CHAPTER XV.

_THE FRAGMENTS OF ÆSCHYLUS, SOPHOCLES, AND EURIPIDES._

Alexandrian and Byzantine Anthologies.--Titles of the Lost Plays of Æschylus.--The _Lycurgeia_.--The Trilogy on the Story of Achilles.--The Geography of the _Prometheus Unbound_.--Gnomic Character of the Sophoclean Fragments.--Providence, Wealth, Love, Marriage, Mourning.--What is True of the Sophoclean is still more True of the Euripidean Fragments.--Mutilated Plays.--_Phaëthon_, _Erechtheus_, _Antiope_, _Danaë_.--Goethe's Restitution of the _Phaëthon_.--Passage on Greek Athletes in the _Autolycus_.--Love, Women, Marriage, Domestic Affection, Children.--Death.--Stoical Endurance.--Justice and the Punishment of Sin.--Wealth.--Noble Birth.--Heroism.--Miscellaneous Gnomic Fragments.--The Popularity of Euripides.

It is difficult to treat the fragments of Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides otherwise than as a golden treasury of saws and maxims compiled by Alexandrian and Byzantine Greeks, for whom poetic beauty was of less value than sententious wisdom. The tragic scope and the æsthetic handling of the fables of their lost plays can scarcely be conjectured from such slight hints as we possess. Yet some light may be cast upon the Æschylean method by observing the titles of his dramas. We have, for example, the names of a complete tetralogy upon the legend of Lycurgus. The _Edonians_, the _Bassarids_, and the _Young Men_ constituted a connected series of plays--a _Lycurgeia_, with _Lycurgus_ for the satyric supplement. Remembering that Æschylus called his own tragedies morsels picked up from the great Homeric banquet-table, we may conclude that this tetralogy set forth the Dionysian fable told by Diomede to Glaucus in the _Iliad_ (vi. 131):

No, for not Dryas' son, Lycurgus strong, Who the divine ones fought, on earth lived long. He the nurse-nymphs of Dionysus scared Down the Nyseïan steep, and the wild throng Their ritual things cast off, and maddening fared, Torn with his goad, like kine; so vast a crime he dared. Yea, Dionysus, such a sight was there, Himself in fear sank down beneath the seas. And Thetis in her breast him quailing bare, At the man's cry such trembling shook his knees. Then angered were the gods who live at ease, And Zeus smote blind Lycurgus, and he fell Loathed ere his day.[13]

It appears that the titles of the three dramas composing the trilogy were taken from the Chorus. In the first play the Edonian Thracians, subjects of Lycurgus, formed the Chorus; in the second, the Bassarids, or nurse-nymphs of Dionysus; in the third, the youths whom the wine-god had persuaded to adopt his worship. The subject of the first play was, therefore, the advent of Dionysus and his following in Thrace, and the victory of Lycurgus over the new cult. The second set forth the captivity of the Bacchantes or Bassarids, together with the madness sent upon Lycurgus as a punishment for his resistance, whereby he was driven, according to post-Homeric versions of his legend, to the murder of his own son Dryas in a fit of fury. The third play carried on the subject by exhibiting the submission of Lycurgus to the god whom he had disowned and dishonored, and his death, at the hands of his own subjects, upon Mount Pangæus. Thus the first Chorus was hostile to Dionysus; the second was sympathetic, though captive and impotent; the third was triumphant in his cause. The artistic sequence of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis which the trilogy required, was developed through three moments in the life-drama of Lycurgus, and was typified in the changes of the choric sympathy, according to the law whereby Æschylus varied the form of his triple dramas and, at the same time, immediately connected the Chorus with the passion of each piece. The tragic interest centred in the conflict of Lycurgus and the god, and the final solution was afforded by the submission, though too late, of the protagonist's will to destiny. It is probable that the satyric play of _Lycurgus_ represented the divine honors paid, after his death, to the old enemy, now become the satellite and subject of Dionysus, by pastoral folk and dwellers in the woodlands. The unification of obstinate antagonistic wills in the higher will of Zeus or Fate seems in all cases to have supplied Æschylus with the _Versöhnung_ tragedy required, and to have suggested the religious #katharsis# without which the Greek drama would have failed to point its lesson. Seen in this light, the _Lycurgeia_ must have been a masterpiece only less sublime, and even more full, perhaps, of picturesque incidents, than the Promethean trilogy. The emotional complexion, if that phrase may be permitted, of each member of the trilogy was determined by the Chorus; wherein we trace a signal instance of the Æschylean method.

More even to be regretted than the _Lycurgeia_ is a colossal lost trilogy to which the name of _Tragic Iliad_ has been given. That Æschylus should have frequently handled the subject-matter of the _Iliad_ was natural; and many titles of tragedies, quoted singly, point to his preoccupation with the mythus of Achilles. It has, therefore, been conjectured, with fair show of reason, that the _Myrmidons_, the _Nereids_, and the _Phrygians_ formed a triple drama. The first described the withdrawal of Achilles from the war, the arming of Patroclus, and the grief which the son of Peleus felt for his friend's death. No Greek tragedy, had it been preserved, would have been more precious than this. The second showed how Thetis comforted her child, and procured fresh armor for him from Hephæstus, and how Achilles slew Hector. In the third, Priam recovered the dead body of his son and buried it. Supposing the trilogy to have been constructed upon these outlines, it must have resembled a gigantic history-play, in which, as in the _Iliad_ itself, the character of Achilles was sufficient to form the groundwork of a complicated poem. The theme, in other words, would have resembled those of the modern and romantic drama, rather than such as the elder Greek poets were in the habit of choosing. The _Achilleis_ did not in any direct way illustrate the doctrine of Nemesis, or afford a tragic conflict between the human will and fate. It owed its lustre to the radiant beauty of the hero, to the pathos of his love for Patroclus, to the sudden blazing forth of irresistible energy when sorrow for the dead had driven him to revenge, and to the tranquillity succeeding tempest that dignified his generous compliance with the prayers of Priam. The trilogy composed upon it must, therefore, like a Shakespearian play, have been a drama of character. The fragments of the _Myrmidones_ have already been pieced together in the essay on the Homeric Achilles.[14] From the _Nereides_ nothing has survived except what may be gathered from the meagre remnants of the Latin version made of it by Attius. The _Phrygians_, also called #Hektoros lytra#, contained a speech of pleading addressed by Priam to the hero in his tent, of which the following is a relic:

#kai tous thanontas ei theleis euergetein, to goun kakourgein amphidexiôs echei kai mête chairein mête lypeisthai para. hêmôn ge mentoi Nemesis esth' hypertera kai tou thanontos hê dikê prassei koton.#[15]

The trilogy of which the _Prometheus Bound_ formed probably the middle play has been sufficiently discussed in the chapter on Æschylus.[16] It remains in this place only to notice that the gigantic geography of the poet received further illustration in the lost play of the _Prometheus Unbound_. "Cette géographie vertigineuse," says Victor Hugo, "est mêlée à une tragédie extraordinaire où l'on entend des dialogues plus qu'humains;" and, inverting this observation, we may add that the superhuman tragedy of the _Prometheis_ owed much of its grandeur to the soul-dilating prospect of the earth's map, outstretched before the far-seeing sufferer on the crags of Caucasus.

