We are 
 told, indeed^, that he was thirty years of age when the Clouds 
 was «acted. This would place his birth-year at 453, if the first 
 edition, or at 452 B.C., if the second edition of that play is referred 
 to^. But could a man born so early as 452 B.C. be called ayehov 
 fjL€i,paKi,crKo<i at the time of the great plague? We think lie could 
 not. If, then, these two authorities of the same kind contradict 
 one another, which are we to adopt ? Now there is no reason to 
 doubt the first statement, that Aristophanes was very young at the 
 time when his first Comedy appeared; and there is reason to believe 
 that the second statement is merely an inference drawn from a mis- 
 interpretation of a passage in the Clouds. We feel inclined, there- 
 
 1 See the passages in Clinton, F. II. ii, p. 65. 
 
 2 Schol. Ran. 504. Mliller thinks {Hist. Lit. Gr. ii. p. 19, new ed.) that this state- 
 ment is an exaggeration, and that Aristophanes was at least twenty-five in B.C. 427. 
 
 3 Schol, Nuh. p. 237, Dindorf. 
 
 * Unless we adopt Ranke's conjecture with regard to the date of the second 
 edition, which would make the two accounts nearly agree. See below, p. 184. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 181 
 
 fore, to reject the latter altogether, and take the former as the only 
 means we have of approximating to the birth-year of Aristophanes, 
 which, if he was a-'xehov jjuetpaKLa-Ko^ or nearly seventeen in 427 
 B.C., must have been about the year 444 B.C. 
 
 The Banqueters, which was acted in the name of Philonides^, 
 w^as an exposition of the corruptions which had crept into the 
 Athenian system of education. A father was introduced with two 
 sons, one of them educated in the old-fashioned way, the other 
 brought up in all the new-fangled and pernicious refinements of 
 sophistry; and by drawing a comparison between the two young- 
 men to the disadvantage of the latter, the poet hoped to attract the 
 attention of his countrymen to the dangers and inconveniences of 
 the new system 2. The second prize was awarded to Philonides, 
 and the play was much admired^. In 426 B.C. he brought out 
 the Babylonians, and, in the following spring, the Acharmans, 
 both under the name of his actor Callistratus^. The latter gained 
 the first prize, the second and third being adjudged to Cratinus 
 and Eupolis. The chorus of the Balylonians consisted of barbarian 
 slaves employed in the mills ^: this is all that we know of the plot 
 of the piece. It appears to have been acted at the great Dionysia, 
 and to have been an attack upon the demagogues; for Cleon, who 
 was then (Pericles having recently died) at the head of afiiurs^, 
 brought an elcrayyekta before the senate against Callistratus, on the 
 grounds that he had satirized the public functionaries in the pre- 
 sence of their allies, who were then at Athens to pay the tribute'''. 
 
 ^ Dindorf, fr. AristopJi. p. 527, Oxford edition. Eanke (p. cccxx) tliinks it was 
 Callistratus. If there is truth in the statement that he handed over to Callistratus his 
 political dramas, and to Philonides those which related to private life, the AairaXeis 
 was probably transferred to the latter. 
 
 2 See Siivem, iihei' die Wolken, pp. 26 foil. 
 
 3 Schol. Nuh. 529. 4 Clinton, F. H. under those years. 
 
 ^ See Hesych. s. vv. Ba^vXuvLOt. — Za/jLLoov 6 Stj/ulos. And Suid. s. v. Ba^vXcjvia 
 Kaixivos. 
 
 ^ Thucydides, writing of the year before the performance of The Babylonians, 
 saj's (in. 36), that \\.\iwv was ry h-qtxo} irapa voXv iv tQ rbre iridaviVTaTOS. 
 ^ Comp. Acharn. 355 foil.: 
 
 Ai)t6s t' ijxavTov vwb KXiuvos airadov 
 'EiricTTafxai dia ttjv v^pvat Kwixuidlav. 
 'EiaeXKvcras yap fi eis to ^ovXevTrjpLov 
 Aie^aXXe Kai xj/evd^ KaTeyXdjTTL^e p-ov, 
 KdKVKXol36p€L KairXvueu ui<XT oXiyov wdw 
 ' A7ro}X6p.r]v p.oXvvoirpaypLovovixevo%' 
 with vv. 476 foil.: 
 
 '£70; 5e Xi^w deivd p.ev dUaia 8e' 
 00 yap p.e vvv ye oia^aXel KXiuy otl 
 
182 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 This accusation has Ibeen confounded with the indictment of ^evta, 
 brought bj Cleon against Aristophanes himself. 
 
 It does not appear that Cleon was successful in establishing his 
 charge, for we find Callistratus again upon the stage the following 
 year, when the Acharnians was performed at the Lena^a. The 
 object of this play, the earliest of the Comedies of Aristophanes 
 which have come down to us entire, is to induce the Athenians, 
 by holding before them the blessings of peace, and by ridiculing 
 the braggadocios of the day, to entertain any favourable proposals 
 which the Lacedaemonians might make for putting an end to the 
 disastrous war in which they were engaged ; and while he ventured 
 to utter the well-nigh forgotten word Peace, he boldly told his 
 countrymen that they had sacrificed, without any just or sufiicient 
 cause, the comforts which he painted to them in such vivid colours. 
 
 Aristophanes, having conferred, upon the nominal authors of 
 his early plays much, not only of reputation, but also of danger, 
 now thought it right to appropriate to himself both the glory and 
 the hazard of his undertaking, and in 424 B. C. demanded a chorus 
 in his own name. The Comedy, which he exhibited on this oc- 
 casion, and in the composition of which Eupolis claimed a share, 
 was the Horsemen; it was acted at the Lenaea, and gained the 
 first prize: Cratinus was second, and Aristomenes third^. The 
 object of this play is to overthrow Cleon, who was then flushed 
 with his undeserved success at Sphacteria in the preceding year, 
 and had excited the indignation of Aristophanes and all the Athe- 
 nians who wished well to their country, by his constant opposition 
 to the proposals of the Lacedaemonians for an equitable arrange- 
 ment of the terms of peace. The demagogue was considered at 
 that time so formidable an adversary, that no one could be found 
 to make a mask to represent his features, so tKat Aristophanes, 
 who personated him on the stage, was obliged to return to the old 
 
 ^evLov TrapovTCjv Trjv ttoKlv KaKus \4y(i}, 
 
 AvTol yap ia/xev ovirl Arjvaiu) r aywv, 
 
 Koi'TTo; ^evoL irdpeiaLV 
 and the Scholiasts. On the relations between Aristophanes and Cleon, and on the 
 character of the latter, the student will find some striking remarks in Grote, Hist. Gr. 
 Vol. VI. pp. 657 sqq. 
 
 ^ Argum. Eqq. The reference of this piece to the Lenaea is supported by the 
 allusion in vv. 881 — 3, to the wintry weather, which prevailed in the month Lenseon, 
 according to Hesiod. On the claims of Eupolis to a share in this Comedy, see Bern- 
 hardy, Grundriss, ii. p. 973; and for the passage attributed to him, Meineke, Fragni. 
 IL I, p. 577. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 183 
 
 custom of smearing the face with wine-lees^; and, as Cleon is 
 represented in the pLiy as a great drunkard, the substitute was 
 probably adequate to the occasion. The Comedy is an allegorical 
 caricature of the broadest kind, showing how the eminent generals 
 and statesmen, ^icias and Demosthenes, with the aid of the koXoI 
 KayaOoL among the citizens, delivered the Athenian John Bull 
 from the clutches of the son of Cleasnetus, and effected a marvellous 
 change in the temper and external appearance of their doting 
 master. This is expressed in a wonderfully ingenious manner. 
 The instrument they use is one Agoracritus, who is called a 
 sausage-seller {dWavToirooXrjs:) . Now there lived, at this time, a 
 celebrated sculptor of that name, who, having made for the Athe- 
 nians a most beautiful statue of Venus which they could not buy, 
 transformed it into a representation of Xemesis, and sold it to the 
 Rhamnusians^. It is this Agoracritus, who, by a play upon the 
 words oKkciG-creiv and dWd^, is called a transformation-monger in 
 regard to the People : he changes the easy good-tempered old man 
 into a punisher of the guilty — a laughing Venus into a frowning 
 Xemesis ; — he metamorphoses tlie ill-clad unseemly Demus of the 
 Pnyx into a likeness of the beautiful Demus, the son of Pyrilampes 
 the Rhamnusian, just as Agoracritus transferred to Rhamnus a 
 statue destined for Athens. It seems to have been in consequence 
 of this attack that Cleon made the unsuccessful attempt (to which 
 we have already alluded) to deprive Aristophanes of his civic 
 rights. 
 
 The next recorded Comedy of Aristophanes is the Clouds, 
 the most celebrated and perhaps the most elaborately finished, as it 
 is certainly the most serious, of his remaining plays. When he 
 first submitted it to the judges, the plays of Cratinus and Ameip- 
 sias, who were his competitors, were honoured with the first and 
 second prizes. This was in the year 423 B. c. ; and it is probable 
 that Aristophanes, indignant at his unexpected ill-success, with- 
 drew the play, and did not bring it out till some years afterwards, 
 when he added something to the parahasis, and perhaps made a 
 few other alterations. The author of the argument and the Scho- 
 liast refer the second edition to the year 422 B. c. ; but it has been 
 shown from the mention of the Maricas of Eupolis, and other 
 internal evidences, that it could not have been acted till some years 
 
 ^ Schol. Eqq. 230. See ubovo, p. 73. ^ riin. IL N. xxxvi. 4. 
 
184 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 after the death of Cleon ; and it is conjectured that it did not 
 appear till after the exhibition of the Lysistrata in 411 B. c.^ It 
 will not be expected that we should here ennmerate the various 
 opinions which have been entertained of the object of Aristophanes 
 in writing this Comedy 2, or that we should enter upon a new and 
 detailed examination of the piece. We must, on the present occa- 
 sion, be content with stating briefly and generally, what we 
 conceive to have been the design of the poet. In the Wasps, 
 which was written the year after the first ill-success of the 
 Clouds, he calls this Comedy an attack upon the prevailing 
 vices of the young men of his day^. Now, if we turn to the 
 Clouds, we shall see that he not only does this, but also inves- 
 tigates the causes of the corrupt state of the Athenian youth ; and 
 this he asserts to have arisen from the changes introduced into the 
 national education by the sophists, by the substitution of sophis- 
 tical for rhapsodical instruction. The hero of the piece is Socrates, 
 who was, in the judgment of Aristophanes, a sophist to all intents 
 and purposes. We do not think it necessary to deny that Socrates 
 was a well-meaning man, and in many respects a good citizen ; 
 we are disposed to believe that he was, not because Plato and 
 Xenophon have represented him as such (in their justification of 
 his character, each of them is but tarpon aWcov avro^ eXKeat 
 ^pv(i)v), but because Aristophanes has brought no specific charges 
 against him, as far as his intentions are concerned. But Socrates 
 was an innovator in education ; he approved, perhaps assisted in 
 the corruptions which Euripides introduced into Tragedy ; he was 
 the pupil and the friend of several of the sophists ; it was in his 
 character of dialectician that he was courted by the ambitious 
 
 1 Ranke, chapters xxviii. and XL. 
 
 2 We refer the reader who wishes to study this subject minutely and accurately 
 to Hermann, Prcefat. ad Nubes, xxxii — liv ; Wolf's Introduction to his German 
 translation of the play ; Reisig, Prcefat. ad Nubes, viii — xxx, and his Essay in the 
 Klieinhches Museum for 1828, pp. 191 and 464; Mitchell's and Welcker's Introduc- 
 tions to their Translations of Aristophanes ; Ranke, Comment, chapters XLi. — XLiv, ; 
 SUvern's Essay ; and Miiller, Hist. Lit. Gr. ii, pp. 33, new ed. sqq. Rotscher has 
 given a general statement of some of these opinions in his Aristophanes und sein 
 Zeitalter, pp. -294 — 391, which he follows up with his own not very intelligible view 
 of the question, 
 
 3 vv. 1037 f^l^- ' 
 
 'AXV vTT^p vixdv in koI vvvl TroXepie?. (prjffiu re ixer' avrov 
 Tots Tj-maXois evLxet-pvcaL iripvcTLV koI rois TrvperoXaiv 
 Ot Toi/s Trarepas r' 957x01' viJKTup Kol Toi>s irdTrirovs aireirvLyov, 
 KaTaK\ip6fM€voi t' eVt rats Koirais eirl Totcnv dxpdyfMoaLU v/nQv 
 'Ai>Tix}fxocrLas Kal TrpoaKXrjaeLs /cat fxaprvplas auveKoWuv, k.t.X. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 185 
 
 young men ; he was the tutor of Alciblades ; his shiguh^r manners 
 and affected slovenliness had every appearance of quackery ; and, 
 if we add, that he was the only one of the eminent sophists who 
 was an Athenian-born, we shall not wonder that Aristophanes 
 selected him as the representative of the class. The other two 
 principal characters are a father and son. The latter is a general 
 personification of the young profligates of the day, and only wants 
 a little sophistical education to enable him to throw aside every 
 moral restraint. His silly father supplies this defect, and is the 
 first to suffer from the weapon which he has placed in his son's 
 hand. The name of the father, Strepsiades, shows that he is 
 intended as a representative of the class who advocated the change 
 in education^ It does not appear of whom his mask was a por- 
 trait. It is likely that the son, Pheidippides, came forward in the 
 character of Alcibiades, who had the same love for horses, and 
 bore a similar relation to Socrates^: at the same time, tlie promi- 
 nent part which Alcibiades was beginning to take in public affairs, 
 and the influence he possessed over the young men of his own age, 
 pointed him out as their most adequate representative. With 
 these actors, then, the Clouds was merely a general exhibition 
 of the corrupt state of education at Athens, and of its causes ; it 
 was a loudly uttered protest, on the part of Aristophanes, against 
 the useless and pernicious speculations of the sophists^, and was 
 not intended to pave the way for the accusation which was many 
 years afterwards brought against Socrates as a corrupter of youth, 
 whatever may have been its effect upon the verdict of the Dicasts 
 at the trial. The Clouds appears to have been acted at the great 
 Dionysia^. 
 
 The Wasps was brought out in the name of Philonides, and 
 performed at the Lena^a, in 422 B.C. As the object of the Clouds 
 was to attack the prevailing vices of the young men of the day, 
 and to stigmatize the love of disputation, which was so prevalent 
 at Athens, and which the sophists did so much to foster, so it was 
 the intention of the Wasps to inveigh against a predominant fault 
 
 1 Nuh. 88, 434, 1455. ^ Siivern, uber die WolTcen, p. 33. 
 
 ^ Siivern has conjectured very ingeniously, that the Xbyo^ ddiKos wore a mask 
 representing Thrasymachus, because his opponent addresses him in v. 890, Kairrep 
 dpaai/i uv, and in v. 915, 6pa<rvs el ttoWov; and that the \6yos diKULos was Aris- 
 tophanes himself. Uber die Wolken, p. 12, note (3). 
 
 ^ See Nubes, 311. 
 
186 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 of tlie old peevish Atlienians, whose delight it was to spend their 
 time in the law-courts, and to live on the judicial fees, which Peri- 
 cles had established, and which Cleon was pledged to maintain. 
 There are many points in which the Clouds and the Wasjos supple- 
 ment one another, and there is a unity of design between them, 
 which cannot be mistaken. A father and his son are the principal 
 characters in both. In the Wasjjs, the father Philocleon, who, as 
 his name denotes, is warmly attached to Cleon, has surrendered the 
 management of his affairs to his son Bdelycleon, indicated by his 
 name as loathing and detesting that demagogue. The son regrets 
 his father's perverse fondness for judicial business, and weans him 
 from it, partly by establishing a law-court at home, in which a dog- 
 is tried for stealing a cheese, with all the circumstances of a regular 
 process in the dicasterion, and partly by leading him to indulge in 
 a life of sensual enjoyment. And as Strepsiades in the Clouds has 
 reason to regret the sophistical training, which he procures for his 
 dissipated son, so Bdelycleon in the Wasjw repents of the conse- 
 quences of the curative treatment to which he had subjected his 
 father. An eminent modern scholar has pronounced the Wasps 
 one of the most perfect of the plays of Aristophanes \ and the dra- 
 matic merits of the piece must have been of great intrinsic value, 
 for Racine was able to reproduce it with eminent success as a 
 French Comedy adapted to the usages of his own time 2. 
 
 In the Peace, which was produced in 419 B.C., the poet returns 
 to the subject of the Acharnians, and insists strongly upon the 
 advantages which might be expected from a reconciliation of the 
 belligerents. The difference, however, between the two plays is 
 very considerable, not only in dramatic merit, but in the nature of 
 the wish for peace which they severally represent. The AcJiar- 
 nians has a strongly conceived dramatic unity, and a great variety 
 of comic incidents, and it represents the wish for peace as not only 
 limited to Athens, but limited also to an individual Athenian, to 
 whom the chorus of his own countrymen is violently opposed. The 
 Peace has really only one incident — the journey to heaven of Try- 
 gseus, a new sort of Bellerophon, mounted on a new sort of Pegasus, 
 in the shape of a dung-beetle ; and the wish for peace is represented 
 as common to all the Greek cities, whose countrymen join in the 
 
 1 C. 0. Miiller, Ilut. of Lit. of Gr. ii. p. 38, new ed. 
 
 2 Lcs Plaidcurs, acted in i668. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 187 
 
 cliorus, and assist tlie liero in pulling Peace from the pit into whicli 
 she had been thrown by the Damon of War. After this rescue is 
 accomplished, the rest of the play is merely a series of cheerful 
 sketches, whicli were doubtless very entertaining to the spectators, 
 but do not afford much gratification to the modern reader, or furnish 
 tlie best specimen of the genius of Aristophanes. 
 
 In the year 414 B.C., Aristophanes produced two Comedies; 
 the Amj>hia7'aus, which appeared at the Lenasa, under the name of 
 Philonides; and the Birds, which came out at the great Dionysia, 
 under the name of Callistratus. The objects of these two plays 
 appear to have been the same. The former was named after one of 
 the seven chiefs who led the Argive army against Thebes, and was 
 always foretelling the misfortunes which attended that expedition. 
 In this he corresponded to Nicias, who in the same manner foretold 
 the disastrous termination of the expedition which had sailed for 
 Syracuse the year before ; and Aristophanes no doubt took this oppor- 
 tunity of warning his countrymen against the dangers into whicli 
 their compliance with the wishes of Alcibiades Avould lead them^. 
 The Birds, which is certainly one of the most wonderful compo- 
 sitions in any language, was designed, we think, in conjunction 
 with the Amjjluaraus, to parody and ridicule the Em'ipidean Tri- 
 logy, which came out the year before^. The Athenians are repre- 
 sented as a set of gaping foolish birds, persuaded by the extrava- 
 gant promises of a couple of designing adventurers to set up a city 
 in the clouds, and to declare war against the gods. In this carica- 
 ture we easily recognize a ridicule of the extravagant schemes of 
 universal rule which Alcibiades had formed, and which might well 
 be called castle-building in the air ; and the termination of the play, 
 in which the chief adventurer is represented as making a supper off 
 his subjects, points clearly to what the Athenians had to expect 
 from the success of an ambitious plan, conceived by an uncompro- 
 mising aspirant after sovran power. According to Slivern's inge- 
 nious explanation of the play, the names of the two heroes of the 
 piece, Peisthetcerus and Euelj^ides, whom we have elsewhere angli- 
 cized as Messrs. Agitator and Hopegood, point at once to the ob- 
 jects of this satirical delineation. The former is a combination of 
 the two great moving causes of the expedition to Syracuse, Gor- 
 
 1 Slivern's Essay on the Birds, p. 77, Engl. Tr. 
 
 2 See above, p. 147. 
 
188 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 gias, and Alcibiades^: the age of Master Agitator, his eloquence, 
 his being a stranger, and his sophistical harangues, may remind 
 us of Gorgias, and Callistratus may have worn a mask which was 
 a portrait of the Leontine ambassador ; at the same time, the promi- 
 nent part which Alcibiades took in the affair, and the notorious fact 
 that he was the head of an extensive club {eratpia) at Athens, would 
 point to him as also represented by Peisthetserus^; and Euelpides 
 may have personified those confident citizens, who, full of hope for 
 the future {eveKiriBe^^) , willingly undertook the expedition*. 
 
 This allegorical interpretation of the Comedy will hardly bear 
 the test of a critical examination^; but there can be little doubt 
 that it contains a great deal of truth, and the general reference of 
 the Birds to the unfortunate Sicilian expedition may be regarded 
 as more or less an admitted fact. 
 
 In the Comedies, which have been considered up to this point, 
 the genius of Aristophanes appears under all the advantages which 
 it was certain to derive from the support of a vigorous democracy, 
 and from the unimpaired opulence and prosperity of Athens. But 
 the Sicilian expedition, which the Birds had taken for its theme, 
 came to a disastrous issue in B.C. 413, and speedily produced its 
 effect both on the democratic government and on the political 
 power of the great Attic republic. Here we commence the second 
 period in the literary history of Aristophanes, when his poetical 
 powers were unimpaired, but when he had neither the same ma- 
 terials to work upon, nor the same external support, on which he 
 could rely. In this period he exhibited three plays, the Lysistrata, 
 the Thesmophoriazusm^ and the Frogs. The first two were repre- 
 sented in B.C. 411, when the democracy had been obliged to accept 
 certain modifications in the form of TrpojBovKoi, and a council of 
 400. The third play of this period was acted in B. c. 405, in the 
 interval between the battles of Arginus^e and ^gos-Potami. 
 
 The Lysistrata, which appeared in the name of Callistratus, is a 
 coarse and laughable recommendation of peace. The women of the 
 
 ^ Siivern, pp. 31 fol. Engl. Tr. 
 
 2 Thucyd. vi. 13: comp. Goller's notes upon iii. 82; viii. 54; and Arnold's 
 Thucyd. Vol. III. p. 414. 
 
 3 Thucyd. VI. 24 : ed^Xindes 6vt€s awd-qaeadai. 
 
 ^ In addition to Suvern's Essay, we must refer tlie curious reader to Droysen's 
 Essay on the Birds, in the Rhein. Mus. for 1835, pp. 161. fol. 
 
 5 The theory of Siivern is combated by Mr W. G. Clark, now Public Orator at 
 Cambi'idge, in a very able paper which appeared in the Journal of Philology, Vol. I. 
 pp. 1-20. 
 
ARISTOPHAXES. 189 
 
 belligerent nations, woni out by tlie miseries of the protracted war- 
 fare, combine against the men, seize the acropolis of Athens, and 
 starve the nobler sex into mutual reconciliation by cutting them off 
 from domestic life and connubial felicity. The play is full of 
 talent, and is replete with wit and humour. But its grossness is 
 offensive. The political ingredient is greatly diminished in extent 
 and importance. And the ^yarahasis, or direct appeal to the audi- 
 ence, is for the first time omitted. 
 
 If the men of Athens had any reason to be offended by the pro- 
 minent part which the Lysistrata had assigned to their help-mates, 
 they were avenged in the Thesmophoriazusce^ which appeared in the 
 same year. This play, which begins with a satirical caricature of 
 the effeminate Agathon and the woman-hater Euripides, and exhibits 
 throughout an extravagant humour worthy of the best Comedies of 
 the first period, is mainly occupied with an exposure of the moral 
 corruption and depravity of the Athenian women. The chorus has 
 very little to do, and there is no parahasis. Politics are almost ex- 
 cluded, and with the exception of the ridicule thrown on Em'ipides 
 and Agathon, there is no personal satire. There was a second ver- 
 sion of the Thesmophoriazusce {QeafjLocpopLa^ovaac Sevrepai), which 
 appears from the fragments to have had much the same subject as 
 the extant play. 
 
 The Frogs was exhibited at the Lena?a in B.C. 405, under the 
 name of Philonides, and won the first piize from the Muses of 
 Phrynichus, and the CleopJion of Plato. The leading object of this 
 admirable play is dramatic criticism, but the political element is by 
 no means excluded. The demagogue Cleophon, who gave his 
 name to the rival Comedy of Plato, and who was then in great 
 power at Athens, is directly and violently attacked^; the play has 
 a parahasis, in which the poet recommends his audience to make 
 peace with the discarded faction of the Four Hundred^ ; and he even 
 goes so far as to hint the propriety of their recalling Alcibiades, 
 and submitting to his capricious genius 3. The plot of the Comedy 
 is very striking. Dionysus, the god of the Athenian drama, being 
 
 ^ vv. 679 — 685, 1504, 532. 
 
 2 689 : Kd TLS 7Jfjt.apT€ cr0aXets rt ^pvpix^^ TraXatafxaaLV 
 
 iyyeviadaL (pTj/J.i XPW°'-'- ''"O'S oXiadovaLv roTe 
 
 airiav iKdeifft Xvaai ras Trpbrepov ap-aprias. 
 
 '^ V. 1432 : fxaXiara p-h Xiovra p.T] V TroXei rpecpetv, 
 
 TjV 5' eKTp€(pT] T(S, TOtS TpOTTOlS VTnjpcTeiv. 
 
190 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 miicli vexed by the dearth of good tragic poets smce the death of 
 Sophocles and Euripides, is resolved to go down to Hades and 
 bring up one of the great departed, if possible Earipides, for whom, 
 as a representative of the popular taste, he professes a warm admi- 
 ration. Accordingly he equips himself for the adventure in the 
 costume of Hercules, and, after a brief interview with his heroic 
 brother, he and his servant Xanthias proceed on their journey to 
 the other world; the god has to take an oar in Charon's boat, while 
 the slave runs round the Stygian pool and meets him on the other 
 side. The chorus, which had performed the croaking of the in- 
 visible Frogs during the short voyage, appears as a band of happy 
 souls duly initiated into sacred mysteries. After many ludicrous 
 and entertaining incidents, Bacchus and his attendant are admitted 
 into the halls of Pluto, and the God of the drama is appointed judge 
 in the contest, which has arisen between ^schylus, the occupant 
 of the tragic throne in the lower world, and Euripides, w^ho, as a 
 new-comer, had laid claim to it, although the good-natured Sopho- 
 cles had accepted the existing state of things. The God of the 
 drama makes this contest work into his own scheme for resusci- 
 tating one of the great tragedians, and he promises to take back 
 with him to Athens whichever of the two competitors shall gain 
 the victory. The unfavourable opinion, which Aristophanes every- 
 where expresses respecting the dramatic merits of Euripides, could 
 not have left his audience in any doubt as to the results of, a com- 
 parison, which he undertook to make, between the great founder of 
 Greek Tragedy, and the rhetorical poet, who had so entirely altered 
 its character. Accordingly, ^schylus is carried back to the city, 
 where his Tragedies were still alive ; for he is made to say, with 
 considerable humour, that his poetry had not died with him, and 
 that Euripides, who had brought his works down to Hades, was 
 better prepared for the literary contests 
 
 The exhibition of the Frocks was speedily followed by the battle 
 of ^Egis-Potami, the fall of Athens, and the subversion of the de- 
 mocracy. For some years there was no possibility for any display 
 of the literary genius of such a poet as Aristophanes, and we do not 
 
 1 vv. 866 sqq. : 
 
 At. i^ovKbfirjv fxeu ouk epl^eiv ip6d8e' 
 
 ovK €^ icrov yap iariv d7cbi' j/yf. 
 At. Ti dai; 
 
 At. ort 7} TToirjCLS ovyl avvTidurjKe fioi, 
 
 Toi'Tcp 5e <Tvi>T(OuriK€u, cSad' e|et \eyeiu. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 191 
 
 hear of liim until some years after the return of Thrasybulus. 
 From the concluding period of his literary history, only two Come- 
 dies have come down to us complete. And both of these present to 
 us a very different state of things from that which had prevailed 
 during the Peloponnesian war. While democracy had revived with 
 some of its worst abuses, and while demagogues, like Agyrrhius, 
 were leading the populace into the most whimsical extravagances, 
 the educated class had learned to express with boldness the feelings 
 of disgust and contempt with Avhich this wild republicanism had 
 inspired them. This anti-democratic tendency was fostered by the 
 writings of some able men attached to the government of the thirty 
 tyrants, among whom the most eminent was Plato. Connected 
 with Critias by the ties of blood, and a near relation of the Char- 
 mides, who fell fighting against the party of Thrasybulus, he had 
 but little sympathy with the restored democracy at Athens; and 
 when his teacher Socrates had been put to death in b. c. 399, after 
 a prosecution instituted by men connected with the popular party, 
 Plato retired to Megara, and did not return to Athens till after 
 some four years spent in foreign travel. The feelings of despair 
 with which he regarded all existing forms of government are re- 
 corded in an epistle written about this time^ and it has been fairly 
 argued^ that he must have published soon afterwards at least the 
 first sketch of his Republic, in which his object is to maintain by 
 the elaborate picture of an ideal government the thesis laid down 
 in the epistle, namely, that the only remedy for the miseries of 
 mankind must be sought in the establishment of a truly philoso- 
 phical aristocracy. One of the most offensive features in Plato's 
 ideal Hepublic is his proposal for a community of property and 
 wives, and the supposition that the original edition, containing tlie 
 first six books^ was given to the public soon after B.C. 395, is 
 strongly supported by the statement of the old grammarians^, that 
 this work is ridiculed by Aristophanes in his Ecclesiazusce which 
 appeared in B.C. 392, and in which Plato is mentioned, as he is 
 also in the Flutus, by a diminutive of his original name Aristocles^. 
 
 1 Plato, Fpist. VII. pp. 324 B, sqq., especially 326 A, B. 
 
 2 By Professor Thompson. See our Hlstonj of the Literature of Greece, Vol. ii. 
 pp. 211 sqq. 
 
 ■* History of the Literature of Greece, ii. p. 245. 
 
 * Diog. Laert. iii. 23; Herodian, apud Etjm. M. p. 142 r. 
 
 5 Ecclesiaz. 646; Plutus, 3 [3. 
 
192 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 In this Comedy the women assume the male attire, steal into the 
 assembly, and by a majority of votes carry a new constitution^, 
 which realizes, in part at least, the Platonic Utopia ; for there is to 
 be a community of goods and women, and with regard to the latter 
 the rights of the ugly are to be protected by special enactment. 
 The play has a good deal of the old Aristophanic energy, and its 
 indecency is as extravagant as its drollery and humour. It has the 
 literary characteristics as well as the phallic grossness of the oldest 
 Attic Comedy. But it is manifestly deficient in the outward appa- 
 ratus which had set out the Comedy in its best days. The chorus 
 is poorly equipped, and it has little to do in any respect which 
 would have required careful training. There is no parahasis; bu1> 
 instead of this a mere plaudite is addressed to the audience before 
 the chorus go to supper 2. 
 
 The Plutus, in its extant form, is the second edition of the 
 play, which appeared in B. c. 388. The first edition was performed 
 in B.C. 408. In the play, which has come down to us, we have 
 only here and there a reminiscence of what the Old Comedy 
 had been. The chorus is altogether insignificant. There is no poli- 
 tical satire, and the personal attacks are directed against individuals 
 capriciously selected. The plot is the development of a very sim- 
 ple and perfectly general truth of allegorical morality — that if the 
 god of riches were not blind, he would have bestowed his favours 
 with more discrimination. In this play Plutus falls into the hands 
 of Chremylus, a poor but most worthy citizen, who contrives to 
 restore the blind god to the use of his eyes. The natural conse- 
 quences follow. The good become rich, and the bad are reduced 
 to poverty. There is a slight dash of the old Aristophanic humour 
 in the successive pictures of these alterations in the condition of the 
 different classes of men. But on the whole the play exhibits many 
 symptoms not only of the change, which had come over the whole 
 spirit of Greek comic poetry, but also of the decay of the poet's 
 
 1 It is intimated, with a good deal of point, that this transference of the govern- 
 ment to the women was the only expedient which had not been tried among the many 
 changes of constitution at Athens (v. 456) : 
 
 idoKei yap tovto fibvov eu rfj irdXec 
 oiiirw yeyevrjadai. 
 
 a/J-iKpbv 5' VTTodecrdaL rots KpLraccri (SovXo/uLai.' 
 Tols ao(po2s ixkv tCjv aQ(pCov fxe/j.i'rjfiei'ovs Kpiveiv i/ii' 
 ToXs yeXQai 5' rjdeus Blo, top y^XciJV Kpivuv ifie, 
 
 K. T. X. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 193 
 
 vigour and vivacity. . The Plutus is not yet a play of the Middle 
 Comedy, but it has lost all the characteristic features of the ancient 
 comic drama of Athens. 
 
 The last two Comedies which Aristophanes wrote were called 
 ^olosicon and Cocalus; they were brought out about the time of 
 the peace of Antalcidas, by Araros, one of the sons of the poet, who 
 had been his principal actor at the representation of the second 
 edition of the Plutus, They both belonged to the second variety 
 of Comedy; namely, the Comedy of Criticism. The jEolosicon was 
 a parody and criticism of the JEolus of Euripides ^ The Cocalus 
 was, perhaps, a similar criticism of a Tragedy or Epic Poem, the 
 hero of which was Cocalus, the fabulous king of Sicily, who slew 
 Minos 2; it was so near an approach to the third variety of Comedy, 
 that Philemon was able to bring it again on the stage with very 
 few alterations^. 
 
 It is altogether unknown in what year Aristophanes died ; it is 
 probable, however, that he did not long survive the commencement 
 of the 100th Olympiad, 380 B.c.^ He left three sons, Philippus, 
 Araros, and Nicostratus, who were all poets of the Middle Comedy, 
 but do not appear to have inherited any considerable portion of 
 their father's wonderful abilities. Their mother was not a very 
 estimable woman ; at all events, the poet is said to have declared, 
 in one of his Comedies, that he was ashamed of her and his two 
 foolish sons ; meaning, we are told, the two first-mentioned^. 
 
 The number of Comedies brought out by Aristophanes is not 
 known with certainty : the reader will see in the note a list of forty- 
 four names of Comedies attributed to him^. 
 
 1 See Grauert, in the Rhein. Mas. for 1828, pp. 50 fol. The name AloXoaiKojv is a 
 compound (like 'HpaKXeio^avdias, &c.) of the name of Euripides's tragic hero, and 
 Sicon, a celebrated cook. Grauert, p. 60. And for this reason the whole Comedy- 
 was full of cookery terms. Grauert, pp. 499 fol. 
 
 2 Grauert, p. 507. 
 
 ^ Clemens Alex. Strom. VI. p. 628 : t6u fxivTOL KdjKaXou rbv iroiridiuTa 'Apapori rep 
 ' ApiaTO(pduovs vlec, ^i\r]jj,o}u 6 koj/jlikos inraWd^as iu 'Tiro^oKL/xala} iKWfiCitSrjaev. 
 ■* Ranke, p. cxcix. 
 
 ^ Vit. Anonym, p. xvii: {' Apia-rocpduijs) /xeTriWa^e rbv ^iov TraiSas KaraXLTrwu rpeis, 
 ^iXiinrov bp-dovvpLov ry Trdinru) Kai '^LKbcrrpaTOv /cat 'Apapora. — tiv^s d^ dvo <pacri, ^IXiir- 
 TTOv Koi ''Apapbra, wv Kal adrbi ^pLvrjadrj' 
 
 Tt]u yvudiKU 8e 
 alax^i^oixai rcb r' ov cppovovvre Traidico' 
 i(TO)S avTovs Xiywv. 
 
 ^ I. AatraX^s. II. 'Ba^vXwvioi. in. 'Axapvrjs. IV. 'Itttt-^s. v. Ne^Aat Trpbrepai. 
 VI. Upodyojv. VII. ZcpTJKes. VIII. Wip-qurj irpor^pa. IX. 'Ap.(ptdpaos. X. "OpviOes. 
 XI. AvtriaTpdrrj. XII. Qea/xocpoptd^oucrat Trpbrepai. XIII. UXoutos Trpbrepos. XIV. Bd- 
 
 D. T. G. 13 
 
194 ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 In the very brief sketch which we have .given of the general 
 objects of Aristophanes' Comedies, we have confined ourselves to 
 their external and political references. It must not, however, be 
 supposed, because Aristophanes was a Pantagruelist, a fabricator of 
 allegorical caricatures, giving vent at times to the wildest buf- 
 foonery, and setting no bounds to the coarseness and plain-spoken- 
 ness of his words, that his writings contain nothing but a political 
 gergo ; on the contrary, we find here and there bursts of lyric 
 poetry, which would have done honour to the sublimest of his 
 Tragical contemporaries. The fact is, that Aristophanes was not 
 merely a wit and a satirist ; he had within himself all the ingre- 
 dients which are necessary to form a great poet ; the nicest discri- 
 mination of harmony, a fervid and active imagination drawing upon 
 the stores of an ever-creating fancy, and a true and enlarged per- 
 ception of ideal beauty. This was so notorious even in his own 
 time, that Plato, who had little reason to speak favourably of him, 
 declared that the Graces, having sought a temple to dwell in, found 
 it in the bosom of Aristophanes \ and it is very likely in conse- 
 quence of Plato's belief in the real poetical power of Aristophanes, 
 that he makes Socrates convince him in the Banquet, that the real 
 artists of Tragedy and Comedy are one and the same 2. Of the pri- 
 vate character of Aristophanes we know little, save that he was, 
 like all other Athenians, fond of pleasure; and it is intimated by 
 Plato ^ that he was not distinguished by his abstinence and sobriety. 
 That coarseness of language was in those times no proof of moral 
 depravity, has already been sufficiently shown by a modern admirer 
 of Aristophanes^: the fault was not in the man, but in the manners 
 of the age in which he lived, and to blame the Comedian for it, is 
 
 rpaxoi. XV. ^'EiKKK-qcnd^ovaai. XVI. IIXoOtos bevrepos. XVII. KioKociKWV Trporepos. 
 XViii. AloXoa-LKojv de6T€pos. XIX. Kci/caXos. These are arranged in the supposed 
 order of their appearance. The remaining names are alphabetically arranged, i. 'Avd- 
 yvpos. II. Vecjopyol. III. Yrjpas. IV. T7]pvTd87]s. V. AaidaXos. vi. Aavatdes. Vll. 
 Apd/j-ara rj Keuravpos. VIII. Apd/xara 7} 'Nlo^os. IX. 'Elprji^T] deuripa. X. "Upcoes. 
 XI. Qeap-ocpopid^ovcrai Seiyre/aai. XII. Arj/ixviac. XIII. lli^avayos, or Ais 'Navayos. XIV. 
 Ne0e\at BevrepaL. XV. '^ijaoL. XVI. 'OX/cdSes. XVII. IleXapyoL. XVIII. Uott^aLS. 
 XIX. IloXuetSos. XX. 2iK7)pds KaTa\a/xj3duov(rai. XXI. T ay T]via-Tai. XXlt. TeX/xicrarji. 
 XXIII. TpLcpdXrjs. XXIV. ^oivLaaai. XXV. "^Opai. See Dindorf's Collection of the 
 Fragments. Bergk, p. 901. On the Yripas, see Silvern 's essay on that play; and on 
 the Tpi(pdXr]s, Silvern, iiber die Wolken, pp. 62 — 65. 
 
 1 Apud Thorn. Mag. : 
 
 At x'^P'-'^^^ Tep^evos ti Xa^eTv owep ovxl Treaetrai 
 ZrjTOucrat, "^pvxw ^vpov 'ApLCTTocpdvovs. 
 
 2 Sympos. p. 223 D. 3 -pQ-p instance, see Symp. 176 b. 
 
 * Person's Review of Brunck's Aristophanes, Mus. Crificum, ii. pp. 114, 115. 
 
ARISTOPHANES. 195 
 
 to give a very evident proof of that unwillingness to shake off 
 modern associations which we have already deprecated ^ The ob- 
 ject of Aristophanes was one most worthy of a wise and good man ; 
 it was to cry down the pernicious quackery which was forcing its 
 way into Athens, and polluting, or drying up, the springs of public 
 and private virtue; which had turned religion into impudent hypo- 
 crisy, and sobriety of mind into the folly of word-wisdom ; and 
 which was the cause alike of the corruption of Tragedy, and of the 
 downfal of the state. He is not to be blamed for his method of 
 opposing these evils: it was the only course open to him; the dema- 
 gogues had introduced the comus into the city, and he tm-ned it 
 against them, till it repented them that they had ever used such an 
 instrument. So far, then, from charging Aristophanes with immo- 
 rality, we would repeat, in the words which a great and a good man 
 of our own days used when speaking of his antitype Rabelais, that 
 the morality of his works is of the most refined and exalted kind, 
 however little worthy of praise their manners may be^, and, on the 
 whole, we would fearlessly recommend any student, who is not so 
 imbued with the lisping and drivelling mawkishness of the present 
 day as to shudder at the ingTedients with which the necessities of 
 the time have forced the great Comedian to dress up his golden 
 truths, to peruse and re-peruse Aristophanes, if he would know 
 either the full force of the Attic dialect, or the state of men and 
 manners at Athens, in the most glorious days of her history^. 
 
 ^ Above, pp. 7, 8. 
 
 2 Coleridge's Table Talk, I. p. 178. 
 
 3 The admiration which all time scholars have felt and expressed for Aristophanes, 
 will survive the attacks of certain modern detractors. Among these, Hartung, in his 
 Euripides restitutus, has endeavoured to exalt that tragedian at the expense of the 
 great author of the Frogs, whom he assails in the most abusive language (i. 380, 476). 
 The disapprobation of the poetry and politics of Euripides, which Aristophanes so 
 strongly avowed, is not incompatible with the imitation of his style, which he frankly 
 admitted in his 'LK-qva^ KaTa\a,aj3duoucraL (above, p. 169^. And with regard to another 
 charge, it is quite impossible, with the fragmentary evidence before us, to strike the 
 balance of mutual obligation between Eupolis and Aristophanes. See Bernhardy, 
 Grundriss, li. p. 973. 
 
 13—2 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECTION III. 
 
 THE COMEDIANS WHO SUCCEEDED ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 / coUivatori della commcdia seguirono Vesempio di questi primi, come essi aveano pur 
 seguito quello degli antichi, senza che ne gli uni ne gli altri, impediti da una servile 
 imiiazione, avessero soffocato il propria genio o negletto i costumi del paese e del tempo 
 loro. Salfi. 
 
 ALTHOUGH, as we have already remarked^ the writers of the 
 Old and Middle Comedy are not easily distinguished, and 
 although we have been obliged to indicate several of the old come- 
 dians as having tended rather to the middle form of Comedy, 
 writers on the subject have always attempted a distinct classifica- 
 tion of the comedians rather than of their plays; and perhaps it 
 may be said with truth that those who never wrote in the flourish- 
 ing period of Athenian democracy, and whose earliest plays exhibit 
 the characteristics of the final efforts of Aristophanes, may be re- 
 garded as belonging distinctively to the Middle Comedy. 
 
 According to this distinction, the Middle Comedy is represented 
 by a list of thirty-seven writers, — nearly as many as those of the 
 Old Comedy, — and by more than double the number of the plays 
 attributed to the former school — Eubulus, Antiphanes, and Alexis 
 having among them contributed more than 600 plays to the cata- 
 logue ! The following are the names of the Middle Comedians : 
 
 1. Antiphanes. 2. Eubulus. 3. Anaxandrides. 4. Alexis. 
 5. Araros, son of Aristophanes. 6. Philippus, brother of the 
 
 1 On these authors and their works, see Meineke, QucBStiones Scenicce Spec. III. 
 and his Historia Critica, pp. 303 sqq. and 445 sqq. ; also Muller, Hist. Lit. Gr. 11. 
 ch. xxix. 
 
THE COMEDIANS WHO SUCCEEDED ARISTOPHANES. 197 
 
 preceding. 7. Nicostratus. 8. Philet^rus. 9. Amphis. 
 10. Anaxilas. 11. Ephippus. 12. Cratixus, the younger. 
 13. EpictEnes. 14. Aristophon. 15. Ophelion. 16. Anti- 
 DOTUS. 17. DiODORUS of Sinope. 18. Dionysius, a coiintiyman 
 of the preceding. 19. Hexiochus. 20. Eriphus. 21. Simylus. 
 22. Sophilus. 23. Sotades. 24. Philiscus. 25. Timotheus. 
 26. Theophilus. 27. Augeas. 28. Dromox. 29. Eubulides, 
 the philosopher. 30. Heracleides. 31. Callicrates. 32. Stra- 
 Tox. 33. Epicrates, of Ambracia. 34. Axioxicus. 35. Mxesi- 
 machus. 36. TiMocLES. 37. Xenarchus. 
 
 The anonymous grammarian, who is our oldest authority for 
 the history of the Greek comic stage, says that there were 
 sixty-fom' writers of New Comedy ^ But we have only the follow- 
 ing twenty-seven names which we can with certainty assign to 
 this age of the drama. They are given in alphabetical order: 
 AXAXIPPUS, Apollodorus of Carystus, Apollodorus of Gela, 
 Archedicus, Batho, Crito, Damoxexus, Demetrius, Diphilus, 
 Epixicus, Eudoxus, Euphrox, Hegesippus, Hipparchus, Lyx- 
 GEUS, Machox, Mexaxder, Philemox and his son, Philippides, 
 Phcenicides, Poseidippus, Sosipater, Sosippus, Stephaxus, 
 Theognetus. 
 
 Other names are occasionally mentioned, though it cannot be 
 determined whether they belonged to the Middle Comedy or not. 
 Thus we have Demophilus, from whom Plautus derived some of 
 his plots ; Clearchus and Crotylus, to each of whom three 
 Comedies are assigned; Charicleides, Callippus, Demoxicus, 
 Dexicrates, Eyaxgelus, Laox, Mexecrates, Nausicrates, who 
 has two comedies assigned to him, NicON, NicOLAUS, Nicomachus, 
 Philostephaxus, Poliochus, Sosicrates, two of whose plays are 
 mentioned, Thugexides, Timostratus, to whom four comedies 
 are attributed, and Xexon. 
 
 In these lists of writers of the Middle and New Comedy there 
 are only a few who deserve or require any special notice. 
 
 Of the authors of the Middle Comedy we may mention the 
 following : 
 
 It appears from the words of Suidas^, that Eubulus, the son 
 of Euphranor, who was an Athenian, and flourished about the year 
 
 1 Trept Kio/xuidias, XXX. 20, p. 537, Meineke. 
 
 EiJ^ouXos — eStSa^e Spafxara p5' tjv 5e Kara pa' 6\vp.7rtdda, /ledopios tt}? fJLea-rji 
 KUfJLi^dias Kai tt)? veas. 
 
198 THE COMEDIANS 
 
 375 B.C., stood on the debateable ground between the middle 
 and new Comedy, and to judge from the fragments in Athenseus, 
 who quotes more than fifty of his comedies by name, he must have 
 written plays of both sorts. He composed in the whole 104 
 comedies. 
 
 Antiphanes was born in E-hodes in b. c. 404, began to exhibit 
 about B.C. 383, and died in Chios in B.C. 330. He composed 260 
 or 280 Comedies, and the titles of 130 of these have come down to 
 us. It appears from these names and from the numerous frag- 
 ments, that the Comedies of Antiphanes were generally of the 
 critical kind, but sometimes approximated to the Comedy of Man- 
 ners^. 
 
 Anaxandrides, of Camirus in Rhodes, flourished about the 
 year 376 B.c.^ He wrote sixty-five Comedies. To judge from the 
 twenty-eight titles which have come down to us, we should infer 
 that they were all of the second class ; as, however, we are told 
 that he introduced intrigues and love-affairs on the stage, we must 
 presume that, like his countryman Antiphanes, he made an advance 
 towards the third class of Comedy. Cham^eleon tells us^, that he 
 was a tall handsome man, and fond of fine dresses ; he gives as a 
 proof of his want of temper, that he used to destroy, or sell for 
 waste paper, all his unsuccessful comedies. He lived to a good 
 old age. 
 
 Alexis, of Thurium, wrote 245 Comedies ; the titles of 113 of 
 them are known to us. The Parasite, one of his Comedies, seems 
 from the name to belong to the New Comedy. He flourished from 
 the year 356 to the year 306, and was more than one hundred years 
 old when he died^. We know nothing of him, except that he was 
 an epicure^, and the uncle and instructor of Menander^. 
 
 TiMOCLES, to whom twenty-seven Comedies are attributed, was 
 a writer of very considerable vigour, and occasionally recurred to the 
 political invective of the older Comedy. Demosthenes was some- 
 
 1 On Antiphanes and his fragments, see Clinton, Phil. Mus. i. pp. 558 fol. 
 
 2 Parian Marble, No. 71, and Suidas. ^ Athenseus, ix. p. 374 A. 
 
 -1 Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 175. ^ Athenseus, Viii. p. 334 C. 
 
 « Prolegom. Aristoph. p. xxx, and Suidas, where we must read irdrpios. 
 
WHO SUCCEEDED ARISTOPHANES. 199 
 
 times the object of his attacks. He was still exhibiting in 324 
 B.c.i 
 
 Of the authors of the Xew Comedy it will be sufficient to 
 mention the following : 
 
 Philippides, the son of Philocles of Athens, is one of the six 
 poets generally selected as specimens of the Xew Comedy^. He 
 flourished about the year 335 B.C., and wrote forty-five Comedies; 
 of the twelve titles preserved, one at least, the Amphiaraus^, seems 
 to belong to the Middle or Old Comedy. The intimacy which 
 existed between him and Lysimachus was of great service to 
 Athens^. As that prince did not assume the title of king till 306 
 B.C., and as it appears from the words of Plutarch^, that Lysi- 
 machus was king at the time of his acquaintance with Philippides, 
 the poet must have lived after that year ; besides we know that he 
 ridiculed the honours paid by the Athenians to Demetrius, in 301 
 B.c.^ There is, therefore, every reason to believe the statement of 
 Aulus Gellius, that he lived to a very advanced age', though per- 
 haps the cause assigned for his death, excessive joy on account of 
 an unexpected victory, is, like the similar story respecting Sopho- 
 cles, a mere invention. 
 
 Philemon was, according to Strabo^, a native of Soli, thougli 
 Suidas makes him a Syracusan, probably because he resided some 
 time in Sicily. He began to exhibit about the year 330 B.C., and 
 died at the age of ninety-seven, some time in the reign of Antigonus 
 the second^. According to Diodorus^^, he lived ninety-nine years, 
 and •v\Tote ninety-seven Comedies. Various accounts are given of 
 the manner of his death ^^ Lucian tells us, he died in a paroxysm 
 
 ^ See the passages in Clinton, F. H. ii. p, i6r. 
 
 ^ Prol. Aristoph. p. xxx: a^io\o-/b:TaToi. ViX-q/xiov, lUevavdpos, AicpiXos, ^iXLTnrldrjs, 
 Uoaeidiinros, 'AiroXXodojpos. 
 
 ^ Quoted by Athenjeus, ill. p. 90, ■* Plutarch, Demetr. c. xii. 
 
 ^ ^i\o(ppovovfj.evov 8e irore tov Av<Ti/J.dxov irpbs avTov Kal eiwovTos, "'^Q ^iXiTTTidr}, 
 TLVos aoL tQu ifxufu /ieraScD;" "'^tlovov," ifpi), '* cJ jSa(Xi\eO, fxri tQu diropprp-uv." 
 
 ^ Clinton, F. H, 11. p. 177. 
 
 '' III. 15 : Philippides comoediarum poeta hand ignobilis, setate jam edita, cum in 
 certamine poetarum praeter spem vicisset, inter illud gaudium repente mortuus est. 
 
 8 XIV. p. 671. 9 Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 157. 
 
 '^^ Eclog. Lib. xxiii. p. 318. 
 
 ^^ Plutarch, An seni, <L-c. p. 785; Lucian, Macroh. c. XXV. (Vol. vm. p. 123, 
 Lehm.) ; Apuleius, Florid, xvi. Suidas says he was ninety-four when he died, and 
 gi^es nearly the same description of his death as Lucian. 
 
200 THE COMEDIANS 
 
 of laughter at seeing an ass devouring some figs intended for his 
 own eating. The names of fifty-three of his Comedies have come 
 down to us^ Philemon was considered as superior to Menander^; 
 and Quintilian, while he denies the correctness of this judgment^, 
 is nevertheless willing to allow Philemon the second place. We 
 may see a favourable specimen of his construction of plots, in the 
 Trinummus of Plautus, which is a translation from his @7]cravp6<;'^. 
 His plays, like those of Menander, contained many imitations of 
 Euripides ; and he was so ardent an admirer of that poet, that he 
 declared he would have hanged himself for the prospect of meeting 
 Euripides in the other world, if he could have convinced himself 
 that the departed spirits were really capable of recognizing one 
 another^. 
 
 Menander, the son of Diopeithes, the well-known general, 
 and Hegesistrata^, and the nephew of the comedian Alexis*^, was 
 born at Athens in B.C. 342^, while his father was absent on the 
 Hellespont station^. He spent his youth in the house of his uncle, 
 and received from him and from Theophrastus instructions in 
 poetry and philosophy ^^i he may have derived from the latter, in 
 some measure, the knowledge of character for which he was so 
 eminent. In 321 B.C. his first Comedy came out^^; it was called 
 'Opyrj^^. He wrote in the whole 105^^ or 108^^ Comedies, and gained 
 
 I Fabricius, il. p. 476, Harles. ^ ^^j^ Qq\i^ xvii. 4 ; Quintil. iii. 7, 18. 
 
 3 X. I, 72: Philemon, qui ut pravis sui temporis judiciis Menandro Sfepe prae- 
 latus est, ita consensu tanien omnium meruit credi secundus. 
 * Prol. Ti'inummi, 18: 
 
 Huic nomen " Greece est Thesauro fabulse ; 
 Philemo scripsit ; Plautus vortit barbare, 
 Nomen Trinummo fecit. 
 5 Fragm. 40 A, p. 48, Meineke; Anthol. Pal. Vol. II. p. i6i: 
 El rah d\7]6elaiaiv ol reOvrjKOTes 
 Madrjcriv elxov, avdpes, ws cpaaiv rive?, 
 ^ATTrjy^d/XTjv dv ws ide?v ^vptiriSrjv. 
 " Suidas, M^vavSpo^. ^ Suidas, "AXe^is. 
 
 8 Clinton, F. H. IL p. 143. 
 
 ^ Comp. Ulpian and Demosth. p. 54, 3, with Dionys. Dinarch. p. 666. 
 1" Proleg. Aristoph, p. xxx ; Diogen. Laert. V. 36. 
 
 II Proleg. Aristoph. p. xxx. ^2 Euseb. ad Olyn. 114, 4. 
 13 Apollod. ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 4: 
 
 K7)(pi(ri€v$ (Jov €K Aio7r€i9eos Trarpos, 
 Upbs ToT&iv eKarou irivTe ypd\pas dpdfiaTa 
 'E^AtTTe, irevTTjKOVTa Kal dvoif ercDv. 
 ^* Suidas, yey pa(pe KUficfdlcks prf. 
 
WHO SUCCEEDED ARISTOPHANES. 201 
 
 the prize eight times: 115 titles of Comedies ascribed to him have 
 come down to us ; it is not certain, however, that all these are 
 correctly attributed to him^ He died at Athens in the year 291 
 B. C.2 According to one account, he was drowned while bathing in 
 the harbour of the Peir^eus^. It appears from the encomiums 
 which are heaped upon him*, that he was by far the best writer 
 of the Comedy of Manners among the Greeks. We have a few 
 specimens of the ingenuity of his plots in some of the plays of 
 Terence, whom Julius Caesar used to call a demi-Menander^. He 
 was an imitator of Euripides^, and we may infer from what Quinti- 
 lian says of him^, that his Comedies differed from the Tragi-comedies 
 of that poet only in the absence of mythical subjects and a chorus. 
 Like Euripides, he was a good rhetorician, and Quintilian is in- 
 clined to attribute to him some orations published in the name of 
 Charisius^. The every-day life of his countrymen, and manners 
 and characters of ordinary occurrence, were the objects of his imi- 
 tation 9. His plots, though skilfully contrived, are somewhat mono- 
 tonous ; there are few of his Comedies which do not bring on the 
 stage a harsh father, a profligate son, and a roguish slave i^. In his 
 
 ' Fabricius, It. pp, 460, 468, Harles. 
 
 2 Clinton, F. H. ii. p. 181. 
 
 3 A line in the Ihls attributed to Ovid, is supposed by some to allude to this 
 
 (591): 
 
 Comicus ut mediis periit dum nabat in undis. 
 
 4 Quintil. X. I, 69; Plutarch, Tom. IX. pp. 387 sqq. Eeiske; and Dio Chrysost. 
 XVIII. p. 255. 
 
 5 Donatus, V'd. Terentii. 
 
 6 See the passages compared by Meineke, Fragm. Com. Gr. Vol. IV. pp. 705 foil. 
 It is interesting to know that it is still doubtful whether the Senarius quoted by St. 
 Paul in I Corinth, xv. 33, was not borrowed by Menander, in his TJials, from some 
 lost play of Euripides, It is quoted in Latin by TertuUian, ad Uxor. I. 8. 
 
 '' X. I, 69. ^ X. I, 70. 
 
 ^ Aristoph. Byz. ap. Schol. Hermogenls, p. 38 : 
 
 ''fi Mhavdpe Kal (Sie, 
 Uorepos ap' vfiQv irbrepov i/j-lfxi^a-aTo; 
 
 Manilius, v. 472 : 
 
 Ardentes juvenes, raptasque in amore puellas, 
 Elusosque senes, agilesque per omnia servos, 
 Quis in cuncta suam produxit saecula vitam 
 Doctor in urbe sua linguae sub flore Menander, 
 Qui vitae ostendit vitam, chartisque sacravit. 
 
 ^* Dum fallax servus, durus pater, improba laena, 
 
 Vivent, dum meretrix blanda, Menandrus erit, 
 
 Ovid, I. Amorum, XV. 18. 
 
202 THE COMEDIANS 
 
 person Menander was foppish and effeminated He wi'ote several 
 prose works 2. A statue was erected to his memory in the theatre 
 at Athens^. 
 
 The date of the birth of Diphilus is unknown ; it is stated 
 that he exhibited at the same time with Menander^. He was 
 born at Sinope^, and died at Smyrna. Of one hundred Comedies, 
 which he is said to have written, the names of forty-eight are pre- 
 served^. The Casina of Plautus is borrowed from his ¥Skr)pov- 
 fievot'^, and the Rudens from some other play^; and Terence tells 
 us, that he introduced into the Adel^M a literal translation of 
 part of the ^vvairoOvrjaKovre^i of Diphilus ^ It appears from the 
 Casina and Rudens and from a fragment of Machon^", that he 
 
 1 In quis Menander, nobilis comoediis, 
 
 Unguento delibutus, vestitu affluens, 
 Veniebat gressu delicato et languido. 
 
 Quisnam cinsedus ille in conspectu meo 
 
 Audet venire ? Kesponderunt proximi : 
 
 Hie est Menander scriptor. 
 
 Phsedrus, V. i. 9, 
 Prorsus si quis Menandrico fluxu delicatam vestem humi protrahat. TertuUian, 
 c. IV. de Pallio. 
 
 2 Suidas, Meuavbpos. ^ Pausan. I. 21, i. 
 
 * Ai(pi\os Htvcoirevs, KarcL tov avrbu -xpovov idida^e Mej/ctJ/Spy, reXcvrq! d^ iv 'Zfj.vpvr], 
 Spafiara S^ avrou p'. Proleg. Arist, p, xxxi. 
 5 Strabo, Xii. p. 546. 
 ^ Fabricius, 11, p. 438, Harles. 
 "^ Clerumence vocatur hsec comoedia 
 
 Grsece; Latine Sortientes. Diphilus 
 
 Hanc Greece scripsit, post id rursum denuo 
 
 Latine Plautus cum latranti nomine. 
 
 Prolog. Casince, 30 — 32. 
 
 ^ Prolog. Rud. 32 : 
 
 Primum dum huic esse nomen urbi Dipliilus 
 Cyrenas voluit. 
 
 ^ Synapothnescontes Diphili comoedia 'st : 
 
 Eam Conmorientes Plautus fecit fabulam. 
 In Grteca adolescens est, qui lenoni eripit 
 Meretricem in prima fabulil : eura Plautus locum 
 Reliquit integrum, eum hie locum sumpsit sibi 
 In Adelphos, verbum de verbo expressum extulit. 
 
 Prol. Adelph. 6 — 11. 
 
 1^ Athen. xiii. p. 580 A: 
 
 6 A/0tXos, 
 
 » " VT] TT]u 'kdrjvav Kol deohs -^vxpov 7'," ^07/, 
 
 ^'TvadoLv, ^x^'5 TOV XcLkkov o/j.oXoyovp.iuojs.'''' 
 
 7] 5' eiTre, " tQv aQv dpafidrdju yap eirifj-eXois 
 
 et's avTou del tovs irpoXoyovs i/x^dWofxeu." 
 
WHO SUCCEEDED ARISTOPHANES. 203 
 
 wrote prologues to his dramas, wliich were probably very like the 
 prologues of the Latin comedians, though they were, we think, 
 originally boiTOwed (like all the New Comedy) from the tragedies 
 of Euripides. 
 
 Apollodoeus, of Gela in Sicily \ is also called a contemporary 
 of Menander. He is often confused with Apollodorus of Carystus 
 in Euboea, whom Suidas calls an Athenian, probably because he 
 had the Athenian franchise, but who flourished between B.C. 300 
 and 260. For he is said to have been a contemporary of Machox, 
 who was a Corinthian or Sicyonian by birth, who resided at 
 Alexandria, and gave instructions in Comedy to Aristophanes of 
 Byzantium, and whose Comedies obtained for him a place among 
 the Alexandrian poets immediately after those of the Pleiad^. Of 
 twenty-four Comedies, which are mentioned under the name of 
 Apollodorus, four are ascribed to the earlier poet, six to the latter, 
 and four to both. The remaining ten are quoted under the name 
 of Apollodorus without any ethnic distinction ^. The later Apollo- 
 dorus was much the more distinguished writer of the two, and 
 there can be little doubt that it is he, and not the Geloan, who is 
 mentioned as one of the six chief poets of the New Comedy\ The 
 Phormio of Terence is a translation from his 'Fj7nBc/ca^6/jL€vo<;, and 
 the Heci/ra, which is said in the didascalia to have been taken 
 from Menander, was, according to a recently discovered fragment, 
 also borrowed from this poet^. 
 
 POSIDIPPUS, the son of Cyniscus of Cassandreia, wrote thirty 
 Comedies ; the titles of fifteen of these are known, and some of 
 them were Latinized like those of the three last mentioned poets ^. 
 He began to exhibit in 289 B.C., two years after the death of Me- 
 nander^. 
 
 ^ On the two comedians of this name see Clinton, F. H. III. pp. 521, 2; Meineke, 
 HiM. CHt. Com. pp. 459 sqq. 
 
 ^ Athenjeus, p. 664 A (cf. vr. p. 241 f) : ■r]v 5' dyaObs Toirjrris et ris aXXoj tQv 
 fMera tovs eirTo,. The author of the article on Apollodorus of Carystus, in Smith's 
 Dictionary of Biography, applies to Apollodorus what Athenaeus says of Machon. 
 
 3 Clinton's F. H. ill. yjp. 521, 2. ■* Meineke, p. 462. 
 
 ^ Mai, Frar/m. Plant, et Terent. p. 38: 'Tabula ejus [Terentii] exstant quatuor 
 e Menandro translata, Andria, Eunuchus, Adelphee et Heautontimorumenos ; duse ex 
 Apollodoro Caricio [sic] Hecyra et Phormio." 
 
 ^ Aul. Gell. II. 23. '^ Suidas, lioaelbiinros. 
 
204 THE COMEDIANS WHO SUCCEEDED ARISTOPHANES. 
 
 The Greek Comedy properly ends with Posidippus, but there 
 are some writers of a later date called comedians. Rhinthon, of 
 Tarentum, is called a comedian by Suidas, but his plays seem to 
 have been rather plilyacographies, or Tragi-comedies, and of those 
 he left thirty-eight. He flourished in the reign of the first 
 Ptolemy^. The titles of six of his plays are known 2. Sopater, 
 of Paphos, was a writer of the same kind ; and also Sotades, of 
 Crete, who flourished under Ptolemy Philadelphus, and wrote in 
 the Ionic dialect^, and in the so-called Ionic a minor e metre. 
 From the extravagant indecency of the Sotadean poems the name 
 has become a by-word of reproach'^. 
 
 1 Suidas: 'Vbdcov, Tapavrivos, kci}/j.ik6s, apxvyos tt]5 KoXovfiiurjs 'IXapoTpa7(^5tas 6' 
 effTi ^\vaKoypa<pLa. vlbs 8^ ■^u Kepa/x^ois /cat '^k'^ovev irri tov irpuiTov JlToXefiaiov. 
 Apd/xara 5^ avrov KoofxiKa rpayiKa Xrf. 
 
 2 Clinton, F. IT. iii. p. 486. 3 /j^^^, p^ ^qq, 
 ^ See History of Greek Literature, il. p. 464. 
 
CHEONOLOGY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE GREEK DEAMA, 
 
 B. C. ' Olympiad. 
 
 The Drama. 
 
 Contemporary Persons and Events. 
 
 708 
 
 693 
 610 
 
 594 
 
 562 
 
 549 
 544 
 535 
 
 5^5 
 524 
 519 
 518 
 511 
 
 500 
 499 
 
 495 
 490 
 
 xvni. I. 
 
 XXI. 4. 
 
 xui. 3. 
 
 XLVI. 3. 
 LIV. 3. 
 
 LVII. 4. 
 LIX. J. 
 LXI. 2. 
 
 LXIII. 4. 
 LXIV. I. 
 LXV. 2. 
 3- 
 
 Lxvn. 2. 
 
 508 Lxvni. I, 
 
 Archilockus. 
 Sinwnides of Amorgus. 
 Anon and Stesichorus fl. 
 Solon fl. 
 Siisarion. 
 
 Tlieognis. 
 
 Tkespis first exhibits. 
 
 ^schylus bom. 
 
 Cltcerilus first exhibits. 
 Cratinus bom. 
 
 PhiY'^ichus first exhibits. 
 
 Institution of the Xopos av8puv. 
 Lasus of Hemiione, the dithy- 
 rambic poet. 
 
 Gyges of Lydia. 
 
 Pisander of Corinth. 
 
 Usurpation of Pisistratus, B.C. 
 560. — The accession of Cyrus, 
 B.C. 559. 
 
 Deatb of Phalaris. 
 
 A nacreon, Ihycus, Eipjponax, — 
 Pythagoras. 
 
 Camhyses conquers Egypt. 
 
 Pindar bom. 
 
 Expulsion of the P isistratid<B, 
 B.C. 510 — of the TarqidnSf 
 B.C. 509. 
 
 HeracUtus and Parmenides, the 
 philosophers. — Hecatceus, the 
 historian. 
 
 LXX. 1. ^/jicAannws perfects Comedy. Birth of Anaxagoras. 
 
 jEschylus first exbibits, and con- 
 tends with Ckceinlus and Pra- 
 tinas. 
 
 Birth of Sophocles. 
 Lxxii. 3. 1 ^schylus at Marathon. 
 
 Ionian war commences, and 
 Sardis is burnt. 
 
 Miletus taken, B.C. 494. 
 MUtiades. 
 
206 
 
 CHEONOLOGY OF ^HE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 Olympiad. 
 
 The Drama. 
 
 Contemporary Persons and Events. 
 
 LXXIII. 2. 
 LXXIV. I, 
 
 LXXVI. J 
 
 LXXVIII. I. 
 
 LXXX. 3. 
 LXXXI. I. 
 
 LXXXII. 2. 
 3. 
 
 LXXXIII, I. 
 LXXXIV. 4. 
 
 LXXXVI. 2. 
 
 
 Chionides first exhibits. 
 
 J^schylus gains his first tragic 
 prize. 
 
 Euripides born. 
 
 Epicharmi 'Naaoi. 
 
 Phrynichus victor with his 4'ot- 
 fiacrai. Themisiocles choragus. 
 
 jEscliyli UipaaL, ^luevs, TXauKos 
 IIoT//tei;s, npojj,7]devs Hvp^opos. 
 
 Sophocles gains his first tragic 
 prize. jEschylus goes to Sicily, 
 
 jEscTiyli 'Opearela. ^schylus 
 again retires to Sicily. 
 
 jEschylus dies. 
 
 Euripides exhibits the Peliades. 
 
 Aristarchus, of Tegea, the trage- 
 dian, and Cratinus, the comic 
 poet, flourish. 
 
 Ion of Chios begins to exhibit. 
 
 Crates exhibits. 
 
 Cratini 'ApxO^oxoi. 
 
 Achceus Eretriensis, the tragedian. 
 
 Euripides gains the first tragic 
 prize. 
 
 Comedy prohibited by a public 
 decree. 
 
 The prohibition of comedy re- 
 
 Phrynichus, the comic poet, first 
 exhibits. 
 
 Lysippus, the comic poet, is vic- 
 torious. 
 
 Birth of Herodotus. 
 
 Thermopylse, Salamis. — Leoni- 
 das, Aristides, Themistodes. — 
 Pherecydes, the historian. — 
 Gelon of Syracuse, 
 
 Hiero succeeds Gelon, B.C. 478. 
 
 Simonides gains the prize 'AvdpQu 
 
 Xoy3(p. 
 
 Birth of Thucydides, B.C. 471. 
 
 Socrates born. — Mycense destroy- 
 ed by the Argives. — Death of 
 Simonides, B.C. 467. 
 
 Anaxagoras. Birth of Lysias. 
 
 Herodotus at Olympia. 
 
 End of the Messenian and Egyp- 
 tian wars. — Empedocles and 
 Zeno. — Pericles. 
 
 Bacckylides, the lyric poet. — Ar- 
 chelaus, the philosopher. 
 
 Death of Cimon, B.C. 449. 
 
 Battle of Coronea. 
 
 Herodotus and Lysias go with 
 the colonists to Thurium, B.C. 
 443. 
 
 The Saraian war, in which Sopho- 
 cles is colleague with Pericles. 
 
 Isocrates born, b. C. 436. 
 
 Sea-fight between the Corinthians 
 and Corcyraeans. 
 
 Andocides, Meton, Aspasia. 
 
CHKOXOLOGY OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 207 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Olympiad. 
 
 The Drama. 
 
 Contemporary Persons and Erents. 
 
 431 
 
 LXXXVn. 2. 
 
 Euripidis M^Seta, ^iKoKT-qTrj^, 
 AiKTVS, Qepiarai. 
 
 Attempt of the Thebans on Pla- 
 taea. 
 
 
 
 Aristomenes, the comic poet. 
 
 Hippocrates. 
 
 430 
 
 3. 
 
 ffermippics, the comic poet. 
 
 Plague at Athens. 
 
 429 
 
 4- 
 
 Eupolk exhibits. 
 
 Siege of Plataea.— Bui;h of Plato. 
 
 4.8 
 
 Lxxxvni. I. 
 
 Euripidis 'l-mroXirro^. 
 Plato, the comic poet. 
 
 Anaocagoi'as dies. 
 
 427 
 
 2. 
 
 A?'istophanis AatraXe??. 
 
 Surrender of Platfea.— (Po^^/as 
 of Leontium. 
 
 426 
 
 3- 
 
 Aristophanis Ba^vXuvLOi. 
 
 Tanagra. 
 
 425 
 
 4- 
 
 Aristophanes first with the 'Axap- 
 veh: Cratinus second with the 
 XeifjLa^ofxei'oi: Eupolis third 
 with the '^ovfjL-qviai. 
 
 Cleon at Sphacteria. 
 
 424 
 
 Lxxxix. r. 
 
 Aristophanes first with the 'Itt- 
 Trers; Cratinus second with 
 the ZoLTvpot: Ainstomenesthicd 
 with the 'OXo^vpfjLoL 
 
 Xenophon at Delium.— Amphi- 
 polis taken from Thucydides 
 by Brasidas. 
 
 423 
 
 2. 
 
 Cratinus fii'st with the Uvtlvt]: 
 Ameipsias second with the 
 Kowos : Aristophanes third 
 with the Xe0eXai. 
 
 The year's tnice with Lacedte- 
 nion. — Alcibiades begins to act 
 in public afiairs. 
 
 422 
 
 3. 
 
 Aristophanis 'Z4>riKes et ai 5eiJ- 
 repai 'Se^eKai. (Sed vide 
 supra.) 
 
 Cratinus dies. 
 
 Brasidas and Cleon killed at 
 Amphipolis. 
 
 421 
 
 4- 
 
 Eupolidis 'M.apLKcis et KoXa/ces. 
 
 Truce for fifty years with Lace- 
 dsemon. 
 
 420 
 
 XC. I. 
 
 Eupolidis AuToXvKos et ^Xarpa- 
 
 TeVTOl. 
 
 Treaty with the Argives. 
 
 419 
 
 ^• 
 
 Aristophanis Blprivr]. 
 
 
 416 
 
 XCI. I, 
 
 Agathon gains the tragic prize. 
 
 Capture of Melos. 
 
 415 
 
 2. 
 
 XenocUs first ; Euripides second 
 with the Tpuiddes, 'AXe^avdpos, 
 ILd\ap.7j8r]s, and "Eiav^os. 
 
 Archippus, the comic poet, gains 
 the prize. 
 
 Expedition to Sicily. 
 
 414 
 
 3. 
 
 Aristophanis 'Api<pidpao$ {els 
 Arjvaia). 
 
 i 
 
208 
 
 CHRONOLOGY OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Olympiad. 
 
 The Drama. 
 
 Contemporary Persons and Events. 
 
 
 
 Ameipsias first with the Kw/uao-- 
 rat: Aristophanes second with 
 the "Opvides : Phrynichus third 
 with the Mo^'or/JOTTos {els d(TTv). 
 
 
 413 
 
 XCI. 4. 
 
 Hegemonis T ty avTOfMaxia-. 
 
 Destruction of the Athenian 
 army before Syracuse. 
 
 412 
 
 XCII. 1. 
 
 Euripidis ' Audpofxe'da. 
 
 Lesbos, Chios, and Erythrae re- 
 volt. 
 
 411 
 
 2. 
 
 Aristophanis AvcnaTpdrrj et Qec- 
 /xo^optd^ova-ai. 
 
 The 400 at Athens. 
 
 409 
 
 4- 
 
 Sophocles first with the $1X0- 
 
 KTTjTrjS. 
 
 
 408 
 
 XCIII. I. 
 
 Euri'pidis ^Opeartji. 
 
 
 406 
 
 3. 
 
 Euripides dies. 
 
 A rginusoi. — Dionysius becomes 
 master of Syracuse. — Philis- 
 tus, the Sicilian historian. 
 
 405 
 
 4. 
 
 Death of Sophocles. 
 
 JEgospotanii. — Conon. 
 
 
 
 Aristopihanis "BdrpaxoL, first ; 
 Phrynichi Movaat, second ; 
 Platonis KXeo^ujv, third. 
 
 The Thirty at Athens. 
 
 404 
 
 XCIV. I. 
 
 Antiphanes born. 
 
 
 401 
 
 3- 
 
 Sophoclis Olbiirovs iirl Ko\diu(p 
 exhibited by the younger So- 
 phocles; who first represented 
 in his own name, B.C. 396. 
 
 Xenophon, with Cyrus. — Ctesias, 
 the historian. — Plato. 
 
 392 
 
 XCVII. I. 
 
 Aristophanis 'EKK\i/](ndl^ova-ai. 
 
 Agesilaus. 
 
 388 
 
 XCVIII. I. 
 
 Aristophanis UKovtos /3'. 
 
 
 387 
 
 2. 
 
 
 Peace of Antalcidas. 
 
 386 
 
 3- 
 
 Theoponi'pus, the last poet of the 
 Old Comedy. 
 
 
 383 
 
 XCIX. 2. 
 
 Antiphanes begins to exhibit. 
 
 
 376 
 
 CI. I. 
 
 Euhulus, Araros, and Anaxan- 
 drides, the comic poets, flou- 
 rished. 
 
 
 368 
 
 cm. I. 
 
 Aphareus, the tragedian. 
 
 
 356 
 
 CVI. T. 
 
 Alexis, the comic poet. 
 
 Alexander born. — Expulsion of 
 Dionysius. — Death of Timo- 
 theus, the musician. 
 
 348 
 
 CVIII. I. 
 
 Heraclides, the comic poet. 
 
 Demosthenes against Midias. — 
 Philip and the Olynthian war. 
 
CHRONOLOGY OF THE GREEK DRAMA. 
 
 209 
 
 B.C. 
 
 OljTiipiacL 
 
 ! 
 
 The Drama. 
 
 
 Contemporary Persons and Events. 
 
 342 
 
 CIX. 3. 
 
 Birth of Menandcv. 
 
 1 
 
 ' Timoleon at Syracuse.— Zjocroff.-?. 
 
 j — A ristotle. 
 
 336 
 
 CXI. I. 
 
 Amphis, the comic poet, 
 exhibits. 
 
 1 
 stni ' Philip assassinated. 
 
 335 
 
 2. 
 
 Philippides, the comedian. 
 
 
 
 332 
 
 cxn. I. 
 
 Stephanus, the comic poet. 
 
 
 Siege of Tyre. 
 
 330 
 
 3. 
 
 Philemon begins to exhibit. 
 
 
 Darius slain. 
 
 324 
 
 CXIV, I. 
 
 Timocles still exhibits. 
 
 
 Alexander dies. — Demosthenes 
 dies, B.C. 322. 
 
 321 
 
 — 4. 
 
 Menandri 'Opy-q. 
 Dipkilus. 
 
 
 
 307 
 
 CXVIII. I. 
 
 Demetrius, the comic poet. 
 
 
 EpicuriLS. — Agathocles. 
 
 304 
 
 CXIX. I. 
 
 Archedippus, Philijjpides, and 
 AnaxippiiS, the comic poets, 
 flourish. 
 
 Demetrius PoUorcetes. 
 
 291 
 
 CXXII. 2. 
 
 Death of Menander. 
 
 
 Arcesila.us. 
 
 289 
 
 4- 
 
 Posidlppus begins to exhibit — 
 Rhinthon flourishes. 
 
 
 280 
 
 CXXV, I. 
 
 Sotades. 
 
 
 War with Pyrrhus. 
 
 no 
 
 cxxxvn. 3. 
 
 Maclio, the comedian. 
 
 
 . 
 
 200 
 
 CXLV, T. 
 
 ApoJIodo'Vus, the Carystian. 
 
 
 Plaufus dies. 
 
 D. T. G. 
 
 14 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 EXHIBITION OF THE GREEK DRAMA, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF GREEK PLAYS IN 
 
 GENERAL. 
 
 Dass man auf das ganze Verhdltniss der Orchestra zur BuJine Tceine vom heutigen 
 Theater entnommenen Vorstellungen ubertragen, und die alte Tragodie nicht 
 MODEENisiBEN diirfc, ist ja wohl eine der ersten Regeln, die man hei der 
 Beurtheilung dieser Dinge zu heohachten hat. — K. 0. Mueller. 
 
 IF the Greek plays tliemselves differed essentially from those of 
 our own times, they were even more dissimilar in respect of the 
 mode and circumstances of their representation. We have theatrical 
 exhibitions of some kind every evening throughout the greater part 
 of the year, and in capital cities many are going on at the same 
 time in different theatres. In Greece the dramatic performances 
 were carried on for a few days in the Spring ; the theatre was large 
 enough to contain the whole population, and every citizen was 
 there, as a matter of course, from daybreak to sunsets With us a 
 successful play is repeated night after night, for months together : 
 in Greece the most admired dramas were seldom repeated, and 
 never in the same year. The theatre with us is merely a place of 
 public entertainment; in Greece it was the temple of the god, 
 whose altar was the central point of the semicircle of seats or steps, 
 
 1 JEsch. Kara Ktijct. p. 488, Bekker: /cat a^a rrj v/jt-ipg. y^yetro rots irpid^eaiv els 
 rh Oiarpov. 
 
 The torch-races in the last plays of a trilogia (above, p. 102) seem to show that the 
 exhibitions were not over till dark. 
 
REPRESENTATION OF GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 211 
 
 from which some 30,000^ of his worshippers gazed upon a spectacle 
 instituted in his honour. Our theatrical costumes are intended to 
 convey an idea of the dresses actually worn by the persons repre- 
 sented, while those of the Greeks were nothing but modifications of 
 the festal robes worn in the Dionysian processions 2. Finally, the 
 modern playwright has only the approbation or disapprobation of 
 his audience to look to; whereas no Greek play was represented 
 until it had been approved by a board appointed to decide between 
 the rival dramatists. It will be worth our while, then, to consider 
 separately the distinguishing peculiarities of a Greek dramatic ex- 
 hibition. We shall discuss the points of difference successively, as 
 they relate to the time, the means, the j^lace, and the manner of per- 
 formance; to which we shall add a few remarks on the audience 
 and the actors. And first with regard to the time. 
 
 Theatrical exhibitions formed a part of certain festivals of Bac- 
 chus; in order, then, to ascertain at what time of the year they 
 took place, we must inquire how many festivals were held in Attica 
 in honom- of that God, and then detennine at which of them thea- 
 trical representations were given. There have been great diversi- 
 ties of opinion in regard to the number of the Attic Dionysia^: it 
 appears, however, to be now pretty generally agreed among scholars 
 that there were fom- Bacchic feasts ; in the sixth, seventh, eighth, 
 and ninth months respectively of the Attic year. 
 
 I. The " country Dionysia," [to, Kar dypoix; Acovvcna,) were 
 celebrated all over Attica, in the month Poseideon, which included 
 the latter part of December and the beginning of January. This 
 
 ^ Plato, Sympos. p. 175 E. 
 
 2 Miiller, Eumeniden, § 32, and Hist. Or. Lit, i. p. 393 new ed. 
 
 ^ The I'eader who wishes to investigate the question fully is referred to Scaliger 
 {Emendat. Temp. 1. p. ■29), Paulraier {Exercitat. in Auctorcs Girecos, pp. 617 — 619), 
 Petit {Le(/g. AtticcB, pp. 112 — 117), Spanheim {Arr/um. ad Arisf. Ban. Tom. iii. pp. 122 
 sqq. ed. Beck), Oderici (Bissei-t. de Didasc. Marmorea, Eom, 1777, and in Marini, 
 Jscriz. Alhane, Eom. 1785, pp. 161 — 170), Kanngiesser {Kom. JBuhne, pp. i6r — 170), 
 and Hermann (Beck's A ristojiJi. Tom. v. pp. 11 — 28), who infer from the Scholiast, 
 on Aristoph. Ach. 201 and 503, that the Lenaea were identical with the rural Diony- 
 sia; to Selden (ad Marm. Oxon. pp. 35 — 39), Corsiui (F. A. ii. 325 — 3'29^ Euhnken 
 (in Alberti's Hesych. Auctar. to Vol. I. p. 1000), Barth^lemy {Mem. de I' Acad, des 
 Inscr. XXXIX. pp. 172 sqq.), Wyttenbach {Bihlioth. Crit. ii. 3, pp. 41 sqq.), Spalding 
 {Ahhandl. d. Bcrl. Academic, 1804— 181 1, pp. 70 — 82), Blomfield (in Mus. Crit. ii. 
 PP- 75 sqq.), and Clinton (^F. H. ii. p. 332), who identify the Lena?a and Anthesteria; 
 finally, to Bdckh (Ahhandl. d. Berlin. Acad. t8i6, pp. 47 — 124), Buttmann (ad Dem. 
 Mid. p. 119), and Dr Thirlwall (in the Phil. Mus. ii. pp. 273 fol.), who adopt the 
 opinion stated in the text. Some arguments in favour of the second hypothesis 
 have been brought forward by a writer in the Classical Museum, No. xi. pp. 
 70 sqq. 
 
 14—2 
 
212 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 was the festival of the vintage, which is still in some places post- 
 poned to December ^ 
 
 II. The festival of the wine-press (ra Ar]vaLa) was held in 
 Gamelion, which corresponded to the Ionian month Lengeon, and 
 to part of January and February. It was, like tlie rural Dionysia, 
 a vintage festival, but differed from them in being confined to a 
 particular spot in the city of Athens, called the Leneeon, where 
 the first wine-press {Xrjvo^;) was erected. 
 
 III. The " Anthesteria " {ra ''AvOea-nqpia, ra ev Atfival^) 
 were held on the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth days of the 
 month Anthesterion. This was not a vintage festival, like the 
 former two. The new wine was drawn from the cask on the 
 first day of the feast [IlLOolyta), and tasted on the second day 
 (Xoe?) : the third day was called XvrpoL, on account of the ban- 
 queting which went on then 2. At the Choes each of the citizens 
 had a separate cup, a custom which arose, according to the 
 tradition, from the presence of Orestes at the feast, before he had 
 been duly purified^; it has been thought, however, to refer to 
 a difference of castes among the worshippers at the time of the 
 adoption of the Dionysian rites in the city''. The " Anthesteria" 
 are called by Thucydides the more ancient festival of Bacchus ^. 
 
 IV. The ''great Dionysia" {ra ev aaret, tcl Kar daru, ra 
 dcTTiKa) were celebrated between the eighth and eighteenth of 
 Elaphebolion^. This festival is always to be understood when the 
 Dionysia are mentioned without any qualifying epithet. 
 
 At the first, second, and fourth of these festivals, it is known 
 that theatrical exhibitions took place. The exhibitions at the 
 country Dionysia were generally of old pieces'^; indeed, there is 
 no instance of a play being acted on those occasions for the first 
 time, at least after tlie Greek Drama had arrived at perfection. 
 
 1 Philol. Mus. II. p. 296. 
 
 2 See the end of the Acliarnians, and Aul. Gell. viii. 24. 
 
 3 See Miiller's Eumeniden, § 50. '^ See above, p. 55. ^ ll. 15. 
 
 ^ ^schin. irepl irapairpea^. p. 36: /xerd ra Aiouvaia iu da-ret Kal ttjv iu Atovvaov 
 iKKXrjcrtav Trpoypa.\f/a.L bvo eKKXrjaias, rrjv jxkv rfj oy^Sri ewl deKa, ttjv 8^ rfj evdrrj iwl d^Ku : 
 and Kara Kttjct. p. 63 : eiidvs fiera to. Aiopvaia rd, iv aarei, rrj 67567? /cat ifdrrj iirl 
 SiKa. 
 
 ^ Thus Demosthenes twits ^schines with his wretched performances in some of 
 the characters of Sophocles and Euripides at the deme Cotyttus. De Corona, p. 288, 
 Comp. ^schin. c. Timarch. p. 158. There appear to have been dramatic exhibitions 
 at Phlyse, in the time of Isaeus : Kal ov fibuov els rd Toiavra irapeKaXovfieda, dXXd koI 
 ei's AiovoaLa ets 07^61' yyeu del ijfxds, Kal fxer' eKeivov re edeupovfxev Kadi)ixevoi. -wap avrbv, 
 &c. — Isaeus, de Ciron. Hcered. Vol. l. p. 114, Orator. Attic. Oxford. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 213 
 
 At tlie Lena^a and the great Dionjsia, both Tragedies and 
 Comedies were performed^; at the latter the Tragedies at least 
 were always new pieces ; the instances in the didascalue^ which 
 have come down to us, of representations at the Lena3a are indeed 
 always of new pieces ^, but from the manner in which the exhibition 
 of new Tragedies is mentioned in connexion with the city festival^, 
 we must conclude that repetitions were allowed at the Lencea, as 
 well as at the country Dionysia. The month Elaphebolion may 
 have been selected for the representation of new Tragedies, because 
 Athens was then full of the dependent allies, who came at that 
 time to pay the tributes^, whereas the Athenians alone were 
 present at the Lena^a. It does not clearly aj^pear that there 
 were any theatrical exhibitions at the Anthesteria ; it is, however, 
 at least probable that the Tragedians read to a select audience at 
 the Anthesteria the Tragedies which they had composed for the 
 festival in the following month, or, perhaps, the contests took place 
 then, and the intervening month was employed in perfecting the 
 actors and chorus in their parts ^. 
 
 In considering the means of performance, we must recal to 
 mind the different origins of the two constituent parts of a Greek 
 drama — the chorus and the dialogue. Choruses were, as we have 
 
 ^ Law in Demosth. Mid. p. 517. ^I fTri Arjvaiix} ■kqixttt] koL ol Tpaycpdol /cat oi 
 K<j}fi(i}doi, Kai TO?s iv aarei ALOPvalois ij iro/xTrrj Kal ol iraldes /cat 6 koj/xos /cat ol 
 K(x)fi(i}5ol Kal ol T payu}5oi. 
 
 2 See above, pp. 160, 182, 187, 189. 
 
 ^ See the decree, Demosthenes irepl arecpduov, p. 264, Bekker: dvayopevaai tou 
 (TTiipavov iu Tip 6 ear pep Aiovvaiois rpaycpdoh Kaivo7s. Lexicon Sangerm. p. 309, Bekker: 
 TpayCi}8o?(XL ; rQv rpaywdujv ol fxev rjcrav iraXaLol ol iraXaid dpd,aaTa eladyovres' ol 8^ 
 Kaivol, ol Kucud /cat /xT^SeVore daaxQ^vTa. See Hemsterhuis on Lucian's Timon, Vol. I. 
 p. 463, Lehmann. 
 
