he French poet has
ennobled
by the change the char-
acter of his heroine.
acter of his heroine.
Charles - 1867 - Classical Dictionary
, Symp.
, 8, 1.
) His mother Clito had been sent
over to Salamis, with the other Athenian women, when
Attica was given up to the invading army of Xerxes;
and the name of the poet, which is formed like a pa-
tronymic from the Euripus, the scene of the first suc-
cessful resistance to the Persian navy, shows that the
minds of his parents were full of the stirring events
of that momentous crisis. Aristophanes repeatedly
imputes meanness of extraction, by the mother's side,
to Euripides. (Thcsmoph. , v. 386. -- Ibid. , v. 455. --
Acharn. , v. 478. -- Equit. , T. 1 T. --Ranac, v. 840. ) He
%sserts that she was an herb-seller; and, according to
Aulus Gellius (15, 20), Theophrastus confirms the
comedian's sarcastic insinuations. Philochorus, on
the contrary, in a work no longer extant, endeavoured
to prove that the mother of our poet was a lady of no-
ble ancestry. (Suidas, >>. v. Evptir. ) Moschopulus
ilso, in hit life of Euripides, quotes this testimony of
Philochorus. A presumptive argument in favour of
the respectability of Euripides, in regard to birth, is
given in Athcnteus (10, p. 424), where he tells us
Qivoxoovv re ~uiui roic &pxaioif ol evyevcaraToi irai-
fef a fact which he instances in the son of Menelaus
ana in Euripides, who, according to TheophrasLus,
officiated, when a boy, as cup-bearer to a chorus com-
posed of the most distinguished Athenians in the festi-
val of the Delian A polio. Whatever one or both his pa-
rents might originally have been, the costly education
which the young Euripides received intimates B cer-
tain degree of wealth and consequence as then at least
possessed by his family. The pupil of Anaxagoras,
Protagoras, and Prodicus (an instructor so notorious
for the extravagant terms which he demanded for his
lessons), could not have been the son of persons at
that time very mean or poor. It is most probable,
therefore, that his father was a man of property, and
made a marriage of disparagement. In early life we
are told that his father made Euripides direct his at-
tention chiefly to gymnastic exercises, and that, in his
seventeenth year, he was crowned in the Eleusinian
and Thcscan contests. (Aul. Gell. , 15, 20. ) The
scholiast memoirs of Euripides ascribe this determina-
tion of the father to an oracle, which was given him
- when his wife was pregnant of the future dramatist,
? ? wherein he was assured that the child
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? EURIPIDES.
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(he roet to accept the invitations of Archela'us. Per-
nips, too, a prosecution in which he became involved,
on a charge of impiety, grounded upon a line in the
Hippolytus (Arittot. , Rhtt, 3, 16), might have had
some share in producing this determination to quit
Athens; nor ought we to omit, that, in all likelihood,
his political sentiments may have exposed him to con-
tinual danger. In Macedonia he is said to have writ-
tea a play in honour of Archelaiis, and to have in-
scribed it with his patron's name, who was so much
pleased with the manners and abilities of his guest as
to appoint him one of his ministers. He composed in
this simf country also some other dramatic pieces, in
one of which (the Baccha) he seems to have been in-
spired by the wild scenery of the land to which he had
come. No farther particulars are recorded of Euripi-
des, except a few apocryphal anecdotes and apoph-
thegms. His death is said to have been, like that of
/Eschylus, in its nature extraordinary. Either from
chance or malice, the aged dramatist was exposed, ac-
cording to the common account, to the attack of some
ferocious hounds, and by them so dreadfully mangled
as to expire soon afterward, in his seventy-fifth year.
This story, however, is clearly a fabrication, for Aris-
tophanes in the Frogs would certainly have alluded to
the manner of bis death, had there been anything re-
markable in it. He died B. C. 406, on the same day on
which Dionysius assumed the tyranny. (Clinton, Fast.
Hcllen. , vol. I, p. 81. ) The Athenians entreated Ar-
chelaiis to send the body to the poet's native city for
interment. The request was refused, and, with every
demonstration of grief and respect, Euripides was
buried at Pella. A cenotaph, however, was erected to
Ms memory at Athens. --" If we consider Euripides
by himself," observes Schlegel (vol. I, p. 198, scqq. ),
"without any comparison with his predecessors; if we
? elect many of his best pieces, and some single pas-
sages of others, we must bestow extraordinary praise
upon him. On the other hand, if we view him in con-
nexion with the history of his art; if in his pieces wc
always regard the whole, and particularly his object, as
generally displayed in those which have come down to
? is, we cannot forbear blaming him strongly, and on
many accounts. There are few writers of whom so
much good and so much ill may be said with truth.