Two other trilogies--a _Danais_, composed of the _Egyptians_, the _Suppliants_, and the _Danaides_; and an _Oedipodeia_, composed of _Laius_, the _Sphinx_, and _Oedipus_--may be mentioned, though to recover their outlines with any certainty is now hopeless. For the rest, it must be enough to transcribe and to translate a few fragments of singular beauty. Here is an invocation uttered in his hour of anguish by Philoctetes to Death, the deliverer:

#ô thanate paian mê m' atimasêis molein; monos gar ei sy tôn anêkestôn kakôn iatros; algos d' ouden haptetai nekrou.#[17]

Another passage on Death, remarkable for the stately grandeur of its style, may be quoted from the _Niobe_:

#monos theôn gar thanatos ou dôrôn erâi, out' an ti thyôn out' epispendôn anois, ou bômos estin oude paiônizetai. monou de peithô daimonôn apostatei.#[18]

The sublime speech of Aphrodite in the _Danaides_, imitated more than once by subsequent poets, must not be omitted:

#erâi men hagnos ouranos trôsai chthona, erôs de gaian lambanei gamou tychein; ombros d' ap' eunaentos ouranou pesôn ekyse gaian; hê de tiktetai brotois mêlôn te boskas kai bion Dêmêtrion; dendrôtis hôra d' ek notizontos gamou teleios esti; tôn d' egô paraitios.#[19]

Nor, lastly, the mystic couplet ascribed to both Æschylus and his son Euphorion:

#Zeus estin aithêr, Zeus de gê, Zeus d' ouranos, Zeus toi ta panta, chô ti tônd' hyperteron.#[20]

The fragments of Sophocles are, perhaps, in even a stricter sense than those of Æschylus, a bare anthology, and the best way of dealing with them is to select those which illustrate the beauty of his style or the ripeness of his wisdom. Few, indeed, are full enough to afford materials for reconstructing the plot of a lost play. What, for instance, can be more tantalizing to the student of Greek manners and sentiments than to know that Sophocles wrote a drama with the title _Lovers of Achilles_, and yet to have no means of judging of its fable better than is given in this pretty simile?

#nosêm' erôtos tout' ephimeron kakon; echoim' an auto mê kakôs apeikasai, hotan pagou phanentos aithriou cheroin krystallon harpasôsi paides astagê. ta prôt' echousin hêdonas potainious, telos d' ho chymos outh' hopôs aphêi thelei out' en cheroin to ktêma symphoron menein. houtô ge tous erôntas hautos himeros dran kai to mê dran pollakis proïetai.#[21]

A whole series of plays were written by Sophocles on the tale of Helen, and all of them have passed, "like shapes of clouds we form, to nothing." There was, again, a drama of the _Epigoni_, which might, perhaps, have carried the tale of Thebes still further than the climax reached in the _Antigone_. Yet Stobæus has only thought fit to treat us to two excerpts from it, whereof the following, spoken by Alcmæon to Eriphyle, is the fullest:

#ô pan sy tolmêsasa kai pera gynai; kakion all' ouk estin oud' estai pote gynaikos ei ti pêma gignetai brotois.#[22]

The sententious philosophy of life that endeared Euripides to the compilers of commonplace-books was expressed by Sophocles also, with sufficient independence of the context to make his speeches valuable as quarries for quotation. To this accident of his art is probably due the large number of fragments we possess upon general topics of morality and conduct. In the following fine passage the poet discusses the apparent injustice in the apportionment of good and evil fortune to virtuous and vicious men:

#deinon ge tous men dyssebeis kakôn t' apo blastontas, eita tousde men prassein kalôs, tous d' ontas esthlous ek te gennaiôn hama gegôtas eita dystycheis pephykenai. ou chrên tad' houtô daimonas thnêtôn peri prassein; echrên gar tous men eusebeis brotôn echein ti kerdos emphanes theôn para, tous d' ontas adikous toisde tên enantian dikên kakôn timôron emphanê tinein. koudeis an houtôs eutychei kakos gegôs.#[23]

The same play furnished Stobæus with an excellent observation on garrulity:

#anêr gar hostis hêdetai legôn aei lelêthen hauton tois xynousin ôn barys.#[24]

Also with a good remark upon the value of sound common-sense:

#psychê gar eunous kai phronousa toundikon kreissôn sophistou pantos estin heuretis.#[25]

The _Aleadæ_ supplied this pungent diatribe upon the contrast between poverty and wealth:

#ta chrêmat' anthrôpoisin heuriskei philous, authis de timas eita tês hypertatês tyrannidos thakousin aischistên hedran. epeita d' oudeis echthros oute phyetai pros chrêmath' hoi te phyntes arnountai stygein. deinos gar herpein ploutos es te tabata kai pros bebêla, chôpothen penês anêr mêd' entychôn dynait' an hôn erâi tychein. kai gar dyseides sôma kai dysônymon, glôssêi sophon tithêsin eumorphon t' idein. monôi de chairein kai nosein exousia parestin autôi kapikrypsasthai kaka.#[26]

In the _Locrian Ajax_ we find two single lines worth preservation:

#sophoi tyrannoi tôn sophôn xynousiâi;#[27]

and

#anthrôpos esti pneuma kai skia monon.#[28]

This charming description comes from the _Ægeus_, recalling Athens, where the poplars grow so large and leafy:

#hôsper gar en phylloisin aigeirou makras, kan allo mêden, alla toukeinês kara aura kradainei kanakouphizei pteron.#[29]

Some scattered utterances upon women and love may be collected from the _Phædra_, in which play Sophocles broke the ground trodden by Euripides:

#erôs gar andras ou monous eperchetai oud' au gynaikas alla kai theôn anô psychas charassei kapi ponton erchetai. kai tond' apeirgein oud' ho pankratês sthenei Zeus all' hypeikei kai thelôn enklinetai.

houtô gynaikos ouden an meizon kakon kakês anêr ktêsait' an oude sôphronos kreisson; pathôn d' hekastos hôn tychêi legei.#[30]

The next fragment, extracted possibly from the _Colchian Women_, deserves to be compared with similar Euripidean passages, though in point of workmanship it is finer, and in profound suggestion more intense, than is the usual manner of Euripides:

#ô paides hê toi Kypris ou Kypris monon all' esti pollôn onomatôn epônymos. estin men Haidês esti d' aphthitos bia estin de lyssa mainas esti d' himeros akratos est' oimôgmos. en keinêi to pan spoudaion hêsychaion es bian agon. entêketai gar pneumonôn hosois eni psychê. tis ouchi têsde tês theou bora? eiserchetai men ichthyôn plôtôi genei enesti d' en chersou tetraskelei gonêi; nômâi d' en oiônoisi toukeinês pteron en thêrsin en brotoisin en theois anô. tin' ou palaious' es tris ekballei theôn? ei moi themis, themis de talêthê legein, Dios tyrannei pneumonôn; aneu doros aneu sidêrou panta toi syntemnetai Kypris ta thnêtôn kai theôn bouleumata.#[31]

While upon this topic of love and women, I may quote a considerable fragment of the _Tereus_, marked by more sympathy for women in the troubles of their married lives than the Greek poets commonly express:

#nyn d' ouden eimi chôris, alla pollakis eblepsa tautêi tên gynaikeian physin, hôs ouden esmen; hai neai men en patros hêdiston oimai zômen anthrôpôn bion; terpnôs gar aei pantas hanoia trephei. hotan d' es hêbên exikômeth' euphrones, ôthoumeth' exô kai diempolômetha theôn patrôiôn tôn te physantôn apo, hai men xenous pros andras, hai de barbarous, hai d' eis aêthê dômath', hai d' epirrhotha, kai taut' epeidan euphronê zeuxêi mia chreôn epainein kai dokein kalôs echein.#[32]

The same play contains a fine choric passage upon the equality of human souls at birth, their after inequality through fortune:

#hen phylon anthrôpôn mi' edeixe patros kai matros hêmas hamera tous pantas; oudeis exochos allos eblasten allou. boskei de tous men moira dysamerias tous d' olbos hêmôn tous de douleias zygon eschen anankas.#[33]

Among the fragments that deal with the commonplaces of Greek tragedy, the following, from the _Tyndareus_, may be cited as a brilliant expression of the Solonian proverb:

#ou chrê pot' eu prassontos olbisai tychas andros prin autôi pantelôs êdê bios diekperanthêi kai teleutêsêi bion. en gar brachei katheile kôligôi chronôi pamplouton olbon daimonos kakou dosis, hotan metastêi kai theois dokêi tade.#[34]

A play called the _Scyrian Women_ furnishes two excellent apothegmatic passages upon the misery of old age and the inutility of mourning:

#ouden gar algos hoion hê pollê zoê. pant' empephyke tôi makrôi gêrâi kaka, nous phroudos erg' achreia phrontides kenai.

all' ei men ên klaiousin iasthai kaka kai ton thanonta dakryois anistanai, ho chrysos hêsson ktêma tou klaiein an ên. nyn d' ô geraie taut' anênytôs echei ton men taphôi kryphthenta pros to phôs agein; kamoi gar an patêr ge dakryôn charin anêkt' an eis phôs.#[35]

Two lines from a lost play on the tale of Odysseus illustrate the celebrated pun of Ajax on his own name:

#arthôs d' Odysseus eim' epônymos kakois; polloi gar ôdysanto dyssebeis emoi.#[36]

In conclusion, a few single lines or couplets may be strung together for their proverbial pithiness and verbal delicacy:

#enesti gar tis kai logoisin hêdonê lêthên hotan poiôsi tôn ontôn kakôn.

to mê gar einai kreisson ê to zên kakôs.

ponou metallachthentos hoi ponoi glykeis.

ei sôma doulon all' ho nous eleutheros.

horkous egô gynaikos eis hydôr graphô.

ô thnêton andrôn kai talaipôron genos; hôs ouden esmen, plên skiais eoikotes, baros perisson gês anastrôphômenoi.

tharsei, gynai; ta polla tôn deinôn onar pneusanta nyktos hêmeras malassetai.

ta men didakta manthanô, ta d' heureta zêtô, ta d' eukta para theôn êitêsamên.#[37]

Whenever we compare Euripides with his predecessors, we are led to remark that he disintegrated the drama by destroying its artistic unity and revealing the _modus operandi_ of the scientific analyst. All the elements of a great poem were given as it were in their totality by Æschylus. Sophocles, while conscious of the effect to be gained by resolving the drama into its component parts, was careful to recombine them by his art. It is difficult with either Æschylus or Sophocles to separate a passage from its context without injuring the whole, or to understand the drift of a sentence without considering both circumstance and person. With Euripides the case is somewhat different. Though he composed dramas supremely good in the aggregate impression left upon our mind, we feel that he employed his genius with delight in perfecting each separate part regarded by itself alone. So much of time and talent might be spent on the elaboration of the plot, so much on the accentuation of the characters, so much on lyric poetry, so much on moral maxims, so much on description, and so much on artificial argument. There is something over-strained in this crude statement; yet it serves to indicate the analytic method noticeable in Euripides. It consequently happened that his plays lent themselves admirably to the scissors and paste-box method of the compilers. He was a master of gnomes and sentences, and his tragedies were ready-made repertories of quotations. The good cause and the better were pleaded in his dialogues with impartial skill, because it was the poet's aim to set forth what might be said rhetorically--because he took a lively interest in casuistry for its own sake. These qualities, combined with so much that is attractive in his fables, radiant in his fancy, tender in his human sympathy, and romantic in his conduct of a play, endeared him to the Greeks of all succeeding ages. What they wanted in dramatic poetry he supplied better than any other playwright, except perhaps Menander, who, for similar reasons, shared a similar exceptionally lucky fate. The result is that, besides possessing at least eighteen of the plays of Euripides, as against seven of Sophocles and seven of Æschylus, our anthology of Euripidean excerpts is voluminous in the same ratio. The majority of these we owe to the industry of Stobæus, who always found something to his purpose in a drama of Euripides, while collecting wise precepts and descriptive passages to illustrate the nature of a vice or virtue. We must be careful, amid the medley of sentiments expressed with equal force and equal ease, to remember that they are not the poet's own, but put into the mouth of his dramatic personages. What is peculiar is the impartiality of rhetorical treatment they display--a quality which, though it may not justify, accounts for, the Aristophanic hostility to the Euripidean school of talkers on all subjects.

In addition to fragments, there remain detached portions of the _Phaëthon_, the _Erechtheus_, and the _Antiope_, sufficient, if nothing else had been preserved of the Euripidean drama, to suggest a better notion of this poet and his style than of Ion or Achæus, his lost compeers in the Alexandrian Canon. From the catastrophe of the _Phaëthon_, for example, it appears that Euripides contrived a truly striking contrast between the reception of the dead youth's corpse into the palace by his mother, and the advent, immediately following, of his father with a Chorus chanting bridal hymns. Lycurgus the orator, quoting the _Erechtheus_, has transmitted a characteristic speech by Praxithea, who deserves to be added to the list of courageous women painted with the virtues of #eupsychia# by Euripides. She maintains that, just as she would gladly send forth sons in the face of death to fight for their country, so, when the State requires of her the sacrifice of a daughter, she would be ashamed to refuse this much and far more. The outlines of the _Antiope_ are more blurred; yet enough survives of a dialectical contention between Zethus and Amphion, the one arguing for a life of study and culture, the other for a life of arms and action, to illustrate this phase of the master's manner. With regard to the _Phaëthon_, it should be mentioned that Goethe attempted its restitution. His essay may be studied with interest by those who seek to understand the German poet's method of approaching the antique. The reverence with which he handles the precious relics may possibly astonish scholars, who, through fastidiousness of taste, have depreciated a dramatist they imperfectly comprehend.[38] English literature, since the beginning of this year, can boast its own _Erechtheus_, restored by Swinburne on the model of Æschylus rather than Euripides. While referring to the mutilated dramas of Euripides, the opening to the _Danaë_ requires a passing word of comment. It consists of a prologue in the mouth of Hermes, a chorus, and a couple of lines spoken by Acrisius. The whole, however, is pretty clearly the work of some mediæval forger, and has, so far as it goes, the same kind of interest as the #Christos paschôn#, because it illustrates the ascendency of Euripides during the later ages of Greek culture.