 This custom continued down to the times of Julius Ctesar, when a similar decree 
 was passed in favour of Hyrcauus the high-priest and Ethnarch of the Jews. See 
 Josephus, Antiq. Jud. xiv. 8. 
 
 * Ov ydp fjic Kal vvv dia^aXel KXeW, ort 
 
 '^evuv irapbvTwv rr}v irokiv /ca/ccDs \iycj. 
 AvTol yap ea/xdi', outtI Arjvaiip r' dyuv, 
 KouTTo; t,^i^oi irdpeLffLV ovre yap (popoi. 
 "HKovaiv, oiV e/c tQu irdXectjv ol ^v/xfJiaxoL' 
 'AX\' ia/j-ev avrol vvv ye TrepteTrrtcr/ze/^of 
 Toi)s yap fi^TOLKOvs dxvpa tQv daTQv \eyu. 
 
 Aristoph. Acharn. 477: see the Scholiast. 
 Hence ^-Eschines takes occasion to reproach Demosthenes with being too vain to be 
 content with the applause of his own fellow-citizens, since he must needs have the 
 crown decreed him proclaimed at the great Dionysia, when all Greece was present : 
 ov8h iKKXrjcna^ovTOjv 'Adrjvaiwv dWd Tpay(p5u>v dycoyL^op.evojv Katvtov, oi)5' ivavTiov rov 
 hrjixov, dW evavTLov tCov lEiWrjViov tV ijp.'iv avveiduaLv olov dvdpa T(.fxu)fji.€v. — Contra 
 Ctesijph. Vol. III. p. 469, Oral. Alt. Oxford. 
 ' Philol. Mvs. II. pp. 292 fol. 
 
214 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 seen^, oiiglnally composed of the whole population. When, how- 
 ever, in process of time, the fine arts became more cultivated, the 
 duties of this branch of Tvorship devolved upon a few, and ultimately 
 upon one, who bore the whole expense, when paid dancers were 
 employed 2. This person, who was called the Ghoragus, was con- 
 sidered as the religious representative of the whole people^, and 
 was said to do the state's work for it (KeLrovpyelv'^) . The Choragia, 
 the Gymnasiarchy, the Feasting of the Tribes, and the Architheo- 
 ria, belonged to the class of regularly recurring state burthens 
 {ijKVKXLot XeLToupylav), to which all persons whose property ex- 
 ceeded three talents were liable. It was the choragus' business^ 
 to provide the chorus in all plays, whether Tragic or Comic, and 
 also for the lyric choruses of men and boys, Pyrrhichists, Cyclian 
 dancers, and others; he was selected by the managers of his tribe 
 [iiTifjLekTjToX (fivXri^) for the choragy which had come round to it. 
 His first duty, after collecting his chorus, was to provide and pay 
 a teacher {'x^opoScBaa-KoXo^;) , who instructed them in the songs and 
 dances which they had to perform, and it appears that the choragi 
 drew lots for the first choice of teachers. The choragus had also 
 to pay the musicians and singers who composed the chorus, and 
 was allowed to press children, if their parents did not give them 
 up of their own accord. He was obliged to lodge and maintain 
 the chorus till the time of performance, and to supply the singers 
 with such aliments as conduce to strengthen the voice. In the 
 laws of Solon the age prescribed for the choragus was forty years; 
 but this rule does not appear to have been long in force. The 
 relative expense of the different choruses, in the time of Lysias, is 
 given in a speech of that orator ^ We learn from this that the 
 
 1 Above, p. 27, 2 See Buttmann on Dem. Mid. p. 37. 
 
 3 Hence his person and tlie ornaments which he procured for the occasion were 
 sacred. See Demosth. Mid, p. 519, et passim. 
 
 ^ On this word, see Valckenaer on Amnion. II. 16; Ruhnken, Episf. Crit. I. p. 54; 
 Hesychius, s. v. p. 463, Vol. 11, It is formed from X^ws, Xetrov, XtjI'tov (see Herod. 
 VII. 197: XtjI'tov KaX^ovat t6 irpvravriiov oi 'i^xatoi). The best notion of the meaning 
 of a liturgy may be derived from ^schyl. Eumen. 340 : 
 
 "Lirevhbixevos 5' a^eXetv riva rdaSe /xepifivas 
 6eu>v 5' driXetau i/xah Xetrats cTriKpalveLV, 
 
 if the emendations which we have introduced, or adopted from Miiller, are to be 
 received. 
 
 5 On the choragia, see Bbckh's Public Economy, Vol. ii. pp. 207 foil. Engl. 
 Transl,, or Stuart's Athens. 
 
 *^ LysiaS; 'AttoX. dojpod. p. 698. Translated by Bentley (Phalaris, p. 360). 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 215 
 
 tragic cliorus cost nearly twice as much as the comic, though 
 neither of the dramatic choruses was so expensive as the chorus of 
 men, or the chorus of flute-players ^ 
 
 The actors were the representatives not of the people, but of 
 the poet; consequently the choragus had nothing to do with them 2. 
 If he had paid for them, the dramatic choruses would surely 
 have exceeded in expensiveness all the others; besides, the actors 
 were not allotted to the choragi, but to the poets; and were there- 
 fore paid either by these, or, as we rather think, by the state. 
 
 When a dramatist had made up his mind to bring out a play, 
 he applied, if he intended to represent at the Lenoea, to the king- 
 archon, and, if at the great Dionysia, to the chief archon^ for 
 a chorus, which was given to him^ if his piece was deemed worthy 
 of it^. Along with this chorus he received three actors by lot^, 
 and these he taught independently of the choragus, who confined 
 his attention to the chorus. The most important personage in the 
 formation of every cliorus was the actual leader, precentor, or 
 fugleman, w^hose voice and movements the choreutse followed in all 
 the songs and evolutions of the orchestra''. This functionary was 
 called /copu(^ato9, X^P^^ yye/jicov, %opo7roi09^ also x^P^^'^^'^V^^: ^i^d 
 corresponded no doubt to the i^dp^oyv of the old choruses. It 
 is probable that there were two other fuglemen to take charge of 
 the subordinate divisions of the chorus, when it was broken up 
 into sections ^^, and perhaps the passage in the Eumeiiides, which 
 
 1 Demosth. Mid. p. 565. 
 
 2 This is slio\vn by Bockh, after Heraldus {Puhlic Econonvj, III. ch. 22, p. 455, 
 Engl. Tr.). Notwithstanding, however, what Bockh has said about the passage in 
 Plutarch, Phocion, 19, it seems that the choragus had something todo wdththe costume 
 of the actors, or at least of the supernumeraries who appeared on the stage or in the 
 orchestra. 
 
 3 See above, p. 114, note (i). 
 
 ^ There is some difference of opinion as to the person " who gave the chorus." 
 Some think it was the choragus who was applied to (see Kiister on Aristoph. Eq. 510 ; 
 Ducker on Aristoph. Ran. 94) ; others that it was the archon : this opinion is in itself 
 the most likely to be true, and appears to be confirmed by the words of Aristotle 
 quoted above, p, 70, note (2). 
 
 ^ Hence xopoi/ ^Lbovai signifies generally to approve or praise a poet. See Plato, 
 Resp. II. p. 383 c, and Aristoph. Ran. in p. 159 supra. 
 
 ^ This practice subsisted to the last : see Plotinus, ill. 2, p. 484, Creuzer. 
 
 ^ Aristot. de Mundo, c. 6 : Ko.d6.irep iv X^PV Kopvtpaiov Kardp^afTos avfe-m^xei Trds 
 6 xo/'os- 
 
 8 J. Pollux, IV. § T06. 
 
 ^ Himerius, p. 558 ; Theodor. Prodr. RJiod. IV. p. 170. 
 1^ Buttmann, Index in Dem. Mid. s. v. Kopvcpalos, p. 178. 
 
216 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 led to the absurd supposition that the chorus in that play consisted 
 of three only, refers to the coryph^us and his two immediate 
 subalterns ^ When the whole chorus was drawn up in three lines, 
 these two subalterns stood immediately behind the coryph^us in 
 the second and third ranks respectively, and were called TrapaaraTTj^; 
 and TpcT0(rTaT7}<; with reference to their leader 2. 
 
 It is clear that the three actors, who were termed TrpcoTayco- 
 viorT7](;, Bevrepaycovcarri^;, and rpLTaycovi(TTT]<; respectively^, were 
 always regarded as a distinct troop or company, and that each 
 retained his relative rank. Thus Ischander was regularly a Sevre- 
 paycovtcTTr)^ of the TrpoyraycovicrTr)'; Neoptolemus"^, and ^schines 
 never rose to a higher rank than that of a TpLTayavto-rrf^^. The 
 first actor was regarded as the representative and manager of his 
 troop; he carried the inferior actors with him, received for himself 
 the prize of victory, and, though he may have given a share of 
 this and of the other honours of the performance to his second 
 performer, it is probable that the tritagonist was obliged to be con- 
 tented with his pay^. Before a troop could be regarded as 
 generally entitled to perform it must have gained a prize. Other- 
 wise it was obliged to encounter some previous scrutiny, which 
 was waived in the case of any actor who had succeeded in a com- 
 petition"^. It is reasonable also to conclude that the protagonist of 
 a successful troop was free from the risk of drawing lots for his 
 poet. At least we hear that the eminent actors Oleander and 
 Myniscus attached themselves almost exclusively to ^schylus®; 
 that Sophocles almost monopolized the services of Tlepolemus 
 
 ■^ V. 135 : ^yeip' ^eipe Kal ai/ ttji/5' iyu: d^ (re. 
 
 2 Aristot. Polit. III. 4, 6 : dvayKr] /ult] ixlav elvai rrjv tQ)v ttoKltuv iravTuiv aper-qv, 
 (Sffirep ov5k ruu xopeurcDj' Kopvtpalov /cat irapacrTaTov. Metafh. IV. ii, p. lorSb. 28: 
 dlov Trapaa-TaT-qs TpLToaraTOV wporepov Kal irapav-qTr) v'qrrjr iuda fikv yap 6 Kopv(pa7os, 
 iu6a 5^ 7] fiovT] dpxv. Jul. Pollux, IV. § 106, seems to call the TrapaaxdTrjs 6ei/re- 
 /oofl-raTTjs. 
 
 3 Above, p. 54, note 4. 
 
 ^ Dem. de Fals. Legal, p. 344, 7. 
 
 ^ See the passage quoted at the end of this chapter. 
 
 ^ Dem, de Coron. p. 314; Lucian, Navlg. ad fin., Icaromen. 29; Plutarch, Prcucept. 
 Polit. p. 816 ad fin. 
 
 ^ Hesychius and Suidas, s. v. : ve/x-qaeLS vvoKpiTwV oi iroiriTal e\ap.^avov rpeTs vtto- 
 Kpcras KX-qpCf} ve/x-qO^vras' cSu 6 viK-qcras els rovwibv dKpiriVS (-ros Suid.) TrapeXafi^dvero. 
 Where Hemsterhius conjectures irapeXdix^ave and renders the passage {ad Luciani Tim. 
 c- 5O' "quorum poetarum qui superior discessit, in posterum sine discrimine suos 
 sibi actores legebat." But the context shows that the relative refers to the actors and 
 not to the poets. 
 
 8 Hermann in Aristot, Poet. p. 193. 
 
GEEEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 217 
 
 and Cleidemides^; and that the latter poet sometimes composed 
 his plays with a special reference to the qualities of the actors 
 who had to perform in them 2, just as modern composers will some- 
 times write an opera for a particular singer. The control which the 
 protagonist exercised over his coadjutors is shown in many ways. 
 If the inferior actors had finer voices than their chief, they were 
 sometimes obliged to do themselves imperfect justice in order that 
 he might shine the more^. And though the protagonist had some- 
 times to appear in a humble character by the side of his crowned 
 and sceptred hireling, the tritagonist^, the great actor Theodoras 
 always took care to sustain any part, even that which belonged to 
 the tritagonist, if this involved the first entry on the stage, in order 
 to make sure of the first impression on the audience^. That the 
 poet would undertake to teach a protagonist how to act his play 
 seems very improbable, and the phrase BcBacrKecv hpajjua must refer 
 only to the general superintendance, which the poet, in conjunction 
 with the choragus, exercised during the rehearsals of the play. 
 
 When the day appointed for the trial came on, all parties united 
 their efforts^, and endeavoured to gain the prize by a combination 
 of the best-taught actors with the most sumptuously dressed and 
 most diligently exercised chorus'^. That the exertions of the 
 choragus and the actors were often as' influential w4th the judges 
 as the beauty of the poem cannot be doubted^, when we have so 
 many instances of the ill-success of the best dramatists. The 
 
 ^ Bernhardy, Grundrlss, p. 642. 
 
 ^ Vit. Sophocl. p. X. : koI jrpbs ras (pvaeis avTwv {tCov viroKpLTdv) ypd^ai to. 
 dpafiara. 
 
 3 Cic. div. in Ccecil. 15, 48: ''ut in actoribus Graecis fieri videmus, saspe ilium 
 qui est secundarum vel tertiarum partium, quum possit aliquoties clarius dicere quam 
 ipse primarum, multum submittere ut ille princeps quam maxime excellat." 
 
 ^ Plut. Prcecept. Polit. p. 816 F : cLtovou p.ev yap earLv rbv /xh ev rpaycpdiq, irpior- 
 ayuvLarrju Qeodwpov t} UuiXov ovra pLLadwrQ no ra rpia {rpiTa ?) XeyofTi TroXXct/cts 
 eirecrdai rj TrpoadcaXeyeadai. raTreivuis au eKeTuos ^XV "^^ dLcidrjfxa Kal to (TKrjTTTpov. 
 
 ^ Aristot. Polit. IV. (vil.) 17, p. 1336: iVws 70^ ov KaKu>$ ^Xeye to tolovtov 
 GeoSojpos 6 TTJs Tpay({}bias VTroKpiTrjs' ovdeui yap TrwTrore TraprJKev iavTov Trpoeiadyeiv 
 ovd^ Twv evTeXQv viroKpLTuiv, cbs olK€iov/j.eucjv tCjv deaTOJu rats irpuTaii aKoais. 
 
 ^ The contending choragi were called dvTLxoprjyot (Demosth, Mid. p. 595, Bekker), 
 the rival dramatists avTidLdda-KaXot (Aristoph. Vesp. 14 10), and their performers 
 dvTLTexvoL (Alciphron, ill. 48), a name which is also given to Euripides as the rival of 
 yEschylus in the dramatic contest between them in the Ranee, 815. 
 
 ^ For the harmony and equality of voice required in the chorus see Aristotle, 
 Polit. Ill, 113, § -21 : ovbk dr) xopoSiSacr/caXos tov fiet^ov Kal KdXXcou toO iravTos x^P<^^ 
 tpdeyy bp.evov idaei (rvyxopeveiv. 
 
 ^ It is expressly stated by Aristotle, Ehet. in. i, § 4. Cf. Terence, Phormlo, 
 Prolog, vv. 9, 10. 
 
218 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 judges were appointed by lot, and were generally^, but, as we have 
 seen, not always 2, five in number. The archon administered an 
 oath to them ; and, in the case of the cyclian chorus, partiality or 
 injustice was punishable by fine^. The successful poet was crowned 
 with ivy (with which his choragus and performers were also 
 adorned*), and his name was proclaimed before the audience. The 
 choragus who had exhibited the best musical or theatrical enter- 
 tainment generally received a tripod as a reward or price. This 
 he was at the expense of consecrating, and in some cases built the 
 monument on which it was placed^. Thus the beautiful choragic 
 monument of Lysicrates, which is still standing at Athens, was 
 undoubtedly surmounted by a tripod; and the statue of Bacchus, 
 in a sitting posture, which was on the top of the choragic monu- 
 ment of Thrasyllus, probably supported the tripod on its knees. 
 Such, at least, seems to have been the intention of the holes drilled 
 
 Fig. 
 
 1 See Mauasac, Diss. Crlt. p. 204; Hermann, de quinque judicibus poetarum, 
 Opusc. VII. p. 88. 
 
 2 Above, p. 114. ^ ^schin. /card Kt7]<tl<P. § 85. 
 
 4 See the passages quoted by Blomfield {Mus. Crit. ii. p. 88), and the lines of 
 Simmias, in p. 113, supra. 
 
 5 Lysias ubi supra, p. 202. Comp. Wordsworth's Athens and Attica, pp. 153, 4. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 219 
 
 in the lap of the figure. From the inscriptions on these monuments, 
 the didascalice of Aristotle, Carystius Pergamenus, Dicsearchus, 
 and Callimachus, were probably compiled ^ The choragus in 
 Comedy consecrated the equipments of his chorus 2, and was ex- 
 pected to provide his choreutae with a handsome entertainment, an 
 expectation which, to judge from the complaints of the comic poets 
 themselves, he did not always fulfil in a satisfactory manner^. It 
 is probable that the tragic chorus also looked for a similar conclu- 
 sion of their, labours. The successful poet, as we see from Plato's 
 Banquet, commemorated his victory with a feast. As, however, 
 no prize-drama was permitted to be represented for a second time 
 {with an exception in favour of the three great dramatists, which 
 was not long in operation'*), the poet's glory was very transient; so 
 much so, that when Thucydides wished to predict the immortality 
 of his work, he sought for an apt antithesis in the once-heard 
 dramas of the contemporary poets ^. The time allowed for the 
 representation was portioned out by the'" clepsydra, and seems to 
 have been dependent upon the number of pieces represented 6. 
 What this number was is not known. It is probable, however, 
 that about three trilogies might have been represented on one day*^, 
 
 1 Bockh's Corpus ruscript. I. p, 350. 
 
 ^ Lysias ubi supra. Comp. Theophrastus, Charact. xxn. 
 
 3 See Eupolis, ap. Jul. Poll. ill. § T15, (p. 551 Meineke) : 
 
 ^577 X^PVyOV TTWTTOTe 
 
 pvirapibrepov roC5* elSes ; 
 Aristoph. Acham. 11 20: 
 
 6's 7' i/J-k Tov T\rjp.ova hr}vai.a. xopTr^^ d7re/cXet<r' 
 ddeiirvov. 
 Cf. Arist, Av. 88 and the Scholiast : tovto els dia^oXTjv tov xop7j7oO 6ti fiiKpbu 5^5w- 
 Kev lepeiov. 
 
 ^ Above, p. 99 ; Aul. GeU. vii, 5 ; Plutarch, Hhetorum Vitce. 
 
 ^ I. 22 : KTrj/xa d^ is del fidWoi' rj dyuvicrfia is to irapaxpvP'-C' dKoveiv ^&yKecTai. 
 
 ^ Tov dk firiKovs opos, irpbs fxev tovs dyCovas /cat ttjv atad-qaiv, ov ttjs Tixyv^ i(TTLv. EZ 
 ydp ^dec eKaTov Tpay(x)dLas dywvi^eadac, irpbs Kkexpvbpas dv 'qyiovl^ovTO, ucirep iroTi Kai 
 kWoTi (pa(Tiv. Aristot. Poet. c. vii. 
 
 ^ ** Yet that number seems to have been a fixed thing : so Aristotle speaks of it : 
 eirj 5' dv TOVTO, el tQv fxev dpxo-l<^v iXaTTOvs ai crvcTatjeis eXev, irpos re to ttXtjOos 
 tQ}v TpayuSidv tQv els p-iav dKp6a(Xi.v Tcde/xivoov irap-qKOiev. Poet. § 40. See 
 Tyrwhitt's note. If each tribe fui-nished but one choragus, and not, as some appear 
 to have supposed, one for each diflFerent kind of contest, the number of tragic candi- 
 dates could scarcely have exceeded three. For there seem never to have been less 
 than three or four distinct kinds of choruses at the great Dionysian festivals ; which, 
 ■when portioned out amongst the ten choragi, could not by any chance allow of more 
 than three or four choragi to the tragic competitors ; which agrees very well with all 
 that is elsewhere mentioned on this head, for we seldom meet with more than three 
 candidates recorded, and probably this was in general the whole number of exhibitors. 
 
220 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 The place of exhibition was, in the days of the perfect Greek 
 drama, the great stone theatre erected within the Len^eon, or in- 
 closure sacred to Bacchus. The buikling was commenced in the 
 year 500 B.C., but not finished till about 381 B.C., when Lycurgus 
 was manager of the treasury. In the earlier days of the drama the 
 theatre was of wood, but an accident having occurred at the repre- 
 sentation of some plays of ^schylus and Pratinas, the stone theatre 
 was commenced in its steads 
 
 The student who wishes to entertain an adequate notion of the 
 Greek Theatre must not forget that it was only an improvement 
 upon the mode of representation adopted by Thespis, which it 
 resembled in its general features. The two original elements were 
 the 9v/jL6\7), or altar of Bacchus, round which the cyclian chorus 
 danced 2, and the Xoyetov or stage from which the actor or exarchus 
 spoke ^; it was the representative of the wooden table from which 
 the earliest actor addressed his chorus^, and was also called oKpi^a^. 
 But in the great stone theatres, in which the perfect Greek dramas 
 -were represented, these two simple materials for the exhibition of a 
 play were surrounded by a mass of buildings, and subordinated to 
 other details of a very artificial and complicated description. That 
 part of the structure, which was set apart for the audience, and was 
 more properly called the Oiarpov, may be discussed without any 
 doubt or difficulty; for not only are the authorities explicit in their 
 accounts, but we have many remains which are sufficiently com- 
 plete to serve as a safe basis for architectural restorations ; and the 
 theatre at Aspendus in Pamphylia, which has come down to us 
 without a single defect of any consequence in the stone work, en- 
 ables us to restore, with very slight risk of error, all the details of 
 
 Aristophanes, indeed, had on one occasion /om7' rival comedians to oppose {Argum. ill. 
 in Plut.) ; but this was, in all likelihood, at the Lencea, when, perhaps, not a single 
 tragedy had been offered for representation, and, consequently, a large proportion of 
 choruses would be left disengaged for comic candidates. 
 
 *' If the custom of contending with tetralogies was still retained, Aristotle, in the 
 passage above, most probably intended by rGiv Tpayixihiuv tQiv eh fiiau aKpbaaiv rede/xe- 
 v(j}v the exhibition of one such tetralogy. This supposition is in some measure 
 supported by the fact, that there were three or four separate hearings in the day; 
 since four tetralogies would occupy from twelve to sixteen hours : and if, as is natural, 
 each competitor took up a whole hearing, tliis will confii-m our former induction with 
 regard to the number of candidates." Former Editor. 
 
 1 Libanius' Argument. Deinosth. Olynth. I. and Suidas, Uparivas. 
 
 2 See Miiller, Anhang zum Buck, ^sch. Eanieniden, p. 35. 
 
 3 Above, p. 100, note 5. 
 
 ^ Above, p. 60; Pollux, IV. 123: eXeos 5^ rjv rpdwe^a dpxaia, e^' 7]u irpb QeaTridos 
 els Tis dfajSds rots x^pevracs dTreKpivero. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 221 
 
 the proscenium and oreliestra whicli were presented to the eyes of a 
 Greek audience. With regard, however, to the minor arrangements 
 of the stage, such as the painted scenes and the other machinery of 
 exhibition, we are left in a great measure to an intei-pretation of the 
 ancient descriptions ; for the more fragile materials of which these 
 parts of the theatre were constructed have yielded to the stress of 
 time, and so left us without any tangible evidence to support the 
 scattered statements of ancient writers. It will be desirable, there- 
 fore, before we proceed to give a general description of a Greek 
 theatre, based on an examination of all the authorities, and in- 
 cluding all the particulars for which we have any evidence, either 
 monumental or literary, to present to the student the actual form 
 of the best preserved of the ancient theatres, and to make this 
 ocular demonstration the basis and starting-point of the more theo- 
 retical reconstructions. 
 
 The theatre at Aspendus belongs iTnquestionably to the times of 
 the Eoman domination in Asia Minor. An inscription over the 
 eastern door informs us that two brothers, A. Curtius Crispinus 
 Arruntianus and A. Curtius Auspicatus Titinnianus, in accordance 
 with their father's will, had contributed to the repairs or adornment 
 of the theatre in honour of their ancestral gods and the imperial 
 house ^ ; and it has been conjectured ^ from an inscription at Prse- 
 neste, which one of the two brothers had set up to P. ^lius Pius 
 Cm'tianus, that these persons lived in the time of M. Antoninus. 
 Be that as it may, other inscriptions, placed on a pedestal in the 
 interior, and over the door leading to the seats, inform us that the 
 architect was a Greek, Zeno the son of Theodorus^. And we may 
 infer that the theatre at Aspendus, though it belongs in its present 
 state to the time of the Eoman Caesars, was probably built on the 
 foundations, and perhaps to a certain extent according to the model 
 of a previously existing Greek theatre. In its general features it 
 corresponds to the restorations which have been made, with the aid 
 
 1 Bockh, C. I. III. p. 1 163: 
 
 Dis patriis et domui Augustorum 
 ex testamento A. Curtii Crispini A. Curtius Crispinus Arrun- 
 tianus et A. Curtius Auspicatus Titinnianus fecei-unt. 
 Geois TrarpioLS Kal 56/x.a; 'Le^a(xrQ>v 
 €K diaOrjKTji A. Kovpriov KpeKnreivov A. Ko6pTio^ KpeLaireiPOS ^KppovV' 
 TLavbs Kal A. Kovprios AvaTriKdros TiTLvviavbs eirolrjaav. 
 
 2 Henzen, Annali deW Institnto cli Corr. Arch. 1852, p. 165. 
 ' Bockh, III. pp. 171, 1 161. 
 
222 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 of the fragments, of the cavea of the theatre at Catana as seen from 
 the stage ^, and of the stage of the theatre at Tauromenium, as seen 
 from the cavea^. It contains all that was required for the repre- 
 sentation of a Greek play in the best period of the drama; and 
 though, as we shall see, Vitruvius makes certain distinctions be- 
 tween the Greek and Eoman theatres, it does not follow that all 
 theatres built in Greek cities during the Koman period departed 
 from the ancient model, which, after all, was the point of departure 
 for the Roman architects themselves. 
 
 It will be observed that the theatre at Aspendus, as represented 
 in the accompanying ground-plan (Plate 1), elevation of the lower 
 front (fig. 2), and view of the interior (see Frontispiece)^, is externally 
 
 Fig. 2. 
 
 a plain building, with three complete rows of windows, besides six- 
 teen other openings of the same kind. In the interior, the theatrum, 
 or part allotted to the spectators, is a hemicycle composed of two 
 
 1 Serradifalco, Ant'tch. delta Sicilia, Vol. V. Taf. in. ; Wieseler, TJieatergebaude, 
 Taf. III. 12. 
 
 2 Serradifalco, Vol. v. Tav. XXII. ; Wieseler, Taf. ill. 6. 
 
 ^ These illustrations are taken from Texier, Description de VAsie Mineiire, Paris, 
 1849, Vol. III. PI. ■232 sqq. The description is due to Schiinborn {Scene der Hellenen, 
 pp. 26—28, 83 — 94), who saw the theatre about the same time as Texier. 
 
g 
 o 
 
 
 m 
 
 i 
 
 m ■ 
 
 5 a 
 
 I i 
 
 &2 
 
 =^ 
 
 i 
 
GREEK PLATS IN GENERAL. 223 
 
 prcecinctiones or divisions separated by a diazoma or lobby, and 
 there are nineteen tiers of seats in each of these separate lialves of 
 the theatre. The whole is crowned by a portico or gallery with 
 fifty-eight arches. The great majority of the audience must have 
 got to their places through the j)arod{ of the orchestra, from which 
 there are steps leading to the rows of seats, or through the gallery 
 at the upper end, which had doors behind it. It was, however, 
 possible to reach the upper seats by a door at the north end of the 
 seats leading to the diazoma. The scene-front is connected with 
 the spectators' seats by walls on either side rising to the full height 
 of the theatre, and there can be no doubt that this part of the 
 building was covered in by a roof. There are three stories in the 
 scene. In the first story there are five doors. A cubical basement 
 of stone appears in each angle of the scene, and these are continued 
 by the sides of the doors, so that there are twenty of them in all. 
 Those in the corners have each of them an unfluted column reach- 
 ing to the second story, and these columns are still found in the 
 Greek theatre at Myra in Lycia. The other basements by the 
 doors were probably the distances from the proscenium at which the 
 movable scenery hung from the balconies above. Besides the five 
 doors the first story has nine windows, of which the four larger 
 stand between the doors, and the other five over the doors. These 
 windows, like those in the upper story, are merely ornamental, as 
 they do not go through the wall. In the second story, immediately 
 over the cubical basements of the podium, there is a corresponding 
 number of little balconies, each consisting of a slab resting on two 
 supports projecting at right angles fr-om the wall. The faces of the 
 latter are ornamented, like the frieze of a building, with the skulls 
 of victims connected by garlands. On each of the balconies there 
 is a low pedestal, and they are all connected by a naiTOw ledge, 
 which may have served as the support of the planks laid across from 
 one balcony to the other, when the exigencies of the performance 
 required that the whole should be used as a continuous upper stage. 
 It is to be remarked that Yitnivius, as we shall see, speaks of the 
 pluteum in the singular; and there is no reason why these little bal- 
 conies should not be regarded as really connected by the ledge to 
 which reference has been made. There are no traces of balustrades. 
 But the upper part of the scene served, no doubt, as a sufficient 
 protection for the actors, when they had to appear on the second 
 story. There are three little doors in tlie second story, leading to 
 
224 
 
 ON THE REPEESENTATION OF 
 
 tlie gallery formed by the series of balconies ; also eight windows 
 corresponding to those of the lower story, the place of the ninth 
 being occupied by one of the doors. The third story has no doors 
 or windows, and instead of a practicable gallery, it has a series of 
 ornamental pediments, triangular or semicircular, standing over the 
 projections below and similarly supported. That in the centre, 
 which is much the largest, is adorned with a female figure sur- 
 rounded by ramifications of foliage. There are traces in the third 
 story both of the supports of the roof, and of the orifices, in which 
 stage machinery rested. The two wings of the theatre are divided 
 by a party wall in continuation of the proscenium, and the outer 
 half of each, i.e. that which is bounded by the front wall of the 
 theatre, constitutes in each case a staircase to the upper stories of 
 the building. 
 
 We now proceed to show how exactly this well-preserved the- 
 atre corresponds in all essential features to the general descriptions 
 which have come down to us. 
 
 A formal description of an ancient theatre necessarily rests on 
 the geometrical rules of Vitruvius. The Eoman theatre was ar- 
 ranged, he tells us\ according to the following scheme: describe a 
 
 Fig. A. 
 
 circle {abcdefghihhn) with a radius corresponding to the intended 
 size of the orchestra, and in this inscribe four equilateral triangles, 
 aeiy hfky cgl, dhm^ the angles of which shall touch the circumference 
 
 1 Vitruvius, V. 6, 7. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL, 
 
 225 
 
 at equal distances. Let any side, mh, of an included triangle be 
 taken to represent the direction of the scena, and parallel to this draw 
 the line ag through the centre of the circle. The line 7nh pro- 
 duced to on one side and to n on the other so as to make it double 
 the diameter, or four times the radius of the circle, gives the front 
 of the scene ; and the line ag marks the limits of the pulpitum on 
 the side of the orchestra. The five angles, which fall within the 
 scene, indicate the positions of the five doors opening on the stage ; 
 and the other seven angles define the directions of the steps leading 
 to the seats of the spectators. 
 
 From this it appears that the orchestra in a Roman theatre 
 formed a semicircle, of which the furthest point was one radius 
 from the front of the stage, and one radius and a half from the front 
 of the scene ; the scene was four radii in length, and the stage half 
 a radius in breadth. 
 
 The Greek theatre was arranged according to the following 
 scheme^. Taking a circle agg, inscribe in it three squares nkfc, 
 mieh, Igdy, so that the angles touching the circumference maj be 
 equidistant from one another. As before, let any side, nlc, of an 
 included square be taken to represent the boundary of the prosce- 
 nium on the side of the spectators ; then a tangent j?r, drawn paral- 
 lel to this side, will represent the front of the scene. Let o be the 
 centre of the circle, and q the centre of the orchestra thus defined ; 
 through q draw ah parallel to nk ; and from a and h, with the 
 radius of the original circle, draw the arcs st, uv, cutting the pro- 
 
 n.T.G. 
 
 Fig. B. 
 ^ Vitruvius, V. 8. 
 
 15 
 
226 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 duced line nh in the points w and x. The length of the scene shall 
 be equal to the line ivx. 
 
 From this it appears that the orchestra in a Greek theatre was 
 more than a semicircle, the furthest point being one radius and five- 
 sevenths from the front of the stage, and a whole diameter from the 
 front of the scene. The breadth of the stage is therefore f- of the 
 radius. 
 
 These proportions, though diiFering in special cases, correspond 
 in the main to those of the existing theatres, and may be assumed 
 as the basis of the following description, and of the plan (Plate 2) 
 by which it is illustrated^. 
 
 In building a theatre, the Greeks always availed themselves of 
 the slope of a hill, which enabled them to give the necessary ele- 
 vation to the back-rows of seats, without those enormous substruc- 
 tions which we find in the Roman theatres. If the hill-side was 
 rocky, semicircles of steps, rising "tier above tier, were hewn out of 
 the living material. If the ground was soft, a semicircular excava- 
 tion of certain dimensions was made in the slope of the hill, and 
 afterwards lined with rows of stone benches. Even when the for- 
 mer plan was practicable, the steps were frequently faced with 
 copings of marble. This was the case with the theatre of Bacchus 
 at Athens, which stood on the south-eastern side of the rocky Acro- 
 polis. This semicircular pit, surrounded by seats on all sides but 
 one, and in part filled by them, was called the koVKov or cavea 
 (a a a) , and was assigned to the audience. At the top it was en- 
 closed by a lofty portico and balustraded terrace (c). Concentric 
 with this circular arc, and at the foot of the lowest range of seats, 
 was the boundary line of the orchestra, 6p')(r]aTpa, or *' dancing- 
 place" (b), which was given up to the chorus. If we complete the 
 circle of the orchestra (compare fig. B.), and draw a tangent to it 
 at the point most removed from the audience, this line will give 
 the position of the scene, <TK7]vr], or "covered building^" (d d), 
 which presented to the view of the spectators a lofty fa9ade of 
 hewn stone, susceptible of such modifications as the different 
 
 "^ This plan, with the exception of the stage, is derived from that which was 
 published by Mr. T. L. Donaldson in the supplemental volume to Stuart's Antiquities 
 of Athens, 1830, p. 33. It has also appeared in The Library of Entertaining Know- 
 ledge, "Pompeii," Vol, I. p. 2t^i, where the wood-cut preserves the engraver's error of 
 OPKHSTPA for OPXHSTPA, by way of identification; for the author of the plan is 
 not mentioned. 
 
 2 " Scene properly means a tent or hut, and such was doubtless erected of wood by 
 the earliest beginners of dramatic, performances, to mark the dwelling of the principal 
 person represented by the actoi-." Miiller, Hid. Lit. Gr. i. p. 301. 
 
m 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 227 
 
 plays rendered suitable. In front of this scene was a narrow stage, 
 called, therefore, the irpoaKrjVLov (c), which was indicated by the 
 parallel side of a square \ inscribed in the orchestral circle, but ex- 
 tended to the full length of the scene on both sides (i.e. to dd). 
 Another parallel at a certain distance behind the scene gave the 
 portico (f f), which formed the lower front of the whole building. 
 
 We are not to suppose that a Greek theatre exhibited in its 
 architecture any elaborate or superfluous ornamentation. It was 
 constructed for a special purpose — the adequate representation of 
 dramatic entertainments of a certain kind before a very considerable 
 multitude of spectators, — and if it effected this purpose, the archi- 
 tect and his employers were quite satisfied. He was not inspired 
 with the unprofitable ambition of an eminent and successful mem- 
 ber of the same profession in our own time, of whom it has been 
 said at once pointedly and truly, that being employed to build 
 a house of Parliament, which was to accommodate a certain number 
 of members and to admit of the speakers being well heard, he 
 contrived it so that the persons, for whom it was intended, could 
 not all be present, while those Avho spoke were, except mider very 
 favourable circumstances, inaudible to the rejDorters and their proper 
 audiences; and who being also employed to build a picture-gallery 
 for a nobleman, so contrived it that scarcely one of the paintings 
 could be seen in a good light ; though in both cases ]ie erected 
 stately l)uildings very pleasing to the eye when seen from without. 
 Very different was the performance of the architect who constructed 
 a Greek theatre. If the seats of tlie spectators did not run on the 
 side of a hill they were surrounded by a wall without ornaments 
 or windows, and resembling the tower of a fortress rather than 
 a splendid edifice. And the front of the theatre was so devoid of 
 all decorations that it would have suggested to a modern spectator 
 the idea of a barrack or a manufactory, rather than of a place 
 consecrated to the Muses 2. 
 
 The KoTkov or cavea (a) was divided into two or more flights of 
 steps by the Bta^w/jLara or proecinctiones {hhh), which were broad 
 belts, concentric with the upper terrace and with the boundary line 
 
 ^ The angles of this square, and of two others inscribed in the orchestral circle as 
 indicated in the accompanying plan, point out the divisions of the cunei, the com- 
 mencements of the iter (at hh), and the width of the eccyclema (at /). 
 
 ^ Schoubom, Scene der HeUenen, p, 22, and compare the elevation of the theatre 
 at Aspendus (Fig. 1). 
 
 lb— 2 
 
228 ON THE PwEPRESENTATION OF 
 
 of the orchestra, and served both as lobbies and landings ^ The 
 steps of the koTKov were again subdivided transversely into masses 
 called KepKlS6<;, cmiei, or "wedges" {a a a), by stairs, KklfiaKe^ [qOO)-) 
 running from one Scd^oyfjua to another, and converging to the centre 
 of the orchestra. These stairs were called creX/^e?, or gangways, 
 from their resemblance, mutatis mutandis, to the passage across the 
 aeX/juara or ^vya of a trireme^, for they were flanked on both sides 
 by spectators seated before and below one another, just as the creXi? 
 running fore and aft in a galley passed between the rowers, the 
 highest of the tliree benches being always behind the middle tier, 
 and this again being behind the lowest. As it seems that there 
 were eleven tiers of seats between each Sid^oi/jLa in the theatre at 
 Athens, the diazoma itself being counted as the twelfth row, we 
 shall understand the allusion in Aristophanes {Equites, 546) : 
 
 aipecrd' avT(^ ttoXi) t6 pdOiov, irapairi[i'^aT i<f)' ^vdeKa /cwTrats 
 ddpv^ov XPV^TOU \r]vaiTr)v — 
 
 " raise for him a plash of applause in good measure, and waft him 
 a noble Lensean cheer with eleven oars," for each /c€pKL<i would 
 suggest the idea of eleven benches of rowers, and the applause 
 demanded by the chorus would come like the plash of eleven oars 
 striking the water ^ at once. 
 
 Different parts of the theatre received different names from the 
 class of the spectators to whom they were appropriated. Thus, the 
 lower seats, nearest to the orchestra, which were assigned to the 
 members of the council {^ovXi]), and others who liad a right to 
 reserved seats {'TrpoeSpla), were called /SovXevrtKo^ toito^, and the 
 young men sat together in the ic^rjjBiKo^ t6ito<^^. The spectators 
 
 ^ The view which has been given of the theatre at Aspendus shows the correspond- 
 ing parts of these 2wcecinctiones ; but in the theatre at Herculaneum there is no 
 proper diazoma to separate the rows of seats, which run above each other in distinct 
 galleries. 
 
 ^ There is no doubt that the primary sense is the nautical, as given by Hesychius : 
 ceKldes' to, /xera^ij dia<ppdy/jiaTa tCov dt.a.o'T'rj/JLdTwv rij^ vecos. Eustathius also and Julius 
 Pollux connect creX^s with a-^Xfia. Phrynichus says (Anecd. Bekk. 62, 27): creXis 
 j3LJ3\iov' X^yerai d^ Kal ceXls dedrpov; bxit the use of (reXis to denote the intercolumnar 
 space of a manuscript, and hence to signify the page of a book in general, is the latest 
 use of the three, and is probably derived from the resemblance between the lines of 
 seats in the theatre divided by gangways, and the lines of writing separated by inter- 
 columnar spaces of blank paper. 
 
 ^ See our paper *'0n the Structuj-e of the Athenian Trireme," Camh. Phil. Soc. 
 Vol. X. Part I. 
 
 ^ Va^' opa TOP dvdpa rrjs yvvaiKbi eu (SovXevTiKq). Aristoph. Aves, 794. On which 
 the Scholiast remarks : ovtos tottos tov dedrpov, 6 dveifievos roh j3ovX€VTais, cos kuI 6 to?j 
 
GREEK PLAYS TN GENERAL. 229 
 
 entered either from the hill above by doorways in the upper por- 
 tico (utiu), or by staircases in the wings of the lower facade (s s)^. 
 The orchestra (b) was a levelled space twelve feet lower than 
 the front seats of the kolXov, by which it was bounded. Six feet 
 above this was a boarded stage (e), which did not cover the whole 
 area of the orchestra, but terminated where the line of view from 
 the central cu7iet was intercepted by the boundary line. It ran, 
 however, to the right and left of the spectators' benches [et, et), 
 till it reached the sides of the scene. The main part of this 
 platform, as well as an altar of Bacchus in the centre of the 
 orchestral circle {d), was called the Ov/JLeXr)^. The segment of the 
 orchestra not covered by this platform was termed the Kovlarpa, 
 arena, or "place of sand." In front of the elevated scene, and six 
 feet higher than the platform in the orchestra (i. e. on the same 
 level with the lowest range of seats), was the irpoa-K-qviov, men- 
 tioned above (c), and called also the Xoyelov, or " speaking-stage." 
 There was a double flight of steps {/cXcfiaKrrjpe^;) from the arena 
 {fcovLcrrpa) to the platform in the orchestra (j:)), and another of a 
 similar description from this orchestral platform to the irpocrKrjvLov 
 or real stage {q). There were also two other flights of steps lead- 
 ing to the orchestral platform from the chambers below the stage 
 (f]i,fh). These were called the yap(£iVioi KXifiaKe^;, or " Charon's 
 stairs," and were used for the entrance of spectres from the lower 
 world, and for the ghostly apparitions of the departed. There was 
 another entrance to the thymelic platform, which led to the outer 
 
 Allusiou is made to these reserved seats, in the Equites, 669 : 
 
 KX^ojj/. 'AttoXw ae vt) ttjv irpoedpiav tt]v e/c IlvKov. 
 
 'AXKavT0Tr(Jb\7)S. 'I5oi) irpoebpiav olov '6\poixal g'' e7w 
 
 'E/c TTjs Trpoedptas ^crx^-Tov dewpievov. 
 
 From whence and elsewhere we may infer, that eminent public services were 
 rewarded by this highly-prized irpoedpia. It is a great matter with the vain-glorious 
 man in Theophrastus : rod dedrpov KudrjaOai, orav y Bia, TrXrjaiov twv arpaTTfyivv. 
 Char. II. 
 
 ^ Kolster maintains (SophoHeiscJie Studlen, p. 25) that at Athens the only entrances 
 for the spectators were those to the right and left of the orchestra, for that the stage 
 lay to the south ; and to the north, at the back of the theatre, where the rocks of the 
 Acropolis rose, there could have been no entrance. 
 
 ^ The student should remark the successive extensions of meaning with which this 
 word is used. At first it signified the altai- of Bacchus, round which the cyclic chorus 
 danced the dithyramb. Then it signified the platform, on which this altar stood, and 
 which served for the limited evolutions of the chorus. Lastly it denoted any platform 
 for musical or dramatic performances, so that in the later writers the thymele is identi- 
 fied with the proscenium, which extended as far as the centre of the orchestral circle in 
 the Roman theatres (see Jakrb. f. Phil. u. Pddag. Li. i, pp. 22 — 32). We believe 
 that in the time of Euripides, at all events, the thymele signified the platform for the 
 chorus, and not merely the altar which stood upon it : see Eurip. Eleclr. 7 1 2 sqci. 
 
230 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 portico of the theatre by passing under the seats of the spectators 
 {hhr). This may have been used when there was no regular 
 parodus of the chorus (of which more presently), and when the 
 choreutse made their exit in an unusual manner, as in the last scene 
 of the Eumenides. The regular entrances of the chorus were by 
 the TTapohoL [til, tn), and along the Bp6/iio<i or iter {fe, te). 
 
 The scene itself was a facade of masonry consisting regularly 
 of two stories (whence it is called Sta-reyLa^), divided by pi pluteum 
 or continuous balcony, either made throughout of a platform of 
 stone, or consisting of a series of projections with balustrades, 
 which might be made continuous by laying a flooring of planks 
 from one to the other. If there was a third story, it was called 
 the ejpiscenus; but this was not essential. The scene was adorned 
 by columns, and Vitruvius gives their regular dimensions ; namely, 
 those in the lower story, with their pedestals and capitals, were 
 one-fourth of the diameter of the orchestra; over these the epi- 
 styles and entablatures were one-fifth of the columns below ; in the 
 second story we have the 'plutewn with its entablature or balcony 
 lialf the height of the pulpitum or stage, which Vitruvius designates 
 as "the lower balcony 2," and above the pluteum we have the 
 columns of the second story less by one-fourth than those of the 
 lower story, the epistylium with the entablature being as before 
 one-fifth of the columns below. If there is an episcenos, its ^9?z^- 
 teum is half the pluteum below it, and its columns less by one- 
 fourth than the columns of the second story, the epistylium and 
 entablature bearing the same proportion, namely, one-fifth, to the 
 corresponding columns. These measurements of course varied 
 with the tastes of difi^rent epochs, and the size of the theatre in 
 the particular case. The distinctive and indispensable features of 
 the scene were the pluteum or balcony, and the five doors by which 
 the actors made their different entrances on tlie stage. On these 
 particulars it will be necessary to make some remarks. 
 
 It seems more than probable that in the most flourishing period 
 of the Greek drama, the mere front of the scene was never used 
 to indicate by itself the place of the action, but that this was 
 always depicted on a painted curtain or some similar representation. 
 That these pictures were suspended from the pluteum seems to be 
 
 1 Vitruv, V, 7 : pliitemn insuper cum unda et corona inferioris plutei dimidia parte. 
 See Sclionborn, p. 82 ; and below, part II. 
 
 2 Pollux, IV. § 130. 
 
G]{EEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 231 
 
 the most natural supposition, and if the scene represented a moun- 
 tain, as in tlie Prometheus, a "vvatch-tower, as in the Siqyj^^ices, or 
 a pahice, as in the Agamemnon, on the top of which an actor had 
 to appear, it is obvious that the pluteum would ftirnish him with 
 the necessary footing; and there can be no doubt that there were 
 approaches to it by doors in the scene, as, in fact, we see in the 
 theatre at Aspendus. It is also evident that the pluteum must have 
 furnished a basis for certain machines, which were worked above 
 the stage. For example, the OeoXoyelov^, which was apparently 
 a platform surrounded by clouds, and contrived for the introduction 
 of divine personages, was of course moved from the side of the 
 scene along the pluteum. The whole of the action in tlie Peace of 
 Aristophanes from v. 178, when Trygceus is raised on his monster 
 beetle to the second story of the scene, by means of a machine 
 (v. 174), to V. 728, when he returns to the stage, — having lost his 
 beetle, — by means of the staircase behind the scene, must have 
 taken place in sight of the spectators on the upper balcony of the 
 pluteum. 
 
 Every one of the five doors in the scene had its appropriate des- 
 tination. The centre door (i), or valvce regice of Yitruvius, was the 
 regular entrance of the protagonist, and represented, according to 
 the scenery hung before it, a palace, a cavern, or other abode of the 
 chief actor for the time being ; the door to the spectators' right of 
 this {h) was the abode of the deuter agonist, and the door to the 
 spectators' left (/) was appropriated to the tritagonist, Pollux says, 
 perhaps referring to a particular play, the Bacchce of Euripides, that 
 the riglit door indicated the strangers' apartment {^evcav), and the 
 left a prison (elpKrij). Yitruvius terms both of the doors near the 
 centre hosjntalia. In Comedy Pollux calls the adjacent space to 
 the centre icXicnov, ^' the out-buildings," with reference of course to 
 some particular Comedy ; and the scenery represented wide en- 
 trances called Kkicnahe^ dvpai, adapted for the ingress of cattle and 
 wagons. Towards either side of the scene were two other doors, 
 which Yitruvius calls itinera and aditus, and these, with the nrepl- 
 aKTOL, or triangular prisms moving on pivots, which were fixed 
 beside or in them (m, m), indicated to the spectators whether the 
 actors entering by these doors were to be supposed as coming from 
 
 ^ Pollux, IV. § 130: airo 5^ deoKoyeiov 6vtos virep Tr]v <jKrjvriv ev v^et eiricpaivovTaL 
 deoi, ws 6 Zei)? koI ol irepl avrbv ev '^vxocrTaala. 
 
232 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 the city or the harbour in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 locality represented, or from a distance. The student will remem- 
 ber that these five entrances led to the stage, and belonged to the 
 actors only* And the distinction between the two elements in the 
 ancient drama, on which we have so often insisted, must be borne 
 in mind here* For in addition to these five etaoBoc for the entrances 
 of the actors, there were two irdpoSoi, one on each side, for the 
 chorus. These irdpohoi did not lead to the stage, but either opened 
 at once from tlie wings into the orchestra, as we see in tlie theatre 
 at Aspendus, or, to favour the idea that the side-entrances of the 
 chorus and actors corresponded, the chorus passed under the stage, 
 and came out by doors (^, t) on a line with the periacti {m, m), 
 which are often mentioned in connexion with the parodi. If any 
 one, who so entered the orchestra, had afterwards to mount the 
 stage, as Agamemnon in the play of that name, he was obliged to 
 ascend by a flight of steps ^ Now we are told that while, with 
 regard to the side-doors on the stage, the right door indicated that 
 the actor so entering came from a distance, but the left that he 
 came from the city or the harbour, and that if the rz^A^-hand irepi- 
 a/cTo? was turned, it indicated that the road leading to the distant 
 object was difi'erent, but that if both ireplaKToi were turned, with of 
 course a change in the decorations of the scene itself, the place of 
 action was different, or there was a total change of scene. But, on 
 the other hand, it is said that, with regard to the irdpohoi or en- 
 trances of the chorus, that on the right was supposed to lead from 
 the market-place (if we read dyoprjQev for dypoOev) or from the har- 
 bour or from the city, but that those who came on foot (i. e. not 
 floating in the air like the chorus of Oceanides in the Prometheus) 
 from any other q,uarter entered by the left 7rdpoSo<;^. As it is quite 
 
 ^ It is clear that the doors on the stage were always used for the entrances and 
 exits of the actors, except in the few cases in which they made their first appearance 
 on horseback or in a chariot, like Ismene in the (Edipus Coloneus, and Agamemnon 
 and Cassandra in the first play of the Orestea. See Schonborn, Scene der Hellenen, 
 pp. 1 7 sqq. ; Kolster, Sophokleisehe Studien, Pref. p, xii. 
 
 ^ This is Schonborn's explanation of the difficulty {Scene der Hellenen, pp. 72 sqq.). 
 Kolster, on the contrary {SophoTcleische Sludien, pp. 24 sqq.), understands the words of 
 Pollux (iv. 126) of the actors, and reads them as follows: tQv fievroi wapSduv ij fxev 
 de^LCL ayphdev rj eK Xifx^vos 7} e/c TroXews ayei, oi 5' dWaxo^^f ir^^oi d(pLKvov[x€voL Kara ttjv 
 erepav eialacnv eiaeXdovres de [^0' lttttov rj e0' d/xa^Qvl eis ttjv 6px'f}(yTpav iirl rrju 
 (XK7)vy]v dia hXifxaKcov ava^alvovai. He supposes that, as the theatre at Athens was on 
 the south slope of the Acropolis, the city and the harbour would lie on the right and 
 the country of Attica on the left ; consequently, the spectators would imagine that the 
 right-hand door, by which they had entered the theatre along with their foreign 
 visitors, led to distant parts, and that the left-hand door, by which the countrymen 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 233 
 
 impossible that the entrances of the chorus and the actors shouhl 
 not have had the same reference to the quarters from which they 
 were supposed to enter, this apparent inconsistency must be ex- 
 plained by the fact that the scene and the Oiarpov, properly so 
 called, were regarded as distinct buildings, the orchestra belonging 
 to the latter ; and while the entrances on the stage were designated 
 according to the right and left hands of the actors, the entrances of 
 the chorus, which faced the stage, were denoted according to the 
 right and left hands of the spectators. Consequently, the spec- 
 tators looked to their right when they expected a new entrance, 
 whether of actor or chorus, from the neighbourhood of the scene of 
 action, but to their left when they expected to see an arrival from a 
 distance. Thus in the Agamemnon, the chorus enters by the right 
 parodos; the herald, and the king with Cassandra come from the 
 left of the audience; and ^Egisthus, on the other hand, from the 
 right side-door. 
 
 It seems clear, from the original meaning of the word g-ktjvt], 
 i. e. covered building, that the scene had a roof of some kind. 
 There are but few traces of this in the existing monuments. But 
 as far as the evidence is available it may be concluded that the roof 
 was flat, and that it had a coping with battlements. 
 
 The stage {Xoyelov, 6Kpi^a<^, LKpca, pidjntwm) was a long narrow 
 platform extending to the whole length of the scene, and elevated 
 to a height of ten or twelve feet above the orchestral Its breadth, 
 according to Vitruvius, was one seventh of the diameter of the 
 orchestra, but its length was nearly double the orchestral diameter. 
 It was therefore a mere ledge at the foot of the scene, and was ap- 
 propriately called the podium, according to the original application 
 of that term. As we have already mentioned 2, the stage was a 
 representative of the wooden table from which the exarchon spoke 
 to his chorus, and to the end it seems to have a movable wooden 
 
 from RLamnus, Marathon, &c., had made their way to the seats, led to the home- 
 district. In order to reconcile this view with the text of Pollux, Kolster understands 
 aypodev as meaning peregre, though he owns that he cannot produce an}' example of 
 such a meaning. He supports his view by the statement that the ^evwv was on the right 
 and the prison on the left of the centre door; for he argues that the prisoner was 
 originally also the slave, who was connected with the labours of the field, and must 
 therefore have his ergastvJum on the home-side, on which also, as Kolster thinks, the 
 K\i(TLov, or stall for the cattle, was placed. It does not appear to us that this interpre- 
 tation is in accordance with the principles of sound criticism. 
 
 ^ In the Roman theatre the stage was at most five feet higher than the level of 
 the orchestra. 
 
 2 Above, p. 60. 
 
234 ON THE EEPRESENTATION OF 
 
 structure, sometimes, however, resting on supports of masonry. In 
 several of the ancient theatres, especially in that at Aspenclus, we 
 still see flights of steps leading from the stage-doors to the level of 
 the orchestra; and this alone is sufficient to indicate the fact that 
 the Xoyeoov was taken down, whenever, as was frequently the case, 
 the theatre was required for public meetings or other purposes not 
 strictly theatricals 
 
 In its original meaning the word irpoo-Krjviov was no doubt 
 synonymous with Xoyelov, for it signified that which was before 
 the scene, and it is used in this sense by Yirgil and other writers^. 
 It is equally clear, however, that the word was used improperly to 
 denote the scene itself, or rather the face of the scene, which was 
 turned towards the spectators^; and with a stricter reference to the 
 form of the word, it denoted the curtain or hanging before the 
 scene ^. 
 
 There are two other derivatives from a/crjvri, which have occa- 
 sioned no little difficulty and misconception. These are TrapaaKi]- 
 VLov and v7roaKr)VLov. 
 
 In the singular number, irapacrKriviov denotes what was sung 
 by a member of the chorus instead of a fourth actor ^. But in 
 the plural, iTapa(JicY]via undoubtedly means the lateral projections of 
 the scene, by the sides of the hp6fjLo<; with the apartments which they 
 contained, and the doors or openings by which the chorus entered 
 the orchestra. Modern writers on the subject, with the exception 
 
 ^ Schbnborn, p. 29. 
 
 2 Virg. Georg. ii. 382 : veteres ineunt proscenia ludi. Where Servius says : x>'^'(^' 
 scenia:.. sunt pulpit a ante scenam, in quibus ludicra eooercentur. Plut. Moral, p. 1096 b: 
 XO.\kovv 'AX^^avdpov ip U^Wy ^ovXbjxevov iroiTja-aL to -irpo(TKr]viov ovk etaaev 6 Texvirrjs <hs 
 diacpdepovv tQu VTroKpirQv rrjv (pwvqv. Polybius (?) apud Suid. s. v. : ri tvxv irapeK- 
 KOfxiur) TT]u TrpocpaaLU Kadairep eirl TrpocTK-qviov, Trapeyvpivuae rds dXrjdecs iiripoias. 
 
 3 The irpocrKrjVLov and \oye7ov are mentioned separately in the inscriptions at Patara 
 (Bockh, C. I. No. 4283, Vol. III. p. 151): KaSi^pcjjaev to re irpoaKriviov, 6 KaTecrKevaaeu 
 iK dejxeKiwv b Trarrjp avTrii...Kal ttju tov Xoyeiov KaTaaKevrjv Kol irXaKwaiv a eirotrjcreu 
 avTT) (where irXaKwais means "pargetting" or "rough-casting"). And the gram- 
 marian published by Cramer {Anecd. Paris. I. p. 19) must have meant the scene itself 
 when he attributed to ^schylus the xpoaKTjvia /cat diaTeylas. Hence Vitruvius (v. 6) 
 speaks of the proscenii 2'>ulpitiini, and Suetonius {Nero, cc. 12, 26) of the proscenii 
 fastigium 2.ndi pars proscenii superior. 
 
 4 Suidas s. v. : t6 irpb t^s (TK'qvri's irapaireTacrfxa. Duris, ap. Athen. Xll. p. 536 A :- 
 iypd(p€TO iirl tov irpoaK7]vlov eirl ttjs olKovfxeurjS oxov/nevos. Id. XIII. p. 587, et Harpo- 
 crat. s. V. 'Ndvviov. irpoffKjjvLOv iKaXeiTO i] Nctwioi', 6'rt irpbcronrbv re dcrTeiov elx^ nal 
 iXpvTO XP^^^'-^'-^ '^"■^ l/m-aTLOLS iroXvTiXeai, eKdvaa 5^ ■^u alaxpoTdT-q. Cf. Synesius, 
 p. 128 C. 
 
 5 Pollux, IV, § 109 : birbTe fxeu dvrl TCTdpTOV vwoKpLTov bioi. Tivd tCov xopevrwj' 
 direiv h ipSy, TrapaaKTjviov /caXetrai t6 irpdyfxa, ws iu 'Aya/xefxuovi Aiax^Xov. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 235 
 
 of C. 0. Miiller and Sommerbrodt^ have allowed themselves to be 
 misled hj the confused descriptions of the grammarians, wli© 
 suppose that the j;rtr<75cc;Ha were entrances to the stage rather than 
 to the orchestra, and buildings behind the scene itself, and not 
 those behind the lateral projections only^^ That the irapaaKrjvia 
 were separate from the scene and beside it, is clear from the 
 form of the word^, from the definition given by Theophrastus '^j 
 and from the phraseology of Aristeides^. And that the doors 
 from them led to the orchestra and not to the stage, and were 
 used by the chorus and not by the actors, is proved by the passage 
 in Demosthenes, where he charores Meidias with barricadino: and 
 nailing up the irapaaKi'-jvia^; in order, as Ulpian justly remarks, 
 that the chorus might be obliged to go round by the outer entrance, 
 instead of passing at once thvougli the TrapoSo^; to the orchestra''. 
 
 The VTTOdKrjviov has generally been understood as indicating 
 the front of the stage itself, and the chambers below the stage®. 
 
 1 Miiller {Randh. d. Arch. § 289, 5) understands the irapacrK-qvLa. as the vcrsurcB 
 procurrentes; and Sommerbrodt {(le jEsch. re Seen. p. 23) says distincth' : " Demos- 
 thenis relate irapaaK-qvia sedificia fuisse in utroque scense latere exstructa, per quae 
 chorus posset in orchestram intrare." 
 
 2 See the passages quoted by Meiueke, Fragni. Com. Gr. Vol. IV. Epimetrum vir. 
 pp. 722 sqq. ; Schonborn, Scene d. Hellenen, pp. 98, 99. 
 
 ^ This may be inferred from the proper sense of the preposition Trapd, which we 
 also find in the word Trdpodos, and with a like signification. For the actors were said 
 eiaUvaL, and their entrances were called efcroSot ; but the entrance of the chorus was a 
 TTctpoSos (Jul. Poll. IV. 108: Kol T] fxkv ctiToSos Tov x°P°^ 7rdpo8os KaXelrai, i) 5e Kara 
 XP^'i-o-v i^odos, cjs ttoXlv ehiovTuiv /xerdcrracris' i] 5e /j.€t' avrrju etcrodos iw nrdpodos' 
 7] 5^ reXeta ?^o5os dcpodos), and Ulpian calls the vapacTK-qvLa — rds ewl rrjs aKrjurjs (not 
 iiri TTjv aKTjirqv) elaohovs, which indicates that they were not on the stage, but only 
 toivards the stage (Donalds. Gr. Gr. 483), 
 
 ■* Har|:)Ocrat. s. v. : loi/ce irapaaK-qvLo. Kokdadai, cIjs 6 Qe6(ppacrT0S ev eiKoaTiS vS/muv 
 VTToaijfJiaivei, 6 irepl ttjv (tk-tjut^v dirohedei'yfj.evQS rdiros tols iv tov dyCova TrapacKevals. 6 
 5e Ai8vfj.oi TOLS eKaTep(j}dev r-^s 6pxv<^Tpas eicroSovs ovtoj cprjal KoKeladai.. 
 
 ^ IL p, 397, 3: (TV T7)v (TKrjvrjv davfid^wv ra TrapacrKTjvia -^Tid^o} Kal tovs \6yovs 
 dipels er-qpeis to. Trapa<pd€y/xaTa' ovtu iroppoj tov vofiov ^aiveLS. 
 
 ® Mid. p. 520, 18: to. TrapaaKTjuia (ppdTTCJv, vpoar]\u:v. 
 
 ^ Schol. ad Dem. Tom. ix. p. 547, Dind. : TovTeaTtv dvocppdTTuu tcls iirl r^s 
 (TKTjvrjs elaodovs, tva 6 xopos dvayKd^rjrac irepuevaL oid ttjs i^wOov elcrodov, Kal ovtoj 
 ^pahvvovTos eKeivov avpL^aivrj KaTayeXaadaL tov Arjiiioa-devTjv. Kolster supposes that 
 Meidias nailed up the perlacti, and barricaded what remained of the space after the 
 withdrawal of the height of the right-angled triangle in the circle, i.e. a quarter of the 
 diameter (Sophokleische Studicn, p. 37). This presumes, with Overbeck (Pompeii, 
 pp. 1 19— 130), that the periacti were the versurce of Yitruvius. But he says distincth'-, 
 V. 7, after having mentioned the three middle doors: "Secundum autem ea (i.e. hos- 
 pitalia) (sunt) spatia ad ornatus comparata (quse loca Graeci irepidKTovs vocant;'" and 
 then follows an explanation of the irepiaKTOL), " secundum ea loca versurae sunt pro- 
 currentes, quffi efl&ciens una a foro, altera a peregre aditus in seen am." From which it 
 is quite clear that the versurce were the TrapaaKrjvca and not the irepiaKToi. 
 
 ^ This view is taken by Sommerbrodt, de jEsch. re Seen. p. 25; Geppert, Altgr. 
 Biihne, p. 100; Strack, Alfgr. Theat. p. 4; Streglitz, Beilr. zur Gesck. d. Bank. i. 
 
236 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 This opinion has been derived from the words of Pollux ^ But if this 
 had been the case, the name would surely have been vTroXoyehv, 
 not vTToa/c^viov, and the analogy of eiriaK-qviov, which denotes the 
 third story of the scene, when there was one, would lead at once 
 to the conclusion that viroo-Kr^viov must denote the lower story of 
 the scene itself. Besides, Pollux is here speaking of the scene, 
 for he immediately afterwards mentions the three doors; and, as he 
 says that the vnroaKrjvLov was adorned with columns and images, 
 he could hardly have been speaking of the temporary substructure 
 of the Xoyecov. In the monuments which represent the Xoyeiov 
 during the performance of a piece, it seems to be ornamented with 
 candelabra and fillets of wool, or such other decorations as might 
 be painted on the wood (see Fig. 3) 2. That th.e lower part of the 
 
 scene itself was adorned with images and columns we know from 
 Vitruvius and from the inscription at Patara^. It is also clear that 
 
 p. 178; Genelli, Theat. z. Ath. p. 47. The right view is taken by Schonborn, 
 p. lOI. 
 
 ^ IV. § I ■24: TO Se VTroaK7}VLOv kloctl /cat ay aX/xarioLS KeKOcr/JirjTO irphs to diarpov 
 reTpafifievou, utto 5^ XoyeXov k€i/jl^uov. 
 
 ^ Wieseler, Theatergeh. Taf. iii. 18, ix. 14. 
 
 ^ Vitruv. V. 6; Bockh, G. I. No. 4-283: Tr]v tCju avbpidvrwv Kal dyaXfidruv dvi- 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 237 
 
 Pollux uses viro with the accusative to signify "behind" rather 
 than "under\" so that viro \o^/elov Kei^ievov means "lying behind 
 the stage." And for the same reason we must understand a cham- 
 ber in the lower story of the scene, where we read that Asopodorus 
 heard the applause given to one of the flute-players, being himself 
 in the viroaK-qvLov'^, or that Phocion used to walk behind the scene 
 when the audience was assembling^. 
 
 As a general rule the action in a Greek drama was supposed to 
 take place in the open air. In the earliest and rudest exhibitions 
 the hero came forth from a wooden tent or hut {aKrjvrj) to the stage 
 before it, which was originally and properly termed " the space 
 before the tent" {TrpoaKrjvtov), and there naiTated his adventures 
 or conversed with the chorus. This condition was imposed on the 
 dramatist in the most perfect state of his art, and all the dialogue, 
 in the regular development of an ancient play, is supposed to be 
 carried on in some place more or less public. It might however be 
 necessary to display to the eyes of the spectators some action 
 which belonged to the interior or had just taken place behind the 
 scene. For example, in the Agamemnon of ^Eschylus, the chorus 
 on hearing the death-cry of the king proposes to rush in at once, 
 and bring the matter to the proof while the sword is still wet 
 (v. 1318). And immediately afterwards we see Clyt£emnestra 
 standing where she had slain her husband (v. 1346). This change 
 of scene to the interior was not effected, as it is with us, and as 
 other changes of scene were effected by the Greeks, namely, by 
 substituting a fresh pictorial background, but by pushing forward 
 the chamber itself to the stage. Had they merely removed the 
 curtain and shown a recess, such as seems to have been constructed 
 in the smaller Roman theatres'*, the interior would have appeared 
 dark in comparison with the day-light of the stage, and the 
 spectators in the gi*eat theatres, especially those seated at the side, 
 could not have seen what was going on. To obviate this difficulty 
 
 ^ IV. § I ■28: SeiKwcn to, viro Trjif (Tktjvtju iv tols oUiais diroppTjTa irpaxdeura. Cf. 
 Scbol. vEsch. Eumen. 47 : ra viro ttjv aK-qv-qv, "what is going on behind the scene." 
 
 ^ Athen. Xiv. p. 531 F: hi.aTpi^b}v avrbs h ri2 VTroaKrjviip. 
 
 ^ Plutarch, V. Phoc. v. : rbv ^uKlbipd (pacrt. TrXripovp-evov rod dedrpov wepLTraTeLv viro 
 cTKrjurjv. 
 
 * This recess is clearly indicated in the remains of the theatre at Pompeii, as 
 given in the subjoined illustration (Fig. 4). 
 
238 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 ^scliylus^ contrived a movable chamber, corresponding to the 
 size of the door in the scene which was opened to exhibit the 
 interior, and this chamber, according as it was merely pushed out 
 or rolled out on wheels, was called the i^cocrrpa or iKKVKXrj/jLa^. 
 These words are often used as synonyms^. But as the word 
 i^cocTTpa, in its military sense, denoted one of those boarding- 
 bridges, which were thrust forth from the besiegers' tower to the 
 battlements of the enemy*, and as the same word in later Greek 
 denoted a balcony projecting from the upper story of a house ^, it 
 may be inferred that, as distinguished from the 6KKVK\7]/j.a, the 
 e^warpa was generally used in those cases when the interior of an 
 upper chamber was exhibited. It may however have been used 
 also on the level of tlie stage, when a complete development of 
 the interior was not required. With regard to the eKKVKXrj/jLa in 
 particular, it is clear from the description in the grammarians, that 
 it was a machine which moved on wheels^, and which might be 
 rolled out through any one of the three principal doors on the 
 
 Fig. 4- 
 
 1 Cramer, Anecd. Farts. I. p. 19: el fxhv hrj irdvTa rts Alcrx^^V l^ouXerai to. irepl 
 T7}v (TKrfvriv evprifiara irpoav^fxeLV, iKKyKX-fj/naTa Kul irepLOLKTOVS Kal /j.ijxc-fo-s , i^t^crrpas re 
 /cat TrpoffKTjPLa Kal 8iaTeyias. 
 
 2 The most complete essay on these contrivances is that by C. 0. Miiller, ErscJi u. 
 Gruhers Encyclop. s. v. EhJcyklevia, Kkine Schriften, I. p. 524. 
 
 3 Pollux, IV. § 122: rriv M i^uxjTpav ravrbu rc^ eKKVKXrj/xaTi vofxl^ovcri.v. Hesych. : 
 i^(J}aTpa iwl rrjs aK-qvqs to eKKVK\r]/ji.a. Schol. Aristoph. Thesm. 276: iepbv ude^rai. 
 Schol. Ravenn. ibid. : iKKUKXeirai ixl rb i^o) rb Qe<Jixo4>opi.ov. 
 
 * Vegetius, de re Militari, IV. 21. 
 
 5 *' 'E^wcrrpa et 'E^wo-r?;?, Moeniorum Projectio." Vide Ducange and Schleusner. 
 
 <» Schol. Aristoph. AcJiarn. 415 : iKK^KXri/xa Xiyerai fXTjxduvi^c- ^^Xivov Tp6xov% ^x^p. 
 Schol. Clem. Alex. p. 11, Potter: iKKVh:\7]/JLa ifcaXow aKeubs rt xnroTpoxov iKTos rijs 
 aKTjvrjs, ov arpetpo/xipov e56/cei rd ^<rw ra ^^w (pauepd yiyvecdai. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IX GEXEKAL. 239 
 
 Stage, according to the interior which it was intended to display i. 
 It is said to have been lofty, i. e. as high as the doorway through 
 wliich it moved, and to have had a seat upon it. in order, of course, 
 that the actor, who was thus produced, might ride safely during 
 tlie evolution 2. It was probably a semicircular stage, the diameter 
 being equal to the breadth of the door through which it moved, 
 i. e. about sixteen feet in the case of the middle door, and it moved 
 on hinges like that door, to wliich for the moment it corresponded. 
 From various allusions, in which the action of the eKKVK\i]iia or 
 i^cocrrpa is metaphorically applied to the revelation or unveiling of 
 those things which generally are or ought to be hidden behind 
 a curtain^, it may be inferred that the TrapaTreraa-fia or hanging 
 scene was always removed before this evolution was performed. 
 The change of scene to the interior was supposed to affect the 
 choras as well as the actors, as we see from the passage in the 
 Agamemnon, to which reference has been already madc"^. 
 
 ^A ith regard to the exterior, the changes of scene were effected, 
 as we have already mentioned, by the TreplaKTOL (sell. OtpaC) or 
 revolving doors in the form of a triangular prism, which stood be- 
 fore the side-doors on the stao-e, and bv tiu-nins: roimd on a ijivot 
 [m, m), not only indicated the different regions supposed to He in 
 the neighboui'hood of the scene, but were also made use of as ma- 
 
 ^ Pollux, IT. § 128: XPV TOVTO voeladai. KaS' iKaarrji' dvpav, olovel KaS' eKanTriv 
 oUiav. 
 
 ^ Id. ibid. : koL to fiev iKKVKX'ijfia eirl ^v\uv {•■J'r]\bv ^adpov, u iiriKeiTai dp'jvor 
 deiKvvai 8k to. vtto aKr}in]v iv rats oUiais air6pf)T}Ta wpaxd^i'Ta. 
 
 3 Cicero, de Provlnciis Consularihus, 6, § 14: quibusciim jam in exostra heluatur, 
 antea post siparium solebat. Polyb. Xl. 16, 18: r-qs r&xrjs iScnrep iiriT-qdes irri ttiv 
 e^ibarpav dva^i^afovcrrjs tt]v v/xerepav dyvoLav. Clera. Alex. Protrept. p. 11, Potter: 
 TT]v yoTjTs'.av TT]v iyKeKpv/j./j.€V7]v avToh olov iirl crKijvrjs tov ^iov roh rrjs akTjBela^ skkv- 
 K\-qau 6e7.Tais. Id. -Strom. Vll. p. 886: ov yap CKKi-KXeHv xpV ''o iJ'Var-qpLov. Cf. ^Ilsch. 
 Agam. 1145 : 6 xPV<^f^os ovKer (k Ka\v/jL/j.dTii:w icfrai. ocdopKiLs, where we have the same 
 thought, with a different allusion. 
 
 ^ The Scholiast on Aristophanes, Nuhee, 218, where Socrates is introduced as 
 sitting or walking (225: aepo^aTC)) on a Kpe/xddpa, or shelf, says in explanation: 
 irapey KVK\rifj.a' Se? yap Kpejxdadai tov ^UKpdTTjv iwi KpefxdBpas Ka6r}ij.ivov Kal toitov 
 d(T€\6bvTa Kol deaddpievov aiTOv ovtoj irv9ecr6aL. Kp€[xddpa 5e Xe^/eTat., did to outus ain-rjv 
 del fjLeTeojpov dvai Kpep.aiia>r}v. vdv p.h>T0i. rd TrepiTTevoyra [o'/'a] ei's avTTjv elil'daixeu 
 diroTidtadaL \i.e. such as cheeses and other stores). And on v. 132, on the words d\V 
 Oi^x' KOTTTU) T7]v dvpav, hc remarks : tovto bk irapeyKVKXTjua' del yap avTov eXdeiv Kat 
 Ko-^at TTIV dvpav toO HojKpdTovs. From these passages it is concluded, and reasonably, 
 as we think, by Schonborn [Scene der Hellenen, p. 347), that the TrapeyKVKKrjixa was a 
 practicable projection at the side of the stage. In a secondary application it meant 
 any thing inserted in a play, as a mimic gesticulation between the speeches (^Schol. 
 Xuh. 18, 22^, or a person arbitrarily introduced (^Heliodorus, JEthiop. p. 265, 5 : eTcpov 
 iyiyveTo ■jrap€yKVK\7)jj.a tov SpdixaTOS 7/ 'KapiKXeia). But it cannot have denoted a 
 simple iKKVrc\-t]p.a, as Mliller contends (Kkinc SchrifUn, I. p. 538). 
 
240 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 chines for introducing suddenly sea and river-gods, and other inci- 
 dental apparitions ^ As the right-hand BpofMo^; represented the 
 country road, and the left-hand that which led to the city, the 
 changes of scene effected by the revolutions of the right-hand Trepl- 
 aKTOf; were distant views painted in perspective ; while those on the 
 left were pictures of single objects supposed to be close at hand. 
 The scenery, which was regularly placed before the main scene, 
 was apparently painted on canvas, the framework being of solid 
 wood. In the CEdipus Coloneus, the grove of the Eumenides was 
 thus represented, and perhaps some evergreens were actually placed 
 on the stage. If the scene had to be changed, which was rarely the 
 case in Tragedy, the operation was concealed by a curtain [avXala), 
 which was drawn up through a slit between the stage and the 
 scene, and not, like ours, allowed to drop from above. This recep- 
 tacle for the curtain and the cylinder, round which it was rolled, is 
 plainly seen in the small theatre at Pompeii, as represented in the 
 annexed illustration. This difference between the ancient practice 
 
 1% 5- 
 and oui; own must be remembered by the student, who would 
 
 ^ The following are authorities respecting the TreplaKTou Vitruv, V. 7: '^ secun- 
 dum ea spatia ad ornatus comparata (quae loca Graeci vepLOLKTovs dicunt) ab eo, quod 
 raachinse sunt in iis locis, versatiles trigonos habentes." Jul. Pollux, iv. 126: Trap' 
 CKdrepa 5^ tQv 5vo 6vpQ>v tuv irepl t7)v jxecrrjv, aWai dvo elev dv, fiia eKar^pojdev, vpbs as 
 at ireplaKTOL crv/j.ireirrjyaaip' i] /x^v Se^id rd ^^w 7r6Xews dyjXodaa, 7} S' dpLcrrepd rd iK 
 TrdXecos' pLaXLara rd e/c Xt/xeVos' Kal deovs re daXarriovs iirdyec Kal irdvd' 6'cra cTraxd^cr- 
 repa Sura i] p.rjxo-vr] (p^peiu dSware? et 5^ eTnar pi(f>oi€v at ireplaKTOL rj Se^ta ixkv dfiei^ei. 
 rbirov' dpLcporepai. 8e xwpai' viraXXdrrovai. ewl t7]v aK7)vr]P did KXipidKUv dva^aivovcn. 
 From the use of the periacti as Si'cZe scenes, it seems most probable that they were not 
 let into the wall (for it is irphs as, not irpbs ah or eV als), and from the analogy between 
 the employments of the irepiaKTOs and the p.rjxo.vrj, which was placed in the left irdpo- 
 hos, it may be inferred that these triangular prisms stood as represented in the plan, 
 between the side- entrances to the stage and the orchestra, Kolster suggests (Sopko- 
 kleische Studien, Pref. p. viii) that the axis of the cylinder was fixed in the lintel and 
 threshold of the side-door, so that the apex of the triangle stood within the wall. This 
 would have prevented the audience from seeing the whole of the side-scene. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 241 
 
 understand such passages as the following (Ovid, Metamorphoses, 
 in. 111—114): 
 
 Sic, ubi tolluntur festis aulaea theatris, 
 
 Surgere signa solent, primumque ostendere vultum, 
 
 Cetera paullatim, placidoque educta tenore 
 
 Tota patent, imoque pedes in margins ponunt. 
 
 Here the reference is to the drawing up of the cui'tain at the end of 
 an act, when the figures, wliich were embroidered on it (Virgil, 
 Georg. ill. 25), were gradually displayed to the audience, the head 
 rising first, just as the armed men rose from the ground when Cad- 
 mus sowed the serpent's teeth. Conversely, Horace says (2 Epist. 
 I. 189): 
 
 Quattuor aut plures aulsea prerauntur in horas, 
 Dum fugiunt equitum turmge peditumque catervae: 
 
 that is, the curtain was down, as the play was going on for four 
 hours or more, while the spectacle, as in one of Mr Charles Kean's 
 revivals, went on as an episode in the play. 
 
 Scene-painting {<TK7)voypa(f)ia, aKLaypacfiia) in the days of Aga- 
 tharchus became a distinct and highly-cultivated branch of art. 
 When the scene exhibited its most usual representation, — that of a 
 house, — the altar of Apollo Agyieus was invariably placed on the 
 stage near the main entrance. There are many allusions to this 
 both in Tragedy and Comedy ^ 
 
 The theatre at Athens was Avell supplied with machinery calcu- 
 lated to produce startling effects. Besides the periacti, which were 
 used occasionally to introduce a sea-deity on his fish-tailed steed, 
 or a river-god with his urn, there was the deoXoyecov, a platform 
 sun-ounded by clouds, and suspended from the top of the central 
 scene, whence the deities conversed with the actors or chorus. 
 Sometimes they were introduced near the left parodus, close to the 
 pertactoSf by means of a crane turning on a pivot, which was called 
 the fjL7]')(avri'^ . The y€pavo<; was a contrivance for snatching up an 
 actor from the stage and raising him to the OeoXoyelov ; and by the 
 alodpai, an arrangement of ropes and pullies, Bellerophon or Try- 
 gseus could fly across the stage. 
 
 Then there was the fipovrelov, a contrivance for imitating the 
 sound of thunder. It seems to have consisted of bladders full of 
 
 ^ See e.g. ^schyl. Agam. 1051, 6. 
 
 ' Jul. Poll, IV. 128: 7] fxrjxavT] 5e Oeovs deiKPVffi Kal "Hpwas rovi iv ddpi, BeXXepo- 
 (povras, rj nepcrets* koL Kelrat /card ttjw dpiaTepau trdpobov virkp rriv (XKrjvriv to 
 v\{/os. Hence the phrase Deus ex Machina. 
 
 D. T. G. 16 
 
242 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 pebbles, which were rolled over sheets of copper laid out in the 
 vTTocTKrjvia. Again, the appearance of lightning was produced by 
 means of a periactos or triangular prism of mirrors placed in the 
 OedXo^elov. This was called the Kepavvoo-KOTreiov. It may be in- 
 ferred too that either the orchestra or the stage was occasionally 
 supposed to represent water. Thus in the Frogs^ Bacchus rows 
 either on or in front of the \oyelov to the melodious croakings of 
 the chorus which swims around his boat. 
 
 From the enormous size of the theatre at Athens, which is said 
 to have contained 30,000 spectators \ it became necessary to employ 
 the principles of acoustics to a considerable extent. All round the 
 koTKov were placed bell-shaped vessels of bronze, called ^%eta, 
 placed in an inverted position, and resting on pedestals, which 
 received and distributed the vibrations of sound. 
 
 The influence of the situation and peculiar construction of the 
 Greek theatre upon the imagination of the dramatists has been fully 
 shown by an accomplished scholar who visited Athens some years 
 since 2. 
 
 Our conceptions of the manner of representation also depend 
 upon the twofold division of the Attic drama. We must recol- 
 lect the military origin of the chorus^, its employment in the 
 worship of Bacchus^, the successive adoption of the lyre and the 
 flute as accompaniments^, the nature of the cyclic chorus^, and the 
 improvements of Stesichorus'^, in order to understand fully the 
 peculiar and otherwise unaccountable evolutions of the dramatic 
 chorus. We must remember also that the actor was originally a 
 rhapsode who succeeded the Exarchus of the dithyramb^, that he 
 was the representative of the poet^, who was the original Exarchus, 
 that he acted in a huge theatre at a great distance from the spec- 
 tators, and that he often had to sustain more than one part in the 
 same piece ; all this we must recollect, if we would not confound 
 the functions of Polus with those of Macready. 
 
 The first remark with regard to the chorus will explain to us 
 
 ^ Plato, Sympos. 175 E. See, however, Wordsworth's ^^Aens and Attica, pp. g'i 
 sqq. 
 
 2 See Wordsworth's Athens and Attica, pp. 94 foil. 
 
 ^ Above, pp. 27 foil. ^ Above, p. 35. 
 
 5 Above, p. 34. '^ Above, p. 36. 
 
 '' Above, p. 37, note (5). 
 
 s Above, p. 60, and elsewhere. •' Above, p. 59. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 243 
 
 the order and manner in which the choreutae made their entry. 
 The chorus was supposed to be a loch us of soldiers in battle-array^. 
 In the dithyrambic or cyclic chorus of fifty, this military arrange- 
 ment was not practicable; but when the original choral elements 
 had become more deeply inrooted in the worship of Bacchus, and 
 the three principal Apollonian dances were transferred to the wor- 
 ship of that god 2, the dramatic choruses became like them quadran- 
 gular, and were arranged in military rank and file^. The number 
 of the tragic chorus for the whole Trilogy appears to have been 
 fifty; the comic chorus consisted of twenty-four. The chorus of the 
 Tetralogy was broken into four sub-choruses, two of fifteen, one of 
 twelve, and a satyric chorus of eight, as appears from the distribu- 
 tion in the remaining Trilogy^. When tlie chorus of fifteen entered 
 in ranks three abreast, it was said to be divided Kara ^uyd : when 
 it was distributed into three files of five, it was said to be Kara 
 <TTOLxov(i. The same military origin explains the fact that the 
 anap^stic metre was generally, if not always, adopted for the 
 opening choral song; for this metre was also used in the Greek 
 marching songs ^. The muster of the chorus round the Thymele, 
 shows that the chorus was Bacchic as well as military ; the mixture 
 of lyric and flute music points to the same union of two worships^; 
 and in the strophic and antistrophic form of most of the choral odes, 
 we discern the traces of the choral improvements of Stesichorus. 
 
 Again, with regard to the actor, when we remember that he was 
 but the successor of the Exarchus, who in the improvements of 
 Thespis spoke a 77/36X0709 before the chorus came on the stage, and 
 held a prjauq, or dialogue, with them after they had simg their 
 choral song"^, we shall see why there was always a soliloquy or a 
 dialogue, in the first pieces of the more perfect Tragedies, before the 
 chorus came on^. The actor's connexion with the rhapsode is also 
 a reason for the narrative character of the speeches and dialogues, 
 and for the general absence of the abrupt and vehement conversa- 
 tions which are so common in our own plays. 
 
 1 Miiller, Eumeniden, § 12. ^ Above, p. 28. 
 
 3 Muller, Eumeniden, § 5. -* Id. ibid. § i foil. 
 
 5 Id. ibid. § 16. ^ Id. ibid. § 18. 
 
 ^ See above, p. 60, and p. 10 1. 
 
 8 The SujypUces and Perscu of ^schylus, which are the only two plays that begin 
 with an anaptestic march, were not the first plays of the Trilogies to which they 
 belonged. 
 
 J 6— 2 
 
244 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 But, independently of any peculiarities of a literaiy nature, the 
 great size of the theatre^, and the religious character of the festival, 
 gave occasion for some very remarkable differences between the 
 outward appearance and costume of the ancient actors, and those 
 who sustain parts in the performances of the modern drama. These 
 diiferences consisted mainly in the two following particulars : [a) the 
 tragic actor was always raised on soles of enormous thickness, 
 which gave additional height to his person, while his body and 
 limbs were also stuffed and padded to a corresponding size, and his 
 head was surmounted by a colossal mask suited to the character 
 which he bore; and ih) every performer, whatever his character 
 might be, was uniformly arrayed in the gay and gaudy attire of 
 the Dionysian festival. We will consider these peculiarities sepa- 
 rately, because they spring from distinct causes; for the thick 
 soles and the mask were due to the size of the theatre, and the 
 festal dress to the religious nature of the solemnities. With regard 
 to both of these peculiarities we have abundant authorities in 
 ancient works of art. Masks of every description are repeated in 
 pictures and sculptures, and figures arrayed in the theatrical dress 
 are to be met with everywhere. We have also representations of 
 complete scenes from the different kinds of dramas, especially, 
 however, from Comedies ; and, by great good fortune, we have 
 rescued from the ruins of time, in all the brightness of the original 
 colouring, not only a series of tw^enty-two pairs of figures repre- 
 senting performers in Tragedies, followed by a similar pair from 
 a Satyric Drama, but also the three actors accompanied by the 
 chorus. The former are given in a number of hexagonal 
 Mosaics, which were found at Lorium in Etruria, where Anto- 
 ninus Pius was brought up and where he died, and which are 
 now let into the modern Mosaic pavement of an octagonal room of 
 the Pio-Clementine Museum at Rome called the Saloon of the 
 Muses ^. The latter representation was discovered in a grotto, on 
 one side of the Necropolis of Cyrene, the four walls of w^hich are 
 covered with well-preserved paintings representing the dramatic 
 and other entertainments, which the deceased had exhibited in his 
 
 1 See Dr Wordsworth's remarks, Athens and Attica, p. 92. 
 
 2 This mosaic is fully described by Millin, Descnption (Tune Mosaique Antique du 
 Musie Pio-Clementine a Rome represeidant des Scenes de Tragedies, Paris, 1829. See 
 also Mtiller, Gott. Gell. Anz. 1831, pp. 1234 sqq. ; Wieseler, Theatergeb. pp. 48 sqq. 
 Some specimens of tlie figures are given in the accompanying plate (3). 
 
Av. vviescicr vjI. iij. i .See n.tioSJ ilLiliiiiAl/L. Wieselcr '^lli.h.[i>ce. n.. cjOVj 
 
 N6.te4. ^ \ I y 
 
 FIGURES FROM THE PTO-CLEMENTINE MOSAIC. 
 
 >_ -: -.la-'-t , C rirc-'iiOi-^ 'r 
 
 To f.i^o T.PAi 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 245 
 
 life-time, or which had been given on occasion of his fimeraP. 
 By the aid of these ancient authorities we can describe the attire 
 of a Greek actor as accurately as if we were detailing the cos- 
 tume of a performer on the modern stage. 
 