His mind, to whose ingenuity there were no bounds,
was exercised in every intellectual art; but this pro-
fusion of brilliant and amiable qualities was not gov-
erned in him by that elevated seriousness of disposi-
tion, or that vigorous and artist-like moderation, which
we revere lnischylus and Sophocles. He always
strives to please alone, careless by what means.
Hence he is so unequal to himself. He sometimes
has passages overpoweringly beautiful, and at other
times sinks into real lowness of style. With all his
faults, he possesses astonishing ease, and a sort of fas-
cinating charm. --We have some cutting sayings of
Sophocles concerning Euripides, although the former
wis so void of all the jealousy of an artist that he
mourned over the death of the latter; and, in a piece
which he shortly after brought upon the stage, did not
allow his actors the ornament of a garland. I hold
myielf justified in applying to Euripides particularly,
those accusations of Plato against the tragic poets, that
tney gave up men too much to the power of the pas-
nous, and made them effeminate by putting immod-
erate lamentations into the mouths of their heroes, be-
? ? cause their groundlessness would be too clear if refer-
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in unessential ornament, its songs sre often altogether
episodical, without reference lo tho action; more glit-
tering than energetic or really inspired. 'The cho-
iis,' says Aristotle {Poet. , 18, 21), ' must be consid-
ered as one of the actors, and as a part of the whole;
t must endeavour to assist the others; not as Eurip-
ides, hut as Sophocles, employs it. ' The ancient
comic writers enjoyed the privilege of sometimes ma-
ting the chorus address the audience in their own
oame; this was called a Parabasis. Although it by
ao means belongs to tragedy, yet Euripides, according
? jj the testimony of Julius Pollux, often employed it,
? nd so far forgot himself in it, that, in the piece called
4 The Daughter* of Danaus,' he made the chorus,
consisting of women, use grammatical forms which be-
longed to the masculine gender alone. Thus our poet
took away the internal essence, of tragedy, and injured
the beautiful symmetry of its exterior structure. He
generally sacrifices the whole to parts, and in these,
again, he rather seeks after extraneous attractions than
genuine poetic beauty. In the music of the accompa-
niments he adopted all the innovations of which Timo-
theus was the author, and selected those measures
which are most suitable to the effeminacy of his poe-
try. He acted in a similar way as regarded prosody;
the construction of his verses is luxuriant, and ap-
proaches irregularity. This melting and unmanly turn
would indubitably, on a close examination, show itself
in the rhythm of hia choruses. Ho everywhere su-
perfluously brings in those merely corporeal charms,
which Winckelmann calls a flattery of the coarse out-
ward sense; everything which is stimulating or stri-
king, or, in a word, which has a lively effect, without
any real intrinsic value for the mind and the feelings.
He strives after effect in a degree which cannot be con-
ceded even to a dramatic poet. Thus, for example,
he sri join lets any opportunity escape of having his
personages seized with sudden and groundless terror;
his old men always complain of the infirmities of old
age, and are particularly given to mount, with totter-
ing knees, the ascent from the orchestra to the stage,
which, frequently, too, represented the declivity of a
mountain, while they lament their wretchedness. His
object throughout is emotion, for the sake of which he
not only offends against decorum, but sacrifices the
connexion of his pieces. He is forcible in his deline-
ations of misfortune; but he often lays claim to our
pity, not for some internal pain of the soul, a pain too
retiring in its nature, and borne in a manly manner, but
for mere corporeal suffering. He likes to reduce his
heroes to a state of beggary; makes them suffer hun-
ger and want, and brings them on the stage with all the
exterior signs of indigence, covered with rags, aa Aris-
tophanes so humorously throws in his teeth in the
Acharnians (v. 410-448). --Euripides had visited the
schools of the philosophers, and takes a pride in allu-
ding to all sorts of philosophical theories; in my opin-
ion, in a very imperfect manner, so that one cannot un-
derstand these instructions unless one knows them be-
forehand. He thinks it too vulgar to believe in the
gods in the simple way of the common people, and
therefore takes care, on every opportunity, to insinuate
something of an allegorical meaning, and to give the
world to understand what an equivocal ^ort of creed
he has to boast of. We can distinguish in him a two-
fold personage: the poet, whose productions were
dedicated to a religious solemnity, who stood uniL-r the
? ? orntection of religion, and must therefore honour it on
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? EURIPIDES.