Irksome as it may be to both writer and reader, I know no better method of dealing with the fragments of Euripides than that already adopted with regard to those of Sophocles. The fragments themselves are precious, and deserve to be presented to the modern student with loving and reverential care. Yet there is no way of centralizing the interest of their miscellaneous topics; and to treat them as an anthology of quotations, selecting the most characteristic and translating these as far as possible into equivalent lines, is all that I can do.

A peculiarly interesting fragment in its bearing on Greek life shall be chosen for the first quotation. It comes from the satyric drama of _Autolycus_, and expresses the contempt felt by cultivated Athenians for young men who devoted all their energies to gymnastics. It is not easy to connect the idea of vulgarity with that of the Greek athletes whose portraits in marble, no less resplendent than the immortal Apoxyomenos of the Vatican, adorned the peristyles of Altis. Yet there can be little doubt from the following fragment, taken in connection with certain hints in Plato, that these muscular heroes of an hour, for whom wreaths were woven and breaches broken in the city walls, struck some green-eyed philosophers as the incarnation of rowdyism. Euripides, if we may trust his biographers, had been educated by his father as an athlete; and it is not improbable that his early distaste for an eminently uncongenial occupation, no less than his familiarity with the manners of its professors, embittered his style in this sarcastic passage. Such splendid beings as the Autolycus, before whom the distinguished guests in Xenophon's Symposium were silenced, seemed to our poet at best but sculptor's models, walking statues, #poleôs agalmata#, and at worst mere slaves of jaws and belly, #perissai sarkes#. Early in Greek literature the same relentless light of moral science, like the gaze of Apollonius undoing Lamia's charm, had been cast upon the athletes by Xenophanes of Colophon. While listening to Euripides, we can fancy that the Adikos Logos from the _Clouds_ of Aristophanes is speaking through his lips to an Athenian audience, composed of would-be orators and assiduous dikasts:

#kakôn gar ontôn myriôn kath' Hellada, ouden kakion estin athlêtôn genous. hoi prôta men zên oute manthanousin eu, out' an dynainto; pôs gar hostis est' anêr gnathou te doulos nêdyos th' hêssêmenos, ktêsait' an olbon eis hyperbolên patros? oud' au penesthai kai xynêretmein tychais hoioi t'; ethê gar ouk ethisthentes kala sklêrôs diallassousin eis tamêchana. lamproi d' en hêbêi kai poleôs agalmata phoitôs'; hotan de prospesêi gêras pikron tribônes ekbalontes oichontai krokas; emempsamên de kai ton Hellênôn nomon hoi tônd' hekati syllogon poioumenoi timôs' achreious hêdonas daitos charin; tis gar palaisas eu, tis ôkypous anêr ê diskon aras ê gnathon paisas kalôs polei patrôiâi stephanon êrkesen labôn? potera machountai polemioisin en cheroin diskous echontes ê di' aspidôn cheri theinontes ekbalousi polemious patras? oudeis sidêrou tauta môrainei pelas stas. andras oun echrên sophous te kagathous phyllois stephesthai, chôstis hêgeitai polei kallista, sôphrôn kai dikaios ôn anêr, hostis te mythois erg' apallassei kaka machas t' aphairôn kai staseis; toiauta gar polei te pasêi pasi th' Hellêsin kala.#[39]

Passing from the athletes to a cognate subject, the following fragment from the _Dictys_ nobly expresses the ideal of friendship. The first two lines seem to need correction; I have let them stand, though inclined to propose #kei# for #kai#, and to conjecture the loss of a line after the second:

#philos gar ên moi; kai m' erôs heloi pote ouk eis to môron oude m' eis Kyprin trepôn. all' esti dê tis allos en brotois erôs, psychês dikaias sôphronos te kagathês. kai chrên de tois brotoisi tond' einai nomon, tôn eusebountôn hoitines ge sôphrones eran, Kyprin de tên Dios chairein ean.#[40]

About Eros and Aphrodite the poet has supplied us with a good store of contradictory sentiments. In one long and very remarkable fragment (No. 839, ed. Dindorf) from an unknown play, Euripides, if he be indeed the author of the verses, has imitated Æschylus, taking almost word for word the famous vaunt of Kupris, quoted above from the _Danaides_. The three next pieces may be also cited among the praises of Love:

#erôta d' hostis mê theon krinei megan kai tôn hapantôn daimonôn hypertaton, ê skaios estin ê kalôn apeiros ôn ouk oide ton megiston anthrôpois theon.

hosoi gar eis erôta piptousin brotôn esthlôn hotan tychôsi tôn erômenôn ouk esth' hopoias leipetai tês hêdonês.

echô de tolmês kai thrasous didaskalon, en tois amêchanoisin euporôtaton, erôta pantôn dysmachôtaton theôn.#[41]

Here, again, remembering how much the Greeks included in the term music, is a pretty compliment:

#mousikên d' ara erôs didaskei kan amousos êi to prin.#[42]

The next is a graceful expostulation on the lover's part with the god who can make or mar his happiness in life:

#sy d' ô tyranne theôn te kanthrôpôn erôs ê mê didaske ta kala phainesthai kala, ê tois erôsin hôn sy dêmiourgos ei mochthousi mochthous eutychôs synekponei. kai tauta men drôn timios theois esei, mê drôn d' hyp' autou tou didaskesthai philein aphairethêsei charitas hais timôsi se.#[43]

Nor is this without its tincture of respect:

#andros d' horôntos eis kyprin neaniou aphylaktos hê têrêsis; ên gar phaulos êi tall' eis erôta pas anêr sophôteros. ên d' au prosêtai Kypris hêdiston labein.#[44]

But Euripides can turn round and rate Love for his encouragement of idleness. There is a stern perception of the facts of life in the following excerpt from the _Danaë_:

#erôs gar argon kapi tois argois ephy; philei katoptra kai komês xanthismata pheugei de mochthous. hen de moi tekmêrion. oudeis prosaitôn bioton êrasthê brotôn, en tois d' echousin hêbêtês pephych' hode.#[45]

Concerning women he is no less impartial. However he may have chosen to paint their possibilities of heroism, and the force of their character in hours of passion or of need, no poet has certainly abused them in stronger terms. The following is an almost laughable example:

#deinê men alkê kymatôn thalassiôn deinai de potamou kai pyros thermou pnoai deinon de penia deina d' alla myria; all' ouden houtô deinon hôs gynê kakon oud' an genoito gramma toiout' en graphêi oud' an logos deixeien; ei de tou theôn tod' esti plasma dêmiourgos ôn kakôn megistos istô kai brotoisi dysmenês.#$1

Nor can the group which I have classed together in the following extracts be considered as complimentary:

#plên tês tekousês thêly pan misô genos.

endon menousan tên gynaik' einai chreôn esthlên thyrasi d' axian tou mêdenos.

estin de mêtêr philoteknos mallon patros; hê men gar hautês oiden onth' ho d' oietai.

ouk estin oute teichos oute chrêmata. out' allo dysphylakton ouden hôs gynê.

anti gar pyros pyr allo meizon êde dysmachôteron eblaston hai gynaikes.

gameite nyn gameite kâita thnêskete ê pharmakoisin ek gynaikos ê dolois.#[47]

On marriage many pithy sayings might be cited. The one I take first is eminent for practical brutality combined with sound sense:

#hosoi gamousi d' ê genei kreissous gamous ê polla chrêmat' ouk epistantai gamein. ta tês gynaikos gar kratount' en dômasin douloi ton andra kouket' est' eleutheros. ploutos d' epaktos ek gynaikeiôn gamôn anonêtos; hai gar dialyseis ou rhâidiai.#[48]

To the same category belongs the following, though its worldly wisdom conceals no bitterness:

#kakon gynaika pros nean zeuxai neon; makra gar ischys mallon arsenôn menei, thêleia d' hêbê thasson ekleipei demas.#[49]

It answers to our own proverb: "A young man married is a young man marred."