 We shall first discuss (a) those peculiarities of the theatrical 
 costume, which were designed to increase the stature of the actor 
 and to give gTcater distinctness to his features when seen from a 
 distance, and then (b) illustrate the festal attire in which he 
 walked the stage. 
 
 («) The thick-soled boot, worn by hunters, and others who 
 had to walk over rough and tangled ground, was called the cotkur- 
 7UIS {KoOopvo^), and does not appear to have been different from the 
 dpl3v\rj or j^ero. At least Agamemnon, who enters the orchestra 
 in a mule-car, has his ap^vXat taken off before he mounts the 
 stage by the Tropcpvpoo-TpcoTo^; 7r6po<;, laid for him by Clytaem- 
 nestra^, and Hippolytus is said to have stept into his chariot all 
 booted as he was {avralcrcv dp^vXaicnv) 3. The adoption of this form 
 of boot was not primarily occasioned by the necessity of giving the 
 actor a more elevated stature. The incident mentioned by Hero- 
 dotus^ shows that the cothurnus was an effeminate chaussure, and 
 it is clear that it formed a part of the costume of the worshippers 
 of Bacchus, who imitated the half-womanly character of their 
 divinity. The upper leather was highly ornamented^ and laced 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 1 See J. R. Pacho, Relation d'un Voyage dans la Marmorique, la Cyrenaique, &c. 
 Paris, 1827, PI XLix. and l. cf. Miiller, Handbuch d. Arch. § 425, 2; Creuzer, 
 Deutsch. Schrift. zur Archdol. Vol, ill. 499; Wieseler, Theatergeb. pp. 99 sqq. The 
 figures are given with the colouring in the aocompanj'ing plate (4). 
 '^ yEsch. Agam. 917: 
 
 dXX' ei hoK€L ffoc ravd' viral Tis dp^vXas 
 \voL Tcixos TrpodovXou ^fx^acriv iroSos. 
 3 Eurip. Hixjpol. 1 188 : 
 
 fidpiTTeL 5e xepcrtt' r/i'tas (Xtt' durvyoi, 
 avraicTLV dp^vXaiacu app-oaas 7r65as. 
 * I. 125. Hence Aristoph. Ran. 47; ri Kodopuos Kal powaXov ^vvrjXd^rrjv ; 
 •"^ 8ee fig. 6 ; and compare fig. 15, p. 253. 
 
246 
 
 ON THE EEPRESENTATION OF 
 
 down the front, but tlie thickness of the sole seems to have re- 
 quired that for ordinary purposes the buskin should not fit closely 
 to the foot\ so that the name Kodopvo^iwas adopted as a designation 
 of Theramenes, who was regarded as a turn-coat or trimmer in 
 in politics^. But although the ordinary KoOopvo^ or ap^vXr] had 
 a very thick sole against which stones and other obstacles struck 
 with a ringing sound as the passenger stumped along the road^, 
 it bore no comparison in this respect to the tragic buskins. Their 
 enormous and extravagant height may be seen in the accom- 
 panying figure of the Tragic Muse, and is singularly shown 
 
 in the two monuments which are our principal authorities for the 
 costume of the Greek drama. In the Pio-Clementine Mosaic, 
 as Millin well remarks'*, the figures seem at first sight to have no 
 
 ^ See the story of Alcmseon, who made his cothurni, like the jackboots of Hudi- 
 bras, serve as an additional pocket for his gold. Herod, vi. 125. 
 
 ^ Xen. Hell. II. 3, § 31 : 66ev hriirov Kal KoOoppos eircKaXe'iTaL' Kal yap 6 Kodopvcs 
 apfx6TT€iv iJ.kv Tots TToa-lv dfi(poT^pois doK€L, dTrojSXiirei 5' iv* aficpoTepov. 
 
 ^ Theocrit. vii. 25, 26 : 
 
 ws rev TToal vetacro/xevoLo 
 Trdaa \idos irraioKra ttot' dp^vXldcaaiv deidet. 
 ^ P. 16 : ''On diroit qu'ils n'ont pas de pieds; ils ont I'air de ces marionettes que 
 Ton promfene a travers les fentes des planches d'un theatre, et dont les fils qui les font 
 mouvoir sont dessous, au lien d'etre dessus." 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 247 
 
 feet, but resemble the marionettes which are worked from below. 
 On a closer examination, however, we observe that the feet of the 
 actors are covered by their long robes, and that we only see the 
 high soles on which they are elevated. For in one of the figures 
 (Xo. xviii. see the accompanying plate, Xo. 3), where a woman in 
 a state of great agitation is nishing in to announce some dread- 
 ful intelligence, one of her feet is lifted from the stage, so that 
 we see the bottom of the sole : and in two others (also given 
 in the accompanying plate), the toe of the buskin projects be- 
 yond the bottom of the robe. In the Cyrenaic picture the three 
 figures of the actors are raised on little pedestals, if Pacho's copy is 
 correctly drawn, and Miiller has supposed^ that the picture repre- 
 sents statues of actors and not the actors themselves, a supposi- 
 tion which is set aside by the whole composition. There can be 
 little doubt that these basements merely depict the soles of their 
 buskins, the square space in the middle being perhaps intended to 
 indicate the division between the two soles in each case^. In a 
 painting on a wall at Pompeii^, the peculiar shape of the soles 
 conveyed to Sir W. Gell the idea that the figm-es were Scythian 
 Hippopodae 1 but a more exact copy, which has subsequently been 
 made by Wieseler*, shows that the figm-es merely wear a sort of 
 sabot or wooden shoe. That these soles of the cothurnus, which 
 seem to have been called i/ju^drai or efi^ara^, were made of wood, 
 probably of some very light wood, if not occasionally of cork, is 
 distinctly stated by the Scholiast on Lucian^ ; and the Pio-Clemen- 
 tine Mosaic shows us that they were generally painted so as to 
 harmonize with the robe of the actor. On account, both of its 
 connexion with the Dionysiac attire and of its special use in giving 
 height and dignit}' to the tragic actor, the cothurnus was an emblem 
 of Tragedy, as the soccus was of Comedy^; the Tragic Muse is 
 
 ^ Handh. d. Arch. § 425, 2. 
 
 2 This is Wieseler's opinion, TJieaterrjeh. p. 100. 
 
 3 Gell, Pompeii, Vol. ii. PI. lxxv. 
 
 * Wieseler, Theatergeh. p. 51, and Taf. a, No. 23, 
 
 ^ See Yalckenaer, Ammon. p. 49. 
 
 ^ Ad Jov. Trag. p. 15: iji^Sdras fJ.ev to. ^v\a a ^dWovc-iv virb tovs wodas oi -rpa- 
 yu}5oi, tva (pavQai fj-aKporepoi. 
 
 ~ Horace, A rs Poet tea, 80 : 
 
 Hunc socci cepere pedem grantlesque cothurni. 
 
248 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 equipped with this clumsy buskin^; and the word itself is used 
 by the Latin poets as a synonym for tragoedia'^. 
 
 In addition to the cothurnus, and the padded figure^, the tra- 
 gedian was increased to a colossal stature by his mask [irpoaca- 
 nrelov), which not only represented a set of features much larger 
 than those of any ordinary man, but was raised to a great height 
 above the brow by a sort of elevated frontlet or foretop (07/C09, 
 superficies^), rising in the shape of the letter A^, which formed the 
 frame of a tire or periwig {TrrjviKT), <p€vdK7)^), attached to the mask. 
 
 I 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Fig. 9. 
 
 When this head-piece was fitted on, there was only one outlet 
 for the voice, sometimes represented as a square, but more gene- 
 rally as a round opening {os rotundum'^) , so that the voice might be 
 said to sound through it — hence the Latin name for a mask 
 
 ^ Wieseler, Theatergeh. p. 52, Taf. ix. 2. See fig. 7, p. 246. 
 
 ^ Horace, 2 Carm.. i . 1 3 : 
 
 grande munus 
 Cecropio repetes cothurno. 
 Virgil, Eclocf. VIII. 10: 
 
 Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cotJmrno. 
 ^ Lucian, Jupiter Tragoedus, it. 44 ; de Gymnas. 23 ; de Saltat. ii. 27. 
 ^ The word 67/cos (cf. S-yxh ^JKos, dyKvpa, &c.) refers to the curve at the top ; the 
 Latin superficies, which also means a roof, indicates that it was over the face. 
 ^ Pollux, IV. § 133: Xa/3Soet5^s T<p o-XTJMctri. 
 
 ''' Hence cftevaKi^uv, "to deceive." See Hemsterhuis on Julius Pollux, x. § 170. 
 ^ The mouth is square in the figures on the Pio-Clementine Mosaic, Nos. i, 3, 4, 
 5, Plates II. III. IV. The size of the mouth is alluded to by Persius, v. 3 : fabula seu 
 moeeto ponatur kianda tragoedo ; and Juvenal, in. 1 75 : personfe pallentis kiaitcm. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IX GENERAL. 249 
 
 {^^ersona a personando^) ; hence also tlie strong expressions (/3o/x- 
 ^wv, TrepL/SofilScov) used by the grammarians in speaking of the 
 voice of the tragic actor. As the holes for the ejes must have been 
 opposite to those of the actor, the mouth would fall below his 
 chin, and some contrivance must have been adopted, after the 
 manner of a speaking-trumpet, to produce this striking effect. 
 The 'persona muta^ or dumb actor, was furnished with a mask 
 in which the lips were closed, as in the accompanying illustra- 
 tion from a painting at Pompeii. 
 
 Fig. lo. 
 
 The greatest possible care was bestowed on the fabrication of 
 masks ; and the manufactm-er of stage costume got his name from 
 this part of the actor's equipment^ It is not certainly known of 
 what material the mask was composed. The o^ko^ in the Cyrenaic 
 pictm*e seems, in the case of all the three actors, to be a metal 
 plate, and it is not improbable that this connexion of the mask and 
 wig, on which they both depended, was of some stiff and solid sub- 
 stance. Botticher has supposed^, on the sti*ength of a passage in 
 Lucretius^, that the masks were made of clay ; but a mask of terra- 
 cotta would have been much too heavy, and it is more reasonable to 
 infer that the poet refers to the coating of chalk with which the 
 
 1 Gabius Bassus, apud Aul. Gell. x. 7. Earth derives the word from irepl cQifia, 
 Voss from Trpbaonrov, Doderlein from irapaaalvw, Mr Talbot from Persephone, and an 
 English theologian from irepL^u^viov I 
 
 2 Pollux, IV, 115: teal (TKevrj pLev i] tCjv vttokpitQv (Tto\'i] (i] d' avrrj kuI awixarLOi' 
 e<aKelTo), (TKevoiroibs bk 6 wpoauTroTroibi. 
 
 3 Fanemaske, p. i^. 
 * IV. 296 sqq. : 
 
 Ut si quis, prius arida quam sit 
 Cretea persona, adlidat piljeve trabive, 
 Atque ea continuo rectam si fronte figuram 
 Servet, et elisam retro sese exprimat ipsa, 
 Fiet ita, ante oculos fuerit qui dexter, ut idem 
 Xunc sit laevus, et e laevo sit mutua dexter. 
 It is quite clear from this that the mask was made of some substance fitted by 
 maceration for receiving an impression and capable of being turned inside out, which 
 would hardly be possible with a clay mould. 
 
250 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 surface was overlaid in order to receive the colouring, or perhaps to 
 the colours them selves \ The lighter the mask the more convenient 
 it would be for the performer, and though the description in 
 Lucretius seems to be inconsistent with Millin's conjecture that 
 it was made of cork^, there is no reason why it should not have 
 been moulded from the bark of some other tree^ moistened in water, 
 and then modelled in a bust. The oscilla, or heads of Bacchus, 
 which were imitations of the tragic mask, and which were sus- 
 pended from the pine-trees near a vineyard*, in order that the 
 district might become fruitful, whereon the face of the god was 
 directed by the wind^, were most probably made of bronze or 
 copper ; for the lighter substance would not have stood the effects 
 of the weather. One of the oscilla preserved in the British 
 Museum is of marble, and has a ring on the top for the purpose 
 
 of suspension. The masks in the Pio-Clementine Mosaic are 
 mostly of a swarthy colour; those in the Cyrenaic picture are 
 quite natural ; and it is probable that a resemblance to nature was 
 
 1 As in Petronius : 
 
 Dum sumit creteam faciem Sestoria, cretam 
 
 Perdidit ilia simul, perdidit et faciem. 
 '^ Descr. cVun Mos. p. 6. 
 '^ Virgil, Georg. ii. 387: 
 
 Oraque corticibus sumunt horreuda cavatis. 
 •* Id. ibid. 389 : 
 
 Oscilla ex alta suspendunt moUia pinu. 
 ^ Id. ibid. 390: 
 
 Hinc omnis largo pubescit vinea fetu 
 
 Complentur vallesque cavse saltusque profundi, 
 
 Et quocunque Deus circum caput egit honestum. 
 Creuzer supposes {Symbol, iv. 93) that this practice referred to the purifying influence 
 of the wind, indicated by the worship of Bacchus Lichnites. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 251 
 
 preserved, tliougli of course the colours were strongly pronounced 
 and exaggerated. It is obvious, as Miiller says^, that the masks 
 were sometimes changed between the acts, and that a difference 
 of complexion was introduced to mark the change in the condi- 
 tion of the character, as when CEdipus or Polymnestor returns to 
 the stage after the loss of his eyes^. The masks of female cha- 
 racters were furnished with the 07/^09, as in the figure of the Tragic 
 Muse (fig. 7), in the parody of the Antigone (fig. 17), and in the 
 Pompeian picture already cited^, but the features were less exag- 
 gerated, and they had sometimes caps of a peculiar colour, with 
 hanging ribands kept down by a knob or tassel of gilded metal 
 called potaico^, i.e. " a little pomegranate^." 
 
 There was a different kind of mask for almost every character. 
 Julius Pollux divides the tragic masks alone into twenty-six 
 classes®; and while he informs us that the comic masks were much 
 more numerous®, he specifies only four kinds of satyric masks, two 
 portraying satyrs with grey hair or a long beard, and two repre- 
 senting Sileni, as youthful or aged respectively^. The last of these 
 is depicted in the Pio-Clementine Mosaic, as a bald-headed, grey- 
 bearded mask, crowned with ivy (PL v. No. Vii.), and the last group 
 on that Mosaic (PL xxviil.) represents the Silenus in full costume, 
 bald-headed and crowned with ivy, though dressed in the tragic 
 
 1 Hist, of Gr. Lit. i. p. 395. 
 
 2 These were called ^KaKcva irpbawira. Pollux, IV. § 14 1. 
 
 3 Gell, Pompeii, Vol. 11. PI. LXXV,, of which the following is a copy, as far as con- 
 cerns the female head in question : 
 
 * Milliu, Mosaique, PI. v. No. Viii. ; Monum. Antiq. ined. ii. 249. 
 
 5 IV. § 133 sqq. 
 
 '•' Jul. Poll. IV. §§ 143—154. 7 Id. § I4CJ. 
 
252 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 robe like the other figures. The accompanying groups show the 
 tragic, comic, and satjric masks in contrast with one another. 
 
 Fiof. J 2. 
 
 Fig 13. 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 
 {b) It has been already remarked that the di-ess of the tragic 
 actors was derived from the gay festal costume of the worshippers 
 of Bacchus. The performers, says Muller^, wore " long striped gar- 
 ments reaching to the ground (^trwi/e? vroST^pet?, aroXal), over which 
 were thrown upper robes {ifidria, ^XayLtuSe?) of purple or some other 
 brilliant colour, with all sorts of gay trimmings and gold orna- 
 ments, the ordinary dress of Bacchic festal processions and choral 
 dances. Nor was the Hercules of the stage represented as the sturdy 
 athletic hero whose huge limbs were only concealed by a lion's 
 hide ; he appeared in the rich and gaudy dress we have described, 
 
 ^ Muller, Hist. Lit. Gr. i. p. 296. For the details and minutiae of the Greek 
 theatrical costume, see also Miiller's Eumeniden, § 32 ; Schon, De Personarmn in 
 Enripidis Bacchabus Halitu scenico Commentatio, Lips. 1831 ; and Millin's DescHp- 
 iion of the Pio- Clementine Mosaic. On the different styles of dress adopted by the 
 different characters, see Jul, Pollux, IV. t8; and for examples, compare the Introduc- 
 tion to the Antigone, pp. xxxii sq<i. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 
 
 253 
 
 to wliich liis distinctive attributes, the club and the bow, were 
 merely added." 
 
 The accompaning illustration contains all the elements of 
 this Dionysiac costumed It represents an actor dressed in the 
 
 character of Bacchus. He does not wear the mask with its lofty 
 fore-top, but he is shod with the cothurnus, which has the usual 
 high sole, and the upper leather, which is visible, is adorned with 
 the most elaborate lacing. He wears on his head a chaplet of 
 ivy. The mutilated staff in his hand is undoubtedly a fragment 
 of the thyrsus 2. Over a syrma, with sleeves reaching to his wrists, 
 he wears the usual upper robe of Bacchus fastened by a girdle. The 
 long garland of flowers, which hangs round his neck, is one of 
 the regular Bacchic adornments. By his left side is a statuette, 
 unfortunately mutilated, which probably represents Melpomene; 
 and the female figure, also imperfect, to which he turns his head, 
 
 ^ It is taken from Buonarroti, Osservazioni sopra alcuni Medagli Anticlii, p. 447 5 
 Bellori, Pictur. Ant. Ci-ypt. Rom. T. xv, ; Panofka, Cabinet de Pourtales-Gorgier, 
 
 PI. XXXVIII. 
 
 2 Pollux, IV. 117: 6 5^ KpoKcorbs l/xaTiof Aiovvaos 5^ avT(^ ^XPWO Kal yuao'xaXiO'T^pi 
 dvOiuu) Kal Ovpcru}. 
 
254 ON THE EEPRESENTATION OF 
 
 is probably a representation of Victory, who is about to place a 
 crown on the head of the successful actor ^ On the other side 
 is a boy playing the einvUiov, and probably the same as the 
 performer who accompanied him on the stage. The curtain in 
 the background seems to indicate that the actor is receiving this 
 public recognition as he sits enthroned on the proscenium. 
 
 As the general costume of the tragic performers was thus fixed 
 by the conventions of the Bacchic festival, the discrimination of 
 the character represented depended on the expression of the mask, 
 on certain adjuncts, and partly on the colour of the dress. It was 
 only Euripides who ventured to allow his tragic heroes to appear 
 in rags, and he incurred, by this departure from Bacchic magni- 
 ficence, the keenest ridicule of his comic contemporaries. The 
 other dramatists contrived that every character should be consistent 
 with the dignity and splendour of the festal occasion, with which 
 the exhibition was connected. The adjuncts, which marked the 
 different characters, were very simple, and might be recognized 
 at once. Of the attributes of Hercules we have already spoken. 
 He has both the club and the bow in the Pio-Clementine Mosaic 
 (PL VI. Wieseler, vii. 2), but the club alone in the same Mosaic 
 (PI. VIII. Wieseler, No. 3), in the Cyrenaic picture, and in the 
 following illustration from a bas-relief in the Villa Albani. 
 
 Mercury has simply a caduceus in the Pio-Clementine Mosaic 
 (PL X.) and in the Cyrenaic picture. The figure in the act of 
 shooting with a bow and arrow at a man bearing an unsheathed 
 poignard (Millin, PL ix. Wieseler, vii. 4) probably represents 
 
 i Miiller, Handh. d. Arch. § 4^5^ 2. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 
 
 255 
 
 Hercules in the act of slaying Lycus^ The royal tragic costume 
 is marked by the long sceptre borne in the left hand^, and by 
 a sword with its juvkt]^^ at the end of the scabbard (Millin, p. 
 21, PL XI. Wieseler, iv. 12). It is difficult to say what is the 
 distinguishing object in some of the figures in the Mosaic^, but 
 the first is obviously a young female figure with a torch ^ in each 
 hand; and may fairly be identified with the Cassandra of the 
 Troades. In one group (Millin, PI. xxv. Wieseler, viii. 3) a 
 figure is introduced bearing a branch of olive as a suppliant, and 
 it is not improbable, as Millin has suggested (p. 28), that the 
 scene represented is that in the Bupplices of Euripides, when 
 Adrastus appeals to ^thra the mother of Theseus. In the picture 
 from Pompeii, to which reference has been already made (Wieseler, 
 Tin. 12), a heroine bearing a child in swaddling clothes, is ad- 
 di'essing a female domestic, who carries a water-jug in her right 
 hand. That Antigone, both in the prologue and when she is 
 brought before Creon, carries in her hand the prochus or pitcher, 
 
 Fig. 
 
 ^ The drawn dagger indicates the murderous purpose of the person about to be 
 slain. See Eurip, Here. F. 735 sqq, 
 ^ Ovid, Amoruni, ill. t. u sqq. : 
 
 Venit et ingenti violenta Tragoedia passu: 
 Fronte comse torva; palla jacebat humi; 
 Lseva manus sceptrum late regale tenebat; 
 Lydius alta pedum vincla cothiirnus erat. 
 ^ Herod, in. 64. 
 
 "^ In PI. 15, Wieseler, Vii. lo, the male figure seems to carr}- in his left hand the 
 red sheath of the dagger which he bears in his right ; and the female figure, who is 
 bending her knee in the act of supplication, is perhaps Clytfemnestra, at the n^oment 
 when Orestes threatens her with death. 
 ^ vv. 308 sqq. : 
 
 avexf; TTCtpexe, (pQis (pepe ai^w, cpKl'^o}, 
 
 Idov, Idov 
 \afj.7rd(n t65' iepov. 
 
256 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 with which she poured forth the triple libations round the dead 
 body of her brother^, is most probable in itself, and is confirmed 
 by a ludicrous parody of the latter scene, in which an old and 
 bald-headed man, dressed up as Antigone, and bearing an exagger- 
 ated hydria, pulls off his female mask at the moment when Creon 
 is about to sentence the supposed culprit to death 2. (See fig. 17.) 
 With regard to the colours of the tragic dress, the three figures in 
 the Cyrenaic painting are mainly attired in blue and yellow. 
 The protagonist, who represents Hercules, has his garments elabo- 
 rately ornamented, the Mercury has his blue robe adorned with 
 rings of gold and sprigs of olive, and the third figure, besides 
 the admixture of blue and yellow in his dress, has some pink 
 figures embroidered on it. They have all girdles in which pink 
 is the prevailing colour. Both the female characters in the scene 
 with the child ev (T7rapydvot(; have garments of a bluish greens. 
 There is more variety in the colours on the Pio-Clementine Mosaic, 
 but most of them have transversal bars of purple or gold (called 
 pd^BoL iTapv(f>ai^) on the sleeves and bodies of their upper garments. 
 This band sometimes appears also as the TreJ"/?^ or lower border 
 of the chiton. In one of the groups, where a tyrant, with threatening 
 mien, is addressing a prisoner, who stands before him with droop- 
 ing head and his hands bound behind his back, the former has 
 a bright red dress without any stripes, bound round his waist with 
 a golden girdle'^. The attire of mourning, when the character was 
 represented as suffering under some special calamity, was for a 
 woman a black gown with a pale green or quince-yellow upper 
 robe', and for a man, if he was an exile, soiled white robes, or 
 
 1 Introduction to the Antigone, p. xxxii. 
 
 2 Gerhard, Ant. Bildwerhe, Taf. lxxiii. ; Panofka, Annali dell' Inst. Arch. Vol. 
 XIX. pp. 216 sqq, ; Welcker, Gerhard's Arch. Ztg. N. F. 1848, pp. 333 sqq. ; Wieseler, 
 Theatergeh. p. 55, PI. ix. No. 7. 
 
 3 Wieseler, Theatergeb. p. 52: ''Beide Personen haben einen blaugriinlielien 
 Chiton." 
 
 ^ Pollux, VII. §53: al ixevTOL eV rots xnlhai irop<pvpaL pd^boi irapv<pal KoXovvrai. 
 Hesych. Trapvcpif]' ij ev ti^ xtrcDw Trop<pvpa. 
 
 ^ Pollux, VII. § 62: dia de to e^wraTW tov xircDfos eKaripooOev, — at 5^ irapa ras was 
 irapvfpal KoXovuraL ir^^ai Kai ire^ldes. 
 
 ^ Like the philosopher Lysias, who being elected crowned priest of Hercules, 
 became e^ l/xarlov rvpawos, i. e. as soon as he laid aside his ordinary upper garment 
 and assumed the tragic chlamys ; for he is described as wopcpvpodv p-kv p.€cr6\euKov 
 Xi-rCiva ivdedvKui, xXa/ii;5a 5e ecpeaTplha irepi^e^Xriu^uos TroXvreXT) (Athenseus, V. 
 p. 215 B, C). 
 
 ^ Pollux, IV. § 118: r^s iv (Xv/x(pop^ 6 p.kv avprbs /xeXas, to 5e eiri^\r]p.a yXavKou 
 rj firjXii'Ov. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 257 
 
 generally garments of black or dark brown, or quince yellow, or 
 with a shade of olive-green^ The black or at least a very dark robe 
 is plainly seen in the Mosaic (PL xix. Wieseler, Vlii. 2), and the 
 pale green upper robe in the figure, which Mercury is conducting 
 to the grave (PL x. Wieseler, VIT. 5). Pollux mentions especially 
 a net-like woollen robe {a'yp'qvov) as worn by Teiresias and other 
 soothsayers 2, and a bulging robe (KoXTrcofia) as worn by kings over 
 their variegated under-dress 3, which from the word used must have 
 been confined by the girdle*, and may have been the projections 
 before the breast and the stomach mentioned by Lucian^. The 
 upper garment was not properly an l/jbdrLov thrown over the left 
 shoulder and brought back under the right arm according to the 
 r 67rl Sefta dvaffoXr}, but a sort of ^Xa/^u?, ec^aTrr/?, €(pe(TTpL<;, or 
 eirtTrop'jra/jLa, fastened with a clasp on the shoulder like a soldier's 
 cloak or wrapper. The general name for it was eTrl^XTj/jba, and 
 
 the clasp on the shoulder was one of its special marks ^. There 
 are many allusions in the classical Tragedies to this feature in 
 the dramatic attire. When an actor divests himself of his upper 
 
 ^ §117: ol §' ei' Sucrrux/ais 6vTes r} Xeu/ca duaTTLvrj elxov, /iaXicrra ol (pvyddes, tj (paia 
 7] fieXava rj ix-ffKLva r/ yXavKcva. 
 
 ^ § 116: TO d'' "^v irXey/j.a e^ ipiuiu 5t/CTUwSes irepl irav t5 aCiiia, 6 Teipeaias eire^dX- 
 Xero rj tis dXXos [xdvTLS. 
 
 ^ Ibid. : KoXTTiOfxa 8 virep rd irotKiXa ivededvpTO ol 'Arpels Kal ol 'Ayap.ip.vove'i koI 
 
 6<T0L TOLOVTOt. 
 
 ^ As in the epithet ^aduKoXvos. 
 
 ^ De Saltat. 27: ^cD Xiyecv irpocrTepvidia Kai TpoyaarplSia. The whole of Lucian's 
 description of the tragic actor is worth reading by the student. 
 
 ^ Athenaeus, Xll. p. 535 E: 6 5^ 2i/ceXias rvpaupos Aiovijatos ^va-rida Kal xp^<^o^^ 
 aricpavov iirl irephviQ /xereXdpL^ave rpayiKov. 
 
 D. T G. 17 
 
258 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 garment he is said to throw off his clasped robe\ It is with 
 the tongues of the buckles from his wife's dress that CEdipus puts 
 out his own eyes^ and with the same instrument Hecuba and 
 her attendants blind Polymestor^. 
 
 The dress of the chorus was in accordance with the personages 
 represented ; and although it was diflferent in kind from that of 
 the actors, the choragus took care that it was equally splendid. 
 But as the actors represented heroic characters, whereas the chorus 
 was merely a deputation from the people at large, and in fact stood 
 much nearer to the audience, the mask was omitted, and while the 
 actors wore the cothurnus, the chorus appeared either bare-footed, 
 as in the Cyrenaic picture, or in their usual sandals. 
 
 The comic actors for the same reason were content with the 
 soccus or thin-soled buskin (Figs. 19, 20), and their mask had no 
 
 Fig, 19. Fig. ?o. Fig. 21. Fig. 22. 
 
 07/C09 (Figs. 21, 22) ; but the TrpoacoiroTroto^; made up for the lack 
 of this exaggeration by an extravagant ugliness in tlie features of 
 most of the characters, wliich set nature completely at defiance''. 
 
 ^ Eurip. Here. F. 959 : yvfivov aQ/xa 9ds tropvafj.dTwv. Elcctr. 820 : pi'i/'as d.7r' 
 ojyuaji' evrpeirrj TropTrd/xara. 
 
 2 Sophocles, CEd. T. 1269. 
 
 ■^ Eurip. Hec, 1 1 70 : i/xdv yap 6/ji/j.dTcov 
 
 TTopiras Xa^ovcraL rds raXaiirdopovs Kopas 
 KCPTOvatv, aifidaaovcTLv. 
 
 ^ The most accessible specimen of the old comic costume is furnished by the 
 puppet "Punch," It has not been noticed that his name, as well as his form, may- 
 be traced to a classical origin. "Punch" and "Punchinello" are corruptions of the 
 Italian Pulcino and Pnlcinello, which are representatives of the contemptuous diminu- 
 tive pxdchellus. This epithet may be applied to little figures (Cic. Fam. vii. 23), and 
 our own phrase "pretty Poll," addressed to the parrot, may show how easily such a 
 viroKopiaixa may be suggested by the pleasure which results from petty imitations. In 
 the same way, the Greeks called the ape /caXos, or KaWias (Bockh ad Find. P. ii. 
 V. 72), and it is not improbable that the same or a similar epithet was given to the 
 masked and padded actors in the pantomimic shows of ancient Greece and Italy, 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 
 
 259 
 
 In the Old Comedy, as Pollux tells us^, the mask was for the 
 most part a caricature of the person represented ; but in the New 
 Comedy there was a regular mask for every conventional charac- 
 ter, the old man in particular having no less than ten types of 
 countenance^. There is a superabundance of monuments repre- 
 senting the scenes of the New Comedy. Indeed, there is an illus- 
 trated manuscript of Terence 3, which is probably at least as old as 
 the sixth century, and may have been copied from one still more 
 ancient, and statues, reliefs, and paintings exhibit the comic actors 
 of the later stage in every character and in all varieties of posture. 
 In a marble bas relief, supposed to represent the second scene of 
 the fifth act of Terence's Andria^, an angry master, who is about 
 to commit his slave to the tender mercies of a lorarius, is pacified 
 by a friend of similar age. The figure of the supposed Simo is 
 given in the annexed illustratiou. 
 
 Fig. 23. 
 
 The slave is always distinguished by a singular deformity in 
 the mouth. The sitting figure, which is here subjoined, is fre- 
 quently repeated in ancient statues^, and exhibits the peculiarity 
 of the slave's mask, to which we refer. From the ring on the 
 finger of one of the repetitions of this comic character, and from 
 
 1 IV. § 143: rd hk KWjXLKa vpocrwira, ra fieu rrjs wakaias KiOjXi^Uas Cos to ttoXi) Toh 
 irpoadoTTois (2v eKCJfJupSouv dTret/cdfero -q iirl to yekoLOTepov ^axflP-o-Ti-^^TO. 
 
 2 Pollux, IV. §§ 143 sqq. 
 
 2 See Wieseler, Theatergeb. pp. 63 sqq. Taf. X. Nos 2 — 7, from a MS. in the 
 Vatican at Rome ; No. 8, from a MS. in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. 
 
 4 Mm. Borh. Vol. iv. T. xxiv. ; Wieseler, Taf. xi. No. i. 
 
 5 See Wieseler, Theaterg. Taf. xi. Nos. 8, 9, 10, 11, and Taf. xii. No. 5. The 
 figure (24) given in the following page is in the British Museum, and is engraved 
 in Anc. Marh. in the Br. Mus. Part x. PI. XLiii. 
 
 17—2 
 
260 
 
 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 the crown on his head, it is inferred that he represents a drunken 
 slave, probably in the AaKrvXio^ of Menander, or in the Condalium 
 
 Fig. 24. 
 
 of Plautus^ which was borrowed from it; and this inference is 
 strengthened by the appearance of a similar figure in a scene 
 represented on a terra-cotta relief, which is found in two private 
 collections at Rome. Here a bearded figure, in an attitude like 
 that in the above illustration, is seated on an altar, and two other 
 figures, resembling the conventional old man of the New Comedy, 
 appear to have been in angry altercation with him. It is natural 
 then to conclude that we have some such scene as that in the 
 Mostellaria (v. 1. 45) : 
 
 and (v. 54) 
 
 Ego inteHm hinc aram occupaho, 
 
 Sic tamen hinc consilium dedero; nimio ph 
 Turn consilia firmiora sunt de divinis locis. 
 
 And the ring, if it does not refer to the Condalium, on which the 
 
 1 Varro, L. L. vii. § 77. Accius says it was not written by Plautus, A. Gell. 
 N. A. III. 3. The condalium seenns to have been a kind of ring peculiar to slaves, 
 Plaut. Trin. IV. 3. 7. The word is derived from /cwSyXos. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 
 
 261 
 
 play of Menander turned, may have been stolen like that in the 
 Curculio of Plautus (ii. 3. 81)^ 
 
 Of the dresses in the Old Comedy we have no monumental 
 illustrations^, but the allusions in Aristophanes tell us how extra- 
 vagant they must have been, and in what unrestrained obscenity 
 the poet and his patrons indulged. The numerous scenes from the 
 New Comedy, which are still preserved in ancient works of art, 
 show that though the language became more reserved and better 
 regulated, the eyes of the audience were not treated with much 
 respect. The actors often wore harlequinade dresses, with trowsers 
 fitting close to the leg, and with protuberances and indecent 
 appendages, indicating clearly enough the phallic origin of Greek 
 Comedy. 
 
 The most interesting examples of the costume of Comedy are 
 furnished by two pictures representing scenes of a very similar 
 character, one of which has been referred to a (fiKva^ rpayiKo^;, or 
 tragic foolery of Ehinthon^; and the other to the Althcea of Theo- 
 pompus, a poet of the Middle Comedy*. In the former of these, 
 Jupiter, attended by Mercury, is about to climb to the chamber of 
 Alcmena, who is looking out of a window in full dress as an 
 hetmra^, Jupiter, who has a bearded mask with a modius on his 
 head like Serapis, is bearing a ladder, with his head between the 
 
 1 This interpretation is due to Visconti, Mus. Pio-Clem. Tom. in. p. 37. 
 
 2 The rejiresentation of the first scene of the Frogs of Aristophanes, on a painted 
 vase (Gerhard, Denkm. n. Forsch. 1849, Taf. iii. No. i ; Wieseler, Theatergeh. a, 25), 
 
 Fig. 25. 
 
 is hardly an exception, for it does not correspond to the text, and is obviously a later 
 production. 
 
 3 Winckelmann, Momcm. iiied. P. i. No. 190; Miiller, Denkmaler d. alt. Kunst, 11. 
 PI. III. No. 49; Wieseler, Taf. ix. 11. 
 
 * Panofka, Cab. Pourtales, PI, x. ; Wieseler, Taf. IX. 12. 
 
 ^ She wears an ornamented cap or /jt-lrpa, which is referred to this character by 
 Pollux, IV. § 154: i} di 8idfi€Tpos (eralpa) /mirpq. iroLKikr} tt)u K€(pa\r]u KaTeiXrjTTTai. Cf. 
 bervius ad Verg. ^n. iv. 216; Juvenal, Sat. ill. 66: ite quibus grata est picta lupa 
 barbara mitra. 
 
262 ON THE EEPEESENTATION OF 
 
 Steps. Mercury has liis caduceus in his left hand, and bears a lamp 
 in his right. He is also distinguished by his petasos and his 
 chlamys. All the details of the picture point to circumstances of 
 common occurrence in Greek comedies, with whom the Atot%o9 Zeu? 
 was a favourite character i. The ladder is expressly mentioned by 
 Xenarchus, a poet of the Middle Comedy 2, and tlie window, which 
 in correct drawing should be at a much greater height from the 
 ground, represents the opening in the upper story of the stage from 
 which the hetcera was frequently represented as looking doAvn upon 
 her lover 3. It is worthy of remark thstt both Jupiter and Mercury 
 are represented as bare-footed. In the other picture, which pro- 
 bably represents a similar nocturnal visit paid by Bacchus to 
 Althgea in the Comedy of Theopompus"*, a female dressed like the 
 Alcmena of the other scene, is looking out of a window, while 
 a comic figTire with mask, socci, and other appendages, is climbing 
 the ladder to reach her. He wears a chaplet on his head, and 
 while he presents Althaea with " the apples of Dionysus^," i.e. 
 quinces, as an offering of love, he carries in his other hand a red 
 band for her hair^. His bare-footed attendant has in his left hand 
 a flambeau and a crown of myrtle, and in his right a little box 
 (KaSlcTfco^), containing some present for the lady. Althaea was the 
 wife of OEneus, and the chaplets of vine-leaves, which adorn the 
 wall of the house, are very appropriate to his name as the man of 
 the vineyard. The colours of the pictures are an interesting 
 feature in the costume. The crowns on the heads of the figures 
 are white 7. The o-co/jLariov of the man on the ladder is a brownish 
 red, his sleeves and leggings are of a bright brown. The other 
 
 1 Bergk, de Reliq. Com. Ait. p. 287. 
 
 2 Meineke, ill. p. 617: ^tj /cXiytta/ca (TTrjadixevov da^Tjvai \dOpa. 
 
 ^ Pollux, IV. § 1 30 : ev 5e KWfMcxidia dirb rrjs dicrreylas iropvo^ocTKoi tc KarovrevovaL rj 
 ypadia 17 yijuaca Kara^Xiiret. Cf. Vitruv. V. 6, 9. 
 
 4 This Comedy is cited by Athen. XI. p. 501 F; Pollux, ix. § t8o. That Bacchus 
 used to go as comast or reveller to the house of Althasa is known from Eurip. Cyclops, 
 
 37sqq.: ^ 
 
 flWV KpOTOS criKivvtowv 
 ofxoioi vfjuu vvv re x^'''^ BaKxl-V 
 KibfJ-ois (TvvacTiri^ovTes 'AXdalas ddfxovs 
 TrpoafJT^ doibals ^ap^lrwv aauXoij/mefoi; 
 
 5 Theocr. II. 120: fxaXa /x-ev ev koXttokil Atuviuaoio ^vkdcaoiv. III. 10: i}vlbe tol 
 Se/ca fiaXa 0^/)w. 
 
 6 Muller, Handh. d. Arch. § 340, 4. 
 
 7 This was the proper colour for a loving serenader ; Theocr. Ii. 121: Kparl 5' 
 ^X^J' Xe^Kav, 'B-pakXios upbv 'ipvo's. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 263 
 
 man is dressed entirely in yellow, and this is the coloiu* of the robe 
 in the picture, which represents a comic performer in the act of 
 being masked and dressed by Bacchus ^ The soccus as a general 
 rule seems to have been yellow 2. 
 
 The choruses of Aristophanes were arrayed in fantastic cos- 
 tumes more or less expressive of the allegorical caricature which 
 they represented. Thus the Bti-ds had masks with huge open 
 beaks, and the Wasps flitted about the orchestra protruding enor- 
 mous stings. 
 
 That the dresses of the actors in the satyrical drama did not differ 
 in kind from those of the performers of the chief parts in the Trage- 
 dies, which they followed, is an obvious inference, and the fact is 
 established by the last group in the Pio-Clementine Mosaic, which 
 represents an actor accompanied by one of the chorus of satyrs, 
 seen at a distance or in a diminutive form. There is also a painting 
 on a vase in the Museo Borbonico at Naples^, which gives us not 
 only the three actors in a satyrical drama, but a chorus of eleven, 
 two musicians, one playing on the flute, the other a citharist, and 
 the leader of the chorus, who is called Demetrius. In the midst 
 Bacchus is reclining on a bed, with Kora- Ariadne in his arms; and 
 the Muse, with a mask in her hand, is sitting at the end of the bed, 
 attended by Himeros. Of the three actors, one is attired in the 
 full tragic costume ; another, who represents Hercules, has a highly 
 decorated tunic, which, however, is shorter than the usual syrma; 
 the third actor, who represents Silenus, has a closely-fitting, hairy 
 dress, and bears a panther's skin on his left shoulder. The cho- 
 reutae, with the exception of one who is handsomely dressed, and 
 another, who has ornamented drawers, like our mountebanks'^, have 
 goat-skins about their loins with phallic appendages, but are other- 
 wise naked. The same fashion of dressing the choreutse in nothing 
 except shaggy aprons is observable in a very beautiful Mosaic 
 found at Pompeii, a copy of which is subjoined^. This picture in- 
 
 1 Mus. Borhon. VoL in. Tav. iv. ; VTieseler, Taf, x, i. 
 
 2 MiiUer, Handh. d. Arch. § 388, 2. 
 
 3 Monum. ined. deW Inst, di CovTisp. Arch. Vol, in. T. xxi. ; Wieseler, Taf. vi. 
 No. 2, p. 47. 
 
 * These drawers are worn by the satyric choreutse on Tischbeiu's vase (Wieseler, 
 VI. 3), and by the satyric citharist on Laborde's vase (Wieseler, VI. 5). 
 
 ^ Gell, Pompeii, New Series, Vol. i. PI. xlv. ; Mus. Borhon. Vol. ii. T. lvi. ; 
 "Wieseler, Taf. vi. i. The accompanying engraving (fig. 26, p. 264), which is taken 
 from the Museo Borbonico, is not quite accurate ; for there are only two masks before 
 the teacher, the third being on the table behind him. 
 
264 
 
 ON THE EEPEESENTATION OF 
 
 troduces us to the yopri'^iov or BtBaa/caXecov, which was probably in 
 one of the j)arascema or green-rooms of the theatre^, just as the 
 
 Fig. 26. 
 
 chorodidascalus is giving the last instructions to the choreutse and 
 actors, before the commencement of the satyric drama for which 
 they are dressing. Seated on a chair he is addressing one of the 
 two choreutge before him, and apparently teaching him how to 
 manage his hands. One of these choreutoe has not yet put on his 
 mask, the other has raised it that he may the better observe his 
 teacher. As the roll of paper, which the chorodidascalus holds in 
 his left hand, is folded up, we infer that he has already gone through 
 the text of the play. Near the center of the picture we have a 
 flute-player tuning his double flute. He is probably the x^P^^~ 
 Xt}^, who accompanied the chorus, and this name was inscribed on the 
 base of the statue (fig. 27) found on the Appian way. This instru- 
 mental performer is crowned with green and yellow leaves, and his 
 long gown is white, with blue stripes running from the top to the 
 bottom. Over his breast and shoulders and down to his hips he 
 has a trimming of violet with reddish crosses or stars. This trim- 
 
 ^ Pollux, IV. § 106 : x'^PVy'^ov TOTTOS ov 71 TapaaKevTj tov x^pov. Cf. IX. §§ 41, 42. 
 Bekk. Anecd. "ii, 17: xop'>?7f to'': tottos ^vda 6 x^PVyos roi^s re xopoi)s kul roiii 
 viroKpiras avvdyoju crvveKphrei.. We learn from Antiphon {de Choreut. § 11, p. 143) 
 that the hL^aa-KaKetov was sometimes in the choragus' own house : irpdorov pikv didaaKa- 
 Xeiov y ijv eTTLTTjSeLOTaTOP ttjs ifMTjs oiKias KaTeaKe6a(Ta. But we are disposed to agree 
 with Magnin {Revue d. d. Mond. T. xxil. p. 257): quelque f<it d'ailleurs le lieu oti 
 Ton comniengat des exercices, on les terminait au theatre, dans une piece des para- 
 scenia ou du postsceniura appelee xopayeiou. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 265 
 
 ming is probably the oxOol^ol mentioned by Photius^ By the 
 side of the flute-player one of the actors is advancing probably to 
 
 Fig. 27. 
 
 take the mask, which the teacher is raising with his right hand. 
 Another actor, who has already received his mask which lies beside 
 him on the table, is fitting on his chiton with the aid of a sei*vant. 
 The mask of the Silen, which lies at the foot of the teacher, indi- 
 cates a third part; and unless we suppose that this part is to be 
 undertaken by one of the two actors already present, we must con- 
 clude that, as only two of the choreutse are still in the room, the 
 third actor has not yet made his appearance. The gowns of both 
 the actors are bright blue with stripes of some difierent colour, 
 which is not very distinct. The red mantle, which is thrown over 
 the chair with gilded legs immediately to the right of the chorodi- 
 dascalus, is, no doubt, intended to form part of the costume of one 
 of the actors. The wall of the apartment is adorned with Ionian 
 pilasters, between which are suspended garlands and tasnia. The 
 latter are perhaps indications of success in the dramatic com- 
 petition. 
 
 This examination of the details of the costume in the three 
 great classes of the ancient drama will suffice to show how entirely 
 conventional and unreal the performance of a Greek play must have 
 been when contrasted with om' modern notions. It is of course an 
 open question, whether it is more in accordance with the principles 
 of dramatic art to 
 
 let gorgeous Tragedy 
 In sceptred pall come sweeping by, 
 
 ^ P. 366, 5, Porson: 'Ox^ol^ovs: to. Xu/xara' i<TTi de irepl to aTrjdos rod xi-t^vos 
 aXovpyes Trpoapa/JL/xa. 
 
266 ON THE EEPRESENTATION OF 
 
 according to a fixed system of representation, or to ransack the 
 stores of illuminated missals, monumental brasses, and even Assy- 
 rian monuments, in order to put on the stage an exact resemblance 
 of the times to be exhibited: whether it is better to let Comedy 
 revel in the grotesque exaggerations of our pantomimes, or to place 
 on the stage a carpeted boudoir with all the details of modern com- 
 fort. It is at least certain that the present method of putting plays 
 on the stage, which seems to have reached its ultimate development 
 under the management of Mr Macready and Mr Charles Kean, is 
 quite a modern innovation. It began with Le Kain and Talma in 
 France, and has been fully perfected in this country under the 
 Kembles. But Shakspere was content _to apologize for disgracing 
 the name of Agincourt 
 
 With four or five most vile and ragged foils, 
 Eight ill-disposed in brawl ridiculous. 
 
 Garrick played ancient Romans in bag-wigs and ruffles ; until the 
 last few years FalstafF fought at Shrewsbury with a highlander's 
 target, and a white coat with red and gold facings of the time of 
 George the First; and it was at the beginning of the present cen- 
 tury that the French performer, who was arrayed for the first time 
 in an approximation to the classic costume of Agamemnon, de- 
 manded of Talma, with much indignation, where he was expected 
 to carry his snuff-box. 
 
 Aristotle, or the grammarian by whom his treatise on Poetry 
 has been interpolated, informs us^ that every Greek Tragedy ad- 
 mitted of the following subdivisions ; the prologue, the episodes, the 
 exode, which applied to the performances of the actors, and the 
 parodus and stasima, which belonged to the chorus. The songs 
 from the stage {ra airb a/c7]vrj<;) and the dirges {KopufMol) are peculiar 
 to some Tragedies only. Besides these, it seems that there was 
 occasionally a dancing song or canzonet of a peculiar nature 2. The 
 proper entrance of the chorus was from the parascenia by one of 
 the parodt {nte) . The parodus was the song which the choreutos 
 sang as they moved, probably in difi'erent parties, along these side- 
 entrances of the orchestra^. It was generally either interspersed 
 with anapaests, as is the case in the Antigone; or preceded by a 
 
 1 Chap. XII. below, Part ii. 
 
 2 Introd. to Antiyone, p. xxxi. ^ Ibid. p. xxx. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 267 
 
 long anapaestic march, as in the case of the SuppUces and Agamem- 
 non. Sometimes this anapasstic march was followed by a system of 
 the cognate^ Ionics a minore. This we find in the Persce, In some 
 Tragedies there was no parodus, but the opening of the play found 
 the chorus already assembled on the Thymele, and prepared to sing 
 the first stasimon. Such is the case in the (Edipus Tyrannus. It 
 seems probable that they then entered by the passage under the 
 seats {rhh). The stasima were always sung by the chorus when it 
 was either stationary or moving on the same limited surface around 
 the altar of Bacchus, and with its front to the stage. The places 
 of the choreut£e were marked by lines on the stage (Scaypafji/jiaTa). 
 The two circles round the altar, indicated in the plan, give the 
 maximum and minimum range of their evolutions. When those 
 evolutions amounted to a dance 2, it was of the nature of the emme- 
 leia, which, as we have seen, was a staid and solemn form of the 
 gymnopcediG gesticulations. The satyric chorus danced the rapid 
 pyrrhic, or some form derived from it, and we may infer that it 
 involved a great deal of tramping backwards and forwards, with 
 high steps and lively movements of the hands, like the morris- 
 dance in England, or the tarantella in Italy. Although the cordax, 
 derived from the hyjoorcheme, was the original form of dance 
 adopted by the phallic comus, it was so grossly indecent, that 
 Aristophanes claims credit for its omission in The Clouds^. The 
 comic chorus sang its ^arodus and its stasima in the same manner 
 as the tragic; but they were, as pieces of poetry, much less elabo- 
 rate, and generally much shorter. The main performance of the 
 chorus in Comedy was the parahasis. It was an address to the 
 audience in the middle of the play, and was the most immediate 
 representative of the old trochaic or anapaestic address by the leader 
 of the phallic song, for which the personal lampoons of Archilochus 
 furnished the model, and to which the Old Comedy of Athens was 
 mainly indebted for its origin. This parahasis^ or "counter- 
 march," was so called, because the chorus, which had previously 
 stood facing the stage, and on the other side of the central altar, 
 wheeled about, and made a movement towards the spectators, who 
 were then addressed by the coryphgeus in a short system of ana- 
 paests or trochees, called the Ko/jufjudTcov, and this was followed by a 
 
 1 Donaldson's Gr. Gr. art. 650, p. 620. ^ Bockh, Antigone, pp. 280 sqq. 
 
 ^ See vv. 537 sqq. 
 
268 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 long anapsestic system, termed Trvlyo^ ("sufFocation"), or fiaKpov 
 ("long"), from the effort which its delivery imposed upon the 
 reciter. In the extant remains of Greek lyric poetry, those parts of 
 the epinikia of Pindar, which allude to the professional rivalries 
 and literary pretensions of the poet, are the nearest approximations 
 to this function of the choral comus. The parabasis is often fol- 
 lowed by a lyrical song in honour of some divinity, and this by a 
 short system, properly of sixteen trochaic tetrameters, which is 
 called the epirrhema or " supplement." The French would term it 
 Venvoi. It contains some joking addition to the main purport of 
 the parahasis. The lyric poem generally consisted of strophe and 
 antistrophe; and the epirrhema had its antepirrhema. These di- 
 visions confirm the supposition that the lyric poem was derived 
 from the mutual XotSoplai of the Phallic singers, and the eptrrhema 
 from the interchange of ribaldry in which the comus indulged. 
 
 There were regularly never more than three actors (viroKpLTai, 
 drycovicTTaL), who, as we have seen, were designated as respectively 
 the Jirst, secondy and third actor [irpcora^wvLaTrj^;, SevTeparycovt(TT^<;, 
 TpiTaycovLo-rr)';^). The third actor in Tragedy was first added 
 by Sophocles 2; and it is said that Cratinus was the first to 
 make this addition in Comedy 3. Any number of mutes might 
 appear on the stage. If children were introduced as speaking or 
 singing on the stage, the part was undertaken by one of the chorus, 
 who stood behind the scene, and it was therefore called a irapa- 
 (TicrjVLoVy from his position, or 7rapa')(opr)y7)[ia^ from its being some- 
 thing beyond the proper functions of the chorus"*. It has been 
 concluded^ that a fourth actor was indispensable to the proper 
 performance of the CEdipus Coloneus, But we cannot admit that 
 this innovation was necessary in the particular case^, and in all 
 
 ^ Above, pp. 54, 2x6. 
 
 2 Above, p. I20. . 3 Anonym, de Comoedia, p. xxxii. 
 
 ^ Pollux, IV, § 109, says that it was irapacrK-fiviov if one of the chorus said any- 
 thing in a song instead of a fourth actor (above, p. 234), but irapaxop-nynixa el rerap- 
 Tos viroKpLT-q^ Ti irapa^d^y^aiTo ; and he cites the Agamemnon of vEschylus for the 
 former, and the Memnon of the same poet for the latter. See C. F. Hermann, Disput. 
 de Distrihut. Personarum in Trag. Greeds, Marburg, 1840, pp. 39, 40, 64, 66, 
 
 5 By Miiller, Hist. Lit. Or. i, p. 305. 
 
 ^ The difficulty raised by Miiller, namely, that the part of Theseus must have been 
 divided between two actors, if there were only three in all, does not seem to be a 
 very formidable one. The mask and the uniformity of tragic declamation would 
 make it as easy for two actors to represent one part, as for one actor to sustain 
 several characters. 
 
GEEEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 269 
 
 others it is tolerably easy to see how all the parts might have been 
 sustained without inconvenience by three actors. The protagonist 
 regularly undertook the character in which the interest of the piece 
 was thought to center ; and it was so arranged that he could also 
 give those narratives of what was supposed to have taken place 
 off the stage, which constituted to the last the most epic portion of 
 the Tragedy, and which probably, in the days of Thespis and 
 Phrynichus, comprised all the chief efforts of the original rhap- 
 sode or exarchus^ By a great stroke of comic humour Aristo- 
 phanes makes Agoracritus, the hero of The Knights, appear as the 
 narrator of his own adventures 2, an office which a tragedian would 
 have assigned to some messenger from the scene of action. The 
 deuteragonist and tritagonist seem to have divided the other cha- 
 racters between them, less according to any fixed rule than in obe- 
 dience to the directions of the poet, who was guided by the exigen- 
 cies of his play^. The actors took rank according to their merits, 
 and the tritagonist was always considered as inferior to the other 
 two. 
 
 The narrowness and distance of the stage rendered any elabo- 
 rate grouping unadvisable. The arrangement of the actors was 
 that of a processional bas-relief*. Their movements were slow, their 
 gesticulations abrupt and angular, and their delivery a sort of loud 
 and deep-drawn sing-song, which resounded throughout the im- 
 mense theatre^. They probably neglected every thing like hy-play, 
 and making points, which are so effective on the English stage. 
 The distance at which the spectators were placed would prevent 
 them from seeing those little movements, and hearing those low 
 tones which have made the fortune of many a modern actor. The 
 
 ^ Introduction to the Antig. p. xx. 2 vv. 624 sqq. 
 
 3 Introd. to the Antig. pp. xx sqq. 
 
 * "As ancient sculpture," says Miiller {Hist, of Gr. Lit. I. p. 398), "delighted 
 above all things in the long lines of figures which we see in the pediments and friezes, 
 and as even the painting of antiquity placed single figures in perfect outhne near each 
 other, but clear and distinct, and rarely so closely grouped as that one intercepted the 
 view of another; so also the persons on the stage, the heroes and their attendants 
 (who were often numerous) stood in long rows on the long and narrow stage." It is 
 to be remarked, however, that numerous retinues, especiaUy if they appeared with 
 horses or chariots, were often introduced into the orchestra. 
 
 ^ This is pretty evident from the epithets, which, as Pollux tells us, might be 
 applied to the actor, iv. 114: elVots 5' hv ^apvarovos VTroKpiTi^s, ^o[x^Qiv, wepi^ofx^Qu, 
 XrjKvdi^iav, Xapvyyi^cov, (papvyyi^cjp, k. t. X. 
 
270 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 mask too precluded all attempts at varied expression, and it is pro- 
 bable that nothing more was expected from the performer than was 
 looked for from his predecessor the rhapsode, — namely, good reci- 
 tation\ The rhythmical systems of the tragic choruses were very 
 simple, and we may conclude that the music to which they were set 
 was equally so. The dochmiac metre, which is regularly found in 
 the KOfjLfjLol and ra airo <T/€i]vrj<i, would admit of the most inartificial 
 of plaintive melodies. The comic choral songs very frequently 
 introduce the easy asynartete combinations^, which were so much 
 used by Archilochus ; and we find in Aristophanes a very curious 
 form of the antispastic metre, the invention of which is attributed 
 to Eupolisl 
 
 We shall conclude with a few observations on the audience, and 
 on the social position of the actors. For the first few years after the 
 commencement of theatrical performances no money was paid for 
 admission to them; but after a time (probably about the year 501 B.C.) 
 it was found convenient to fix a price for admission, in order to pre- 
 vent the crowds and distm-bances occasioned by the gratuitous ad- 
 mission of every one who chose to come"^. The charge was two 
 obols^ ; but lest the poorer classes should be excluded, the entrance 
 money was given to any person who might choose to apply for it, 
 providecl his name was registered in the book of the citizens 
 {\r)^iapj(^LKbv ypa/jbfiarelov). The lowest and best seats were set 
 apart for the magistrate, and for such persons as had acquired or 
 
 1 Professox" Blackie, after quoting these words {The Lyrical Dramas of jEschylus 
 translated from the GreeTc, Lond. 1850, Vol. i. p. xlvi), adds: "These observations, 
 flowing from a realization of the known circumstances of the case, will suflBciently 
 explain to the modern reader the extreme stiffness and formality which distinguishes 
 the tragic dialogue of the Greeks from that dexterous and various pla}^ of verbal inter- 
 change which delights us so much in Shakspere and the other masters of English 
 tragedy. Every view, in short, that we can take, tends to fix our attention on the 
 musical and the religious elements, as on the life-blood and vital soul of the Hellenic 
 rpayi^bia; forces us to the conclusion, that, with a due regard to organic principle, its 
 proper designation is sacred opera, and not tragedy, in the modern sense of the word, 
 at all; and leads us to look on the dramatic art altogether in the hands of -^schylus, 
 not as an infant Hercules stranghng serpents, but as a Titan, like his own Prome- 
 theus chained to a rock, whom only after many ages a strong Saxon Shakspere could 
 unbind." 
 
 ^ Donaldson's Gr. Gr. 666, p. 628. ^ Id. ibid. 677, p. 633, 
 
 ■* It is probable that at Athens, as well as Rome, each person entitled to admission 
 was furnished with a ticket indicating his place in the theatre. A ticket of admission 
 to the Casina of Plautus has been found at Pompeii. 
 
 ^ This account of the Theoricon is taken from Bockh's Pull. Econ. 1. pp. 289 foil. 
 Engl. Tr. 
 
GREEK PLATS IX GEXERAL. 271 
 
 inherited a right to front seats {irpoehpia^). It is probable that 
 those who were entitled to reserved places at the theatre had also 
 tickets of admission provided for them. Foreigners on the con- 
 trary were obliged generally to be contented with the back seats". 
 The entrance-money was paid to the lessee of the theatre {Oearpw- 
 V7]<;, deaTpoTTwXT]^, apxi^reKTcov), who defrayed the rent and made the 
 necessary repairs out of the proceeds. The distribution of the 
 admission-money, or dewpiKov, as it was called, out of the public 
 funds, was set on foot by Pericles, at the suggestion of Demo- 
 nides of QEa; its application was soon extended till it became a 
 regular largess from the demagogues to the mob at all the great 
 festivals ; and well might the patriot Demosthenes lift up his voice 
 against a practice which was in the end nothing but an instru- 
 ment in the hands of the profligate orators, who pandered to the 
 worst passions of the people. The lessee sometimes gave a gratis 
 exhibition, in .which cases tickets of admission were distributed^ 
 Any citizen might buy tickets for a sti'anger residing at Athens*. 
 We have no doubt that women were admitted to the dramatic 
 exhibitions, at least to the Tragedies^; and boys as well as men 
 were present at all performances of plays ^, nor were slaves ex- 
 cluded". It seems probable however that the women sat by them- 
 selves in a particular part of the theatre ; for in the theatre at 
 Syracuse there are still inscriptions on the nine different KepKiSe*;, or 
 
 "^ See Aristoph. Equ. 704; Demosth. Mid. p. 572. 
 
 2 See Alexis ap. Poll. ix. 44 : 
 
 evravda irepi rr^v e<xxo.ry}v bet KepKida 
 vjjids Kadi'^ovaas dewpetv, ws l^vas. 
 
 ^ Kai iirl deav rjviKa av dej] iropeveadai, ovk eav tovs vieis. [dW] rjuiKa irpoLKa d(pid(nv 
 oi OeaTpOfvai. Theophrast. Charact. XI. 
 
 " Theophrastus mentions this as one of the marks of aTrovoia in a person, Kat eV 
 dedp-acTL 5e roiis xa^'^'Ot'S eKKiyeiv, KaO' eKaarov irapiuv Kai /idxecrdai rols to av,u.^o\ov 
 (pepovcn, Kai irpoiKa dewpeiu dt^LovaL. Charact. vi. Among the relicts from Pompeii 
 and Herculaneum preserved in the Studii at Naples, is an oblong piece of metal about 
 three inches in length, and one in breadth, inscribed AiVxi'Xos. This was perhaps the 
 criijui.(3o\ov of Theop.hrastus/' Former Editoi'. 
 
 ^ Kat ^eVots be avrov deav dyopdaas, fxri Soi'j to p.ipos, deojpelv. Theophrast, 
 Charact. ix, 
 
 ^ Pollux uses the same term deaTpia (ii. § 56, iv. § 121), which is alone some 
 evidence of the fact. It is stated, however, expressly by Plato, Gorgias, 502 D ; Lejg. 
 II. 658 D; VII. 817 c; and by Aa-istoph. Eccles. •21—23; Satyrus ap. Athen. p. 534. 
 See Bekker's Charicles, pp. 403 sqq. 
 
 ^ For their appearance at tragedies, see the passages of Plato quoted in note 3. 
 That they were allowed to see comedies also is clear from Aristoph. Nub. 537; Pax, 
 50, 766; Eupolis ap. Aristot. Eth. Nk. iv. 2. 
 
 ^ Plato, Goj^g. p. 502. 
 
272 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF 
 
 compartments, from which it would appear that the center and four 
 western compartments (namely those to the left of the spectator) 
 were assigned to the men, while the four eastern compartments 
 were reserved for the female spectators ^. The conduct of the audi- 
 ence was much the same as that of the spectators at our own 
 theatres, and they seem to have had little scruple in expressing 
 their approbation or disapprobation, as well of the poet^ as of the 
 actors^. Their mode of doing this was sometimes very violent, 
 and even in the time of Machon it was customary to pelt a bad 
 performer with stones^. 
 
 The Athenian performers were much esteemed all over Greece; 
 they took great pains about their bodily exercises^, and dieted 
 themselves in order to keep their voices clear and strong^. Their 
 memory must have been cultivated with assiduous care, for they 
 never had the assistance of a prompter, like the performers on the 
 modern stage '^. We believe that the protagonist at all events was 
 generally paid by the state; in the country exhibitions, however, 
 two actors would occasionally pay the wages of their rpirayco' 
 vco-Trj<i^. The salary was often very high^, and Polus, who gene- 
 rally acted with Tlepolemus in the plays of Sophocles^", sometimes 
 earned a talent by two days' performances". The histrionic pro- 
 fession was not thought to involve any degradation. The actors 
 were of necessity free Athenian citizens, and by the nature of the 
 case had received a good education. The actor was the represen- 
 tative of the dramatist, and often the dramatist himself. Sopho- 
 cles, who sometimes performed in his own plays, was a person of 
 
 ^ This is inferred from the female names on the eastern KepKides; see Gottling, 
 ilber die Inschriften im Theater zu Syrahus, Rhein. Mus. 1834, pp. 103 sqq. 
 
 2 Athenseus, xill. p. 583 F, 
 
 •^ Demosth. De Corona (p. 345 and 346, Bekker). Comp. Milton's imitation of 
 the passage. {Prose Works, p. 80, in the Apology for Smectymnuus.) 
 
 ^ Athen. vi. p. 245. ^ Cicero, Orai. c, IV. ^ Plato, Legg. 11. 
 
 7 Hermann {Opusc. v. 304) says: *'In theatro UTro/SoXei^s dictus est, qui histrioni 
 verba subjiciebat, quem nos Gallico vocabulo souffleur appellamus. Sic Plutarchus in 
 PrcEC. ger. resp. I'j, p. 813 e: fiLixetadaL tovs viroKpirds, irddos iJ.kv idcov Kai tjOos /cat 
 d^icofia T(^ dyQui wpocrT id ^vt as, rod 5^ vwo^oXeus dKovouras, Kal /xr] irapeK^abovras roi/s 
 pvd/uLovs Kal rd fi^rpa ttjs dLdofJiivrjs i^ovaias vwo rCov KparovuTiov. But, as Bernhardy 
 remarks (Griech. Litterat. ii. p. 648), we have here only a reference to the cpojvdaKos, 
 who kept C. Gracchus within bounds by the tone of his instrument (Plut. Tib. Gracchus, 
 c. 2; Aul. Gellius, iV. ^. i. 11). 
 
 8 Demosth. de Corona, p. 345, Bekker. 
 
 ^ See Bockh, Public Econ. Book i. c. xxi. p. 120, Engl. Tr. 
 ^0 Comp. Aul. Gell. vii. 5, with Schol. Ar. Nub. 1269. 
 11 Plutarch, Rhet. Vita;. 
 
GREEK PLAYS IX GENERAL. 273 
 
 the highest consideration; the actor Aristodemus went on an em- 
 bassy i, and many actors took a lead in the public assembly 2. 
 Theodorus, who was a contemporary of Aristodemus, and to whose 
 mastery over his art both Aristotle, who had seen him on the 
 stage^, and later writers, to whom his fame had descended^, bear 
 ample testimony, was honoured by a monument, which was a con- 
 spicuous object on the sacred road to Eleusis even in the time of 
 Pausanias^. It is true that Demosthenes, among the exaggerated 
 contumelies which he heaps on his opponent ^Eschines, lays a 
 particular stress on his connexion with the stage. But it must be 
 remembered that in all this he does not attempt to depreciate the 
 profession itself. He is at great pains to indicate not only that 
 ^schines never rose beyond the rank of a Tpiraywyio-rr]';^, and that 
 he was merely the subordinate partner of Theodorus and Aristode- 
 mus'^, just as Ischander was the regular BevT€paycovicrTri<; of Xeo- 
 ptolemus®, but that he utterly failed even in that humble capacity. 
 On one occasion, when ^Eschines was performing at Collytus the 
 part of (Enomaus in the play of Sophocles which bore that name, 
 and was pursuing Ischander, who as deuteragonist took the part of 
 Pelops, in the death-race for Hippodameia, which was probably 
 represented in the orchestra, it is stated the future statesman fell 
 in a very unseemly manner, had to be set on his feet again by 
 Sannio, the teacher of the chorus, and was hissed off the stage by 
 the offended spectators^ It is also intimated that at one time in 
 his dramatic career, whether before or after this mishap does not 
 appear, ^schines was content to be tritagonist to ranting actors 
 named Simylus and Socrates, in whose company he was so pelted 
 
 1 ^scb. Trepl Tapairp. p, 347, Bekker. 
 
 2 Demosth. irepl Trapa-rrp. p. 377; Bekker, de Cwond, p. 281. 
 
 3 See, for example, Rhet. in. 2, § 4: olov -t] GeoSwpou (po}v^^ TreirovOe irpbs T-t]v tQsv 
 dWuv vTOKpiTwV Tj ixkv yap Tov \4yoyTos ^oiKev ehaf al 5' dWoTpiai. 
 
 * It is said that he actually extorted tears from the savage tyrant, Alexander of 
 Pherae; ^^an, V. H. xiv. 14; cf. Plut. Pdop. 29. 
 
 ^ !• 37> § 3 • "'piJ' 5^ 77 Sia^TJuai tov Kr]<pLa6u, GeoSw/Jou p.vrjixd i<XTt rpaycfSiav viroKpi- 
 vap.hov rOiv ko.Q'' ai'Tov dpiara. 
 
 6 De Corond, pp. 270, 11; 297, 25; 315, 9. 
 
 ' De Pais. Legal, pp. 418, 420, 2. 
 
 ^ De Fals. Legal, p. 344, 7 ; 1(rxa»'5pov rov "SeoirroXe/Jiov ^evrepaydjvia-TT^v. 
 
 ^ De Corona, p. 288, 19: 6v iu KoWwrcj iroTe Olv6p.aov kukuis iTr^rpixpas. Anonym. 
 Vit. ^sch. pp. T I sq. : Arjfxoxdprjs (priaiu 'laxo-v^pov tov Tpaytobov TpiTayojvKXTTjv yeveadai 
 TOV Alaxl-vTjv Kal vTroKpivdfxevov Oiv6/j.aov diuKOVTa II^XoTra alaxp^^ Tre(Telv Kal avaaTrjvai. 
 virbZavvLuvos tov xopodidaaKciXov. Apoll. Vit.jEsch. pp. 13 sq. : AiVxiV?;? TpirayuviaTT^s 
 iyiv€To TpaycfStQv Kal iv KoWurtp ttot^ Olvofxaov vTroKpiv6/j.€vos KaTiirecrev. 
 
 D. T. G. 18 
 
274 EEPRESENTATION OF GREEK PLAYS IN GENERAL. 
 
 by the audience with figs, grapes, and olives, that it was worth his 
 while to collect these missiles, and to find some compensation for 
 the wounds which he had received in this way by living on the 
 fruits of other men's orchards ^ These insulting allusions, which 
 were afterwards repeated in part by Demochares, the nephew of 
 Demosthenes^, had in all probability little more tlian a foundation 
 on fact^. But if they were sustained in every respect by the 
 dramatic history of ^schines, it is clear that they affect only his 
 personal reputation as an actor, and do not derogate from the general 
 respectability of the histrionic art. In some cases, the actors were 
 not only recognized by the state, but controlled and directed by 
 special enactments. Thus, according to the law brought forward 
 by the orator Lycurgus, the actors were obliged to compare the 
 acting copies of the plays of the three great tragedians, with the 
 authentic manuscripts of their works, preserved in the state 
 archives; and it was the duty of the public secretary to see that 
 the texts were accurately collated^. 
 
 1 Be Corona, p. 314, 10. The true explanation of this passage is that given by- 
 Mr C. K. Kennedy, in the note to his translation, p. 97. 
 
 2 Apud Harpocrat. s. v. "laxai'Syoos. Anonym. Vit. ^sch. p. 11. 
 
 ^ The theatrical career of ^schines has been carefully examined by Arnold 
 Schaefer, Demosthenes und seine Zeit, i. pp. 213 — 226. He falls into the old mistake 
 of supposing that ^Eschines himself habitually imitated the manner of Solon (p. -z^S, 
 note). More accurate scholarship would have led him to notice that Demosthenes uses 
 the aorist efiitiricxaTO, and that an imperfect would have been employed had he meant 
 to imply habitual imitation. We have shown elsewhere that the statue from Hercu- 
 laneum represents Solon, and not ^schines ("On the Statue of Solon mentioned by 
 ^schines and Demosthenes," Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, 
 Vol. X. Part i). On the exaggerations or fabrications of Demosthenes in these attacks 
 on ^schines, see Hist. Lit. of Gr. Vol. II. p. 365. 
 
 * Vitce X. Oratorum, p. 841 D, p. 377 Wyttenb. : ws xaX/cas eUSva^ avadeivai tQ>v 
 TTOvr\rCiv, Alax^^ov, ^0(p0K\€0vs, ISivpnriSov, Kat ras rpayc^Sias avrCop iu kolv<^ ypaxpa- 
 fj-ivovs (pvXaTTeiv, koL rbv rrjs 7r6\ews ypa/JL/jLaria irapavayL-yvibcTKeLV TOis inroKpivo/x^uois' 
 ovK i^etvuL yap avras [aWws] viroKpiveadaL. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON THE REPEESENTATION OF CERTAIN TRAGEDIES 
 AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 
 
 Veteres ineunt proscenia ludi. 
 
 Vergilius. 
 
 HAVING fully considered all the circumstances connected with 
 the representation of a Greek play in general, we must now 
 apply the results of this inquiry to an investigation of the manner in 
 which these arrangements were practically applied in particular cases. 
 And as our space will not allow us to examine with sufficient mi- 
 nuteness the details which probably attended the exhibition of 
 every extant Tragedy and Comedy, it will be desirable to select 
 those dramas which furnish the most decisive and distinctive ex- 
 amples of the scenic ingenuity of the Greeks. The most prominent 
 peculiarity is undoubtedly the complete or partial change of the 
 indications of locality. And this is of very rare occurrence. In the 
 seven plays of JEschylus there is a complete change of scene only 
 in the second and third plays of the extant Trilogy ; and the left 
 periactos, which, as we have seen, indicates the direction of the 
 foreign or distant regions from which the visitant is supposed to 
 enter the stage, is not turned once in all the remains of the oldest 
 dramatist. Sophocles has only one example of a complete change 
 of scene, that in the Ajax ; and only one of the turning of the left 
 periacfos, that in the (Edipus Tyrannus^ when the road to Corinth 
 is substituted for that to Delphi, with, perhaps, a distant view of 
 Parnassus. In the numerous plays of Euripides we have no ex- 
 ample of a complete change of place, but several of his plays 
 require a change of the left periactos. The scene is completely 
 changed in five of the eleven plays of Aristophanes; but the left 
 
 18—2 
 
276 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 periactos is turned only in the Acharmans and in the Lysistrata ; 
 and in the latter there are four or five of these indications of a dif- 
 ferent point of approach to the stage from a distance. 
 
 In making a selection from the extant Greek plays, we shall 
 commence with the only complete _Trilogy, the Orestea, or, as it 
 may have been once called, the Agamemnonia of ^schylus, and 
 shall then take those of the other plays which furnish the most 
 various examples of a complete theatrical exhibition. 
 
 The scene of the Agamemnon of jEschylus represents the palace 
 of the Atreidag, and the open space immediately before it. The 
 front of the palace is adorned with altars of various gods, especially 
 those to whom the herald addresses himself on entering the stage 
 (vv. 503 sqq.), and that of Apollo Agyieus was of course one of 
 them (v. 1085). The palace was represented as rising to a con- 
 siderable height, for the watchman, who speaks the prologue to the 
 Tragedy, is able to command from his elevated position a view of 
 the surrounding country, as far at least as the Arachnsean moun- 
 tains (v. 309). As Pollux mentions the aKoirrj and (ppvfcrcopLov 
 among the parts of the theatre, the question has been raised whether 
 the watchman is posted on the roof of the palace or on some de- 
 tached elevation. But it is clear from the words of the poet 
 that the sentinel must have been on the palace itself (v. 3: are- 
 7<xfc9 ^ArpecScjv. v. 301 : ^ArpetBodv 69 roBe aKrjTrret aT6<yo<;)y and the 
 balcony of the Siareyla would furnish the proper elevation. That 
 a flat roof without battlements is intended is shown by the state- 
 ment that he gazed lying down and leaning on his elbows like a 
 dog (vv. 2, 3: koc/j,c6/jL6vo^ ajKaOev kvv6<; Slktjv), i. e. in the attitude 
 familiar to us from the posture of the sphinx, which is the conven- 
 tional form of the watchful guardian. The right hand periactos 
 represented the city of Argos, and the left the road to the coast. 
 
 The watchman, who introduces the play, speaks the prologue 
 from his post on the roof and then makes his exit by a door sup- 
 posed to lead into the palace, for he had already summoned the 
 inmates of the royal house (v. 26). 
 
 The chorus then enters (v. 39) by the right-hand parodos, and 
 the anapaests are recited while they are moving to the thymele and 
 taking their post around it. During these evolutions Clytsemnestra 
 with her attendants enters the stage by the center door (v. 83), and, 
 after making her offerings at the altars before the palace, goes off 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 277 
 
 by the right-hand side- door (v. 103) to repeat these offerings at the 
 temples in the city ; and she does not reappear till the end of the 
 first choral song (v. 254) , when she comes forward to the front of the 
 stage and enters into colloquy with the leaders of the chorus. She 
 explains to the chorus why she has offered a sacrifice of thanks- 
 giving, and after a vivid description of the manner in which the 
 message of the caj^ture of Troy was transmitted by a series of 
 beacons, and of the contrast between the victors and the vanquished 
 in the captured city, she again retires by the center door into her 
 palace. Hereupon follows the first stasimon of the chorus (w. 357 
 — 488). And a considerable lapse of time is supposed to inter- 
 vene. In most of the editions it is supposed that Clyttemnestra 
 returns to the stage at the commencement of the next episode, and 
 that she speaks the words which indicate the approach of the 
 herald (vv. 489 — 500); but it is generally the business of the 
 chorus to announce the entrance of a new character, the herald 
 addresses himself to the chorus down to v. 582, and the name of 
 Clytaemnestra is mentioned first in v. 585; it seems therefore clear 
 that Hermann is right in assigning the first words of the episode to 
 the chorus, and whether Clytaemnestra re-enters from the house at 
 V. 587, or a few verses before, it is obvious that she takes no part 
 in the dialogue till she makes that speech, where the word iraXai 
 must be understood in its largest sense. The herald, who is pro- 
 bably the Homeric Talthybius, had entered of course by the side- 
 door on the left, behind the jperiactos representing the road to 
 Nauplia ; and he withdraws by the same door, for the queen charges 
 him with a message to her husband. After the second stasimon (vv. 
 681 — 781), a few anapaestic lines introduce the triumphal procession 
 of Agamemnon, who drives into the orchestra in a mule-chariot, 
 accompanied by the captive Casandra, and followed by a retinue of 
 attendants. He does not mount the stage till v. 957, when he 
 reluctantly sets his foot on the costly carpets and follows his 
 treacherous wife into the palace. It is clear from v. 1054 [ireiOov 
 XiiTovoa TovK afjLa^-qpr] Opovov) that Casandra remains in the orches- 
 tra, seated still in the mule-chariot. It is probable that the armed 
 attendants of Agamemnon also remain in the orchestra. The ad- 
 dress in V. 1651, ela hr) |^i'0o9 iTpoKWjTov 7rd<; ri? evrpeTTL^irco, would 
 hardly apply to the aged chorus consisting, as we shall see, of only 
 twelve persons. After the gloomy strains of the third stasimon 
 
278 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 (vv. 975 — 1032), Clyt^mnestra comes forth from tlie palace and 
 endeavours fruitlessly to induce Casandra to enter the royal apart- 
 ments. Casandra, who had remained silent while the queen was on 
 the stage, breaks forth, immediately after her exit, into the most 
 impassioned strains, and the dialogue between her and the chorus 
 constitutes one of the finest scenes in the whole body of the extant 
 Tragedies of the Greeks. After having declared to the chorus, with 
 increasing distinctness, the impending murder of Agamemnon and 
 herself, she rushes into the house to meet her doom. We should 
 infer from the conventional kol fii^v that she leaves the orchestra at 
 the end of her interchange of songs with the chorus (v. 1178). 
 
 When Casandra leaves the stage (v. 1330), the chorus recites a 
 few anapaests, which probably indicate a movement of the whole 
 body to take up a new position. The death-cry of Agamemnon is 
 heard (v. 1343), and each of the twelve choreutse expresses his 
 opinion as to what ought to be done. The proposal to rush into 
 the palace and convict the murderer while the fresh-dripping sword 
 is still in his hand (v. 1350: oTrw? ra'^^iard y efMireaelv kcli TrparfjJb 
 iXejx^tv ^vv veoppdvTct) ^[(pet) seems to be generally adopted, and as 
 Clytgemnestra is immediately afterwards discovered on the spot 
 where she had slain her husband (v. 1379: earTjKa 8' evd' eiraia 
 iir i^etpyaa/jLevoL^;), it may fairly be concluded that the eccyclema, 
 which exposes the interior of the palace, is supposed to include the 
 chorus also, and the whole of the fc6fjLfio<; which follows, down to 
 the anapaests (vv. 1567 — 1576), which indicate a movement of the 
 parties, is to be understood as taking place within the palace. 
 
 The eccyclema is withdrawn, and the chorus is again in the 
 open place before the house of the Atreld^e, when ^Eglsthus, 
 attended by an armed escort (v. 1650), enters the stage by the 
 right-hand side-door (v. 1577), as though he had come from the 
 city on learning that Clytsemnestra had consummated his plot with 
 her (vv. 1608 — 1611). A lively altercation ensues between ^Egls- 
 thus and the chorus, assisted probably by the attendants of Aga- 
 memnon, and the two parties are about to come to blows, when 
 they are parted by the hasty re-appearance of Clytsemnestra, and the 
 play ends as the guilty pair enter the palace to assume the sove- 
 reign power, and the chorus leaves the orchestra by the right-hand 
 parodos. 
 
 It will be observed that in this grand Tragedy there is no devia- 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 279 
 
 tlon from tlie unity of place; for the eccyclema, whicli displays the 
 interior of the palace, is only a partial change of scene. The unity 
 of time, however, is conspicuously violated. For Clytcemnestra's 
 speech before the first stasimon is supposed to be spoken on the 
 day of the capture of Troy (v. 320 : Tpoiav 'A^j^atol r^S' exovcr' iv 
 7]fji6pa), and the herald, who enters after the stasimon, details cir- 
 cumstances referring to a long passage from Troy, interrupted by a 
 dreadful storm which dispersed the fleet. Several days must there- 
 fore be supposed to have elapsed between the two acts of the play. 
 
 The distribution of the parts among the three actors in the 
 Agamemnon may be very easily arranged, so as to allow the same 
 actor (i. e. the tritagonist) to perform the same part in all three 
 plays of the Trilogy, and at the same time to retain the leading- 
 characters for the best performer^: 
 
 Protagonist, Agamemnon, the guard, the herald. 
 
 D enter agonist, Casandra, jEgisthus. 
 
 Tritagonist, Clytsemnestra. 
 
 The middle play of the Orestea, which is known as the Clioe- 
 pJioroe or "bearers of funeral libations," is divided by a total change 
 of scene into two distinct parts. The scene of the first act, which 
 terminates at v. 651, is a desolate tract of country at some distance 
 from the city, perhaps hilly, and certainly provided with brushwood 
 for the concealment of Orestes and Pylades. The central object is 
 the mound which indicates the tomb of Agamemnon. The play 
 begins with the entrance of Orestes and his friend from the left 
 side-door, and the former speaks the prologue, which has come 
 down to us considerably mutilated. The chorus enters from the 
 right parodos at v. 10. In the present state of the text we cannot 
 say whether they sang any anapa3sts as they advanced to the thy- 
 mele, but the commencement of their first choral song (vv. 22 sqq.) 
 seems to imply that they had previously been silent. Although 
 Orestes is made to suppose (v. 16) that he sees Electra along with the 
 chorus, it is clear that this is only intended to indicate a natural illu- 
 sion on his part. For Electra must enter by the right-hand side-door, 
 where the periactos perhaps represented a distant view of the royal 
 palace, and her entrance is marked by her address to the chorus in 
 vv. 84 sqq. The maidens of the chorus are sent to accompany Electra 
 (v. 23: %oa^' 7rj007royu.7ro9. v. 85: rrjcrSe TrpoarpoTrrj^; ifiol 7ro/jL7rol) 
 
 ^ See Milller, Hid. Lit. Gv. i. p. 406. 
 
280 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 and to perform certain acts of public mourning (vv. 24, 423 sqq.), 
 but the J do not themselves make the offering; this is performed by 
 Electra (v. 129), who is therefore alone on the stage. She is joined 
 by Orestes (v. 212), who appears suddenly from his place of con- 
 cealment, and although Pylades is not mentioned till v. 561, there 
 is no reason to doubt that he re-enters with his friend. They both 
 leave the stage by the right-hand door before the first stasimon 
 (vv. 585 sqq.). For it seems absurd to refer tovtm in v. 583, 
 
 TO, 5' &X\a TovTix) devp' iTroTrrevaaL X^yu) 
 ^i^TjcpSpovs dyCovas opdwaavTi fim, 
 
 to Pylades. The very terms of the phraseology , compared with 
 the address at the beginning of the play, 
 
 'Epfj.7j x^ovie, Trarptp' liroirTeiiav Kparrj, 
 
 show that the necropolis was adorned with a statue of the infernal 
 Mercury, to whom there are frequent allusions in the course of the 
 Tragedy. It is probable that Electra does not accompany her 
 brother and his friend, but that she and the chorus make their exit 
 at the end of the stasimon (v. 651). 
 
 Both the stage and the orchestra being now clear, the scene is 
 entirely changed, and both the periacti are turned. That on the 
 left represents a distant view of the grave of Agamemnon, that on 
 the right the city of Argos ; and the scene itself shows us the royal 
 palace, with a lodging for strangers to the left. Orestes and Py- 
 lades enter by the left side-door. Clytsemnestra comes forth to 
 greet them from- the center door of the palace, and sends them into 
 the strangers' lodgings. The re-entrance of the chorus by the left- 
 hand parodos, — for they must be supposed to come directly from the 
 grave to which they refer (v. 722), — is indicated by a few anapaests 
 (vv. 719 — 733). As Clyt^emnestra manifestly returns to the palace 
 after her brief conversation with Orestes, and as she sends Cilissa 
 to ^gisthus (v. 734), the old nurse must come forth from the 
 center door, and make her exit by the right-hand side-door leading 
 to the city. By the same door ^gisthus enters after the second 
 stasimon (v. 838), and betakes himself to the strangers' apartments, 
 where he is at once put to death by Orestes. From the words of 
 the chorus in vv. 872, 873, 
 
 diroaTadCjfiev Trpdyfiaros reKov/xiyov 
 Sircjs SoKU}fjL€v tQvS' dvairiaL KaKCov 
 ftvai. pidxv^ ydp Sr] KtKvpurai rfKot, 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 281 
 
 it may fairly be infen-ed tliat the clioreutae take refuge and conceal 
 tliemselyes in the parodos until the end of the interview between 
 Clyt^emnestra and the matricide. The servant of course comes forth 
 from the strangers' apartments, and knocks at the center door, and 
 Clyteemnestra comes from the house at his summons, just as Orestes 
 rushes out in pursuit of her (v. 892). After Orestes has dragged 
 his mother into the strangers' lodging in order to slay her beside 
 JEgisthus (vv. 894, 904), the chorus re-appears and sings the stasi- 
 mon (vv. 931 — 972) at the thymele. It is clear that the corpses of 
 the queen and her paramour are exhibited to the spectators, when 
 Orestes re-appears, and says (v. 973), 
 
 idecrde xwpas tt]v 6nr\T]V rupawida — 
 
 but it is not so certain in what manner this is effected. As no 
 mention is made of the chorus entering the guests' chambers, where 
 the murders have been perpetrated, and as Orestes clearly intends 
 a public display, we must infer that the eccyclema was not used, 
 but that the bodies were brought out on a bier, as the bodies of 
 Eteocles and Polyneices were paraded in the Seven against Thebes. 
 It is not only clear from the question of the chorus (v. 1051) and 
 from the words of Orestes (v. 1061) that the phantom forms of the 
 Erinyes are visible to Orestes alone ; but the care, which is taken in 
 the following play, not to exhibit the Eumenides until the audience 
 have been wound up to the highest point of expectation, precludes 
 the supposition that the effects of that play would be anticipated 
 by the premature introduction of the chorus, from which it bears 
 its name. Orestes leaves the stage by the left side-door, and the 
 chorus proceeds to the right-hand parodos, reciting the concluding 
 anapaests. 
 
 In the Eumenides, as in the ChoepJiorce, there are two distinct 
 acts, each with its appropriate scenery. The scene of the first act 
 (w. 1 — 234) is the temple of Apollo at Delphi. The center door 
 on the stage represents the main entrance of the temple, the interior 
 of which is displayed by the eccyclema after v. 93. The right- 
 hand door is marked by a sacred grove, through which Apollo 
 retires after dismissing Orestes. On the other side there may have 
 been the dwelling of the Pythia, from which she enters at the be- 
 ginning of the play, and to which she returns after the prologue. 
 It is probable that the neighbourhood of Delphi, to which tlie 
 Pythia alludes in her opening address, is depicted in the scenery. 
 
