_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.