of his life was troubled with family dissensions. Iophon, his son by an Athenian wife, and therefore his legitimate heir, was jealous of the affection manifested by his father for his grandson Sophocles, the offspring of another son, Ariston, whom he had had by a Sicyonian woman. Fearing lest his father should bestow a great part of his property upon his favourite, Iophon summoned him before the Phratores, or tribesmen, on the ground that his mind was affected. The old man's only reply was-" If I am Sophocles I am not beside myself; and if I am beside myself I am not Sophocles." Then taking up his Edipus at Colonus, which he had lately written, but had not yet brought out, he read from it the beautiful passage beginning Εὐίππου, ξένε, τᾶσδε χώρας with which the judges were so struck that they at once dismissed the case. He died shortly afterwards in B.C. 406, in his 90th year. As a poet Sophocles is universally allowed to have brought the drama to the greatest perfection of which it is susceptible. His plays stand in the just medium between the sublime but unregulated flights of Eschylus, and the too familiar scenes and rhetorical declamations of Euripides. His plots are worked up with more skill and care than the plots of either of his great rivals: that of the Edipus Tyrannus in particular is remarkable for its skilful devolopement, and for the manner in which the interest of the piece increases through each succeeding act. Sophocles added the last improvement to the form of the drama by the introduction of a third actor; a change which greatly enlarged the scope of the action. The improvement was so obvious that it was adopted by Eschylus in his later plays; but the number of three actors seems to have been seldom or never exceeded. Sophocles also made considerable alterations in the choral parts, by curtailing the length of the songs, and by giving the chorus itself the character of an impartial spectator and judge, rather than that of a deeply interested party which it often assumes in the plays of Eschylus.* § 6. Euripides was born in the island of Salamis, in B.C. 480, his parents having been among those who fled thither at the time of the invasion of Attica by Xerxes. In early life he practised painting with some success, but he devoted himself with *Sophocles is said to have written 117 tragedies, but of these only seven are extant, which are to be ranked, probably, in the following chronological order: the Antigone, B.C. 440; Electra; Trachiniæ; Edipus Tyrannus; Ajax; Philoctetes, B.C. 409; Edipus at Colonus, brought out by the younger Sophocles B.C. 401. still more earnestness to philosophy and literature. He studied rhetoric under Prodicus, and physics under Anaxagoras, and also lived on intimate terms with Socrates. He is said to have written a tragedy at the age of 18; but the first play brought out in his own name was acted in B.C. 455, when he was 25 years of age. It was not, however, till 441 that he gained his first prize, and from this time he continued to exhibit plays until B.C. 408, the date of his Orestes. Soon after this he repaired to the court of Macedonia, at the invitation of King Archelaüs, where he died two years afterwards at the age of 74 (B.c. 406). Common report relates that he was torn to pieces by the king's dogs, which, according to some accounts, were set upon him by two rival poets out of envy. Euripides received tragedy perfect from the hands of his predecessors, and we do not find that he made any changes in its outward form. But he varied from them considerably in the poetical mode of handling it, and his innovations in this respect were decidedly for the worse. He converted the prologue into a vehicle for the exposition of the whole plot, in which he not only informs the spectator of what has happened up to that moment, but frequently also of what the result or catastrophe will be. In his hands too the chorus grew feebler, and its odes less connected with the subject of the drama, so that they might frequently belong to any other piece just as well as to the one in which they were inserted. In treating his characters and subjects he often arbitrarily departed from the received legends, and diminished the dignity of tragedy by depriving it of its ideal character, and by bringing it down to the level of every day life. His dialogue was garrulous and colloquial, wanting in heroic dignity, and frequently frigid through misplaced philosophical disquisitions. Yet in spite of all these faults Euripides has many beauties, and is particularly remarkable for pathos, so that Aristotle calls him "the most tragic of poets." Eighteen of the tragedies of Euripides are still extant, omitting the Rhesus, the genuineness of which there are good reasons for doubting. One of them, the Cyclops, is particularly interesting as the only extant specimen of the Greek satyric drama.* 7. Comedy was revived at Athens by Chionides and his contemporaries, about B.C. 488; but it received its full development The following is a list of his extant plays: the Alcestis, B.C. 438; Medea, 431; Hippolytus, 428; Hecuba, about 424; Heraclidæ, about 421; Supplices, Ion, Hercules Furens, Andromache; Troades, 415; Electra; Helena, 425; Iphigenia in Tauris; Orestes, 408; Phænissa, Baccha, and Iphigenia in Aulis were brought out after the death of Euripides by his son, the younger Euripides. The date of the Cyclops is quite uncertain. from Cratinus, who lived in the age of Pericles. Cratinus, and his younger contemporaries, Eupolis and Aristophanes, were the three great poets of what is called the Old Attic Comedy.