282 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 And there is every reason to conclude that the altars or statues of 
 the deities mentioned by her also adorned the stage. The time 
 intended is the morning after the arrival of Orestes, who has come 
 straight from Argos (cf. v. 282 : iroraLvtov yap ov k.t.X.), followed 
 by the Furies, and whom Apollo has purified while his persecutors 
 slept. After the prologue, the eccyclema rolls out the chorus who 
 are sleeping round the altar^, the hero appears on the stage between 
 Apollo and Hermes, and the latter accompanies him, as he sets 
 forth on a long journey by sea and land, before he reaches Athens 
 the object of his wishes (vv. 75 sqq.). While Orestes and Hermes 
 leave the stage by the left-hand side-door, Apollo retires into the 
 grove, for of course he cannot appear in his temple till v. 179, 
 when he expels the intruders. After the stage is cleared (v. 94), 
 the dvaTrlecr/jLa immediately exhibits the apparition of Clytaem- 
 nestra's ghost. That the sleeping chorus had been visible while 
 Apollo was speaking is clear from the words of the god (v. 67: 
 raoSe ra? /iiapyov<; 6pd<;) ; and that the interior was shown by the 
 eccyclema, perhaps by a two-fold evolution, is distinctly stated by 
 the Scholiast, who says : Bevrepa yiverao (pavracria' crrpacpevTa yap 
 p.ri')(avr) pbara evhrjXa iroiei rd Kara to jjiavrelov oj? e^ei. The words 
 of Apollo, V. 201: too-ovto /uLtjko^ efcretvov \6yov, show that they 
 w^ere still in the temple in spite of his order to quit it, and it is 
 plain that they do not depart until they have said (229, 230) : 
 
 iyoj 8\ ayet yap atfxa HTjrpc^ou 5i/caj, 
 fiirei/jii Tovde <pQ)Ta KaKKvvrjyiris. 
 
 And they immediately leave the stage in single file by the left- 
 hand door by which Orestes and Hermes had made their exit. 
 Apollo, after reciting his three lines (232 — 234), returns to his tem- 
 ple, the eccyclema is withdrawn, and the whole scene is changed. 
 
 Between the first and second acts we must suppose a consider- 
 able interval of time, during which Orestes has traversed many a 
 region by land and sea (v. 240: o/moLa 'xepaov koI OaKaaaav eKire- 
 
 1 Botticlier has made tLe costume of the chorus in this play the subject of a 
 special dissertation {die Farienmaske im Traiierspiel und auf den BildwerTcen der alten 
 Griechen, Weimar, 1801, Kleine Schriften, I. pp. 189 — 277), and he has given two 
 pictures of the theatrical Fury, one representing all the repulsive and loathsome 
 features which seem to have belonged to the yEschylean choi us, and the other exhi- 
 biting the usual type of theatrical beauty and splendid costume, but indicated as a 
 minister of vengeance by the serpent-locks, and by the serpent and torch which she 
 carries in her hands. He believes (p. 138 [271]) that the latter was the only personi- 
 fication of the Fury admitted on the stage after the time of Pericles and Phidias. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 283 
 
 pcov, cf. V. 77), and has visited many nations as a purified suppliant 
 (vv. 284 — 286). It has generally been supposed that the scene 
 represents the temple of Minerva Polias at Athens^. But it is 
 manifest that during the latter part of the act the scene is the 
 Areopagus, and there is no indication of another change of scene. 
 There must, however, have been a temple and statue of Minerva in 
 the Areopagus. For Minerva is made to say to Orestes (v. 474) : 
 iKeT7j<; iTpocrrfKOe^ Ka6apo<^ apKa^rj^; hofjuoL^, Apollo's injunction to 
 the fugitive is (v. 80) : fioXwv Be IlaXXaSo? irorl tttoXcv l^ov TraXacbv 
 ayKaOev \a^o)v (Bpera^, and he is described by the goddess (v. 409) 
 as fipera^ tov/jlov twS' ecfir^jxevcp ^ev(p. The most probable solution 
 is that the poet supposes Orestes to have reached the temple of 
 ^Adrjvd 'Apela, to whom he was said to have consecrated an altar in 
 the Areopagus on his acquittal 2. The scene then represents the 
 Areopagus, with a distant view of Athens, certainly with a statue, and 
 probably with a temple of Minerva. As Orestes says (v. 256) rj/cco, 
 *' I am come," it is reasonable to conclude that he is seen near the 
 statue of the goddess as soon as the scene is shifted, and the chorus 
 re-enters by the left-hand parodos as soon as he has uttered his 
 short prayer (v. 244). After the stasimon, preceded by a few ana- 
 paests, as the chorus pass from the part of the orchestra immediately 
 below the stage to the thymele (vv. 307 — 396), Minerva appears on 
 the balcony of the stage, as though borne through the air on a 
 chariot of clouds. This is shown by her own words (vv. 403 — 405) : 
 
 rfKdov drpvTov voda 
 TTTepCiv arep poi^dovaa koXttov alyidos 
 kojXois CLKfj-alocs t6v5' iiri^ev^aa oxov. 
 
 If she had come in an ordinary chariot it would have been needless 
 to say that she came without wings, or that she used her segis to 
 make a flapping as birds do with their wings (cf. Soph. Antig, 
 1004: Trrepoov yap pol/BBof; ovk darjfjbo^ rjv). She clearly means that 
 she rode upon the wings of the wind. After the explanation with 
 the chorus and Orestes, Minerva, who had descended to the stage, 
 proceeds on foot by the right-hand door to summon the judges for 
 the trial (v. 489). The stasimon follows (vv. 490—505). And 
 then Minerva returns from the right with the twelve judges, who 
 
 1 This is the opinion of Droysen, Donner, Genelli, Miiller, Schomann and Her- 
 mann. Geppert and Schonborn maintain the view adopted in the text. 
 
 2 Pausan. i. 28, § 5 : Koi (Sco/xos iariv 'Adfjuds 'Apeias 6u dvidrjKev dwocpvyui^ ttju 
 
284 ON THE REPEESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 take their seats either on the steps of her temple, or on seats before 
 the center door, while Apollo appears from the left to support his 
 suppliant. The judges give their votes separately in the twelve 
 intervals of the couplets spoken by the chorus and Apollo (vv. 711 
 — 733). Orestes is acquitted, and departs by the left-hand door, 
 as soon as he has expressed his gratitude and bound his country- 
 men by a promise of future friendliness (vv. 754 — 777). As he 
 takes no notice of Apollo, that divinity must have departed after 
 the declaration of the verdict in vv. 752, 753. It may be presumed 
 that the Areopagites retain their places till the procession at the 
 end of the play. When Minerva has succeeded in allaying the 
 wrath of the Eumenides, she takes leave of the chorus (v. 1003: 
 ^atpere ;^i5yLtet9), and says that she must go before to prepare their 
 abode for them ; and she leaves the stage by the right-hand door 
 after making her concluding speech (vv. 1021 — 1031). The irpc- 
 TTojuLirot then make their appearance through the right-hand parodos, 
 and lead the chorus from the orchestra by the same door. As they 
 depart the Areopagites leave the stage in solemn procession. 
 
 The distribution of the parts in the second and third plays of 
 the Trilogy must have been as follows : 
 
 Choeplioroe, 
 Protagonist, Orestes. 
 
 Deuter agonist, Electra, iEgisthus, Pylades. 
 Tritagonist, Clyt^emnestra. 
 
 Eumenides, 
 Protagonist, Orestes. 
 D enter agonist, Apollo. 
 Tritagonist, Pythia, Clytaemnestra, Minerva. 
 
 The Trilogy was succeeded by a satyrical drama, the Proteus, 
 which had some reference to the adventures of Menelaus alluded 
 to in the Agamemnon (vv. 674 sqq.). The manner, in which the 
 complete chorus of forty-eight was made available for the separate 
 choruses of the four plays, is thus stated by C. O. Miiller^ The 
 Agamemnon had a chorus of twelve senators, as appears from their 
 conference in vv. 1319 — 1342 ; the Eumenides had a chorus of 
 fifteen, as appears from the most probable arrangement of the jjlv^- 
 fjbo<; hiifkov^ of V. 125, as seven repetitions of the word \a^e, each 
 
 1 Eumeniden, pp. 75 sqq. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 285 
 
 spoken by a pair of clioreutiB, the imperative (fipd^ov being uttered 
 by the coryphaaus; the chorus of the Choeplioroe had probably this 
 larger number; and this would leave two ^v^a, or ranks of three 
 each, for the satyric drama. It is probable that the chorus of old 
 men from the Agamemnon appeared as the Areopagites in the Eu- 
 menides^ and the chorus of the ChoepJioroe constituted the festive 
 procession at the end of the last play in the Trilogy. 
 
 We have examined the details of the representation of these 
 three plays at some length, because, taken together, they furnish the 
 most complete specimen of a Greek dramatic entertainment which 
 has come down to us. Indeed, with the exception of the satyrical 
 drama, which served as an after-piece to the Trilogy, we have here 
 before us a perfect sample of the elaborate theatrical exhibitions, 
 which were provided for the amusement of the Athenians at their 
 Bacchic festivals. It will be seen that no regard was paid to the 
 unities of time and place. The second and third plays are respec- 
 tively broken into two distinct parts by the change of scene, and 
 the first play, which has no change of scene, supposes, like the 
 third, a considerable interval of time between the first and second 
 acts. And while ^schylus has thus allowed himself a full latitude 
 in dealing with space and time, he exhibits in this, the last of his 
 dramatic works, a full acquaintance with all the improvements of 
 the stage. The three actors are all put in requisition, and the 
 chorus, originally one and undivided, is broken up into sections for 
 the sake of the separate plays. 
 
 Of the other Tragedies of -zEschylus, the Prometheus alone re- 
 quires a special notice of its mode of representation. It differs from 
 all other plays by making no use of the stage. The action proceeds 
 entirely on the balconies above the first story. The scene repre- 
 sents a desolate and rocky region, not far from the shore of Ocean 
 at the extremity of the world. The center door is blocked up by 
 the representation of a craggy mountain. To the summit of this 
 (v. 142 : rrjcrSe cj)apayyo(; aKOTrekois; ev a/cpot<;) Vulcan, attended by 
 Strength and Force, is engaged in fastening the form of Prome- 
 theus. On the right-hand pertactos there is a representation of the 
 sea, and a more distant part of the coast is represented on the left. 
 There can be little doubt ^ that Prometheus himself was represented 
 by a lay figure, so contrived that an actor standing behind the pic- 
 
 ^ See Hermann's note, p. 55. 
 
286 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 torial mountain could speak tlirougli the mask. No protagonist 
 could have been expected to submit to the restraint of such an at- 
 titude throughout the whole of the play, to say nothing of the 
 catastrophe at the end, when the rocks fall asunder, and Prome- 
 theus is dashed down into Tartarus ^ 
 
 Vulcan and his attendants leave the balcony by one of the 
 doors in the SicrTeyia which lead to it (v. 87), and Prometheus is 
 left alone till the entrance of the chorus indicated by the anapaests 
 recited by him (vv. 120 sqq.). A question arises, whether the 
 chorus, which comes through the air, borne on clouds, like Minerva 
 in the Eumemdes (cf. v. 135 with Eumen. 405), and which must 
 have appeared at first on the balcony, remains there throughout 
 the play 2, or descends to its proper place in the orchestra at v. 277, 
 where their anapaests indicate a movement on their part. We have 
 no hesitation in adopting the latter view of the case, for the fol- 
 lowing reasons. (1) The balcony would not suffice for the regular 
 evolutions of a chorus, which in this, as in other plays, has to per- 
 form antistrophic songs. (2) As Oceanus appears in the same way 
 and from the same side as the chorus, there would be no room for 
 both of the machines on the balcony. (3) A Greek play in which 
 the chorus never entered the orchestra would be an unparalleled 
 soloecism. If it is urged on the contrary that Prometheus on the 
 top of the rock would be too distant to converse with the chorus at 
 the thymele, it may be answered that the audience are still more 
 distant, and yet they are supposed to hear all his words. And if 
 reference is made to the warning of Mercury (v. 1060), 
 
 lieTo. irov X'^P^'^T^ ^i^ rujude tSttcjv 
 
 flT] (ppivas V/J.WV 7]\L9lU}(Tri 
 ^pOJ^TTJS fJLiJKTJfM'' cLTepafxyou, 
 
 as showing that they must have been near Prometheus, we reply 
 that it indicates, on the contrary, that they were not within the 
 immediate sphere of the danger, for he would not have used the 
 plural TOTTcov in that case, and he would have indicated even a 
 worse risk than that of losing their senses owing to the crash of 
 the thunder. 
 
 But although the chorus must be placed in the orchestra, all the 
 
 1 Schomann, des ^sckylos gefesselter Prometheus, p. 87, believes that Pz'ometheus 
 was represented by an actor throughout the play. 
 
 2 This is Schonborn's opinion, p. 292. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IX PARTICULAE. 287 
 
 actors speak from the upper platform. Oceanus remains seated on 
 liis courser in the clouds, and rides away upon it when his selfish 
 fears are excited (v. 396). lo, who had been wandering on the 
 sea-shore near the mountain (v. 575 : irXava re vrjcrrtv dvd rdv 
 irapaXiav yfrdfi/jLov) , enters from the left on the balcony which re- 
 presents the summit of these rugged rocks; for she speaks of casting 
 herself down from them in her despair (yv. 747 sqq.) : 
 
 ri dip-' ifJLol ^v Kephos, aXS! ovk iv rdx^i. 
 ippi'^ efxavT-qv rijcrd' oltto arixpXov irerpas ; 
 
 In the same manner Mercury enters from the same side : for there 
 is no reference whatever, as in the case of Oceanus and the chorus, 
 to his having flown thither through the air, and he is expressly 
 called "the running-footman of Jove" (v. 941: top Aio? Tpoyj.v)-, 
 and as Prometheus sees him at once, he cannot be on the stage 
 below. It is clear that the chorus leaves the orchestra by the 
 right-hand parodos, just as Mercury quits the balcony by a side- 
 door to the left, probably veiled by a peak of the mountain, and 
 Prometheus is left alone to describe the coming storm in the splen- 
 did anapassts which conclude the play and accompany the exodus 
 of the chorus. Then, it may be presumed, the scenic rocks fall 
 asunder, and the figure representing Prometheus descends with 
 them below the stage. 
 
 As a specimen of the manner in which Sophocles, the perfecter 
 of the Greek drama, placed his Tragedies on the stage, it will be 
 sufficient to examine the latest of his plays, the CEdipus at Colonus. 
 
 The scene, which remains the same throughout the play, is 
 minutely described in the opening verses. CEdipus entering from 
 behind the left-hand ^e/-2*ac^c>5, which represents the road to Thebes, 
 asks his guide Antigone (w. 1,2): 
 
 TCKVov TV(p\ov yepovTos ^AvTiyoPTi, riva^ 
 X^povs a.<piyixed\ rj rivuv dvdpQv iroXcv ', 
 ''Child of a blind old man, Antigone, 
 What lands, what city are we come unto?" 
 
 and she replies (vv. 14 — 20) : 
 
 irdrep roKaliroip Oldiwov, irvpyoL fiev, ot 
 iroKiv ar^yovaiv, ws ciTr' dfifidruu, Trpocrw* 
 X^pos d' o5' ipos, ws ad(p' elKdaai, ^pvuv 
 dd<pv7js, e\aias, d[xire\ov' TrvKvoTrrepoi. 5' 
 etcToj Kar' avrbv evarofMova drjdoves' 
 ov KU)\a Kdpi.\}/ov ToG5' ctt' d^icTTov irirpov. 
 /xaKpdv ydp, ws yipovTL, TrpoucrrdXT?? 656f. 
 
288 ON THE REPEESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 **0 woe-worn father CEdipus, the towers 
 That girt the city, as mine eyes inform me. 
 Are still far off: but where we stand the while 
 A consecrated grove displays itself, 
 Thick set with bay-trees, olive-trees, and vines; 
 And from within, with closely ruffled plumes. 
 The nightingales make sweetest melody. 
 Then sit thee down on this rough stone: thine age 
 May hardly brook such lengthened pilgrimage." 
 
 From this it is clear, that the center of the stage represents 
 this grove of the Eumenides as surrounded by a low dry-stone 
 dyke, on which the blind wanderer takes his seat (v. 19). The 
 entrance to the grove substitutes brazen steps for the stones of 
 the wall (v. 57 : ov S* iTriarelpei^ toitov ')(6ovo^ KoXetrai rrjaSe 
 ycCkico'rrov'^ o3o9. v. 192 : avrov' iMT^Kert rovh^ avrtireTpov ^r^jjuaro^ 
 €^(o TToBa Kklvr)<;). In the immediate neighbourhood of the grove 
 was seen the pool, against which (Edipus is warned by the chorus 
 (vv. 155, sqq.). The right-hand i^eriactos exhibited a view of 
 Colonos, and near it was seen, probably as a picture, the statue 
 of the hero of the place (v. 59 : roz/S' iTTirorr^v l^okwvov) . In 
 the interval between this and the grove the scenery gave a distant 
 view of Athens. To the left of the grove we may presume that 
 there was a perspective representation of the country of Attica 
 between Colonos and the Theban borders, from which CEdipus 
 and his daughter have travelled. All five doors of the stage 
 must have been used in the course of the piece. 
 
 After (Edipus has taken his seat on the fence of the sacred 
 inclosure, a man of Colonos enters from the right and informs 
 him that he has violated holy ground. The stranger, however, 
 does not venture to remove him, but departs by the door by 
 which he had entered to summon the chorus, and to bear the 
 tidings to Theseus (v. 298). When he has made his exit, An- 
 tigone leads her father quite within the grove (v. 113 : /cat //,' 
 e^ ohov iroha Kpv-^frov Kar ak(To<^). The chorus then enters by the 
 right-hand parodos, and though in search of (Edipus, it does 
 not mount the stage. For when the blind king comes forth from 
 the grove (v. 138), the chorus is engaged in spying round the 
 outside of the enclosure (v. 55: Xevcrcrcov 'irepl irav T€fjL6vo<i), and 
 it addresses him as still at a distance, though he is standing on 
 the narrow stage (v. 162 : yu-erao-ra^', aTrojBaOi' iroXka Ke\ev6o<^ 
 epaTvec /cXvet9, w iToXviio'xff oKaTo). The conference between 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAE. 289 
 
 CEdipus and the chorus is interrupted by the unexpected arrival 
 of Ismene (v. 310), who comes mounted on horseback (v. 312), 
 and accompanied by a faithful domestic (v. 334). It may be 
 considered doubtful whether the horse is seen by the audience ^ 
 The mention of the servant seems to be inti'oduced because he 
 is there to hold the horse after she has dismounted, and the 
 interval between v. 310 when she is first seen, and v. 324 when 
 she first speaks, together with the momentary difficulty in recog- 
 nizing her (v. 315 sqq.), may be best explained by the supposition 
 that she rides into the orchestra, leaves her horse with the servant, 
 (who leads it out.) and then mounts the stage. It may fairly be 
 inferred that, when Ismene retires from the stage to pour forth the 
 libations on the other side of the grove (v. 505: rovKetdev aXao^ 
 TovSe), she makes her exit by the middle door on the left. For she 
 is seized by Creon on his way from Thebes, though the ordinary 
 route to Boeotia is not that which Ismene is supposed to have 
 taken, otherwise she would not have needed the guidance of the 
 chorus. Now it is expressly intimated that the road from Thebes 
 branched off in two directions not far from Colonus (v. 900) . And 
 it is to be understood that Creon had diverged from the straight 
 road on his approach to the sacred grove in search of CEdipus, so 
 as to pass through the spot where Ismene was occupied in her 
 pious offices. 
 
 As Theseus leaves GEdipus to the care of the chorus (v. 653), 
 it is quite clear that the old men of Colonus cannot be passive 
 spectators of Creon's outrage, and the text shows that some at 
 least of the choreut^ mount the stage and lay hands on the 
 Theban prince ; for he says to them (v. 855) , fiy) y\raveLv Xe^/co, 
 and the choir-leader replies, ovtol a a<^r)crco^. The main body 
 
 1 Schonbom says (p. 280) : " Den Anblick des Rosses den Zuschauem zu gewahren, 
 dazu liegt kein Motiv vor." Kolster, on the other hand, justly remarks {Pref. p. xi) : 
 ** Schonborn musste wenigstens sagen ■waruni der Dichter denn Ismene von der 
 Schwester zu Ross sehen lasst, wenn sie nicht so auftreten soil ; Sophokles wirft doch 
 dergleichen Worte nicht umsonst hin." 
 
 2 Kolster maintains that the struggle takes place on the steps leading to the 
 orchestra, through which Creon had to return. He says (p. 60): "If any one denies 
 Lis appearance in the orchestra because he does not come on horseback or in a chariot, 
 he ought to remark, first, that he comes not alone, but accompanied by numerous 
 attendants, v. 723, ovk avev tto/jlttuu ; and then, that though he comes expressly to 
 carry off CEdipus, he does not at once address him, whom he would have been close to, 
 if he had appeared on the stage, but speaks to the chorus in twelve long trimeters, and 
 obviously opens a safe way to the stage by his conciliatory expressions. It is not till 
 V. 740 tlaat he directs his speech to CEdipus ; and when his overtures are rejected, he 
 changes his tone, and CEdipus learns with horror that Creon has already got possession 
 
 D.T.G. 19 
 
290 ON THE EEPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 of tlie chorus, remaining in the orchestra, call loudly for Theseus, 
 and he comes in hastily from sacrificing in the neighbouring 
 temple of Neptune, and therefore through the middle door on 
 the right. The armed attendants of Creon have already left the 
 stage with Antigone, probably by the door by which they had 
 entered. And while Theseus enters into angry conversation 
 with Creon, who had been detained by the choreuta?, he sends 
 word to his followers to march off to the meeting of the roads 
 to Thebes and there to intercept the runaways. There is no 
 reason to suppose that the horsemen and foot-soldiers of Theseus 
 (v. 899) pass over the stage. It would be more natural to imagine 
 them as pursuing their march on the other side of the sacred grove 
 which forms the center of the scene. As Creon is to be the guide 
 of Theseus (v. 1025), they must leave the stage by the middle 
 door on the left by which the former had entered, and of course 
 Theseus re-enters (v. 1099) by the same opening. 
 
 It is stated (v. 1158) that Polyneices was a suppliant at the 
 altar of Neptune, where Theseus was sacrificing when he was 
 interrupted by the outrage of Creon. He therefore enters (v. 1249) 
 by the middle door on the right, and makes his exit by the same 
 way (v. 1447). 
 
 The three peals of thunder (vv. 1456, 1462, 1479) accompanied 
 
 of Israene and is intending to carry off his other daughter also. Hereupon Q^^dipus 
 implores the aid of the chorus, which at once forbids the meditated violence ; Creon 
 however beckons to his attendants to carry off the maiden, whom he has obviously 
 seized with his own hands ; these followers, who had been left in the orchestra, mount 
 the steps and compel the chorus to give way, in spite of their protestations against a 
 wrong which they are unable to prevent (v. 839: firj V^rao-o-' a fir] KpareTs). It is 
 therefore a case in which the chorus and actors come into personal contact (Geppert, 
 Ueb. d. Eingdnrje, p. 30). It is possible to explain particular expressions of the chorus 
 by the supposition that different choreutae are speaking; but the only way to conceive 
 the character of the separate words is to consider them as induced by the course of the 
 action. How could we explain the decided expressions of v. 824, 
 
 X<^P^h ^^"'j ^s^ dacraov ovre yap ra vvv 
 dUaia irpdacreis, oiid' a irpbadev eipyacai, 
 
 immediately followed by the helpless ri Spas, ^eVe ; of v, 829, and by the feeble declai-a- 
 tion of V. 831, w ^iif' ov diKaia dpdsl How incongruous would be the threat of v. 839, 
 
 Ti Spcis, c5 ^€U ; oi>K dcprjaets ; rdx' els (3daavov el X^P^^} 
 
 if Antigone had not been conducted through the orchestra. The silence of the chorus 
 during the act of violence, vv. 844 — 847, is the consequence of their flight before 
 Creon's myrmidons. After these have withdrawn (v. 856) Creon is left alone face to 
 face with the chorus, and the words cttiVx^ s aiirov, ^ive, are easily explained, if the 
 chorus thinks it can cut off his retreat (v. 857: oUtol g d0T7crw). At this point the 
 chorus must either be on the stage, of which I can find no trace, or by occupying the 
 steps from the orchestra is cutting off Creon's retreat, in which case he must be 
 intending to depart by way of the orchestra." 
 
TEAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAE. 291 
 
 by llglitning, which presage the death of QEdipus, must have been 
 audible and visible to the spectators, and the fipovrelov and Kepav- 
 vocTKoiTelov could not have been used with greater effect. The 
 mirrors of the latter may have been so arranged as to throw a 
 glare of light on the chorus (v. 1477). 
 
 It is obvious that, with Qildipus leading the way, the two 
 princesses, Theseus, and his attendants enter the sacred grove by 
 the main doorway (v. 1555). Some little time is supposed to 
 elapse before the messenger returns with his account of all that 
 had happened (v. 1579). When his speech is ended, Theseus 
 returns to the stage with the two princesses (v. 1670). And 
 though Theseus promises (v. 1773) to comply with the request 
 of Antigone to send her to Thebes, in order, if possible, to prevent 
 the fratricidal strife of his two brothers, it does not follow that she 
 and her sister leave the stage by the left-hand side-door, as though 
 they departed immediately for their native city. It is more reason- 
 able to suppose that they go with Theseus to Athens, and therefore 
 make their exit in his company, by the middle door on the right. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that the remaining plays of 
 Sophocles furnish only one example of a complete change of 
 scenery, and only one of a partial change by the revolution of 
 the left-hand ])eriactos. The former case is that of the Ajax. 
 In the first act of this play, the scene is laid in that part of the 
 Grreek encampment, which lies between the tent of Ajax and 
 the shore (v. 192 : e'^aXot? Kkialai^;). The interior of the tent 
 of Ajax is displayed by means of the eccyclema, and he is seen 
 surrounded by the cattle which he had slain in his delusion 
 (vv. 346 sqq.). He is rolled off the stage by the same means, for 
 he says (v. 579), hcofia Tra/crov, and (v. 581), nrvKa^e Oaaaov. 
 After the stasimon of the chorus (596 — 645), Ajax comes forth 
 from his tent, and then departs by the right-hand side-door as 
 though he was going to the sea (v. 654: irpo^ re Xovrpa koX 
 TrapaKTLov^ Xeifjbwva^). The messenger enters (v. 719) by the 
 left-hand side-door as coming from the distant camp of the Greeks. 
 Tecmessa goes forth to meet him with Eurysaces (v. 787) from the 
 right-hand middle door, representing her own tent, and the child 
 re-enters by the same door, when Tecmessa leaves the stage in 
 pursuit of Ajax by the right-hand side-door. The messenger of 
 course returns through the left side-door, and the chorus breaking 
 
 19—2 
 
292 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 up into the two hemiclioria, in which they reappear in the 
 second act, leave the orchestra by both parodi. The stage being 
 cleared, the scenery is completely changed. And we have now 
 an unfrequented spot partially covered with trees, which ren- 
 ders the search for the body of Ajax more difficult. Tecmessa 
 stumbles upon it (v. 891) immediately on her re-entrance, and it 
 may be presumed therefore that Ajax falls before the centre door, 
 probably behind a tree which masked that entrance. The other 
 persons who enter in the second act, Teucer, Menelaus, Agamem- 
 non, and Ulysses, come and return by the left-hand side-door. 
 It is clear from v. 1115 that Menelaus is accompanied by at least 
 one herald, and this functionary attends Agamemnon, whom he 
 goes to fetch. This appears from vv. 1116 and 1319, and justifies 
 Martin's conjectures of aov rovS^ ofMalfJiovo^i for rov crov 0" 6[xaiiJbovo<^, 
 in V. 1312. With regard to the only change of the left-hand ^erz- 
 actos, of which Sophocles furnishes an example, and which occurs 
 in the (Edij^us Tyrannus, it is obvious that in the first part of the 
 play the left-hand entrance must indicate the road to Delphi, and 
 probably the left-hand periactos gave a distant view of Parnassus, 
 to which the chorus alludes (vv. 463 sqq.). But as the messenger 
 from Corinth enters by the same door on the left (v. 924), it is clear 
 that the periactos must be turned, so as to exhibit a view of 
 Cithjeron or some other indications of the road to the Isthmus. 
 
 It has been already mentioned that, in the extant plays of 
 Euripides, there is no instance of a complete change of scene, and 
 it would almost seem as though he had wished to make up for that 
 complication of incident, that succession of plots, to which reference 
 has been made in a former chapter, by a more rigid adherence to 
 the unity of place than his gxeat contemporaries had thought neces- 
 sary. There are, how^ever, several examples of a change of the 
 left-hand jperiactos^ which indicated the region from which the 
 actor, coming from a distance, was supposed to enter the stage. For 
 instance, in the Orestes, the left-hand j^eriactos must, in the first 
 instance, represent generally the road to foreign parts by which 
 Menelaus enters on his return from Troy (v. 356) ; but it must be 
 turned so as to exhibit a view of part of the city, when Pylades 
 enters (v. 729), for he says: 
 
 Odacou 7J jx ixPW TrpojSatVwj' iK6fj.T]v 5t' acrreus. 
 
 In the Andromache the left-hand periactos must have represented 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 293 
 
 at tlie beginning of the play the road to Pharsalus, for Peleiis is 
 supposed to dwell there (v. 22) ; it must have represented a different 
 direction, the road to Laceda^mon, in 746, 879, 1000, for Menelaus 
 departs for Sparta, Orestes is on his way from the south to the 
 shrine of Dodona, and Hermione departs in the same direction; and 
 in 1069 the messenger comes from Delphi, so that there must have 
 been an exliibition of all three faces of the periactos. In the Siq)- 
 pllces the left jyeriactos indicates the road to Thebes from which the 
 herald comes and to which he returns (v. 584); thither Theseus 
 goes (v. 597 cf. 637) ; from thence come the messenger (v. 639), 
 and the seven corpses ; also Theseus on his return (cf. 838). This 
 penactos, however, is tm-ned to indicate the road to Argos by which 
 Iphis comes in search of Evadne (v. 1034). In the Electra, the 
 left-hand ])eriactos at first represents the road to Delphi by which 
 Orestes and Pylades make their appearance; but as Electra's hus- 
 band makes his exit by the same side in order to go to Lacedtemon, 
 there must be a change of the side-scene for that purpose. 
 
 As a sample of the manner in whicli Euripides put his Trage- 
 dies on the stage, it will be sufficient to examine the Bacchce^ which 
 is not only the most Dionysiac, but also one of the latest and most 
 elaborate of his plays. Euripides, however, has left us, in addition 
 to his Tragedies, a regular Satyric drama, and two tragi-comedies, 
 which served the same purpose in a Tetralogy; and we must con- 
 sider also the mode of representation in these two cases. 
 
 The scene in the Bacclim represents the palace of Pentheus (vv. 
 60, 646) in the citadel at Thebes (653). Although there may have 
 been some indications of towers and other fortifications as this last 
 passage shows (cf. v. 172 : eirvp^/wa aarv Srj^alcov roSe), it is clear 
 that the center of the scene representing the palace itself exhibited 
 a Doric fa9ade with columns (591) and a frieze (1214). On the 
 right of the palace, i. e. on the side leading to the city, there may 
 have been a distant view of the oracular seat of Teiresias (347: 
 ekOwv Be 6aKou^ tovK Xv olcovocTKoirei), and on the other side was 
 seen the sacred memorial of Semele, namely, the spot where the 
 smouldering ruins of her house stood, which Cadmus had sur- 
 rounded with a fence and made sacred, and which Bacchus had 
 enveloped in clusters of the mantling vine : 
 
 V. 6 : opcD 5^ /J-rjTpbs fj.vr]fj.a ttjs Kepavvias 
 T6b' iyyvi oikuv kp.I dofioju ipeiina 
 
294 ON THE EEPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 TV<p6fjt.epa Aiov trvpbs 'in ^uxxav (p\6ya 
 dddvaTOv "H/oas fXTjrip' els i/x-qu v(3piv. 
 aluoj 5k KddfJ.ov, d^arov 6s iriSov rdde 
 riOrjcn, BvyaTphs arjKov dfXTreXov di vlv 
 TT^pL^ eyih 'Kd\v\pa ^OTpvu)dei x^^V- 
 596 : TTup ov Xevcraecs ovd' avyd^eis 
 Se/iAaj iepbu djj.<pl rdipov. 
 
 On tlie left of tlie palace, but in close contiguity to it (Jul. Poll. IV. 
 § 125 : elpKTrj Se rj Xatd), and between it and a tcXlcnov representing 
 the stable (v. 509 : lirirLKal^ ireXa^ (j^arvaiaiv) , was seen the en- 
 trance to a dark and gloomy dungeon (v. 550: aKOTLat<; iv elpKTah. 
 V. 611: 69 (rK0T6Lva<; op/cava^). On the extreme left the, j)er{actos 
 indicated the road to foreign and distant parts, and on the right 
 the periactos showed a view of Cithseron. If the city of Thebes 
 was at all indicated it must have been between the right-hand 
 ^eriactos and the palace, in the same part of the scene where the 
 auspicial abode of Teiresias was represented. That the road to 
 Cithgeron did not pass through the city is 61ear from v. 840, where 
 Pentheus asks, 
 
 Kol TTcDs 5i' dcrrecos etpLi Kadfiecovs \aduv; 
 
 and Dionysus answers, 
 
 65oi>s iprifiovs tpLev' iyu) S' riyqcrop-ai. 
 
 If the city was seen at all it must have been that part of Thebes 
 which lay in the direction of the gate called Electra (v. 781 : crTelx 
 iir 'H\e/cTpa9 Icov irvXa^). The only change in this scenery which 
 is required by the action of the play is the downfal and conflagra- 
 tion of the elpKTr] in which Dionysus is imprisoned. It has been 
 mentioned already that this elpKrrj and the adjoining KXiaiov stood 
 immediately to the left of the palace, and therefore between it and 
 the monument of Semele. According to the description in the 
 play, the architrave of this building falls asunder, and the columns 
 are thrown down by the god as he rushes forth (590: there Xdlva 
 KLocTiv e/jb^o\a BcdSpofMa rdSe), At the same time a flame rises from 
 the sacred tomb of Semele and seems to consume tlie adjoining edifice 
 (vv. 596 sqq., and cf. 623: koI purfTpo^; rdcfxp irvp avrj-^ev). How 
 this was managed does not appear. Probably some light wood- 
 work was allowed to fall, and a smoke was raised at the same 
 time. We are not to conclude from the expectations of the chorus 
 (v. 588: Td^ci rd TievOeco^; p^eXaOpa Siarcvd^eTac irearniaG-iv), that 
 the central building, the palace of Pentheus himself, is involved in 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN TARTICULAR. 295 
 
 tills ruin and conflagration. On tlie contrary, we must conclude 
 that, though shaken, it remains standing. For Dionysus summons 
 Pentheus to come forth from his palace (v. 914: e^cdc TrapoiOe 
 BcoficLTcov), and, at the end of the play, distinct reference is made 
 to the triglyphs of the frieze to which the head of the Supposed 
 lion is to be affixed according to the oldest mode of adorning the 
 Zophorus (v. 1212 sqq.): 
 
 alpecrdo} \a^(l:v 
 tttjktQiu irpbs olkovs KXifiaKcjv 7rpoaau.^d<j€LS 
 ws TraaadXevcrrj Kpdra TpLy\v<pOL$ rode 
 \iovTos. 6v Trdpetfii drjpevcras iyu). 
 
 Cf. 1238 sqri. : ] 
 
 <pip(j} 5" iv d'XevaiCTLP, cjs opas, Ta.de 
 Xa^oOffa TdpicTela aolcL Trpos SopLois 
 d)S tv Kpeiidcdrj. 
 
 AVhen therefore Dionysus says (v. 633), Bw/xar epp-q^ev ')(aiJLa^e 
 crvvreOpavcorai 8' airav, he refers only to the prison, for at the very 
 time he makes this statement he says that he has come forth from 
 the house (636 : ijavxo'^ 3' eV/Sa? iyw hcoixdrcov rjKw 7rp6<^ vfia^) ; 
 that he hears the foot-fall of Pentheus within his palace (638 : 
 '^jrocpec yovp ap^vKrj Boficov ecrco) ; and that he will soon come forth 
 to the vestibule (e? irpovwirt avrlx r)Ket]. 
 
 The progress of the action and the entrances and exits of the 
 performers are easily described. At the opening of the play Dio- 
 nysus is supposed to come from distant regions : he enters by the 
 left-hand periactos, and the chorus, who came from Asia with him, 
 appear after the prologue, by the corresponding parodos (v. 65). 
 As the god says that he is going to Cith^eron to join his worship- 
 pers there, he must cross the stage and make his exit (64) by the 
 right-hand periactos. After the first choral song (170) Teiresias 
 enters from the cit}^, i. e. by the right side-door, and summons 
 Cadmus, who comes forth from the middle door, or from the palace 
 (178). As Pentheus has been abroad, he must make his first 
 entrance, like Dionysus, from the left periactos (215). Cadmus 
 and Teiresias leave the stage by the right periactos (369), and by 
 the same entrance the satellites of Pentheus, who had remained on 
 the stage during the chorus, appear (434), bringing Dionysus with 
 them. At the end of the act (518) the god is conveyed to the 
 prison, which, as has been mentioned, was to the left of the 
 palace. And it appears from v. 616 that Pentheus accompanies 
 him, for the purpose of putting on the chains with his own hands. 
 
296 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 There was obviously a passage from the prison to the palace, and 
 Dionysus (603, of. 635), and afterwards Pentheus (652), come forth 
 from the center door. By the same door the king (846), and after- 
 wards the god (861, cf. 929), leave the stage to equip Pentheus in 
 his bacchic attire. Of course they reappear by the center door 
 (912), and depart by the right-hand periactos (976) on their way to 
 Cithferon. The messenger naturally enters (1025) by the same 
 loeriactos, and it may be concluded that he goes into the palace 
 (1152). From the xig\ii periactos we liave.the successive entrances 
 of Agave with the head of her son (1166), and of Cadmus with the 
 corpse of Pentheus borne after him by his attendants (1216). As 
 Dionysus declares himself at the end of the play in his divine 
 character, it is obvious that he must appear surrounded by clouds 
 on the balcony of the scene (1332). There is a lacuna in the text 
 at this part, but there can be no doubt as to the nature of the 
 theophany. The god vanishes as he appeared; Agave flees from 
 the stage in the opposite direction to Cithasron (v. 1383) ; and the 
 rest of the actors enter the palace by the middle door. The chorus, 
 consisting of the Asiatic followers of Dionysus, leave the orchestra 
 as they had entered it, by the parodos on the left. 
 
 The following was obviously the distribution of the parts among 
 the three actors : 
 
 Protagonist : Dionysus, Teiresias, and the second messenger. 
 Deuteragonist : Cadmus, servant, first messenger. 
 Tritagonist : Pentheus, Agave. 
 
 The chorus, which consisted of fifteen women, was perhaps in- 
 tended to represent the fourteen ^epaipai of the Anthesteria, with 
 the King-Archon's wife at their head^ They were dressed in Asi- 
 atic style 2, with bare feet^, and the Lydian head- tire ^; and they 
 performed their dances, which, according to the metres of the cho- 
 ruses, had a peculiarly martial character, to the accompaniment of 
 some flute-players, and probably beat time with timbrels and cym- 
 bals which they carried in their hands ^. 
 
 As the Cyclops of Euripides is the only complete satyrical 
 
 ^ F. G. Schoen, de Person. Hahitu in Eurip. Bacch. p. 73. 
 "^ Id. p. 130. 
 
 ^ Bacch. 860 : dp ev iravwxloLS xopo'^ d-qaw Trork \evKov irod' apa^aKX^vovca. Cf. 
 Cyclops, 72 : XewoTToSas BctKrxas; see Schoen, pp. 155, 6. 
 ^ Schoen, p. 141. ^ Id. p. 121. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 297 
 
 drama which has come down to us, we must briefly consider the 
 distinctive features of its representation. The scene of the play is 
 the coast of Sicily near mount ^tna, which was probably shown in 
 the background. The middle door was the entrance to the cavern 
 in the rock, which served as the dwelling of Polyphemus. The 
 right-hand periactos indicated a road leading to the interior of the 
 island, and that to the left showed the approach from the coast. 
 Between the latter and the cavern was the Kkioriov^ in this case 
 representing the stable for the cattle and sheep of the Cyclops — the 
 av\i<i (v. 363), from which Ulysses and his companions were about 
 to furnish themselves with provisions (v. 222, cf. 188). It does not 
 appear that any doors were used except the center door and the two 
 joeriacti; in all probability a large portion of the centre of the 
 stage was occupied by the rocky abode of the Cyclops ; and it is 
 clear that at the end Polyphemus climbs to the top of the rock, i. e. 
 to the balcony, by a narrow passage between his own cavern and 
 the left of the stage, so as to make his exit by the left-hand door 
 on the balcony, while Ulysses and his friends leave the stage as 
 they had entered it by the left-hand periactos. For Ulysses says, 
 v. 702, 67ft) 8' iir d/cTa^ el/nt, and the Cyclops, threatening to smash 
 his ship with a fragment of the rock on which he was (v. 704: 
 TTJaS' diTopprj^a'i irerpa^) , adds (706) : 
 
 61' dfjt,<ptTpr]TOS T7j<j5e irpoa^aivuv iroSi. 
 
 At the beginning of the piece Silenus comes forth from the middle 
 door to which he returns (in 174), to make his second entry from 
 the same place (188). Ulysses and his sailors come in from the 
 left, where the periactos gave a view of the coast and of their ship 
 (v. 85). The Cyclops enters from the extreme right, and is some- 
 time in reaching the center of the stage, for he is seen at v. 193, 
 and does not speak till v. 203. The chorus of satyrs had of course 
 entered by the right-hand parodos, but the concluding words show 
 that they follow Ulysses by the left-hand exit from the orchestra. 
 The center door serves for the exits of the Cyclops (346) , and Ulysses 
 (355). The latter (375) and the Cyclops with Silenus (503) come 
 forth from the middle door, and leave the stage by it at 607 and 
 590 respectively. By the same door Ulysses returns (624), goes in 
 (653), and reappears with the Cyclops and his sailors (663). 
 
 The chorus of satyrs, although it seems to take an active part 
 
298 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 in the progress of the plot, manifestly does not leave the orchestra, 
 its proper place. The allusions in the parodos to the pastoral em- 
 ployments of the satyrs, who had left the service of Bacchus for 
 that of the Cyclops, are probably connected with the mimic action 
 introduced into their sicinms. It is clear, however, that living- 
 sheep were introduced on the stage (vv. 188, 224), and certain 
 supernumeraries, who acted as servants of the chorus and were 
 perhaps also in part at least attired as satyrs, drive the cattle into 
 the side-cavern or KKiaiov after the entrance of the chorus, for 
 Silenus says to the satyrs (v. 82), 
 
 cvy'r}jaT\ J t^kv, avrpa. 5' eh Trerprjpecprj 
 TTolfivas a9po2<Tai Trpo(xir6\oi.s KeXf.ija-aTe, 
 
 and these mutes are dismissed from the stage with the order %«- 
 peiTe. As only two or three of such attendants would be required 
 for the purpose of driving the sheep, it is unnecessary to suppose 
 with Schonborn that the same supernumeraries reappeared as the 
 sailors of Ulysses. There would certainly not have been time for the 
 complete change of costume required, during the four lines spoken 
 by Silenus before he directly addresses the new-comers, who appear 
 with KpcocraoL suspended from their necks immediately after the de- 
 parture of the shepherds. The words of Ulysses (100), ^arvpwv 
 TTjOo? o'lkol^ tovK o/jLi\ov €i(Topo), are quite intelligible on the suppo- 
 sition that the chorus was in the orchestra near the front of the 
 stage. And although he says in the plural eKc^epere (137, 162), it 
 is clear that Silenus alone enters the cavern, for he promises in his 
 own person (163: Spdaco toF, oXlyov (f)povTt(7a^ ye SeaTroroov) , and 
 claims the reward for himself (192). The Cyclops on entering from 
 the right addresses the chorus, because Silenus has slunk away to 
 the left with the Greek sailors. It is true that the chorus offers to 
 take a part in the good work of blinding Polyphemus (471 : ^ovov 
 >yap TovSe KOivwvelv OeXco), but it is clear that they do not leave the 
 orchestra (635 : ^Jyu-et? p^ev icrp^ev puaKporepov irpo rSv Ovpwv ecrrcG- 
 Te9); they excuse themselves with undisguised pusillanimity; and 
 Ulysses is obliged to rely on his own companions (650 : rolai K 
 olK€Lot<; (jb/Xot? 'y^prjaOai //.' dvdyKT]). When the deed is done, the 
 chorus, at a safe distance, gives ludicrous misdirections to the 
 blinded Cyclops, who knocks his head against the rock as he turns 
 suddenly to the right at their bidding (v. 683) ^. 
 
 1 Nauck reads ovKin for ouk i^ii, in v. 564 ; but even without tliis alteration there 
 is no necessity for supposing that one of the fSatyrs is on the stage. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN TAKTICULAR. 299 
 
 That Polyphemus appeared as a giant is necessary to the plot 
 of the piece, and something more than a cothurnus was required to 
 give him such a height as would justify him in addressing Ulysses 
 as dvdpcoTTLcr/ce (316). How the exaggeration of stature was ma- 
 naged does not appear, but the experience of oiu* own pantomimes 
 shows that a very little ingenuity would produce all the necessary 
 results. One thing seems quite clear — that his enormous mask was 
 rather of the comic than of the tragic pattern, and that he was re- 
 presented with a ludicrously extravagant mouth, like an ogre as he 
 was. The chorus says to him (356), evpeia^ (fxipvyyo^^ w KvK\co-ylr, 
 dvaarofiov to ;^etXo?, and the comic masks show that no limits 
 were imposed on the dramatic artist in this respect. 
 
 The gluttony of Hercules in the Alcestis, which, as we have 
 seen, took the place of the satyric drama in the Tetralogy to which 
 it belonged, places that hero on a footing not altogether unlike that 
 of Polyphemus in the Cyclops, and it is not improbable that liis 
 mask also partook of the comic character. A Hercules in this 
 capacity is represented on a vase with a great loaf in one hand and 
 a club in the other, and in full pursuit of a handmaiden who is 
 running from him with a pitcher of wine ^. Without being quite so 
 ridiculous as this picture makes him, the Hercules of the Alcesti's is 
 represented as a wine-bibber and a gourmand in the house of 
 mourning (747 sqq.), and must have reminded the spectators of the 
 same demi-god as he had appeared in many Comedies. For the 
 rest, the Alcestis is tragic enough, and the representation did not 
 differ essentially from that of a regular Tragedy. The scene repre- 
 sents the palace of Admetus at Pherje, which occupies the centre. 
 The guest-chambers stand by themselves to the left of the palace 
 (543: %ci)pi? ^evcove^ elacv, cf. 546 sqq.). The corresponding door 
 to the right indicates the road to Larissa and the tomb of Alcestis 
 (835 : opOrjv Trap oIjjlov, rj Vl Adpcaaav cpepec, TVfjb^ov KaTO'ijrec 
 ^eaTov iic TrpoaaTiov). And while the left hand j^eriactos represents 
 the approach from distant parts, the other side-scene shows us the 
 neighbouring city of Pheras, from which the chorus, which enters 
 the orchestra by the corresponding parados, is supposed to come. 
 
 Apollo comes forth from the middle door (23 : XecTrco fjueXdOpcov 
 Tcovhe <j)iXTdT7)v crTeyrjv), and probably leaves the stage by the left 
 periactos (76), from whence also Thanatos had entered sword in 
 
 ^ Panofka, Mas. Blacas, PI. xxvi. B; "Wieselcr, Supplement, Taf. A, No. 26. 
 
300 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 hand (28); for as his functions were confined to the earth, there is 
 no reason for the supposition that he ascended by the Charonian 
 steps. From the middle door the handmaiden comes forth (137: 
 dX)C rjK OTrahwv i/c Bo/jlcov rt? ep^j^erat), and returns by the same 
 opening (see v. 209), to announce that the chorus is at hand. This 
 is of course the entrance for Admetus, Alcestis, and their children 
 (244, cf. 410), who retire as they came (434). The same door is 
 used for the entrances of Admetus (509) and the dead Alcestis 
 (606), and for the exit of the former. Pheres comes and retires by 
 the light-hsind periactos (614, 733). By the same way the funeral 
 procession leaves the stage, for it is supposed to be accompanied by 
 the chorus, who depart of course by the corresponding parodos 
 (740, 746). Hercules enters by the left-hand ^er/ac^05 (476), and 
 is conducted to the ^evcove^ at the left of the middle door (550). 
 From this the servant (747) and he (773) reappear; and Hercules 
 goes straight to the tomb by the right-hand door (860), by which 
 he retm-ns with the veiled figure of Alcestis (1006). He does not 
 meet the funeral procession, which re-enters the stage, as it had 
 left it, by i^iQ periactos on the right (861). At the end of the play, 
 Admetus returns to his palace ; Hercules goes forth by the left 
 periactos to encounter his Thracian adventure ; and the chorus de- 
 parts by the right-hand parodos. Although the chorus undoubtedly 
 takes a part in the obsequies of Alcestis, there is no reason to sup- 
 pose that it joins the procession by mounting the stage. A de- 
 parture by the Yigh-t parodos, which was close to the x\^\it periactos, 
 would suffice to indicate the junction of the choreutas with the 
 actors and their attendants. 
 
 We now pass on to the representation of the ancient Comedies. 
 
 The most opposite opinions have been entertained respecting 
 the scenery of the Acharmans ; for while one critic considers it 
 necessary to suppose a total change of scenery from the Pnyx 
 at Athens to the farm of Dicaeopolis, from this to the house of 
 Euripides, and then again to the farm in the country i; while 
 another writer suggests that the Pnyx is represented by the 
 orchestra, and that the curtain is not dropt till the assembly 
 breaks up and the chorus enters (v. 204), so that the scenery is 
 entirely confined to the country 2; while a third concludes that 
 the country place of Dicteopolis was so near to Athens that it 
 
 ^ Geppert, pp. i6i sqq. ^ Genelli, pp. 257 sqq. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PAETICULAR. 301 
 
 and the city miglit both be represented on the stage ^; it is held 
 bj the most recent authority that the scene is from first to last 
 confined to xlthens^. This view of the matter seems to us to 
 be supported by the words of the poet himself. At the point 
 where the scene must change, if it changes at all, from Athens 
 to the country, Dica^opolis says distinctly that he will go within 
 [elcFLwv) and celebrate the rural festival of Bacchus (v. 22). This 
 can only mean that he enters the house already seen on the stage. 
 Then it is clear that he is at Athens (eV ^AOrjvaLOL^, v. 492), and 
 at the Lenasa (v. 504), when he makes his final defence in answer 
 to the chorus. Finally, it is expressly intimated that the market, 
 which Dicceopolis opens, is in the city itself, for the Megarian says 
 on entering (v. 730) : dyopa V 'A6dvaL<; %at/3e, ISleyapevaiv (^iXa^ 
 "All hail! Market of Athens, dear to the Megarians." We have 
 no doubt then that the scene is from first to last at Athens. The 
 centi'e represents the house of Dic^eopolis, whose part is played 
 by the protagonist, and the balcony above the center door serves 
 for the flat roof of the house from which his wife views the festive 
 procession (v. 262: ai) h\ co yvvat, Oew yH diro rev reyov^). 
 Dicseopolis performs the ceremonies of the rural Dionysia at 
 Athens, because, like the other country proprietors, he has been 
 obliged to take up his abode in the city, and to acquiesce in 
 the utter ruin of his farm, as he expressly says (v. 512 : Kufiol 
 yap icTTtv d/iTreXLa KeKOfxpieva), Of the two other main doors, 
 that on the right represents the house of Euripides, that on the 
 left the house of Lamachus, who must be a near neighbour of 
 Dica^opolis (see w. 1071 sqq). The right-hand periactos gave 
 a view of Athens in the neighbourhood of the Pnyx, and the 
 benches (^Xa) are placed on that side of the stage for the com- 
 mittee-men and the other representatives of the assembly (see 
 V. 25). The left-hand periactos represents first the road to 
 Laced^emon (v. 175) and Megara (v. 728), and it is turned to 
 represent the road to Thebes (v. 860). At the beginning of the 
 play, Dicseopolis enters fi'om the center door and proceeds 
 towards the right where he takes his place in the Pnyx. The 
 herald, with the committee-men {TrpvrdveL^), Amphitheus and 
 the other citizens, enter (v. 40) from the door behind the right- 
 hand periactos. From the same side the ambassadors appear 
 
 1 Bockh, iiher die Lenden, p. 91. ^ Schonborn, pp. 307 sqq. 
 
302 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 (v. 61), and after them the ridiculous figure of Pseudartabas 
 (v. 94), who, as "the king's eye," has a monstrous orifice in his 
 mask, resembling the port-hole of an Athenian trireme with the 
 leather-bag below to prevent it from shipping water (v. 97 : aGKw\jt! 
 e;^et9 irov irepl rov o^daXfibv kcltoj). These are followed by the 
 Thracian mercenaries (v. 155), who steal the garlick of Dic^eopolis; 
 and Amphitheus, who had been ejected by the Prytanes (v. 58), 
 reappears from the right (v. 129), in order to cross the stage to 
 the left (v. 132) with the commission to buy eight shillings' worth 
 of peace for Dicreopolis. From the left jyeriactos he returns (175), 
 pursued by the Acharnians, who of course enter by the left-hand 
 jparodos (v. 204) ; Amphitheus continues his flight into the city, 
 and Dicseopolis retires to his own house, from whence he reappears 
 with his family (237). The chorus interrupt the festivities by 
 actually throwing stones on the stage (284). The Acharnians 
 are brought to terms by the production of the basket of charcoal, 
 made to resemble a child Iv airap^avoi^^ which Dica^opolis fetches 
 from his house (v. 331) ; and he also goes in to procure the 
 chopping-block on which he is to plead his cause (v. 359 : eiri^rivov 
 i^everyKcov 6vpa^e). A question arises as to the scene with Eu- 
 ripides. Many commentators, and even the latest writers on this 
 play^, supposes that Euripides and his servant appear on the 
 balcony or second story of the scene. But in this, as we think, 
 they have been misled by the Scholiast, who has not understood 
 the Greek of his author, and we conceive that the direct reference 
 to the iKKVKXrj/jLa must be accepted as a proof of the fact that 
 Euripides is shown in the interior of his house, but on the level 
 of the stage. The words of the original run thus (vv. 394 
 sqq.) : 
 
 AIK. rat iral. KH^. r/s ovtos; AIK. hdov 'iar' Evpiiridrji; 
 
 KH^. oiiK '^vbov ivbov icrriv, el yvdofMrji^ ^x^*^- 
 
 AIK. TTcDs ^v8ou, dr' ovK hbov ; KH<I>. dpdQs, w yepoy. 
 
 6 vovs p^kv 'i^w avWiyoiP iirvWca 
 
 OVK 'ivdov, avTos 5' eVSoj/ avaj3ddriv Troiet 
 
 rpayojdlav. AIK. w rpiap-aKo-pC EvptTridTj, 
 
 '6&' 6 SoOXoj oifTual <To4>u>i iwoKpiyeTai. 
 
 iKKoXeaop avrbv. KH$. dX\' ddvvarov. 
 AIK. d.W' Spuos. 
 
 ov yap av direKdoLpL , dXXd Kb\pu} t7]v dvpav. 
 
 Y-vpiTridr], 'Evpt.iridiov, 
 
 1 See Brunck on v. 411, and Sclionborn, p. 311. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAE. 303 
 
 viroLKOvaov etirep irwiroT avd pilsinov tivl. 
 
 Ai/cttiOTToXts KaXel ere, XoWeidrjs, iyu}. 
 ETP. dXX' ov <TXo\v. 
 
 AIK. dW iKKVKX-qdTjT. ETP. dW dduvarov. 
 AIK. dW o'/aws. 
 
 ETP. dW iKKVKk-qcofJLai.' Kara^alveiv 5' oy axoXrj- 
 AIK. 'Eupiirldri. ETP. ri XeXaKas. AIK. owa^ddriv TroLeis, 
 
 i^bv KaTa^3d5r]v ; ovk iros X'^^o'^s Troiers. 
 
 The meaning of this must be as follows : 
 
 Die. What ho! Ceph. "Who's there? Die. Euripides -within? 
 Ceph. Within and not within, if you can think. 
 Dig. How can he be within and not within? 
 Ceph. Rightly, old man. His mind collecting scraps. 
 
 Is all abroad, and so is not within; 
 
 But he himself is making tragedy 
 
 With feet reposed upon his couch at home. 
 Die. Thrice-blest Emipides, whose veiy slave 
 
 Can act so well his master's character! 
 
 But call him out. 
 Ceph, It cannot be. ' 
 
 Die. It must; 
 
 For I will not depart, but go on knocking. 
 
 Euripides I Euripides, my boy! 
 
 List to my words, if ever mortal man 
 
 Secured your ear. 'Tis Dicseopolis 
 
 By deme Cholleides, who is calling you. 
 Eur. But I've no time. 
 
 Die. Well, let them wheel you round. 
 
 EuK. It cannot be. 
 Die. It must. 
 
 EUB. Well, I'll allow them 
 
 To wheel me round, but I can't leave my couch. 
 Die. Euripides ! 
 
 Eur. What say'st thou? 
 
 Die. Do you write 
 
 With feet laid up, when you might set them down? 
 
 You're just the man to be the cripples' poet. 
 
 This passage is plain enough to any one, who knows Greek ; 
 but the Scholiast, who did not see that Kara/SaLvecv is to be ex- 
 plained by Kara^dhriv opposed to dva^dSrjv, and means merely 
 to get off the couch or sofa, on which the tragedian was reclining, 
 substitutes KareXOecv, and adds that Euripides cpaiverac iirl tt]^ 
 cTKrivrj^ fjL€Tecopo<;. Independently of the plain construction of the 
 Greek, the context shows that this was not the case. For fii-st, 
 the eccyclema was not and could not be used on the balcony or 
 
304 ON THE REPRESENTATION OF CERTAIN 
 
 second story of the stage ; secondly, Dicasopolis knocks at the door 
 until the interior is opened by the eccyclema; thirdly, Euripides 
 gives the rags to his visitor, who must have been on a level with 
 him to take them from his hands; and fourthly, when he wishes to 
 relieve himself from the intruder he says (479), Kkele irrjKra ^cofMa- 
 Tcov, which is the same sort of order as that by which Ajax in 
 Sophocles {Ajax, 581 : irv/ca^e ddaaov. 593 : ov ^vvip^eO' tw? 
 Tdxo<;;) directs the closing of the inner view of his tent by 
 wheeling round the eccyclema. We have no doubt therefore that 
 the interior is similarly displayed on the level of the stage in 
 the Acharniaiis. After his apologetic speech and the scene with 
 Lamachus, Dicseopolis retires into his house (625), and the Para- 
 hasis follows. He then returns by the centre door and sets up the 
 boundaries of his market (opot wyopd^ — probably ropes or poles) 
 in the centre of the stage. The Megarian (729), the Boeotian (860), 
 and the Attic farmer (1018) enter from the left: the sycophant 
 (818), Nicarchus (908), the herald (1000), bridesman (1048) and 
 the herald (1071) enter from the right. Lamachus and his servant 
 (1179, 1190) of course return to the stage from the left. There 
 seems to be no reason to suppose^ that there is another use of 
 the eccyclema in order to exhibit the culinary preparations of 
 Dic£eopolis. It is clear that he is outside, for he says (v. 1098), 
 <f)ep e^o) Bevpo, and (v. 1102), oirrrja-a) 8' e'/cet, so that his direc- 
 tions about the fire (v. 1014) are addressed to his servants within, 
 who are not necessarily visible. As Dic^eopolis is to sup with 
 the Priest of Bacchus (v. 1887), he goes off to the city, i.e. 
 by the right-hand door (v. 1142), and returns by the same way, 
 supported by the dancing-girls (1198), having won the prize in 
 the dfjLiXka rod %oo9 (1202). Lamachus is carried off to the right 
 to the house of Pittacus, the surgeon, (1226); and shortly after 
 Dicaeopolis makes his exit by the same door, for he is going to 
 the King-Archon to receive his prize ; and at the same time the 
 chorus, whom he invites to follow him, go off by the right-hand 
 parodos. 
 
 After this specimen of the manner in which a Comedy was put 
 on the stage, it is not necessary to discuss the performance of all 
 the plays of Aristophanes. It is only necessary to mention that 
 the upper story of the scene, or the balcony, is freely used in 
 
 1 This is Schonborn's opinion, p. 311. 
 
TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES IN PARTICULAR. 305 
 
 some of the plays, especially in the Birds and the Peace, and that 
 there is a complete change of scenery in the following Comedies — 
 in the Birds at v. 1565, where the city of Nejplielococcygia is seen 
 for the first time; in the EcclesiazuscB at v. 877, where it is clear 
 that we are no longer in the neighbourhood of the house of Prax- 
 agora (see vv. 1125, 1128), which had formed the center of the 
 scene in the previous part of the play ; in the Frogs, where the first 
 act represents the house of Hercules and the Acherusian lake 
 (1 — 270), and the second act the subten-aneous regions with the 
 palace of Pluto ; in the Thesmophoriazusce, where the first act gives 
 us the house of Agathon (1 — 279), and the second act the Thes- 
 mophorion ; and in the Lysistrata, where the first act gives us 
 a street in Athens with the heroine's house in the center (1 — 253), 
 and the second act exhibits the Acropolis with its propylaea. In 
 the last-mentioned play, as has been already intimated, there are 
 four or five changes of the left-hand ^er^'acto^. There is no change 
 of scene in the Clouds; but Strepsiades and his son are shown 
 in their beds at the beginning of the Comedy by means of an 
 eccydema, and it is expressly stated that the phrontisterion of 
 Socrates is managed by a parencyclema, that is, by a practicable 
 building projected at the side of the stage i, which admits of being 
 destroyed at the end of the play. The KpefiaOpa, on which 
 Sophocles is first seen (v. 218), was not a basket, for he says 
 (225), depo^arw, but a sort of shelf, connected no doubt with 
 the balcony of the scene. 
 
 ^ See above. 
 
 P- 2 39- 
 
 D. T. G. 20 
 
APPENDIX TO PART I. 
 
 ON THE EOMAN THEATRE. 
 
 {From SchlegeVs Eighth Lecture.) 
 
 Eoman Theatre. Native varieties. Atellane Fables, Mimes, Comoedia Togata. Greek Tragedy 
 transplanted to Rome. Tragedians of the more ancient epoch, and of the Augustan age. Idea 
 of a kind of Tragedy peculiarly Roman, but which never was realized. Why the Romans were 
 never particularly happy in Tragic Art. Seneca. 
 
 TN treating of the Dramatic Literature of the Romans, whose Theatre is every way im- 
 -■- mediately attached to that of the Greeks, we have only to remark, properly speak- 
 ing, one vast chasm, partly arising from the want of proper creative genius in this 
 department, partly from the loss of almost all their written performances, with the 
 exception only of a few fragments. The only extant works of the good classical 
 age are those of Plautus and Terence, of whom I have already spoken as imitators of 
 the Greeks. 
 
 Poetry in general had no native growth in Rome. It was not till those later 
 times, in which the original Rome, by aping foreign manners, was drawing nigh to 
 her dissolution, that poetry came to be artificially cultivated among the other devices 
 of luxurious living. In the Latin we have an instance of a language modelled into 
 poetical expression, altogether after foreign forms of grammar and metre. This 
 approximation to the Greek was at first effected with much violence : the Grsecism 
 extended even to rude interpolation of foreign words and phrases. Gradually the 
 poetic style was softened : of its former harshness we may perceive in Catullus the 
 last vestiges, which however are not without a certain rugged charm. The language 
 rejected those syntactical constructions, and especially the compounds, which were too 
 much at variance with its own interior structure, and could not be lastingly agreeable 
 to Roman ears ; and at last the poets of the Augustan age succeeded in effecting 
 the happiest possible incorporation between the native and the borrowed elements. 
 But scarcely was the desired equipoise obtained, when a pause ensued : all free 
 development was impeded, and the poetical style, notwithstanding its apparent 
 elevation into a bolder and more learned character, had in*etrievably imprisoned itself 
 within the round of the phraseology it had once adopted. Thus the Latin language 
 in poetry enjoyed but a brief interval of bloom between its unfashioned state and its 
 second death. With the spirit also of their poetry it fared no better. 
 
 It was not by the desire to enliven their holiday leisure by exhibitions, which bear 
 away one's thoughts from the real world, that the Romans were led to the invention 
 of theatrical amusements ; but in the disconsolateness of a dreary pestilence, against 
 
ON THE ROMAN THEATRE. 307 
 
 wliich all remedieg seemed unavailing, they first caught at the theatrical spectacle, as 
 an experiment to propitiate the wrath of the gods, the exercises and games of the 
 circus having till then been their only public exhibitions. But the Histriones, whom 
 for this purpose they called in from Etruria, were only dancers, and probably not 
 mimetic dancers, but merely such as endeavoured to amuse by the adroitness of their 
 movements. Their oldest spoken dramas, those which were called the Atellane Fables'^, 
 the Romans borrowed from the Oscans, the original inhabitants of Italy. With these 
 Saturce (so called because they were at first improvisatory farces, without dramatic 
 coherence, for Satura means a medley) they rested satisfied till Livius Andronicus, 
 more than five hundred years after the building of Rome, began to imitate the Greeks, 
 and introduced the regular kinds of drama, namely. Tragedy, and New Comedy, for 
 the Old was from its nature incapable of being transplanted. 
 
 Thus the Romans were indebted to the Etruscans for the first notion of the stage- 
 spectacle, to the Oscans for the effusions of sportive humour, to the Greeks for a 
 higher cultivation. In the comic department, however, they showed more original 
 genius than in Tragedy. The Oscans, whose language, early extinct, survived only in 
 those farces, were at least so near akin to the Romans, that their dialect was imme- 
 diately intelligible to Latin hearers : for how else could the Atellane Fables have 
 afforded them any entertainment ? So completely indeed did they naturalize this 
 diversion among themselves, that noble Roman youths exhibited the like performances 
 at the festivals : on which account the actors, whose regular profession it was to 
 exhibit the Atellane Fables, stood exempt, as privileged persons, from the infamy 
 attached to other theatrical artists, namely, exclusion from the tribes, and likewise 
 enjoyed an immunity from mihtary service. 
 
 Moreover the Romans had their own Mimes. The unlatin name of these little 
 pieces certainly seems to imply an affinity to the Greek Mimes ; but in their form they 
 differed considerably from these, and doubtless they had local truth of manners, and 
 the matter was not borrowed from Greek exhibitions. 
 
 It is singular, that Italy has possessed from of old the gift of a very amusing 
 though somewhat rude buffoonery, in extemporaneous speeches and songs with accora- 
 panjnng antics, though it has seldom been coupled with genuine dramatic taste. The 
 latter assertion might easily be justified by examination of what has been achieved in 
 that country in the higher departments of the drama down to the most recent times. 
 The former might be substantiated by many characteristic traits, which at present 
 would carry us too far from our subject into the Saturnalia and the like. Even of the 
 wit which prevails in the speeches of Pasquino and Marforio, and the well-aimed 
 popular satire on events of the day, many vestiges may be found even in the times of 
 the emperors, who were not generally favourable to such liberties. More to our 
 present purpose is the conjecture, that in the Mimes and Atellane Fables we perhaps 
 have the earliest germ of the Commedia delV Arte, of the improvisatory farce with 
 standing masks. A striking affinity between these and the Atellanes appears in the 
 employment of dialects to produce a droll effect. But how would Harlequin and 
 Pulcinello be astonished to learn that they descend in a straight line from the buffoons 
 of the old Romans, nay, of the Oscans^! How merrily would they thank the anti- 
 quarian who should trace their glorious genealogical tree to such a root ! From the 
 Greek vase-paintings, we know that there belonged to the grotesque masks of the 
 
 [On the Atellance, see Varronianus, pp. 156 foil, ed, in,] 
 2 [Vo.rronian. p. 163 ; above, p. 258.] 
 
 20—2 
 
308 ON THE EOMAN THEATRE. 
 
 Old Comedy a garb very much resembling theirs : long trousers, and a doublet with 
 sleeves, articles of dress otherwise strange both to Greeks and Romans. To this day, 
 Zanni is one of Harlequin's names ; and Sannio in the Latin farces was the name of 
 a buflfoon, who, as ancient writers testify, had his head shorn, and wore a dress pieced 
 together out of gay party-coloured patches. The very image and likeness of Pulcinello 
 is said to have been found among the fresco-paintings of Pompeii. If he derives his 
 extraction originally from Atella, he has his local habitation still pretty much in the 
 old land of his nativity. As for the objection, how these characters could be tradi- 
 tionally kept up notwithstanding a suspension of all theatrical amusements for many 
 centuries together, a sufficient answer may be found in the yearly licences of the 
 carnival, and the fools'-holidays of the middle ages. 
 
 The Greek mimes were dialogues written in prose, and not intended for the stage. 
 Those of the Romans were composed in verse, were acted, and often delivered extem- 
 pore. The most famous authors in this department were Laberlus and Syrus, contem- 
 poraries of Julius Caesar. He, as dictator, by his courtly request compelled Laberius, 
 a Roman knight, to exhibit himself publicly in his mimes, though the scenic profession 
 was branded with the loss of civil rights. Laberius made his complaint of this in 
 a prologue which is still extant, and in which the painful feeling of annihilated self- 
 respect is nobly and touchingly expressed. It is not easy to conceive how in such 
 a state of mind he could be capable of cracking ludicrous jokes, and how the audience, 
 with so bitter an example of a despotic act of degradation before their eyes, could find 
 pleasure in them, Caesar kept his word : he gave Laberius a considerable sum of 
 money, and invested him anew with the equestrian rank, which however could not 
 reinstate him in the opinion of his fellow-citizens. But he took his revenge for the 
 prologue and other allusions ^, by awarding the prize against Laberius to Syrus, once 
 the slave, and afterwards the freedman and pupil of Laberius in the art of composing 
 mimes. Of Syrus's mimes there are still extant a number of sentences, which in 
 matter and terse conciseness of expression deserve to be ranked with Menander's. 
 Some of them even transcend the moral horizon of serious Comedy itself, and assume 
 an almost stoic sublimity. How could the transition be eflfccted from vulgar jokes to 
 such sentiments as these ? And how could such maxims be at all introduced, without 
 a development of human relations as considerable as that exhibited in the perfect 
 Comedy ? At all events, they are calculated to give one a very favourable idea of the 
 mimes. Horace indeed speaks disparagingly of Laberius' mimes, considered as works 
 of art, either on account of the arbitrary manner in which they were put together, or 
 their carelessness of execution. Yet this ought not of itself to determine our judg- 
 ment against them, for this critical poet, for reasons which it is easy to conceive, lays 
 much greater stress upon the diligent use of the file, than upon original boldness and 
 fertility of invention, A single entire mime, which time however has unfortunately 
 denied us, would clear up the matter much better than the confused notices of gram- 
 marians, and the conjectures of modern scholars. 
 
 The regular Comedy of the Romans was mostly paUiata, that is, exhibited in the 
 Grecian costume, and representing Grecian manners. This is the case with all the 
 Comedies of Plautus and Terence. But they had also a Comcedia togata, so called 
 from the Roman garb, usually worn in it. Afranius is mentioned as the most famous 
 
 1 What an inward liumiliation for Caesar, could he have foreseen, tliat after a few generations, his 
 successor in the despotism, Nero, out of a lust for self-dishonour, would expose himself repeatedly 
 to infamy in the same manner as he, the first despot, had exposed a Roman of the middle order, not 
 without exciting genei-al indignation ! 
 
ox THE EOMAN THEATRE. 309 
 
 author in this way. Of these Comedies we have nothing whatever remaining, and 
 find so few notices on the subject, that we cannot even decide with certainty, whether 
 the torjatce were original Comedies of home growth, or only Grecian Comedies recast 
 with Roman manners. The last is more probable, as Afranius lived in the older 
 epoch, when Roman genius had not even begun to stir its wings towards original 
 invention; and yet on the other hand it is not easy to conceive how the Attic Comedies 
 could have been adapted, without great violence, to a locality so entirely different. 
 The tenour of Roman life was in general earnest and grave, though in personal 
 intercourse they had no small turn for wit and joviality. The difference of ranks 
 among the Romans had its political boundaries very strongly marked, the wealth of 
 private persons was often almost regal; their women lived much more in society, and 
 played a much more important part there than the Grecian women did ; by virtue of 
 which independence they also took their full share in the profligacy which went hand- 
 in-hand with exterior refinement. The differences being so essential, an original 
 Roman Comedy would be a remarkable phenomenon, and one that would exhibit this 
 sovereign nation in quite a new point of view. That this was not effected in the 
 Comoedia togata, is proved by the indifference with which the ancients express them- 
 selves on the subject. Quintilian does not scruple to say, that Latin literature limps 
 worst in Comedy. This is his expression, word for word. 
 
 To come to Tragedy ; we must remark in the first place, that in Rome, the acting 
 of the bon-owed Greek Tragedy was considerably dislocated by the circumstance, that 
 there was no place for the Chorus in the Orchestra, where the principal spectators, the 
 Knights and Senators, had their seats : the Chorus therefore appeared on the stage. 
 Here then was the very incongruity, which we alleged as an objection to the modern 
 attempts to introduce the Chorus. Other deviations also, scarcely for the better, from 
 the Greek style of acting, were favourably received. At the very first introduction of 
 regular plays, Livius Andronicus, a Greek by birth and Rome's first tragic poet and 
 actor, in his monodies (viz. those lyric parts which were to be sung by a single person 
 and not by the Chorus) separated the song from the mimetic dance, only the latter 
 being left to the actor, while the singing part was performed by a boy stationed beside 
 the flute-player. Among the Greeks in their better times, both the tragic song and 
 the rhythmical gesticulation which accompanied it were certainly so simple, that 
 a single individual might do ample justice to both. But the Romans, it seems, 
 prefeiTed isolated excellence to harmonious union. Hence, at a later period, their 
 avidity for the pantomimes, which attained to great perfection in the times of Augus- 
 tus. To judge from the names of the most famous performers in this kind, e. rj. Pylades 
 and Bathyllus, it was by Greeks that this dumb eloquence was exercised in Rome, and 
 the lyric parts, which were expressed by their gesticulative dance, were delivered in 
 Greek. Lastly, Roscius, and probably not he alone, frequently played without 
 a mask : of which procedure there never was an instance, so far as we know, among 
 the Greeks. It might further the display of his art ; and here again, the satisfaction 
 which this gave the Romans proves, that they had more taste for the dispropoi'tion- 
 ately conspicuous talent of a virtuoso, than for the harmonious impression of a work 
 of art considered as a whole. 
 
 In the Tragic Literature of the Romans, two epochs may be distinguished ; the 
 older epoch of Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Ennius, also of Pacuvius and Attius, both 
 which last flourished awhile later than Plautus and Terence; and the polished epoch 
 of the Augustan age. The former produced none but translators and remodellers of 
 Greek works, yet probably succeeded better and with more fidelity in the tragic than 
 
310 ON THE ROMAN THEATRE. 
 
 in the comic department. Sublimity of expression is apt to turn out somewhat awk- 
 wardly in an untutored language ; it may be reached, however, by an effort ; but to 
 hit off the careless gracefulness of social wit requires natural humour and fine cultiva- 
 tion. We do not possess (any more than in the case of Plautus and Terence) even a 
 fragment of a version from an extant Greek original, to help us to a judgment of the 
 accuracy and general success of the copy ; but a speech of some length from Attius' 
 Pro7netheus Unlound is nowise unworthy of ^schyliis; its metre ^ also is much more 
 careful than that of the Latin comedians usually is. This earlier style was brought to 
 great perfection by Pacuvius and Attius, whose pieces seem to have stood their ground 
 alone on the tragic stage in Cicero's times and even later, and to have had many ad- 
 mirers. Horace directs his jealous criticism against these, as he does against all the 
 other more ancient poets. 
 
 The contemporaries of Augustus made it their ambition to compete with the 
 Greeks in a more original manner ; not with equal success, however, in all depart- 
 ments. The rage for attempts at Tragedy was particularly great ; works of this kind 
 by the Emperor himself are mentioned. There is therefore much to favour the con- 
 jecture, that Horace wrote his Epistle to the Pisos, principally with a view of deterring 
 these young men, who, perhaps without any true call to such a task, were bitten by 
 the mania of the day, from so critical an undertaking. One of the chief tragedians of 
 this age was the famous Asinius Pollio, a man of a violently impassioned character, as 
 Pliny says, and who was partial to the same character in works of fine art. He it 
 was who brovight with him from Rhodes and set up in Rome the well-known group of 
 the Farnese Bull. If his Tragedies bore but about the same relation to those of 
 Sophocles, as this bold, wild, but somewhat overwrought group does to the still 
 sublimity of the Niobe, their loss is still very much to be lamented. But Pollio's 
 political greatness might easily dazzle the eyes of his contemporaries as to the true 
 value of his poetical works. Ovid tried his hand upon Tragedy, as he did upon so 
 many other kinds of poetry, and composed a Medea. To judge from the drivelling 
 common-places of passion in his Hemides, one would expect of him, in Tragedy, at 
 best an overdrawn Euripides. Yet Quintilian asserts, that here he showed for once 
 what he might have accomplished, if he had but kept himself within bounds, rather 
 than give way to his propensity to extravagance. 
 
 These and all the other tragic attempts of the Augustan age have perished. We 
 cannot exactly estimate the extent of our loss, but to all appearance it is not extra- 
 ordinarily great. In the first place, the Greek Tragedy laboured there under the 
 disadvantage of all transplanted exotics : the Roman worship indeed was in some 
 measure allied to that of the Greeks (though not nearly so identical with it as many 
 suppose), but the heroic mythology of the Greeks was altogether indebted to the poets 
 for its introduction into Rome, and was in no respect interwoven with the national 
 recollections, as it was in such a multitude of ways among the Greeks. There hovers 
 before my mind's eye the Ideal of a genuine Roman form of Tragedy, dimly indeed 
 and in the back-ground of ages, as one would figure to one's- self a being, that never 
 issued into reality from the womb of possibility. In significance and form, it would 
 
 1 But in what metres may we suppose these tragedians to have translated the Greek Choral Odes ? 
 Pindar's lyric metres, which have so much resemblance to the tragic, Horace declares to be inimitable 
 in Latin. Probably the labyrinthine structure of tlie Choral Strophes was never attempted : indeed 
 neither Eoman language nor Roman ears were calculated for it. Seneca's Tragedies never take a 
 higher flight from the anapaests, than to a Sapphic or choriambic verse, the monotonous reiteration of 
 which is very disagreeable. 
 
ON THE KOMAN THEATEE. 311 
 
 be altogether distinct from that of the Greeks, and religious and patriotic in the old- 
 Roman sense of the words. Truly creative poetry can only issue from the interior 
 life of a people, and from religion, which is the root of that life. But the Roman 
 religion was originally, and before they endeavoured to conceal the loss of its intrinsic 
 substance by varnishing its outside with borrowed finery, of quite a different spirit 
 from the reUgion of the Greeks. The latter had all the plastic flexibility of Art, the 
 other the unchangeable fixity of the Priesthood. The Roman Faith, and the cere- 
 monies established on it, were more earnest, more moral, and pious, — more pene- 
 trating in their insight into Nature, more magical and mysterious than the Grecian 
 Religion — than that part of it at least which was exoteric to the mysteries. As the 
 Grecian Tragedy exhibits the free man struggling with destiny, so the spirit of a 
 Roman Tragedy would be the prostration of all human motives beneath that hallowing 
 binding force, Religio ^, and its revealed omnipresence in all things earthly. But when 
 the craving for poetry of a cultivated character awoke in them, this spirit had long 
 been extinct. The Patricians, originally an Etruscan school of priesthood, had be- 
 come merely secular statesmen and warriors, who retained their hereditary sacerdotal 
 character only as a political form. Their sacred books, their "Vedas, were become 
 unintelligible to them, not so much by reason of the obsolete letter, as because they 
 no longer possessed that higher science which was the key to the sanctuary. What 
 the heroic legends of the Latins might have become under an earlier development, 
 and what the colouring was that properly belonged to them, we may still see from 
 some traces in Virgil, Propertius, and Ovid, though even these poets handled them 
 only as matters of antiquarian interest. 
 
 JMoreover, though the Romans now at last were for hellenizing in all things, they 
 wanted that milder spirit of humanity which may be traced in Grecian History, 
 Poetry, and Art, from the Homeric age downwards. From the severest ^^.rtue, 
 which, Curtius-like, buried all personal inclinations in the bosom of native land, they 
 passed with fearful rapidity to an equally unexampled profligacy of rapacity and lust. 
 Never were they able to belie in their character the story of their first founder, 
 suckled, not at the mothers breast, but by a ravening she-wolf. They were the 
 Tragedians of the World's Histoiy, and many a drama of deep woe did they exhibit 
 with kings led in fetters and pining in the dungeon: they were the iron necessity of 
 all other nations ; the universal destroyers for the sake of piliug up at last from the 
 ruins the mausoleum of their own dignity and freedom, amid the monotonous solitude 
 of an obedient world. To them it was not given to touch the heart by the tempered 
 accents of mental anguish, and to run with a light and forbearing hand through the 
 scale of the feelings, In Tragedy, too, they naturally aimed at extremes, by over- 
 leaping all intermediate gradations, both in the stoicism of heroic courage, and in the 
 monstrous rage of abandoned lusts. Of all their ancient greatness nothing remained 
 to them save only the defiance of pain and death, if need were that they should 
 exchange for these a life of unbridled enjoyment. This seal, accordingly, of their own 
 former nobility they stamped upon their tragic heroes with a self-complacent and 
 vain-glorious profusion. 
 
 Lastly, in the age of cultivated Literatm-e, the dramatic poets, in the midst of a 
 people fond of spectacle, even to madness, nevertheless wanted a public for Poetry. 
 In their triumphal processions, their gladiatorial games and beast-fights, all the mag- 
 nificence in the world, all the marvels of foreign climes were led before the eye of 
 
 1 [Schlegel adopts the old, but incorrect derivation of rellUjio from rdifjare; see Varron. p. 482.] 
 
312 ON THE ROMAN THEATRE. 
 
 the spectator ; he was glutted with the most violent scenes of blood. On nerves thus 
 steeled what effect could be produced by the finer gradations of tragic pathos ? It was 
 the ambition of the grandees to display to the people, in a single day, the enormous 
 spoil of foreign or civil wars, on stages which were generally destroyed immediately 
 after the use so made of them. What Pliny relates of the architectural decora- 
 tions of that erected by Scaurus borders on the incredible. When pomp could be 
 carried no further, they tried to stimulate by novelty of mechanic contrivance. Thus 
 a Roman at his father's funeral solemnity had two theatres built with their backs 
 resting on each other, each moveable on a single pivot in the middle, in such 
 a manner, that at the end of the play they were wheeled round with all the spec- 
 tators sitting in them, and formed into a circus, in which games of gladiators were 
 exhibited. In the gratification of the eyes that of the ears was wholly swallowed 
 up : rope-dances and white elephants were preferred to every kind of dramatic enter- 
 tainment; the embroidered purple robe of the actor, Horace tells us, was received 
 with a general clapping, and so far from attentive and quiet was the great mass of 
 the people, that he compares their noise to the roar of the ocean or of a forest-covered 
 mountain in a storm. 
 
 Only one specimen of the talents of the Romans for Tragedy has come down to us ; 
 but it would be unfair to form a judgment from this of the lost works of better times : 
 I mean, the ten Tragedies which pass under the name of Seneca. Their claim to his 
 name seems to be very ambiguous : perhaps it is gi'ounded only on a circumstance 
 which ought rather to have led to a contrary conclusion, viz. that Seneca himself is 
 one of the dramatis personge in one of them, the Octavia. The learned are divided in 
 their opinions on the subject. Some assign them partly to the philosopher, partly to 
 his father the rhetorician ; others assume the existence of a poet Seneca distinct from 
 both. In this point all are agreed, that the plays are not all from one hand, but 
 belong to different ages even. For the honour of Roman taste, one would fain hold 
 them to be after-births of a very late sera of antiquity : but Quintilian quotes a verse 
 from the Medea}, which we actually find in the extant piece of that name, so that the 
 plea will not hold good for this play, which seems, however, to be no great deal better 
 than the rest. We find also in Lucan, a contemporary of Nero, the very same style 
 of bombast, which distorts every thing great into nonsense. The state of constant 
 outrage in which Rome was kept by a series of blood-thirsty tyrants, led to similar 
 outrages upon nature in rhetoric and poetry. The same phenomenon has been 
 observed in similar epochs of modern history. Under the wise and mild government 
 of a Vespasian and a Titus, and still more of a Trajan, the Romans returned to a purer 
 taste. But to whatever age these Tragedies of Seneca may belong, they are beyond 
 all description bombastic and frigid, utterly devoid of nature in character and action, 
 full of the most revolting violations of propriety, and so barren of all theatrical effect, 
 that I verily believe they were never meant to leave the schools of the rhetoricians for 
 the stage. With the old Tragedies, those highest of the creations of Grecian poetical 
 genius, these have nothing in common but the name, the exterior form, and the 
 mythological matter: and yet they set themselves up beside them in the evident 
 intention of surpassing them, in which attempt they come off like a hollow hyperbole 
 
 1 The author of this Medea makes his heroine strangle her children coram populo, in spite of 
 Horace's warning, who probably when he uttered it had a Eoman example before his eyes, for a 
 Greek would hardly have committed this error. The Roman tragedians must have had a particular 
 lust for novelty and effect to seek them in such atrocities. 
 
ON THE ROMAN THEATRE. 313 
 
 contrasted with a most heartfelt truth. Ever}^ common-place of Tragedy is worried 
 out to the last gasp; all is phrase, among which even the simplest is forced and 
 stilted. An utter poverty of mind is tricked out with wit and acuteness. They 
 have fancy too, or at least a phantom of it ; of the abuse of that faculty, one may 
 look to these plays for a speaking example. Their persons are neither ideal nor 
 real men, but misshapen giants of puppets ; and the wire that sets them a-going is 
 at one time an unnatiiral heroism, at another a passion alike unnatural, which no 
 atrocity of guilt can appal. 
 
 In a historj^, therefore, of Dramatic Art, I might have wholly passed by the Tra- 
 gedies of Seneca, but that the blind j^rejudice in favour of all that remains to us 
 from antiquity has attracted many imitators to these compositions. They were 
 earlier and more generally known than the Greek Tragedies. Not merely scholai'S 
 destitute of poetical taste have judged favourably of them, nay, have preferred 
 them to the Greek Tragedies, but even poets have deemed them worth studying. 
 The influence of Seneca on Comeille's notion of Tragedy is too plain to be over- 
 looked ; Racine has deigned to borrow a good deal from him in his Phsedra (as 
 may be seen in Bnunoy's eniuneration), and nearly the whole of the scene in which 
 the heroine declares her passion. 
 
 And here we close our disquisitions on the productions of Classical Antiquity. 
 
A List of some of the Works, relating, in part at least, 
 to the Greek Drama, which have been referred to in 
 the preceding pages. 
 
 R. Bentley. Dissertation on the Epistles of 
 
 Phalaris London, 1699 
 
 A. Bockh. Stattshauslialtung der Atliener. . Berlin, 1817 
 
 translated by G. C. Lewis . . . London, 1828, and 
 
 1842 
 
 Corpus Inscriptionum Grsecarum . BeroUni, 1828 
 
 — De Gra3C83 Tragoedi^e Principibus . Heidelberg, 1817 
 
 H. F. Clinton. Fasti Hellenici Oxford, 1827-34 
 
 O. F. Gruppe. Ariadne Berlin, 1834 
 
 K. O. Miiller. Eumeniden Gottingen, 1833-6 
 
 Museum Criticum Cambridge, 1826 
 
 Philological Museum Lhid. 1832-3 
 
 Schneider. De Originibus Tragoedise et Comce- 
 
 dise Vratislavim, 1817 
 
 Eotscher. Aristophanes und sein Zeitalter . . Berlin, 1827 
 
 J. W. Siivern. tJber Aristophanes Wolken . Ibid. 1826 
 
 . Uber Aristophanes Alter . . Ibid, 1827 
 
 On the Birds of Aristophanes, 
 
 translated by W. R. Hamilton London, 1835 
 
 F. G. Welcker. Die ^schylische Trilogie . Darmstadt, 1824 
 — Nachtrag zu demselben . . 
 
 Frankfurt am Main, 1826 
 
 Der Epische Cyclus .... Bonn, 1835 
 
 A. Meineke. Historia Critica Comicorum Gr93- 
 
 corum, cum Fragmentis BeroUni, 1839-41 
 
 K. O. Miiller. History of the Literature of 
 
 Ancient Greece, translated by G. C. Lewis 
 
 and J. W. Donaldson. London, 1840-2 ; 
 
 new and complete edition London, 1858^ 
 
 G. Bernhardy. Grundriss der Griechischen Lit- 
 
 teratur, zweiter Theil Halle, 1845 
 
 A. Schonborn. Die Skene der Hellenen . . . Leipsig, 1858 
 
 W. H. Kolster. Sophokleische Studien . . . Hamburg, 1859 
 F. Wieseler. Theatergebaude und Denkmaler 
 
 des Blihnenwesens bei den Griechen und 
 
 Eomern Gottingen^ 1851 
 
 1 The paging of both editions of Mliller's own part of the book is given for the 
 convenience of those who do not possess the complete work in three vohimes. 
 