For the sanctities of domestic life, and for the pathetic beauty of maternal love, no poet had a deeper sense than Euripides. The following lines, spoken apparently by Danaë, makes us keenly regret the loss of the tragedy that bore her name; all the tenderness of the Simonidean elegy upon her fable seems to inspire the maiden's longing for a child to fill her arms and sport upon her knee:

#tach' an pros ankalaisi kai sternois emois pêdôn athyroi kai philêmatôn ochlôi psychên emên ktêsaito; tauta gar brotois philtron megiston hai xynousiai pater.#[50]

And where was the charm of children ever painted with more feeling than in these verses from the same play?

#gynai, philon men phengos hêliou tode, kalon de pontou cheum' idein euênemon, gê t' êrinon thallousa plousion th' hydôr, pollôn t' epainon esti moi lexai kalôn. all' ouden houtô lampron oud' idein kalon hôs tois apaisi kai pothôi dedêgmenois paidôn neognôn en domois idein phaos.#[51]

In the next quotation, beautiful by reason of its plainness, a young man is reminded of the sweetness of a mother's love:

#ouk estin ouden mêtros hêdion teknois. erate mêtros paides; hôs ouk est' erôs toioutos allos hoios hêdiôn eran.#[52]

The sentiment here expressed seems to be contradicted by a fragment from an unknown play (No. 887), where a son tells his mother that he cannot be expected to cling to her as much as to his father. The Greeks, as we gather from the _Oresteia_ of Æschylus, believed that the male offspring was specially related by sympathy, duty, and hereditary qualities to his father. The contrast between women and men in respect to the paternal home is well conveyed in the following four lines:

#gynê gar exelthousa patrôiôn domôn ou tôn tekontôn estin alla tou lechous; to d' arsen hestêk' en domois aei genos theôn patrôiôn kai taphôn timaoron.#[53]

Some of the most remarkable excerpts from Euripides turn upon the thought of death--a doom accepted by him with magnanimous Greek stoicism. Those which appear to me the most important I have thrown together for convenience of comparison:

#tis d' oiden ei zên touth' ho keklêtai thanein, to zên de thnêskein esti? plên homôs brotôn nosousin hoi blepontes hoi d' olôlotes ouden nosousin oude kektêntai kaka.

echrên gar hêmas syllogon poioumenous ton phynta thrênein eis hos' erchetai kaka, ton d' au thanonta kai ponôn pepaumenon chairontas euphêmountas ekpempein domôn.

tous zôntas eu dran; katthanôn de pas anêr gê kai skia; to mêden eis ouden rhepei.

thanatos gar anthrôpoisi neikeôn telos echei; ti gar toud' esti meizon en brotois? tis gar petraion skopelon outizôn dori odynaisi dôsei? tis d' atimazôn nekys, ei mêden aisthanointo tôn pathêmatôn?#[54]

To these should be added the magnificent words of consolation addressed by Dictys, in the tragedy that bears his name, to Danaë:

#dokeis ton Haidên sôn ti phrontizein goôn kai paid' anêsein ton son ei thelois stenein? pausai; blepousa d' eis ta tôn pelas kaka rhâiôn genoi' an, ei logizesthai thelois hosoi te desmois ekmemochthêntai brotôn, hosoi te gêraskousin orphanoi teknôn, tous t' ek megistês olbias tyrannidos to mêden ontas; tauta se skopein chreôn.#[55]

Close to the thought of death lies that of endurance; and here is a fragment from the _Hypsipyle_, which might be placed for a motto on the title-page of _Epictetus_:

#ephy men oudeis hostis ou ponei brotôn, thaptei te tekna chater' au ktatai nea, autos te thnêskei, kai tad' achthontai brotoi eis gên pherontes gên; anankaiôs d' echei bion therizein hôste karpimon stachyn, kai ton men einai ton de mê; ti tauta dei stenein, haper dei kata physin diekperan? deinon gar ouden tôn anankaiôn brotois.#[56]

On Justice and the punishment of sins we may take the following passages, expressing, with dramatic energy, the intense moral conscience of the Greek race:

#dokeite pêdan tadikêmat' eis theous pteroisi, kapeit' en Dios deltou ptychais graphein tin' auta, Zêna d' eisorônta nin thnêtois dikazein? oud' ho pas an ouranos Dios graphontos tas brotôn hamartias exarkeseien, oud' ekeinos an skopôn pempein hekastôi zêmian; all' hê Dikê entautha pou 'stin engys ei boulesth' horan.

tên toi Dikên legousi paid' einai Dios engys te naiein tês brotôn hamartias.#[57]

They stand, however, in somewhat curious opposition to a fragment from _Bellerophon_ about Divine Justice:

#phêsin tis einai dêt', en ouranôi theous? ouk eisin, ouk eis'. ei tis anthrôpôn legei, mê tôi palaiôi môros ôn chrêsthô logôi. skepsasthe d' auta mê 'pi tois emois logois gnômên echontes; phêm' egô tyrannida kteinein te pleistous ktêmatôn t' aposterein, horkous te parabainontas ekporthein, poleis, kai tauta drôntes mallon eis' eudaimones tôn eusebountôn hêsychê kath' hêmeran; poleis te mikras oida timôsas theous hai meizonôn klyousi dyssebesterôn lonchês arithmôi pleionos kratoumenai.#[58]

In which of the fragments just quoted was the poet speaking in his own person? In neither, perhaps, fully; partly, perhaps, in both. About wealth he utters in like manner seemingly contradictory oracles:

#biâi nyn helket' ô kakoi timas brotoi kai ktasthe plouton pantothen thêrômenoi symmikta mê dikaia kai dikai' homou; epeit' amasthe tônde dystênon theros.

ô chryse, dexiôma kalliston brotois, hôs oute mêtêr hêdonas toiasd' echei ou paides anthrôpoisin ou philos patêr, hoias sy choi se dômasin kektêmenoi. ei d' hê Kypris toiouton ophthalmois horâi ou thaum' erôtas myrious autên trephein.#[59]

In what he says of noble birth Euripides never wavers. The true democrat speaks through his verse, and yet no poet has spoken more emphatically of bravery and honor. We may take the following examples in their order:

#eis d' eugeneian olig' echô phrasai kala; ho men gar esthlos eugenês emoig' anêr ho d' ou dikaios kan ameinonos patros Zênos pephykêi dysgenês einai dokei.

egô men oun ouk oid' hopôs skopein chreôn tên eugeneian; tous gar andreious physin kai tous dikaious tôn kenôn doxasmatôn kan ôsi doulôn eugenesterous legô.

pheu toisi gennaioisin hôs hapantachou prepei charaktêr chrêstos eis eupsychian.

hapas men aêr aietôi perasimos hapasa de chthôn andri gennaiôi patris.#[60]