* The comedies of Cratinus and Eupolis are lost; but of Aristophanes, who was the greatest of the three, we have eleven dramas extant. Aristophanes was born about 444 B.C. Of his private life we know positively nothing. He exhibited his first comedy in 427, and from that time till near his death, which probably happened about 380, he was a frequent contributor to the Attic stage.t The old Attic comedy was a powerful vehicle for the expression of opinion; and most of the comedies of Aristophanes, and those of his contemporaries likewise, turned either upon political occurrences, or upon some subject which excited the interest of the Athenian public. Their chief object was to excite laughter by the boldest and most ludicrous caricature; and provided that end was attained the poet seems to have cared but little about the justice of the picture. A living historian has well remarked, "Never probably will the full and unshackled force of comedy be so exhibited again. Without having Aristophanes actually before us it would have been impossible to imagine the unmeasured and unsparing licence of attack assumed by the old comedy upon the gods, the institutions, the politicians, philosophers, poets, private citizens, specially named-and even the women, whose life was entirely domestic-of Athens. With this universal liberty in respect of subject there is combined a poignancy of derision and satire, a fecundity of imagination and variety of turns, and a richness of poetical expression such as cannot be surpassed, and such as fully explains the admiration expressed for him by the philosopher Plato, who in other respects must have regarded him with unquestionable disapprobation. His comedies are popular in the largest sense of the word, addressed to the entire body of male citizens on a day consecrated to festivity, and providing for their amusement or derision with a sort of drunken abundance, out of all persons or things standing in any way prominent before the public eye." In illustra tion of the preceding remarks we may refer to the Knights of Aristophanes, as an example of the boldness of his attacks on one * Eupolis atque Cratinus Aristophanesque poëtæ, HOR. Sat. i. 4. The eleven extant dramas are; the Acharnians, B.C. 425; Knights, 424; Clouds, 423; Wasps, 422; Peace, 419; Birds, 414; Lysistrata, 411; Thesmophoriazusæ, 411; Plutus, 408; Frogs, 405; Ecclesiazusæ, 392. Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. viii. p. 450. of the leading political characters of the day-the demagogue Cleon; whilst the Clouds, in which Socrates is held up to ridicule, and the Thesmophoriazusa and Frogs, containing slashing onslaughts on Euripides, show that neither the greatest philosophers nor the most popular poets were secure. Even Pericles himself is now and then bespattered with ridicule, and the aversion of the poet for the Peloponnesian war is shown in many of his dramas. From the nature of his plays it would be absurd, as some have done, to quote them gravely as historical authority; though, with due allowance for comic exaggeration, they no doubt afford a valuable comment on the politics, literature, and manners of the time. Nor can it be doubted that, under all his bantering, Aristophanes often strove to serve the views of the old aristocratical party, of which he was an adherent. The more serious political remarks were commonly introduced into that part of the chorus called the parabasis, when, the actors having left the stage, the choreutæ turned round, ard, advancing towards the spectators, addressed them in the name of the poet. Towards the end of the career of Aristophanes the unrestricted licence and libellous personality of comedy began gradually to disappear. The chorus was first curtailed and then entirely suppressed, and thus made way for what is called the Middle Comedy, which had no chorus at all. The Plutus of Aristophanes, which contains no political allusions, exhibits an approach to this phase. An extract from the Knights of Aristophanes will give some idea of the unmeasured invective in which the poet indulged. The chorus come upon the stage, and thus commence their attack upon Cleon: Close around him, and confound him, the confounder of us all; Pelt him, pummel him, and mau' him; rummage, ransack, overhaul him, Overbear him and outbawl him; bear him down, and bring him under. Bellow like a burst of thunder, Robber! harpy! sink of plunder! Rogue and villain! rogue and cheat! rogue and villain, I repeat! Oftener than I can repeat it, has the rogue and villain cheated. Close around him, left and right; spit upon him, spurn and smite: Spit upon him as you see; spurn and spit at him like me. But beware, or he'll evade you, for he knows the private track Where Eucrates was seer escaping with his mill-dust on his back. Cleon. Worthy veterans of the jury, you that, either right or wrong, With my threepenny provision, I've maintained and cherished long, Come to my aid! I'm here waylaid-assassinated and betrayed. Chorus. Rightly served! we serve you rightly, for your hungry love of pelf For your gross and greedy rapine, gormandizing by yourself; T You that, ere the figs are gathered, pilfer with a privy twitch Him, besides, the wealthy man, retired upon an easy rent, Hating and avoiding party, noble-minded, indolent, Him you mark; you fix and hook him, whilst he's gaping unawares; Down you cast him, roast and baste him, and devour him at your ease. Cleon. Yes! assault, insult, abuse me! this is the return I find For the noble testimony, the memorial I designed: Meaning to propose proposals for a monument of stone, On the which your late achievements should be carved and neatly done. Chorus. Out, away with him! the slave! the pompous, empty, fawning knave! Does he think with idle speeches to delude and cheat us all, As he does the doting elders that attend his daily call? Pelt him here, and bang him there; and here and there and everywhere. Cleon. Save me, neighbours! O the monsters! O my side, my back, my breast! Chorus. What, you're forced to call for help? you brutal, overbearing pest.* § 8. Of the prose writers of this period, Thucydides is by far the greatest. Herodotus, who belongs to the same period, and who was only a few years older than Thucydides, has been noticed in a previous chapter. Thucydides was an Athenian, and was born in the year 471 B.C. His father was named Olorus, and his mother Hegesipylé, and his family was connected with that of Miltiades and Cimon. Thucydides appears to have been a man of wealth; and we know from his own account that he possessed gold mines in Thrace, and enjoyed great influence in that country. We also learn from himself that he was one of the sufferers from the great plague at Athens, and among the few who recovered. He.commanded an Athenian squadron of seven ships at Thasos, in 424 B.C., at the time when Brasidas was besieging Amphipolis; and, having failed to relieve that city in time, he went into a voluntary exile, in order probably to avoid the punishment of death. He appears to have spent 20 years in banishment, principally in * Translated by Mr. Frere. |