PART 11. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM ARISTOTLE, VITRUVIUS, 
 AND JULIUS POLLUX. 
 
 (I) 
 
 ARISTOTLE'S TREATISE ON POETRY. 
 
 TKANSLATED FROM THE GREEK. 
 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 n^HERE can be no doubt that this celebrated treatise on poetry, 
 -■- which, as I have elsewhere remarked^, was accepted as a sort 
 of critical gospel at the very time when Aristotle's philosophical 
 reputation was at its lowest point, is both incomplete and inter- 
 polated in the existing text^. AYith regard to its incompleteness, 
 this might be inferred from the description of the work given by 
 the author himself, at the very beginning ; for he leads us to expect 
 (1) a discussion of poetry in general, which we find in the first five 
 chapters of the existing text ; (2) a complete theory of Tragedy, 
 which we find in chapters 6 — 22 ; (3) the doctrine of epic poetry, 
 which occupies the conclusion of the fragment which has come 
 down to us ; and we ought then to have a discussion of comic and 
 lyric poetry, which are both missing. If it is supposed that Aris- 
 totle never fulfilled his intentions, but left the work unfinished, it is 
 sufficient to answer that the treatise on poetry is not one of the 
 latest of Aristotle's works, for he refers to it in the third book of his 
 PJietoric (ill. 18, § 7), and that too with respect to the natm-e of 
 the ludicrous {irepl tcov yeXolcov), which must have been discussed 
 in the last part of the work where he treated of Comedy. In the 
 lists of Aristotle's works given by Diogenes (v. 21 — 27), and the 
 anonymous writer quoted by Menage (pp. 65 — 67, Buhle), there is 
 a distinct reference to two books of the Poetic, and it would not be 
 unreasonable to conclude that only the first has been preserved. 
 That the book, as we have it, is not only a fragment, but is also 
 corrupted by interpolations or scholia which have crept into the text, 
 
 1 Hist, of Greek Literature, Vol. ii. p. 293. 
 
 2 See Spengel, Munich Transactions, 1837, II. pp. 209 sqq. ; and F. Hitter's 
 edition of the tract, Colonice, 1839. 
 
318 INTEODUCTORY REMARKS. 
 
 can hardly be doubted by any reader who is acquainted witb Aris- 
 totle's style and method. For example, it is obvious that the 
 grammatical details in chapters XX. and xxi. are not in the style of 
 Aristotle, and with regard to the former, where eight parts of 
 speech are enumerated, we have the express statement of Diony- 
 sius of Halicarnassus {de Comioositione Verhorum, c. 2, -init.; de Free- 
 stantia Demosthenis^ p. 1101), and of Quintilian {Inst. Oral. 1.4, 
 § 18), that Aristotle and Theodectes reckoned only three parts of 
 speech. In the following translation I have indicated by brackets 
 those passages which Ritter regards as interpolations, but I do not 
 think that there is in every case an equally good reason for the 
 ejection of the clause. 
 
 J. W. D. 
 
(I) 
 
 ARISTOTLE'S 
 TKEATISE ON POETRY. 
 
 (twining's tkanslation ; with occasional cokeections and notes on 
 the original text.) 
 
 A. General Introductioi 
 
 M 
 
 Y design is to treat of Poetry in general, and of its several species ; Cap. i. 
 to inquire what is the proper effect of each; what construction of a Design of 
 fable, or plot, is essential to a good poem ; of what, and how many parts, Sffferent' 
 each species consists; with whatever else belongs to the same subject; poetry? 
 which I shall consider in the order that most naturally presents itself 
 (dpidfxevoL Kara cfivatv Trpcorov a7ro twv Trpwroov). 
 
 Epic poetry, tragedy, comedy, dithyrambics, as also, for the most i. Means of 
 part, the music of the flute and of the lyre ; all these are, in the most 
 general view of them, Imitations {ovcrai [xifxija-eLq to avvoXov) : differing, 
 however, from each other in three respects, according to the different 
 means, the different objects, or the different manner, of their imitation. 
 
 For as men, some through art, and some through habit, imitate 
 various objects, by means of colour and figure [and others again by 
 voice^\, so with respect to the arts above-mentioned, rhythm, words, 
 and melody {pvOixo^, Xoyos, dpixovia), are the different means by which, 
 either single or variously combined, they all produce their imitation. 
 
 For example : in the imitations of the flute and the lyre, and of any 
 other instruments capable of producing a similar effect, as the syrinx or 
 pipe, melody and rhythm only are employed. In those of dance, rhythm, 
 alone, without melody, for there are dancers who, by rhythm applied to 
 gesture, express manners, passions and actions. 
 
 The Epopoeia imitates by words alone, or by verse, and that verse 
 may be either composed of various metres, or confined, according to the 
 
 ^ Passages inclosed within brackets are supposed to be interpolation .s. — J. W. D. 
 
320 aeistotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 practice hitherto established, to a single species. For we should other- 
 wise have no general name, which would comprehend the Mimes of 
 Sophron and Xenarchus, and the Socratic Dialogues; or poems in 
 iambic, elegiac, or other metres, in which the ejnc species of imitation 
 may be conveyed. Custom, indeed, connecting the word Trotetv, "to 
 make," with the name of the metre employed, has denominated some 
 elegiac poets, i. e. makers of elegiac verse; others, epic poets, i. e. makers 
 oj hexameter verse: thus distinguishing poets, not according to the 
 nature of their imitation, but according to that of their metre only. For 
 even they who compose treatises on medicine, or natural philosophy, in 
 verse, are denominated Poets : yet Homer and Empedocles have nothing 
 in common, except their metre ; the former, therefore, justly merits the 
 name of Foet; while the other should rather be called a Physiologist 
 than a Poet. 
 
 So also, though any one should choose to convey his imitation in 
 every kind of metre, promiscuously, as Cheeremon has done in his Cen- 
 taur, which is a medley of all sorts of verse, it would not immediately 
 follow, that on that account merely he was entitled to the name of Poet. 
 — But of this enough. 
 
 There are, again, other species of poetry, which make use of all the 
 means of imitation, rhythm, melody, and verse. Such are the dithyram- 
 hic, that of nomes, tragedy, and comedy : with this difference, however, 
 , that in some of these they are emjoloyed all together, in others, separately. 
 
 And such are the differences of these arts with respect to the mea7is by 
 which they imitate. 
 
 Cap. ir. But, as the objects of imitation are the actions of men (eVet Se fxtfiovv- 
 
 Liitation! ° ^-at ot fxLfxovfJievoL TrparrovTas), and these men must of necessity be either 
 good or bad (for on this does character principally depend ; the manners 
 being in all men most strongly marked by virtue and vice), it follows 
 that we can only represent men either as better than they actually are, 
 or worse, or exactly as they are : just as, in painting, the pictures of 
 Polygnotus were above the common level of nature; those of Pauson, 
 below it ; those of Dionysius, faithful likenesses. 
 
 Now it is evident that each of the imitations above-mentioned will 
 admit of these differences, and become a different kind of imitation, as it 
 imitates objects that differ in this respect. This may be the case with 
 dancing ; with the music of the flute, and of the lyre; and, also, with 
 the poetry which employs words, or verse, only, without melody or 
 rhythm : thus. Homer has drawn men superior to what they are ; Cleo- 
 phon, as they are; Hegemon the Thasian, the inventor of parodies, and 
 Nicochares, the author of the Deliad, worse tlian they are. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 321 
 
 So, again, with respect to dithyramhics and nonies: in these, too, the 
 imitation may be as different as that of the Persians by Tiniotheus, and 
 the Cyclops by Philoxenus. 
 
 Tragedy also, and Comedy, are distinguished in the same manner; 
 the aim of Comedy being to exhibit men worse than we find them, that 
 of Tragedy, better. 
 
 There remains the third difference, that of the manner in which each Cap. m. 
 
 3. Manne 
 
 imitatioa, 
 
 of these objects may be imitated. For the poet, imitating the same ^' ^"^^^"^^^ ^^ 
 
 object, and by the same means, may do it either in narration; and that, 
 again, either personating other characters [as Homer does], or in his own 
 person throughout, without change : or he may imitate by representing 
 all his characters as real, and employed in the very action itself. 
 
 These, then, are the three differences by which all imitation is dis- 
 tinguished; those of the means, the object, and the manner (cV oh re, koX 
 oiy Koi (us) : so that Sophocles is, in one respect, an imitator of the same 
 kind with Homer, as elevated characters are the objects of both ; in an- 
 other respect, of the same kind with Aristophanes, as both imitate in 
 the way of action. [Whence, according to some, the application of the 
 term Drama, i. e. action, to such poems. Upon this it is that the 
 Dorians ground their claim to the invention both of Tragedy and 
 Comedy. For Comedy is claimed by the Megarians, both by those of 
 Greece, who contend that it took its rise in their popular government ; 
 and by those of Sicily, among whom the poet Epicharmus flourished 
 long before Chionides and Magnes; and Tragedy, also, is claimed by 
 some of the Dorians of the Peloponnese. — Jn support of these claims, 
 they argue from the words themselves. They allege that the Doric 
 word for a village is Kwfxr], the Attic ArjfjLos ; and that Comedians were 
 so called, not from Konx,at,€.Lv, to revel, but from their strolling about the 
 Kw/xat, or villages, before they were tolerated in the city. They say, 
 further, that to do, or act, they express by the word hpav : the Athe- 
 nians, by TTpaTTecv.] 
 
 And thus much as to the differences of imitation (fJ-tfJiyjo-Ls), how 
 many, and what they are. 
 
 Poetry, in general, seems to have derived its origin from two causes, Cap. iv. 
 each of them natural. ^^f^ ?f 
 
 1. To Imitate is instinctive in man from his infancy. By this he pTrTgedy*^ 
 is distinguished from other animals, that he is, of all, the most imitative, '"^ p^^^^^"' 
 and through this instinct receives his earliest education. All men, 
 likewise, naturally receive pleasure from imitation. This is evident 
 from what we experience in viewing the works of imitative art; for in 
 D. T. G. 21 
 
322 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 them we contemplate with pleasure, and with the more pleasure the 
 more exactly they are imitated, such objects as, if real, we could not see 
 without pain, as the figures of the meanest and most disgusting animals, 
 dead bodies, and the like. And the reason of this is, that to learn is a 
 very great pleasure, not confined to philosophers, but common to all 
 men; with this difierence only, that the multitude partake of it in 
 a more transient and compendious manner. Hence the pleasure they 
 receive from a picture ; in viewing it, they learn, they infer ^ they dis- 
 cover, what every object is; that this, for instance, is such a particular 
 man, &c. For if we suppose the object represented to be something 
 which the spectator had never seen, in that case his pleasure mil not 
 arise from the imitation, as sucli^ but from the workmanship, the 
 colours, or some such cause. 
 
 2. Imitation, then, being thus natural to us; and, secondly. Har- 
 mony and Rhythm being also natural (for as to metres, they are plainly 
 comprised in rhythm), those persons, in whom originally these propen- 
 sities were the strongest, were naturally led to rude and extemporaneous 
 attempts, which, gradually improved, gave birth to Poetry. 
 
 But this Poetry, following the different characters of its authors, 
 naturally divided itself into two different kinds. They who were of a 
 grave and lofty spirit chose for their imitation the actions and adven- 
 tures of elevated characters; while poets of a lighter turn represented 
 those of the vicious and contemptible. And these composed, originally, 
 Satires, as the former did Hymns and Encomia. 
 
 Of the lighter kind, we have no poem anterior to the time of 
 Homer, though many such, in all probability, there were ; but from his 
 time, we have : as, his Margites, and others of the same species, in 
 which the Iambic was introduced as the most proper measure; and 
 hence, indeed, the name of Iambic, because it was the measure in which 
 they used to satirize each other {lo.ixf^it,€iv). 
 
 And thus these old poets were divided into two classes — those who 
 used the heroic, and those who used the iambic verse. 
 
 And as, in the serious kind. Homer alone may be said to deserve 
 the name of poet, not only on account of his other excellencies, but also 
 of the dramatic spirit of his imitations; so was he likewise the first 
 who suggested the idea of Comedy, by substituting ridicide for invective, 
 and giving that ridicule a dramatic cast; for his Margites bears the 
 same analogy to Comedy, as his Hiad and Odyssey to Tragedy. But 
 when Tragedy and Comedy had once made their appearance, succeeding 
 poets, according to the turn of their genius, attached themselves to the 
 
 1 Eitter proposes to read ovx^ /a^/t^^ua ^ fiifj.rjixa.~-J. W. D. 
 
AKISTOTLE'S TliEATlSE ON TOETKY. 323 
 
 one or the other of these new species. The lujliter sort, instead of 
 Iambic, became Comic poets; the graver, Tragic, instead of Heroic: 
 and that on account of the superior dignity and higher estimation of 
 these \x\XteY forms {crxVf^f^To) of Poetry. 
 
 Whether Tragedy has now, with respect to its constituent parts, 
 received the utmost improvement of which it is caj^able, considered 
 both in itself, and relatively to the theatre, is a question that belongs 
 not to this place. 
 
 Both Tragedy, hov/ever, and Comedy, having originated in a rude 
 and unpremeditated manner — the first from the leaders in the Dithijr- 
 amhic hymns, the other from those who led off the Phallic songs, which, 
 in many cities, remain still in use — each advanced gradually towards 
 perfection by successive improvements, as it successively manifested 
 itself (Kara jUKpov 7]v$'i]0y], TrpoayovTOJV ocrov iycyvero cjiavepov a^Jr^?). 
 
 Tragedy, after various changes (iroWds yu-era/JcAas /JL€Ta/3aXo£(Ta 
 rj rpaywSta), reposed at length in the completion of its proper form. 
 JEschylus first added a second actor : he also abridged the chorus, and 
 made the dialogue the principal part of Tragedy. Sophocles increased 
 the number of actors to three, and added the decoration of painted 
 scenery. It was also late before Tragedy threw aside the short and 
 .simple fable, and ludicrous language of its satyric origin, and attained 
 its proper magnitude and dignity. The Iambic measure was then first 
 adopted : for, originally, the Trochaic tetrameter was made use of, on 
 account of the satyric and saltatorial genius of the poem at that time 
 (8ta TO (TarvpiKrjv koX 6p)(r]ijriKiiiT€.pav eXvox ttjv Trotrja-Lv) : but when the 
 dialogue was formed, nature itself pointed out the proper metre. For 
 the iambic is, of all metres, the most colloquial (/xaAto-ra yap X^ktlkov 
 icTTi) : as appears evidently from this fact, that our common conversation 
 frequently falls into iambic verse ; seldom into hexameter, and only 
 vvhen we depart from the usual harmony of speech. Einsodes were 
 also multiplied, and every other part of the drama successively improved 
 and polished. 
 
 But of this enough : to enter into a minute detail would perhaps be 
 a task of some length. 
 
 Comedy, as was said before, is an imitation of bad characters : bad, cap. v. 
 not with respect to every sort of vice, but to the ridiculous only, as ^^^1"^^^^^^ 
 being a species of turpitude or deformity ; since it may be defined to be 
 — a fault or deformity of such sort as is neither pain fid nor destructive 
 (to yap yeXoZov Icttlv ajxapr-qiia tl — Ka\ ov cfiOapTLKov). A ridiculous 
 face, for example, is something ugly and distorted, but not so as to 
 cause ^9am. 
 
 21—2 
 
324 Aristotle's treatise on poetry 
 
 The successive improvements of Tragedy, and the respective authors 
 of them, have not escaped our knowledge; but those of Comedy, from 
 the little attention that was paid to it in its origin, remain in obscurity. 
 For it was not till late that Comedy was authorized by the magistrate, 
 and carried on at the public expense : it was, at first, a private and 
 voluntary exhibition. From the time, indeed, when it began to 
 acquire some degree of form, its poe^ have been recorded; but who 
 first introduced masks or dialogues', or augmented the number of actors 
 — these, and other particulars of the same kind, are unknown. 
 
 Epicharmus and Phormis were the first who invented comic fables. 
 This improvement, therefore, is of Sicilian origin. But, of Athenian 
 poets. Crates was the first, who abandoned the Iambic type^, and 
 introduced dialogues and plots of a general character (rfp^ev a.f^iixevo<i Trj<s 
 laix^LKrjs tSeas KaOoXov Troteiv Xoyov? kol fxvOovi). 
 
 Epic poetry agrees so far with Tragic^, as it is an imitation of 
 serious actions; but in this it differs, that it makes use of a single 
 metre, and is confined to narration. It also differs in length : for 
 Tragedy endeavours, as far as possible, to confine its action within the 
 limits of a single revolution of the sun, or nearly so; but the time of 
 Epic action is indefinite. This, however, at first was equally the case 
 with Tragedy itself 
 
 Of their constituent parts, some are common to both, some peculiar 
 to Tragedy. He, therefore, who is a judge of the beauties and defects 
 of Tragedy, is, of course, equally a judge with respect to those of Epic 
 poetry : for all the parts of the Epic poem are to be found in Tragedy ; 
 not all those of Tragedy in the Epic poem. 
 
 B. Tragedy. 
 
 Cap.vr. Of the species of poetry which imitates in hexameters, and of 
 
 ^efinition of Comedy, we shall speak hereafter. Let us now consider Tragedy ; 
 
 ^^u^iu^oi collecting, first, from what has been already said, its true and essential 
 
 mosUmport- c^efinition. Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is impor- 
 
 u?0o9or^ ^^^^5 e?^^^7'e, and of a proper magnitude — by language embellished and 
 
 plot. rendered pleasurable, but by different means, in different parts — in the 
 
 way, not of narration, but of action — effecting, through pity and terror, 
 
 the correction and refinement of such passions. ("Eo-Ttv ovv rpaywSta 
 
 fjLLfxrjo-LS TT/Da^cws o-TTOuSatas KOL reXctas, /xeye^os €)(OV(Tr]<i' ySvcrixivio Aoyo), 
 
 ^(ji)pl<s kKacTTOv Twv aZoiv Iv rots /xoptots, ZpoiVTaiV, koX ov 8t' aTrayycXta?, hC 
 
 1 We should read \6yovs with Hermann. — J. W. D. 
 
 2 i.e. personal and particular satire: below, c. IX, — J. W. D. 
 
 ^ After Tpayujdig. in the text we have the interpolation : A^^x/** /aovoi; fxirpov fieydXov, 
 or /uerd X6yoi'. — J. W. D. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 325 
 
 €A€ov Kttt <f>o/3ov Trepatvovcra rrjv toov toiovtwv TraOrjixaT(iiv KaOapcnv). By 
 pleasurable language, I mean a language that has the embellishments 
 of rhythm, harmony, and melody; and I add, by different means in 
 different parts, because in some pai-ts metre alone is employed, in others, 
 melody \ 
 
 ^ There can be little doubt that this celebrated definition of Tragedy is drawn up 
 •with an express and controversial reference to Plato's opinion of poetry. The very 
 phrases are an echo of Plato's language. Thus, the words T^dvafxeuu} X6y(t} remind us 
 at ouce of Plato's i]8vafj.evT] fiovcra (Respubl. X. p. 607 A*), and the expression dpwvrojv Kal 
 ov 81' dirayyekias must allude to Plato's description of the lyric as opposed to the 
 dramatic poetry, the latter being 5td fj.Lfxrja eivs, and the former 5i dirayyeXias avrov rod 
 TroLTfTov [Respvhl. III. p. 394 c, above, p. 42). It appears, however, that the mere state- 
 ment that Tragedy is a purgation {Kadapais) of those passions which Plato charges it 
 with exciting, is not a sufficient answer to that philosopher, and Spengel has argued, 
 I think conclusively, that there is probably an omission in the text, as we have it, of 
 a passage conveying Aristotle's reasoning in defence of his own views. Spengpl's 
 opinion shall be given in his own words. After remarking {Munich Transactions, 
 1837, II. p. 226 sqq.) that, although Aristotle has explained the words i]8vcr/j.€vu) Xoyu) 
 and x^P^^ eKOLCTTOu tQv cldQv iv rots /xopiois, he has left unexplained the main point, 
 di' eXeov Kal (po^ov Trepalvovaa ttjv tGjv TOio&roiv Trad7]p.dTojv Kadapaiv, he proceeds: 
 ** and yet this Kadapais TradrjfxaTCJv is in Aristotle's estimation of such significance and 
 importance, that while he contents himself in an earlier work, the Politics, V. (vill.) 7, 
 with a short notice, he postpones the full explanation to his Poetic, and promises to 
 give it there. It is obvious that this is the place in which Aristotle was bound to 
 speak of it, for the introduction, which forms a connected whole by itself, afforded no 
 opportunity for it; and even if he wished, which is not credible, to reserve a fuller 
 discussion of it for a future occasion, still it was necessary that the topic should be at 
 least touched on here and referred back to the rest. That, however, he has spoken of 
 the subject here, in the most convenient place, and has indicated the reasons for his 
 opinion, may be conjectured from the numerous references to this important part of 
 the definition ; c. XI. : i] yap dvayvdopLCis Kal TreptTre'reta ^ ^Xeov ^^et 17 cf}6^ov, o'iwv 
 irpd^euv ij Tpayu:dia ixifx-qcns vwoKeiTai. c. XIII. : eTretSTj odv del ttjv avvdecriv eTpai ttjs 
 KaXXia-T-qs Tpayipoias p.r} dirXriv, d\Xa ireirXeyp.ev7)v (as is shown at the conclusion of 
 ch. IX.) Kal TavTTjv (po^epuiv Kal iXeivwv eXvaL pdiXTjcnv {^rovro yap Ibtov ToiavTrjs fj.i/xrjaeus 
 icTTLv) irpCoTOv fxkv b'qXov otl k.t.X. c. XIV. : eirel 5^ ttjv dirb eXeov Kal <p6(3ov did p.ifi'q- 
 arecjs Set rjdovrjp wapacrKevd^eiv tov iroiTjTrji', (pavepop (is tovto iv rois irpdyixacFLv ifXTroLrj- 
 riov. For a full understanding, and incidentally for a confutation of the most recent 
 and able exposition, which perhaps dazzles many by the splendour of the name under 
 which it appears*, but which is opposed no less to the language than to the expressed 
 sentiments of Aristotle, we give here in its full context the passage of the Politics, 
 which is at the same time the best explanation of the words before us : 
 
 *' ' Since we accept the distinction of the different kind of songs, as it is given by 
 some philosophers, namely, into those which form the character [rjdiKa], those which 
 excite to action [wpaKTLKd], and those which inspire us with rapturous emotion [iuOov- 
 aiaarcKa], and so also of the corresponding harmonies ; and since we say that we 
 ought to use music not for one advantage only, but for several advantages (for it 
 serves first for mental discipline; secondly, for purgation, — and as tc what we mean 
 by purgation we will now speak generally, and again in our treatise on poetry more 
 distinctly [tI 5e Xeyo/xev tt}v KaBapcnv vdv fiev dirXuis, irdXiv 5' iv tols irepl TroirjTiKrjs 
 ipovfxev (jocpicTepov'] ; — thirdly, for amusement, both as recreation and as a rest from 
 excitement,) it is manifest that we must use all the harmonies, but not all in the same 
 manner; for we must use in education those which are best fitted to regulate the 
 character [rah rjdiKojTaTais], and for listening when others are performing we must 
 employ both the practical and the enthusiastic [Kal toIs TrpaKTiKais Kal rats ivdov- 
 
 * G5the'.s nachgelassene Werke, vi. 16 — 21. Nachlese zu Aristoteles Poetik, praised by an Aristotelian 
 scholar as a model of exposition. - ' 
 
326 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 Now as Tragerly imitates by acting, the decoration, in tlie first 
 place, must necessarily be one of its parts : then the melopceia (or 
 
 cnaaTLKOLs]. It is a fact tliat the passions by which one person is strongly affected are 
 naturally inherent in all, the difference being one of degree only. Such are pzi!?/ and 
 fear; and enthusiasm too, for some are under the swa,y of this emotion. And we see 
 that these, when they employ the songs that excite the soul to religious fervour, are 
 calmed and settled by sacred strains, as though they had found some remedy and pur- 
 gation [wcTTre/) larpeias rvx^vra^ kol KaOdpcrecos]. The same must happen also to those 
 liable to the emotions of pity and fear [tovs iXe^iuovas kol rovs (po^rjTtKoiJs], and those 
 who are generally impressionable [rot's 6\ws 7raOi]TiKo6s], and others so far as each of 
 these circumstances occurs ; and all have a sort of p>urgation and a sense of lightening 
 not unaccompanied hy pleasure [/cat Tracn yiyvecrdai nva KdOaptjLV kol Kovcpl'^eadai /xe9' 
 ijdouTJs]. In like manner the songs which jyroduce a sense of purgation [rd fxeXir] ra. 
 KadapTiKo] cause an innocuous gratification to men. Wherefore we should direct the 
 attention of the competitors who practise music for the theatres to liarmonies and 
 songs which produce this effect.' 
 
 "After all this I have no hesitation in supposing that there is an omission in our 
 passage of the Poetic, before the words €7rct 6e irpdrTovTes, of some lines in which that 
 KdOapaii tQv iroi'qixa.Twv was discussed ; and, to strengthen the probability of this con- 
 jecture, I add the following confirmation from internal evidence. Aristotle, in his 
 Poetic, was the less likely to liave evaded a defence of poetry against the attacks of 
 Plato in his Pepuhlic (ill. pp. 124 — 29, and x. pp. 466 — 491, Ekk.), because Plato 
 himself wishes it, because he invites poets and prose-writers to hasten to the help of 
 poetry, and declares his willingness to give it a place in liis polity, if it ca,n be proved 
 that epic and tragic poetry do not produce any effects prejudicial to life and truth 
 (p. 489). Aristotle is not accustomed to leave unemployed a suitable opportunity of 
 setting his teacher right, and cither qualifying his views by taking a different side or 
 refuting them altogether. Are we then to imagine that in his Hhetoric he has con- 
 futed the judgment and opinion of Plato respecting what is pernicious in that art, 
 with few but sufficient words, without mentioning his name indeed, but with a distinct 
 and manifest reference to his Gorgias, and has so re-established the credit of rhetoric ; 
 but that in the case of poetry, which he prizes so highly, which he prefers to history, 
 and places nearer to philosophy, he would not endeavour to secure ii,s acquittal from 
 the incriminations of his great predecessor? Now we find in Aristotle's Poetic, besides 
 0. XXV., which removes by explanation certain difficulties found in the poets, and 
 meets various objections, only one passage in Vv^hich we can recognize, and clearly too, 
 a distinct allusion to Plato, and this is found in our words: 8l iXeov Kal cf)6^ou Trepcii- 
 vovcra ttju twv tolovtcov iraBrijidTuv KaOapjiv. That indeed is the grea,test reproach 
 which Plato alleges against tragic poetry, that instead of making men strong and 
 hard, it weakens and softens them by the pity which it excites ; that what we should 
 in common life regard as unrnanl}'^ and unbecoming to do in the presence of others — 
 namely, to lament and utter loud wailings on account of our misfortunes — we permit 
 to the art of imitation, to that 7}8vapihri fxova-rj : we take pleasure in it, we become 
 more and more unnerved by it, and so pleasure and sorrow get the mastery in our 
 polity instead of law and reason. This is Plato's view {Respuhl. x. p. 485, Bkk. 
 p. 605, Steph.). Aristotle, on the contrary, maintains that the tragic art, by means 
 of the fear and pity which it excites in the human soul, purifies it from such passions, 
 — a thought which requires to be established for its own sake, and which is doubly 
 worthy of explanation as standing in open opposition and contradiction to Plato," 
 
 Since Spengel wrote these Vv'ords there has been a lively discussicm of Aristotle's 
 celebrated definition by J, Bernays {Grundzilge der verlorn. Abhandl. des Aristotcles 
 iiber die Wirkung der Tragodie, Ahh. Hist. Phil. Gesell. in Breslau, Breslau, 1857), 
 whose views have been sharply criticized by Adolf Stahr {Aristotcles und die WirJcung 
 der Tragodie, Berlin; 1859). Bernays insists on the distinction between iraO-qfjiaTa, as 
 denoting inherent affections, and wdOr}, as denoting incidental conditions (Bernays, 
 p. 194), and maintains that as Aristotle used the former word, the Kadapais, which lie 
 attributes to Tragedy, refers only to those spectators who are chronically and habitu- 
 ally affected with pity and fear. And the uddapats operates as a kind of disburdenment 
 of the overruling sentiment, an diripacns, or drawing away of the morbid influences 
 (Bernays, p. 200). But although Aristotle does distinguish between Tra^Tj^uara and 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 327 
 
 7)msic), and tlie diction; for these last include tlie means of tragic imita- 
 tion. By diction I mean the metrical composition. The meaning of 
 melopoeia is obvious to every one. 
 
 Again : Tragedy being an imitation of an action, and the persons 
 employed in that action being necessarily characterized by their 7)ian~ 
 ners and their sentiments, since it is from these that actions themselves 
 derive their character, it follows, that there must also be manners and 
 sentiments, as the two causes of actions, and, consequently, of the happi- 
 ness or unhappiness of all men. The imitation of the action is the 
 2)lot : for by plot (fivOov) I now mean the contexture of incidents. By 
 manners (yjOr)), I mean, whatever marks the characters of the persons. 
 By seoitiments (8tai/oia), whatever they sai/, whether proving any thing, 
 or delivering a general opinion, &c. 
 
 Hence, all Tragedy must necessarily contain six parts, which, 
 together, constitute its peculiar character or quality: plot, manners, 
 diction, sentiments, decoration, and music {fxvOo^, koL rjOrj, koI Xe^ts, kol 
 SidvoLa, Kot oipi'?, KOL fxiXoTToda). Of these parts, two relate to the 
 means, one to the manner, and three to the object of imitation. And 
 these are all. [These specific p)(^'^ts have been employed by most poets, 
 and are to be found in almost every Tragedy.] 
 
 But of all these parts the most important is the combination of 
 incidents, or the plot : because Tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but 
 of actions [of life and of happiness : even unhappiness consists in action, 
 and the supreme good itself, the very eiid of life, is action of a certain 
 kind, — not a quality]. Now the manners of men constitute only their 
 quality or characters ; but it is by their actions that they are happy, or 
 the contrary. Tragedy, therefore, does not imitate action, for the sake 
 of imitating manners; but in the imitation of action, that of manners 
 
 TtaBy], the distinction is not uniformly maintained, and Trd^os and ii6.Qo% are certainly 
 used by ^^schylus (Ac/am. 170) in the same sense as irddrj/xa and /xd^T/z^a by Herodotus 
 (l. 207). And with regard to KaOapais, which must be taken in its medical sense, it 
 seems quite clear that it implies a curative effect. Just as Aristotle speaks of pleasure 
 as a cure (iarpeia) of pain {Eth. Nic. VII. 1154 a. 27), and of recreation as a cure of 
 labour {Polit. VIII. [5], p. 1339 b. 17: rrjs yap 5td rQv irbvuiv \vTrr]S iarpeia ris iaTLv), 
 so the amusement or intellectual diversion of a play is a cure of real fear or pity ; and 
 as all cures are naturally produced by the opposite of the ills which they remedy 
 (Aristot. Elh. Nic. 11. p. 1104 b. 17: at iarpdaL Std, rCjv havriwu irecpvKaat yiueaOai), 
 we must understand that the KaOapa-is of Tragedy is produced by the contrast between 
 the real emotion and the contemplation in thought of the sorrows of others ; on the 
 principle of the suave mari magno, &c. (Lucret. II. init.) This may seem, as Milton 
 suggests {Preface to Samson Agonistes), to be a sort of homoeopathic remedy (Bernays, 
 p. 192); but the contrast is maintained in the opposition between the real and the 
 imaginary ; it is a case in which, as Aristotle elsewhere expresses it {Pol. V, [vii.] 
 p. 1341 a. 1. 22), 7] Oeoopia KaOapaiv /xdWou bvvaraL rj (xdOrjaiv, and the spectator is 
 elevated or consoled by the thought that the representation which he sees on the stage 
 of the traditionary or possible misfortunes of his fellow-creatures are different iu kind 
 or degree from the worst of his own sad experiences. — J. W. D. 
 
328 aeistotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 is of course involved. So that tlie action and the |j?o< are the end of 
 Tragedy ; and in every thing the end is of principal importance. 
 
 Again — Tragedy cannot subsist without action; without manners it 
 may: the Tragedies of most modern poets have this defect; a defect 
 common, indeed, among poets in general. As among painters, also, 
 this is the case with Zeuxis, compared with Polygnotus : the latter 
 excels in the expression of the mawaers; there is no such expression in 
 the pictures of Zeuxis. 
 
 Further ; suppose any one to string together a number of speeches, 
 in which the manners are strongly marked, the language and the 
 sentiments well turned ; this will not be sufficient to produce the proper 
 effect of Tragedy : that end will much rather be answered by a piece, 
 defective in each of those particulars, but furnished with a proper plot 
 and combination of incidents. 
 
 Add to this, that those parts of Tragedy, by means of which it 
 becomes most interesting and affecting, are parts of the plot; I mean 
 revolutions and discoveries. 
 
 As a further proof, beginners in tragic writing are sooner able to 
 arrive at excellence in the language, and the manners, than in the 
 construction of a plot; as appears from almost all our earlier poets. 
 
 The plot, then, is the principal part, the soid, as it were, of Tragedy ; 
 and the manners are next in rank'. Just as in painting, the most 
 brilliant colours spread at random, and without design, will give far less 
 pleasure than the simplest outline of a figure. And the imitation is of 
 an action, and on account of that, principally, of the agents. 
 
 In the third place stand the sentiments. To this part it belongs to 
 say such things as are true and proper; which, in the dialogue, depends 
 on the political and 7'hetorical arts; for the ancients made their charac- 
 ters speak in the style of political and popular eloquence; but now the 
 rhetorical manner prevails. 
 
 The manners are whatever manifests the disposition of the speaker. 
 There are speeches, therefore, which are without manners, or character; 
 as not containing any thing by which the propensities or aversions of 
 the person who delivers them can be known. The sentiments compre- 
 hend whatever is said; whether proving any thing, affirmatively, or 
 negatively, or expressing some general reflectioii, &c. 
 
 Fourth, in prder, is the diction — the expression of the sentiments 
 by words; the power and effect of which is the same, whether in verse 
 or prose. 
 
 1 It may be doubted whether the rest of this chapter ought not to be considered as 
 an interpolation. — J. W. D. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 329 
 
 Of the remaining two parts, the music stands next ; of all the 
 pleasurable accompaniments and embellishments of Tragedy, the most 
 delightful. 
 
 The decoration has also a great effect, but, of all the parts, is most 
 foreign to the art. For the power of Tragedy is felt without repre- 
 sentation, and actors; and the beauty of the decorations depends more 
 on the art of the mechanic, than on that of the poet. 
 
 These things being thus adjusted, let us go on to examine in what Cap. vn. 
 manner the Plot should be constructed, since this is the first, and most 'f he act\*on of 
 
 , , . p m J Tragedy must 
 
 important part 01 Iragedy. be complete. 
 
 Now we have defined Tragedy to be an imitation of an action that dramatic 
 
 . 1111 • • 1 r whole? The 
 
 is complete, and entire; and that has also a certain magnitude; tor proper mea- 
 a thing may be entire and a whole, and yet not be oi any mag- gedy. 
 nitude. 
 
 1. By entire, I mean that which has a beginning, a middle, and an 
 end. A heginning is that which does not, necessarily, suppose any 
 thing before it, but which requires something to follow it. An end, on 
 the contrary, is that which supposes something to precede it, either 
 necessarily or probably; but which nothing is required to follow. A 
 middle is that which both supposes something to precede, and requires 
 something to follow. The poet, therefore, who would construct his 
 fable properly, is not at liberty to begin, or end, where he pleases, but 
 must conform to these definitions. 
 
 2. Again : whatever is beautiful, whether it be an animal, or any 
 other thing composed of different parts, must not only have those parts 
 arranged in a certain manner, but must also be of a certain magnitude; 
 for beauty consists in magnitude and order. Hence it is that no very- 
 minute animal can be beautiful; the eye comprehends the whole too 
 instantaneously to distinguish and compare the parts : — neither, on the 
 contrary, can one of a prodigious size be beautiful; because, as all its 
 parts cannot be seen at once, the whole, the unity of object, is lost to 
 the spectator; as it would be, for example, if he were surveying an 
 animal of very many miles in length. As, therefore, in animals and 
 other objects, a certain magnitude is requisite, but that magnitude 
 must be such as to present a whole easily comprehended hy the eye; so, 
 in the fable, a certain length is requisite, but that length must be such 
 as to pifesent a whole easily comprehended hy tJie memory. 
 
 With respect to the measure of this length — if referred to actual 
 representation in the dramatic contests, it is a matter foreign to the 
 art itself : for if a hundred Tragedies had to be exhibited in concurrence. 
 
830 aeistotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 the length of each performance must be regulated by the hour-glass'. 
 But, if we determine this measure by the nature of the thing itself, the 
 more extensive the fable, consistently with the clear and easy compre- 
 hension of the whole, the more beautiful will it be, with respect to 
 magnitude. — In general, we may say, that an action is sufficiently 
 extended, when it is long enough to admit of a change of fortune from 
 haj)py to unhappy, or the reverse, brought about by a succession, neces- 
 sary or probable, of loell-connected incidents. 
 
 Cap. viir. ^ pig^ ig j^QJ3 Q^^Q^ g^g some conceive, merely because the hero of it is 
 
 " one. Tor numberless events happen to one man, many of which are 
 such as cannot be connected into one event; and so likeMdse, there are 
 many actions of one man which cannot be connected into any one 
 action. Hence aj)pears the mistake of all those poets who have com- 
 posed Herculeids, Theseids, and other poems of that kind. They con- 
 clude, that because Hercides was one, so also must be the fable of which 
 he is the subject. But Homer, among his many other excellencies, 
 seems also to have been perfectly aware of this mistake, either from art 
 or genius ; for wlien he composed his Odyssey, he did not introduce all 
 the events of his hero's life, such, for instance, as the wound he received 
 upon Parnassus; his feigned madness when the Grecian army was 
 assembling, &c. ; events not connected, either by necessary or probable 
 consequence, with each other; but he comprehended those only which 
 have relation to 07ie action, for such we call that of the Odyssey. And 
 in the same manner he composed his Iliad. 
 
 As, therefore, in other mimetic arts, one imitation is an imitation of 
 one thing, so here the fable, being an imitation of an action, should be 
 an imitation of an action that is one and entire; the parts of it being 
 so connected, that if any one of tliem be either transposed or taken 
 away, the wJtole will be destroyed or changed; for whatever may be 
 either retained or omitted, without making any sensible difference, is not 
 j^roperly a 2^<^Tt. 
 
 Cap. IX. It appears further, from what has been said, that it is not the poet's 
 
 Trawdy to province to relate such things as have actually happened, but such as 
 relight have happened; such as are possible according either to probable 
 or necessary consequence. For it is not by writing in verse or prose 
 that the historian and the poet are distinguished : the work of Herodotus 
 might be versified, but it would still be a species of history, no less 
 
 ^ We have here in the original the unmeaning addition, Cicnrep Trork Kai &XKoTe 
 <paalp.—J. W. D. 
 
Aristotle's treatise ox poetry. 331 
 
 vrith. metre, than w-ithout They are distinguished by thLs, that the one 
 relates what has been, the other what might he. On this account, poetry 
 is a more philosophical and a more excellent thing than history; for 
 ])oetry is chiefly conversant about general truth, history about particular. 
 In what manner, for example, any person of a certain character would 
 speak or act, probably or necessarily — this is general: and this is the 
 object of poetry, even while it makes use of particular names. But, 
 what Alcibiades did, or what happened to him — this is particular 
 truth. 
 
 With respect to Comedy, this is now become obvious ; for here, the 
 poet, when he has formed his plot of prohahle incidents, gives to his 
 characters whatever names he pleases; and is not, like the iambic poets, 
 particular and personal. 
 
 Tragedy, indeed, retains the use of real names ; and the reason is, 
 that, what we are disposed to believe, we must think possihh: now, 
 what has never actually happened, we are not apt to reg;ird as possible; 
 but what has been is unquestionably so, or it could not have been at 
 all. There, are, however, some Tragedies, in which one or two of the 
 names are historical, and the rest feigned : there are even some in which 
 none of the names are historical; such is Agatho's Tragedy called Tlte 
 Flower, for in that all is invention, both incidents and names ; and yet 
 it pleases. It is by no means, therefore, essential that a poet shotild con- 
 fine himself to the known and established subjects of Tragedy. Such a 
 restraint would, indeed, be ridicidous; since even those subjects that are 
 known, are known, comparatively, but to few, and yet are interesting to all. 
 From all this it is manifest, that a poet should be a j^oet, or " maker," 
 of 2^^ots, rather than of verses; since ^ it is imitation that constitutes the 
 poet, and of this imitation actions are the object : nor is he the less 
 a poet, though the incidents of his fable should chance to be such as 
 have actually happened; for nothing hinders but that some true events 
 may possess the probability/, the invention of which entitles him to the 
 name of poet 
 
 Of simjyle plots or actions, the episodic are the worst. I call that an 
 episodic plot (eTretcroStoj^Ty p.x6ov), the episodes of which follow each other 
 without any j^J'obable or necessary connexion; a faidt into which bad 
 poets are betrayed by their want of skill, and good poets by the players ; 
 for, in order to accommodate their pieces to the purposes of rival per- 
 formers in the dramatic contests, they spin out the action beyond their 
 powers, and are thus frequently forced to break the connexion and con- 
 tinuity of its parts. 
 
 1 6<j'-i) ''just in proportion as.'" — J. Vr. D. 
 
332 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 But since Tragedy is an imitation, not only of a complete action, hut 
 also of an action exciting pity and terror, and since these effects are 
 reciprocal, that which excites our surprise ought to be connected with 
 some appearance of causation^ ; for by this means it will have more of 
 the wonderful than if it appeared to be the effect of chance; since we 
 find that, among events merely casual, those are the most wonderful and 
 striking which seem to imply design ; as when, for instance, the statue 
 of Mitys at Argos killed the very man who had murdered Mitys, by 
 falling down upon him as he was surveying it ; events of this kind not 
 having the appearance of accident. It follows, then, that such plots as 
 are formed on these principles must be the best. 
 
 Cap. X. Plots are of two sorts, simple and coraplicated (Eto-t 8e twv /at^^wv oi 
 
 or conipUcat- i"'^^' aTrXot, ot 8€ TTCTrXey/Aevot) : for so also are the actions themselves of 
 which they are imitations. An action (having the continuity and unity 
 prescribed) I call simple, when its catastrojDhe is produced without either 
 revolution or discovery; complicated, when with one or both. And these 
 should arise from the structure of the plot itself, so as to be the natural 
 consequences, necessary or probable, of what has preceded in the action ; 
 for there is a wide difference between incidents that follow from (8ta 
 i. e. hy means of), and incidents that follow only after {fj^^Ta), each other. 
 
 Cap. xr. ^ revolution (-TreptTrercta) is a change into the reverse of what is 
 
 expected from the circumstances of the action ; and that produced, as we 
 have said, by probable or necessary consequence. 
 
 Thus in the Oedipus Tyrannus, the messenger, meaning to make 
 (Edipus happy, and to relieve him from the dread he was under with 
 respect to his mother, by making known to him his real birth, produces 
 an effect directly contrary to his intention. Thus also, in the Tragedy 
 of Lynceus, the hero is led to suffer death, Danaus follows to inflict it; 
 but the event resulting from the coui'se of the incidents is, that Danaus 
 is killed, and Lynceus saved. 
 
 A discovery (avayvwpio-is), as indeed the word implies, is a change 
 from unknown to known, happening between those charactei's whose 
 happiness or unhappiness forms the catastrophe of the drama, and termi- 
 nating in friendship or enmity. 
 
 The best sort of discovery is that which is accompanied by a revolu- 
 tion, as in the (Edipus. 
 
 There are also other discoveries; for inanimate things of any kind 
 
 ^ The apodosis is here lost, but it must have been to the effect given above. The 
 words, KoL fMaXiffra Kal /xdWoy orav yiurjrai irapa t7]v do^ay, are an interpolation. See 
 Eitter.— J. W. D. 
 
 On the 
 TreptTreVeia 
 and aVayvw- 
 pia-15. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 333 
 
 may be recognized in the same manner ; and we may discover whether 
 such a particular thing was, or was not, done by such a person : but the 
 discovery most appropriate to the plot and the action is that above de- 
 fined, because such discoveries and revolutions must excite either pity or 
 terror; and Tragedy we have defined to be an imitation oi pitiable and 
 terrible actions; and because, also, by them the event, happy or un- 
 happy, is produced. 
 
 Now discoveries being relative tilings, are sometimes of one of the 
 persons only, the other being already known; and sometimes they are 
 reciprocal: thus, Iphigenia is discovered to Orestes by the letter which 
 she charges him to deliver, and Orestes is obliged, by other means, to 
 make himself known to her. [These then are two parts of the plot, 
 revolution and discovery. There is yet a third, which we denominate 
 disasters (ttci^os). The two former have been explained. Disasters com- 
 prehend all painful or destructive actions; the exhibition of death, bodily 
 anguish, wounds, and every thing of that kind.] 
 
 [The parts of Tragedy which are necessary to constitute its quality Cap. xir. 
 have been already enumerated. Its parts of quantity — the distinct parts Sj^pirts of 
 into which it is divided — are these: prologue, episode, exode, and chorus; pivMonof 
 which last is also divided into the parode and the stasimon. These are songs. °^* 
 common to all Tragedies. The songs from the stage, and the commoi, or 
 dirges, are found in some only (to. d-n-o a-K-qvrj'i koI Kofiixoi). 
 
 The prologue is all that part of a Tragedy which precedes the parode 
 of the chorus. 
 
 The episode, all that part which is included between entire choral 
 odes. The exode, that part which has no choral ode after it. 
 
 Of the choral part, the parojie is the first speech of the whole chorus : 
 the stasimon includes all those clwral odes that are without anapcests 
 and trochees (avev avaTraicrrov koX Tpo)(aiov). 
 
 The commos is a general lamentation of the chorus and the actors 
 together (Ko/x/tos Se, Oprjvo^ kolvos x^P^^ '^"■^ '^'"'^ cTKrjvrj';). Such are the 
 separate parts into which Tragedy is divided. Its parts of quality were 
 before explained.] 
 
 The order of the subject leads us to consider, in the next place, what Cap. xm. 
 the poet should aim at, and what avoid, in the construction of his plot; JJct^to^be 
 and by what means the purpose of Tragedy may be best efiected. Svofded'fn 
 
 Now, since it is requisite to the perfection of Ti-agedy that its plot tiSa^SfaTra' 
 should be of the complicated, not of the simple kind, and that it should ^^ ^' 
 imitate such actions as excite terror and pity, (this being the peculiar 
 property of the tragic imitation,) it follows evidently, in the first place, 
 
334 Aristotle's treatise on poetry-. 
 
 that the change from j^rosperity to adversity should not be represented 
 as happening to a virtuous character; for this raises disgust, rather than 
 terror or compassion. Neither should the contrary change from adver- 
 sity to prosperity be exhibited in a vicious character : this, of all plans, 
 is the most opposite to the genius of Tragedy, having no one property 
 that it ought to have; for it is neither gratifying, in a moral view, nor 
 affecting nor terrible. Nor, again, should the fall of a very had man from 
 prosperous to adverse fortune be represented; because, though such a sub- 
 ject may be pleasing from its moral tendency, it will produce neither pity 
 nor terror [for our jy^iy is excited by misfortunes undeservedly suffered, 
 and our terror by some resemblance between the sufferer and ourselves]. 
 Neither of these effects will, therefore, be produced by such an event. 
 
 There remains, then, for our choice, the character hetioeen these 
 extremes ; that of a person neither eminently virtuous or just, nor yet 
 involved in misfortune by reason of deliberate vice or villany, but from 
 some error of human frailty; and this person should also be some one of 
 high fame and flourishing prosperity; for example, GlJdipus, Thyestes, or 
 other illustrious men of such families. 
 
 Hence it appears, that, to be well constructed, a plot, contrary to the 
 opinion of some, should be single, rather than double; that the change of 
 fortune should not be from adverse to prosperous, but the reverse; and 
 that it should be the consequence not of vice, but of some great frailty, 
 in a character such as has been described, or better rather than ivorse. 
 
 These principles are confirmed by experience ; for poets formerly 
 admitted almost any story into the number of tragic subjects; but now, 
 the subjects of the best Tragedies are confined to a few families — to 
 Alcmceon, (Edijnis, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, Telephus, and others, the 
 sufferers, or the authors, of some terrible, calamity. 
 
 The most perfect Tragedy, then, according to the principles of the 
 art, is of this construction. Whence appears the mistake of those critics 
 who censure Euripides for this practice in his Tragedies, many of which 
 terminate unhappily; for this, as we have shown, is right; and, as the 
 strongest proof of it, we find that, upon the stage, and in the dramatic 
 contests, such Tragedies, if they succeed, have always the most tragic 
 effect : and Euripides, though in other respects faulty in the conduct of 
 his subjects, seems clearly to be the most tragic of all poets. 
 
 I place in the second rank that kind of fable to which some assign 
 the ffrst ; that which is of a double construction, like the Odyssey, and 
 also ends in two opposite events, to the good, and to the bad characters. 
 That this passes for the best, is owing to the weakness of the spectators, 
 to whose wishes the poets accommodate their productions. This kind of 
 pleasure, however, is not the proper pleasure of Tragedy, but belongs 
 
Aristotle's treatise ox poetry. 335 
 
 mther to Comedy; for there, even if the bitterest enemies, like Orestes 
 and jEgisthus, are introduced, they quit the scene at h\st in perfect 
 friendship, and no blood is shed on either side. 
 
 Terror and pity may be raised by the decoration^ the mere spectacle ; Cap. xiv. 
 but they may also arise from the circumstances of the action itself; n/odS^TU-'^ 
 which is far preferable, and shows a superior poet. For the fable should andpity?^ 
 be so constructed, that, without the assistance of the sight, its incidents 
 may excite horror and commiseration in those who hear them only; an 
 effect which every one, who hears the story of the CEdipus, must expe- 
 rience. But, to produce this effect by means of the decoration, discovers 
 want of art in the poet, who must also be supplied by the public with an 
 expensive appai;atus (vopryyta). 
 
 As to those poets who make use of the decoration in order to produce, 
 not the terrible, but the marvellous only, their purpose has nothing in com- 
 mon with that of Tragedy ; for we are not to seek for every sort of plea- 
 sure from Tragedy, but for that only which is proper to the species. 
 
 Since, therefore, it is the business of the tragic poet to give that 
 pleasure which arises from pity and terror, through imitation, it is 
 evident that he ought to produce that effect by the circumstances of the 
 action itself. 
 
 Let us, then, see of what hind those incidents are which apjoear most 
 terrible or piteous. 
 
 Now such actions must, of necessity, hajjpen between persons who 
 are either friends or enemies, or indifferent to each other. If an 
 enemy kills, or purposes to kill, an enemy, in neither case is any com- 
 miseration raised in us, beyond what necessarily arises from the nature 
 of the action itself 
 
 The case is the same, when the persons are neither friends nor 
 enemies. But when such disasters haj^pen between friends — when, for 
 instance, the brother kills, or is going to kill, his brother, the son his 
 father, the mother her son, or the reverse — these, and othei-s of a similar 
 kind, are the proper incidents for the poet's choice. The received tragic 
 subjects, therefore, he is not at liberty essentially to alter; Clytoemnestra 
 must die by the hand oi Orestes, and Eriphyle by that of Alcrneeon: but 
 it is his province to invent other subjects, and to make a skilful use of 
 those which he finds already established. What I mean by a skilful use, 
 I proceed to explain. 
 
 The atrocious action may be perpetrated knowingly and inten- 
 tionally, as was usual with the earlier poets ; and as Euripides, also, has 
 represented Medea destroying her children. 
 
 It may, likewise, be perpetrated by those who are ignorant, at the 
 time, of the connexion between them and the injured pei-son, which 
 
336 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 they afterwards discover; like (Edipus, in Sophocles. There, indeed, 
 the action itself does not make a part of the drama : the Alcmceon of 
 Astydamas^ and Telegonus in the Ulysses Wounded, furnish instances 
 within the Tragedy. There is yet a third way, where a person upon the 
 point of perpetrating, through ignorance, some dreadful deed, is pre- 
 vented by a sudden discovery. 
 
 Besides these, there is no other proper way. For the action must 
 of necessity be either done or not done, and that either with knowledge, 
 or without: but of all these ways, that of being ready to execute, know- 
 ingly, and yet not executing, is the worst; for this is, at the same time, 
 shocking, and yet not tragic, because it exhibits no disastrous event. 
 [It is, therefore, never, or very rarely, made use of The attempt of 
 Hcemon to kill Creon, in the Antigone, is an example \] 
 
 Next to this, is the actual execution of the purpose. 
 
 To execute, through ignorance, and afterwards to discover, is 
 better : for thus the shocking atrociousness is avoided, and, at the same 
 time, the discovery is striking. 
 
 But the best of all these ways is the last. Thus, in the Tragedy of 
 CrespJiontes, Merope, in the very act of putting her son to death, dis- 
 covers him, and is prevented. In the Iphigenia, the sister, in the same 
 manner, discovers her brother; and in the Helle, the son discovers his 
 mother, at the instant when he was going to betray her. 
 
 On this account it is, that the subjects of Tragedy, as before re- 
 marked, are confined to a small number of families. For it was not to 
 art, but to fortune, that poets applied themselves to find incidents of 
 this nature. Hence the necessity of having recourse to those families 
 in which such calamities have happened. Of the plot, or story, and its 
 requisites, enough has now been said. 
 
 2 
 ********* 
 
 Cap. XVI. What is meant by a Discovery has already been explained. Its 
 
 OntheaVa- Jdnds are the followine^. 
 
 ypjopia-i? in ^ 
 
 particular. First, the most inarti6cial of all, and to which, from poverty of 
 
 invention, the generality of poets have recourse — The discovery by visi- 
 ble signs [-q 8ta crqix€t(x)v). Of these signs, some are natural; as the lance 
 with which the family of the earth-born Thebans were marked : others 
 are adventitious {iTTLKTr^To) : and of these, some are corporal, as scars ; 
 some external, as necklaces, bracelets, &c., or the little boat by which 
 
 1 As this view of the passage in the Antigone, iioo, is clearly erroneous (Introduc- 
 tion to the Antigone, p. xl.) it is well to have the reasons adduced by Ritter for 
 believing that Aristotle is interpolated here. — J. W. D. 
 
 3 ^QQ p. 2^0, below. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 337 
 
 the discovery is made in the Ti-agedy of Tyro. Even these, however, 
 may be employed with more or less skill. The discovery of Ulysses, for 
 example, to his nurse, by means of his scar, is veiy different from his 
 discover)'-, by the same means, to the herdsmen. For all those discove- 
 ries, in which the sign is produced by way of proof, are inartificial. 
 Those wliich, like that in the Washing of Ulysses, happen by a revolu- 
 tion {Ik TreptTreretas), are better. 
 
 Secondly, — Discoveries invented, at pleasure, by the poet, and on 
 that account, still inartificial. For example; in the Iphigenia, Orestes, 
 after having discovered his sister, discovers himself to her. She, indeed, 
 is discovered by means of the letter; but Orestes himself speaks such 
 things as the poet chooses, not such as arise from the fictitious circum- 
 stances. This kind of discovery, therefore, bordei-s upon the fault of 
 that fii'st mentioned : for some of the things from which those proofs 
 are dra^NTi are even such as might have been actually produced as 
 visible signs. 
 
 Another instance, is the discovery by the sound of the shuttle in the 
 Tereus of Sophocles. 
 
 Thirdly, — The discoveiy occasioned by memory {-q Sia fxinjixr]';) : as, 
 when some recollection is excited by the view of a particular object. 
 Thus, in the Cyprians of Dicceogenes, a discovery is produced by tears 
 shed at the sight of a pictiu'e : and thus, in the Tale of Alcinoics, 
 Ulysses, listening to the bard, recollects, weeps, and is discovered. 
 
 Fourthly, — The discovery occasioned by reasoning or inference {rj U 
 a-vXXoytcTfxov) : such as that in the Choephoroe : " The person, who is 
 arrived, resembles me — no one resembles me but Orestes — it must be 
 he 1" And that of Polyeidu^ the sophist, in his Iphigenia; for the con- 
 clusion of Orestes was natural — " It had been his sister* s lot to be sacri- 
 ficed, and it was now his oxonT That, also, in the Tydeus of Theodectes 
 — " He came to find his son, and he himself must perish ! " And thus 
 the daughters of Fhineus, in the Tragedy denominated ft'om them, view- 
 ing the place to which they were led, infer their fate — " there they were 
 to die, for there they were exposed ! " There is also a compoimd sort of 
 discovery, arising from false inference in the audience, as in Ulysses the 
 False Messenger : he asserts that he shall know the bow, which he had 
 not seen; the audience falsely infer, that a discovery by that means will 
 follow. 
 
 But, of all discoveries, the best is that which arises from the action 
 itself and in which a striking efiect is produced by 2^^'obahle incidents. 
 Such is that in the (Edipy^ of Sophocles, and that in the Iphigenia; for 
 nothing is more natural than her desire of conveying the letter. Such 
 discoveries are the best, because they alone are effected without the help 
 
 D. T. G. 22 
 
338 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 of invented proofs, or necklaces, &c. Next to these are the discove- 
 ries by inference. 
 
 Cap. XVII. The poet, both when he plans, and when he writes, his Tragedy, 
 
 Si-^the tragic should put himself, as much as possible, in the place of a spectator; for, 
 ^^^^' by this means seeing everything distinctly, as if present at the action, 
 
 he will discern what is proper, and no inconsistencies will escape him. 
 The fault objected to Carcinus is a proof of this. Amphiaraus had left 
 the temple : this the spectator, from not seeing the action pass before 
 his eyes, overlooked ; but in the representation the audience were dis- 
 gusted, and the piece condemned. 
 
 In composing, the poet should even, as much as possible, be an actor: 
 for, by natural sympathy, the^ are most persuasive and affecting who are 
 under the influence of actual passion. We share the agitation of those 
 who appear to be truly agitated — the anger of those who appear to be 
 truly angry. 
 
 Hence it is that poetry demands either great natural quickness 
 of parts, or an enthusiasm allied to madness. By the first of these, 
 we mould ourselves with facility to the imitation of every form ; by the 
 other, transported out of ourselves, we become what we imagine. 
 
 When the poet invents a subject, he should first draw a general 
 sketch of it, and afterwards give it the detail of its episodes, and 
 extend it. The general argument, for instance, of the Iphigenia should 
 be considered in this way : — " A virgin, on the point of being sacrificed, 
 is imperceptibly conveyed away from the altar, and transported to 
 another country, where it was the custom to sacrifice all strangers to 
 Diana. Of these rites she is appointed priestess. It happens, some 
 time after, that her brother arrives there." [But wh^ ? — because an 
 oracle had commanded him, for some reason exterior to the general 
 plan. For what purpose? This also is exterior to the plan.] "He 
 arrives, is seized, and, at the instant that he is going to be sacrificed, the 
 discovery is made." And this may be either in the way of Euripides or 
 like that of Polyeidus, by the natural reflection of Orestes, that " it 
 was his fate also, as it had been his sister's, to be sacrificed :" by which 
 exclamation he is saved. 
 
 After this, the poet, when he has given names to his characters, 
 should proceed to the episodes of his action; and he must take care 
 that these belong properly to the subject ; like that of the madness of 
 Orestes, which occasions his being taken, and his escape by means of the 
 ablution {Iph. T. 260 — 339, 1158 sqq.). In dramatic poetry the 
 episodes are short, but in the epic they are the means of drawing 
 out the poem to its proper length. The general story of the Odyssey, 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 339 
 
 for example, lies in a small compass : " A certain man is supposed 
 to be absent from his own country for many years — he is persecuted by 
 Neptune, deprived of all his companions, and left alone. At home his 
 affairs are in disorder — the suitors of his wife dissipating his wealth, 
 and plotting the destruction of his son. Tossed by many tempests, he 
 at length arrives, and, making himself known to some of his family, 
 attacks his enemies, destroys them, and remains himself in safety." 
 This is the essential; the rest is episode. 
 
 [Every Tragedy consists of two parts — the complication (Sccrts), and Cap. xvin. 
 the development (Xucrts). The complication is often formed by incidents catfoifand ' 
 supposed prior to the action, and by a part, also, of those that are ment (SeVi? 
 within the action ; the rest form the development. I call complication, ^^'^ * 
 all that is between the beginning of the piece and the last part, where 
 the change of fortune commences : development, all between the begin- 
 ning of that change and the conclusion. Thus, in the Lynceus of Theo- 
 dectes, the events antecedent to the action, and the seizure of the child, 
 constitute the complication: the development is from the accusation of 
 murder to the end.] 
 
 [There are four kinds of Tragedy, deducible from so many parts, 
 which have been mentioned. One kind is the complicated (TreTrX^y/xei/ry), 
 where all depends on revolution and discovery ; another is the disastrous 
 (TraOrjTLKT]), such as those on the subject of Ajax or Ixion: another, the 
 moral (t^Olki]), as. the Phthiotides and the Peleus: and, fourthly, the 
 simple {airXij), such as the Phorcides, the Prometheus, and all those Tra- 
 gedies, the scene of which is laid in the infernal regions.] 
 
 [It should be the poet's aim to make himself master of all these 
 manners ; of as many of them, at least, as possible, and those the 
 bestj especially, considering the captious criticism to which, in these 
 days, he is exposed. For the public, having now seen different poets 
 excel in each of these different kinds, expect every single poet to unite 
 in himself, and to surpass, the peculiar excellences of them all.'] 
 
 [One Tragedy may justly be considered as the same with another or 
 different, not according as the subjects, but rather according as the com- 
 plication and development are the same or different. Many poets, when 
 they have complicated well, develope badly. They should endeavour to 
 deserve equal applause in both.] 
 
 We must also be attentive to what has been often mentioned, and 
 not construct a Tragedy upon an epic plan. By an epic plan, I mean a 
 story composed of many stories; as if any one, for instance, should 
 take the entire fable of the Iliad for the subject of a Tragedy. In the 
 epic poem the length of the whole admits of a proper magnitude in the 
 
 22—2 
 
340 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 parts, but in the drama the effect of sucli a plan is far different from 
 what is expected. As a proof of this, those poets who have formed the 
 wliole of the destruction of Troy into a Tragedy, instead of confining 
 themselves [as Euripides, but not jEschylus, has done, in the story of 
 Niohe\ to a part, have either been condemDed in the representation, or 
 have contended without success. Even Agathon has failed on this 
 account, and on this only ; for in revolutions, and in actions, also, of 
 the simple kind, these poets succeed wonderfully in what they aim at ; 
 and that is, the union of tragic effect with rtioral tendency: as when, 
 for example, a character of great wisdom, but without integrity, is 
 deceived, like Sisyphus; or a brave, but unjust man, conquered. Such 
 events, as Agathon says, are probable, " as it is probable, in general, that 
 many things should happen contrary to probability." 
 
 The chorus should be considered as one of the persons in the drama ; 
 should be a part of the whole, and a sharer in the action ; not as in 
 Euripides, but as in Sophocles. As for other poets, their choral songs have 
 no more connexion with their subject than with that of any other 
 Tragedy; and hence they are now become detached pieces, inserted at 
 pleasure ; a practice introduced by Agathon}. Yet where is the difference 
 between this arbitraiy insertion of an ode, and the transposition of a 
 speech, or even of a whole episode, from one Tragedy to another % 
 
 Cap, XV.2 With respect to the Manners, four things are to be attended to by 
 
 -Of the best the poet. 
 modes of ex- ^ 
 
 pressing the 
 
 to.e'actors'^ ^ ^^^ Greek is 5t6 efx^oXi^ia ^dovaiv, irpdoTOV dp^avros 'AydOojvos too toiovtov, and 
 
 Ritter, like most of the commentators, understands ep.(36\ifji.a as cantica ah argumento 
 tragcedicB aliena et 'pro arbitrio poetce inserta. So that Agathon committed the fault 
 deprecated by Horace {A. P. 193): 
 
 Actoris partes chorus officiumque virile 
 Defendat, neu quid medios intercinat actus 
 Quod non proposito conducat et hcereat apte. 
 Cicero uses i/x^6\iov in the sense of a mere episode. 
 
 2 I have transposed this chapter to its proper place after the eighteenth chapter, in 
 compliance with the suggestion of Spengel, who writes as follows (Munich Transactions, 
 u. s. p. 246) : "The chapter about the rfdr) is erroneously inserted here, and is the cause 
 of all the confusion. If it is removed from its present place, the duaypibpiais imme- 
 diately follows ; and it is clear that it is here mentioned and that the remark is made : 
 eipTjTac irpbrepov, — for between the first mention (cc. X. XI,) and the present full dis- 
 cussion many other subjects have been introduced. Now it must be remembered that 
 we do not find in the MSS. such divisions and separations of the clauses as we give 
 in our editions : 
 
 Hepl jxkv ovv TTJs tCjv TrpayfxaTOJV cvardaews kuI 
 TTolovs Tivds etvai Set rot>s /x69ov5 eiprjrai i/cai'tDs, 
 
 Tlepl 5^ rd yjdr} riTTapd ecrriv Cov del 
 (TTOxd^eadat. 
 
 So that the former terminates the chapter, and the latter commences a new one. But 
 such clauses are regarded by the old writers, and in a grammatical sense rightly, as an 
 indivisible whole. I am then convinced that the leaf consisting of forty lines, which con- 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 341 
 
 First, and principally, they should be good (xpYja-Ta). Now manners, 
 or character, belong, as we have said before, to any speech or action 
 that manifests a certain disposition; and they are bad, or good, as the 
 disposition manifested is bad {(f>avXr]), or good (xpw^l)- This goodness 
 of manners may be found in persons of every description : the manners 
 of a woman, or of a slave, may be good ; though, in general, women are, 
 perhaps, rather bad than good, and slaves altogether bad. 
 
 The second requisite is propriety (ra dpixoTTovra). There is a manly 
 character of bravery and fierceness, which cannot, with propriety, be 
 given to a woman. 
 
 The third requisite is resemblance {ro 6}xoiov) : for this is a different 
 thing from their being good and proper, as above described. 
 
 The fourth is uniformity (ro d/xaXov) : for even though the model of 
 the poet's imitation be some person of un-uniform manners, still that 
 person must be represented as uniformly un-uniform (o/xaXws avoj/xaXov 
 oet eti/ai). 
 
 We have an example of manners unnecessarily had in the character 
 of Menelaus in the Tragedy of Orestes; of improper and unbecoming 
 manners, in the lamentation of Ulysses in Scylla, and in the speech of 
 Melanippe : of un-uniform manners, in the Iphigenia at Aulis ; for there 
 the Iphigenia, who supplicates for life, has no resemblance to the Iphi- 
 genia of the conclusion. 
 
 In the manners, as in the fable, the poet should always aim either 
 at what is necessary or what is probable; so that such a character shall 
 appear to speak or act necessarily, or probably, in such a manner, and 
 this event to be the necessary or probable consequence of that. — Hence 
 it is evident that the development also of a plot should arise out of the 
 plot itself, and not depend upon machinery, as in the Medea, or in the 
 incidents relative to the sailing away from Troy, in the Iliad. The 
 proper application of machinery is to such circumstances as are extra- 
 neous to the drama; such as either happened before the time of the 
 action, and could not, by human means, be known; or are to hapj^eu 
 after, and require to be foretold : for to the gods we attribute the 
 knowledge of all things. But nothing improbable should be admitted 
 in the incidents of the fable ; or, if it cannot be avoided, it should, at 
 
 tains the -qdri, has by some accident, not purposely, been removed from its proper 
 place before c. xix., and has been placed in the middle of the doctrine of the ixvOos, to 
 the great confusion of the reader. This is not the only phenomenon of this kind. 
 The most recent editor of Theon has rightly indicated a similar transposition. The 
 same has long been recognized in Varro's books de lingua Latlna; many MSS. of 
 Cicero de Oratore are in still worse plight ; and, although we do not find this in 
 Aristotle's Rhetoric, we have there an example of a particular kind : in iii. ] 6, there 
 was manifestly a gap, and all the MSS. have repeated there a passage of twenty lines 
 from I. 9."— J. W. D. 
 
342 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 least, be confined to sucli as are without the Tragedy itself; as in the 
 (Edipus of Sophocles. 
 
 Since Tragedy is an imitation of what is best, we should follow the 
 example of skilful portrait-painters ; who, while they express the pecu- 
 liar lineaments, and produce a likeness, at the same time improve upon 
 the original. And thus, too, the poet, when he imitates the manners of 
 passionate or indolent men, or any others of a similar kind, should repre- 
 sent them under a favourable aspect; as Achilles is drawn by Agathon, 
 and by Homer. These things the poet should keep in view : and, be- 
 sides these, whatever relates to those senses which have a necessary 
 connexion with poetry : for here, also, he may often err. But of this 
 enough has been said in the treatises ah'eady published. 
 
 Cap. XIX. Of the other subjects enough has now been said. We are next to 
 
 and 3.^i"- ^ Consider the diction and the sentiments (Scavotas). 
 
 For what concerns the sentiments, we refer to the principles laid 
 down in the books on Rhetoric; for to that subject they more properly 
 belong. The sentiments include whatever is the object of speech; as, for 
 instance, to prove, to refute, to move the passions — pity, terror, anger, 
 and the like; to amplify, or to diminish. But it is evident, that, with 
 respect to the things themselves also, when the poet would make them 
 appear pitiable, or terrible, or great, or probable, he must draw from the 
 same sources; with this difference only, that in the drama these things 
 must appear to be such, without being shown to be such; whereas in 
 oratory, they must be made to appear so by the speaker, and in con- 
 sequence of what he says; otherwise, what need of an orator, if they 
 already appear so, in themselves, and not by reason of his eloquence ? 
 
 With respect to diction, one mode of considering the subject is 
 that which treats of the figures of speech; such as commanding, en- 
 treating, relating, menacing, interrogating, answering, and the like. 
 But this belongs properly to the art of acting, and to the professed 
 masters of that kind. The poet^s knowledge or ignorance of these 
 things cannot any way materially affect the credit of his art. For who 
 will suppose there is any justice in the cavil of Protagoras, that in the 
 words, "The wrath, O goddess, sing," the poet, where he intended a 
 prayer, had expressed a command ? for he insists, that to say, do this, or 
 do it not, is to command. This subject, therefore, we pass over as be- 
 longing to an art distinct from that of poetry. 
 
 r* * -;:- -js- * n 
 
 Cap. XX. L J 
 
 1 The whole of this chapter, which consists of clumsy, grammatical definitions, is 
 a scholium which has got into the text. As it is by no means a good specimen of the 
 kind, it may safely be neglected by any student of Aristotle, and is therefore omitted 
 here.— J. W. D. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 343 
 
 Of words some are single, by which I mean composed of parts not Cap. xxi. 
 significant, and some double : of which last some have one part signifi- Jt^^iJo"* 
 cant, and the other not significant j and some, both parts significant. A ^^■'^^*^- 
 word may also be triple, quadruple, &c. ; such are most of the bombastic 
 expressions, like Hermocaico-xanthus \ Every word is either strictly 
 appropriate (/cvptov), or foreign (yXwrra), or metaphorical, or ornamental, 
 or invented, or extended, or contracted, or altered. 
 
 By appropriate words I mean such as are in general and established 
 use. By foreign, such as belong to a different language : so that the 
 same word may evidently be both appropriate and foreign, though not 
 to the same people. The word aiyvvov, "a spear," to the Cyprians is 
 appi'opriate, to ns foreign. 
 
 A metaphorical word is a word transferred from its proper sense; 
 either from genus to species, or from species to genus, or from one species 
 to another, or in the way of analogy. 
 
 1. From genus to species: as 
 
 vqv^ U fiOL ^d' earrjKe (Od. I. 185). 
 Secure in yonder port my vessel stands. 
 
 For to he at anclwr is one sp)ecies of standing or hemg fixed. 
 
 2. From species to genus : as 
 
 97 St; fivp'C 'Odv<r<T€vs ia-6\k iopyev (TI. II. 272). 
 
 To Ulysses 
 
 A thousand generous deeds we owe 
 
 For a thousand is a certain definite many, which is here used for many 
 in general. 
 
 3. From one species to anotJier : as 
 
 XaX>c(p airb i/'i'xV a picas. 
 And 
 
 ^ejxCjv dreip^'i x^^i^V- 
 
 For here the poet uses ra/xetv, to cut off, instead of dpva-ai, to draw 
 forth; and oipva-aL, instead of ra/aeiv; each being a species of taking away. 
 
 4. In the way of analogy — when, of four terms, the second beai-s 
 the same relation to the first, as the fourth to the third; in which case 
 the fourth may be substituted for the second, and the second for the 
 fourth. [And sometimes the proper term is also introduced, besides its 
 relative term.] 
 
 ^ I have not hesitated to adopt Tjrwhitt's emendation, fieyoKeiuv ws for Me7a- 
 \lcotuv. It is sufficiently confirmed by Xen. Mem. ii. i, § 34, which he quotes, and 
 the instance given of a compound containing the names of three rivers deserved some 
 such description. Aristophanes abounds in similar compounds. Ritter proposes 
 TroWa7r\ofji.€yd\(»}Tros. — J. W. D. 
 
344 
 
 Thus a cup bears the same relation to Bacchus as a shield to Mars. 
 A shield, therefore, may be called the cup of Mars (Athen. x. p. 433 c), 
 and a cup the shield of Bacchus. Again — evening being to day what 
 old age is to life, the evening may be called the old age of the day, and 
 old age, the evening of life; or, as Empedocles has expressed it, " Life's 
 setting sun." It sometimes happens that there is no proper analogous 
 term answering to the term horrowed, which yet may be used in the 
 same manner as if there were. For instance — to sow is the term appro- 
 priated to the action of dispersing seed upon the earth ; but the disper- 
 sion of rays fi'om the sun is expressed by no appropriated term ; it is, 
 however, with respect to the surCs light what sowing is with respect to 
 seed. Hence the poet's expression of the sun — 
 (nreipuv deoKTiarav (p\6ya. 
 
 Sowing abroad 
 
 His heaven-created flame. 
 
 There is, also, another way of using this kind of meta23hor, by adding to 
 the borrowed word a negation of some of those qualities which belong to 
 it in its proper sense : as if, instead of calling a shield the cup of Mars, 
 we should call it the wineless cup. 
 
 An invented word is a word never before used by any one, but coined 
 by the poet himself, for such it appears there are; as cpvir)/es, hougJis, for 
 KepaTCL, horns; or dprjryp, an utter er of prayer, for ccpeus, a p>riest. 
 
 A word is extended when for the proper vowel a longer is substi- 
 tuted, or a syllable is inserted. A word is contracted when some part of 
 it is retrenched. Thus ttoXt^os for TroXew?, and Jl-qXyjiah^oi for IlTyXctSov, 
 are extended words : contracted, such as KpZ, and Sw, and oi/^ : e. g. 
 
 [da yiperaL dfj.(poT^pct}v 6-^. 
 
 An altered word is a word of which part remains in its usual state, 
 and part is of the poet's making : as in 
 
 Ae^LTepbv Kara /xa^ov, 
 8e^iT€/3os is for Sextos. 
 
 r* * * * sn 
 
 Cap. XXII. Tiie excellence of diction consists in being perspicuous, without being 
 
 tion.^^ ^ mean. The most perspicuous is that which is composed of strictly ap- 
 propriate words, but at the same time it is mean. Such is the poetry of 
 Cleophon, and that of Stlienelus. That language, on the contrary, is ele- 
 vated, and remote from the vulgar idiom, which employs unusual words : 
 by unusual I mean foreign, metaphorical, extended — all, in short, that 
 
 ^ Here again follows a grammatical scholium inserted in the text, which for our 
 present purpose it is better to omit. — J. W. D. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 345 
 
 are not strictly appropriate words. Yet, if a poet composes his diction 
 entirely of such words, the result will be either an enigma, or a barba- 
 rous jargon : an enigma, if composed of metaphors; a barbarous jargon, 
 if composed of foreign words. For the essence of an enigma consists in 
 putting together things apparently inconsistent and impossible, and at tJie 
 same time saying nothing hut what is true. Now this cannot be effected 
 by the mere arrangement of the words ; by the metaphorical use of them 
 it may, as in this enigma — 
 
 A man I once beheld (and wondering view'd), 
 Who, on another, brass with fire had glevod. 
 
 With respect to barbarism, it arises from the use of foreign words. 
 A judicious intermixture is therefore requisite. 
 
 Thus the foreign word, the metaphorical, and the ornamental, and 
 the other species before mentioned, will raise the language above the 
 \T.ilgar idiom, and appropriate words will give it perspicuity. But 
 nothing contributes more considerably to produce clearness, without vul- 
 garity of diction, than extensions, contractions, and alterations of words ; 
 for here the variation from the proper form, being unusual, will give 
 elevation to the expression; and at the same time, what is retained of 
 usual speech will give it clearness. It is without reason, therefore, that 
 some critics have censured these modes of speech, and ridiculed the poet 
 for the use of them ; as old Euclid did, objecting, that " versification 
 would be an easy business, if it were permitted to lengthen words at 
 pleasure : " and he used to make lines out of mere prose, as 
 
 ^'Ei'tn\x^P'r]v I eWov \ 'Kapa\\dCovd\he ^a\U^ov\Ta\\ 
 and 
 
 OvK h> I yevoi\firjv rov\Kelvov \ e\\ej/36/)oi;lli 
 
 Undoubtedly, when these licenses appear to be thus purposely used, 
 the thing becomes ridiculous; in the employment of all the species of 
 unusual words, moderation is necessary: for metaphors, foreign words, 
 or any of the others, improperly used, and with a design to be ridiculous, 
 would produce the same effect. But how great a difference is made by a 
 proper and temperate use of such words, may be seen in heroic verse. 
 Let any one only substitute strictly appropriate words in the place of 
 the metaphorical, the foreign, and others of the same kind, and he will 
 be convinced of the truth of what I say. For example : the same iam- 
 bic verse occurs in ^schylus and in Euripides; but by means of a single 
 
 1 As it is clear that Euclid wished to give examples of lines, scanned by making 
 short syllables long, and as it is certain from Rhet. ill. 17, § 16, that laix^oiroLeu} may 
 refer to a Trochaic as well as to an Iambic line, I have merely introduced such slight 
 alterations into the false Trochaic and Iambic lines in the text, as were required to 
 make sense of them J. W. D. 
 
346 aeistotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 alteration — tlie substitution of a foreign for an appropriate and usual 
 word, one of these verses appears beautiful, the other ordinary. For 
 JEschylus^ in his PhilocteteSj says : 
 
 ^ayidaiva, rj fiov (rdpKat iadiei ttoSos^ 
 The cank'rous wound that eats my flesh. 
 
 But Euripides, instead of ia-OUi, *^eats" uses OoivaraL, '''■feasts on^^ 
 The same difference will appear, if in this verse, 
 
 ND;/ Zk [jJ iCov dXiyos re Kal oiridavbs Kal &ki,kv5, 
 we substitute common words, and say : 
 
 NOj/ di )u' ecbj' fiLKpbi re Koi da-deviKbs Kal aeiS-qs, 
 So, again, should we for the following, 
 
 Aicppov deiKeXt-ov Karadeii, oXiytjv re rpdire^av — 
 substitute this : 
 
 M(f)pov pLOxO'Tjpov KaraOels, p,LKpdv re Tpdire^av. 
 
 Or change 'HioVes jSoowo-tv — " The shores rehellowl'' — to 'HioVcs Kpa- 
 t^ovcriv — "The shores cry out^ 
 
 [Ariphrades, also, endeavoured to throw ridicule upon the tragic 
 poets, for making use of such expressions as no one would think of using 
 in common speech : as 8(o/x,aTwv oltto, instead of ctTro Sw/ActToov : and aeOev, 
 and cyw 8e vtv (Soph. (Ed. C. 986), and 'A^tA-^cws ttc/oi, instead of Trept 
 'Axt^^ew5j &c. Now it is precisely owing to their being not strictly 
 regular, that such expressions have the effect of giving elevation to the 
 diction. But this he did not know.] 
 
 To employ with propriety any of these modes of speech — ^the double 
 words, the foreign, &c. is a great excellence ; but the greatest of all is to 
 be happy in the use of metaphor; for it is this alone which cannot be 
 acquired, and which, consisting in a quick discernment of resemhlances, 
 is a certain mark of genius. 
 
 Of the different kind of words the double are best suited to dithy- 
 rambic poetry, the foreign to heroic, the metaphorical to iambic. In 
 heroic poetry, indeed, they have all their place ; but to iambic verse, 
 which is, as much as may be, an imitation of common speech, those 
 words which are used in common speech are best adapted; and such are 
 the strictly appropriate^ the metaphorical, and the ornamental. 
 
 II * * * II' 
 
 Concerning Tragedy, and the imitation by action, enough has now 
 been said. 
 
 "^ Spengel says (u. s. p. 251): "There is here an hiatus of several leaves; what is 
 said about the X^|ts cannot possibly suffice ; and where is the fxeXowoita, of which not 
 even the name is mentioned ?"— J. W. D. 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 347 
 
 C. Epic Poetry, 
 
 With respect to that species of poetry which imitates by narration, Cap. xxm. 
 and in hexameter verse, it is obvious that the story ought to be drama- „£ hav^S 
 tically constructed, like that of Tragedy: and that it should have for its ownf ^*^^'^ 
 subject one entire and perfect action, having a beginning, and middle, and 
 an end; so that, forming, like an animal, a complete whole, it may afford 
 its proper pleasure : widely differing, in its construction, from history, 
 which necessarily treats, not of one action, but of one time, and of all 
 the events that happened to one person, or to many, during that time; 
 events, the relation of which to each other is merely casual. For, as the 
 naval action at Salamis, and the battle with the Carthaginians in Sicily, 
 were events of the same time, unconnected by any relation to a common 
 end or pur-pose; so also, in successive events, we sometimes see one 
 thing follow another, without resulting in a common end. And this is 
 the practice of the generality of poets. Even in this, therefore, as we 
 have before observed. Homer, as compared with all others, would seem 
 to be a divine poet (^co-Treo-tos) ; for he did not attempt to bring the 
 whole war, though an entire action with beginning and end, into his 
 poem. It would have been too vast an object, and not easily compre- 
 hended in one view; or, had he forced it into a moderate compass, it 
 would have been perplexed by its variety. Instead of this, selecting one 
 part only of the war, he has, from the rest, introduced many episodes — 
 such as tlie catalogue of the ships, and others, with which he has inter- 
 spersed his poem. Other poets take for their subject the actions of one 
 person or of one period of time, or an action which, though one, is com- 
 posed of too many parts. Thus the author of the Gypria, and of the 
 Little Iliad. [Hence it is, that the Iliad and the Odyssey each of them 
 furnish matter for one tragedy, or two, at most; but from the Cypria 
 many may be taken, and from the Little Iliad more than eight ; as, The 
 Co7itestfor the Armour, Philoctetes, Neoptolemus, Eurypylus, The Vagrant, 
 The Spartan Women, The Fall of Troy, The Return of the Fleet, Sinon, 
 and The Trojan Women.] 
 
 Again — the epic poem must also agree with the tragic, as to its Cap. xxiv. 
 kinds : it must be simple or complicated, moral or disastrous. Its parts, tragk^poetry 
 also, setting aside music and decoration, are the same; for it requires ^*'"^p*'^® 
 revolutions, discoveries, and disasters; and it must be furnished with 
 proper sentiments and diction : of all which Homer gave both the first, 
 and the most perfect example. Thus, of his two poems, the Iliad is of 
 the simple and disastrous kind ; the Odyssey, complicated (for it abounds 
 
348 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 throiigliout in discoveries) and moral. Add to this, that in language 
 and sentiments he has surpassed all poets. 
 
 The epic poem differs from tragedy, in the length of its plan, and in 
 its metre. 
 
 With respect to length, a sufficient measure has already been as- 
 signed. It should be such as to admit of our comprehending at one view 
 the beginning and the end: and this would be the case, if the epic poem 
 were reduced from its ancient length, so as not to exceed that of such a 
 number of tragedies as are performed successively at one hearing. But 
 there is a circumstance in the nature of epic poetry which aifords it 
 peculiar latitude in the extension of its plan. It is not in the power of 
 Tragedy to imitate several different actions performed at the same time; 
 it can imitate only that one which occupies the stage, and in which the 
 actors are employed. But the epic imitation, being narrative, admits of 
 many such simultaneous incidents, properly related to the subject, which 
 swell the poem to a considerable size. And this gives it a great ad- 
 vantage, both in point of magnificence, and also as it enables the poet to 
 relieve his hearer, and diversify his work, by a variety of dissimilar 
 episodes : for it is to the satiety naturally arising from similarity that 
 tragedies frequently owe their ill success. 
 
 With respect to metre, the heroic is established by experience as the 
 most proper, so that, should any one compose a narrative poem in any 
 other, or in a variety of metres, he would be thought guilty of a great 
 impropriety. For the heroic is the gravest and most majestic of all 
 measures : [and hence it is, that it peculiarly admits the use of foreign 
 and metaphorical expressions; for in this respect also, the narrative 
 imitation is abundant and various beyond the rest :] but the Iambic and 
 Trochaic have more motion; the latter being adapted to dance, tlie 
 other to action and business. To mix these different metres as Chmre- 
 mon has done, would be still more absurd. No one, therefore, has ever 
 attempted to compose a poem of an extended plan in any other than 
 heroic verse ; nature itself, as we before observed, pointing out the 
 proper choice. 
 
 Among the many just claims of Homer to our praise, this is one — • 
 that he is the only poet who seems to have understood what part in 
 his poem it was proper for him to take himself. The poet, in his 
 own person, should speak as little as possible; for he is not then the 
 imitator. But other poets, ambitious to figure throughout themselves, 
 irmtate but little, and seldom. Homer, after a few preparatory lines, 
 immediately introduces a man, a woman, or some other character ; for 
 all have their character — nowhere are the maimers neglected. 
 
 The surprising is necessary in Tragedy ; but the epic poem goes 
 
349 
 
 flxrtlier, and admits even the improbable and incredible, from which the 
 highest degree of the surprising results, because, there, the action is 
 not seen. The circumstances, for example, of the pursuit of Hector by- 
 Achilles, are such as upon the stage would appear ridiculous; — the 
 Grecian army standing still, and taking no part in the pursuit, and 
 Achilles making signs to them, by the motion of his head, not to inter- 
 fere. But in the epic poem this escapes our notice. Now the wonder- 
 ful always pleases; as is evident from the additions which men always 
 make in relating anything, in order to gratify the hearers. 
 
 It is from Homer principally that other poets have learned the art 
 of properly nan-ating fictions. This consists in a sort of sophism. 
 Wlien one thing is observed to be constantly followed by anotheVj men 
 are apt to conclude, that if the latter is, or happens, the former must 
 also be or must happen. But this is a fallacy^ . 
 
 The poet should prefer impossibilities which appear 2^'i^obable, to such 
 things as, though possible, appear improbable. He should not produce 
 a plan made up of improbable incidents, [but he should, if possible, 
 admit no one circumstance of that kind; or, if he does, it should be 
 exterior to the action itself, like the ignorance of (Edipus concerning 
 the manner in which Laius died ; not within the drama, like the narra- 
 tive of what happened at the Pythian games, in the Electra; or in 
 The Mysians, the man who travels from Tegea to Mysia without speak- 
 ing.] To say, that without these circumstances the fable would have 
 been destroyed, :s a ridiculous excuse : the poet should take care, from 
 the fii'st, not to construct his fable in that manner. If, however, any- 
 thing of this kind has been admitted, and yet is made to pass under 
 some colour of probability, it may be allowed, though even in itself 
 absurd. Thus, in the Odyssey, the improbable account of the manner 
 in which Ulysses was landed upon the shore of Ithaca is such as, in the 
 hands of an ordinary poet, would evidently have been intolerable : but 
 here the absurdity is concealed uuder the various beauties, of other 
 kinds, with which the poet has embellished it. 
 
 The diction should be most laboured in the idle parts of the 
 poem — those in which neither manners nor sentiments prevail ; for 
 the manners and the sentiments are only obscured by too splendid a 
 diction. 
 
 [* * * * *T Cap. XXV. 
 
 ^ The editions here insert the following Scholium : hih S77, h.v to irpCoTov xpevSos, 
 dXKov 5^ TovTov 6vTos, dvdyKT} ?/ ehat tj yeveadac Trpoadeivai.. Sid yap to tovto ei54vai 
 d\r]6es 6v, Trapa\oyi^€Tai rjfjiQv i) ^pvxv f^^-^ "^^ irpwrov ws 6v. irapabetyfia 5^ tovto e/c tGjv 
 KtTrrpaji'. — J. W. D. 
 
