Oedipus Coloneus as compared with both. The Teiresias of the Oedipus Rex is more terrible, and also more human, than the Teiresias of the Antigone. It may be somewhat difficult to find distinctive differences between Macaria, Polyxena, and Menoeceus, in Euripides, but characterisation is not his strong point. In Sophocles the finer shades, as for example between Ismene and Chrysothemis, are more easily perceived than defined, and are only seen completely through the relation of either to the principal characters. This will appear more fully in discussing the merits of the three great tragic writers severally.

CHAPTER X

LIVES OF THE TRAGIC POETS1

OF most of the Greek tragic poets we know hardly anything but the name, and even of the three great masters whose works are in part preserved to us the biographical record is scanty and not trustworthy. The number of authentic names is limited by the fact that during the most important period not more than three tragic choruses were given in a single year. In this chapter we can do little more than recapitulate the salient points of the familiar tradition.

Thespis flourished in the sixth century B.C. (534), and is said to have carried about his show and his unwritten compositions from village to village. The plays that went by his name in late antiquity, fragments of which have been preserved by Plutarch and others, were manifestly forged by some imitator of Euripides.

1 Books to consult: Ency. Brit.; Smith's Dictionary of Classical Biography; Jebb's Primer of Greek Literature; Green's "Classical Writers"; Müller's Lit. of Greece, cc. 21-26; etc.

N

Choerilus is said to have produced 150 plays, and if this number is correct, the practice of bringing out four dramas every year must have very early prevailed. The fable of the only play of his whose title has been preserved, the Alope, belonged to the Eleusinian cycle of mythology. In his time, therefore, it may be assumed that the cult of Demeter had already become associated with that of Dionysus.

Phrynichus the tragic poet (to be distinguished from the general and the comic poet of the same name) established a lasting reputation by the charm of his lyric numbers and the elaboration of the choral business generally. Tradition marks him as a great original poet. It was from him, according to Aristophanes, that Aeschylus received the art which he developed.1 His boldness of invention showed itself in his two great historical dramas (or cantatas), the Taking of Miletus2 and the Phoenissae, in which the subject of the Persae was anticipated. In the more direct line of tragic work he brought out many fables of which his successors afterwards availed themselves. Thus his Aegyptians and Danaïdes dealt with the fortunes of the families of Aegyptus and Danaüs, one of Aeschylus' early themes; the story of Meleager was touched in his Pleuronians (cp. Aesch. Atalanta, and Choeph. 604); the "tale of Pelops' line" was 2 See above, Chap. III.

1 Ran. 910.

carried back to Tantalus; and it is interesting to observe that in his Alcestis (a subject apparently not handled by Aeschylus or Sophocles) the apparition of Death bearing a sword, and probably also the wrestling of Heracles with Death, features which are thought grotesque in Euripides, were anticipated. On the other hand, the fable of Antaeus, the great wrestler, perhaps because especially suited for spectacular and choral treatment, appears to have been peculiar to the pre-Aeschylean stage.

The hospitality of Athens in naturalising foreign artists is specially marked in the case of Pratinas, who was a native of Phlius (above Sicyon), and therefore a Dorian by birth. He shares with Choerilus the credit of differentiating tragedy from the satyric drama. Perhaps, when Phrynichus with his tragic strains had thrown the older and more rustic art (in which tragic and satyric elements were blended) into the shade, the originality of Pratinas may have shown itself in developing satyric drama as a separate genre. His son Aristias was also distinguished in both kinds, producing an Atalanta, and preceding Euripides with a satyric play on Polyphemus, in which the Cyclops complained that Odysseus had "drowned the miller "

Y' have spoiled the wine with watering it.

This passed into a proverbial saying.

All these from Choerilus downwards were competitors with Aeschylus, who outshone them, but has not altogether eclipsed their fame.

AESCHYLUS (born 525 B.C.; died 456 B.C.)

Cyne

Euphorion, the father of Aeschylus, lived at Eleusis, and was happy in his three sons. geirus, apparently the oldest, had his hand hacked off at Marathon in grappling with a Persian galley. Aeschylus also fought well at Marathon, and both Aeschylus and Ameinias are said to have distinguished themselves at Salamis. Aeschylus would then be forty-five, a seasoned soldier,1 but on that occasion Athens needed all her men. That the early education of Aeschylus was in some way associated with the Eleusinian worship we gather from a line of Aristophanes, in which the father of tragedy is made to say

(AESCH.) Demeter, on whose lore my spirit was nursed, Grant I prove worthy of thy mysteries!

Ran. 886.

That through this or some other channel he imbibed a strain of Orphic or Pythagorean, possibly also of Heraclitean, learning may be inferred from the general drift of his poetry. But

1 "In eld

Still nourishing strong nerves with vigorous blood."

Seven against Thebes, sub init.