Story of Orestes Part 16

_Adm._ Where with the gloomy tyrant didst thou fight?

_Herc._ I lay in wait and seized him at the tomb.

_Adm._ But wherefore doth my wife thus speechless stand?

_Herc._ It is not yet permitted[3] that thou hear Her voice addressing thee, till from the G.o.ds {1220} That rule beneath she be unsanctified With hallow'd rites, and the third morn return.

But lead her in; and as thou'rt just in all Besides, Admetus, see thou reverence strangers.

Farewell: I go t' achieve the destined toil For the imperial son of Sthenelus.

_Adm._ Abide with us, and share my friendly hearth.

_Herc._ That time will come again; this demands speed.

_Adm._ Success attend thee: safe may'st thou return.

Now to my citizens I give in charge, {1230} And to each chief, that for this blest event They inst.i.tute the dance; let the steer bleed, And the rich altars, as they pay their vows, Breathe incense to the G.o.ds; for now I rise To better life, and grateful own the blessing.

THE CHORUS, RETIRING:

Our fates the G.o.ds in various shapes dispose: {1236} Heaven sets the crown on many a hopeless cause: That which is looked for Fails in the issue.

To goals unexpected Heav'n points out a pa.s.sage.

And this is the end of the matter.

[1] The quotations are from Potter's Translation, in Routledge's Universal Library, freely altered in parts for the purpose of bringing out changes of metre, etc., in the original. The References are to the numbering of the lines in Potter.

[2] That is, a scene carried on upon the Stage without the presence of the Chorus in the Orchestra,--a very rare effect in Greek Drama.

[3] The fact was that the _Alcestis_ was represented in place of a 'Satyric Drama,' which only allowed two (speaking) personages on the Stage at the same time.

THE CYCLOPS OF EURIPIDES

A SPECIMEN OF THE SATYRIC DRAMA

_Scene_: Sicily, in front of cave of the Cyclops, Polyphemus.

_Prologue_ by Silenus, the rural demi-G.o.d, who recounts his faithful service to Bacchus, and yet the ungrateful G.o.d has let himself and his children fall into this slavery to the horrid Cyclops Polyphemus, where, worst of their many woes, they are debarred from the wine they wors.h.i.+p.

_Parode_: The Chorus of Satyrs driving their goats and lamenting how different this from the merry service of Bacchus.

_Episode I_. Silenus hurries back with the news that a s.h.i.+p is approaching to water in the island: fresh victims for the monster.

_Enter Ulysses and crew_: mutual explanations, all couched in 'burlesque' tone. The mariners have had no food except flesh, and gladly partake milk and fruits of the Satyrs, affording in return to Silenus the long-lost luxury of wine: the scene then going on to paint [with the utmost coa.r.s.eness] the oncoming of drunkenness.

Suddenly _enter Polyphemus_: Ulysses and the crew hide. After some rough bandying between the Monster and the Chorus, the strangers are discovered: and Silenus, to save himself, turns traitor, and tells Polyphemus how they have beaten him because he would not let them steal, also what dire woes they were going to work upon Polyphemus. In spite of their protests Silenus is believed: Ulysses promises, if set free, to erect shrines in Greece for the Cyclops, besides dwelling upon the impiety of attacking innocent strangers: Polyphemus replies that he does not care for shrines, and as for impiety he is independent of Zeus; which gives occasion for a glorification of the life of nature.

They are driven into the cave to be fed on at leisure.

_Choral Ode_: General disgust at the monster.

_Episode II_. Ulysses [_apparently standing at the mouth of the cave_]

describes Polyphemus gorging--then details his plan of deliverance by aid of the wine.

_Choral Ode_: Lyric delight of Chorus at prospect of deliverance.

_Episode III_. The Cyclops appears sated with his banquet, and settling down to this new treat of drinking--the effects of on-coming intoxication are painted again in Polyphemus, with the usual coa.r.s.eness--a farcical climax being reached when the monster begins to be affectionate to his cup-bearer, old Silenus, in memory of Zeus and his famous cup-bearer, Ganymede.

_Choral Ode_: Antic.i.p.ation of Revenge.

_Exodus_. The plan of Revenge, the boring out of the Cyclops's one eye while overpowered with drink, is carried out--various farcical effects by the way, e.g., the Chorus drawing back with excuses and leaving Ulysses to do the deed at the critical moment. The Drama ends with the Monster's rage and vain attempts to catch the culprit, Ulysses putting him off with his feigned name 'No man': thus all are delivered.

THE BACCHa.n.a.lS OF EURIPIDES[1]

PROLOGUE

_The permanent scene covered by movable scenery representing a wide landscape--the valley of the Dirce. A pile of buildings occupies the middle, to which the central entrance is an approach: these are the Cadmeia and royal palaces. That on the left is the palace of Pentheus, and further to the left is the mystic scene of Bacchus's birth--a heap of ruins, still miraculously smouldering, and covered by trailing vines. On the right is the palace of Cadmus, and the scene extends to take in the Electron gate of Thebes, and (on the right turn-scene) the slopes of Cithaeron._