 2 Here follows a Chapter xxv., which is not in the style of Aristotle, and may 
 safely be omitted for the reasons given by Ritter. — J. W. D. 
 
350 Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 
 
 Cap. XXVI. It may be inquired, farther, which of the two imitations, the epic 
 
 oUragic to^ OY the tragic, deserves the preference. 
 
 epic poe ry. -j-£ that, which is the least vulgar or popular of the two, be the best, 
 
 and that be such which is calculated for the better sort of spectators — 
 the imitation which extends to every circumstance must evidently be 
 the most vulgar or popular; for there the imitators have recourse to 
 every kind of motion and gesticulation, as if the audience, without the 
 aid of action, were incapable of understanding them: like bad flute- 
 players, who whirl themselves round when they would imitate the 
 motion of the discus, and pull the Coryphaeus, when jSci/lla is the sub- 
 ject. Such is Tragedy. It may also be compared to what the modern 
 actors are in the estimation of their predecessors ; for Myniscus used to 
 call Callippides, on account of his intemperate action, the ape : and 
 Tyndarus was censured on the same account. What these performers 
 are with respect to their predecessors, the tragic imitation, when entire, 
 is to the epic. The latter, then, it is urged, addresses itself to hearers 
 of the better sort, to whom the addition of gesture is superfluous : but 
 Tragedy is for the people; and being, therefore, the most vulgar kind of 
 imitation, is evidently the inferior. 
 
 But now, in the first place, this censure falls, not upon the poet^s 
 art, but upon that of the actor; for the gesticulation may be equally 
 laboured in the recitation of an epic poem, as it was by Sosistratus; 
 and in singing, as by Mnasitheus the Opuntian. 
 
 Again — All gesticulation is not to be condemned, since even all 
 dancing is not j but such only as is unbecoming — such as was objected 
 to Callippides, and is now objected to others, whose gestures resemble 
 those of immodest women. 
 
 Further — Tragedy, as well as the epic, is capable of producing its 
 efiect, even without action; we can judge of it perfectly by reading. 
 If, then, in other respects. Tragedy be superior, it is sufficient that the 
 fault here objected is not essential to it. 
 
 Tragedy has the advantage in the following respects. It possesses 
 all that is possessed by the epic; it 7night even adopt its metre; and 
 to this it makes no inconsiderable addition in the music and the 
 decoration; by the latter of which the illusion is heightened, and 
 the pleasure, arising from the action, is rendered more sensible and 
 striking. 
 
 It has the advantage of greater clearness and distinctness of im- 
 pression, as well in reading as in representation. 
 
 It has also that of attaining the end of its imitation in a shorter 
 compass : for the effect is more pleasurable, when produced by a short 
 and close series of impressions, than when weakened by diffiision 
 
Aristotle's treatise on poetry. 351 
 
 through a long extent of time ; as the (Edipus of Sophocles, for exam- 
 ple, would be, if it were drawn out to the length of the Iliad. Further : 
 there is less unity in all epic imitation ; as appears from this — that any 
 epic poem will furnish matter for several Tragedies. For, supposing 
 the poet to choose a fable strictly one, the consequence must be, either, 
 that his poem, if proportionably contracted, will appear curtailed and 
 defective, or, if extended to the usual length, will become weak, and, 
 as it were, diluted. If, on the other hand, we suppose him to employ 
 several fables — ^that is, a fable composed of several actions — his imitation 
 is no longer strictly one. The Iliadf for example, and the Odyssey, 
 contain many such subordinate parts, each of which has a certain mag- 
 nitude and unity of its own ; yet is the construction of those poems 
 as perfect, and as nearly approacliing to the imitation of a single action 
 as possible. 
 
 If then, Tragedy be superior to the epic in all these respects, 
 and also in the peculiar end at which it aims (for each species ought 
 to afford, not any sort of pleasure indiscriminately, but such only 
 as has been pointed out), it evidently follows, that Tragedy, as it 
 attains more effectually the end of the art itself, must deserve the 
 preference. 
 
 [And thus much concerning Tragic and epic poetry in general, and 
 their several species — the number and the differences of their parts — the 
 causes of their beauties and their defects — the censu/res of critics, and 
 the principles on which they are to be answered.] 
 
(11.) 
 
 , VITRUVIUS 
 
 ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE THEATRE. 
 
 De conformatione theatri facienda. 
 
 IPSIUS autem theatri conformatio sic est facienda, uti, quam magna 
 futui-a est perimetros imi, centre medio collocato circumagatur linea 
 rotundationis, in eaque quatuor scribantur trigona paribus lateribus et 
 intervallis, quae extremam lineam circinationis tangant : quibus etiam 
 in duodecim signorum cselestium descriptione astrologi ex musica con- 
 venientia astrornm ratiocinantur. Ex his trigonis cuius latus fuerit 
 proximum scense ea regione, qua prsecidit curvaturam circinationis, ibi 
 finiatur scense frons, et ab eo loco per centrum parallelos linea ducatur, 
 quae disiungat proscenii pulpitum et orchestrse regionem. 2. Ita latius 
 factum fuerit pulpitum quam Grsecorum, quod omnes artifices in scena 
 dant operam : in orchestra autem senatorum sunt sedibus loca desig- 
 nata : et eius pulpiti altitudo sit ne plus pedum quinque, uti qui in 
 orchestra sederint, spectare possint omnium agentium gestus. Cunei 
 spectaculorum in theatro ita dividantur, uti angiili trigonorum, qui 
 currunt circum curvaturam circinationis, dirigant ascensus scalasque 
 inter cuneos ad primam prsecinctionem. Supra autem alternis itineri- 
 bus superiores cunei medii dirigantur. 3. Hi autem, qui sunt in imo et 
 dirigunt scalaria, erunt numero septem, [anguli] reliqui quinque scense 
 designabunt compositionem ; et unus medius contra se valvas regias 
 habere debet ; et qui erunt dextra ac sinistra hospitalium designabunt 
 compositionem; extremi duo spectabunt itinera versurarum. Gradus 
 spectaculorum, ubi subsellia componantur, ne minus alti sint palmopede, 
 ne plus pede et digitis sex : latitudines eorum ne plus pedes duos semis, 
 ne minus pedes duo constituantur. Tectum portions, quod futurum est in 
 summa gradatione, cum scense altitudine libratum perficiatur ideo, quod 
 
VITRUVIUS ON THE STRUCTUEE OF THE THEATRE. 353 
 
 vox crescens sequaliter ad summas gradationes et tectum perveniet. 
 Namque si non erit sequale, quo minus fuerit altum, vox prseripietur ad 
 earn altitudinem, ad quam perveniet primo. 5. Orchestra inter gradus 
 imos quam diametron Labuerit, eius sexta pars sumatur, et in cornibus 
 utrinque aditus ad eius mensurse perpendiculum inferiores sedes prseci- 
 dantm', et qua prsecisio fuerit, ibi constituantur itinerum supercilia ; ita 
 enim satis altitudinem liabebunt eorum confornicationes. 6. Scenae 
 longitudo ad orchestrse diametron duplex fieri debet : podii altitudo ab 
 libramento pulpiti cum corona et lysi duodecima orchestrse diametri : 
 suj^ra podium columnse cum capitulis et spiris altae quarta parte eiusdem 
 diametri : epistylia et ornamenta earum columnarum altitudinis quinta 
 parte : pluteum insuper cum unda et corona inferioris plutei dimidia 
 pai-te : supra id pluteum columnoe quarta parte minore altitudine sint 
 quam inferiores : epistylia et ornamenta earum columnarum quinta 
 parte. Item si tertia episcenos futura erit, mediani plutei summum 
 sit dimidia parte : columnse summse medianarum minus altse sint quarta 
 parte : epistylia cum coronis earum columnarum item habeant alti- 
 tudinis quintam partem. 7. Nee tamen in omnibus theatris symme- 
 trise ad omnes rationes et effectus possunt respondere, sed oportet 
 architectum animadvertere, quibus proportionibus necesse sit sequi sym- 
 metriam, et quibus rationibus ad loci naturam magnitudinem operis 
 debeat temperari. Sunt enim res, quas et in pusillo et in magno thea- 
 tro necesse est eadem magnitudine fieri propter usum ; uti gradus, 
 diazomata, pluteos, itinera, adscensus, pulpita, tribunaha, et si qua alia 
 intercurrunt, ex quibus necessitas cogit discedere ab symmetria, ne im- 
 pediatur usus. Non minus si qua exiguitas copianim, id est marmoris, 
 materise, reliquai^umque rerum, quae parantur, in opere defuerint, paulu- 
 lum demere aut adiicere, dum id ne nimium improbe fiat sed cum sensu, 
 non erit alienum. Hoc autem erit, si architectus erit usu peritus, prse- 
 terea ingenio mobili solertiaque non fuerit viduatus. 8. Ipsse autem 
 scense suas habeant rationes explicatas ita, uti mediae valvas ornatus 
 habeant aulae regiae ; dextra ac sinistra hospitalia : secimdum autem 
 spatia ad ornatus comparata, quae loca Graeci TreptaKTovs dicunt ab eo, 
 quod machinae sunt in iis locis versatiles trigonae, habentes in singula 
 tres species ornationis, quae cum aut fabularum mutationes sunt futurae, 
 seu deorum adventus cum tonitribus repentinis, versentui' mutentque 
 speciem ornationis In frontes : secundum ea loca vei^surae sunt procur- 
 rentes, quae efiiciunt una a foro altera a peregre aditus in scenam. 
 9. Genera autem sunt scenarum tria : unum, quod dicitur tragicum, alte- 
 rum comicum, tertium satyncum. Horum autem ornatus sunt inter se 
 dissimili disparique ratione : quod tragicae deformantur columnis et fas- 
 tigiis et signis reliquisque regalibus rebus : comicae autem aedificiorum 
 
 D. T. G. 23 
 
354 VITRUVIUS ON THE STEUCTURE OF THE THEATRE. 
 
 privatorum et menianoriim habent speciem, prospectusque fenestris dis- 
 positos imitatione communium sedificiorum rationibus : satyricae vero 
 ornantur arboribus, speluncis, montibus, reliquisque agrestibus rebus in 
 T07r€t(o8T7 speciem deformatis. 
 
 Be theatris Grcecorum. 
 
 In Gr^ecorum theatris non omnia iisdem rationibus sunt facienda; 
 quod primum in ima circinatione, ut in Latino trigonorum quatuor, in 
 eo quadratorum trium anguli circinationis lineam tangunt: et cuius 
 quadrati latus est proximum scense prseciditque curvaturam circinatio- 
 nis, ea regione designatur finitio proscenii ; et ab ea regione ad extremam 
 circinationem curvaturse parallelos linea designatur, in qua constituitur 
 frons scenae: per centrumque orchestrse proscenii e regione parallelos 
 linea describitur, et qua secat circinationis lineas dextra ac sinistra in 
 comibus hemicycli, centra designantur, et circino collocato in dextra, ab 
 intervallo sinistro circumagatur circinatio ad proscenii dextram partem : 
 item centro collocato in sinistro cornu, ab intervallo dextro circumaga- 
 tur ad proscenii sinistram partem. 2. Ita a tribus centris hac descrip- 
 tione ampliorem habent orchestram Grseci et scenam recessiorem 
 minoreque latitudine pulpitum, quod Xoy^iov appellant, ideo quod apud 
 COS tragici et comici actores in scena peragunt, reliqui autem artifices 
 suas per orchestram prsestant actiones. Itaque ex eo scenici et thyme- 
 lici Grsece separatim nominantur. Eius logei altitudo non minus debet 
 esse pedum decern, non plus duodecim. Gradationes scalarum inter 
 cuneos et sedes contra quadratorum angulos dirigantur ad primam prse- 
 cinctionem : ab ea prsecinctione inter eas iterum mediae dirigantur, et 
 ad summam quotiens praecinguntur, altero tanto semper amplificantur. 
 
 De locis consonantihus ad theatra eligendis. 
 
 Cum haec omnia summa cura solertiaque explicata sint, tunc etiam 
 diligentius est animadvertendum, uti sit electus locus, in quo leniter 
 applicet se vox, neque repulsa resiliens incertas auribus referat significa- 
 tiones. Sunt enim nonnulli loci naturaliter impedientes vocis motus, 
 uti dissonantes, qui Graece dicuntur KaTrjxovvT^s : circumsonantes, qui 
 apud eos nominantur TrepLy]xovvTi<i : item resonantes, qui dicuntur avr-q- 
 Xovvres : consonantesque, quos appellant crvv-qxovvra'i. Dissonantes sunt, 
 in quibus vox prima, cum est elata in altitudinem, offensa superioribus 
 solidis corporibus, repulsaque resiliens in imum, opprimit insequentis 
 vocis elationem. 2. Circumsonantes autem sunt, in quibus circumva- 
 gando coacta vox se solvens in medio sine extremis casibus sonans, ibi 
 
VITRUVIUS ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE THEATRE. 355 
 
 extmgiiitur incei-ta verborum significatione. Eesonantes vero, in quibus, 
 cum in soliclo tactu percussa resiliat, imagines exj^rimendo novissimos 
 casus duplices faciunt auditu. Item consonantes sunt, in quibus ab imis 
 auxiliata, cum incremento scandens, ingreditur ad aures diserta verbo- 
 rum claritate. Ita si in locorum electione fuerit, diligens animadversio, 
 emendatus erit prudentia ad utilitatem in theatris vocis effectus. 
 
 Formarum autem descriptiones inter se discriminibus his erunt 
 notatas, uti quae ex quadratis designantur, Grsecoiiim liabeant usus, 
 Latinae paribiLS lat^ribus trigonorum. Ita his praBScriptionibus qui 
 rohierit uti, emendatas efficiet theatrorum perfectiones. 
 
 ■23—2 
 
(III.) 
 
 JULIUS POLLUX 
 ON THE VOCABULARY OF THE DRAMA. 
 
 Hepl op)(r)(TTOv Koi dp^T^crews. 
 
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 ivapyorrjTa, ripij/LV, iravriyvpiv, cvSet^cv, ^T^Xwcrtv, cTrtSei^tv, paaTiovrjv, 
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 98 K0V(l>L(r6rjvaij eAa^ptVao-^ai, TrrjSrja-ai, TrapaSrjXwaai, tTrtSci^ao-^at, ivSec^aa-- 
 Oai, TrapevSeL^aaOai, 7rapc7ri8ct^ao-^ai, Xvycaai to crw/xa, KdpixJ/at, KXdaai. 
 Kttt Tci iTTLppyjpiaTa 6pxy]<TTLKUi';, €V(TXi]P'OVOi<;, 7roXucr;)(i7p,ovco?, ivpvOpno^^ 
 cvappLoaTiD'i, vypcos, evapycog, ci/Sciktiko)?, St^A-wtiko)?, eTrtSeiKrtKojs, Travryyr- 
 ptKtos, TepTrvws, paSt'co?, cvkoAw?, eu^opa>9, t(TO(l>6poi<s, evraKTw?' Tct yap 
 ttTTo Tcov aXA-wv Tpax^a. 
 
JCLTUS POLLUX ON THE VOCABULARY OF THE DRAMA. 357 
 
 Uepl elSwv opy;rj(T€(M<!i. 
 
 TLl^-q Sc op\i]ixa.TO)Vi ifj^fxeXeia rpayLKij, Ko'pSaKCS KWfXLKOL, (tlklwIs 99 
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 tcpct, Kat TroXefxiKij . yv Be kol KOifxacrTLKij, p-dxW '^"■^^ 7r\r)yd<5 e)(ovcra, Kat 100 
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 Kat Ko\a/3pL(Tix6<; QpaKLOv 6p)(rjp.a koL KapiKo'v* rjv 8e Kat tovto evoVAtov. 
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 (Tw/xa iivypaLvovca. /3aKTptacr/xos 8e, Kat ctTroKivos, Kat aTroo-cto-t?, Kat tyStg, 101 
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 <o/xov iKXaKTiaai. kol ^L(3acrLS 8e Tt ^v €t8os AaKa)i/tKT7s dp;(7^o-ca)?, 175 
 xat Ta a^Aa TrpovriO^To ov TOts Trato-t p.ovov, aAAa Kat Tats Kopatg' ISct 
 Se aAAeo-^at Kat ij/aviLV Toi<i ttoo-I Trpds TCts TTvyds, Kat ypLOjxelTO Tct 
 ^TT/ST^'/xaTa, d^ev Kat cTrt /xtas ^v €7rtypa/x^a, 
 
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358 JULIUS POLLUX ON THE 
 
 jXOVVTO rOV<S CTTt TtJ KXoTTrj TOJV eojXwV KpC<2v aXtcrK0/X€V0V5. XofxfSpOTCfiOV 
 
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 Ilept )(OpOV, ^OpeVTOV, KoX TWV TOtO^TCOV. 
 
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 107 ro(f)dvr)s KaXel, TratSiKos X^P^^j avSptKo?, kcu/xikos, TpaytKos. Kal y/xixopLov 
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 108 cTTt Se x^po^j '^"'^ (TV{Ji(jiU>via, koI crvviohLa, kol (rvvavXca. kol y pXv eioroSos 
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 Ilcpt xop'^'^^i' a(TjJidT(j)V. 
 
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 a o TTOtrjTTjs Trpos to Oearpov /SovXrp-aL Xeyciv, d x^pds TrapeXOwv Xeycc 
 
VOCABULARY OF THE DRAMA. 359 
 
 TavTO, €7ri€tKojs Bk avTO TroLovcTLV 01 K0)fxioBo7TOLrjTaL, rpayiKov Bl ovk 
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 OVK iXdrro) tov apt^/xov tou lTnpprjp.aro<^. 
 
 He/at -uTTOKpiTcuv 17 rTroKptVcco?. 
 
 EtO-t Se ttTTO TOVTtOV Kttt VTTOKpLTat, Kol VTTOKpLO'L'S, Kol aVTlKptCTtSj Kttt 113 
 
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 TO Trap' cv lafxI^eLov avTtXeyctv. Kat to 7rpayp,a, (TTf^oixvOiav. Eittois o av, 114 
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 yt'^cov. Kat (3apv(jiwvo<; Si, koL Xctttoc^covos, Kat yvvatKoc^covos, Kat arprivo- 
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 cXcyov, Kat KaTaTTCTrvl^daL to <j!)^eyp.a. Kat ^ApLaT0(f)dvr]<s ttov cfiTjcrl 
 
 (pOiy^at en) tt^v KJxuvrjv dvaaTOL^rjaas dvoi. 
 6 8' avTos 
 
 Kat cfiOeyixa K€KpdTr]K€V. 
 
 Ilept tVoKptTtov (TK€vrjs. 
 
 Kat (TK€vr] fxkv rj Ttov VTroKptTtov, trToX?/. ■>; 8' aim; Kat o-to/xaTiov 115 
 cKaXetTO. tTKCt'oTTOtos 8e, o Trpoo-ooTTOTTotos. Kat co-Ttv ciTTCtv, Trpoo'toTrov, 
 
 TrpoortOTTCtOV, TTpoCTlDTrLS, p.OpiXoXvK€LOV, yopyOVUOV. 
 
 Ilcpt viroBrjfjLdTtDV kol laOrjTOiV TpaytKwv Kat kwjxlkwv Kat Xot7n79 (TKevrjq. 
 
 Kat Ttt VTToStjixaTa, KoOopvoL jxkv Ta TpayiKa koX ep./5a8es. cp-^aTat 116 
 8c, Tct Kto/xtKct. Kat iaOf]T€^ [xkv TpaytKat, ttolklXov (ouTto yap cKaXetTO 
 () x'^Tt^*') Tti 8c iiTL^XrjfjiaTa, ^vaTL<;, ^aTpa-^tq, -^XavLS, x^^H-^^'^ Sidxpvao^, 
 XpvcroTraa-TO^, cf>oLviKUf Ttapa, KoXvTTTpa (TTaTo?, /xtVpa, dyprjvov to 8' ^v 
 7rXcyp.a c^ cpttov 8tKTU(o8es rrcpt Trav to crto/xa, o Tetpccrts iTrcjSdXXeTo, y 
 
360 JULIUS POLLUX ON THE 
 
 Tt? aA-Xos iJ.avTL<S' KoXTTOifxa, o virep ra iroiKiXa evcSeSwro ot *ATp€t?, koX ot 
 'Aya/x€/x,vove9, Kat o(tol tolovtol. e^aTrrts, o-va-TpcfXfjidTiov tl (^oivikovv, 17 
 7rop(fivpovv, 6 Trept tt^v X'^P^ ^x'^^ ®^ ttoXc/xovvtc?, -^ 6y]pu}vt€^. 6 8e 
 
 117 KpoKO)ro<i, Ifxariov' AL6vv(ro<s Sc ai^ra) i)(prJTO, kol jxaaxaXLCTTrjpL dvOivt^, 
 KOL Ovp(Tio. ol Be iv 8vcrTv;(tat? ovres ^ XeuKct Bicnnvy cTj^ov, /xaXt<TTa ot 
 (jivydSes, 7] (f>aid, -rj fxiXava, y /xrjXtva, rj yXavKiva. paKta 8e, ^iXoktt^tov 
 17 (TToXrj KOL TrjXecfiov. kol ve/SptSes Si, koX BicfiOepaL, kol fjidxaipai, kol 
 (TKyJTrrpa, kcu Bopara, koX To^a, kol cfyapirpa, kol KrjpvKCLa, kol poTraXa, 
 
 118 /cat Xeovrrj, kol Travrevx^oL, f^^PV TpayLKTJs avSpeta? (TKevrjs. ywatKcta? Bij 
 (TvpTos 7ropcf)vpov<;, TrapdirYiyy AeuKov, T17S l3a(TLXevov(Trj<s' r-^s Bk iv (TVfx- 
 fjiopa, 6 fxlv (Tvpro?, fx4Xa<;, to Be iTTL/SXyjixa, yXavKov, rj fxrjXivov. tj Bk 
 %aTvpiKrj ecrOyj'S, ve^pis, cdyt], yv kol l^aXrjv eKdXovv, kol rpayrjv, Kat ttov 
 (cat TrapBaXrj v(fia(rixivr]. koX to Oypatov to Aiovva-LaKov. kol ^Xavis dv~ 
 Oiv-q, KOL (jiOtvLKovv IfidTLOVf KOL ;(opTato5, X'''''^'' Baavs, ov ol 'XeiXrjvol 
 (jiopovcn. KwixLKrj Be eaOy]<;, eioifxcs' eaTi Be ^y^oiv XevKo'?, dcrrjixo^, Kara 
 
 119 TT^v dpicTepdv irXevpav pa^-qv ovk e^wv ayvaTrro?. yepovTOiv Be <f>6pr]ixa 
 IfxaTLov, KafXTTvXr], ^otvtKt?, 7) fxeXap.Tr 6 p<^vpov t/xartov, <fi6pr]fxa vewrepwr. 
 TTTjpa, j^aKT-qpla, Bicf>Oepa, eirl twv dypoUoiV. kol 7rop(f)vpa Be IcrOyJTL exp^^VTO 
 ot veaviOTKOi, ol Be TrapdcTLTOi, fxeXaivrj, rj cfyaia, TrXrjv iv ^tKVCovto), XevKfj, 
 ore p^eXXeL yap^elv o Trapacrtro?. TYf Be t(ov BovXmv e^co/xtSt Kat t/>taTt8tov tl 
 TrpocTKeLTaL XevKov, o eyKoixfioip^a XeycTai, y eTrtpprjfxa. To) Be /xayeipo), BiTrXyjf 
 ayvaTTTO? tJ ecrOrj^. 17 Be ywaiKwv e(TOy]<s KCiip^LKiov, rj fxev rwv ypaw, fxrjXLvrj, 
 
 120 rj deptvrj, ttXt^v tcpeiwv. Tai^rats Se, XevKT], at Be pLaaTpoiroc, yj p.7)Tepe<s 
 eratpwj/, ratvtStov tl 7rop4>vpovv irepl ttJ Ke(}>aXfj c^ovcrtv. i] Be rwv 
 vewv, XevKT], rj j^vxra-cvr). eTTLKXypoiv Be, XevKy, KpoccrfjiTrj. 7ropvof3o(TKol 
 Be, )(^LTO)VL ^aTTTw, Kat dvOivw irepL^oXaLio evBeBvvTaL, kol pd/SBov evOelav 
 (jiipovaLV' dpeo'KO'i KaXctrat rjBe y pd^Bos. Tot? Be Trapao-troi? TrpoaecrTL 
 Kat o-rXeyyts, Kat XriKvOo's, ws rots aypoLKOL^ Xayoy(36Xov. eviats 8e yvvat^t 
 Kat Trapd-Trriyy, kol a-vpiixeTpia, oirep e<JTL y^Ti^v TroBypr]^, dXovpyrjq kvkXo). 
 
 Ilept Oedrpov kcu twv TTcpt a^ro. 
 
 121 'ETret Be Kat to OeaTpov ov p^LKpov ixepo<s ecTTL t<2v piOvcrLKwv, avTo 
 fxev av el-TTOL? OeaTpov, Kal Aiovvo-LaKov OeaTpov, Kat AyvdcKov. Kat to 
 TrXrjOo';, OeaTds. kol ^ Kpi(TT0(^dvr]<; Be crvvOedTpiav etprjKev. wctt ov OeaTrjv 
 f^ovov ctTTOts av, aAAa Kat OedTpiav. Kara Be YlXdTOiva, Kat OeaTpoKpaTtav. 
 T0V5 8' dva/3a0 p.ov<i, Kat jSdOpa, Kat cSpas, Kat eSwXta. Kat eSooXta^etv, to 
 (TvyKaOi^eiV. TrpwTov Be ^Xov, y irpoeBpia, /xaXto-Ta pXv BiKaaTdv. iff)* 
 wv Kat Tov TrpoiTov KaOit^ovTa, Trp^To/SaOpov ^epeKpdTtjg eiprjKev o kw/awSo- 
 
 122 St8tio-KaXo9. tcrojs 8' av Kat ctti Oedrpov Kara KaTaxprjcLV Xcyotg. to p^evTOL 
 TOL eSwA-ta Tats Trrepvat? KaraKpoveiv, irTepvoKOTrelv eXeyov. eiroLovv Be 
 TovTO, o7roT€ Ttvflc eK^dXouv . ecf) ov Kat t( KXw^etv, Kat to cvpiTTeiv. cKaXetTO 
 
VOCABULARY OF THE DRAMA. 361 
 
 8c TL KOL /3ov\€VTLKOV IX€pO<; TOV OiaTpOV, KOL If^y-q^LKOV. C^COTt Sc KoX 
 
 TO 7ra/3a7r£Tacr/xa, avXaiW KaXetv, 'YTreptSov etTrovros €V tw Kara Tlarpo- 
 kXgov;, " ot he ewia oip)(ovT€S eicrrtwvro cv rfj Sroa, -rrepLcjipa^d/xevoL tl /xepos 
 avT-^s avXatia.' 
 
 Ilcpt /xcpwv Oedrpov. 
 
 yiip-q OeoLTpov Se TrvXig, Kat i/^aA.ts, Kat KaraTOfxtj, KepKiSc?, (TKrjvy, 123 
 opx'jo'Tpa, Xoyeiov, 7rpo(TK7]VLOv, TrapaaKrjvLa, viroa-KrjvLa. kol crKrjvrj /X€v, 
 
 VTTOKpLTWV lSlOV. 7] Sc" Op)(T](TTpa, TOV )(OpOV, Iv Tj KCU -q OvfXeXrj, €LT€ 
 
 ^rjixd TL ouo-a, ctre /^wfxo's. cttI 8e t^9 (rKr]vr}<s koL dyvteus €K€lto /?w/aos 
 Trpo rwv Ovpoiv. kol rpaTre^a, Tre/x/xaTa c;(ova-a, ■;7 ^ewpts tuvo/Aa^cTo, ^ 
 6v<jipL<s. i\€6<; 8' 171/ rpdire^a dp)(aLa, icf)* -^v irpo 0c<77rt8os ct? rts dvajSd^s 
 Tots x^P^vrats aTTeKpLvaro. to 8e vTToaKTJvtov, Ktocrif koX aya\p,aTLot<i Ik- 124 
 CKocrfXTfTo, Trpos TO deaTpov TeTpajxpievov, vtto to Xoyelov Kecfxevov. Tptwv 
 8e T(3i/ KttTct Tvyv (TKrjvrjv Ovpiov 'q jxicriq fX€Vy jSacrtAciov, ^7 o-7n;Xatov, ^7 
 oT/cos o/8o^os, ^ Trav to TrpwTaywvto-TOVv tov hpdp.aTo<i, -q h\ Sc^to, tov 
 8€in-epaya)vto'Tovi/TO? KttTaywyiov. 17 8e dpiorTepd, -q to euTcXeo'TaTOV c;(et 
 Trpoo-cuTTOV, "7 tepov e^r/p-^/xco/xeVov, ^7 aot/cos iaTiv. iv Se TpaywSto. 77 ^cv 125 
 8e^ta ^vpa, $€vwv ecTTiv, elpKrq he, y Xaid. to Bk kXlctiov iv KcopnoSLa 
 Trapa/cetTttt Trapd Tyv otKtav, 7rapa7reTao-/xaTt 8i7Xou/x€VOV. Kat eo^Tt ^cv 
 (TTaO/xos VTTO^vytW. Kat at Ovpai avTOv /xet^ovs Sokovci, KaXov/xcvat kXi- 
 o-iaSe?, Trpos to kol Ta? a/xa^as ciceXavvctv, Kat Ta (rK€vo<j>6pa. iv Bk 
 *AvTL(j>dvov<s 'AKeo-Tpta Kat ipyaa-Tqpcov yiyovev <l>r)(Tl yovv 
 
 TO kXlctlov 
 
 o Trporepov ttot rjv toI? i^ dypov /3ov(rl ora^/xo's, 
 
 Kat Tots ovot9, 7r€7roLy]Kev ipyacnypiov. 
 Trap eKttTepa 8c twv Bvo Ovpojv twv Trcpt Tqv /xc'o-^v, aXXat Bvo 126 
 cTci^ dv, fJLLa CKaTepwOeVj Trpos as at irepiaKTOi (rv/XTreTr-qyaaLv. rj /xlv 
 8c^ta, Ttt €^<ji TToXews 877Xowa, 77 8 apLCTTcpd, Ta ck ttoAcw?. /xa- 
 Xto-Ta Ta CK Xi/xci/os. Kat deov^ tc ^aXaTTtovs CTrayct, Kat TrdvO* 
 oaa i7ra)^6e(TT€pa ovTa rj fx-q-^avrj c^epciv d8vvaTct. ct 8c iincrTpi^oLCV 
 at TTcptaKToi, 77 8c^ia /xcv dfxcLJSei tottov a/x^oTcpat 8c ;)(wpav VTraXXaT- 
 Tovo-t. Tcov p.€VTOi TTapoSwv 17 /xcv 8c^ta dypoOiv, rj iK Xi/xcVos, -7 ck 
 TToXeoj? aycf ot 8c aXXa;>(o^cv Trc^ot dffyLKVOVjxevoL, KaTa rqv CTcpav ctcrt- 127 
 ao-tv. €la-eX06vT€<; Bl KaTa rqv dp^<JTpav, iin Trjv (TKrjvqv Bid KXtp-aKwv 
 dvafSaLvovat. Trj<; Be KXt/xaKOS ot /SaO/xoL, KXi/xaKTT7pcs KaXovt'Tat. ctcv 8' 
 av Twv iK OedTpov Kat iKKVKX'qp.a, kol p^-q^avq^ Kat iiwaTpa, Kat (TKOTnjy 
 Kat Tct;)(o9, Kat 77T;pyo?, Kat <f>pvKTwpiov, Kat 8to-Tcyta, Kat Kcpavvoo-KOTrctov, 
 Kat fipovTfxov, Kat ^coXoyctov, Kat yepavo?, Kat atwpat, Kat KaTa^Xry/xaTa, 
 Kat ■qp.iKVKXiov, Kat (XTpocfieioVy Kat 'qjxicTTpo^iov, koX yapiuvioi KXt/xaKC9, 
 Kat dvaTTtcV/xaTa. Kat to /xcv iKKVKX-qfxa, iirl $vX(dv, v\l/-qX6v fSdOpov, a 128 
 
362 JULIUS POLLUX ON THE 
 
 eTTLKeLTaL 6p6vo<s, 8€LKVV(ri Be koI Ttt VTTO Ttjv (TKy)V7Jv iv Tats oiKtats 
 dwopprjTa TrpaxOivra. Koi to prjfjia rov €pyov KaXeiraL iyKVKX^lv, c^' ov 
 Se ctcraycTttt to eKKVKXrjixay clarKVKXyjfxa ovofxa^eTaL. kol ^rj rovro voelaOat 
 Koff eKaarrjv OvpaVj olovei, KaO' kKdar-qv otKiW. rj fxr])(avr} Sc Oeov^ 
 BcLKVua-L, KOL ^pwtts Tovs iv dipL, BeAAcpo^oVTas, y Ilepcrct?, kol K^Zrai 
 
 129 Kara rrjv dpLCTTepdv TrdpoSoVj virlp rrjv crK-qvrjv to vij/o?. o 8' ecrrtv iv Tpayw- 
 Slo. fir])(OLvrjy tovto ev Kco/xwSia KpdSr]. ByXov Se otl orvKyjq iaTL iXLixrja-LS' 
 KpdSrju yap rrjv ovktJv KaXovcnv ot 'Attikoi. tttjv 8e iiwaTpav TavTov to) 
 €KKVKXi]fxaTL vo[JLLt,ova-LV. 1^ (TKOTrrj Be 7re7roLY]Tai KaTacrKOTrois, y Tot5 aXXots 
 
 OCrOt TrpOdKOTTOVdl. Kttt TO T€t;)(OS, Kttt O TTUpyog, WS ttTTO Vl/'OVS iSetj/. TO 
 
 8e <^pvKT<apiov T(3 ovofxaTL BtjXoi to tpyov. i] Bk BtxrTeyiay ttotc pXv iv 
 OLKio /Saa-iXeiio, Slopes Boi/xaTLOV, olov deft ov iv $otvto-o-ats t^ ^AvTiyovr] 
 jSAeVct Tov (TTpaTov 7roT€ Be Kepap,o9, a^' ov Kat /3dXXovarL tw Kepdpna. 
 
 130 cj/ 8e KW/xwSia a7ro t:7S Storcytas iropvo^odKoi Ttves KaTOTTTe^ovo-t, 17 ypatBia 
 7} yvvaia KaTajSXeTreu KepavvocKoireZov Be koi /3povTe2ov, to fxiv idTi 
 7repiaKT0<i vif/rjXii]' to Se j8povT€tov, vtto t^p' crKrjvrjV OTnaOeVj da kol i}/y(f>(i)v 
 efiTrXeoL ScwyKw/xei/ot <^cpovTat KttTa ^aXKco/xaTcov. (xtto Sc tou OeoXoyetov, 
 ovTOS VTTcp TT/v CTKrjv^v, iv vxf/ei iiri^aivovTaL Oeoi, ws o Zeus Kat ot Trept 
 avTov iv Sifv\oa-TacrLa. y Be yepavos pnq^dvrjixd tl icTTiv ck /xerewpov Kara- 
 (f>ep6fxevov, icf) dprrayfj o-wjuaTOS, w Kexpyrai rj Hws ap7rd^ov(ra to crw/xa 
 
 131 xov Mep,vovos. atwpas 8' av ctTrots tovs KaXcos, ot KaTrjpTrjVTaL ii vif/ov<;, 
 dve)(eLV tovs evrt tov aepos cfiipeaOaL BoKovvTa<s ijpo}? 7} Oeov's. Kara^Xy- 
 [xaTa Be, vcftda-fxaTa, rj TrtVaKCs yaav, e)(0VTe<; ypa<^as, Trj XP^^V twv BpajxaTcov 
 7rpoo-</)opovs* KttTe^aXXeTO 8e cttI tois TrcptaKTOVs, opos 86tKn;rra, -^ ^aAaTrav, 
 ^7 TTOTafxoVy rj dXXo tl tolovtov. t(3 Be -qfXLKVKXCio to p.€i/ a-xyp^a ovofxa' 
 
 132 7^ Se Oea-L-iy Kara Trjv opxwfpav' y Be XP^^^i ByXovv Troppai TLvd t^s 7ro'A.€ws 
 TOTTOV, y ToOs iv OaXaTTy vyxop-evovs, tuo-Trep Kat to arpoffie'Lov, o tovs 
 ypws ex^Ly TOVS ets to Oe7ov pie6e(TTyKOTa<s, y tovs iv TrcXayet, y voXefJuo 
 TcXcvToJvTas. at Be ;>(apwi/iot KXtp,aKes, KaTa Tas eK twv cScdXiW Ka^oSovs 
 KeLfievaL, Ta ctScoXa dir avTwi/ dvaTrep-TrovcTL. Ta Be dv air Leorp.aTa, to fxev 
 ia-TLV iv TYj aKyvfjy ws iroTap^ov dveXBeZv, y tl tolovtov 7rp6(TC07rov, to Be 
 Trept TOVS dva^aOixov<;, defy wv dvejSaLvov 'Epivves. 
 
 Ilept TrpoccoTTcov TpaytKwi'. 
 
 133 'AWa jxyv Kat 7rpoo"(07ra, Tct p,€V TpaytKci etr; dv, l^vptas ai^p, XcvkoSj 
 CTrapTOTroXios, fxeXas dvyp, dvyp $av06s, dvyp ^avOoTepo^;. ovtol p,ev 
 yepovTcs. 'O Be ^vptas, 7rpea"/?vraT0S Ttov yepovTiov, AevKOTaTOS t>;v Kop.yv. 
 7rpo(TKeLp,evaL tw oyKO) at TpLxe'S' oy kos 8e' eort to VTrep to TrpoaoyTTOV 
 dvexov ets vi//os, Xa/JSoetSet t<3 axj^p.aTL. to Be yeveLov, iv XP^ Kovpias 
 
 134 eo-Ttv d ^vptas, C7rt/x,7yKT;s <Sv Tcts Trapetas. 'O 8e Xcvkos avrfp, vras /xeV 
 ecTi TToXids, fioarpvxovs 8' c^^^ Trcpt tt) Ke<f>aXfjy Kat to yerctoi' Tveiryyo^ 
 
VOCABULARY OF THE DRAMA. 363 
 
 Kttt TrpoTrerets o(f>pvs kol TrapaXevKov to xpw/xa 6 Sk 6yK0<;, /?pa^'S. o 
 ye jxrjv (nrapTOTToXiO^ SrjXol fu-ev rrjv rwv TroAtojv cf>v(TLv, /xe'/Va? 8e ecrrt koL 
 v7r(i))Q)os. 6 Se /leAas ciKjyp, aTro fiev Trj<; ;^ota? I_;;(wv rovvofxa, ovXos Se 
 TO yeveiov, koX ttjv kojjltjv, Tpa-)(ys to irpoauiTTOv, kol /neya? o oyKo?. o 1^ 
 Se ^avOos avrjp ^avOovs e\eL fiocrTpv)(ovs, kol oyKOv Tjmo, kol tcmv ev)(pov^. 
 o 8k iav06T€po<;, to. yxev oAAa o/xolos, v7rw;(po? 8e fxaXXov, kol BrjXol voaovv- 
 Ttts. Ttt Sk veavicTKOiV 7rp6<r(jy7ra, 7rdYXpT](TT0<;, ov\o<;, Tra.pov\o<;, (XTraXos, 
 TTLvapoSf SeuT€po<s TTtvapos, co;(po9, Trdpwxpo<;. 6 8e TrdyxprjcTTo^, Trpca-jSv- 
 TttTos Tojv veavicTKOiVy ayeVeto?, et';(pov?, /xeAatvo/x-cvo?, Sacetat Kat /xe'Aaivat 
 at TpL)(^€s. 6 Sk orAo9j ^av^09, vTripoyKov at Tpi)(€<s tw oy/co) Trpocnre- 136 
 7n;yao-iv, d^pvs avaTcVaTat, /3Xo(Tvp6<s to ctSo?. o Se TrapovAog, TaAAa 
 cotKcus to) Trpo airrov, fiaXXov veavt^et. o Se txTraXo?, Po(TTpvypL<; ^avOos, 
 X€VK6xpoi<5, ^at8po9j Trpirroiv 6cio rj koAo). o 8e TTivapog, oyKw^Ty?, viroTri- 
 AtSvos, KaTYjcfi-tjs, Sva"7nvi]<i, iavOoKOfJirjs, ^avOrj Ko/xr] iTTLKOfxiov. 6 Sk Sev- 
 T€po<s TTLvapos ToaovTo) Tov Tpojipov lcr^'6T€po<i, o(Tio Koi v€aporrepo9. 
 o Sk (D^os <f>pvyav6s icTTt Tats crap^i, kol TrepLKOfios, V7r6iav0o<i, vocroy- 137 
 8779 rrjv ')(p6av, oto9 eiScoAo), y) rpavfxaTta TrpeVetv. o 8e 7rapa);>(po9 Tct 
 /xcv oAAa oto9 o 7rdy)(pr](TT0<;' w;)(pta 8e, to9 vocrorvra, rj ipwvTa SrjXovv. 
 Ttt fxevTOL Twv Oepa-iTOVTcov TTpocTOiTra, SiffiOepLas, cr<f)-qvo7rwyo}V, avaat/xo9. 
 d /xev 8i</)^€pi'a9, dyKov ovk 6;)(a)v, TreptKpavov ex^^' '^^'' '^P^X'^'^ iKT€VL(riJLeva<; 
 AerKa9, Tzpocrornov viriDXpov re kol vTrdXevKov, Kat fxvKTrjpa rpa^v, iTTLCTKvvLov 
 /xcTcojpov, 6(fiOaXp.ov<s aKvOp(jy770vs. VTroyxpo'S 8' eo-rt Kat to yeveiov 7rpo7raA.at- 138 
 T€po<i. 6 Sk o-^ryvoTTOjycov, ctK/xa^ct, Kat dyKOV vil/rjXov €)(^eL kol TrXaTtV, 
 KotAaii'dftevov ev tt) irepLcfiopa' ^avOos, Tpa^t'S, ipvOpo?, Trperroiv ayye'Ao). 
 d 8e dvda-tp.o?, vTrepoyKOS, Eav66<5, Ik jxiaov dvareTavTaL at rpc^es, aye- 
 V€td9 ecTTLV, v-epvOpos' kol ovto9 ayyeAAet. Tct de yLratKtov TrpocroiTra 
 ttoXlo. KaTdKOfxo<;, ypdSiov lX(.vBcpov, ypdSiov oIkctlkov, ixecroKovpov, Si- 
 cf)0ep2TL<;, KaTdKop.o<; to^pa, 7rpocr<paro<i, Korpt/>to9 TrapOevo?. yj /xkv TroAta 139 
 KaTdKOixo<; vrrkp Ta9 aXAas tt^V Te -qXiKtav kol rrjv a^twcrtr, XevKOKOfxo^, 
 jxirpla TOV dyKOV, v7rtL)Xpo9* TrdXai Sk 7rapaxpw/zo9 CKaAetTO. to 8' eAcr- 
 Ocpov ypdSiov, vTToEavOov ttJv TroXtdv, fxiKpov oyKov €-^ov, /Ae^pt t<Zv 
 KXetdwv at Tpl^eq, vwocfiatveL (TVfX(f)opdv. to Sk oIk€tlkov ypa8tov, Trcpt- 
 Kpavov e^ dpvaKtSojv avTt oyKOV e)(€L, kol pvcrov Ictti tcis o-apKas. to 
 8e oiKCTtKov fxeaoKOvpoVy kol j3pa)(y^ dyK09, XP^^ XerK?;, 7rdpo)xpo<;, ov iravTa. 
 TToXiov. y Sk 8t^^6ptTt9, vecoTepa iKetvrj^, kol dyKov ovk ^X^^' ^* ^^ 1^^ 
 KaTdKoixo<i ojxpa, jxiXaLva rqv Kofx-qv, ^Xe/x/xa Xvn-qpov. to Sk )(p(2ixa ck 
 tov dvd/7.aT09. v; 8e p-eo-OKOvpos o^xpa, ofxola ttj KaTaKopno, ttXtJv ocra 
 Ik fxecrov K€KapTaL. rj Sk p.€(JOKOvpo<s 7rpoo-^aT09, rrjv pXv Kovpav cx^t 
 KaTa TT/v Trpd av'n79' ovk ex^^ ^^ KaTct t?7V wxpoTT/Ta. 77 Sk KovpLp,o<; 
 TrapOevos avTt oyKov e^€L Tpt^wv KaTei/'7/y^o'ajv SidKpLinv. kol ^pa^ia iv 
 kvkAo) TTcptKCKapTat* V7ra)xp09 8€ tt/v xpo^^* V ^^ CTepa KOvpLfxo^ 7rap^eVo9, 141 
 Ta aAXa op,otoJ9, ttXt/i/ t7;9 8taKptVecj9 Kat Twi^ kv'kXoj ^ccTTpvxaiV, cos €k 
 
364 . JULIUS POLLUX ON THE 
 
 TToXXov hvcTTVxovcra. tj Se Kopr], veapov Trpoo-coTrov, olov av Aavat? yivoiTO 
 rj aXXr] TratSiVKry. rd 8e eKcrK€va TrpofrwTra, A/cratW iarl Kepaa<f>opo'S, rj 
 $tv€vs TV^Xo9, rj ©a/xv/3i9, tov fxev Ip^wv yXavKov 6(f)6aXfJb6v, tov Se fxeXava. 
 y "Apyos 7roXv6cf)0aXixo<i, yj Tvpco TreXL^vT] rds Trapetas Tra/aa So^okXci. 
 TOVTO 8' VTTo TT7S fJir}Tpvid<; "^iSrjpov"; TrXi^yats TriirovOev. y EvtTTTny ^ 
 
 142 .Xctpoovos, vTraXXaTTOfiivY} etg Ittttov Trap' EvptTrtSiy. 17 'A^tXXevs iirl Ila- 
 rpoKXio aKoa-jxo^. rj 'A/xv/xwi/-);, ^7 7roTap,og, •^ opo5, ^ Popyoj, ^ StKr;, 17 
 6dvaT0<s, rj ipLVV<;, y Avtrcra, rj oTcrrpo';, y i;^pi9, 77 Kevravpo?, ly Ttrav, 
 ■7 Ftyas, y 'Iv8o5, ^ Tptrwv. Ta;>(a 8e Kat ttoXis, Kat IIpt'a/Aos, kol Ilct^w, 
 Koi M-ovcraLf kol 'Opat, Kat Mi^aKov vvfiffiaL, Koi IIActaSc?, Kat diraTy, 
 xat fJiiOy, Kat ok^os, Kat <ji06vo<s. dXXd ravra p,€V dv etyy Kat Kco/xtKct, 
 
 Ilcpt TrpocroiTTOiV l^arvpiKwy. 
 
 "SoLTvpLKd Se Trpoo'WTra, ^ari^pos ttoXios, iSarvpos yevctwv, ^arvpos aye- 
 vctos, ^ctXi^j/os TraTTTTOs. Ttt 8' aXXa, o/xoia ra Trpoo-WTra, ttXt^i/ oVotg ck 
 T(3v ovoftctTwv at TrapaXXayat 8r7XovvTai, wo-Trcp Kat d Trdinras 6 ^etXryvds 
 To^v tSeav ccrrt Oypioi^icrTcpo^;, 
 
 Ilcpt TrpO(T(i)7r(t)V KO)/XlK(jJV. 
 
 143 Ta 8e KWjatKa TrpocroiTra, ra /xev tt7S TraXatas Koy/xioStas, (os cTrtTroXv rots 
 Trpoo-wTTOts wv eKOifXijoSovv ctTreiKa^eTo, ^ cTrt to ycXoioTepoi/ ia-xyp-dricrTO. 
 ra 8e r^s vea?, TraTTTros Trpwros, TrctTrTros €Tepo<;, Tjyc/xwv, 7rp€(TpvTy<; fxaKpo- 
 TTuyyoiV, y eTTto-ctwv, 'Ep/xwveto?, o-^TyvoTrcoywv, AvKo/xyBiO'S, Tropvo^ocrKo?, 
 'Ep/xoji/t05 SevTcpo?. ouTot p,cv yepovre?, d p-ej/ Trpwro? TraTTTTo?, irpea-^v- 
 T(XT0<5, Iv XP<5 Kovptas, TjpcpwTaros ras dcfipvs, evyeVeto?, iVxvds rag Trapetas, 
 ttJv o«//^tv Ka7y<f>y^, XevKo? to xpiofxa, to Trpdo-wTroir, to /xiroiTrov VTrd^atSpos. 
 
 144 d 8' €T€pos TraTTTTO?, t(7XVOTepo9, Kat ivTOvwrepos to ySXe/x/xa, Kat XvTry^pd?, 
 {;7ro);)(po9, evyevetos, TrvpaoOpi^, toTOKaTa^ta?. d 8e yycfioiv Trpco-jSvTys 
 (TT^cfidvyv rpv)(Jov Trept tiJv KecjiaXyv e;(€, CTrtypvTro?, TrXaruTrpdo-coTro?, tt;}/ 
 ocjipvv dvarircLTaL ryv 8€^iav. d 8c Trpcapyry^ p.aKpo7ro>yajv Kat cTrto-ctW 
 a-T€c})dvr]v Tpi^'J^v TrepX ryv Ke(fiaXyv e^e, eviriayoiv 8' eo-Tt, Kat ouk dvariTarai 
 Ttts dcftpv'?, viodpd<; hk ttJv oi//^ti/. o 8e 'Epp,(oj/tos, dva<jiaXavTia<s, euTrwytoi/, 
 dvaTirarai Ta? oc^pOs, to /SXe/jiixa opLfiv<;. 6 Sk 7ropvo^o(TKo<s raXXa fikv 
 eoLK€ T(3 AvKOjxySeLia, rd Sk X^^^l ^'^oaea-ype, kol avvdyet Tag 6cf)pvs, kol 
 ara^aXavTta? icTTiV, y cf>aXaKp6^. o Bk hevrepos ^pfnovcos, OL7re^vpyfJievo<s 
 
 145 coTTt Kat (TcfiyvoTrioyoiv. [d 8e o-cfyyvoTrwyoiv, dvacfiaXavTLas, ocj^pvs dvare- 
 Ta/xivai, o^vyiveios, v7ro8vo-Tpo7ro9.] d 8e AvKOfxySeLos, ovX6koixo<;, fxa- 
 Kpoy€V€Lo<5, dvaT€tv€L ryv kripav 6<^pvv, iroXvirpayixoavvyv TrapevSetKvvTai. 
 
 146 Tot 8€ T(J3v veai/to-Kwv, Tray )(py err o<; vcavtVKos, /xeXas v^aytcrKos, ouXos veavL- 
 aK0<5, aTraXd?, dypoiKo^, i7rL(T€L(TT0<;, B^vrepos €7rto"€to-Tos, KoXa^, 7rapd(rLT0<;, 
 
VOCABULARY OF THE DKAMA. 365 
 
 ctKoviKO?, StKcXiKo'S. o jxev 7rdyxpW'''^^y vTripv6po<i, yvfXvacTTLKOs, vttok^- 
 ;(pa)o-/xei/o9, pvTtSas oXtyas €)(U)V cttI tov /aercoTrov, Kat crT€<f>ain]v rpL)(<2v, 
 Tavacra/xcvos ras o<^pu9. d 8c /xcXa? vcavto-K09, vecurepo?, KaOeLp.cvo'i ras otpfiv^, 
 TTCTratSev/xa/o), ^ cf}L\oyvfxvacrTfj ioLKws. 6 8c ovAos veavi'crKO?, KaA.09, vcos, 147 
 Kat v7r€pv6po<; ro yjio^ixa. at 8€ rptx'^';, Kara rovvo/xa. ocfipvs avareTarai, 
 Kol pvri? €7rt TOV /xeTOJTTOv /jtta {xovov. 6 Se aTraAos veavtcrKog, TpL)(a.<i fxev 
 Kara, tov 7ray^7yo"TOv, vdvTOJV Bk vcwraTO?, AevKOS, crKLaTpo<f)La^, aTraXo- 
 TT^ra v7ro87;X(ijv. to) Se dypoLKio to fxev ■^(jiQp.a ^cXatVcrat, ra Se X^'-^V 
 TrXarca, Kat t; pt? (Tt/xry, Kat orcc^avTy rpt^cov. T(3 8c i—LacLOTco, crTpaTiajTy 
 ovTL KOL aXa^oVt, Kat 7~);v ;)(potav /xcXavt Kat tt};' Koixrjv, iTncreLOVTai at Tpt;)(€9j 
 uxrircp Koi ro) S€VT€p(j^ cTrtcrctWo), ciTraXcoTcpa) ovTt, Kat ^av^o) rvyv KOfxrjv. 
 KoXa^ 8e, Kat 7rapd(nT0<;, p,cXavc9, ov /X7;v c^w TraXatcrrpas, cTrtyprTTOt, 148 
 ctVa^ct?. T<3 8c Trapacrtro) fxdWov Kareayc ra wra, Kat ^at8poTcpos 
 ccTTtv, wcnrep 6 KoXa^ avarcTarat KaKorjOecrripws ra? d^pvs. o 8c 
 ctKovtKo? €;>(€t /xev cvco'Trapp.o'a? ras TroXta?, Kat aTro^rparat to ycvctov, 
 €v-dpvcf30's 8' coTt Kat ^evos. o 8e StKcXtKog TrapacrtTo's ccrTt TpLT0<i. Ta 
 
 8c 8ovX(OV TTpOCThiTTa KOO/XtKtt, TTaTTTTO?, T^yC/XOJV, OepdlTOiV, KCtTO) TpiX^a<i, 7] KUTO) 
 
 T€TpLxoifJ.€vo<;, ^cpa— tov ovXo9, OcpaTTOiv IMatVojv, Oepd-n-iov Tcrrtl, T/yc/xojv 
 
 llTLa-UaTO'i. 6 fJ.€V TTClTTTrOS /XOVOS Tci3v ^CpaTTOVTCOV TToXtds CCTTt, Kat Sr]\o2 1-49 
 
 aTTcXcv^cpov. d 8e ■^yep.ojv OepaTTwv cnriipav €;^et Tpt;!(t3v Trvppwv, avarcraKC 
 Tas oc^pvs, OT^'P'ttyct to cTrto^Kvi/tov, toiovtos ev TOts 8ovXot9, otos cv TOts 
 cXcv^epots Trp€al3vT'r]<s T7yep.(uv. d 8c kcxtoj Tptx^as rj KdTUi Tcrpt;^a)p.cVo9, 
 ava<^aXavTtas co-Tt, Kat TTvppoOpi^, CTn^p/utevos Tas 6(f>pvs. 6 Be ov\o<; $€pd- 
 TTWv, Sr;Xot yxev Tct? Tpt;y(as* cto"! 8c Trvppal, wcnrep kol to ;(pc3p,a* Kat 
 ava<f>a\avTLa<; iaTL, kol 8tacrTpo<^os tt^v di/^tv. d 8c Oepdiriov Matcrwv, 150 
 ^aXttKpd?, 7rvpp6<: i(TTLV. 6 Sk O^pdiruiV tctti^, p,cXa9, c^aXaKpd?, 8ta- 
 (rTpocf>o<; TTjv oif/iv, Svo rj Tpta ^ocTTpvx'-a fxiXava iTrLK€Lix€vo<5, Kat ofxoia 
 ev Tw ycvciw. d 8c CTrtcrctcTTOS T/yc/xtov cotKC tw yyefxovi OepdirovTi, 
 TrXrjv TTcpt Tct? TpLxa<;. Ta Se yvvaiKwv, ypdSiov icr^vdv ^ XvKaivtov, 
 ypav9 7ra;(cta, ypdBiov otKOvpdv, ^7 otKCTtKov, ^ dfeV. to /u,ev XvKaivtov, 
 v-o/iv^KCs. pvTtScs XcTTTat', Kat TTVKvat' XcvKov, v7r(o;)(pov, (TTpef^Xov TO 
 d/xyaa. ?; 8c 7ra;(cta ypavs 7ra;)(€tas c;)(Ct pirrt8as ev ciVapKta, Kat Tatvt- lol 
 8tov Ta9 TpLxas TTcptXayu-^avov. to 8c oiKOvpdv ypdhiov, crtp,dv, cv cKaTcpot 
 T]7 (TtayovL ava 8vo c;)(ct yofx^iovq. vctov 8e yvvatKOJV Trpdo'coTra, XeKTLKrj, 
 ovXrj, Kopr], if/evBoKoprj, CTcpa if/evBoKoprj, CTTrapTOTrdXtos XcktckiJ, TraX- 
 XaK?;, cTatptKov TcXctov, €Tatpt8tov tupatov, 8ta;>^vo-os CTatpa, cTatpa 8ta- 
 jMLTpos, Xa/X7ra8tov, a(3pa 7r€pLKOvpo<;, ^€pa7ratvi8tov 7rapd\f/r)(TTov. 77 yacv 152 
 XeKTLKT], 7r€pLKOiJ.o<;, tja-vxij 7rape\}/7]ix€vai at TpLX^<;, opOai d(^pves, XP^'^ 
 \€vktJ. -q Bk ovXrj, Trj TpiX'^o-€L irapaWdTTCL. 77 8c Kop?;, hidKpicnv ex^c 
 Trapexfrrjixivojv tcuv Tpt;^a)v, Kat dp^as 6clipv<;, kol p-cXatva?, Kat Xcvko- 
 Tr/Ta VTTw^po^ €V T^ XP^V* 'Z ^^ if/evSoKopr], XevKOTipa ttJv XP^^^f '^^' 
 TTcpt to /Speyixa 8e8cTat Ttis Tpt^a?, Kat coikc veoyap.aj. 77 8c cTcpa 
 
366 JULIUS POLLUX ON THE VOCABULARY OF THE DRAMA. 
 
 153 il/evSoKopTj, SiaytV(ocrK€Tai fiovio to) ahiaKpiTta t^<; K6fxr)<;. 97 Se cnrapTO- 
 ttoXlos XcKTiKii] Br]XoL T(3 ovofxaTL rrjv tSeav, fxr)vv€L Be kraipav Tre.Travp.ivrjv 
 rrjs T€)(yr]^. tj Be, TraXXaKyj Tavrrj fxev €olk€, TrepiKOfxos 8' €(ttlv. to Bk 
 riXeiov eratpiKoV, 7175 xj/evBoKoprjs icTTlv ipvOporepoVy kol (SoarTpvxov^ e^ec 
 Trepl Ttt (Sra. to Bk eTaipiBiov aKoXXonna-Tov Icttl^ ratviSto) rrjv K€(f>aXrjv 
 7r€pL€<T(f)LyfX€V0v. "^ Bk 8ta;j(/ovcros kracpa ttoXvv c;(€t rov xpvaov ctti Trj 
 
 154 Kofxr), -q Bk Sia/xtrpos haipa fxirpa TrotKLXrj tt^i/ K€<f>aX'rjv KarctXryTrrat. 
 TO Bk XapiTrdBiov IBiav 7pix<Zv €)(€L TrA-cy/xaros ds oiv aTToXryyovTO?, a^ 
 ov Kttt KiKXrp-ai, y Bk afSpa TreptKovpos, OepairaiviBiov i(TTL irepiKeKap- 
 ixivov, XLTiovL fJiovia v7rc^ojcr/x,ci/a) Xcvkw -^ixtfxevov. to Bk Trapdil/rja-Tov 
 OepaiTaLViBioVf BtaKeKpiTai Tcis Tptxas, VTrocnfJiov T€ cctti kol BovXevei erat- 
 paL<s, VTre^wa-fxevov ^trwi/a KOKKo(3a<fir}. 
 
 
PART III. 
 
 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREEK DRAMATISTS. 
 
ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 GREEK DRAMATISTS. 
 
 I. LANGUAGE. 
 
 ATTENTION lias been already directed to the fact that the different 
 -^^ origin of the dialogue and chorus in a Greek play is indicated by a 
 corresponding difference of dialect, and that, while the dialogues repre- 
 sent the spoken language of the poet's age and country, with some few 
 traditions derived from the Ionic of the rhapsodes, the choruses are more 
 or less tinged with the conventional Doric of lyric poetry. The basis, 
 however, of the whole dramatic style of the Greeks was the Attic dialect 
 of the period during which the great dramatists flourished ; and while we 
 have the older Attic in ^schylus, we find in Sophocles, Euripides, and 
 Aristophanes all the characteristics of the middle Attic of Thucydides, 
 and in the fragments of Menander and the other poets of the New 
 Comedy we have the language of Athens as it was spoken by Demos- 
 thenes or written by Aristotle. In briefly noticing the successive 
 changes of the tragic style, we shall begin with those Epic, ^olic, and 
 Doric pecidiarities which are found in the dramatists, and then examine 
 the standard of theii' Atticism. 
 
 I. Eiyic Forms in the Dramatists. 
 
 Besides the common forms ^eVo9, ixovoq, yovara, K6po<;, Sopt, ©paKc?, 
 ^a)>7, the di'amatists wrote ^etvos, [xovvo<;, yovvara, Kovpo<;, Sovpt, &pfJK€<;, ^orf. 
 We also find ovvofxa (Soph. Fhil. 251), ctAto-crw, eivcKa (New Cratylus, § 277), 
 cimXios (Eurip. Plicen. 6), Katco, /cXatw, cA-ata (see Person, Prcef. Hec. p. 4, 
 Hermann, Prcef. Ajac. p. 18), atero?, atet or aliv (Pors. Pra^J. Hec. p. 4, 
 and Herm. Prcef. Hec. p. 21), ecro-o/xat, fxeaa-o^, ttoWos, by the side of the 
 Attic ovofxa, eXio-ao}, cvcKa, ivaXtos, kolo), kA-ciw, eXaa, aero?, aet, ecrofxai, 
 j-U(To<s, 7roA.v5. The dative plural in -crt or -(tlv is used whenever the 
 D.T.G. 24 
 
370 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 metre requires it. ^schylus does not hesitate to substitute a for v in 
 the 3 pers. pi. of the optative middle, as in iKo-io^oLaro for €K(tw^olvto 
 (Pers. 449). We have also occasional lonisms like vr]6<s for vews (JEsch. 
 Fers. 424), rjixrjv (Soph. Track. 24), kclvov (ibid. 495), kUl<s (^sch. Choeph. 
 678), tVevos (Soph. Phil. 494), KovX^i^iv (Soph. Aj. 730), y\v6ov (Eurip. 
 Electr. 593). The pronoun generally used as the article appears in the 
 oblique cases as a substitute for the relative (^sch. Agam. 628, 642; 
 Choeph. 596; Eumen. 322, 878, 919; Su2-)pl. 262, 301, 516, 579; Soph. 
 Phil. 1112; (Ed. Col. 35-, (Ed. R. 1379), and in the demonstrative use we 
 have even rot 8e for ot Se (^sch. Pers. 424). The use of vlv for avrov is 
 common enough, and we even find ^xiv (Soph. Trach. 388). The reflexive 
 cr<^€ is a perfectly general pronoun of reference in ^schylus (e. g. it is = au- 
 Tov, Sept. c. Theh. 451; avrov, Suppl. 502; avras, Sept. c. Tlieh. 846). It 
 is extremely doubtful if a^iv can be used for oi. In -^sch. Pers. 759, 
 Soph. (Ed. C. 1490, it may be understood as for cr(}>LaLv. It is also an 
 open question whether such a form as eXeetvos is allowable in the Greek 
 dramatists (Pors. Prcef. Rec. p. 7; Lobeck ad Soph. Aj. 421). The 
 rare forms Tjo-v^torcpos (Soph. Antig. 1089) and <f)i\La-To<: (Soph. Aj. 842) 
 may perhaps be regarded as Ionic. Also Kpv^ets for K^vySet? (Aj. 1124). 
 There can be little doubt that an epic tradition suggested the occasional 
 omission of the augment in the speeches of the messengers (Matthia, Gr. 
 Gr. § 160, Obs., see below, iv. 1). Uncontracted forms such as evpoosy 
 v6o<5, pUOpov, are sometimes though very rarely found in the dramatists. 
 Valckenaer rejects the particle T^Se for Kai (ad Phcen. 1683), but it occurs 
 more than ten times in -^schylus, in two fragments of Sophocles (345, 
 493, Dind.), and in Euripides, Hec. 323, Here. Fur. 30. 
 
 II. jEolic Forms in the Dramatists. 
 
 The most common holism is the substitution of TreSa for /xera in 
 compounds, such as TrcSapcrio?, TreSaopos, TreSat'xjW'io?, and this occurs even 
 in dialogue (^sch. Prom. 711; Choeph. 843; see Yalcken. ad Eurip. 
 Phoeniss. 1034). We have also fidaaoiv (^sch. Pers. 432, 694; Agam. 
 584), yXvcraro)v (Aristoph. ap. Etym. M. p. 235), and similar forms, if 
 these are to be regarded as ^olisms. A more decided instance is sup- 
 plied by opavLav, which the metre requires in the Suppl. 788; cf Alcseus : 
 vei fjikv 6 Zev?, ck 8' opavw /xeya? ')(€L}X(av. And see Buttmann, Lexil. 
 p. 200, Engl. Tr. 
 
 III. Doric Forms in the Dramatists. 
 
 In the choruses, for the reasons already given, a certain amount of 
 Dorism is invariably found, such as the substitution of a for -q, e.g. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 371 
 
 veoTtts for vcott^?, fJLarrjp for ixTJrrjp, Trarptwrav for TrarpLWTrjv, Si8v/xav for 
 SiSvfxrjvj also wixf^av for wfj.(j>a.oii/, vv/x<^cui/, jSapvfSpeixiTa for /^apv/^pe/xeVao, 
 Papvl3p€fji€Tov, and tlie like. 
 
 In the dialogue we have 'A^ava, Sapo?, cKart, Koipavov, apape, yafxapo^^ 
 yaTTOTos, yaOovaa, eKa/36\o<5, Kwayog, TroSayos, Xo;(ayos, ^vv-ayo?, 07ra8os (Pors. 
 W O^^est. 26; Yalcken. ad Phceniss. 11, 1113; Eijypol. 1092, &c.), apape 
 (Pors. ad Orest 1323 j Valcken. ad Hippol. 1090). Some Doric forms 
 peculiar to ^schylus have been ascribed to his familiarity with the 
 dialect of Sicily (above, p. 97). 
 
 IV. Tlte Attic Dialect of the Tragedians, and Aristophanes. 
 
 (1) As a general rule the augment is always prefixed in the indefi- 
 nite tenses of the indicative mood in the dialogue of Ti-agedy (\'ide 
 Person, Prcef. Hec. p. iv, cf. Wellauer ad jEsch. Pers. 302). There are 
 some few exceptions, as in the case of XPl^^ avtoya, Ka0€t,6ixr]v, KaOyjixrjv, 
 &c. (Poi-s. Suppl. Prcef. Hec. p. xvi). When the verb begins with the 
 diphthong cu- the temporal augment is rarely expressed; thus evpov and 
 €vpr}Ka are more common than r}vpov, rjvprjKa (see Donaldson, Gr. Gr. 
 p. 196, note). We have both ctKao-a and yKaaa, and the forms ctKa^ov, 
 i$eLKacrfX€va, &c. are supported by the best authorities. We have also 
 both dvfjXoio-a and dvdXoiaa (cf. Yalcken. ad Phcen. p. 222; Hermann, 
 ad Soph. Aj. 1049). It -has been suggested by Matthia (§ 160, Obs.) that 
 the occasional omission of the augment in long speeches by the mes- 
 sengers may be explained by the narrative and epic character of these 
 descriptions, but even here it is limited to the beginning of a line or of 
 a new sentence; and Hermann (Prcef Bacch. pp. L — Lv) has given the 
 following special rules for the cases in which the augment may be 
 omitted : 
 
 "Prima est: verbum fortius, in quo augment! accessio aal'psestum 
 facit, in principio versus positum, addi augmentum postulat : 
 eyevovTO Krj^a ©ecrrtaSt rpets TrapOevou 
 
 " Secunda : verbum fortius, in quo augmenti accessio non facit ana- 
 psestum, in principio versus positum, carere potest augmento : 
 acyrjae 8' aWyp' 
 KTVTrr](j€ fjilv Zevs )(06vlos' 
 TraLOVT, eOpavov' 
 
 TnTTTOV 8' CTT d\X'i]XoL(TLV. 
 
 "Tertia: ejusdemmodi verbum, si incipit sententiam, videtur etiam 
 in medio versu carere augmento posse : quale foret illud, ea, qua, supra 
 dictum est, conditione : 
 
 24—2 
 
372 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 yvfxvovvTO Se 
 TrXcvpat cr7rapayixoi<;. 
 
 " Quarta : verbum minus forte, sive facit augment! accessio anapses- 
 tum, sive non facit, in principio versus positum, si ultra primum pedem 
 porrigitur, caret augmento : yodro' Otjjviev. 
 
 " Quinta: ejusdemmodi verbum si non ultra primum pedem porrigi- 
 tur, ut detracto augmento parum numerosum, aut vitatur, ut Kaves, aut 
 cum alia forma commutatur, ut KaXct cum KaXct." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the omission of the augment in the 
 choruses is an incident of the dialect in which they are supposed to be 
 written (see Monk ad Alcest. 599). On the augment in general, see 
 Donaldson's Greek Grammar, pp. 194, 201, 248. 
 
 (2) The more genuine forms in -cro-, as Trpao-o-w, eXacro-wv, are pre- 
 ferred to the later forms in -tt, as TrpaxTO), eA-aTrwv, though the more 
 recent form is occasionally found; thus we have Trparro) (Soph. Ant. 564), 
 iXarrov (Soph. Electr. 998), Kpetrrwi/ {ibid. 1465), rjTrinv (Eur. Hec. 274) 
 (see Valcken. ad Eurip. Phoen. 406, 1388). 
 
 (3) Similarly, apa-rjv and 6ap<7(2 are preferred to the later assimila- 
 tions appr]v and OappQ (see Porson ad Eurip. Hec. 8; Phcen. 54). 
 
 (4) The second person singular of the pres. and fut. indie, middle 
 or passive is generally contracted from -cat into -€t in the older Attic, 
 and this form is invariably foimd in the fut. oi/^et, and ii) the pres. fiovkei 
 and otct, which are thus distinguished from the subj. j^ovXr) and oty; 
 the form -€t is also to be preferred in Aristophanes; but -y is most 
 common in the MSS. of the tragedians (Donaldson, Gr. Gr. p. 253). 
 
 (5) In the past tense of oTSa, the forms T^Setv, ^Set?, rjSa or rjSuv are 
 more common in the tragedians than ySr], -^Srjs or ySrjaOa. The dual 
 and plural are ya-rov, ^orr-qv, ^Sct/xei/ or ricrpiev, rjaTC, ^Seto-av or yaav. The 
 perfect emKa makes in the plur. eoty/xev and ci^acrt. 
 
 (6) Porson remarks (ad Med. 744) that the tragedians never sub- 
 stitute the verb in -vw for that in -u/x,i, and that this change very rarely 
 occurs in the Old Comedy. He also denies (ad Or est. 141) that the 
 dramatic style admits of such forms as TtOeL<;, ^vi/tets, &c. for tlOtj's, ivvLrj<;, 
 &c. But in order to sustain this rule it is necessary to alter the text in 
 several passages (see Buttmann, Aus/iihrl. Gr. Spr. p. 523; Matth. Gr. 
 Gr. § 201, 1, note; cf. § 212, 7). 
 
 (7) In the imperf of the substantive verb, the tragedians used to 
 write -7, r}(T6a, r/v (Cobet, ]Vov(E Lectiones, p. 187). 
 
 (8) The forms kXt^?, KkfjOpovy KXyo), &c. are more common in the 
 dramatists than kXcis, KXeiOpov, kXciw, <fec. Similarly, nouns in -€v<;, as 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 373 
 
 ^ao■lXc^9, tTTTTcv?, form their nom. pi. in rjs, as /3a(nXrjs, iTnrfjs. The 
 accus. pi. of these nouns ends in -eas, but we have rovs re Sto-o-apxo-s 
 oAeWas ySao-iXets in Soph. Aj. 383, and it seems not improbable that we 
 ought to restore cftovets for (f>oveas in ^sch. Ag. 1296. 
 
 (9) The following is the declension of vavs in the dramatists ; 
 
 Sing. PI. 
 
 N. V. vai;s m€9, vrjc% 
 
 G. vaos, V7]6% v€(os vawv, i/7;(ov, vcwv 
 
 D. i/at, vi7t vavtrt 
 
 A. vavv, vfja, via vfja';, veas, vavs 
 
 (10) In the second declension we have often -ews for -aos, as in 
 vews for vaos, tAecos for tXaos, Meve'Aecos for MeveXaos, &c. 
 
 (11) Both TrAeos and TrAecus are common in the dramatists. 
 
 (12) The gen. pi. of yoVu is not only yovdrwv or yowdroiv, but also 
 yowwi/j 8opv has gen, sing. Sopos, dat. Sopi', Ion. Sovptj x^'-P ^^^^ both 
 X^i-pos and x^pos, &c. 
 
 (13) The proper names 'AttoAAwv and^'Apr;? have the following pe- 
 culiarities of inflexion : 'AttoXXcdv, ace. 'ATroXkiova and 'AttoAAo) j "AprjSj 
 gen. "Apeos, dat. "Apet, accus. ''Apryv and "Ap?;. 
 
 (14) There are many passages in Sophocles where Svo is required 
 by an elision or the necessity for a short syllable; none, excepting about 
 four, where the word occurs at the end of a line, in which the form Svtu 
 would be admissible. The form Svolvy on the other hand, seems prefer- 
 able to Sveiv. 
 
 (15) In the pronouns we have Ketvos as well as eKcivosj o-W€v as 
 well as crov; and otov, orw, orots are preferred to ovtlvos, ^tlvl, oXcTTLcn. 
 
 (16) In the verbs the genuine forms of the imperative plural are 
 retained; thus we have SpwvTojv instead of Sparwo-av, cTrtxatpdvTwi/ instead 
 of eTTtxatpeTOJcrav, ac^atpetV^cov instead of dffiaLpeLaOoicrav, TVTTTiarOuiv in- 
 stead of TV7rT€a$oi(Tav, &c. 
 
 (17) Yerbs of which the future ends in -ao-w, -ea-w, -to-w, -oau) drop 
 the (T and contract the resulting syllables. Thus we have o-xcSw, KaXw, 
 otKTtw, o/xov/xaL, for axcSacra), Ka\eo-co, olKTicroi, o/xo(To/xat. But this con- 
 traction does not take place when the syllable preceding the -acrw, -icrwy 
 &c. is long by nature or position. Thus we never adopt this contracted 
 
 form for aTt/xacro), apKccrw, alviao), &c. 
 
 (18) The genuine forms of the reduplication are preserved in yiyvo- 
 ^at and ytyvwo-Kw, and there seems to be no sufficient reason for ever 
 
374 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 substituting the later ylvojxai and yivwa-Kco in tlie texts of the dra- 
 matists. 
 
 (1 9) Yerbals in -ros retain or omit the or between the root and ter- 
 mination, according to the caprice of the poet ; thus we have aSa/xaros in 
 Soph. (Ed. T. 205, 1315, but dSdfjia(rTo<s in Aj. 445, seemingly from the 
 exigencies of the metre in the former cases. There is a distinction of 
 meaning in yvwo-ros, "intelligible," and yi/coros, "known;" but we have 
 ayvcocrro?, dK\avaTo<;, cvyvwcrrog, dK6p€aT0<;, 7rdyK\avaT0<s Avithout any dif- 
 ference of signification by the side of ayvwros, aKXavro?, evyi/coro?, ctKo/ae- 
 Tos, 7rdyK\avTos, which are also supported by MS. authority. Some of 
 these verbals, as /xe/x7rrog, ttio-tos, {jTroTrro?, are used with an active as 
 well as a passive signification (see Person ad Hec. 1117). 
 
 (20) Both dvvoi and dvvTOi are found in the dramatists, the former 
 more frequently, though Porson prefers the latter (ad Phoen. 463, Hec. 
 1157, cf Hermann ad Soph. Electr. 1443). 
 
 (21) In the particles we may notice the forms ^vv for avv, h for ei?, 
 ecro) for cicrw, evt for iv, dirat, 8tat', vTrat for ctTro, Sid, vtto, as occurring 
 either regularly or occasionally in the dramatists. We have eiv "AtSov 
 86fxoi<; in Soph. Antig. 1226, and etmAtog, ih. 346. For IvravOoi, which 
 is sometimes found in the text, we should read ivrevOev or ivravOi. (see 
 I^ew Cratylus, § 139); and when owcKa appears as a preposition, it 
 should be changed into elVcKa {N. Ci^at. § 277). For avOi'i we have both 
 avTts and aure. It is doubtful whether jw,€;)(pts occurs in Greek Tragedy 
 (see the commentators on Soph. Aj. 5Qd>). 
 
 (22) Porson lays it down that the tragic writers preferred ix^aipoi 
 to e^^patvco and layxiivia to W^Q/aivia {ad Orest. 292; Med. 555); but the 
 MSS. sometimes give such forms as ixOpavel (Soph. Antig. 93), ixOpavrios 
 {Aj. 664), ia-xvaivui (^sch. From. 269, 380; Eum. 267, &c.). It is also 
 proposed to substitute ttvcv/awv for TrXev/xwv in those passages in which 
 the MSS. give the latter (Pors. ad Eur. Orest. 271); KvdirTUi is con- 
 sidered more Attic than yvctTTTw, though the MSS. vary (see commen- 
 tators on Soph. Aj. 1010); and though /xiKpos is sometimes required by 
 the metre, there can be no doubt that or/xt/cpos is much more common in 
 the dramatists (see Hermann ad Soph. Electr. 1113; Elmsley ad Eur. 
 Med. 361). 
 
 (23) Compound adjectives in -og are generally of two genders only, 
 and the same is frequently the case with adjectives in -i/>tos; but if there 
 is any possibility of a doubt as to the gender, the feminine inflexion is 
 used; thus we have dXKL/xa ^cog when a goddess is intended (Soph. Aj. 
 395); but it would have been dXKLjxos ded. Adjectives in -ag, -aSog, are 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 375 
 
 properly feminine only; but they are used even with neuter nouns, as 
 fxavid(TLv Xva-a-tjiJLaa-i, 8pofjiA(TL ^Xc<^a/)ois (see Pors. ad Or est. 264). 
 
 (2-4) The -I of the dative must not be elided in dramatic poetry (see 
 Lobeck ad Soph. Aj. 802, p. 350, ed. 2). The same rule applies to n', 
 OTL, and irepi 
 
 {2o) The elision of -e in a verbal termination before the particle av 
 is extremely rare (Elmsley ad Burijy. Med. 416). 
 
 {^^) Diphthongs are not elided, but form a crasis with the following 
 vowel ; except ot/x' ws for oi/xot w?. 
 
 (27) The following are the most usual erases in Attic Greek poetry: 
 
 (a) Crasis of the Article. 
 
 o + a = d, as o a.vy]p = dinjp^ to aWo = rakXo, to apyvpiov = rapyvpiov. 
 
 o + € = ov, as o e^ = ov^j 6 iTri^ovXeouiv = ovTn/SovXevwv, to evTcpov = tovv- 
 
 Tcpov. 
 o + 7] = r]j as TO yjixLcrv = O-^fiuTV (Ai'ist. Lys. 115). 
 o + L = oL, as TO IfjidTLov = Ool/xoiTLov (wluch is the only example of this 
 
 crasis). 
 o + o = ov, as TO ovofxa = Towo/xa. 
 
 + v = v, as TO vSoyp = OvSwp (Crates aj:). Meinek, ii. 238). 
 o + at = at, as TO aljxa = OaLfxa, to oItlov = TatTtov. 
 o + av = av, as c' auros = avros, to avro = TavTO. 
 o + ot = 0), as o ol^vpos = w^vpos. 
 77 + a = d, as 7] dp^TTi = dp€Trj, Trj dp^Trj = TapeTfj. 
 
 7] (or rj) + € = r], as y ifjcyj = "ijfJ^TJ, "^ euo-e/Jeta = rjvcre/BeLa, rrj ifxyj = Ty/Jirj. 
 ov + a = a, as Toi? dvSpos = TdvSp6<;, tov avTov = TavTOV, tov 'Aya/Ac/xi/oi/os 
 
 — Tdyafxiixvovos. 
 ov + € (or o or v) = ov, as tov ip^ov = Tovfxov, tov Ik^Wcv — TovKuOev, tov 
 
 ovecSovs = TovveiSot)?, tov vSaTos = ^ouSaTOS (but some read ^vSaTO?, 
 
 see Arist. Ltjs. 370). 
 ov + 7] — rj, as TOV tjXlov = OtJXlov. 
 ov + ov = ov, as Tou ovpavov = Tovpavov. 
 <i) + a = a, as tw dvaKTL = TavaKTt. 
 
 (0 + € (or o) — oj, as T(3 e/xw = tw/xo), to) oveipio = Tooveipo). 
 o) + t = o), as TO) i/jtarto) = ^oj/xaTtw. 
 
 at or ot+a=a, as ot dvSpes = dvSpe<g, at apcTat = apcTat, ot avTOc = avTOL. 
 ot4-€ = ov, as ot c/xot = ov/xot, ot €I/ = OVV. 
 at + € = at, as at iKKXiqaiat — alKKXrjcrLai. 
 a + a (or e or at) = a, as ra aAXa = TaAAa, Ta avTa = ravTa, ra Ik = Ta^, 
 
376 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 but rd alaxpd = Talaxpo., for which some read rda-xfx^ (Eurip. Troad. 384; 
 
 Hippol. 505). 
 a + o (or 0) or ol or ov) = w, as ra oVXa = ^wTrXa, ra wpvea = Tojpvea, to. 
 
 olc,vpa = Tw^vpd, rd ovpdvLa = T(r>pdv la, to oiKtStov = TWKtStov. 
 
 The crasis of the article with Ir^pos exhibits the following forms : 
 Sing, drepos, drepa, Odrepov, Odripov, Odripta, OaTepa. 
 Plur. drcpoL, arcpat, Odrepa. 
 
 (b) Crasis of Kat. 
 
 Before a, at, av, cl, ev, i, rj, oi, ov, v, oo, the crasis of Kat is formed by 
 striking out at; as Kaya^o?, Kala^vvrj, Kavros, KCts, k€vOv^, ^tKCTev^Te, 
 ^(tAca)?, ^y, ^ot, Kov, ^uSaroSj xvTrip, ^wrivt. But Kat ctra = Kara. 
 Kat + € = Ka or ;(a, as Kat €Tt = KaTt, Kat crepos = ;>(aT€pos. 
 Kat + o = KO) (or ^w), as Kat o$v ~ kw^v, kol ocra = )(wcra, Kat o = ^(w, Kat 
 oo-Tis = x^^'^''^ j ^^* *^is crasis does not take place with the simple 
 relative os. 
 
 (c) In other words the crasis is generally regulated by the forms 
 given under the crasis of the article; thus we have a^tw eyw^a^tw 'yw, 
 tS dvOpwTre = tov^pcoTre, dyopd Iv — dyopd V, cyco ot3a = cywSa, eyco ot/xat = 
 cyw/xat, TOL dpa = rdpa, tol dv = raV, /xot ecTTt = [xovo-tl, Treptoxf/ofiaL direXOov- 
 ra = TrepLoij/oixdTrcXOovTa (Aristoph. Man. 509), o i^epw = ov^epw, Sy^ojxai 
 dpa = Syjiofiapapa {Acharn. 325), et eTrtTa^o/x-ecr^a = et VtTa|o/xeo-^a, *Ep/xa 
 c/A7roA.ate = 'Ep/xa '/XTroXatc, jitov d(f>€X.rjS = fJ'-dcfiiXrj'S (Soph. P/wY. 903), fxaKpov 
 dTTOTravdoi — fxaKpov VoTravo^w. 
 
 (28) Synizesis, which is incipient contraction or crasis, and pro- 
 duces the effect of one of these without representing it to the eye, occurs 
 either in the same word or between two words. 
 
 (a) In the same word, as in 
 
 ea pronounced ya in foveas, &c. 
 
 60 yO ... ^€0t, &c. 
 
 CO) yo ... TToXews, &c. 
 
 vo wo . . . BvoiVj &c. 
 
 (b) Between two words, as in y ov, fxrj ov, eVet ov, fxr) elSevai, r) 
 ctSoVws, eyw ct/xt, cyw ov, tVro) '}ipaKXrj<s, w EvptTrtSi;, in which the effect 
 is that of an improper crasis. 
 
 (29) There are a few instances of arbitrary diroKomj in the Greek 
 dramatists; thus we have Trav for Trave (Arist. IJqu. 821), Siati/ for Staii^e 
 (^sch. Fers. 1083), dp. for a>a (Arist. Vesp. 570). 
 
 (30) The syntax of the dramatists is that of the best Attic writers, 
 and must be learned in extenso from a good Greek grammar. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 
 
 377 
 
 II. TRAGIC AND COMIC METRES\ 
 
 The principal verses of a regular kind are Iambic, Trochaic, and 
 Anapestic. 
 
 The scansion in all of them is by dipodias or sets of two feet. 
 Each set is called a Metre. 
 
 The structure of verse is such a division of each line by the words 
 composing it as forms a movement most agreeable to the ear. 
 
 The metrical ictus, occurring twice in each dipodia, seems to have 
 struck the ear in pairs, being more strongly marked in the one place 
 than in the other. Accordingly, each pair was once marked by the per- 
 cussion of the musician's foot. Fede ter percusso is Horace's phrase 
 when speaking of what is called Iambic Trimeter. 
 
 Those syllables which have the metrical ictus are said also to be in 
 arsi, and those which have it not, in thesi, from the terms apa-Ls and 
 Oeacs : the latter is sometimes called the debilis positio. 
 
 I. The Tragic Trimeter. 
 
 1. The Iambic Trimeter Acatalectic (i.e. consisting of three entire 
 metres), as used by the tragic writers, may have in every place an Iambus, 
 or, as equivalent, a Tribrach in every place but the last ; in the odd places, 
 1st, 3rd, and 5th, it may have a Spondee, or, as equivalent, in the 1st 
 and 3rd a Dactyl, in the first only it may have an Anapest. 
 
 This initial Anapest of the Trimeter is hardly perceptible in its 
 effect on the verse : in the short Anacreontic, 
 MecrovvKTtotg ttoO^ wpats 
 Srpe^erat ot "ApKTO's -^Sr}, k.t.X. 
 it evidently produces a livelier movement. 
 
 A Table of the Tragic Trimeter. 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 v^ — 
 
 W — 
 
 w — 
 
 w — 
 
 K^ — 
 
 w w 
 
 K^^J ^y 
 
 '^Vs^ \^ 
 
 '^V^ v-/ 
 
 \^\^y^' 
 
 <^ Ky^ 
 
 
 — 
 
 
 _ _ 
 
 
 ' — _ 
 
 
 K^K^ 
 
 
 — Wo* 
 
 
 
 
 V^V-/ — 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ^ [This account of the ordinary metres of the Greek drama was drawn up in 1827 
 by the late Rev. James Tate, for many years the earnest and successful master of 
 Kichmond School, Yorkshire. If the student desires to see my views on the subject, 
 together with all that I have to say respecting the choral metres of the Greeks, I can 
 only refer him to the Sixth Part of my Greek Grammar. — J. W. D.] 
 
378 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 Yerses containing pure Iambi (a), Tribraclis in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4tli, 
 and 5th places (b, c, d, e,f), Spondees in 1st, 3rd, and 5tli (g), Dactyls 
 in 1st and 3rd (h, i), Anapest in 1st (j), are given by Gaisford in his 
 Hej^hcestiouj p. 241, or may be read in the following lines of the (Edipus 
 Rex: 
 
 a. 8. o -Tracrt kXcivos OtSt7roi;s KaXov/xevo?. 
 
 h, 112. TTorepa 8' ev otKOts rj V aypots o Aatog. 
 C. 26. (}>0iVOV(Ta S' ayeXais /3odvo/xoi9, tokolctl re. 
 
 d. 568. TTCOS OVV T0& OVTO% O CTO^OS ov/c r^vStt TttSc ; 
 
 e. 826. fxr)Tp6^ Ivyyjvai, kol iraripa KaraKravciv. 
 
 f. 1496. TL yap KaKwv airea-Ti ; tov iraripa Traryp. 
 
 g. 30. "AiSt^s o-revay/xoTs Kat yoots Tr\ovrit,€rai. 
 h. 270. /xi}t apoTOV avToU yrjv avtevat Ttva. 
 
 ■i. 257. dvSp6<s y apiarov /JactXews t oXwXoro?. 
 J. 18. icp^s' eyoj /jtev Zr]v6<;' otSc t' Tj^ewi/... 
 