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great suscepticiiity even for the more lofty charms of
womanly virtue, but no real respect. --That independ-
ent freedom in the method of treating the story, which
was one of the privileges of the tragic art, frequent-
ly, in Euripides, degenerates into unbounded caprice.
It is well known that the fables of Hyginus, which
differ so much from the relations of other writers, are
partly extracted from his pieces. As he often over-
turned what had hitherto been well known and gener-
ally received, he was obliged to use prologues, in
which he announces the situation of affairs according
to his acceptation, and makes known the course of
evtnta. (Compare the amusing scene in Aristopha-
nes, Ranee, 1177, scqq. , and Porson's explanation of
the employment of such prologues by Euripides, Pra-
Uct. in Eurtp. , p. 6, scqq. ) These prologues make
the beginnings of tbe plays of Euripides very uniform;
it has the appearanco of great deficiency of art when
somebody comes out and says, 'I am so and so; such
and such things have already happened, and this is what
is going to happen. ' This method may be compared
to the labels coming out of the mouths of the figures in
old pictures, which can only be excused by the great
simplicity of their antique style. But then, all the rest
must harmonize with it, which is by no means the case
with Euripides, whose personages discourse according
to the newest fashion of the manners of his time. In
his prologues, as well as in the denouement of his plots,
he is very lavish of unmeaning appearances of gods,
who are elevated above men only by being suspended
in a machine, and might very easily be spared. He
pushes to excess the method which the ancient tragic
writers have of treating the action, by throwing ev-
erything into large masses, with repose and motion
following at stated intervals. At one time he unrea-
sonably prolongs, with too great fondness for vivacity of
dialogue, that change of speakers at every verse which
was usual even with his predecessors, in which ques-
tions and answers, or reproaches and replies, are shot to
and fro like darts; and this he sometimes does so arbi-
trarily, that half of tbe lines might be dispensed with.
At another time he pours forth long, endless speeches;
\r endeavours to show his skill as an orator in its ut-
most brilliancy, by ingenious syllogisms, or by exciting
pi'v. Many of his scenes resemble a suit at law, in
which two persons, who are the parties opposed to one
another, or sometimes in the presence of a third per-
son as judge, do not confine themselves to what their
present situation requires , but, beginning their story
at the most remote period, accuse their adversary and
juatify themselves, doing all this with those turns
which are familiar to pleaders, and frequently with
those which are usual among sycophants. Thus the
poet attempted to make his poetry entertaining to tbe
Athenians by its resemblance to their daily and favour-
ite pursuit, carrying on and deciding, or at least listen-
ing to, lawsuits. On this account Quintilian particu-
larly recommends him to the young orator, who may
learn more by studying him than the older tragedians;
an opinion marked with his usual accuracy. But it is
<<asy to see that auch a recommendation conveys no
high eulogium, since eloquence may indeed find place
in the drama when it is suitable to the capacity and
abject of the person who is speaking; but when rhet-
oric iteps into the place of the immediate expression
of ths soul, it is no longer poetical. --The style of Eu-
ripides is. on the whole, not compressed enough, al-
? ? though it presents us with some very happily-drawn
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ire uave remaining at the present day o. ily eighteen
tragedies and one aatyric piece. The lollowing are
. he titles and subjects: 1. 'Exatn, Hecuba. The sac-
rifice of Polyxena, whom the Greeks immolate to the
wanes of Achilles, and the vengeance which Hecuba,
doubly unfortunate in having been reduced to captivity
and deprived of her children, takes upon Polymneslor,
the murderer of her son Polydorus, form the subject of
this tragedy. The scene is laid in the Grecian camp
in the Thracian Chersonese. The shade of Polydorus,
whose body remains without the rites of sepulture, has
the prologue assigned it. Ennius and L. Acciua, and
in modern times Erasmus of Rotterdam, have trans-
lated this play into Latin verse. Ludovico Dolce has
given an Italian version of it; several passages have
been rendered into French by La Harpe; Racine owes
to it some fine verses in his Andromache and Iphigenia,
and Voltaire has imitated some parts in his Meropc. --
2. 'Opiarrje, Orestes. The scene of this play is laid
at Argos, the seventh day after the murder of Clytem-
ncstra. It is on this day that the people, in full as-
sembly, are to sit in judgment upon Orestes and Elec-
'. ra. The only hope of the accused is in Menelaus,
who has just arrived; but this prince, who secretly
aims at the succession, stirs up the people in private
to pronounce sentence of condemnation against the
parricides. The sentence is accordingly pronounced,
but the execution of it is left to the culprits themselves.