Further to illustrate his conception of true nobility, using for this purpose in particular the fragments of the _Antiope_, would be easy. It appears throughout that Euripides was bent on contrasting the honor that is won by labor with the pleasures of a lazy life. Against the hedonism which lay so near at hand to pagans in the license of the flesh, the Greeks set up an ideal of glory attainable alone by toil. This morality found expression in the famous lines of Hesiod on #aretê#, in the action of Achilles, in the proverb #panta ta kala chalepa#, and in the fable of the choice of Hercules. Euripides varies the theme in his iambics by a hundred modulations:

#neanian gar andra chrê tolman aei; oudeis gar ôn rhâithymos eukleês anêr. all' hoi ponoi tiktousi tên eudoxian.

ouk estin hostis hêdeôs zêtôn bioun eukleian eisektêsat' alla chrê ponein.

ho d' hêdys aiôn hê kakê t' anandria out' oikon oute gaian orthôseien an.

syn myrioisi ta kala gignetai ponois.

eme d' ar' ou mochthein dikaion? tis d' amochthos eukleês? tis tôn megistôn deilos ôn ôrexato?#[61]

The political morality deduced from this view of life is stern and noble:

#gnômêi gar andros eu men oikountai poleis, eu d' oikos, eis t' au polemon ischyei mega; sophon gar hen bouleuma tas pollas cheras nikâi; syn ochlôi d' amathia pleiston kakon.

treis eisin aretai tas chreôn s' askein, teknon, theous te timan tous te physantas goneis, nomous te koinous Hellados; kai tauta drôn kalliston hexeis stephanon eukleias aei.#[62]

Nor is the condemnation of mere pleasure-seeking less severe:

#anêr gar hostis eu bion kektêmenos ta men kat' oikous ameliâi pareis eâi, molpaisi d' hêstheis tout' aei thêreuetai, argos men oikois kai polei genêsetai philoisi d' oudeis; hê physis gar oichetai hotan glykeias hêdonês hêssôn tis êi.#[63]

The indifference induced by satiety is well characterized in the following lines:

#koros de pantôn; kai gar ek kallionôn lektrois ep' aischrois eidon ekpeplêgmenous. daitos de plêrôtheis tis asmenos palin phaulêi diaitêi prosbalôn hêsthê stoma.#[64]

In the foregoing specimens no selection has been made of lines remarkable for their æsthetic beauty. This omission is due to Stobæus, who was more bent on extracting moral maxims than strains of poetry comparable with the invocation of Hippolytus to Artemis. Two, however, I have marked for translation on account of their artistic charm; the first for its pretty touch of picturesqueness, the second for its sympathy with sculpture:

#polys d' aneirpe kissos euphyês klados chelidonôn mouseion.

ea; tin' ochthon tond' horô perirrhyton aphrôi thalassês, parthenou t' eikô tina ex automorphôn laïnôn teichismatôn sophês agalma cheiros.#[65]

Some passages, worthy of preservation, yet not easily classified, may wind up the series. Here is "Envy, eldest born of hell:"

#tis ara mêtêr ê patêr kakon mega brotois ephyse ton dysônymon phthonon? pou kai pot' oikei sômatôn lachôn meros? en chersin ê splanchnoisin ê par' ommata esth' hêmin? hôs ên mochthos iatrois megas tomais aphairein ê potois ê pharmakois pasôn megistên tôn en anthrôpois nosôn.#[66]

The next couplet is pregnant with a home-truth which most men have had occasion to feel:

#hapantes esmen eis to nouthetein sophoi autoi d' hotan sphalômen ou gignôskomen.#[67]

The value attached by Greek political philosophers to the #êthos#, or temperament, of states, and their dislike of demagogy, are accounted for in these four lines:

#tropos esti chrêstos asphalesteros nomou. ton men gar oudeis an diastrepsai pote rhêtôr dynaito, ton d' anô te kai katô logois tarassôn pollakis lymainetai.#[68]

One single line, noticeable for its weighty meaning, and Euripidean by reason of its pathos, shall end the list:

#neos ponois de g' ouk agymnastos phrenas.#[69]

The lasting title to fame of Euripides consists in his having dealt with the deeper problems of life in a spirit which became permanent among the Greeks, so that his poems, like those of Menander, never lost their value as expressions of current philosophy. Nothing strikes the student of later Greek literature more strongly than this prolongation of the Euripidean tone of thought and feeling. In the decline of tragic poetry the literary sceptre was transferred to comedy, and the comic playwrights may be described as the true successors of Euripides. The dialectic method, degenerating into sophistic quibbling, which he affected, was indeed dropped, and a more harmonious form of art than the Euripidean was created for comedy by Menander, when the Athenians, after passing through their disputatious period, had settled down into a tranquil acceptation of the facts of life. Yet this return to harmony of form and purity of perception did not abate the influence of Euripides. Here and there throughout his tragedies he had said once and for all, and well said, what the Greeks were bound to think and feel upon important matters, and his sensitive, susceptible temperament repeated itself over and over again among his literary successors. The exclamation of Philemon that, if he could believe in immortality, he would hang himself to see Euripides, is characteristic not only of Philemon, but also of the whole Macedonian period of Greek literature.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Worsley's translation, _Iliad_, vol. i. p. 154.

[14] See vol. i. pp. 91-123.

[15]

Lo, if thou fain wouldst benefit the dead, Or if thou seek to harm them, 'tis all one; For they can feel no joy nor suffer pain, Nathless high Nemesis is throned above us, And Justice doth exact the dead man's due.

[16] See vol. i. pp. 372-435.

[17]

O Death, the savior, spurn me not, but come! For thou alone of ills incurable Art healer: no pain preyeth on the dead.

[18]

Alone of gods Death loves not gifts; with him Nor sacrifice nor incense aught avails; He hath no altar and no hymns of gladness; Prayer stands aloof from him, Persuasion fails.

[19]

Love throbs in holy heaven to wound the earth; And love still prompts the land to yearn for bridals; The rain that falls in rivers from the sky, Impregnates earth, and she brings forth for men The flocks and herds and life of teeming Ceres; The bloom of forests by dews hymeneal Is perfected: in all which things I rule.

[20]

Zeus is the air, Zeus earth, and Zeus wide heaven: Yea, Zeus is all things, and the power above them.

[21]

This love-disease is a delightful trouble; Well might I shadow forth its power as thus: When the clear, eager frost has fallen, boys Seize with their fingers the firm frozen ice, And first they feel an unaccustomed pleasure, But in the end it melts, and they to leave it Or in their hands to hold it know not how; Even so the same desire drives wilful lovers To do and not to do by frequent changes.

[22]

Woman, that hast dared all, and more than all! There is not anything, nor will be ever, Than woman worse, let what will fall on men.

It is right to observe that Welcker and Ahrens have conjecturally pieced together this and many other scattered fragments, and connected them in such a way as to reconstitute a tragedy with Argos for its scene, not Thebes.

[23]

'Tis terrible that impious men, the sons Of sinners, even such should thrive and prosper, While men by virtue moulded, sprung from sires Complete in goodness, should be born to suffer. Nay, but the gods do ill in dealing thus With mortals! It were well that pious men Should take some signal guerdon at their hands; But evil-doers, on their heads should fall Conspicuous punishment for deeds ill-done. Then should no wicked man fare well and flourish.

From the _Aletes_.