 2. The last syllable in each verse appears to be indifferently short or 
 long : and even where one line ends with a short vowel, a vowel is often 
 found at the beginning of the next, as in (Ed. B. w. 2, 3 ; 6, 7 ; 7, 8. 
 
 Sometimes, however, one verse with its final vowel elided passes by 
 scansion into the next, as (Ed. Col. w. 1164-5. 
 
 2ot cfiaaiv avrov cs Xoyov? iXOexv jxoXovr 
 AIt€lv, direXOeiv t a(r<^aXws t^<; Seup' oSov. 
 The case is thus restricted by Person ad Med. 510: Vocalis in fine 
 versus elidi non potest, nisi syllaha longa prcecedat. (On this curious 
 subject, consult Hermann's Elenienta Doctrince Metricce, Lips. 1816, 
 Glasg. 1817, p. 36=22, 3.) 
 
 3. Besides the initial Anapest (restricted, however, as below ^) in 
 common words, in certain proper names, which could not else be intro- 
 duced, the Anapest is admitted also into the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th 
 places of the verse. 
 
 (2nd,) Iph. A. 416. yv 'I^iyei/ctav (uj/o/^a^cs iv SofxoL?. 
 (3rd.) (Ed. Col. 1317. rirapTOV ^Imroixihovr aTreo-TetXev TraTtjp. 
 (4th.) (Ed. R. 285. fxaXia-ra ^oifiio Tcipeortav, Trap' ov tls dv. 
 (5th.) Antig. 11. eyitot /xev ovSets jxvOoSj 'AvTiyovrj, (jiiXinv. 
 
 1 This Anapest in the tragic is generally included in the same word ; except where 
 the line begins either with an article or with a preposition followed immediately by its 
 case. Monk, Mus. Crit. i. p. 6i. 
 
 Philoct. 754. TOV taov xp^^o^'" 
 
 Orest. 888. iirl rySe S' rjyopevou... 
 
 Iph. A, 646. Trap' efx.oi... 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 
 
 379 
 
 In all these the two slioi*t syllables of the Anapest are inclosed 
 betwixt two longs in the same word, and shoAv the strongest as well as 
 the most frequent case for the admission of such a licence. (The nature 
 of this licence will be considered in a note (C) ch. xvii. on the admission 
 of Anapests into the Iambic verse of Comedy.) 
 
 In the few instances where the proper name begins with an Ana- 
 pest, as MeveAao?, Uptdixov, (fee, those names might easily, by a different 
 position, come into the verse like other words similarly constituted. 
 Elmsley, in his celebrated critique on Person's Hecuba, ed. 1808, con- 
 siders all such cases as corrupt. (Vid. Edinburgh Review, Yol. xix. 
 p. G9.) Person's judgment seems to lean the other way. At all events, 
 the whole Anapest must be contained in the same word. (Yide Hecub. 
 Porsoni, London, 1808, p. xxiii=p. 18; Euripid. Porsoni a Scholefield, 
 Cantabr. 1826. To these editions only any references hereafter will be 
 regularly made.) 
 
 II. Tlw Comic TriDieter, 
 
 besides the initial Anapest which it takes with less restriction, admits 
 the Anapest of common words in all the other places but the last: it 
 admits also the Dactyl in 5th. 
 
 Vesp. 979. Kard/Sa, Kard^a, | Kara/Ja, Kara/Sa, ] KarafStjcTOixaL. 
 
 Plut. 55. TTvOoLfxcO' av I Tov ^r)(Tfx6v "^l/awv otl voet. 
 
 In the resolved or trisyllabic feet one limitation obtains : the concur- 
 rence of — wv^ or wv^v-* and y^^— in that order never takes place. 
 The necessity for this will hereafter be seen, note (A), ch. xv. 
 
 A Table of Scansion for tlie Trimeter, both Tragic and Comic. 
 
 I 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 6_ 
 
 \^ — 
 
 \J — 
 
 w — 
 
 w — 
 
 w — w w 
 
 v^ww 
 
 WV-/«W 
 
 W WW 
 
 www 
 
 W'w'^W 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 — _ 
 
 — WW 
 
 
 — WW 
 
 
 
 KJKJ — 
 
 
 
 
 
 Proprii 
 
 KJ\y — 
 
 WW — 
 
 WW- 
 
 WW— Nominis. 
 
 Apud 
 
 
 
 
 — WW Comicos. 
 
 
 WW — 
 
 K^K^ — 
 
 WW— 
 
 WW — 
 
 III. The Structure of the Iambic Trimeter 
 is decidedly Trochaic. 
 
 1. The two principal divisions of this verse, which give the Trochaic 
 movement to the ear, and continue it more or less to the close, take 
 
380 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 place after two feet and a half (M), or after tliree feet and a half (N), 
 with the technical name of Gcesura. One or other of these divisions 
 may be considered as generally necessary to the just constitution of the 
 verse, the form M however being more frequent than the form N, nearly 
 as four to one : 
 
 (M) (Ed. JR. 2. TtVas TTO^' eSpas I racrSe /xot ^oa^ere, 
 
 (JST) 3. IkTY]PLOL<S KXctSotCrtV [ i$€(TT€IXfJiivOL ; 
 
 The four cases of the Caesura (M), and the eight cases of the Coesura 
 (N), as exemplified by Porson, are given below from the Suppl. ad 
 Prcefat. pp. xxvi, xxvii=21, 22 \ 
 
 2. The two minor divisions, which give or continue the Trochaic 
 movement, frequently occur after the fii-st foot and a half (L) of the 
 verse, and before the last foot and a half (E,), called the final Cretic 
 
 (L) €Ed. R. 120. TO TTotov ; 1 tv yap 7r6X)C av i^evpoL /xaOeLVf 
 (R) 121. dp)(r]v ^payetav d Xd/Soifxev \ iXntSos. 
 
 The former of these divisions (L), though not necessary, is always 
 
 agreeable. The latter (R) requiring w— and rejecting in 5th, takes 
 
 place not only in such a simple structure of words as that above given, 
 l3ut imder circumstances more complex, which will be exiDlained in note 
 (B), ch. XVI., on the Cretic termination. This delicacy of structure was 
 discovered by Porson, who gave the name of pausa to it, p. xxxii=27. 
 
 ^ Nunc de Caesuria videamus. Senarius, ut notum est, duas prjecipuas caesuras 
 liabet, peiithemimerim, at hephthemimerinij id est, alteram quam voco A, quae tertiuni 
 pedem, alteram, quae quartum dividat. Prioris cagsuree quatuor sunt genera : primum 
 est quod in brevi syllaba fit; secundum, quod in brevi post elisionem; tertium in 
 longa, quartum in longa post elisionem. 
 
 Jlec. 5. (-4 a) Kiudvvos ^crx^ \ 5opl treaeiv ''EXK-qvLKi^. 
 II. {Ah) Harrip tv el' ttot' | 'IXt'ow retx?; ireaot. 
 2. {A c) AtTTcbv tv "At5?;s | x^P^^ (pKiarat deQiv. 
 42. {A d) Kai reij^eraL Tovd' \ ovd' dSdbpTjTos <pi\o:v. 
 Alterius caesurae, quam voco B, plura sunt genera. 
 
 Primum, cum in fine disyllabi vel hyperdisyllabi occurrit sine elisione; secundum, 
 post elisionem ; tertium, cum brevis syllaba est enclitica vox ; quartum, cum non est 
 enclitica, sed talis quae sententiam inchoare nequeat ; quintum, cum vox ista ad prae- 
 cedentia quidem refertur, potest vero inchoare sententiam ; sextum, cum syllaba brevis 
 post elisionem fit. Duo alia caesurae hujus genera ceteris minus jucunda sunt, ubi 
 sensus post tertium pedem suspenditur, et post distinctionem sequitur vox mono- 
 syllaba, vel sine elisione, vel per elisionem facta. 
 
 Ilec. I. (B a) "H/cw veKpCov KevdfxQva | Kal <jk6tov Tri^Xas. 
 
 248, {B h) IIoWcDj' Xoyojv ivp-qjxa.d'' \ uicrTe fiij davecv. 
 
 266. (B c) Keivrj yap (HXeaev vlv \ els Tpoiav r' dyet. 
 
 3[9. {£ d) TvfjilSov 5^ ^ovXoi/JLTjv clv \ d^covfievov. 
 
 Sopli. EL 530. {B e) 'Eirel irarrip ovtos cros | ov dpr)V€?s dec. 
 
 Phil. 1304. {B f) 'AW ovT ifioi koXov t65' iarlv ovre aoi. 
 
 tEscIi. Thgh. 1055. {B g) 'AXX' bv irbXis arvyel, ad | tl/x7j(X€ls Td(f).p ; 
 Soph. EL IQ38. {B h) "Orav yap cd (ppovfjs tW \ rjyr)<xa aii v(^v. 
 
OF THE GKEEK DRAMATISTS. 381 
 
 3. The following lines may serve to exhibit all the divisions con- 
 nected with the structure of the vei-se : 
 
 (L) (M) ^(N)^ (R)^ 
 
 (Ed. 7?. 81. o-cuT^pt I Pai-q I Xa/x7rpo5 | wcTTrep | o/x/^art. 
 
 Prom. V. 1005. rj iraTpl \ cjivvaL \ Zr}vl \ tticttov | ayyeXov. 
 
 4. When the line is divided in medio versu with the elision of a 
 short vowel in the same word, or in the little words added to it, such 
 as Bi, fxi, crc, ye, re, that division is called by Person the quasi-ccesura, 
 p. xxvii= 22. 
 
 (Ed. R. 779. dv^p yap iv SetTTVois jx' \ vTrepTrXrjaOeU ixi$r}<;. 
 
 Hecuh. 355. yvvaLil Trap^eVois t \ aTro^AcTTTOs /xera. 
 
 Aj. Fl. 435. TO. irpwra Ka\XicrT€L \ aptcTTevo-as (rrpaTov. 
 
 Hecuh. 387. Kcvretre, /xt) (^etSecr^'' | eyw "reKov lidpLv. 
 Verses of this latter formation Elmsley ingeniously defends, by an 
 hypothesis that the vowel causing the elision might be treated as apper- 
 taining to the precedent word, and be so pronounced as to produce a 
 kind of hephthemimeral csesura (in this treatise marked by the letter 
 
 Ttt Trpwra KaXA-icrreta | ptCTTevcra'^ crrpaTov. 
 Yid. Notes on the Ajax, Mus. Crit. i. p. 477. 
 
 5. Several instances, however, are found of the line divided in 
 medio vei'su without any such elision, a worse structure still. 
 
 Aj. El. 1091. MeveXae, | ixrj yvwfxa<; | v7ro(TTT](ra<; | crocfxi?. 
 Pers. 509 = 515. ©prjK-qv \ Trcpacravrcs | /xoyt? | ttoAAo) ttovw. 
 On this latter verse, vid. the Note of Blomfield, and Hermann's 
 remark in the work already quoted, p, 110 = 70. 
 
 6. But though the verse sometimes does occur with its 3rd and 4th 
 feet constructed as in the instances above, yet there is a structure of 
 the words which the tragic writers never admit; that structure which 
 divides the line by the dipodias of scansion like the artificial verse pre- 
 served by Athenseus : 
 
 %e TOV /5oAoi9 I VLc{iOKTV7rOL<; 1 SvcT^ufJLepov. 
 
 The following line, scarcely less objectionable as it stood in the 
 former editions of ^schylus, Pers. 501 = 507, 
 
 Sxparos TTcpa | KpvcTTaWoTrrjya ] Sid Trdpov^ 
 has been corrected by an easy transposition : 
 
 KpvcTTaXXoTriJya | Std Tropov crrparos irep^. 
 Vide Person, u. s. pp. xxix, xxx = 24, 25. 
 
382 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 lY. The Structure of the Comic Trimeter, 
 
 1. frequently admits such lines as are divided in medio versu with- 
 out the quasi-csesura, and, though somewhat rarely, such also as divide 
 the line by the dipodias of scansion. 
 
 PlutUS, 68. ttTToXo) TOV avOpOiTTOV | KaKKTTa TOVTOVL. 
 
 Acharn. 183. crTrovSas ^epets [ t(wv a/XTreXwv | Ter/x7^/>teva)v ; 
 
 2. It readily admits also a Spondee in the 5th foot, without any 
 regard to the law of Cretic termination ; as 
 
 Plut. 2. AovXov y€V€(r$ai Trapa^povovvros j SeanoTOV. 
 
 29. KaKws hrpaTTOV KoX 7rivr]<s rjv. | OlSa rot. 
 
 63. Ai^ov TOV avSpa kol tov opvtv \ rov O^ov. 
 
 3. And even when a Dactyl occupies the 5th foot, the modes of 
 concluding the verse which usually occur are those most directly unlike 
 to the tragic conclusion : as 
 
 Plut. 55. TTvOoLfxeO' av tov xprja-fidv ly/xwv, ] o Tt voet. 
 while forms of this kind are comparatively rare : 
 
 Plut. 823. "Fivhov fieveLV rjv eSaKve yap | ra ^Xi^apa jjlov, 
 1149. ETretr' aTroXiTrtov tovs Ocovs \ ivOdSe /xems; 
 
 V. The Iambic Tetrameter Catalectic, 
 
 1. peculiar to Comedy, consists of eight feet all but a syllable; or 
 may be considered as two dimeters, of which the first is complete in the 
 technical measure, the second is one syllable short of it. 
 
 This tetrameter line, the most harmonious of Iambic verses, is said 
 to have its second dimeter catalectic to its first : the same mode of 
 speaking prevails as to Trochaic and Anapestic tetrameters. 
 
 The table of scansion below, exhibiting all the admissible feet, is 
 drawn up in every point agreeably to Person's account of the feet sepa- 
 rately allowable; except that Elmsley's plea for the admission (but very 
 rarely) of '^v^— of a common word in 4th is here received as legitimate. 
 See his able argument on that question, Edinh. Rev. u. s. p. 84. 
 
 2. In the resolved or trisyllabic feet one restriction obtains; that 
 the concurrence of the feet — ww or v-iww and ww— in that order 
 never takes place; a rule which even in the freer construction of 
 the Trimeter (ch. ii.) is always strictly observed from its essential 
 necessity. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 
 
 383 
 
 \y — ^ — 
 
 W — W — 
 
 w — w — 
 
 w— w 
 
 V^V_/V^ Ky\y\^ 
 
 V>WV^ v^ww 
 
 www w»ww 
 
 
 — y^K^ 
 
 — WW 
 
 — WW 
 
 
 WW — WW — 
 
 WW — - 
 
 WW — WW — 
 
 
 
 (P. K WW - 
 
 recipit.) 
 
 
 
 Proprii ww — 
 
 Nominis. 
 
 WW — 
 
 3. From the first appearance of the scansional table here exhibited, 
 it might be supposed that the varieties of this verse would be exceed- 
 ingly numerous. Two considerations, however, for which we are in- 
 debted to the acuteness and diligence of Elmsley, show sufficient cause 
 why the actual number of those varieties is comparatively small : 
 
 "All the trisyllabic feet which are admissible into Comic Iambics 
 are employed with much greater moderation in the catalectic tetra- 
 meters than in the common trimeters." Edinh. Rev. u. s. p. 83. 
 
 "The Comic Poets admit Anapests more willingly and frequently 
 into 1st, 3rd, and 5th places, than into the 2nd, 4th, and 6th of the 
 tetrameter." Edinh. Rev. u. s. p. 87. 
 
 4. In the verses quoted below from Porson (xliii = 38) examples of 
 the less usual feet will be found: of (a) www in 4th, of (5) ww— in 
 Gth, and of (c) and id) ww— proprii nominis in 4tli and 7th. 
 
 The WW— (e) of a common word in 4th is given in deference to the 
 judgment of Elmsley (Nub. 1059) : 
 
 (a) TT/awTtcTTa /xcv yap cVa ye tlvo. Ka^etcrcv cyKaXvi/^as. 
 
 (6) ov\ rjTTOV rj vvv ot \a\ovvT€S t^XlOlos yap -^crOa. 
 
 (c) 'A;)(tA.Xea tlv rj Nio^iyv, to TrpocrcoTrov ov^^ SciKvug. 
 
 {d) eyevcTO, McvaXtTTTras Trotwv, $aiSpas re, Ti-qviXoTr-qv Se. 
 
 (e) TToXAots* o yovv HryA-eus eXajSev Sid tovto rrjv fxaxatpav. 
 
 5. The structure generally agrees with the scansion, and divides 
 the verse into two dimeters. In the Plutus, those lines which have this 
 division are to those lines which divide the verse in the middle of a 
 word or after an article, &c. nearly as four to one : 
 
 Plut. 257, 8. OVK.OVV opas 6pfjL(jjfX€vov<s I ^'/xas TraXat TrpoOvfxmq, 
 ws ctKOS ecTTtv dcr^evets | yepovraq avSpas rjSr] ; 
 
 284, 5. aXX' ovKCT av Kpvxf/atfXL' rov \ UXovtov yap, <x> VSpe?, tjk^l 
 
 aycov o Bicnrorrj^, os v|/Aas 7rXov(TLOV<s Trorjdu. 
 
384 
 
 ox THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 And very often the verse is even so constructed as to give a succes- 
 sion of Iambic dipodias separately heard : 
 
 Plut. 253, 4. *0 TToXXa hrj I Tw Seo-TTOTiy 1 TavTov Ovfxov 1 <j)ay6vT€S, 
 avSp€s <fiL\oL I KoX SrjfJiOTai | Kat tov ttovclv \ Ipaarai. 
 
 After these pleasing specimens of the long Iambic, it is proper to 
 state that the Comedy from which they are taken exhibits in all respects 
 a smoothness and regularity of versification unknown to the earlier 
 plays of Aristophanes. (Elmsley, u. s. p. 83.) 
 
 N.B. Of the nature of that licence which admits the Anapest, 
 whether more or less frequently, into any place of the comic verse but 
 the last, some account may be reasonably demanded. A probable solu- 
 tion of the difficulty will be offered in the note (C), ch. xvii., subjoined. 
 
 VI. Tlie Trochaic Tetrameter Catalectic of Tragedy ^ 
 
 1. consists of eight feet all but a syllable, or may be considered as 
 made up of two dimeters, of which the second is catalectic (vide ch. v. 
 § 1) to the first. 
 
 Its separate feet are shown in the scansional table below; and the 
 Dactyl of a proper name, admissible only in certain places, is marked by 
 the letters P. N. 
 
 5678 
 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 — \j 
 
 4 
 — w 
 
 v^v^ 
 
 
 
 V^W 
 
 
 P.N. — V_/"^ — wv^ — v^v^ 
 
 The Dactyl of a pro^^er name is admitted chiefly where its two short 
 syllables are inclosed between two longs in the same word ; very rarely 
 where the word begins with them ; under other circumstances, never. 
 Iph. A. 882. €is ap' 'I<^tyev€iav 'EA.evr;s ] vocrros ^v TreTrpw/xeVog. 
 
 1331. Travres "EA-Xryve?, (TTpard-i Sk | Mvp/xtSoi^wv oi; (tol Traprjv ; 
 
 Orest. 1549. avyy ovov r ip^yv, HvXdSrjv re | tov rctSe ivvSptovTo, /xot. 
 
 On the Dactyl or Anapest of proper names in the Trochaic or 
 Iambic verse of Tragedy a suggestion will be offered in the note (C), 
 ch. XVII. 
 
 In the two following lines will be found specimens of the pure Tro- 
 chaic verse and of the Trochaic Spondee in all its places : 
 PJwen. 631. avTLTa^op.ai KTCvwi/ ere. | Kot/xe rov^ e/ows e^ct. 
 609. KO/>t7ros et, cTTTovSats TTCTTOt^ojs, I at (T€ (j(at,ov(Tiv Oaveiv. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 385 
 
 2. As to scansion, one limitation only obtains, that (or »^w — ) 
 
 in the 6th never precedes www in the 7th. Even in Comedy a verse 
 like the following is exceedingly rare: (B. P. xlviii. = -13.) 
 
 Oure yap vat;ayo5, av fxr} yrj^ XdjSrjTaL | ^epo/xei'os. 
 whereas of — w or www in the Gth preceding www in the 7th in- 
 stances in Tragic verse are not at all uncommon. (The following line 
 exhibits also www in the 1st and oth.) 
 
 Pkoen. 618. 'Avocrtos -n-ecfiVKas' aA/V ov TrarptSos, ojs crv, j TroXe/xtos. 
 
 3. In structure, the most important point is this; that the fii'st 
 dimeter must be divided from the second after some word ^vhich allows 
 a pause in the sense; not after a preposition, for instance, or article 
 belonging in s}-ntax to the second dimeter. (The folloA^ing lines exhibit 
 also WW— in 2nd and 6th.) 
 
 Orest. 787. ws vlv iKerei-o-oo jx^ crajo-at. | to ye hiKO-iov wS" e;\et. 
 Phoe/i. 621. Kttt ori', jjL'iJTep; ov Oefxa crot j ixqrpos dvo/xa^etv kg pa. 
 
 4. If the first dipodia of the verse is contained in entire words (and 
 so as to he followed at least by a slight break of the sense), the second foot 
 is a Trochee {or may be a Tribrach) : 
 
 Phcen. 636. ws art/xos, | otKTpd -rda-^oyv, iieXavvofxat ^(Oovos. 
 Orest. 788. fxrjrepos Se j firjS^ ISoLfXi ixvrjfJia. TroXe/XLa yap yjv. 
 Bacch. 585 = 629. Ka^' o Bpo/xio?, | cos e/xocye cftaLveraL, So^av Xeyo). 
 
 This nicety of structure in the long Trochaic of Tragedy was first 
 discovered by Professor Porson ; not an idea of such a canon seems ever 
 to have been hinted before. (Yid. Kidd's Tracts and Misc. Criticisms 
 of Porson, p. 197; Class. Journ. Xo. xlv. i:)p. 166, 7; Maltby's Zea^iCOJi 
 Grceco-Prosodiacmn, p. Ixvii.) 
 
 In the following lines, apparently exceptions to the rule, the true 
 sense marks the true structure also : 
 
 Orest. 1523. iravTa^^^ov | ^t^v rjhv p.dXXov y Oavelv rots aojcfypocnv. 
 
 Here -n-avTaxov belongs to the whole sentence, and not to ^fjv ex- 
 clusively. 
 
 Ijjh. A. 1318. Tov ye Trj<i 0€d<; TralSa, | t€kvov, <S ye Scvp' iX'r]Xv6a<;. 
 
 Here no pause of sense takes place after 6ed^, (which is a mono- 
 syllable,) but the words from tov to TratSa are inclosed, as it were, in a 
 vinculum of syntax. 
 
 The two following verses, the first with an enclitic after the four 
 initial syllables, the second with such a word as is always subjoined to 
 
 D. T. G. 25 
 
386 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PKOSODY 
 
 other words, have their natural division after the fifth syllable, and all is 
 correct accordingly : 
 
 Tph. A. 1354. ko.tBo.vCiv /xeV ixoi ] SeSoKraf tovto 8' avro f3ovXofJt.ai. 
 
 ' 897. aAA.' iKX-qQ-qq yovv | raAaivT^s -rrapOivov <j!>tAos 7roo-ts. 
 
 Nor does the following verse, 
 
 Or est. 794. rovr Ik^Ivo KracrO^ kTalpov;, jxrj ro (ruyyeveq /xovov, 
 contain any real exception to the canon : for the first dipodia does 
 not end with a word marked by any pause of utterance. Quite the 
 contrary indeed; for iKetvo is pronounced in immediate contact with 
 KToiaOc : 
 
 TOVT iK€LvoKTaa6^ eratpovg, k. t. \. 
 
 otherwise the 2nd foot would not be a spondee at all. (Something more 
 on this head will be found in note (B), ch. xvi., where lines like the fol- 
 lowing are considered : 
 
 Ilecub. 723. "Hjaeis fxlv ovv iwfxev, ovBl i//auo/X€v.) 
 
 5. If the verse is concluded by one word forming the Orotic termi- 
 nation (— w— ), or by more words than one to that amount united in 
 meaning, so that after the sixth foot that portion of sense and sound is 
 separately perceived, then the sixth foot is — v^ or v^wv^, i.e. may 
 not be or wv^— . 
 
 Pho&n. 616. i^cXavvofxeo-Oa TraT/atSos. kol yap ^XOes [ i^cXiov, 
 
 643. eXTTtSes 8' ovTTOi KaOevSova, ats TrcTrot^a | avv Oeots. 
 
 It is unnecessary to remark, that, in verses like that below, the 
 words at the close naturally go together, to form a quadrisyllable ending, 
 and have nothing to do with the rule here laid down. 
 
 /p/t. A. 1349. a<2 Tj-oacf to. 8' dSyvaO* -qplv Kaprepetv | ov paSiov. 
 The same is true of similar dissyllabic, quinquesy liable, and other end- 
 ings ; which, however, in Tragic verse rarely takes place. 
 
 YII. — In the Comic Tetramete7', 
 
 1. the Scansion agrees with the Tragic, except only that the in 
 
 6th sometimes, though very rarely, precedes the wwv^* in 7th (ch. vi. 
 § 2), as in the line from Philemon : 
 
 OvT€ yap vavayos, av firj y7J<; Xd/3r]TaL ^epo/x€v09. 
 
 The Comic, like the Tragic Tetrameter, admits the — v^w only in the 
 case of a proper name, and not otherwise. 
 
 2. But, in respect of Structure, the nice points of Tragic verse are 
 freely neglected. Neither the great division in medio versu (ch. vi. 
 
 i 
 
OF THE GREEK DKAMATI^S. 387 
 
 § 3), nor tlie rules (cli. vi. §§ 4, 5), concerning those divisions whicli 
 sometimes take place after tlie first dipodia, or before tlie final Cretic, 
 appear to have been regarded in the construction of comic verse. Lines 
 like the following occur in great abundance : 
 
 Xuhes, 599. Trpwra [xlv yaip^iv ^ K6'qvaL\oL(Ti koI rots ^v^/xa;)(ots. 
 
 580. arr' av v/xets j e^a/xaprryr', c—t to (3e\TL0V rpe~€LV. 
 
 568. 7rA.€tcrra yap Oeotv d—dvTwv co^eXovcrats — Ty]V ttoXiv. 
 
 Ylll. — Anaj^estic Verses. 
 
 1. The Anapestic Dimeter of Tragedy is so named from the striking 
 predominance of the Anapestic foot, though it frequently admits the 
 Dactylic dipodia. In a regular System, it consists of Dimeters with a 
 Monometer (or Anapestic base), sometimes interposed, and is concluded 
 by a Dimeter Catalectic, technically called the Paremiac verse. 
 
 The separate feet of the Dimeter Acatalectic are shown in the scan- 
 sional table below : 
 
 ^^(^ V^«._/ — ^> V^ V^ V_/ 
 
 2. In the predominant or Anapestic dipodia the Anapest and 
 Spondee are combined without any restriction. 
 
 Prom. Y. 93 — 5. ^epxOyjO^ otats | atKtatcrtv | 
 
 SLaKvaLOjxevos \ tov jxvpLCTrj [ 
 )(p6vov d6\cV(TU). j 
 
 3. In the occasional or Dactylic dipodia, the Dactyl most usually 
 precedes its own Spondee, as in three instances which the following 
 verses contain : 
 
 Prom. V. 292 — 5. rjKui So\l-^'i]<; | repfxa KeXevOov | 
 
 8ta/x€ti//a/x€vos | tt/jos ae, llpojX-qOev, [ 
 TOV TTTepvyojKi] I TOV^" OL0)v6v I 
 yvwfxr] (TTOfxiijiv | drcp cvOvvmv. [ 
 
 4. Sometimes the Dactyl is paired T\dth itself : 
 Med. 161, 2 'Cl fxeydXa QifXL | kol ttotvl "AprepiL, | 
 
 XevcrcreO a, Trao-^oj. I 
 
 167,8. o) Trarep, to ttoAi?, | ojv d7r€vda$T]v 
 
 ato-^pws TOV ip.6v I KT€Lvaaa Kdaiv. | 
 (Dactyli ssepissime substituuntur Anapaestis, nee tantum unus aliquis, 
 sed saepe etiam plures continui. Quinque continuavit ^schvlus i)i 
 Agam. 1561 = 1529. 
 
 25—2 . 
 
388 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 TOVTO' TrpoS T^fXOiV 
 
 KaTTTreae, KarOave, kol KaTaOdxj/oixeVf 
 ov;( VTTO KXav$fx<2v T(3v c^ oikcov. 
 Septem Euripides in Hippolyt. 1361 =1358. 
 
 7rp6<j(fiopd fx atp€T€, crvvTOva, 8* cAk€T€ 
 
 Tov KaKoSaifxova, kol KardpaTOV 
 
 7raTpo9 a/x,7rXaKtats. Hermann, p. 377 = 240.) 
 
 5. Yery rarely, and perhaps not agreeably, in tlie Dactylic dipodia, 
 the Spondee is found to precede the Dactyl : of the two following in- 
 stances, the first presents the more objectionable form; the second, 
 succeeded by a Dactyl and Spondee, can hardly be said to offend 
 at all : 
 
 Androm. 1228 = 1204. Sai/xwi/ oSe rts, | AcvktJv aWipa 
 7ropOfJL€v6fji.€vo<;, I 
 
 Iph. A. 161 = 159. OvrjTOJV 8' 6X/3lo<s | €is tcAos ovSet?. 
 
 On this curious subject, in all its minutiae, vide the acute and diligent 
 Elmsley, ad Med. 1050, note g, and (Ed. Colo7i. 1766. 
 
 6. The Dactyl, when in any way it precedes the Anapest, appears 
 to be considered by metrical scholars as a case of great awkwardness and 
 difficulty. The following statement, reprinted with a few verbal altera- 
 tions from the Museum Criticum, (Yol. i. p. 333), may suffice perhaps 
 for all practical purposes. 
 
 The concurrence of Dactyl with Anapest, in that order, is not very 
 often found between one dimeter and another. 
 Eurip. Electr. 1320, 1. ^vyyove (^tArare- 
 
 8ta yap t,€vyvv(r yfjid<s TrarptW' 
 (vid. S. Theb. w. 827, 8. ^^6, 6, for two more instances.) 
 
 The combination is very rare where one dipodia closes with a Dactyl, 
 and the next begins with an Anapest, thus : 
 
 Eurip. Electr. 1317. Odpaw IlaXXdSos — oVtai/ ^^ets 
 ttoXlv aAA ai/e^ov. 
 Ilecuh. 144. t^' 'Aya/x€/xvovos | t/certs yovdroiv. 
 Within the same dijDodia, we may venture to assert that such a combi- 
 nation never takes place. 
 
 7. Thus far of the Anapestic Dimeter, when the first dipodia, as 
 most usually it does, ends with a word. 
 
 This, however, is not always the case; and of such verses as want 
 that division those are the most frequent, and the most pleasing also, 
 which have the first dipodia after an Anapest (sometimes after a 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 389 
 
 Spondee) overflowing into the second, with the movement Anapestic 
 throughout. 
 
 Agani. 52. Trrepvywy ipir/jioicnv | ipea-a-oixcvoL. 
 
 794 = 766. Koi ivyxoLLpovaiu I o/xotOTrpcTTcis. 
 
 (vide Gaisford, Hephoest. pp. 279, 80. Maltby, Lex. Grceco-Pros. xxviii. 
 xxix. for a large collection of miscellaneous examples.) 
 The following rare, perhaps singular, instance : 
 Prom. V. 172 = 179. Kat fx ovt€ | /xcXtyXwo-crois ireiOovs, 
 comes recommended at least by the uniform movement; whereas this 
 line, if the reading be correct, from the Ilippolytus^ 
 
 V. 1376 = 1357. Tt's If^iaT'qK ivSeiia TrkevpoLsj 
 within the same word, ei/8c^ta, suffers the transition from Anapestic 
 movement to Dactylic; a transition perhaps not entirely illegitimate, 
 but one of very rare occurrence. 
 
 In the second line of those quoted below, the structure, though 
 exceedingly rare, is recommended by the continuity of Dactylic feet 
 before and after it. 
 
 Agam. 1557 = 1504. ...rrji/ iroXvKXavTrjv 
 
 ^I(f>Lyev€Lav | ava^ta Spctcras, 
 a^ta 7rd(T\(x)v, k. t. \. 
 
 8. The synapliea, (or (Tvvd(f>€ia,) that property of the Anapestic 
 System which Bentley first demonstrated, is neither more nor less than 
 continuous scansion: that is, scansion continued with strict exactness 
 from the first syllable to the very last, but not including the last itself, 
 as that syllable, and only that in the whole System, may be long or short 
 indifferently. 
 
 In this species of verse one hiatus alone is permitted, in the case of a 
 final diphthong or long vowel so placed as to form a short syllable. The 
 following instances may serve (Hermann, p. 373 = 237) : 
 Pers. 39. koI eXcto/Jarat vawv Ipirai. 
 
 548. TToOiovcrai tSctv dpTt^vycav. 
 
 60. 0L)(€TaL dvSpujv. 
 
 Hecuh. 123. toj 0ryo-et8a 8*, 0^0) 'A^T^vwr. 
 
 With this point of prosody premised, two passages may suffice to exem- 
 plify the Synaphea ; 
 
 Prom. V. 199, 200. cis dpO/xov c/xot Kat ffiikoT-qTa 
 
 CTreuScuv (TttcvSovti ttoB* rj^€i. 
 The last syllable of v. 199 becomes long from the short vowel a being 
 united with the consonants cnr at the beginning of v. 200. Had a single 
 
390 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 consonant, or any pair of consonants like Kp, ttX, &c. followed in v. 200, 
 the last syllable of v. 199 would have been short, in violation of the 
 metre. 
 
 Again, 2Ied. 161, 2. <x> [xeydXa 0e/xt koL ttotvl "Aprc/x-i, 
 A.€vcrcre^' a 7racr;(co, 
 
 If after v. 161, ending with a short vowel, any vowel whatever had 
 followed in v. 162, that would have violated the law of hiatus observed 
 in these verses. And if a double consonant, or any pair of consonants 
 like KT, cTTT, 8/x, [xv, &c. had followed in v. 162, "Aprc/xi, necessarily com- 
 bined with those consonants, would have formed the Pes Creticus, and 
 not the Dactyl required. But Xcva-ao) follows with X initial, and all is 
 correct. 
 
 9. The Versus Paroemiacus has its table of scansion as follows : 
 
 12 3 4 
 
 o v^ — \yK^ — 
 
 — v^ w 
 
 \y \y —' 
 
 One limitation as to the concurring feet obtains, that — ww in 1st never 
 precedes ww— in 2nd. 
 
 10. In the common dimeter, as must have already appeared, those 
 dipodias form the most pleasing verse which end in entire words : but 
 this law does not equally obtain in the Paremiac, which then comes most 
 agreeably to the ear when it forms the latter hemistich of the dactylic 
 hexameter, 
 
 jww— ^z^ 
 
 whether with the first dipodia distinctly marked, as 
 
 From V. 127. 7rav [xol cf>o^ep6v \ to Trpoa-epiroVy 
 or with any other variety of structure, as 
 
 Prom. V. 146. <f)povpdv dtprjXov ox'/cro). 
 
 164. e)(0pois cTTt^apra Treirovda. 
 
 1106. rrjaS^ tjvtlv dTrirrrvaa fxdXXov. 
 
 305. <jf)tAos iarl ^c^aioT^po^ aoi. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the Paremiac is differently formed, admitting 
 (with restriction § 9) the Dactyl in the 1st: 
 
 Med. 1085. ovk dTrojxovcrov to yvvaiKiov. 
 (Vide 3fuseicm Criticum, Vol. i. pp. 328, 9, 332, 3.) 
 
 11. The following may serve as a short specimen of an Anapestic 
 System with all its usual parts : 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 391 
 
 Med. 7o7 — 761. 'AA.Aa a 6 Matas rrofj^TroLos ai/a£^ 
 
 wv T i—LVOLav (T:r6voets Kare^^tov, 
 7rpa^€La<s, cttci yeri'ato? ai'T/p, 
 Atyev, Trap' e/xot ScSoKijcrat. 
 
 IX. — 7^/i€ Aiiapestic Tetrameter Catalectic, 
 
 1. peculiar to Comedy, consists of eight feet all but a syllable ; 
 or may be considered as made up of t^ro dimetei^, of M-hich the second 
 is catalectic to the first. Its scan,sional table is Q-iven below : 
 
 I 
 
 "- 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 wv^ — 
 
 \J\^ — 
 
 w^ — 
 
 KJ\J — 
 
 KJ\J 
 
 \^\j — 
 
 v^W- 
 
 - ^ 
 
 — \^\^ 
 
 — \^\J 
 
 — wv^ 
 
 
 \J\J 
 
 
 
 
 One restriction as to the feet separately admissible obtains, that the 
 two feet —\JKJ v-^ v-/ — , in that order, no where conciu' in the long 
 Anapestic. 
 
 2. In the long as in the shuit Anapestic verse Dactyls are admitted 
 much more sparingly into the second than into the first place of the 
 dipodia. (Elmsley, p. 93.) 
 
 3. In the 1200 (or more) Tetrameter Anapestics of Aristophanes 
 only nineteen examples occui- of a Dactyl in 2nd, the only second place 
 of a dipodia which it can occupy. 
 
 In thii-teen of those verses the preceding foot is also a Dactyl, as in 
 Niib. 400 : 
 
 ovh\ KXctoi'v/xoT', ovh\ Qeoipov; j Kairoi acfioSpa y €l(j' i-topKOL. 
 In the remaining six of those verses four have the Dactyl after a 
 Spondee, as Xuh. 408 : 
 
 CO— Tcjv yacrripa rot? crvyya'ecnv, [ kclt' ovk ea-^iov a/xeXrjcra?. 
 The other two have the Dactyl after an Anapest, as Xub. 351 : 
 
 Tt yo-p, ^v ap—aya rdv S'qixocTLoiv j KarlSoiCL St'/j-cora, tl SpiocrLv; 
 
 (Ehnsley, p. 93.) 
 
 4. The last quoted verse exhibits the transition (in long Anapestics) 
 from Anapestic movement to Dactylic in sepai*ate words. The following 
 verses show within the same word the transition from Dactylic move- 
 ment to Anapestic. Both ca^es are very rare : 
 
 Vesjy. TOG. ct yap if^ovXovro /Slov Toplaai | t<Z Bijfxw, paStov ^v av. 
 
 i , , « I " 
 
 Ran. 1044. Ovk olt> ovScls rjVTiv cpwcrav j ttwttot' iTroir^acL yi'iatKa. 
 
392 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PKOSODY 
 
 5. Of all those nineteen. Tetrameters described in § 3, one only is 
 destitute of the division (or ccesura technically so called) after the first 
 dipodia : 
 
 NubeS) 353. lavr apa, ravra KXejoDW/xov avrai | rov piif/acnnv X^^^ 
 IBovarat. (Elmsley, p. 94.) 
 
 6. This division after the first dipodia is indispensable, if the 2nd 
 foot be a Dactyl and the 3rd a Spondee : therefore the last syllable of 
 the Dactyl may not begin an Iambic or (w ) Bacchean word. 
 
 The following verses, faulty on that account, 
 Eccl. 514. ^vfJi^ovXoLcnv ttTracrat? | vjjui/ ■^(prjcroiiJiai. koX yap cK€t [xoi — 
 Equit. 505. yv<xyKat,€V eTrrj ] Xi^ovrds y e? to Oiarpov irapa^-qvaL — 
 
 have been corrected, the one by Brunck, the other by Person, and by 
 both from the same delicacy of ear, thus : 
 
 ivfx^ovXoLCTLV I Tracrats vfuv | y(jprj(TOiixai. koX yap c/<€t /xoL. 
 7jvayKat,€v Xi^ovras eTrr] irpos to Oearpov irapa^rjvaL. 
 
 (Vide Porson, lix. ix. = 53, 54.) 
 
 7. The division after the first dimeter is as strictly observed in the 
 long Anapestic as in the long Trochaic verse (ch. vi. § 3); and, as in 
 that, cannot take place after a preposition merely, or article belonging 
 in Syntax to the second dimeter : 
 
 Plut. 487, 8. aXX rjSr] XPV'^ I '^'' ^^7^'^ vjxas | (TO(f>6v, u) vlkt](T€T€ ttjvSl, 
 iv TOio-L XoyoLS I avTiXiyovres' j fj^aXaKov 8' evScoo-eTC /xr/Sev. 
 
 These lines exhibit, beside the one necessary division after the first 
 dimeter, that after the fii'st di2:>odia also, which always gives the most 
 agreeable finish to the verse. 
 
 8. It has been remarked, on the authority of Elmsley (^dde ch. v. 
 § 5), that the Plutus was written after the versification of the comic 
 stage had assumed an appearance of smoothness and regularity quite 
 unknown before. 
 
 The following analysis of 110 long Anapestic verses from v. 486 of 
 the Plutus to V. 597 (there being no v. bQQ in Dobree's edition) may 
 very happily illustrate the truth of that remark. 
 
 In 104 of those lines, that which is here regarded as the most har- 
 monious structure of the verse uniformly prevails. 
 
 Of the six which remain, three verses (517, 555, 5SQ) diff'er only by 
 having the Dactyl in quinto : 
 
 555. CO? fxaKapirrjVy \ tS AdfxaTep, \ rov /3tov ai^Tou KaTeAe^as. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRxVMATISTS. 393 
 
 And the other three verses (519, 570, 584), though wanting the 
 division after the first dipodia, yet present the continuous flow of 
 Anapestic movement throughout : 
 
 570. iTn/SovXevovcri T€ tw TrXrjO^L, kcu t<2 8>y/>ta) ttoXc/xovo-iv. 
 
 N.B. In the Tetrameter Anapestic verse the very same hiatus of a 
 long vowel or diphthong sometimes occurs as in the Dimeter. (Vide 
 ch. viii. § 8). 
 
 For instance, 
 Plut 528. OvT Iv SaTTLcnv' rt? yap v^aivcLV iOeXrjcreL, ypvcrLov ovtos; 
 549. OvKovv SyTTOv rrjs IlTw^^ctas TIevtW (fya/xlv elvaL aScXffyijv; 
 
 X. — The Ictus Metricus of Anapestic Verse. 
 
 1. The metrical ictus has been briefly explained at the beginning 
 of this Introduction. Its application to the dipodias of Anapestic verse 
 is quite clear and persi)icuous : the ictus falls on the last syllable of the 
 
 I . ' I 
 
 WW— and its companion , and on the first of the — w w and its 
 
 1 
 accompanying . 
 
 First, in a line of pure AnajDCsts, all but one Spondee in the 5th, 
 which there seems to predominate : 
 
 I II I II I II , I 
 
 Aves, 503. o(3oXov Kare/SpoxO iaa, Kara kcvov tov OvXaKov otKaS' acfieiXKOv. 
 
 Secondly, in a line of Anapests and Spondees : 
 
 I II ^ I II |_ n I 
 
 Plutus^ 536. Kttt Traihaipioiv VTroTreivcovTwi/ kcll ypdiSnov KoXoavprov; 
 
 Thirdly, in a line with Dactyls and Spondees in the first dimeter : 
 ^1 II I II I II I 
 
 Plutus, 575. aXXa (}>Xvapei<; Kai Trrcpvyt^ets. Kai ttcos (ficvyova ere Travres; 
 
 Fourthly, in lines of mixed movement Anapestic and Dactylic : 
 
 I II I II in I 
 
 Ibid. 508. Suo 7rp€cr(3vTa ^vv6iacr(x)Ta tov Xrjpetv Kai TrapairaLCLV. 
 
 I II I II . I II I 
 
 529. ovT€ fivpoLcnv iLvpicrai oraKTOts, OTtorav vvfXKJi-qv ayayrjaOov. 
 
 2. After this, the ictuation of the short Anapestic verse of Tragedy- 
 is very simple : 
 
 I , II ^ I II 
 
 3Ied. 129, 30. /xct^ous 8' aras, orav opyicrOrj 
 
 Baifxoiv, otKots a7reo{UK€v. 
 
 Ibid. 1080 — 85 (with — ww in first of the Paremiac). 
 
 I II 
 
 . . . aXXa yap eartv 
 
 ' ' '" \ 
 
 fiovcra Kttt rjfjLLv, rj TrpodoixiXu 
 
394 ON THE LANGUAGE, METKES AND PROSODY 
 
 I ^ II I 11 
 
 (TO(f)ia<; €VC/C€V 7racrato-t /jlcv ov. 
 
 1 n I II II 
 
 Travfjov yap Sr] yevos €v TroXXats 
 cupoi9 av tacos 
 ovK UTroixovcrov to yvvacKiov. 
 
 3. Of course, we are not ignorant that Dawes has given a different 
 ictuation to the Dactylic parts of Anapestic verse so called. 
 
 Assuming that the Anapestic movement is necessarily kept up 
 through the whole System, to preserve that uniformity he lays the 
 
 ictus on the middle syllable of the Dactyl, — v^ v^, and on the second of 
 
 the Spondee, --. {Miscell Crit. pp. 189, 122 = 354, 357 of Kidd's last 
 edition .) Five lines marked by himself may suffice to show his mode of 
 ictuation in the Dactylic dipodias. 
 
 , L ' ' ' ' 
 
 Equit. 496, AAA tat ^atfjiov, Kat 7r/oa^'etas 
 
 I I I I 
 
 Kara vow tov c/xov Kat o^e ^vAarrot 
 
 II II 
 
 Zeu9 ayopatos* Kat vLKr]cra<: 
 
 II 1,1 
 
 av6i<s eKeiOev TraAtv (Js yjjia<; 
 
 I I I 
 
 cAaots ore^avots KaraTracTTO?. 
 
 No scholar since that day appears to have doubted or discussed 
 Dawes's account of this matter, much less to have approved and de- 
 fended it. With great reluctance one dissents from so masterly a critic, 
 whose contributions to metrical knowledge can never be estimated too 
 highly: but much careful thought bestowed on the subject has led to 
 that very different result which is here (§1) and above (ch. viii. § 1) 
 candidly stated, and not without some confidence proposed as the plain 
 and practical truth. 
 
 XI. — The Ictus of the lo7ig Trochaic verse of Tragedy. 
 
 4. In the ictus of Trochaic and in that of Iambic verse, wliich for 
 the greater clearness, as will be seen, are taken in that order, there is no 
 doubt or difficulty, so long as the simple feet, and the Spondees when 
 paired with one or the other, alone are concerned. 
 
 Every Trochee has the ictus on its first, every Iambus on its second 
 syllable; and the Spondee, as it is Trochaic or Iambic, is marked 
 accordingly. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRA^IATISTS. 395 
 
 I ^ i n 1^ I I I 
 
 PJui'ii. 609. KOfXTTOS ct, I o"— oi'Sats 776— ot^cus, ai crc crco^ovcrtv Oai'ecv. 
 
 1 "!.,"! " 
 
 ■ 76. I —oXXr]v a6poLaa<i a(r7rt8' ApyetoJi/ ayet. 
 
 J. Of all the resolved feet, the Tribrach in Trochaic verse with its 
 
 I 
 ictus on the fii-st syllable --^ vy w is most readily recognized by the ear as 
 
 equivalent to the Trochee : 
 
 I :i ' " , ' K ' " 
 
 Phcen. 618. avocnos Tre^vKa?. aXV ov TrarptSos ojs arv 7roAe/xto9. 
 
 6. ^\Tiat the Tribrach is to the Trochee, the nominal Anapest is to 
 
 the Trochaic Spondee, as its equivalent or substitute; and this Anapest 
 
 I 
 of course has its ictus on the first syllable w v^ — : 
 
 .,1 li I II 1 , " I " 
 
 Orest. 1540. aAAa fxeTa^ovXivaoiJ.ecrOa. tovto 8' ov KaXcos Xeycts. 
 
 I « J , :i I n 1 !i 
 1529. ov yap, lyrt? *EAXa8' avrois ^pv^c SuXvjxrjvaTo. 
 
 7. The following lines, formed artificially (like Bentley's Conimo- 
 
 dav-i, &c. in his metres of Terence,) are calculated merely to afibrd an 
 
 easy praxis for the ictuation of Trochaic verse : 
 
 I n I II I !i^ I n 
 
 yjXOev ovTO<i rjXOev ovra | rjXOev ovto<; r]XOe Srj. 
 
 I " I ^ fl I II I I 
 
 aScKos rjXOev aStKO? eA^cov | aSt/cos rjXOev rjXOe Srj. 
 
 I 11 1 " . IP in 
 
 rjXOev aSiKos r]XO€v aSiKoiv | -qXOev aStKos rjXOe Sr]. 
 
 I li I ii I n I u 
 
 TTOTcpa ScSte, TTorepa SeSte, ] Trorepa ScStc SeStora ; 
 
 8. Instances frequently occurring of words like those now given, 
 
 aStKog, aSiKcov, &c. ictuated on the antepenult, may be considered, if not 
 as positively agreeable to the ear, yet at any rate as passing without 
 objection or offence. 
 
 But where the penultima of words like a/x^orepa or 6opvl3os is marked 
 with the ictus, something awkward and hard, or so fancied at least, has 
 even led to violations of the genuine text under pretence of impro^'ing 
 the metre. 
 
 For example, the following genuine verse, Iph. A. 875 = 886, 
 
 in , I , " I "I 1 
 
 o) Ovyarep, t^kcis ctt' oXeOpio /cat crv Kat p^iJTrjp creOev, 
 
 has on that very -plesi been disfigured (vid. ch. vi. § 4) by this altera- 
 tion : 
 
 I 0^ I , II I !l I II 
 
 OvyaTcp, r;/c£is | ctt' oXeOpo) 0"a) Kat (TV Kat P''>]Tr]p creO^v. 
 
396 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 In V. 1324 = 1345, the word Ovyaj^p occurs with the more usual, and 
 it may be the pleasanter, ictuation : 
 
 I II I II I II I II 
 
 (0 yfj/at TttXati/a, Ar]Sa<s Ovyarep, ov xf/evBr) Opo€L<s. 
 
 A similar difference is found in the ictus of Aprc/xtSt : 
 Iph. A. 872 =: 883. 
 
 I , 11 I II I II I II 
 
 iravT ex^Ls. ApTe/xiSt Ovcreiv TratSa crrjv /xeWet irar-qp. 
 
 I 11 I II I . " « I " 
 
 348 = 359. Apre/AtSt, Kat ttXovv careaOai AavatSats, rja-Ons <f)p€va<5. 
 
 The two following lines from the Persce also exhibit that peculiar 
 ictus : 
 
 1 " J , H I " II 
 
 739. (0 /xeXco?, otav ap yjjSrjv ^vjx/xa^oyv aTroyXecre. 
 
 I n I 11 I 11 in 
 
 176. TovSe ixoL yevecrOe, IlepcrcDV yrjpaXea TricrTw/AaTa. 
 
 Other varieties, and not of very rare occurrence, may be remarked 
 
 in these lines : 
 
 I 11 I II I II ^ I II 
 
 Agam. 1644. 8€;(o/^€vots Xcyets Oavetv ere' tyjv TV)(r]v 8' epuifieOa. 
 
 I, 11 I " , I n 1 ii 
 
 fyh. A. 852 = 863. ws /jlovol*: Xeyoi? av, e^w 8' eXOe f3a(rLXiKU)V 8ofi(uv. 
 
 I 11 I il I II I II 
 900 = 911. ovK €)((x} /5a>/xov KaTa<f>vy€Lv aXXov r] to (Tov yovv. 
 
 XII. — The Ictus of Iambic Verse in Tragedy. 
 
 9. In the Iambic dipodia (supra 4) the Iambus and the Spondee 
 
 have the ictus on the second syllable. When the Tribrach stands in 
 
 the place of the Iambus, and the nominal Dactyl in that of the Spondee, 
 
 i I 
 
 each of those feet has the ictus on the middle syllable, www, -- w w. 
 
 The ictuation therefore of Iambic verse in its resolved feet may be 
 
 readily shown : 
 
 I , " I , " . I J 
 
 (Ed. B. 112. TTorepa 8 cv otKots r] v aypots o Aato?. 
 
 I , ii I Ii I II 
 26. (jiOiVOva-a 8' aycXats /^ovvofxois tokoicti T€. 
 
 0^'^, TTws ovv ToO^ ovTos 6 (TO^os OVK r]vSa TttSe ; 
 
 , I II [II I 11 
 
 Med. 1173. €LT avTLfxoXTTOV r)K€V oXoXvyr}<; fxcyav. 
 
 I II I II I Ii 
 
 CEd. M. 719. eppuf/ev aXXmv y(e.pcnv ets aparov opos. 
 
 I II I 11 I ii 
 
 Phoen. 40. w ^cvc, rvpavvoi<i cK7ro8a>v fxeBi(rTa<To. 
 
 1 , II I II . I II 
 
 (Ed. R. 257. av8pos t apia-rov /Saa-iXeois r oXwXotos. 
 
 I II ^ I II I II 
 
 Or est. 288. Kat vw avaKoXv-KT to Kaa ty vr]Tov Kapa. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 397 
 
 10. It has heen truly asseited (ch. iii.) that the structure of the 
 Iambic Trimeter is decidedly Trochaic. And though every principal 
 point in the constitution of that verse has been here separately stated 
 and explained, yet the corresjjondence betwixt the Iambic Trimeter and 
 a certain portion of the Trochaic Tetrameter (as hinted above, § 4) may 
 be advantageously employed to illustrate the common properties of both. 
 With this ^-iew, then, to any Trimeter (except only those very few 
 with Anapests initial) let the Cretic beginning S-qXaBij or dWd vvv be 
 prefixed, and eveiy nicety of ictuation, more clear, as it is, and more 
 easily ajDprehended in Trochaic vei*se, will be immediately identified 
 in Iambic. 
 
 For instance, the lines already quoted, (Ed. E. 112, Orest. 288, 
 (Ed. R. 719, with the Cretic prefixed, become long Trochaics, and admit 
 the Trochaic analysis : 
 
 I II I ^ " I ^ B ^ M 
 
 h-qXahr], irorepa S' ev otKOts r] V aypoL<5 6 Aato?. 
 
 1 ! IB , I ii 1 !l 
 
 orjXaOr]. Kai wv avaKaXvTTT , o) KacnyxnqTov Kapa, 
 
 I u I u lulu 
 
 aAAa vvv eppLxj/ev aAXoJv xepaLV ci? a/Sarov opo<;. 
 
 By a similar process, the identity of the Cretic termination in both 
 vei^es (ch. in. § 2. R. and ch. vi. § 5) as subject to the same canon is 
 instantly discovered : 
 
 Orest. 762. Suvoi/ ol iroXXol, KUKovpyovs \ orav e^^ioai j 7rpo(JTa.Ta<i, 
 
 541 (XTreXOeToi 8r) rots X6yoL(rLV j eKTroSojv. 
 
 *AAAa vvv OLTTcXOiriJi ^-q \ rots Xoyoicnv | ckttoScuv. 
 
 The correspondence, however, of the Iambic Trimeter with that portion 
 of the Trochaic Tetrameter is then only quite perfect when the former 
 verse has the predominant division, M. (ch. in. § 1), as in the Senaiius 
 quoted above. 
 
 XIII. — Tlte Ictus of the long Trochaic verse of Comedy. 
 
 11. The scansion of the Comic Tetrameter agi-ees with that of the 
 Tragic, except in one point, that it admits, though veiy rarely, the 
 
 in the 6th before the wwo in the 7th; and the ictuation is the 
 
 very same in both verses. Of that exception the line already quoted 
 may afibrd a sufficient example : 
 
 I II I u I I I 
 
 ovT€ yap varayo?, av fxr] yqq Xtt/Sr/rat (^epo/xcvo?. 
 
398 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 XIV. — The Ictus of Iambic Verse in Comedy. 
 
 12. The Comic Trimeter in Scansion differs from the Tnagic by ad- 
 mitting the — v^^ in the 5th, and the ww— in the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th. 
 
 The Dactyl in the 5th of the Comic has the same ictus — ww as it 
 has in the 1st and 3d of the Tragic Senarius, thus: 
 
 1 , II I \ } II 
 
 Plut. 55. TTvOoLjxeO av tov xPV^I^^^ rjixoitv, otl voet. 
 
 I , It I 11 I II 
 
 — 1149. CTTCtr' a-TToAtTTCov rov<i Oeov^ evOahe /xevci?. 
 
 Whatever be the real nature of that licence which admits the 
 
 Anapest so freely into Comic verse, no doubt can exist as to the place 
 
 of its ictus on the last syllable v^w— ; and the following lines may serve 
 
 as examples: 
 
 I II I II I . " 
 
 I^ub. 2. <o Zev ySao-iXeu, ro )(pif][xa tojv vvKTOiV oaov. 
 
 , I, II I II I 11 
 
 24. €1^' €^€K0Tr7]V TTpOTepOV TOV 0(f)6aXjX0V XiOiO, 
 
 I II I II I ^1 
 
 20. OTTOO-OtS O^etXw, Kttt XoyLCTOiixat tovs tokovs. 
 
 , I II I II I II 
 
 11. aXX' €t SoKei, peyKwfxev eyK^KaXvfxixevoL. 
 
 1 3. The Tetrameter of Comedy admits no feet but those which are 
 
 found, and with more frequency, in the Trimeter. The ictuation on the 
 
 feet in each verse is the very same, as the following lines may serve to 
 
 exemplify: (Porson, xli. = 38). 
 
 I II I II I II I 
 
 Plut. 253. (o TToXXa Sr] TO) SecnroTr] ravrov $v}Jiov <^ayovT€<;. 
 
 I II ' I ' 11 I II 1 
 
 Ranee 911. Trpwrio-ra fxcv yap kva ye riva Ka^etcrev eyKaXvi/zag. 
 
 I II 1 II I II I 
 917. ov^ TjTTOv 7] vvv ol XaXovvT€<s' 7]Xl6los yap rjcrda. 
 
 I II I II I II I 
 
 Thesm. 549. cyerero MeXaviTTTras ironnv <l>atSpas re Tir]V€Xoirr]V Se. 
 
 In this verse, generally, the Iambic structure so clearly predomi- 
 nates, that little advantage can be gained by submitting it to the 
 Trochaic analysis; as, against the judgment of Bentley, has been lately 
 recommended by Ilgenius. (Yide Maltby, Lex. Gr. Pros. p. xxxvi.) 
 
 And yet in some cases, perhaps, of resolved feet, and in verses too 
 wanting the regular caesura, the law of ictuation may be more correctly 
 apprehended by applying the Trochaic scale than otherwise. 
 
 It is worth the while to observe, that of 37 Tetrameters in the 
 Plutus, vv. 253 — 289, containing only two resolved feet, one a Tribrach, 
 and one a Dactyl, (vid. Elmsley, u. s. p. 83,) the versification is remark- 
 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 399 
 
 ably smooth ; aud if those lines be read with the proper ictus, the 
 Iambic movement cannot fail to be pleasantly and distinctly felt on 
 the ear. 
 
 Xy. — Note A. On the Concurrences. 
 
 In ch. II., where the occurrence of wwo' or —wo* before ww— in 
 the Trimeter of Comedy is condemned, a promise is given that the 
 necessity for that limitation should be made to appear. 
 
 The true constitution of the Comic Senarius (in all its bearings) 
 was first discerned by Dawes. In his Emendations on the Acharaians 
 {Misc. Crit. 253—463, &c.) at v. 146, 
 
 El/ TOtcrt TOt^ots eypacf>ov AOrjvaLoc KaXoL, 
 
 he condemns as unlawful the concurrence of feet above mentioned, and 
 claims the credit not only of discovering that canon, but of assigning the 
 true reason also as derived from the laws of Iambic ictuation. 
 
 As the verse stands at present, he says, 
 
 I I 
 
 El/ TOtcrt TOt^ots eypacfiov AOrjvatoL KaXoi, 
 
 you have, with gross offence to the ear, the interval of four syllables 
 from ictus to ictus, when the lawful extent of that interval can only be 
 three. His emendation, demanded no less by the syntax of the whole 
 passage than by the metre of that line, has since been sanctioned by the 
 authority of the Ravenna MS. 
 
 Ev TOtcrt roi)(OL<s eypa<^ , AurjvaLOi KaXoi. 
 
 On the Trochaic Scale of Scansion, it is obvious to remark, that the 
 
 redundance of a syllable in the vulgar text would be instantly detected : 
 
 I II I II I II I II 
 
 aXAa vvv €V I TOtcrt Tot;)(ois | cypacfiov A0r)vaLTOL kuXol. 
 
 One illustration more, from a false reading in Tragedy, may not be 
 deemed superfluous. 
 
 In the Orestes, 499 = 505, the text of the old editions stands thus : 
 avTos KttKtW ey€V€TO ixrjrepa Kraj/cov, 
 which in the Iambic Scansion presents the concurrence of the —wo* 
 and the \^k^—. Here again the Trochaic scale afibrds the ready test; 
 it instantly detects the redundant syllable : 
 
 I " , I "1 "I " 
 
 aXAa vvv avTOs KaKioiV | cyeveTO [xr)Te\pa Kravwv. 
 
 The just and simple emendation of Porson need hardly be given : 
 auro9 KUKLow pir]Tip cyeVcro Kravtui'. 
 
400 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 XVI. — Note B. On the Pause or Cretic Termination. 
 (Vide cL iii. § 2. ch. vi. § 5.) 
 
 1. In the Iambic Trimeter, if the slightest pause or break iu the 
 sense cause the word or words which give to the verse a Cretic ending 
 
 {—y^—) to be separately uttered, then the fifth foot may not be , but 
 
 must be v^— or ^\^^. 
 
 The different modes of concluding the line which reject the in 
 
 5th shall be first exhibited. 
 
 a. The simplest structure which rejects the there is the follow- 
 ing, when the Cretic consists of a single detached word : 
 
 Hecuh. 343. KpvTnovTa X^'ipa koI irpoa-oiTrov \ tfXTraXiv. 
 Ion 1. ArA-as o vcorots )(a\KeoLcnv \ ovpavov. 
 
 Avhich lines in the old editions stand thus : 
 
 KpvTTTOVTa X^'-P* '^^^ TrpoaroyTTOV | Tov/x7raXtv. 
 ArAas o x^Xkcoio-i vwrots | ovpavov. 
 
 (Vide Porson, xxx.=27.) 
 
 (3. In the next case, the Cretic consists of — «^ and a syllable, 
 thus: 
 
 Ov'est. 1079. K'fj^o'i 8c tov/xoj/ Koi (Tov ovK€T | icTrl I St]. 
 1081. ^cup , ov yap 'qpHv ian tovto, | crot ye | fXTjV. 
 
 or the Cretic consists of an article or preposition (— ) attached (in syntax 
 or collocation) to the subsequent word : 
 
 Hecuh. 382. KaXws p-^v et-n-ag, Ovyarep, dWd | t(3 KaXw. 
 397. Setv'o? -^apaKTTjp, KaTriVr^fios | €V jSpoTols. 
 
 Under this head of monosyllables are embraced tl<s, ttws, when interro- 
 gative, with C09, ov, Kat, and the like. (Vide Porson, xxxi. = 27.) 
 
 2. Many semblances of the Cretic termination occur, to which the 
 
 Canon bears no application. Those cases, admitting the in 5th, 
 
 may be commodiously classed under the following heads : 
 
 Where a monosyllabic word before the final Iambus belongs by 
 collocation to the preceding word ; as in enclitics : 
 
 Jlec. 505. (nT€vS(Dp.ev, eyKov(o/x€v '^yov fxoL, \ yepov. 
 Prom. V. 669. tl TrapOevevei Sapov, e^ov arot \ yd/xov. 
 Agam. 1019. co-co cj^peviov Xiyovaa TreiOw vtv \ \6yio. 
 Rhes. 717. yStov 8' tTratrw etpTr' dyvpTr]<^ rts | Aarpts. 
 ndloct. 801. ep.7rpr}(Tov, w ycvi/ate* Kayw rot | Trore. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 401 
 
 Or in such words, not enclitic, as cannot begin a sentence or a verse : 
 Prom. V. 107. olov ri fxoL raorS' c<JTt* 6vrjToi<i yap | yipa. 
 Track. 718. ttws ovk oXet koX rov^e; ^o^rj yovv | e/x^. 
 Prom. V. 846. Xey'- €t Se ttcivt ctpryKa?, tJ/xiv at! | ^^ptv. 
 (E'(i. T. 142. aAV (OS Ta;)(io-Ta TratSe?, v/xeis /xev | (Sddpoyv. 
 Soph. Electr. 413. ct /xot Xeyois tt^v oi/^tv, etTrot/x' av | Tore. 
 
 In the numerous instances of av so placed, it deserves remark, 
 that av is always subjoined to its verb, and that with elision, as in 
 the line quoted. (Yide Porson, xxvi. =28.) 
 
 3. Where words like ovSets and p.r)hds so given, ought in Attic ortho- 
 graphy to be written thus : o08' ets and /xt^S' ets : 
 
 Phcen. 759. ajxcftoTepov diroXeKfiOkv yap ovS' tv Odrepov. 
 Ale. 687. rjv 8' eyyus ^^Oy OdvaroSf ovh^ ets f^ovXerai. 
 
 (Vide Porson, xxxiv. v. = 31.) 
 
 4. And where in the plays of Sophocles, the dative cases plural 
 of eyw and trv are exhibited as Spondees, thus, yijuv, vpuv, when that 
 Tragedian, however strange it may appear, employed those pronouns 
 in his verse actually as Trochees. In that pronunciation, they are by 
 some Grammarians written, -rjfxtv, vfXLv, but yfXLv, v/u,ti/, more generally : 
 
 Electr. 1328. rj vovs evea-nv oiutis vjxlv iyyevys l 
 (Ed. Col. 25. irds ydip tl<s rjvSa tovto y ypnv ip,Tr6po}V. 
 In which two lines -ufxiv and yixtv would vitiate the metre. 
 
 (Vide Porson, xxxv. = 32.) 
 
 5. One particular case seems to have created a very needless per- 
 plexity ; namely, where the verse is concluded by a trisyllabic word 
 with certain consonants initial which do not permit the short vowel 
 precedent to form a short syllable. (Yide Porson, xxxviii. = 34, 5.) 
 
 The following verses, as being supposed to labour under the vicious 
 termination, are recommended by the Professor to the sagacity of young 
 Scholars for correction : 
 
 Hecuh. 717. "^/xetg pikv ovv i<jjfji€v, ovSe ipavofjia/. 
 Androm. 347. ^evyet to TavTr}<s (Tw(f>pov dXXd ij/evcreTaL. 
 Iph. A. 531. Kafx cos VTriar-qv Ov/xa, Kara il/evSofxat. 
 
 (In these verses, also, from Euripides, the very same difficulty, if it 
 
 be one, is involved : 
 
 Bacchce 1284. ^QifXioyfia/ov ye TrpocrOcv rj ere yvwptcrat. 
 
 Electr. 850. TXtJixoyv ^Opia-rrjs' dXXd fx-rj fxe KretVerc.) 
 
 Here the word preceding the final Cretic must be either a Trochee 
 
 or a Spondee. If it is a Trochee, all is well : nothing more need 
 
 D. T. G. 26 
 
402 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 be said. If it is not a Trochee, but a Spondee, what causes it to be so ? 
 Evidently the final short vowel of each word being touched in utterance 
 by the initial tt of xj/, or tto-, with which the next word commences. 
 
 Then, so far from any pause or break of the sense intervening, on 
 which condition alone the Canon operates, there is an absolute con- 
 tinuity of sound and sense together ; and the verse ends with a quin- 
 quesyllabic termination, as complete as in Phoeniss. 32. 53, where 
 i^avSpovjxevos and (TvyKoifjiOifjLivr] terminate the line : even so, ovScTrcravo- 
 jxev, aXXdiraevcrcTaL, KaraTro-evSo/x-at. (This was stated so long ago as 
 1802. Yide Dalzel, Collect Grcec. Maj. t. ii. Nott. p. 164.) 
 
 6. Several modifications of the line, according to the connexion 
 of the words by which it is concluded, come next to be considered. 
 Some of these cases, when the words are duly separated, present a 
 dissyllabic, some a quadri syllabic ending ; in others the combination 
 is such as to exhibit a collective termination of five syllables, or 
 more : 
 
 a. (Ed. R. 435. 7jiieL<s ToiotS' ecfivfiev, co^ fxiv ctol So/cet* 
 This line, even so read, would not violate the Canon ; for it does 
 not present a Cretic separately pronounced. But it stands far more 
 correctly thus in Elmsley's Edition, — ws a-ol filv | 8oKet, with an ending 
 clearly dissyllabic. 
 
 y8. The following line again as clearly presents a termination of four 
 syllables : 
 
 Q^d. R. 1157. eSoiK' oXiaOai 8' w^eXov | ttJS yfjiipa. 
 
 The three following instances are taken from Elmsley, ad (Ed. 
 Col. 115. 
 
 y. Iph. A. 858. SovXo?, ov)( djSpvvoixat t<38'* T] Tvyr} yap fx ovk ea. 
 
 Here the ending is not trisyllabic ; for fx ovk go together, and 
 the enclitic /xe hangs upon yap : and as yap in collocation is attached 
 to the precedent y Tvxrj, the accumulation of syllables in continuity 
 amounts to seven. 
 
 8. Ion 808. SeaTTOLva, TrpoSeSo/Aecr^a* avv yap crol voao). 
 
 Here the words avv yap (tol, being under the vinculum of Syntax, 
 cannot be disjoined. And avv aol yap, if so read, from the law of 
 collocation in words like yap, must go together. Either way the 
 structure of the verse is legitimate, with a dissyllabic ending. 
 
 €. Eur. Electr. 275. rjpov to8'; alaxpov y eiTras- ov yap vvv aKfXTj. 
 Here ov negatives vvv, and of course must be uttered in the same 
 breath with it, ov yap vvv \ aKfxTJ. 
 
OF THE GREEK DKAMATIST^. 403 
 
 Elmsley himself, {ad CEd. Col. 115) on the two following lines, 
 ^. (Ed. Col. 265. oi'o/xa fxovov 6ct'o-aiTe'»' ov yap hq to y€, 
 77, Electr. -432, rx-fx/Sio Trpocraiioys fxrjSev" ov yap crot Oefii^, 
 justly remarks, that neither line contains any thing \n-ong : for the 
 words o-oc and 877, the one enclitic, the other by collocation attached 
 to the word precedent, make a slight dissyllabic ending, as far as any 
 separate termination exists. 
 
 7. The following line may serve to represent several othei^s of 
 similar consti-uction : 
 
 Aj. Fl. 1101. l^^dT ayd(T(T€Ly, wv oh^ '//yctr' otKoOev. 
 
 (Tide Elmsley, JIus. Crit. Vol. i. pp. 476 — 480, et ad Eerad. 
 371. 530.) 
 
 " If we suppose the first syllable of otxo^ev to be attracted by the 
 elision to the preceding word, the verse will cease to be an exception 
 to Poi^son's Canon." At the same time, he frankly confesses, that he is 
 not satisfied with this solution of the difiiculty, and goes on with great 
 acuteness to state his objections to it. 
 
 Xow, on the other hand, we are told of Hegelochus, who acted 
 the part of Orestes in the play so named, that when he came to v. 273, 
 Ik Kvfxa.Tu)v yap av^tg av ya/\77v' opw, wanting breath to pronounce yaXijv 
 opw with the delicate synalepha requii^ed, he stopped between the words, 
 and uttered these sounds instead, ya/\77v 6p<2. (Tide Porson, ad Orest. 
 273.) 
 
 From this anecdote have we any light to conclude, that in cases 
 
 like that of np/elT olkoOcv, at the close of the verse, the fii-st syllable 
 
 of oLKodiv was by the elision attracted to the preceding word TTyet-o ? 
 and in all similar cases may we suppose the two words to have been 
 so closely connected in sound as to leave no perceptible suspension 
 of the .sense whatsoever ? 
 
 It is enough perhaps to have thrown out the suggestion ; and there 
 let the matter rest for the present ^ 
 
 XTII. — Xote C. O71 tk-e Anapest Proprii Xominis hi the Tragic 
 Senarius and on other licences of a similar description. 
 
 Before we engage in the direct discussion of the point here proposed, 
 let a few remarks be premised. 
 
 ^ It is quite clear that the aspirate at the beginning of a word was not pronounced 
 ill ^ sjrnaloepha unless it could be transferred to the preceding consonant, e.g. ravd' 
 opw. \\ hile^then ya\^v bpQ) would be distinctly given as galea koro, the articulation 
 of yoK-ffv 6pQ must have been gale- novo, which would make a verj- perceptible diflfer- 
 ence. — J. W. D. 
 
 26—2 
 
404 ON THE LANGUAGE, .METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 1. In the first place, there is a well-known distinction in music 
 betwixt common time and triple time. To this musical distinction 
 there exists something confessedly analogous in the difference betwixt 
 the time of Anapestic and Dactylic verse, and that of Iambic and 
 Trochaic. 
 
 Agreeably then to this analogy, we may be allowed for the sake 
 of illustration to use the terms common and triple time in the pages 
 which follow. 
 
 2. In the next place, the terms Anapest and Dactyl have been 
 already used on two occasions palpably diflferent. 
 
 Firstj as the names of the natural feet in the triple time of Ana- 
 
 pestic and Dactylic verse, with their ictus thus, ww— , — v^w. 
 
 1 II t B 
 
 Med. 167, 8. w Trarep, o> ttoXis, ujv aTrevacrOrjv, 
 
 I II I II 
 
 atcr^ws Tov ejxov Kxeivaaa KacrLV. 
 
 Secondly, as the names of two short syllables before or after a long 
 one, in the common time of Trochaic or Iambic verse, with a different 
 
 vvw — , — \^Kj. 
 
 ictus thus, 
 
 I . II I i , i II 
 
 CEd. R. 257. avSpos y apLcrrov ^acnXeo)'; r oXioXoto?. 
 
 I II I II I ii I n 
 
 Phoen. 621. Kat <tv [x-qrcp ; ov ^e/xis aot fxr}Tpo<s ovofJiat,€LV Kapa. 
 
 In future, it may be safe and useful to call the first of these the 
 natural, and the second the nominal, Dactyl and Anapest. 
 
 3. Thirdly, the terms Anapest and Dactyl have a different use 
 still, to denote certain feet admissible in certain kinds of Iambic and 
 Trochaic verse, as equivalent to the proper feet of each metre, being 
 admitted not only into the Spondaic places of the dipodia, but into the 
 Iambic and Trochaic likewise. 
 
 In the pronunciation of those peculiar feet, it is probable there was 
 something correspondent to the slurring, so called, of musical notes ; 
 and since necessity demands a third name for a third character, it may 
 justify our adoption of slurred Anapest and slurred Dactyl, as terms 
 not inappropriate for that purpose. 
 
 Let the marks then, v^ (v^) — and — (v^) w, be permitted to represent 
 each of those peculiarities, when each requires to be separately repre- 
 sented. But for reasons of convenience, which will be found very 
 striking when we come to the practical part of the subject, we beg leave 
 to introduce a more comprehensive method, equally suited to Iambic 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 405 
 
 and Trochaic verse ; and that is, to make — w>^— the sign of the ap- 
 
 I III 
 
 parent syllables involved in the discussion, and — (k^) v^ — or — v-/ — the 
 
 sign of the real sounds as they are supposed to have been uttered. 
 
 Nuhes 131. Xoyaiv aKpi/Bwy crxt-vSaXdixovs ixaOrjcrofxaL ; 
 
 — w w — 
 Iph. A. 882. ets ap 'I^tycVetav 'EXcVt;? i/ocrros y)V TrcTrpw/xevos ; 
 
 4. Whatever truth or probability may be found in the following 
 attempt to account for the — ww— Proprii ISTominis in the Trochaic 
 or Iambic verse of Tragedy, (and for the admission of that licence 
 with common words also into the Iambics of Comedy,) the whole 
 merit of the discovery, if any, is due to S. Clarke, whose suggestion 
 {ad II. B. V. 811) is here pursued, enforced, and developed. 
 
 Clarke, after quoting instances of ww— Proprii Nominis, but 
 only in the 4th foot of the Trimeter, proceeds to argue thus. If the 
 Iambic verse of Tragedy, under other circumstances, rejects in the 4th 
 the v^'w— as equal in time to , and admits only the v^— or equiva- 
 lent www, then it is clear that the proper names which exhibit ww — 
 to the eye could never have been pronounced at full length in three 
 distinct syllables, but must have been hurried in utterance, so as to 
 carry only w— to the ear. 
 
 And since long proper names (as Clarke justly observes) are from 
 their nature liable to be rapidly spoken j in the following verses, 
 
 Phcen. 764 = 769. ya/xovs 8' dS€X<f>rjs 'Ai/rtyovT^s TratSos t€ crov. 
 Androm. 14. Tio vrjcnoiTr] ISovTrToXifJuo Sopos yepas, 
 
 and in that above, 
 
 ets ap' 'Ic^iyeVeiav 'EXcVr^s v6crT0<; tjv 7re:rpa)/xeVog ; 
 
 naturally enough the names 'Avrtyoi/T^s and NovTrroXejua) and 'I^tyeVetai/ 
 might be slurred into something like 'Avr'yovr;?, NovTrrXejaw, 'I^'yeVetav : 
 the ear of course would find no cause of offence, and the eye takes 
 no cognizance of the matter. 
 
 5. If this mode of solution be allowed as probable at least in 
 the department of proper names in Tragic verse to which it bears direct 
 application, by parity of argument perhaps it may be extended to the 
 similar case of common words used in Comic verse also. 
 
 Take for instance the line above quoted ; 
 
 Aoycov (XKpL^oiv crxtvSaXa/xovs /xa^ifcro/xat ; 
 What was the objection to the old and vulgar reading, o-xtvSaX/xovs ? 
 
406 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 Clearly this : that it placed a in 4th. What then does crxtvSaXa/xov? 
 
 place there 1 Either w w — is pronounced as three distinct syllables, 
 in what is called triple time, while the metre itself is in common, or by 
 rapid utterance o-xti^^'Xa/xovs comes to the ear, and so the verse proceeds 
 with its own regular movement. 
 
 Briefly, we have either crxtvSaX/xovs, a molossus, , which mur- 
 ders the metre entirely; 
 
 or (TxivSaXa/Aov?, a full-sounded choriambus, —\y^—, which con- 
 trary to the law of the verse mingles triple with common time ; 
 
 or axivS{a)\dixov<;, i.e. in effect, the pes Creticus, — v^ — , that very 
 quantum of sound which the metre requires. 
 
 Obs. It may be necessary to remark, that Clarke's reasoning about 
 the WW— Proprii Nominis in the 4th is just as applicable to the 2nd 
 place also with that foot as to the 4th. And if his argument, as here 
 stated, be sufficient to account for the licence in the 2nd and 4th places, 
 of course, where the same licence occurs in the 3rd and 5th, its admis- 
 sion there also must be considered in the very same light. 
 
 For examples of the ww— (or — ww— ) Proprii Nominis in all the 
 four places, see ch. i. § 3. 
 
 6. Before advancing a step farther, it is but right to avow, that all 
 which we at present propose is to set this question fairly a-going on its 
 apparently reasonable and very probable ground. 
 
 High probability then favours the idea, that the Anapests (and 
 Choriamb!) of Greek Comedy (under all combinations of words and 
 syllables) were passed lightly over the tongue without trespassing on the 
 time allowed betwixt ictus and ictus in verses not containing those feet, 
 i. e. in metres of common time. 
 
 Anything like a perfect enumeration of particulars commodiously 
 classed would be found to demand a serious sacrifice of leisure and 
 labour. The classes which are here given in specimen only, while they 
 undoubtedly embrace a very great majority of the facts, may serve to 
 show the nature of that extensive survey which would be necessary to 
 make the induction complete. 
 
 7. Instances like crxtvSaXa/xoi;?, it might ct priori be calculated, are 
 not likely to be very numerous; hardly 10 in every 100 of the Comic 
 Trimeters : nor do all the words of similar dimensions with o-xtvSaAa- 
 lxov<s present a choriambus so readily obedient to our organs at least 
 for running four syllables into three. 
 
 Nuhes 16. dvletpoTToAet | 0* tTTTrotis* cyw 8' aTroXXv/xat, 
 Plutus 25. €vvovs yap wv a-oi \ TrvvOdvofxaL | ttolvv acfioSpa, 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 407 
 
 Besides the instances of — ^w— in one word, wliicli afford tlie 
 strongest case for the admission of the licence, some other principal 
 modes in which that apparent foot is made up may be classed under 
 four heads. 
 
 A. TMiere a long monosyllable, from its nature more or less 
 adhering to the word ■which it precedes, may be supposed to form a 
 coalescence of this kind, | — 1^^— |- 
 
 Plutus 45. etr' ov $vvLr]<; \ rrjv i7rLV0L\av tov Oeov ; 
 Acharn. 52. (XTrovSa? ttouIct^l | Trpos AaKcSatj/xovtors ix6v(jo. 
 Nuhes 12. aX)C | ov 8vi'a/xat [ Sct'Aatos cvSctv 8aKyo^6vo5. 
 
 B. Where either a monosyllable precedes, haying from the law of 
 collocation less adherence to what follows; or some longer word pre- 
 cedes, not particularly attached to the word which follows, or by syntax 
 united to it: 
 
 Flut. dQ. aye [ hq Trporepov | crv aavrov, ocrrts eT, (fipdcrov. 
 Nub. 25. <l>iA]cjv, a8tK€ts* ] lAawe tov aravrov Spo/xov. 
 Plut. 148. SovAjos yeyevr;l/xat 8ta ro /x-rj TrXovrelv tcroo?. 
 
 C. "Where, after an elision, concuiTences of this kind take place : 
 Plut. 12. fJi€\ay)(oX<2vT d7T€7r€fj.\{l/€ fJiov TOV SecrTTOTqv. 
 
 16. ov|tos S' (XKoXovOeL, Kdjxk 77/3oo-/3ia^eTai. 
 
 195. Kav 1 TavT dvvcrqjaL, T^rrapaKovra fBovXerai. 
 
 D. "VMiere a monosyllable by its natm-al position follows a longer 
 word : 
 
 Plut. 688. TO ypaSiov 8' ojs | rjo-O^TO hq | fxov tov \!/6cfiov. 
 
 943. Kttt TUVTa Trpos TO ix€T(j)7rov I avTLKa Brj | fidXa. 
 
 N. B. From the very close connexion of the article with its noun, 
 to fj.€Toy7rov may be fairly taken as one word; and so, in the following 
 line, we may consider to. vocrqp-aTa : 
 
 Plut. 708. SetVas* €K€tvos 8' Iv kvkXio to. voayfJLaTa. 
 Thus V. 943 will become referable to the class A, and y. 708 to the 
 class B, along with many combinations of the yery same kind. 
 
 8. If the idea of this inquiry had struck the mind of Elmsley 
 as worthy at all of his careful research, little or nothing would haye 
 been afterwards left for inyestigation. The topic was not without 
 interest to him as an Editor of Aristophanes : and on the Acharnians, 
 ad V. 178, and in reference to y. 531, 
 
 Tt coTtv; eyoj fxkv Sevpo cot o-7rov8as (fiipiov — 
 HoTpaTTTCV, i/Spovra, ^vvcKVKa Trjv 'EXA-aSa — 
 
408 ON THE LANGUAGE,^ METRES AND PEOSODY 
 
 in a note of great and successful acuteness, he examines and settles a 
 curious point in the main subject itself 
 
 "178. Hodie hie ri kar malim, et rjaTpaTTT, v. 531. Nam longe 
 rarius, quam putaram, anapoestum in hoc metri genere inchoat ultima 
 vocis syllaba." The whole note will amply repay the trouble of 
 perusal. 
 
 III. PROSODY. 
 
 On Syllabic Quantity, and on its Differences in Heroic and 
 Dramatic Verse. 
 
 1. By syllabic quantity is here meant the quantity of a syllable 
 under these circumstances : the vowel, being unquestionably short, pre- 
 cedes a pair of consonants of such a nature that it may any where be 
 pronounced either distinctly apart from them, or in combination with 
 the first of the two. 
 
 If the vowel be pronounced apart from those consonants, as in ttc- 
 Tpa?, that syllable is said to be short by nature. 
 
 If the vowel be pronounced in combination with the first of those 
 consonants, as in Trer-pa?, the syllable then is said to be long by 
 position. 
 
 2. The subjoined list comprises all the pairs of consonants which 
 may begin a word, and also permit a short vowel within the same word 
 to form a short syllable. 
 
 i. Trp, Kp, rp : cjyp, XRy ^P ' Pp^ yp, h- 
 
 ii. ttX, kX, tX : ^X, ;(X, ^X. — iii. tti/, kv : x^^* ^V' — iv. t/x. 
 The only remaining pairs, /?X, yX : 8/x : and /xv, which are at once 
 initial, and in a very few cases permissive, may, on account of that rarity, 
 be passed over for the present. But the following pairs, k/a : XP-) ^P- ' 
 TV : cfiv, though not initial yet within the same word 2^ermissive, deserve 
 to be stated here, as they will afterwards be noticed. 
 
 3. More than twenty other combinations of consonants, (along with 
 if/, $, t„) though qualified to be initial, are of course foreign to the pur- 
 pose, as never being permissive also; at least in the practice of those 
 authors to whom these remarks are confined. 
 
 The combinations last mentioned it may be allowed in future to call 
 non-permissive ; and for this reason, that neither within the same word, 
 nor between one word and another, (of verse at least,) do they permit a 
 preceding short vowel to be pronounced distinctly apart : it seems to be 
 coupled with them always by an irresistible attraction. 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 409 
 
 In turning from the Comic trimeter of Aristophanes to the stately 
 hexameter of Homer, the difference of syllabic quantity must be strik- 
 ingly felt : and that contrast is here purposely taken, to show more 
 clearly in what the great difference consists betwixt the prosody of 
 heroic and that of dramatic verse. 
 
 4. Homer seldom allows a short vowel to form a short syllable be- 
 fore any of those permissive pairs lately detailed, and only before some 
 few of them. The following cases occur betwixt one word and another : 
 such correptions within the same word are yet more uncommon. 
 
 A. 113. OtKot t-^(iLV' KoX yap pa K.XvTaLixv7]aTprj<; TrpojSefiovXa. 
 
 — 263. Olov JlaptOoov re, ApvavTo. t€, Troi/xiva AaoJi/. 
 
 — 528. *H, Kal Kvaver)(TLV kir ocfipv(TL vevae KpoviW. 
 
 — 609. Zevs Se Trpos oV Xi)(p<s rji 'OAv/attio? oiaT€po7rr]'n]<;, 
 
 5. Aristophanes (with very few exceptions in Anapestic verse, 
 pointed out by Person, pp. Ix. lxi. = p. 54) never allows a short vowel 
 cicm ictu to form a long syllable with any permissive pair, even within 
 the same word. 
 
 Plut. 449. TTOioLcnv 6ir-\oL<s rj Swdfiei TreTroi^ore? ', 
 Such was, indeed, the vulgar reading, till Dawes (M. C. p. 196) antici- 
 pating, as usual, the Ravenna MS., gave the true text : 
 
 Hotots o-7rXoi(TLV y Swa/Act TrcTrot^orcs ', 
 
 6. Homer, on the other hand, not only in the same word cum ictu, 
 but in the same word extra ictum, and even between two words in the 
 same dehilis positio, makes the syllable long. 
 
 A. 13. Ado-o/xcvos t€ 6vyar-pa, (jiepoiv t (XTrepciorL airoLva. 
 
 — 77. 'H /xev /xot 7rp6<fi-p(i)v ^ttco-lv Kal ^epalv dpy]^€LV. 
 
 — 345. "^fls (fjoLTO' Har-poK-Xos Se <^tAa) limr^iOcd eraipo). 
 
 A. 57. aXXa-^-prj /cat Ifxav ^e/xcvat ttovov ovk areXea-TOV. 
 
 I I 
 
 H. 189. yv(o ScK-Xrjpov arjfjia iSwv, yi]Or](re Se Ovjx^. 
 
 7. The only possible case in which Aristophanes might prolong 
 such a syllable would be in the use of verbs like these, ck-Avw, €K-/AatVw, 
 iK-v€v(o, iK-piw, if compounds of that kind ever occur ; because, from the 
 very nature of the compound, Ik must always be pronounced distinct 
 from the initial consonant of the verb. ^ 
 
410 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY 
 
 8 . In Homer, on the contrary, even the loose vowel of augment (e) 
 or reduplication, when it precedes ttX, kX, Kp, rp, &c., initial of the verb, 
 not only cum ictu, but even extra ictum, is made to form a long syllable. 
 
 A. 46. €K-Xay^av 8' ap oio'rol kir cu/xwv )((s)0fX€i/0L0. 
 
 — 309. 'Es 8' cperas lK-piv€V UiKoaiv^ h 8' kKarofx^rjv. 
 