They meditate taking vengeance by slaying Helen;
but this princess is saved by the intervention of Apol-
lo, who brings about a double marriage, by uniting
Orestes with Hermicne, the daughter of Helen, and
Electra with Pylades. This denouement is unworthy
of the tragedy. The piece, moreover, is full of comic
and satiric traits. Some commentators think they rec-
ognise the portrait of Socrates in that of the simple
ind virtuous citizen who, in the assembly of the people,
undertakes the defence of Orestes. This play is as-
cribed by some to Euripides the younger, nephew of
the former. --3. iomaaat, Phanisstt. The subject
of this piece is the death of Eteoclis and Polynices.
The chorus is composed of young Phoenician females,
sent, according to the custom established by Agenor,
to the city of Thebes, in order to be consecrated to
the service of the temple at Delphi. The prologue is
issigned to Jocasta. Grotius regards the Phoenissaj
n<< the chef-d'osuvre of Euripides: a more elevated and
heroic tone prevails throughout it than is to be found in
any other of his pieces. The subject of the Phcenis-
<n; is that also of the Thebais of Seneca. Statius has
likewise imitated it in his epic poem, and Rotrou in
the first two acts of his Antigone. --4. Mf/dcia, Medear
The vengeance taken by Medea on the ungrateful Ja-
lon, to whom she has sacrificed all, and who, on his
irrival at Corinth, abandons her for a royal bride, forms
the subject of this tragedy. What constitutes the
principal charm of the piece is the simplicity and clear-
ness of the action, and the force and natural cast of
. he characters. The exposition of the play is made in
a monologue by the nurse: the chorus is composed of
Corinthian females, a circumstance which does not fail
to give an air of great improbability to this portion of
the plot. It is said that Euripides gave to the world
two editions of this tragedy, and that, in the first, the
children rf Medea were put to death by the Corinthi-
ans, <hii3 tnthe second, which has come down to us, it
iu their mother heraelf who slays them. Accotdiug to
? ? this hypothesis, the 1378th verse and those immediate-
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que nous avuns maintenant do cette princesae. I. a
plupart dc ccux qui out enlendu parlcr d'Andromaque
ne la connoisscrit quo pour la veuve d'Hector, et pour
la rone d'Astyanax. On ne croit pas qu'elle doivo
aimer un autre man m un autre tils; et je doute que
Its lannes d'Andromaque euseent fait sur l't-sprit de
incs spectateurs I'impression qu'elles ont faite, si elles
avoient coule pour un autre fils que celui qu'elle avoit
d'Hector. " It is easy to perceive from this how much
'?
he French poet has ennobled by the change the char-
acter of his heroine. --8. 'Lterider, Supplices, "The
Fema. t Suppliants. " The scene of this tragedy is laid
in front of the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, whither the
Argive females, whose husbands have perished before
Thebes, have followed their king Adrastus, in the hop*
of engaging Theseus to take up anna in their behalf,
and obtain the rites of sepulture for their dead, whose
bodies were withheld by the Thebans. Theseus yields
to their request and promises his assistance. In ex-
hibiting this play the third year of the 90th Olympiad,
the fourteenth of the Peloponncsian war, Euripides
wished, it is said, to detach the Argives from the Spar-
tan cause. His attempt, however, failed, and the
treaty was signed by which Mantinea was sacrificed to
the ambition of Lacedasmon. The exposition of this
piece has not the same fault as the rest: it is impo-
sing and splendid, and made without the intervention
of an actual prologue; for the monologue by which
-Eihra. the mother of Theseus, makes known the sub-
ject of the piece, is a prayer addressed to Ceres, in
which the recital naturally finds a place. --9. 'lityeveia
i h kiiidt, Iphigenia in Aulide, "Iphigenia at
Aulis. " The subject of this tragedy is the intended
sacrifice of Iphigenia, and her rescue by Diana, who
substitutes another victim. It is the only one of the
plays of Euripides that has no prologue, for it is well
known that the Rhesus, which is also deficient in this
lespect, had one formerly. Hence Musgrave has con-
jacturedthat the present play had also once a prologue,
B which tb"? exposition of the piece was made by Di-
ana; and . E. ian {Hist. An. , 7, 39) cites a passage of
the Iphigenia which we do not now find in it, and
which could only have been pronounced by Diana; it
announces what she intends to do for the purpose of
saving Iphigenia. Eichstadt, however, and Bockh,
maintain, that the Iphigenia which wo at present have
could not have been furnished with a prologue, since,
if it had been, this prologue ought to have contained
the recital which is put in the mouth of Agamemnon
at verse 49, scqq. Hence Bockh concludes, that there
were two tragedies with this name, one written by Eu-
ripides and having a prologue, the other composed by
Euripides the younger, and which is also the one that
we now possess, ( Eichstadt, de Dram. Gracorum
Comko-Salyrieo, p. 99. --Bockh, Gracoe Tragozdia
Principum, &c, p. 216. --Consult also Bremi, Philo-
log. Bcytrdge out cter Scheeis, p. 143, and Jacobs,
Zusdtze s<< Sutzer, vol. 5, pt. 3, p. 401. ) Racine has.