[24]

The man who takes delight in always talking Is irksome to his friends and does not know it.

[25]

A reasonable soul, by just perception, Better than sophists may discover truth.

[26]

Money makes friends for men, and heaps up honors, And sets them on the tyrant's hated throne: Wealth finds no foes, or none but covert foes, Climbs pathless ways, and treads where tracks are beaten; While poor men, what luck gives them, may not use: A misshaped body, an ill-sounding name, Wealth turns by words to beauty, gifts with wisdom; For wealth alone hath privilege of freedom In joy and sickness, and can hide its sorrow.

[27] Tyrants are wise by wise society.

[28] Man is but wind and shadow, naught besides.

[29]

As in the boughs of a tall poplar-tree, If nothing else, at least her shivering top Moves 'neath the breeze and waves her leafy pinions.

[30]

Love falls not only on the hearts of men Or women, but the souls of gods above He furrows, and makes onslaught on the sea: Against his force Zeus the all-powerful Is impotent--he yields and bends with pleasure.

Than a bad wife a man can have no greater Curse, and no greater blessing than a good one. Each after trial speaks by his experience.

[31]

Girls, look you, Kupris is not Kupris only: In her one name names manifold are blended; For she is Death, imperishable power, Frenetic fury, irresistible longing, Wailing and groaning. Her one force includes All energy, all languor, and all violence. Into the vitals of whatever thing Hath breath of life, she sinks. Who feeds her not? She creeps into the fishes of the sea And the four-footed creatures of dry land, Shakes mid the birds her own aerial plumes, Sways beasts and mortal men and gods above. Which of the gods hath she not thrown in wrestling? If right allow, and to speak truth is right, She rules the heart of Zeus. Without or spear Or sword, I therefore bid you know, Dame Kupris Fells at a blow of gods and men the counsels.

[32]

Now am I naught--abandoned: oftentimes I've noticed how to this we women fall, How we are naught. In girlhood and at home Our life's the sweetest life men ever know, For careless joy is a glad nurse to all: But when we come to youth, gleeful and gay, Forth are we thrust, and bought and sold and bartered, Far from our household gods, from parents far, Some to strange husbands, to barbarians some, To homes uncouth, to houses foul with shame. Yea, let but one night yoke us, all these things Must needs forthwith be praised and held for fair.

[33]

Of one race and common lineage all men at the hour of birth From the womb are issued equal, sons alike of mother earth; But our lots how diverse! Some are nursed by fortune harsh and rude, Some by gentle ease, while others bare their necks to servitude.

[34]

To call that man who prospers truly happy Were vain before his life be wholly done; For in short time and swift great power and riches Have fallen by the dower of fate malign, When fortune veers and thus the gods decree.

[35]

There is no trouble worse than length of life. Old age hath all the ills that flesh is heir to-- Vain thoughts and powerless deeds and vanished mind.

If mourners by their cries could cure our misery, If tears could raise the dead to life again, Gold would be valueless compared with crying. But now, old man, these sorrows nought avail To bring to light him whom the grave hath covered; Else had my father, too, by grace of tears, The day revisited.

The second of these extracts finds a close echo in some beautiful lines on the inutility of tears by Philemon [_Sardius_ fr. i.]

[36]

Rightly do bad men call my name Odysseus, For ill folk odious insults heap upon me.

[37]

Even in words there is a pleasure, when They bring forgetfulness of present woes.

'Tis better not to be than to live badly.

When toil has been well finished, toils are sweet.

Enslave the body--still the soul is free.

The oaths of women I on water write.

O mortals, wretched creatures of a day, How truly are we naught but like to shadows Rolling superfluous weight of earth around!

Take courage, lady: many fearful things That breathed dark dreams in night, by day are solaced.

What may be taught, I learn; what may be found, I seek; from heaven I ask what may be prayed for.

[38] See Goethe, _Sämmtliche Werke_, 1840, vol. xxxiii, pp. 22-43.

[39]

Of all the thousand ills that prey on Hellas Not one is greater than the tribe of athletes; For, first, they never learn how to live well, Nor, indeed, could they; seeing that a man, Slave to his jaws and belly, cannot hope To heap up wealth superior to his sire's. How to be poor and row in fortune's boat They know no better; for they have not learned Manners that make men proof against ill luck. Lustrous in youth, they lounge like living statues. Decking the streets; but when sad old age comes, They fall and perish like a threadbare coat. I've often blamed the customs of us Hellenes, Who for the sake of such men meet together To honor idle sport and feed our fill; For who, I pray you, by his skill in wrestling, Swiftness of foot, good boxing, strength at quoits, Has served his city by the crown he gains? Will they meet men in fight with quoits in hand, Or in the press of shields drive forth the foeman By force of fisticuffs from hearth and home? Such follies are forgotten face to face With steel. We therefore ought to crown with wreaths Men wise and good, and him who guides the State, A man well-tempered, just, and sound in counsel, Or one who by his words averts ill deeds, Warding off strife and warfare; for such things Bring honor on the city and all Hellenes.

[40]

He was my friend; and may love lead me never Aside to folly or to sensual joy! Surely there is another sort of love For a soul, just, well-tempered, strong, and good. And there should be this law for mortal men, To love the pure and temperate, and to leave Kupris, the daughter of high Zeus, alone.

We find a witty contradiction to the sentiment of these lines in a fragment of Amphis [_Dithyrambus_, fr. 2]:

#ti phêis? sy tauti prosdokâis peisein em' hôs erôs tis estin hostis hôraion philôn tropôn erastês esti tên opsin pareis? aphrôn g' alêthôs.#

[41]

Whoso pretends that Love is no great god, The lord and master of all deities, Is either dull of soul, or, dead to beauty, Knows not the greatest god that governs men.

_Augè_, 269.

When it befalls poor mortal men to love, Should they find worthy objects for their loving, Then is there nothing left of joy to long for.

_Andromeda_, 147.

Mine is a master of resolve and daring, Filled with all craft to do impossible things, Love, among gods the most unconquerable.

_Hippolytus_, 431.

[42]

Music, at least, Love teaches men, unmusical before.

_Stheneboea_, 664.

[43]

O Love, our lord, of gods and men the king, Either teach not how beauteous beauty is, Or help poor lovers, whom like clay thou mouldest, Through toil and labor to a happy end. Thus shalt thou gain high honor: otherwise The loving lessons that men learn of thee, Will rob thee of their worship and good-will.

_Andromeda_, 135.

[44]

A young man with eyes turned to follow beauty May not be governed: yea, though he be weak, Yet is he wise and masterful for loving; And when Love smiles, what boon surpasseth love?

_Antigone_, 161.

[45]

Love is a sluggard, and of sloth the twin: Mirrors and hair-dyes are his favorite toys; Labor he shuns. I take this truth to witness: No beggar for his bread was known to love, But with rich men his beauty-bloom abounds.

[46]

Dire is the violence of ocean waves, And dire the blast of rivers and hot fire, And dire is want, and dire are countless things; But nothing is so dire and dread as woman. No painting could express her dreadfulness, No words describe it. If a god made woman, And fashioned her, he was for men the artist Of woes unnumbered, and their deadly foe.

_Incert. Fab._, 880.

[47]

Saving my mother, I hate womankind.

_Melanippide_, 507.

Good women must abide within the house: Those whom we meet abroad are nothing worth.