DIONYSUS enters, in mortal guise, through the distance archway, and (in formal prologue) opens the situation. He brings out the points of the landscape before him, dear as the site of his miraculous birth and the sad end of his mortal mother. Then he details the Asiatic realms through which he has made triumphant progress, Lydia, Phrygia, sun-seared Persia, Bactria; the wild, wintry Median land; Araby the Blest, and the cities by the sea; everywhere his orgies accepted and his G.o.dhead received. Now for the first time he has reached an h.e.l.lenic city: and here--where least it should have been--his divinity is questioned by his own mother's sisters who make the story of his birth a false rumor, devised to cover Semele's shame, and avenged by the lightning flash which destroyed her. To punish his unnatural kin he has infected all their womenkind with his sacred phrensy, and maddened out of their quiet life, they are now on the revel under the pale pines of the mountain, unseemly mingled with the sons of Thebes: so shall the recusant city learn her guilt, and make atonement to him and his mother. Pentheus, it seems, is the main foe of his G.o.dhead, who reigns as king over Thebes, the aged Cadmus having yielded the sovereignty in his lifetime to his sister's son: he repels Bacchus from the sacred libations, nor names him in prayer. So he and Thebes must learn a dread lesson, and then away to make revelation in other lands.

As to force, if attempt is made to drive the Maenads from the mountains, Bacchus himself will mingle in the war, and for this he has a.s.sumed mortal shape.

He calls upon his 'Thyasus of women,' fellow-pilgrims from the lands beyond the sea, to beat their Phrygian drums in noisy ritual about the palace of Pentheus till all Thebes shall flock to hear; he goes to join his wors.h.i.+ppers on Cithaeron. {70}

PARODE, OR CHORUS-ENTRY

_The Chorus enter the orchestra, Asiatic women in wild attire of Bacchic rites, especially the motley (dappled fawnskin) always a.s.sociated with abandon: they move with wild gestures and dances a.s.sociated with Asiatic rituals._

The wild ode resumes the joyous dance that has made their whole way from Asia one long sacred revel--

Toilless toil and labour sweet.

Blest above all men he who hallows his life in such mystic rites, and, purified with holiest waters, goes dancing with the wors.h.i.+ppers of Bacchus, and of thee, mighty Mother Cybele, shaking his thyrsus, and all his locks crowned with ivy. Bacchus's birth is sung, and how from the flas.h.i.+ng lightning Jove s.n.a.t.c.hed him and preserved in his thigh, until at the fated hour he gave him to light, horned and crowned with serpents. Wherefore should Thebes, sacred scene of the miracle, be one blossom of revellers, clad in motley and waving the thyrsus, the whole land maddening with the dance. The Chorus think of the first origin of such noisy joys, when the wild ones of Crete beat their cymbals round the sunless caverns where the infant Jove was hidden, and these rites of Rhoea soon mingled for the frantic Satyrs with the third year's dances to Bacchus. Then the ode recurs to the bliss of such holy rites, luxurious interchange of wild energy and delicious repose. They long for the climax of the dance, when, with luxuriant hair all floating, they can rage and madden to the clash of heavy cymbals and the shout Evoe, Evoe, frisking like colts to the soft breathing of the holy pipe, while the mountain echoes beneath their boundings. {178}

EPISODE I

The blind prophet Teiresias enters from Thebes, and is soon joined by Cadmus from the palace. Old as they are they have put on the livery of the G.o.d, and will join in the dance, for which supernatural strength will be given: they alone of the city are wise.

The ancestral faith, coeval with our race, No subtle reasoning, if it soar aloft Ev'n to the height of wisdom, can o'erthrow.

They are stopped by the entrance of Pentheus, as from a far journey.

His opening words betray his anxiety as to the scandal in his realm--the young women of his family, even his mother Agave, all gone to join the impious revels.

In pretext, holy sacrificing Maenads, But serving Aphrodite more than Bacchus.

Some he has imprisoned, the rest he will hunt from the mountains, and put an end to the joyous movements of this fair stranger with golden locks, who has come to guide their maidens to soft inebriate rites.

Suddenly he sees his hero ancestor and the prophet in Bacchic attire.

Bitter reproaches follow; the scene soon settling down into the forensic contest. Teiresias elaborately puts the case for the G.o.d.

Man has two primal needs: one is the solid food of the boon mother, the other has been discovered by the son of their Semele--the rich grape's juice: this beguiles the miserable of their sorrow, this gives all-healing sleep. The author of such blessings is recognized in heaven as a G.o.d: yet Pentheus puts scorn upon him by the story of the babe hidden in Jove's thigh. [This is explained away by a play upon words, as between _ho meeros_, thigh, and _homeeros_, a hostage: Jove hid the infant G.o.d in a cleft of air, a hostage from the wrath of Here.] Prophecy is ascribed to the wine-G.o.d, for phrensy is prophetic; and he is an ally in war, sending panic on the foe ere lance crosses lance. He will soon be a G.o.d celebrated through all Greece and hold torchdance on the crags of Delphi. Let Thebes take her place among the wors.h.i.+ppers, fearing nought for the purity of its daughters, who will be no less holy in the revel than at home.--The Chorus approve, and Cadmus follows on the same side, urging policy: a splendid falsehood making Semele the mother of a G.o.d will advance their household.

Pentheus shakes off Cadmus's clasp in disgust: bids some of his servants go and overturn the prophet's place of divination, and others seek out the stranger who leads the rebels. Exit to the palace, while Teiresias and Cadmus depart, in horror at his impiety, in the direction of Cithaeron. {379}