 1,1 
 S. 176. lic^aixevYjy X^P^' 7rA.OKa/x,ou5 ctt-Xc^c ^actvovs, 
 
 N. 542. Aatfxov Tvij/, Ittl ol rcT-pafjiixevov, 6$ei Sovpi. 
 
 9. In Homer no dissyllabic word like -n-arpos, tIkvov, ocfipa, &c., 
 which can have the first syllable long, is ever found with it otherwise : 
 in Aristophanes those first syllables are constantly shortened. 
 
 10. Briefly, then, it may be said, that in Homer, whatever can be 
 long is very seldom (and under very nice circumstances) ever short : in 
 Aristophanes, whatever can be short is never found long. 
 
 To complete the purpose of this little sketch, the tragic prosody also 
 (of Euripides, for instance), in a few correspondent points, may as well 
 be presented. 
 
 11. Ai'istophanes, even in the same word, and where the ictus might 
 be available (§ 5), never makes a long syllable : Euripides, who excludes 
 the prolongation even cum ictu betwixt one word and another, 
 
 (Orest. 64. TrapOivoVj ifxfj re fxr]Tpl TrapiBwKev rpecftetv, 
 
 i. e. not 7rapc8(OK€T pe<f>€LVy) 
 within the same word, readily allows it : 
 
 Med. 4. TfJLrjOeta-a TrevKrj, prq^ ipeT-fiwaai X^P'*^- 
 
 17. TrpoSous yap avTOv T€K-i/a, Seo-Trortv r ifiyv. 
 
 25. Tov Travra crvvrrjKOvcra SaK-pvoi? )(p6vov. 
 
 12. In Euripides, even those dissyllabic words (alluded to § 9), 
 wherever, from its position, the syllable is decisively long or short, 
 exhibit that syllable thrice short to one case of long. Consequently, in 
 certain positions (unictuated) of Iambic or Trochaic verse, which indif- 
 ferently admit either qiBitity, there can be no reasonable ground for 
 supposing that syllable to be lengthened : of course, therefore, the fol- 
 lowing lines are thus read : 
 
 Med. 226. 7n-Kp6<s TroXtVais icrriv a/xa^tas vtto. 
 
 Iph. A. 891. iirl TtVos a-TTOv^a-Tiov fxoL /xaXAov, ^ tc-kvov Trepi; 
 
OF THE GREEK DRAMATISTS. 411 
 
 13. In cases where the augment falls as in cttckXwctcv or KeKXrjaOai, 
 or where, as in Tro\vxpv(To<s and aTrorpoTroi, the short vowel closes the first 
 pai*t of a composite word, the prolongation of that syllable in Euripides, 
 though not altogether avoided, is yet exceedingly rare. (R. P. ad Orest. 
 64). 
 
 14. One gi'eat cause of the many mistakes about syllabic quantity 
 should seem to be involved in that false position of S. Clarke's {ad II. B. 
 537), that a short vowel preceding any two consonants with which a 
 syllable can be commenced may form a short syllable. Nothing was ever 
 more unluckily asserted, or more pregnant with confusion and error. 
 
 15. To the perspicacity and acuteness of Dawes (J/. C. pp. 90, 1, 
 196, 146, 7) we are indebted for the first clear statement of the principal 
 points in this department of prosody : to the delibei*ate and masterly 
 judgment of Porson (ad Orest. 64, and elsewhere) we owe whatever else 
 is con-ectly and certainly known. 
 
 16. Some little things, however, may serve to show that an English 
 ear, especially on a sudden appeal, is no very competent judge of Attic 
 correptions, so called. 
 
 For instance, in the following lines : 
 
 Pficen. 1444. h tcSSc l^yjfrjp rj raXaiva Trpotnrtrvii^ 
 Ale. 434. CTTiVrajaat ye, kovk a.(^v(M KaKov To8e, 
 
 it is not from any practice of our own, certainly, that we should pro- 
 nounce the words irpoa-rri-Tvu. and a-cf>vo} with precision and facility in 
 that very way. 
 
 17. So, too, if ctK/x?; and e<Tfj.ev were on a sudden proposed as to the 
 shortening of the first syllable in each, it might seem to an English ear 
 just as improbable in the noun as in the verb; although in Athenian 
 utterance we know very well the fact was quite otherwise. 
 
 Toup (vid. Emendd. Vol. i. 114, 5; iv. 441) maintained in his day 
 (what is now called) the permissiveness of a-fx : and actually, on that 
 ground, suggested the following as an emendatien of a passage in Sopho- 
 cles, for ifxev or t/xcv : 
 
 Elect. 21, 2 (OS IvTavd^ i-(Tfxiv, 
 
 LV* ovKer OKVilv Katpos, dW* Ipywv aKfxrj, 
 (where cik/xt;, of course, is right enough, being pronounced d-Kfxi]). Since 
 Person's delicate correction of that error (u. s. p. 441) no argument has 
 been advanced in its defence. And yet, ct priori^ why should not a-fx be 
 permissive, as well as Op., for instance ? " The consonants cr/x can begin 
 a word ; why not commence a separate syllable ? How can dp. commence 
 a syllable, when notoriously it cannot begin a wordi" 
 
412 ON THE LANGUAGE, METRES AND PROSODY, &C. 
 
 18. The plain truth, however, stands thus: that k/x and ^//,, (with 
 Xft, <t>v, TV,) though never used as initial to any word, yet within the 
 same words are found permissive much too often to admit the shadow of 
 a doubt on that head. 
 
 PJloen. 351. Kat yap jxirp' dvOpo)7roL(n kol jxeprj o-ra-^/xwv 
 may be taken for one undisputed example; there is no want of more. 
 
 19. How far in the different pairs of consonants which have been 
 defined as non-permissive (§ 3), a physical necessity was the obstacle, in 
 some at least, if not in others, might be a question for anatomy rather 
 than for criticism. 
 
 Special Rules of Quantity. 
 
 1. *H/xtV and vjxlv, when so written for ^/xtv, r/Atv, have the last syl- 
 lable short in Sophocles. Elmsley has thus stated the case. 
 
 Solus e tragicis secundam in rjplv et vplv corripit Sophocles, monente 
 Porsono Prcefat. p. xxxvii. Id in integris fabulis bis et quadragies 
 extra melica fecit. Septies autem necessario produxit ante vocalem ; 
 (Ed. Tyr. 631, (Ed. Col. 826, Track. 1273, Aj. 689, El. 355, 454, 1381. 
 Quae omnia emendationis egere suspicari videtur Porsonus. Ego vero 
 casu potius quam consilio factum puto, ut tam raro ancipitem vocalem 
 necessario produceret Noster. Nam simile quid Euripidi accidisse video. 
 Is, ut monuit Porsonus, posteriorem horum pronominum syllabam nus- 
 quam corripuit. — Quod ad accentum correptse formse attinet, alii yfXLv et 
 vfjiLv, alii -qfJA-v et vpuv scribendum arbitrantur. Hanc scripturam adhibuit 
 Aldus in Ajace et Electrce versibus primis 357, dehinc vero ■^p.tv et v/jllv 
 usque ad finem libri. 'H/x,tv et vfxiv ubique editiones recentiores, quarum 
 scripturam post Brunckium adoptavi. Elmsley, Free/, ad (Edip. Ty- 
 rann. p. x. 
 
 2. I is common in Idofiai, tarpo?, XiW, opvL<;. The quantity of this 
 vowel varies in dvLo. and avtapos. 
 
 Nomen avia, vel avtr}, plerumque penultimam producit, aliquando 
 corripit, ut in quatuor exemplis a Ruhnkenio, Epist. Grit. ii. p. 276, 
 adductis. — Yerbum dvLono vel avta^w, apud Epicos poetas secundam ple- 
 rumque producit, ut et in Soph. Antig. 319. Yerbum aViw apud Aristo- 
 phanem penultimam ter corripit, semel producit Eq. 348. (349, Bekk.) 
 — Semper, nisi fallor, secunda in aviapos ab Euripide et Aristophane cor- 
 ripitur, producitur a Sophocle A^itig. 316. Sed ubique tertia syllaba longa 
 est. Porson. ad Phcen. v. 1334. 
 
 3. I is long in kovis, -iv, o^t?, -tv, e.g. -^sch. Pers. 1085, Choeph. 
 928. 
 
EXAMINATION PAPERS 
 
 ON THE 
 
 GREEK TRAGEDIANS 
 
EXAMINATION PAPERS 
 
 OX THE 
 
 GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 
 
 ^SCHYLI PERS.E. 
 
 Trinity College. June^ 1832. 
 Mr. Thirlwall. 
 
 1. Define your notion of epic, lyi-ic, and di-amatic poetry. WTiat 
 species of composition is implied in the term lyrical Tragedy? Mention 
 the various meanings that have been derived from the etymology of the 
 words TpaywSta and TpvywSto. Which of these explanations is most con- 
 formable to analogy? 
 
 2. On what grounds, according to Aristotle, did the Dorians lay 
 claim to the invention of Tragedy and Comedy? Point out the fallacy 
 of the argument he mentions. In what Greek cities out of Attica were 
 early advances made toward dramatic poetry? Where was any of its 
 branches brought to its perfection earlier than at Athens? Explain the 
 proverb ovh\ to. "XT-rjcnxopov rpia yiyvwcTKCt?. Mention the age, country, 
 and inventions of Stesichorus, and the character of his poetry as de- 
 scribed by the ancients. 
 
 3. Relate the principal Attic legends concerning the introduction 
 of the worship of Bacchus into Athens. How did the oracles contribute 
 to this end? By what means does the worship of Bacchus appear to 
 have become connected with that of Apollo at Delphi, and with that of 
 Ceres at Eleusis? 
 
 4. Enumerate the Attic Dionysia, and explain the origin of their 
 particular names. In what Attic month, and at what season of the 
 
416 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 year, was each celebrated? To what division of the Greek nation did 
 the month Lenseon belong 1 To what Attic month did it correspond ? 
 What is the origin of the name, and what inference may be di-awn from 
 it as to the place of the month in the calendar? Which was the most 
 ancient of the Dionysia at Athens ? 
 
 5. At which of the Dionysia were dramatic entertainments given? 
 In which were the dithyrambic choruses exhibited? What were the 
 peculiar regulations affecting the performances at each festival? In 
 which were the rpaywSot Kacvoi ? What authority is there for believing 
 that women were admitted to these spectacles ? 
 
 6. Translate : elcrijveyKC vofxov ras rpaywStas avroiv iv koivo) ypai^a/xe- 
 vov<; (fivXarreLv kol tov rrjs TroXews ypajxixaria TrapavaytyvoJo'Ketv rots viroKpi- 
 vofxivoi^. Who was the author of this law, and what were its objects? 
 Translate and explain : ol TroLrjrai rpcts iXdixjSavov vTroKptras kXt/pw vefir]- 
 6ivTa<s vTTOKptvo/xevovs rd Spafiara, wv o viKrjaa'; cts TOVTnov aKpiTOS irapa- 
 Xaix/3dv€TaL What were the particular denominations of these actors? 
 How were the parts in the Fersce probably distributed among them? 
 What was the general name for the other characters in a play ? 
 
 7. Give some examples to illustrate the different light in which 
 actors were regarded by the Greeks and by the Romans. How is the 
 fact to be explained? From what causes did the profession of an actor 
 rise in importance in Greece between the age of ^schylus and that of 
 Demosthenes ? 
 
 8. What part of the expense of the theatrical entertainments was 
 defrayed by the Athenian government, and what by individuals ? Men- 
 tion the various duties and charges to which the -^^op-qyoi were subject. 
 With what powers did the law invest them in the execution of their 
 office ? Explain the origin and nature of the ©ewpiKw, the changes that 
 took place in the distribution of it, and its political consequences. Who 
 were the Oearpajvai and Oearpo-n-wXat ? Explain the allusion in the 
 characteristic : kol pivots Sc avrov Oiav ayopao-as p^rj Sovs to ix€po<s O^wpeiv. 
 ay€LV 8e TOV<i vlov<s els rrjv vcrTepatav kol tov TratSaywyov. 
 
 9. Mention the various ways in which Greek Tragedy was made to 
 answer political purposes, and produce some illustrations from the ex- 
 tant plays. By which Tragedian was the drama most frequently so 
 applied? What arguments beside that of the Fersce M^ere taken from 
 events subsequent to the return of the Heracleids? How do you 
 explain the saying attributed to ^schylus : ras avTov rpaywStas Tcp^d^r] 
 etrat T<j)V 'Ojxypov p,€yd\oiv SetTrvwv ? 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 417 
 
 10. State the best attested dates of the birth and death of ^schyhis. 
 Enumerate his di*amatic predecessors and contemporaries in the order of 
 time. Mention the leading occurrences in his life, the honoui's paid to 
 him after his death, the members of his family whose names are known, 
 and the causes of their celebrity. Do his plays contain any intimation 
 as to his political sentiments ? What grounds have been assigned for the 
 charge of impiety said to hare been brought against him ? Wliat reason 
 is there for believing that he made more than one journey to Sicily? 
 When did EQero become king of Syracuse, and how long did his reign 
 last? 
 
 11. What were the plays that made up the Tetralogy to which the 
 PerscB belonged? State the principal features of the legends connected 
 with their names. What ground is there for supposing that the Trilogy 
 had a common title ? In what manner may the argument of the Persce 
 have been connected with those of the other two pieces \ What other 
 poets wrote plays of the same name ? 
 
 12. Quote the lines of Aristophanes which relate to the chorus of 
 the Persce. What difficulty have they occasioned? How may they be 
 understood, without supposing them to refer to any other edition of the 
 play than the one we have ? What other references are made by ancient 
 MT.iters to passages of the Persce not contained in the extant play of that 
 name? How may this be accounted for, without supposing them to have 
 di'opped out of the latter? How does Stanley conjecture the chorus of 
 the Persce to have been composed? How may this conjecture be recon- 
 ciled with the usual number of the tragic chorus? How is it confirmed 
 by the distribution of the dialogue ? 
 
 13. Make out a list of the Median and Persian kings, down to the 
 fall of the Persian monarchy, noticing the variations between ^.-Eschylus, 
 Herodotus, and Ctesias. AVho was Ctesias? when did he live, and what 
 were his sources of information ? Give the pedigi'ee of Xerxes, and show 
 ho^^' he was related to Cyrus. How many kings of the name of Darius 
 are mentioned in histoiy? 
 
 14. Mention the divisions of the Pei-sian nation according to Hero- 
 dotus. How is Xenophon to be undei-stood when he says : Xeyovrat Hepaat 
 d[x(f>l rag Soj'SeKa /xrptaSas euat? Mention the divisions of the Persian 
 empire according to Plato, Herodotus, and the Old Testament. How 
 may the three accounts be reconciled ? Trace the frontier of the empire 
 imder Darius in the last year of his reign, and mention the modern 
 names of the countries through which it passes. Give the modern 
 names of Susa and Ecbatana, and mention the different opinions on 
 
 D. T. G. 27 
 
418 EXAMINATION TArERS ON 
 
 these points. By what name is Susa described in the Old Testament ? 
 What is the meaning of the word ? Mention the mythical and the his- 
 torical person to whom the foundation of the city is attributed. 
 
 15. What is known of the circumstances and life of Darius before 
 his accession 1 How does ^schylus allude to the manner in which he 
 obtained the crown? Give a short account of his wars, and show how 
 far their several issues justify the language of ^schylus : voVrot ck 
 TToXifJioiV dirovovs aTra^ets ev TrpacrcrovTas ayov o'Uovs. 
 
 16. Give an account of the invasion of Greece by the Gauls, men- 
 tioning the time, the occasion, and the leaders of the expedition. De- 
 scribe the line of their march, and compare the principal incidents of the 
 campaign with those of the Persian invasion. 
 
 17. Draw a map of Salamis and the adjacent coast, marking the 
 situation of the towns of Salamis, Megara, and Eleusis, and the ctKrat 
 ^iXyjvLuiv, the spot from which Xerxes viewed the battle, and the island 
 of Psyttaleia. Translate : eTreiSr; lytvovTo fxiaai vvKre^, dvrjyov fxev to d-rr' 
 €cnrepy]<i Kepas KVKXovfxevoi irpos rrjv ^aXa/xtva* dvrjyov 8e ol dixcfn rrjv Keoj/ 
 T€ Koi T7]v K.vv6arovpav reray/xeVot, Kari)(ov re fi^XP'- Mowi;;(tT79 Trdvra tov 
 iropOfxov Tya-L vrjvcrL Describe the position of the three last-mentioned 
 places. 
 
 18. Give a short account of the history of Salamis, and of the way 
 in which it fell under the dominion of Athens. On what evidence did 
 the Athenians found their claim to the island? What other ancient 
 name had it 1 What is its modern one 1 Mention the meaning of each. 
 Does Homer (as quoted by Stanley) throw any light upon the epithet 
 TreXeLoOpifxixova 1 Explain the epithet in the words aKxas df^fn Kvp^peia?. 
 
 19. Translate : 
 
 ^Jip^ev /xev, w SicriroLva, tov Travros KaKov 
 Pavels dXaaroip yj KaKos Sat/xwv TroOiv. 
 "Avrjp yap "FiXXrjv. k. t. X. 
 
 Who is the person here alluded to? Is he accurately described as 
 dvrjp "EXXrjv ? How was he rewarded for his services ? 
 
 20. Translate : 
 
 "'EXXrjcTLV [xlv rjv 
 
 *0 TTas dpiOixos i<S rpiaKaSas 8eKa 
 Ncwi', ScKct? 8' yv TwvSe x^pt? (.KKpiro^;. 
 
 What is the difference between the numbers of the Grecian fleet 
 described in this passage and in Herodotus ? What part of this fleet 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 419 
 
 was furnished by Greeks of Ionian extraction 1 Compare tlie statements 
 of ^schylus and Herodotus as to the numljers of the Persian fleet. 
 Supply the principal events omitted by ^schylus that intervened be- 
 tween the battle of Salamis and the retreat of Xerxes, and between his 
 arrival at Sardis and his return to Susa. 
 
 21. Translate : 
 
 "EX^' CTt' aKpOV KOpVfJLJ^OV O)(0oV 
 
 K-poKo/SaTTTOV TToSos cv/xttpiv acipwv 
 Bao-iXctov Tiapas 
 <!?6.Xapov 7ncf>av(TK(iiV. 
 
 Explain the allusion in the last part of this passage. Is the evocation 
 of Darius founded on Grecian or on Persian usage ? Where was Darius 
 buried ? 
 
 22. Apyvpov TT-qyrj rts avrots ecrrt, 6r](Tavp6s x^o^o5. 
 
 Describe the district in which this treasure lay, and mention the 
 ancient and modern names of the principal towns in it. Give an ac- 
 count of the manner in which its produce was applied before and at the 
 time of ^schylus. By what peculiar privileges did the government en- 
 courage the cultivation of it. Explain Xenophon's project for increasing 
 its productiveness. 
 
 23. Explain the allusion in the words lav MaptavSvvov OprjvrjTrjpos 
 TTc/xi/^o), and give some other examples of similar national usages. Why 
 is Atossa made to describe Greece as 'laovwv yrjv, and afterwards to say, 
 ■q pikv TriirXoia-t Hepa-LKol'; yjcTK-qfxeurjj y 8' avre Ao)pLKOLaLv1 Why do the 
 Greek writers speak of the Persian war as ra MrjSiKa ? Why is Xerxes 
 described as 'Xvpcov ap/xa StwKwv ? Translate : hippvp,a tc koX rpippvp.a 
 Tekrjl What mention is found in history of the use of chariots in the 
 Persian armies? 
 
 24. Translate the following passage, and arrange it in metrical 
 order, naming the verses into which you divide it. hoXofirjTLv 8' a-n-drav 
 Ocov TLs dvrjp ^varos aXv^ct ; rts o Kpanrvf^ ttoSI Tn/S^y/xaTos cvttctovs dvdcr- 
 crcov ; <f)i\o(f)pwv yap uaivovcra ro irpwrov, irapdyti ftpoTov et? apKVdTara 
 ToOev ovK IcTTtv VTTcp OvaTov dXvEavTa (fivyelv. 
 
 25. Define and exemplify the metrical terms, arsis, thesis, basis, 
 anacrusis, anaclasis, ccesura, prosodia. What is meant by metres Kar' 
 dvTLTrdOiiav fxiKTd ? What is an asynartetic verse ? 
 
 Explain the grounds on which Hermann objects to the ancient mode 
 of measuring the iambic verse. 
 
 27—2 
 
420 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 26. Explain the terms, hyperhcdon, zeugma, prolepsis, and give an 
 instance of each. Translate : rts ov reOvrjKey rtVa Sc koI TrcvOr'jcrofjiev TcSv 
 dp)(€\€LOiv, 09 t', CTTt (TKrprTov)(ia Ta^Oets, avavSpov ra^iv rjp-qfxov Oaviav. In 
 tJie lines : cus ct /LtcXatVi^s wktos T^erat Kve^ag, "EAXryi^es ou juLevouv, aWa 
 aiXfxaaL Newv CTTCv^opovrcs aXXos oAXocre Apacr/xaJ Kpv^ato) j^toTOV ckctcu- 
 o-otttTo — what corrections have been proposed 1 Translate the lines as 
 they are here written. Explain the construction of the lines : cvrau^a 
 irifXTrei towS', oitods orav vewv ^^apcvres ixOpoi irfjaov iKcrmtplaTo. In what 
 cases are adverbs of time properly followed by the indicative, in what by 
 the subjunctive or the optative mood"? When is the subjunctive, and 
 when the optative required after a relative pronoun or adverb? Explain 
 the distinction between the grammatical and the rhetorical ellipsis. To 
 what figure does the construction of the following words belong 1 TviOa 
 8' iKcjivycLV avaKT avTov ws aKovopL^v ©prjKrj^ a/ATreStr^pci? 8v(7;(t/xovs re Kt\€.{>- 
 6ov<i. Distinguish the dififerent meanings of the following words accord- 
 ing to the difference of their accentuation : ayr;, yStos, ^poTos, yavXo?, 
 Brf[JLo<s, Bipfio^y OoXo<;y koXos, Kr;p, Ai^vos, Xi9, veto?, vojuos, rpoTTos. 
 
 SOPHOCLIS PHILOCTETES. 
 
 Trinity College. June 1833. 
 Mr. Martin. 
 
 1. (a) Give the dates of the birth and death and first tragic victory of 
 
 Sophocles. 
 
 (b) In what war was he engaged? What was its duration and 
 
 event ? 
 
 (c) How long after the death of Sophocles and Euripides did 
 
 Aristophanes produce his Ranee ? 
 
 {d) Translate and explain : 
 HPA. Etr' ovp(t '^o(f>OK\€a, Trpor^pov ovt ^vpnrihov, 
 MeAXei? avayayetv, etrrep eKelOev Set a ayetv; 
 AIO. Ov Trpiv y av 'lo<jf)c3vr', aTroXajSoJV avTOV fxovoVy 
 
 "Avcv '^ocjiOKXiov's 6 TL TTotet K<x}S<ji)VL(TO), {Ran. 76.) 
 
 2. {a) How far does Phrynichus appear to deserve the title of Father 
 
 of Tragedy ? 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 421 
 
 (b) Why was a fine imjwsed upon liim for Lis MiXt^'tou aXioaLsl 
 
 Where is the story related ? 
 
 (c) Translate and explain /xivvpc^ovres /xcXr; dpxaLofi€\i.<TLB(i)vo<fipvvix>]~ 
 
 para. (Arist. Vesp.) 
 
 3. (a) What do you consider to be the object of Epic, and Dramatic 
 
 poetry ? 
 
 (b) What the chief characteristic of Grecian tragedy ? 
 
 (c) How was the Di-ama encouraged at Athens ? 
 
 (d) At what seasons of the year, and at which of the Dionysia, were 
 
 dramatic entertainments given 1 
 
 (e) What is the controversy respecting the Lensea? 
 
 (/) What was the natui-e of the laws irepl tcov OeoyptKwvl When 
 introduced, and with what object? How does Demosthenes 
 allude to them? 
 
 4. (a) W^hat account does Homer give of Philoctetes? How many 
 
 ships did he bring to the war ? 
 
 (b) Does he allude to his aid as requisite for the taking of Troy ? 
 
 (c) Is his fate after the fall of Troy alluded to by Homer or Yirgil ? 
 
 5. (a) What is the situation of Lemnos with respect to Athens? 
 
 (b) How came it to be inhabited by the Pelasgi ? (Herod. B. vi.) 
 
 (c) How did it fall under the power of the Athenians? (ibid.) 
 
 (d) WTiere was the island Chryse situated? What account does 
 
 Pausanias give of it ? 
 
 (e) How was Hercules connected ^\dth it ? 
 
 G. Explain the terms 'c?esura,' ^ quasi-csesura,' and 'pause' in the Iam- 
 bic trimeter of the tragedians. 
 
 7. 'Ep/XT^s 8' o 7re//7rojv SoXtos i^yrjcraiTO va)v. (v. 133). 
 
 (a) In what sense is Mercury called -itoixTraio^ in the Ajax? 
 
 (b) Illustrate 7ro/x7ratos and SdXtos from Horace. 
 
 (c) What is the meaning of the Homeric epithet eptowtos? 
 
 (d) Translate : 
 
 'AXXa (T 6 Matas 7ro/X7ratos ai/a^ 
 neXacretc 8o/xots, 
 
 ^riv t' lirivotav (TTret'Seis Karc^wv 
 npa^ctas. (Eurip. Med. 755.) 
 
422 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 8. 'Opeo-repa Trafx^wTi Td, /xarcp avTov A to?, 
 loj fxaKaipa ravpoKTovoiV 
 
 Acoj/Twi/ c^eSpe. (v. 389.) 
 
 (a) Illustrate irap-f^ioTL Td from Lucretius (B; il). What reason 
 does he assign for the Greek poets representing Cybele (or 
 Tellus) in a chariot drawn by lions? 
 
 (h) Why was she called *Idjea Mater'? What ambiguity has the 
 word * Idsea' caused 1 
 
 (c) How does Euripides connect Bacchus and Bliea ? (Bacchce.) 
 
 9. (a) Translate : 
 
 'iSov Si^ov, Trat* tov <fi06vov Se TrpocTKVcrov, 
 My croL ycvecr^at ttoXvttov' avrd, (v. 759.) 
 
 (h) Does the expression t6v cjiOovov Se TrpdcrKva-ov, or a similar one, 
 occur elsewhere ? 
 
 (c) Why was Nemesis called 'ASpao-reta ? 
 
 10. cTTci TTotpeo-rt /xei/ 
 
 TevKpos Trap T^/xtv, rvfvS' lirLcrr-qiiiqv e^^wv. (v. 1038.) 
 
 (rt) In what sense, and by whom, is Teucer called o To^6Ty]<i in the 
 Ajax 1 Translate Teucer' s reply ou yap /Sdvavcrov ttjv rexyrjv 
 iKTYjcrdixrjv. What difference in the sense would be caused by 
 the omission or different position of the article Ttjv 1 
 
 (b) Which of the Greeks at Troy was the most famous for the use 
 
 of the bow? (Hom. Ocl viii.) 
 
 (c) How do you account for the use of the bow being held in con- 
 
 tempt by the Athenians 1 
 
 (d) What was their peculiar offensive weapon ? -(^sch. Pers.) 
 
 11. "Yttv' oSwa? aSttT^?, "Yttvc S' aXye'wv, 
 
 EvttT/s Tjixiv e\6oL<s 
 EuatW, cvatW, wvai. 
 O/jt/xaat 8' avTe;(ots rai/S* atyXav, 
 '^A Terarat ravvv. (v. 810.) 
 
 Give Welcker's interpretation of this passage, with the groimds on which 
 it rests. 
 
 12. Xw K€(^aXX>fi/a)v dvai. (v. 262.) 
 
 (a) What do we find respecting the K€<f>aX\r}ves in Homer ? 
 
TUE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 423 
 
 (b) Trausktc: 
 
 ctXX* ov)(^ 6 TvSews y6vo<s, 
 Ov6' ovixTToXrjTos ^Lav(f>ov AacpTLOv, 
 Ov jxrj Sdviiicn. TovcrSe yap firj ^rjv eSct. (v. 411.) 
 
 What is the objection to Hermann's interpretation 1 
 
 (c) To which of the generals in the Iliad is Sisyphus said to be 
 
 related ? {11. vi.) Wliat charactei- is there given of him ? 
 
 (d) How may ov fxrj Oavwai be explained by an ellipsis ] 
 
 (e) What is the chief distinction in the use of ov and /x-rj ? Distin- 
 
 guish between xj/vx^jv a-Koiroiv c}>t\6cro<f>ov koI /xt], and ^XV^ 
 
 (JKOTTCuV d)L\6(TO(}iOV Kttt OV. 
 
 13. (a) Distinguish between cfivXaierac (TTiPo<; (v. 48) and cfivXaxO-rja-eTac 
 
 (b) What is the laile with respect to the use of Trph followed by an 
 
 infinitive, or a subjunctive or optative mood 1 What is there 
 remarkable in o Se aSiKcet avaTret^o/xei/os Trplv rj arpcKcoos iKfidOrj 1 
 (Herod. B. vii.) 
 
 1 4. Translate the following passages and explain the construction : 
 (a) oarTi<s vocrov Ka/xvovrt avWdfSoLTO, (v. 279.) 
 
 (6) rtVog yap coSe tov /xeyav ^6\ov kut avrtui/ iyKaXwv iXijXvOa? ; 
 (v. 325.) 
 
 (c) ov Sr} iraXaC av l^ orov SeBoiK €ya> Mr; /xol jS^/SyKr), (v. 488.) 
 
 (d) irXrjcrOfjs Tr}<; vocrov uvvovcria. (v. 512.) 
 
 What peculiar sense does aVaTrt/xTrXao-^at admit ? Is 'impleri' ever used 
 in the same manner ? 
 
 (e) TTpos TTolov av rovh^ avros ovSvcro-evs €7rXct ; (v. 564.) 
 
 Explain the, force of av here, and in ev^evSc avS/oes ovt^ ovra, ovre av 
 ycvo/xeva, Xoyo7rotovo-tv. (Thucyd.) 
 
 15. Translate the following passages: 
 
 {a) %KOTT€iv 0* oirov ^(TT ivTavOa Sto-To/xos irirpa 
 TotciS', Xv €v ^v)(iL fxev -qXiov SnrXyj 
 Jldp€(TTLV iv6dKr](TL<;y iv Oepet 8' vttvov 
 At' djXKfiiTprJTO^ avXiov TrejaTTCt ttvot]. (v. 16.) 
 
 (6) Tt' XPV> '^^ XPV H-^) Seo-TTor', ev ^eva ^evov 
 ^reyctv, rj tl Xcyeiv Trpos av8p' tVoTTTav ; 
 ^pa'^e pot. rep^i'a yap T€;)(i/as erepas 7rpov)(€i, 
 
424 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 Kat yvixifxa, Trap* otw 
 
 To ^etov Atos (TKrjTTTpov dvd(T<T€TaL. (v. 135.) 
 
 (c) Et Se TTLKpovs, aval, e)^0€L<; 'ArpetSa?, 
 
 Eyw /^cv TO Ktivoiv KaKOv rwSe KepSos 
 McraTt^e/xevos, evOaTrep imfXifjiovcv^ 
 Ett' ei^crroXov ra-^etas vew? 
 Ilope^o-ai/x' av cs So/xoi;s. (v. 504.) 
 
 (d) EipTTC 8* aAXov aXA.0Tc 
 Tot ai/ ciXvo/xero?, 
 
 Jlois drcp W9 </)tAas Tt^iyras, o^ev evixdpet virdp- 
 Xot, TTopov, dvLK iiaveirj SaKeOttfio^ dra. 
 Ov ^op/3dv upas yds cnropov, ovk dXXwv 
 Alpoiv, Tiov V€[j.6fx€cr0' dvepcs ak^rjo-Taiy 
 TLXrjv i^ wKvfSoXiDV etTroTe to^wv TiTa- 
 voLs lots dvv(reL€ yaarpl <}>op^dv. (v. 690.) 
 Wliat are the metrical names of the lines (6) and (d) ? 
 
 16. Give the meaning and derivation of the following words: 
 oyfievio, o-fxvyepos, TraXLvrpif^ys, c/xttvos, ixOoSonos, ovp€(rL^(OTas. In 
 what other authors does cx^oSottos occur? What different forms of 
 ovp€o-i/?wTas occur in Sophocles'? 
 
 EURIPIDIS ALCESTIS. 
 
 Trinity College. May, 1837. 
 Mr. Donaldson. 
 
 1. Trace the epic and lyric poetry of Greece to their respective 
 sources, and show how each of them was related to the Athenian drama. 
 Translate, yevoixevrj ovv dir dpyrjs avroa-)(€.hLa(rTLKrj kol y TpayioSta Kat yj 
 K(o/xa)8ta, rj pXv diro Twv k^ap-^ovroiv tov hiOvpapij^ov, iq 8e aTTO twi/ Ta ^a\- 
 XtKtt, Kara [XLKpov rjv^Orj. Explain and justify this statement, particu- 
 larly the former part of it. What other name was given to the StOvpafi- 
 /3os, and why ? Of how many persons did the dithyrambic chorus con- 
 sist 1 How did it differ from or agree with the chorus in a tragedy ? 
 
 2. When did Arion flourish 1 How could he be said rpayiKov rpo- 
 TTov €vp€Tyjs yivia-dail Explain the word TpaytoSta consistently with your 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 425 
 
 interpretation of this statement. What do you understand by a lyrical 
 tragedy ? What is known of Stesichorus, and what was his real name ? 
 Mention some of the principles which regulated the formation of proper 
 names among the Greeks, Why was the name Aletes given to the 
 founder of the Dorian dynasty at Corinth, and what name was for a 
 similar reason borne by the son of Cimon ? To what circumstance did 
 the poet Euripides probably owe his name ? Thucydides mentions Xeno- 
 phon, the son of Euripi 'es, as an Athenian general in the year 422 B.c. ; 
 could this EurijDides have derived his name from the same cause? 
 
 3. By whom was the custom of performing tragic Trilogies intro- 
 duced, and by whom was it first abandoned? What was the natui-e and 
 origin of the fourth j^lay in a Tetralogy 1 What place did the Alcestis 
 occupy in the Tetralogy to which it belonged, and what were the other 
 three plays? Is the inference which you might draw from the place of 
 the Alcestis confirmed by any peculiarities in the play itself? 
 
 Translate : 
 
 Nunc, quam rem oratum hue veni, primum proloquar, 
 
 Post argumentum hujus eloquar tragoedise. 
 
 Quid contraxistis frontem, quia tragoediam 
 
 Dixi futuram hanc ? Deus sum ! Conmutavero 
 
 Eadem, si voltis. Faciam hanc ex tragoedia 
 
 Comoedia ut sit omnibus isdem versibus. 
 
 Utrum sit an ne voltis? Sed ego stultior: 
 
 Quasi nesciam vos velle, qui divos siem ! 
 
 Teneo quid animi vostri super hac re siet. 
 
 Faciam ut conmista sit Tragicocomoedia : 
 
 Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comoedia, 
 
 Keges quo veniant et Di, non par arbitror. 
 
 Of what play is this said ? Mention other instances of an extrava- 
 gance, similar to that on which the plot of it depends, in the di-amatic 
 literature of ancient or modern times. 
 
 4. How was the iambic trimeter derived from the dactylic hexa- 
 meter ? Give a scheme of the iambic trimeter acatalectic both tragic 
 and comic. What is Porson's rule about the pause in the tragic tri- 
 meter? Can you mention any exceptions to it? We learn from Joannes 
 Laurentius Lydus that Rhinthon wrote comedies in hexameter verse ; 
 what remarkable fact in the literature of Pome is explained by this? 
 To what classes of Greek plays did the prcetextata, togata, Atellana and 
 p^uiipes^ respectively cori-espond? Explain the last word, and show 
 
426 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 from Horace tliat the iwcutextoM and togata were different. What is 
 Niebuhr's opinion about the prcetextata ? 
 
 5. Translate : 
 
 'Eyw Kttt Ota fjiovcrais 
 
 Kat fX€Tdp<TtOS "(jioL, KOL 
 
 nA-ciWcov aif/dfievos A-oycov 
 
 Kpacrcrov ovSev avayKas 
 
 Eupov, ovSe TL cfidpixaKov 
 
 ®py<T(raL<; ev (raviaiv, ras 
 
 *Op<^et'a KaT€ypa\f/€V 
 
 Trjpvs, ovK ocra ^o2(3o<; Aa-KXr]7ndSaL<; 4'Scokc, 
 
 ^dpfiaKa TToXvTTOVOtS aVTlTC/XCOV f^pOTOLCTL. 
 
 (a) Explain and illustrate by examples 8ta fxovcraq — •J^a, and <fidp- 
 
 fXaKa dvTLT€fJiO)V. 
 
 (b) To what branch of his studies does Euripides allude when he 
 
 says, ixerdpa-Los ^ial 
 
 Translate : 
 
 Ov yap, jxa At , otaO otltj TrXctVrovs avrat ^6(tkov(ti (To^L(TTa<;, 
 ®ovpLoixdvT€L<;, laTpoTi)(yas, cr(^payt8ovv;^apyoKo/i,7;Ta9, 
 KvKXtW T€ )(opwv a.a-^iaTOKdfXTTTa^, avSpas fxereoipocfiivaKag. 
 
 Also : 
 
 ]Su T€ XeTTTOTdroiv Xr/poov tepeu, <jipdt,e Trpos y/xois o, tl )(pijt,€L<;. 
 Ov yap av aXXo) y' woKovo-at/xev twv vvv /xerewpocro^io-Twv, 
 IIA,>}v •:7 IIpo8tK(p* Tw p-ev ao(j)ta<s kol yvcop,')^? etvcKa, cot §€ 
 "Ort l3p€v6vcL T ev tolo-lv oSots Kat Tw<^^aXp,(o irapa^dWcts, 
 KavvTToSr/TOS KaKct ttoA-A. ave;(6t, /ca<^ •/;p,ti/ o-cp-i/OTrpoo-WTret?. 
 
 And explain all the allusions in both passages. Who were the 
 Sophists? What is known of the Prodicus mentioned in the second 
 passage 1 
 
 (c) Give some account of Anaxagoras and his peculiar doctrines. 
 Translate : 
 
 'Ava^ayopa? aTTCt^of ? etvat' cftrjcL ras dpyd<i' cr)^iSov yap diravTa rot 
 ofiOLOfxeprj, KaOdyrcp vSoip rj Trvp, ovto) ytyvco-^at Kat a7roXXi;o"^at ^r/o^t o^vy- 
 KptcrcL Kat StaKptVet jiovoVy aAAws S' ovre ytyveo-^at ovt' aVoAAvo-^at, aAAa 
 Stap,€i/€tv aiSta. 
 
 And, 
 
 Tovrcwv 8e ovrw StaKCKpt/xeVwv yti^wo-Kcti/ ;j(p7; on Trdvra ovSev IXdcTcroi 
 icTTLv ovhk ttAcco. ou yap avuo-Tov' TrdvTiav ttAcco eti^ai, aXAa irdvra tea aiei'. 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 427 
 
 What was the connexion between Euripides and Anaxagoras? Men- 
 tion any instances in which Euripides has expressed the opinions of this 
 philosopher. 
 
 (d) What are the cai/iScs 0pfjo-o-at here alluded to ? 
 
 (e) In what metre are these lines written? 
 
 6. Describe the general features of a Greek dramatic representa- 
 tion. Where was the Theatre of Athens situated ? Quote instances of 
 allusions made by the dramatists to the locality of the Theatre and the 
 surrounding scenery. 
 
 7. What was x'^P^^ StSoVat? When did the tragic contests take 
 place ? In what year did Euripides bring out the Tetralogy to which 
 the Alcestis belonged, and what was his fortune on this occasion 1 What 
 play in this Tetralogy was continually ridiculed by Aristophanes, and 
 why ? How is it parodied in the Acharnians ? 
 
 Translate : 
 
 ^i) 817 [xe ravT, w (TTOiixvXiocvXXcKTdSrj 
 Kat TTTuxoTTOLe Koi paKLocrvfipaTTTdSr] ; 
 
 What was probably the object of Aristophanes in composing the 
 Frogs ? 
 
 Translate and explain: 
 
 HA. KaTreira ttojs 
 
 Ov Koi '^o(fiOKXir]<; avTeXd^ero Tov Opovov; 
 AI. Met At' ovK iKeivo<i, dXX* eKvcre filv Al(rxvXoVj 
 
 "Ore St] KarrjXOe, Kave^aXe rrjv Se^tdv, 
 
 KctKeti/os V7r€)(ojpr]cr€V avrio tov Opovov, 
 
 8. Give the general rule for the construction of verbs with the 
 particle dv. What do you conceive to be the origin of this word? Show 
 that there is no need of alteration in ov yap 0T8' av et 7reicraijU,t vtv, and 
 confirm this reading by adducing a similar construction in Latin. 
 
 9. Tt creaLyrjrat S6iJio<; 'AS/x-^rovj 
 Ov rdv cfiOiixivas y lanoiroiv. 
 
 Distinguish between a-iyav and o-tcoTrav. Which of these words cor- 
 responds to tacere and which to silere ? 
 
 10. Translate : 
 
 KXvu T15 Tj (nevayixov, y 
 
 Xepwv KTVTTOV Kara o-reya?, 
 '^H yoov MS 7r€7rpayfXiV(i)V ; 
 
428 EXAMINATION PAPEES ON 
 
 Ov [xav ovSe Tts ct/A^tTToXwi/ 
 SraTt'^CTai afxcfn TruAas. 
 Et yap ixcTaKvfJLLo<s aras, 
 'O TLaidv, <J3aveLr]<s, 
 
 HvXav TrdpoiOe 8' ov^ opo) 
 nryyatov, ws i^o/x-t^crat, 
 X.€pVLf3'f €7rt <}>6lt(ov TTvAaiS' 
 XaiVa T* ovTts CTTt TrpoOvpois 
 To/xatos a 81; i/ckvwk 
 Ilei/^et TTLTVCL, ovSe veoXaca 
 AovTTCt ;(etp ywatKwv. 
 
 Explain tlie words a-TaTit^cTai, /xeraKv/xios, and xipvijia. Why does 
 Elmsley object to Trtrvctv and ptTrrctv, and how are these forms sujjported 
 by Hermann and Lobeck? "What is, according to Hermann, the dif- 
 ference between piiTruv and ptTrretv? Is it borne out by usage ? What 
 is generally the difference in signification between contracted and un- 
 contracted verbs from the same root in Latin? Explain the formation 
 of Svo-Tvxetv from Tvyx(xv€Lv and of helligerare from gerere. The MSS. 
 give veoAaia, Dindorf reads voXaU, Monk veoXaia. Which is right, 
 and why? 
 
 11. Translate: 
 
 Tt xprj y€V€(r$aL rrjv vTrcpjSe^A.T^/xev/^v 
 TvvaiKa'j ttws S' av fidWov evSet^atro rts 
 noctv TrpoTLfXiocT Tf OiXovcT vir€pOav€iv; 
 
 What is the difference in Plato between ivduKwaOai and €7rtSctKi/vo-^at? 
 What was the eTrtSet^ts of a Sophist? In what cases could an Ij/Sci^ts be 
 brought according to the Athenian law, and how was it connected with 
 an (XTraywyT^? 
 
 12. Ae^at OiXiJi (TOL TTplv Oav^LV a fiovXoixai. 
 
 Distinguish accurately between OiXciv and jSovXeo-^at. Ti*anslate: 
 av ot T€ Ocoi OiXoidi kol v/x€t5 fSovXrjcrOe. Which is the older form, OeX^iv 
 or e^e'Aeti/? What is the oldest form of /?ovXco-^at? 
 
 13. Translate: 
 
 Kat TTOJS C7r€0"^p(3 TyvSe ro) K€Lvr]<; X€)(ei ', 
 
 Kat jxrj ^TTLytjfirjs to tcrSe jxrjTpvLoiv TiKi/OLS. 
 
 And, 
 
 OS cTTt OvyaTpl dfxrJTOpi, rfj ovvo pia rjv ^povip^rj, iwl ravTrj eyry/AC dXXrjv 
 
 yvvoLKa, y 8e €7r€(7€X^oi;<ja iStKaUv di/at Kat tw epyo) p.r]Tpviy Trj ^povcfLr). 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 429 
 
 What is the force of cttI in these passages? What different signifi- 
 cation does it bear in the word eVtya/Ata? Give some account of the 
 marriage-law at Athens. How does ^schykis use the word ixrjTpvtd 
 metaphorically ? 
 
 14. Translate, explain, and compare the following passages: 
 ^o<:f>rj Be X^^P^ tcktovwv Se/^as to (Tov 
 EtKacr^ci/ iv XiKTpoLcriv iKraOyja-erai, 
 Qi TrpocTTrecrov/xat Koi TrepnrTvcrcrwv X^P^'^ 
 "Ovofia KaXwv (Tov rrjv KaXrjv iv ayKcxXais 
 Ao^ct) yvvoLKa KatVcp ovk e^^*' ^X^*-^? 
 ■^vxpav fxeVy ot/xat, repij/LV, d\)C o/xws ySapos 
 ■^vx^s dTravrXoiriv dv iv 8' oveipacrL 
 ^oiTwad IX €vcfipaLVOL<; dv. "^Sv yap cfyiXovs 
 Kav vvKTi X€V(T(T€LV ovTLv dv TTaprj xpovov. 
 
 UoOio 8' vTrepTTovTtas 
 ^dafiq. S6^€L S6p.<ji)v dvdacrcLV. 
 ^vjxopcfiiDV hk KoXoacroiV 
 Ex^€Tat x^P'^ dvSpi, 
 'Oya/xarwv 8' iv ax^i^tats 
 "Eppct Trao-' ^AcfipoStra. 
 
 'Ol/€tpo<^ai/TOt Se TTCV^V^'/XOVCS 
 
 Ilapeto't 8o^at cftepovaai xdpLV fxaratav. 
 Marav yap €vt dv iaOXd ris 8okojv opdv 
 TLapaXXd^aaa Sid x^pwv 
 Bc)3a/<ej/ oi/'ts ov fxeOvcrrcpov 
 nrepots 07ra8ots rVi/ov KeXev^ot?. 
 
 15. Translate: 
 
 IloXXa (T€ ^OTJO-OTToXot 
 
 MeXj/'ouo't Ktt^' CTTTarovoi/ t opetav 
 
 XeXw cj/ t' a/\vpot9 kXcovtcs v/xvoi?, 
 
 ^Trapra kvkXci? dvLKa K.apvuov Trepivicrcrerai wpa 
 
 Mt^vos dcipofxiva<i 
 
 Jlavvvxpy areXdva^ 
 
 AtTrapatcrt t' ev dX^tats 'A^ai/at?. 
 
 What was the origin and nature of the Carnea, and in what month 
 were they celebrated? Why is the epithet XtTrapo? applied to Athens? 
 
 16. How is the legend about the death of Alcestis and the servitude 
 of Apollo to be explained? 
 
430 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 Translate : 
 
 Ou/xos 8' dk€KT(j)p avTov rjyc. Trpos fxvX-qv. (Sopli. Acini.) 
 
 What is probably the meaning of the name "ASfxrjro's as applied to 
 this mythical King 1 How do you account for the introduction of Her- 
 cules? Was he a Dorian divinity? How does it appear from this play 
 that Apollo and Death were dressed? How are they represented in 
 ancient works of art ? 
 
 17. Translate: 
 
 Koi (rd(}i otS' 6$ovv€Ka 
 
 Tov VVV CrKvOpOiTTOV Kol ivV€(TTdiTO<; <f)peV(JJV 
 
 ^iOop/j-LCL ere TTtruXos e/XTrccrojv crKvcfiov. 
 And, 
 
 o T€ €K yrj? Tre^os ajxcjiOTeptjov, Icroppo-rrov Trjs vavjxa^tas KaO€(TTr]KVLa<;, 
 TToXvv TOV dyatva kol ^vaTacnv Trj<s yvw/XYjs ^T^e. 
 
 Explain the word ttltvXos. Does fxeOop/xLcracrOai usually govern the 
 genitive ? If so, mention some instances. 
 
 18. Translate: 
 
 'AXX' €vrv)(^0Lr]s, vodTijxov 8' eX^ots TroSa. 
 'Acrrots 8e Trdcrr] r ivveTroi rcTpap^ta 
 JLopov<; Itt i(r6\a2s (rvfxcfiopaicnv IcrTdvaL 
 Bco/x.ovs re Kviddv /3ov0vTOLcn TrpoorpoTrats. 
 
 And the following oracle : 
 
 AvS(3 'Epe^^^etSatcrtv, ocrot Ilai/Stovos aoru 
 NateT£, KOL TTarpioLcn vofxoL^ WvveO^ copra?, 
 "Meixvyja-OaL ^olk-^olo, kol evpv)(opov^ Kar dyvids 
 Jcrravai o)panov Bpo/xtw )(o.piv ajXjXLya Trai/ra? 
 Kat KVLcrdv jBoiixoicn, Kap-q crrec^avots Trvxacrai/ra?. 
 
 {a) What was the Tetrarchy here alluded to? Give some account 
 of the ethnography and old constitution of Tliessaly. Who 
 were the Aleuadse, and where did they reign? Where was 
 the kingdom of Admetus? 
 
 (h) Why does Kvicrdv govern an accusative in one of these passages 
 and a dative in the other? 
 
 (c) What relation subsisted between Bacchus and Demeter? When 
 was the worship of the former introduced into Attica, and 
 when and by what means established at Athens? 
 
 19. Are /xapTrro) and e^'/xapTJ? connected? What is the root, and 
 where does it appear in its simplest form ? Derive apra/xeii/, TtXyjfip.vpi';, 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 431 
 
 (what is the quantity of the penultima in Homer'?), inovdfXTrv^, okvm, 
 op(f>av€V€LV, K€Sv6<;, cr€jU,vos, and dvdyKr}. Which, is right, otSa? or oTcr^a ? 
 What is the syntax of TrpLvl Distinguish between 6 av^pcoTrog avro?, 
 and o auTos dvOpwiros. Is ov croL fxr} yb^Bi^ofxai Trore an allowable con- 
 struction? If so, what do these words mean? Are there any other 
 instances of a similar construction 1, If so, adduce and explain them. 
 Accentuate the following words according to their different significa- 
 tions : fJL-qTpoKTOvos, aOo}o<;, atya, Troirjaai, vv/xcfuog, fxvptOL, Tret^o), and 
 Atyv?. What are the futures of IdOim and irivoi ? 
 
 20. Translate the following passages, and point out any peculiari- 
 ties which you may think deserving of notice : 
 
 (a) crv/xjueTpws 8' dt^LKcro 
 
 ^povpojv ToS' rjjxap w Oavciv avrrjv )(p€<jjv, 
 
 (h) Upos Twv i^ovTOiv, $01/3 e, tov vopiov riOrjq. 
 
 {c) IToAA' dv (TV Ae^as ovSkv dv TrXiov Aa/Sot?' 
 
 'H 8' ovv yvvrj KdretaLV et? "AtSov So/xov;. 
 
 {d) 'HPA. TtVos 8' o Op€i}/a? Trais Trarpo? KO/XTra^erai; 
 XOP. "Apeoi;, ^a)(pvcrov @pr]KLa<; 7re/\T>^g dva$. 
 
 (e) Tt ^rj/xa Kovpa TrjBe Trci/^t/xu) TrpeTrets; 
 
 (y) '^A, jxrj irpoKXaC aKotrtr, es roS' dvaj^aXov. 
 
 {g) Tot yap (j^vreucov TratSa? ovkIt dv cfiOdi'OL<s. 
 
 (Jtj 'AAM. 'Os fXTjiror avSpa rovSe vvfxc^iov Kokm'. 
 'HPA. 'Ettt^i/co-' aAo;5(a) 7rto-T05 ovi/e/c' ct ^lAog. 
 
 (?) 'HP A. ToA/xa TTpOTeivat X^ipa koI Oljcxv ^evr]<;. 
 'AAM. Kat Zrj 7rpoT€LV0)j Topyov' ws Kaparop.o}. 
 
 SOPHOCLIS ANTIGOXE. 
 
 Trinity College. June, 1860. 
 
 Mr. Hammoxd. 
 
 1. Quote Horace's account of the origin of the Greek Tragic Drama. 
 Point out its errors. What wi'iters composed tragedies at Athens before 
 the time of Sophocles? What improvements in tragic art were succes- 
 sively introduced by them? What changes are attributed to Sophocles? 
 
432 EXAMINATION PAPEKS ON 
 
 Quote passages from Aristophanes in which allusion is made to Sopho- 
 cles and his predecessors. 
 
 2. Give the dates of Sophocles' birth and death and of his first 
 tragic victory. What was the title of his first Tragedy, and what the 
 circumstances attending its representation? Discuss the date of the 
 Antigone. Point out any passages which seem to you to refer to the 
 political state of Athens. How does this play serve to connect Sophocles 
 with Herodotus? What further evidence have we in support of this 
 connection ? 
 
 3. Give a general description of a Greek theatre, and show how it 
 difiered from a Roman theatre. Explain the terms : 
 
 6vfX€\rj — Xoyelov — TrpocrKrjviov — Trept'aKTOs — ^ovXcvtlkov. 
 
 Describe the locality of the theatre of Dionysus at Athens, and 
 quote passages from the dramatists in which s^Decial allusion is made to 
 its situation and construction. 
 
 4. Discuss the following questions, (1) The number of Dionysia at 
 Athens : (2) The time of year at which each festival was held : (3) The 
 peculiar circumstances and regulations affecting the audience and the 
 performances at each festival. 
 
 5. How were the general expenses of the Dionysiac performances 
 defrayed? What portion fell upon the choragus? What were the duties, 
 privileges and powers attached to this office? To whom were the actors 
 allotted? Mention the na:iies of any who performed in Sophocles' 
 dramas. Assign the several parts of the Antigone to their respective 
 actors. Is there any change of scene in this play? Is the Eccyclema 
 employed? 
 
 6. (a) "Ert Se rpLTOV irapa ravra rov fxiXXovra ttoiciv tl twv dvrjKi- 
 (TToov Sl ayvoiav dvayvwptorat irpXv TroLTJaaL, koX irapa ravra ovk Icrrtv aXXca?. 
 7j yap Trpa^aL dvdyKT] rj jxij' kol ctSoras rj /jlt] etSoras. tovto)V Sk to jxlv yivw- 
 CTKovra fJiiXXrjaaL koI fxrj irpd^ai ■)(eipi(TTOV. to T€ yap fxiapov c^et Kat ov 
 TpayLKov ctTra^es y^P' StoTrcp ovSets Trotet o/aoicos et ixrj oAtyaKts* olov iv 
 *AvTiy6vrj Tov Kpeovra o At/xcov. 
 
 Translate this passage and explain the allusion. How does the Scho- 
 liast excuse the incident? What is your own opinion on the subject? 
 (^) XOP. "AfJLcfiO) yap avToi Kat KaTaKTcivai voets; 
 
 KP. ov rifv ye ^xyj Oiyovcrav ev yap ovv Xeycts. 
 
 Give the substance of Hermann's comment on these lines. How 
 would you explain their introduction by Sophocles? 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 433 
 
 Assuming the coexistence of an ethical and an artistic element in 
 this play, show how Sophocles attempts to satisfy the requirements of 
 both in the development of the plot and of the two leading characters. 
 
 7. Quote Horace's lines on the duties of the Chorus, and apply 
 them to the particular case of the Antigone. Distinguish between the 
 terms TrapoSos, o-racrt/xov, and c/i/tcXeta, and explain the connexion exist- 
 ing between the odes in this play and the dramatic action of the piece. 
 
 8. Tov Trpiv OavovTos Mcyapctos kXclvov \d^os. 
 
 By what name is Megareus known in the Phcenissa^ ? How is his 
 story introduced into that play? Does his death precede or follow that 
 of Eteocles? Do you suppose that Sophocles intended to follow the an- 
 cient legend in all the subordinate incidents of this play? Mention an 
 instance from the CEdipus Coloneus in which he has departed from the 
 account of the Cyclic Thebais. In which of his plays has Sophocles vio- 
 lated the so-called Unities of Time and Place ? 
 
 9. Draw a map which shall contain Boeotia, the islands of Euboea 
 and Naxos, and the Saronic Gulf. 
 
 10. Translate the following passages, and, wherever the meaning or 
 the text is a matter of dispute, give your own opinion on the subject 
 and your reasons for it : 
 
 (1) *0 KOLvov avTaBiXffiov ^Icrfj.i]vr]^ Kapa, 
 
 ap otcr^' ort Zevs tcov (xtt OlSlttov KUKuiv 
 OTTOLOV ov)(l vwv €TL t,ui(raLV TcXct; 
 ovScv yap q-lt dXyetvov ovt drr]<i arcp 
 OCT al(r)(pov ovt dTip-ov iaO* ottocov ov 
 
 TOJV (T(2v T€ KdfXOJV OVK OTTOJTt' CyoJ KaKUJV. 
 
 (2) Totos dfXffH v(j)T irdOrj 
 Trarayos Apeo? avTiirdXio 
 
 bv(T)(^€Lp(DlXa SpaKOVTl. 
 
 (3) K^aOrJixiO* OLKpwv ck Trdywv VTnjvefXot, 
 oa-fxrjv d-rr avTOv p.rj (^dXrj 7r€<^€uyoTC?, 
 eyeprt klvQv dvhp dvrjp i-mppoOoL^ 
 
 KaKolcTLV, CITIS TOvSi' dcfieL^TJcrOL TTOVQV. 
 
 (4) 'AAV ilr dS€\(j>rj<s iiO* op,at/xov€crT€pa 
 TOV TravTos -qixlv Z'qv6<i kpKiiov KvpcL 
 avTT] T€ )(y] $vvaifxo<s ovk d\v$€Tov 
 
 fXOpOV KaKL(rT0V. 
 
 D. T. G. 28 
 
434 EXAMINATION PAPERS ON 
 
 (5) 'AAA et/<€ OvjXijo Kol jxeTacTTaa-Lv SlSov. 
 
 (6) "Epwg, OS €1/ KTyJixaaL TriTrreis. 
 
 (7) Ei/^avcras aAyctvoTaras e/xot /xcpi/xi^a?, 
 
 Trar/oos TptTroAio-roi/ oTktov, 
 Tov re 7rpo7ravT09 a/xerepov ttot/xov 
 KAeii/ots Aa/3^aKL^ai(TiV, 
 
 (8) AXX' ci /xei/ ouv TctS' ecTTtv ev Ocol<; Ka\d, 
 
 et o Old afxapTavovuL, fx-q TrAetw KaKa 
 TrdOoLCv ^ Kttt 8pwo-tv eK^LKOis eft-c. 
 
 (9) Boi/Aot yap 'jj/x.tv l(T\dpat tc TravrcAets 
 7rXr)p€t<s VTT otcovwv T€ Kat Kwwv (3opa<s 
 Tov Sv(Tfj.6pov TreTTTWTos OiStTTOv yovov. 
 
 (10) O 7rpecr/3v, ttcivtcs, tocrrc TO^orai ctkottov, 
 To^evET dvSp6<; rov^e, kovSI fxavTLKrj<i 
 a-rrpaKTO? vpuv et/x.t, t<3i/ VTral yivov<s 
 i^YjiXTToXr] [xai KaKTrecfyopTicrfxaL irdXai. 
 
 (11) 'Q, 7ravT€s dcrroi, twv Aoywv iTrrjcrOofJiTjv 
 Trpos €^o8ov aT€L)(ov(Taj IlaAAaSo? ^cas 
 OTTWS tKot/xiyv CT^y/xaTwv irpoa-qyopo'^' 
 
 /cat Tvy;(avot) re kX-qOp dvacnracTTOv ttvAt^s 
 ;(aA(i3o-a Kat />te cjiOoyyos oIkclov KaKOv 
 /3aX\ci 8t' wTwi/. 
 
 (12) IIapa(rTavTC9 rd(^(^ 
 dOpyjcraO* dpfxov ^(^fxaro^ XtOoaTraSrj 
 SvVT€<S TTpoS aVTO (rTOjJiiOV, el TOV Al/jlovo^ 
 
 <j>66yyov crvvLrjfx rj Oeoiai KXiTrTO/xat. 
 
 11. Discuss the grammatical peculiarities of the following passages: 
 
 (1) 'Afxyxavov SI TravTo? avSpos eKfxaOeiV 
 i}/v)(i]V T€ Koi ijipovrj/xa kol yviap.'qv, Tvptv av 
 dp^oi'S r€ KOL vd/xoKTiv ivrpL^rj? cftavrj. 
 
 (2) 'n? av (TKOTToi vvv -qTC Twv €lpr)/Jiev(ov. 
 
 (3) Tcav, Zev, Swao-tv tis av8pwv 
 VTrep/Saorca Karafr^^ot; 
 
 (4) 'AW' dvBpa, K€t Tt9 ^ cro<^o9, K.T.X. 
 
THE GREEK TRAGEDIANS. 435 
 
 Explain the use of the negatives in the folloNving : 
 
 (a) Eyoj 8' OTTO)? en) /at} Xcyct? op^cu? raSc, 
 ovT av hwaifx-qv fx-jr €7rLcrTaifj.qv Xeyeu'. 
 
 (13) "Hrt? Toi' avTr]<; avrd^eXcfyov iv (^oiats 
 
 TreTTTtur' dOaTrrov fxijO^ vtt' oj/iT^o-Tcuv kvvojv 
 ctacr' o\€(T$aL, fxtjO' vtt oloivojv Ttvo?. 
 
 Accentuate the word oTroia in the line 
 aX/V 10-6'' oVota crot SoKct. 
 
 1 2. Derive, illustrate, or other^sise explain the following words : 
 
 Tavra/Vw^eis — Sc^tdcretpos — TraoracrOaL — ire.pi^pv'^LO'i — vTrCWovcn — Trcpi- 
 (TK^X'q 9 — KarapTViLV — iTnj^oXo^ — kp^jxvo^ — Ovcrrd'^ — opyta — rracrTcis — kv<i>- 
 
 SoVT€<i. 
 
 28—2 
 
INDEX. 
 
 ACH.EUS Eretriensis, the tragedian, i6o 
 
 Acharnians, 182, 300 sqq. 
 
 Actors, one introduced by Thespis, 59 ; 
 another by ZEschylus, 98; a third by 
 Sophocles, 120, and Cratinus, 169; only 
 three allowed to each dramatist, 215, 268 ; 
 their gains and character, 272; not paid 
 by the choragi, 215; neglected by-play 
 altogether, 269 ; used bodily exercises, 
 '272 
 
 Admission-money to the theatre, 2 70 
 
 Adonis, 18 
 
 Adrastus, subject of lyrical tragedies at 
 Sicyon, 41. 
 
 ^gicores, 58 
 
 j^olic form in the dramatists, 379 
 
 ^schines as an actor, 273, 274 
 
 ^schylus, his life, 95 — 98 ; number of his 
 dramas, 98 ; improvements in tragedy, 
 98, 99; his Agamemnon, 276; Choe- 
 phoroe, 279; Eumenides, 281; his poli- 
 tical aims therein, 97, 201 ; Suppliants, 
 109; Seven against Thebes, 106; Per- 
 sians, 105 ; Prometheus Bound, 107, 283 ; 
 Prometheus Fire-bringing, 102, note 3; 
 Orestea, in; his style and diction, 103 ; 
 his plays allowed to be acted after his 
 death, 99, note 4 ; a Pythagorean, ib. 
 note 5; his Si/feXt(r/i6j, 97, note i ; ac- 
 cused of plagiarism from Phrynichus, 92, 
 note 1 1 ; relation between his tragedy 
 and the plastic arts, lor, note i; his 
 aristocratical spirit, 97 ; his works bear 
 internal proofs of his fondness for the 
 Dorians, 102 ; and of his militaiy spirit, 
 103 
 
 Afranius, 308 
 
 Agatharchus, the inventor of stage scenery, 
 241 
 
 Agathon, the tragedian, 160; first inserted 
 choruses foreign to the play, 340 
 
 ' Ay prjvdy, 2 ^y 
 
 Aiivpai, 241 
 
 Alexis, the comedian, 198 
 "AXftTTjo-Ttj, no reason to show that Thespig 
 never wrote a play so named, 66 
 
 Ameipsias, the comedian, 173 
 
 'Avayvdopiais or Discovery, 336 
 
 Anapaests, when they may form the first 
 foot in the senarius, 378, note. 
 
 Anapaestic Tetrameter Catalectic, 391 
 
 Anapaestic verses, 387; why mostly used in 
 
 opening choral song, 243, 266 
 Anaxandrides, the comedian, 198 
 'Avia, 'Aviapds, quantity of, 412 
 Anthesteria, 19 
 Antigone, parody of the, 255 
 Antiphanes, the comedian, 78, 198 
 'AirayyeXia, 42 
 ' A-n-^pacris, 326 
 Apollo and Ormuzd, 20 
 Apollodorus, the comedian, 203 
 Apsephion, or Aphepsion, the Archon, 114 
 Araros, the son of Aristophanes, 193 
 'Ap^6\ai, 245 
 
 Archilochus, 51; imitated by Cratinus, 169 
 Archon's wife espoused to Dionysus, 19 
 Ariadne, 16 
 Arion, the originator of the Tragic Chorus, 
 
 38 
 Aristarchus of Tegea, 160 
 Aristias, son of Pratinas, 94 
 
438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aristophanes, 177; place of his birth, 178, 
 time of this birth, 180; his Banqueters, 
 ib.; Babylonians, 181; Acharnians, 182; 
 Knights, t6.; Clouds, 183 — 185; Wasps, 
 185 ; Peace, 186; Amphiaraus, ib. ; Birds, 
 ib.; Lysistrata, 188; Thesmophoriazuste, 
 189 ; Frogs, ib ; Ecclesiazusae, 191 ; Plutus, 
 192; u^olosicon, 193, note 4; Cocalus, 
 193; number of his plays, 193; buf- 
 foonery and licentiousness, 194; excel- 
 lences, 195 
 
 Aristotle, his Poetic, 318; its antagonism 
 to Plato, 325 ; his assertion that the early 
 drama was extemporaneous, how explain- 
 ed, 39 ; his etymology of Kw/xipSia incor- 
 rect, 70; his definition of Tragedy, 325 
 
 Art and Idolatry, 4 
 
 Artemis TavpoTrdXr}, 16 
 
 Asinius PoUio, 310 
 
 Aspen dus, theatre at, 220 
 
 Astarte, 13 
 
 Atellane Fables, 307 
 
 Attic Crases, 375 sqq. 
 
 Attic dialect in the dramatists, 371 
 
 Attius, 309 
 
 Audience, theatric, 270; its number, 211; 
 behaviour, 272 
 
 Augment, Attic, 371 
 
 AvXala, 240 
 
 B. 
 
 Baal-Peor, 18 
 
 Bacchic choruses three in number, 35 
 
 Bacchus 'Qfxo(pd-yos, 1 7 
 
 TavpoK€po}$, 1 7 
 
 Bacchus, early worship of in Attica, 9, 5 3 
 
 Bacchus, oriental origin of his worship, 1 2 
 
 Bacchus, his pedigree, 12 
 
 Bernays, 326 
 
 Bovine deities, 15 
 
 BovXevTiKdv, 228 
 
 Brauronia, 56 
 
 BpovTetop, 241 
 
 Bull, connected with the Dithyramb, 38 
 
 Buskin, introduced by JEschylus, 99 
 
 C. 
 
 Cacus, 16 
 
 Caesura in the Senarius, 380, note 
 
 Carcinus, the tragedian, 161 
 
 Catastrophe, 333 
 
 Chasremon, 162 
 
 Characters, which best for tragedy, 333 
 
 Charonic ladder, 229 
 
 Chionides, the comedian, 167 
 
 XXa/xOs, 257 
 
 Choerilus, the tragedian, 91 
 
 Choragi, their office and how chosen, 214, 
 their rivalry, 218; successful, honours of, 
 218 
 
 Choragic expenses, 214 
 
 Xopbv didovai, 215, note 5 
 
 Chorus, origin of, 26; etymology of the 
 word, ib. note i ; properly limited to a 
 fixed dancing-place, and so distinguished 
 from the con\us, 29 ; Tragic, Comic, num- 
 ber of, 243 
 
 Christus Patiens, 163 
 
 Chronology of the Greek Drama, 204 — 209 
 
 Cleisthenes of Sicy on, 4 1 
 
 Cleon, 182 
 
 Clepsydra, used to portion out the time 
 of a dramatic representation, 219 
 
 Comedy, etymology of, 71, 211; when 
 established at Athens, and why, 76 
 
 Comedy, the Old, its origin and nature, 76 ; 
 prohibited for a time, 168; number of 
 plays, 167; its political meaning, 78 
 
 Comedy, the Middle, how different from 
 the Old, 78; number of its pieces, 196; 
 difficult to distinguish between its writers 
 and those of the Old Comedy, 78 
 
 Comedy, the New, its origin and nature, 
 80 ; circle of its characters, 8 1 
 
 Comic trimeter, 379 
 
 Comus distinguished from the chorus, 29 
 
 Concurrences of short syllables, 399 
 
 CondaUum of Plautus, 260 
 
 Costume, 252 sqq. ; on the modern stage, 
 266 
 
 Crane, theatric machine so called, 241 
 
 Crases, Attic, 375 sqq. 
 
 Crates, the comedian, 1 70 
 
 Cratinus, the comedian, 168 
 
 Cretic termination, 396 
 
 Critias, 163 
 
 Cyclic chorus the same as the Dithyrambic, 
 36 
 
 Cyrenaic picture, 245 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 D. 
 
 Dactyls in Anapaestic verse, 391 
 
 Dances — Gymnopaedic, Pyrrhic, Hyporche- 
 matic, 33 ; those of scenic poetry, 35 
 
 Dante, 103, 136 
 
 Days of the Week, 14 
 
 Demeter, 19 
 
 Averts Kal Avais, 339 
 
 Arjfxiovpyos, 32 
 
 Aiaypd,u/jLaTa, of the chorus, 267 
 
 Aid^(!}fjLa, 227 
 
 AioLKpioi, 57 
 
 Didascaliae, 219 
 
 Ai5dcrK€iv dpdfjLa, 217 
 
 Dinolochus, the comedian, 167 
 
 Dionysia, number of, 211; account of, 211 
 sqq. 
 
 Dionysius, 135, 163 
 
 DiphOus, the comedian, 202 
 
 Aia-Teyia, 230 
 
 DithjTamb, explanation of the \vord, 36, 
 note 2 ; nature of, 36 ; gave birth to tra- 
 gedy, 325 
 
 Doors in the scene, their number and desti- 
 nation, 231 
 
 Dorians adopted the religion of conquered 
 countries, 21; claimed the invention of 
 the drama, 321 
 
 Doric forms in the di-amatists, 370 
 
 Drama, origin of, 2 
 
 Drama, Greek, religious reference of, 2 sqq. ; 
 choral element of, 2 7 sqq. ; rhapsodical 
 element of, 50 sqq.; an union of the 
 rhapsody with the cyclic chorus, 56 sqq.; 
 arose in the Dorian states, 27; at the 
 beginning extemporaneous, according to 
 Aristotle, 39, 325; its first metre trochaic, 
 323 ; essentially different from the modern 
 in its mode of representation, 210; its time 
 of performance, 211 — 213; its means of 
 performance, 213 sqq.; its place of per- 
 formance, 220 sqq.; its manner of per- 
 formance, 242 sqq. 
 
 Drama, Lyrical, 42 sqq. 
 
 Dramatists originally their own actors, 59. 
 note 10 
 
 Dress of the actors, 252 
 
 hpbfxo$, 230 
 
 Duplicate divinities, 21 
 
 E. 
 
 Ecphantides, 168 
 
 El'XwTcj ol iirl Taivdpo}, 75 
 
 EipKTrj, 231 
 
 EiVo5oi, 232 
 
 ^'EKKVKXrifj.a, 238 
 
 Elementary woi-sbip, 13 
 
 Eleusinian mysteries, language of, 122, 
 
 note 7 
 "Efx^Sarai, 247 
 Emendations of Strabo, 4, note 4 ; of Pau- 
 
 sanias, 25, note 4 ; of Diphilus, 104, note i ; 
 
 of Euripides, 28, note 6, 138, note 8; 150, 
 
 note I ; of Aristotle, 345, note i 
 'E/u/xe'Xcta, 35 
 ^H/xiv et r/,u?{/, 400, 412 
 Ennius, 309 
 'HuottXlos pvdpios, 33 
 ''EireLaKup.d^'jj, 71 
 'Fj7ri^3\T]/j.a, iTmropva/JLa, 257 
 'E(pT]3iK6v, 228, note 4 
 Epicharmus, inventor of Comedy, life and 
 
 account of, 165 
 Epic poetry compared with tragedy, 347 — 
 
 351 
 
 Epic forms in the dramatists, 369 
 
 Epigenes, the Sicyonian, 42 
 
 Epirrheraa. and antepirrliema, 268 
 
 Episodic plots, the worst, 331 
 
 Episcenui, 230 
 
 Eubulus, the comedian, 197 
 
 Euphorion, the tragedian, 162 
 
 Eupolis, the comedian, 171: relations with 
 Aristophanes, 173 
 
 Euripides, time and place of his birth, 130; 
 rank of his parents, 132; his education, 
 ih.; his exile, 133; his death, 134; his 
 Electra, 147, 148, 293; Alcestis, 75, 142, 
 299; Iphigenia in Aulis, 149; Ion, 144; 
 Hippolytus, 143; Medea, 142; Troades, 
 147; Hecuba, 144, 145; Hercules Fu- 
 rens, T45 ; Phoeniss£e, 148; Orestes, ih., 
 292; Iphigenia in Tauris, 146; Andro- 
 mache, ih., 292; Bacchae, 149, 293 sq. 
 Suppliants, 146, 293; Heraclidae, 142; 
 Helen, 147; Ehesus, 141; Cyclops, 143, 
 297; said to have been assisted by So- 
 crates, 137; his character as a dramatist, 
 139; his relation to ^schylus and So- 
 
440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 phocles illustrated by a comparison be- 
 tween liig Electra, ^schylus' Choephorce, 
 and Sophocles' Electra, 152 — 158; turn- 
 ed the rhapsodical element of Greek 
 Tragedy into a sophistical one, 1 37 ; his 
 political opinions, 138; his Anaxagorea, 
 137; his rhetorical vanity, 135, 730; his 
 misogynisra, 133; his style, 138; a fore- 
 runner of the New Comedy, 81 ; how 
 esteemed by Aristophanes, 137, 169; by 
 Menander and Philemon, 200, 201 ; his 
 excellences, 232 ; inventor of tragi-comedy, 
 75 > '^t'y popular in the middle ages, 136; 
 quoted by St Paul, 151, 201 
 
 Euripides explained, 25, 28, 144, 145 
 
 Euripides, junior, 162 
 
 Examination paper on ^schylus' Persae, 
 415; Sophocles' Philoctetes, 420; Euri- 
 pides' Alcestis, 424; Sophocles' Anti- 
 gone, 431. 
 
 'E^ d/id^Tjs Xeyeiv explained, 70, note 6 
 
 'E^dpxeiv — ^^apxos explained, 29 
 
 'E^cX/o-crw, 28 
 
 Exode, 266, 333 
 
 'E^iba-Tpa, 238 
 
 F. 
 
 Fables {fivOoi), or plots, 322 
 
 Fable, unity of, 330 
 
 episodic, the worst, 331 
 
 simple and complicated, 332 
 
 Fables, Atellane, 307 
 
 Farnese Bull, 310 
 
 Flute-player, 264 
 
 Fox, C. J., on Euripides, 135 
 
 Frogs, representation of the first scene of 
 the, 261, note 3 
 
 G. 
 
 V4pavos, 241 
 
 Goat, the prize of Tragedy, 40 
 
 iTvmnnnppflisi. 3 3 
 
 Gymnopeedia, 33 
 
 Hegemon, the parodist, 320 
 
 lleraclides Ponticus, the Pseudo-Thespis, 65 
 
 Hercules, his theatrical costume, 255 
 
 Hermippus, the comedian, 171 
 Herodotus, passage of respecting Pisistratus 
 discussed, 57; meets Sophocles in Samos, 
 
 115 
 Historical plays, 74 
 Historian and Poet compai*ed, 330 
 Homer gave the first idea of Tragedy, 322 ; 
 
 and of Comedy, ibid. ; character of, ibid. 
 
 348 
 Horace, Epist. ad Pisones, 310 
 Human sacrifices, 14 
 Hyporcheme, 34 
 
 I. 
 
 Iambic metre, invention of, 5 1 
 
 Iambic poems models for the tragedians, 
 
 54 
 Iambic tragic senarius, 377 
 
 comic , 379 
 
 tetrameter catalectic, 382 
 
 Ictus metricus, 377, 393, 397, 398 
 Imitation, love of, the origin both of the 
 
 fine arts and idolatry, 3, 4 
 Indian drama, its comparative antiquity, 7 
 Inscriptions, Orchomenian, 45 — 49 
 Ion Chius, the tragedian, 159 
 lophon, the son of Sophocles, 162 
 'Jovial' and 'Saturnian', 14 
 Judges, Dramatic, 217 
 
 K. 
 
 Kddapcris, 325 
 
 Kara ^vyd — Kara (TToixovi, 243 
 KepavvotTKOweiov, 242 
 KepKides, 228 
 K\i{j.aKes, 228 
 KXiaiov, 231 
 K66oppoi, 245 sqq. 
 KdiXov, 227 
 Kofi/xaTLOy, 267 
 KofXfioi, 226, 333 
 KoplffTpa, 229 
 Kopv<f>aios, 215 
 Kdafios, 28 
 
 Kw/ioj, signification of the word, 70 ; dis- 
 tinguished from xo/><5s, ^9 
 Kw/xySetJ' — rod /ir] dvajj-aarl, 79, note i 
 
 Ku}fi(f5la, etymology of, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 441 
 
 Laberius, 308 
 
 Laocoon, group of, 102 
 
 Lasos, 36 
 
 XeiTovpytiy, 214, note 4 
 
 AeiTOvpyiai eyKVKXioi, ■214 
 
 AevKOTToSes, 25 
 
 Arj^iapxi-Kov ypa/xnaTeTov, 2 70 
 
 ALay, quantity of, 412 
 
 Livius Andronicus, 309 
 
 AoyeTov, 220, 229, 233 ; why so called. 100, 
 
 note 5 
 Ai^crtj Kal A^<ns, 339 
 Lycophron's Alexandra, 163 
 Lycurgus, the orator, his law respecting 
 
 the three Tragedians, 274 
 Lyrical Tragedy, 40, note 6, 45 sqq. ; 
 
 Comedy, ib. 72 
 
 M. 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, on the corruption of tra- 
 
 Machon, the comedian, 203 
 
 Magnes, the comedian, 168 
 
 Manners, requisites of, in Tragedy, 340 
 
 Margites, influence of, upon Comedy, 322 
 
 Masks, introduced by ^Eschylus, 99 ; vari- 
 ous forms and reason of, 248 
 
 Megacles, 57 
 
 Megarians claimed the invention of Comedy, 
 321 
 
 Meletus, the tragedian, 162 
 
 yiiXireadai, and /xoXttt^, 30 
 
 Menander, 200; quoted by St Paul, 201, 
 note 6 
 
 'MvxO'fV, 241 
 
 Metres, tragic, 377 
 
 Middle Comedy. See Comedy. 
 
 MiXt^tou d\u<ns, 93 
 
 Mimes, Roman, different from Greek, 307 ; 
 not altogether farcical, 308 ; the early 
 germ of the Comniedia deW Arte to be 
 sought for in them, 307 
 
 Minotaur, 16 
 
 Moloch, 15 
 
 MoXttt), 30 
 
 Mosaic, Pro-Clementine, 244 
 
 Mutes, or dumb actors, their masks, 249 
 
 MC^oj, 332 
 
 Myrtilus, the comedian, 1 7 1 
 
 N. 
 Naevius, 309 
 
 New Comedy. See Comedy. 
 Nicostratus, Aristophanes' son, 193 
 Niebuhr on historical tragedy, 74, note 5 
 Niobe, group of, 310 
 
 Number of separate representations in one 
 day, 219 
 
 0. 
 
 "Oy KOi, 248 
 
 Odyssey, a storehouse for the satyrical plays, 
 
 1 15, note 2 
 'O/cpi'^as, 220 
 
 Old Comedy. See Comedy. 
 Orchestra, 226 
 
 Orchomenian Inscriptions, 45 — 49 
 'Opduaia, 16 
 Oscilla, 250 
 
 Ovhkv Trpbs Aiouvaov explained, 69, note 3 
 Ovid, considered as a tragic writer, 310 
 
 Pacuvius, 309 
 
 Paean, 35 
 
 Pantagruelism, 77 
 
 UdpaXoi, 57 
 
 Parabasis, 267 
 
 UapaaKTivLa, 234 
 
 JIapaaKr]vioy, 234, 268 
 
 Hapaxoprrfrjfj.a, 268 
 
 napao-rciTTjj and TptTooTdr?;?, 216 
 
 UapeyKVKXijpia, 239, note 4 
 
 Parodus, 230 
 
 Pasiphae, 16 
 
 Uddos and UdOrjfxa, 326 
 
 Pause in the Senarius, 380, 400 
 
 neStatot, 57 
 
 UepiaKTOL, 231, 239 
 
 UepiTT^Teia, 332 
 
 Persaj, examination paper on, 415 
 
 Persona, etymology of, 249 
 
 UrjviKT], 248 
 
 Phaethon, 14 
 
 Phalaris and Moloch, 16 
 
 Phallic processions, 72 
 
 Phallic worship of Bacchus, 19 
 
 ^evaKT] — (peyoLKii^iiy, 248 
 
442 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Pherecrates, 1 70 ; his metre, ibid, note 10 
 
 Philemon, the comedian, 199 
 
 Philippides, 199 
 
 Philippus, the comedian, 193 
 
 Philoctetes of Sophocles, examination pa- 
 per on, 420 
 
 Phormis, the comedian, 166 
 
 ^povTjfxa explained, 1 1 5, note 1 
 
 Phrynichus, the tragedian, 92 
 
 Phrynichus, the comedian, t 7 1 
 
 Pliya, 57 
 
 Pindar explained, 16, 37, 38, 43, 44 
 
 Pisistratus, 57 ; his encouragement of lite- 
 rature, 62 
 
 Planetary worship, 14 
 
 Plato, the comedian, 174 
 
 Plato, his definition of Tragedy and Comedy, 
 
 73 
 
 Plato Leges, 844 D, explained, 17 
 
 Pleiades, the seven poets so named, 163 
 
 Plots or fables, 332 
 
 Pluteum, 230 
 
 Jlvtyos, 26'j 
 
 Podium, 233 
 
 Poet, successful, honours of, 218 ; his fame 
 transient as compared with that of the his- 
 torian, 219 
 
 Pollux, Julius, 356 sqq. 
 
 Posidippus, the comedian, 203 
 
 PrcBcinctiones, 227 
 
 Pratinas, account of, 94 ; inventor of Sa- 
 tyric Drama, 69 
 
 Upoedpia, 228, note 4 
 
 Prologue, 60 
 
 Proper names in the Tragic Senarius, 379, 
 
 403 
 
 UpocTKriuiov, 227, 229, 307 
 
 Upocrcoireiou, 248 
 
 Upurayojvi.aT'ris, his functions, 2 16 
 
 UpOXees, 28 
 
 "Punch," 258, note 4, 307 
 
 Punning in the ancient tragedies, 136, 
 note I 
 
 Pyrrhic and Proceleusmatic feet, 33 
 
 Pyrrhic dance, 33 ; performed on horse- 
 back, 34 
 
 R. 
 
 Rabelais, 77, note 3 
 Beligio not from religare, 3 1 
 
 Rhapsodes, etymology of the word, 50 ; 
 nature of, ihid. 
 
 'P^CTiS, 60 
 
 Rhinthon, writer of tragi- comedy, 203 
 Rhythm comprises metre, 322 
 Right and left on the stage, 232 
 Roman theatre, 306 
 
 S. 
 Saturn, his functions, 14 
 'Saturnine' and 'Jovial,' 14 
 Satyr and Silenus distinguished, 24 
 Satyric drama, actors in how dressed, 264 
 ^KTjwq, 226 
 Scenery, 24 
 
 invented by Agatharchus, ibid. 
 
 Schiller's definition of Tragedy, 74, note 2 
 
 SeXi'Ses, 228 
 
 Semele, 20 
 
 Seneca, 312 ; his influence on the French 
 
 dramatic writers, 313 
 Serpent, as a symbol of life, 18 
 Seventh day sacred to Saturn and the Sun, 
 
 H 
 
 Simonides of Amorgus, 52 
 
 Sicyonians, their share in the invention of 
 Tragedy, 41 
 
 Six, a perfect number, 14 
 
 liKiepeia, 17 
 
 Soccus, 258 
 
 Socrates, Xenophon's and Plato's account 
 of, to be received with allowance, 97, 184 
 
 Sopater, writer of tragi-comedy, 203 
 
 Sophocles, his life, 113 — 117; colleague 
 of Pericles, 115; acquainted with Hero- 
 dotus, ibid.; his death, ti6; his cha- 
 racter as a man, 121 ; his public charac- 
 ter, ibid. ; his improvements in Tragedy, 
 I r9 ; number of his plays, 117; his 
 CEdipus Rex, 127 ; CEdipus at Colonus, 
 128,287; Antigone, 128; Ajax, 125, 
 291; Philoctetes, 129; Trachinise, 126; 
 Electra, 125 ; comparative merits of the 
 remaining seven, 124 ; difference of cha- 
 racter between him and ^schylus, 120; 
 in what respect Homeric, 103, note 3; 
 his general principles of action, 121 ; not 
 fully appreciated by the modems, 119; 
 wrote other works besides tragedies, 1 1 7 
 Sophocles, junior, 162 
 
INDEX. 
 
 UP> 
 
 Sophron, Mimes of, 320 
 
 Sosicles, the tragedian, 163 
 
 Sotades, writer of tragi-comedy, -203 
 
 Spectators, number of, &c., 21 r 
 
 Spengel, 325 
 
 Stage-curtain, 240 
 
 Stasimon, 333 
 
 Stahr, 326 
 
 Stesichorus, 37, note 5 
 
 Sun and moon, worship of, 13 
 
 1ivvd(f)€i.a, 389 
 
 'ZxoLVOTevrjs, 37 
 
 Syrus, 308 
 
 Terpander, 31 
 
 Theatre, Grecian, description of, 220 sqq. 
 
 Theatre, Roman, 306 sqq. 
 
 Qearpujvrji — dearpoTruiXrjS, 271 
 
 Theodectes, 163 
 
 Theodorus the actor, why he sustained the 
 part that first appeared on the stage, 217 
 
 Q€o\oy€?ou, 231 
 
 Theopompus, his AUhcea, 262 
 
 Theoric fund, 271 sqq. 
 
 Thespis, 59 ; Bentley's assertion that he 
 wrote nothing, and that his tragedies 
 were entirely droll, incorrect, 64 ; names 
 of some of his plays, 60, 66, note 3 ; may 
 be an assumed name, 63, note i 
 
 Thrasyllus, choragic monument of, 218 
 
 Thrasymachus, 185, note 3 
 
 Thymele, 220, 229 
 
 Thyreatic crowns, 33 
 
 Timocles, the comedian, 198 
 
 TpayiKos rpdiros, what ? 40 
 
 Tpayoidia, origin of the word, 40, 68 
 
 Tpaycfdlau SiSctcr/ceij', 2 1 7 
 
 Tragedy, origin of, 323 ; its parts of quality. 
 
 324 ; its parts of quantity, 335 ; ideal of 
 the Roman form of, 310 
 
 Tragedies, modern and ancient, distinction 
 between, 6 
 
 historical, 74, note 5 
 
 Tragedians, Attic, plagiarized from the gno- 
 mic poets, 54, note 3 ; 122, note 4 
 
 Trilogy, ^schylean, ror 
 
 Trochaic metre, 51, 323 
 
 Ti'ochaic tetrameter catalectic of tragedy, 384 
 
 of comedy, 386 
 
 U. 
 
 'T-TrepaKpioi, 57 
 
 'TTTOKpcpeadat, used of the rhapsode, 53, 
 
 note 2 
 "IiroaKrjVLOV, 235 
 
 V. 
 
 Valves regice, 231 
 
 Versurce, 235 
 
 Vitruvius, 222 — 226, 352 
 
 W. 
 
 Waggon of Tliespis, 60 
 "Women were present at dramatic exhibi- 
 tions, 271 
 
 X. 
 
 Xenocles, the tragedian, 161 
 
 fi!,€VU}V, 231 
 
 Zagreus, 17 
 
 Zei)s 71(0T-/ip, the god of mariners, 104, 
 note r. 
 
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