_Meleager_, 527.

Mothers are fonder of their sons than fathers: For mothers know they're theirs, while fathers think it.

_Incert. Fab._, 883.

There is no fort, there is no money-box, Nor aught besides, so hard to guard as woman.

_Danaë_, 323.

Instead of fire, Another fire mightier and more invincible Is woman.

_Hippolytus_, 430.

Marry, go to, yea, marry--and then die By poison at a woman's hand or wiles.

_Cretan Women_, 467.

[48]

Those men who mate with women better born Or wed great riches, know not how to wed; For when the woman's part doth rule the house, The man's a slave; large dowers are worse than none, Seeing they make divorce more difficult.

_Melanippide_, 513.

[49]

To mate a youth with a young wife is ill; Seeing a man's strength lasteth, while the bloom Of beauty quickly leaves a woman's form.

_Æolus_, 22.

[50]

He, leaping to my arms and in my bosom, Might haply sport, and with a crowd of kisses Might win my soul forth; for there is no greater Love-charm than close companionship, my father.

_Danaë_, 325.

[51]

Lady, the sun's light to our eyes is dear, And fair the tranquil reaches of the sea, And flowery earth in May, and bounding waters; And so right many fair things I might praise; Yet nothing is so radiant and so fair As for souls childless, with desire sore-smitten, To see the light of babes about the house.

_Ib._, 327.

[52]

Naught is more dear to children than their mother. Sons, love your mother; for there is no love Sweeter than this that can be loved by men.

_Erechtheus_, 370.

[53]

A woman, when she leaves her father's home, Belongs not to her parents, but her bed; Men stay within the house, and stand for aye Avengeful guardians of its shrines and graves.

_Danaë_, 330.

[54]

Who knows if that be life which we call death, And life be dying?--save alone that men Living bear grief, but when they yield their breath They grieve no more and have no sorrow then.

_Incert. Fab._, 821.

'Twere well for men, when first a babe draws breath, To meet and wail the woes that he must bear; But to salute the soul that rests from care With songs and pæans on the path of death.

_Cresphontes_, 454.

Let those who live do right ere death descendeth; The dead are dust; mere naught to nothing tendeth.

_Meleager_, 537.

In death there dwells the end of human strife; For what mid men than death is mightier? Who can inflict pain on the stony scaur By wounding it with spear-point? Who can hurt The dead, when dead men have no sense of suffering?

_Antigone_, 160.

[55]

Think'st thou that Death will heed thy tears at all, Or send thy son back if thou wilt but groan? Nay, cease; and, gazing at thy neighbor's grief, Grow calm: if thou wilt take the pains to reckon How many have toiled out their lives in bonds, How many wear to old age, robbed of children, And all who from the tyrant's height of glory Have sunk to nothing. These things shouldst thou heed.

_Dictys_, 334.

[56]

No man was ever born who did not suffer. He buries children, then begets new sons, Then dies himself: and men forsooth are grieved, Consigning dust to dust. Yet needs must be Lives should be garnered like ripe harvest-sheaves, And one man live, another perish. Why Mourn over that which nature puts upon us? Naught that must be is terrible to mortals.

_Hypsipyle_, 752.

[57]

Think you that sins leap up to heaven aloft On wings, and then that on Jove's red-leaved tablets Some one doth write them, and Jove looks at them In judging mortals? Not the whole broad heaven, If Jove should write our sins, would be enough, Nor he suffice to punish them. But Justice Is here, is somewhere near us; do but look.

_Melanippide_, 488.

Justice, they say, is daughter of high Jove, And dwells hard by to human sinfulness.

_Alopé_, 149.

[58]

Doth some one say that there be gods above? There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool, Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you. Look at the facts themselves, yielding my words No undue credence: for I say that kings Kill, rob, break oaths, lay cities waste by fraud, And doing thus are happier than those Who live calm pious lives day after day. How many little states that serve the gods Are subject to the godless but more strong, Made slaves by might of a superior army!

_Bellerophontes_, 293.

[59]

Go to now, O ye bad men, heap up honors By force, get wealth, hunting it whence ye can, By indiscriminate armfuls, right and wrong; Then reap of all these things the wretched harvest.

_Ino_, 420.

Gold! of all welcome blessings thou'rt the best! For never had a mother's smile for men, Nor son, nor father dear, such perfect charm, As thou and they who hold thee for their guest. If Kupris darts such glamour from her gaze, No wonder that she breeds a myriad loves!

_Bellerophontes_, 288.

[60]

For mere high birth I have small meed of praise; The good man in my sight is nobly born; While he who is not righteous, though his sire Than Zeus be loftier, seems to me but base.

_Dictys_, 341.

I know not how to think of noble blood: For men of courage and of virtuous soul, Though born of slaves, are far above vain titles.

_Melanippide_, 496.

Lo, in all places how the nobly born Show their good breed and spirit by brave bearing!

_Danaë_, 328.

The whole wide ether is the eagle's way: The whole earth is a brave man's fatherland.

_Incert. Frag._ 866.

[61]

A young man should be always doing, daring; For no slack heart or hand was ever famous. 'Tis toil and danger that beget fair fame.

_Archelaus_, 233.

Who seeks to lead a life of unstirred pleasure Cannot win fame: fame is the meed of travail.

_Ibid._ 234.

A life of pleasure and unmanly sloth Could never raise a house or State to honor.

_Ibid._ 235.

Fair honor is the child of countless toils.

_Ibid._ 236.

Is it not right that I Should toil? Without toil who was ever famous? What slothful soul ever desired the highest?

_Ibid._ 238.

[62]

'Tis judgment that administers the State, The household, and in war of force is found; For one wise word in season hath more strength Than many hands. Crowds and no brains breed ruin.

_Antiope_, 205.

There are three virtues to observe, my son: Honor the gods, the parents that begot you, The laws that govern Hellas. Follow these, And you will win the fairest crown of honor.

_Ibid._ 221.

[63]

The man who, when the goods of life abound, Casts to the winds economy, and spends His days in seeking after feast and song, At home and in the State will be a drone, And to his friends be nothing. Character Is, for the slaves of honeyed pleasure, gone.

_Ibid._ 196.

[64]

There is satiety of all things. Men Desert fair wives to dote on ugly women; With rich meat surfeited, they gladly turn To humble fare, and find fresh appetite.

_Antiope_, 187.

[65]

Much ivy crept around, a comely growth, The tuneful haunt of swallows.

_Alcmene_, 91.

What! Do I see a rock with salt sea-foam Surrounded, and the image of a maiden Carved from the stony bastions nature-wrought By some wise workman's craft?

_Andromeda_, 127.

[66]

What mother or what father got for men That curse unutterable, odious envy? Where dwells it? In what member lies its lair? Is it our hands, our entrails, or our eyes That harbor it? Full ill would fare the leech Who with the knife, or potions, or strong drugs, Should seek to clear away this worst disease.

_Ino_, 418.

[67]

We all are wise for giving good advice, But when we fail we have no wisdom left.

_Incert. Fab._ 862.

[68]

Good ways of feeling are more safe than law: No rhetorician can upset the one; The other he may tumble upside down With words, and do it often grievous wrong.

_Peirithous_, 598.

[69]

Young, but in spirit not untrained by trouble.

_Dictys_, 332.