made the story of Iphigenia the subject of one of his
chefs-d'asuvre. (Consult the Comparaison de Vlphi-
gene a*Euripide arcc l'l phi genie de Racine, par Louis
Racine, in the Mem. &? I'Acad, des Inscrip. , dec, vol.
8. p. 283. ) It has also been treated by Lmlovico
Dulce and by Rotrou. --10. 'Ifiyivtia ri ivTavpoic,
fphgenia in Tmcride, "Iphigenia in Tauris. " The
daughter of Agamemnon, rescued by Diana from the
knife olthe aaerincer, and transported to Tauris, there
? ? serves the goddess as a priestess in her temple. Ores-
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Hercules jurens. After having killed, in his phrensy,
his wife and chi'dren, Hercules proceeds to submit
himself to certain expiatory ceremonies, and to seek
repose at Athens. Amphitryon appears in the pro-
logue: the scene is laid at Thebes. --17. 'Hfjurpa,
Elcclra. The subject of this piece has been treatcii
slso by ^Eachylus and Sophocles, but by each in his
peculiar way. Euripides transfers the scene from the
palace of jEgislhus to the country near Argos: the
eincaition of the play is made by a cultivator, to
vraom Electra has been compelled to give her hand,
ou, who has taken no advantage of this, and has re-
spected in her the daughter of a royal line. On com-
paring Euripides with Sophocles, we will find him in-
terior to the latter in the manner of treating the subject:
be has succeeded, however, in embellishing it with in-
teresting episodes. --18. 'Prjooc, Rhesus. A subject
derived from the tenth book of the Iliad. Some able
critics have proved that this piece was never written by
Euripides. (Consult Dissertation sur la tragidie de
Rliesus, pw Hardion, in the Mem. de I'Acad. des
inscr. et Belles-Lctlrcs, vol. 10, p. 323. --Valckenaer,
Diatribe Euripidca, c. 9, seqq. --Beck's Euripides,
vol. 3, p. 444, seqq. , Ac. )--19. 4ae6W, Phaithon.
Of this play we have about eighty verses remaining.
Clymene, the mother of Phaethon, is the wife of Me-
rops, king of the Ethiopians, and Phaethon passes for
the son of this prince. The young man, having con-
ceivrd some doubts respecting his origin, addresses
himself to the Sun. The catastrophe, which cost him
his life, is well known. In the tragedy of Euripides,
the body of her son is brought to Clymene, at the very
moment when Merops is occupied with the care of
procuring for him a bride. --20. Aavt'ui, Danae. Of
this play we have the commencement alone, unless the
eix'. y-five verses, which commonly pass for a part of
the prologue, are rather to be considered as the produc-
tion of some imitator, who has proceeded no farther in
iis attempt to ape the style of Euripides. This last
:>>the hypothesis of Wolf. (Litt. Anal. , vol. 2, p. 394. )
--The ancient writers cite also a poem of Euripides,
to which we have already alluded, under the title of
EiriKtia'eiov, " Funeral hymn," on the death of Nicias
and Demosthenes, as well as of the other Athenians
who perished in the disastrous expedition against Syra-
cuse. We possess also two Epigrams of Euripides,
each consisting of four verses, ono of which has been
preserved for us in the Anthology, and the other in
Athenmtis. There have also come down to us five
letters, ascribed to Euripides, and written with suffi-
cient purity and simplicity of style to warrant the belief
that they are genuine productions. (Compare the re-
marks of Beck in his edition of the poet--vol. 7, ed.
Glasg. , p. 720. )--Of the numerous fragments of Eurip-
ides that have reached us, it seems unnecessary here
to speak. The only production worth mentioning, af-
ter those already noticed, is the satyric drama entitled
Cyclops (KvkZu^). The Greek satyric drama must
not be confounded with the satire of the Romans,
from which it was totally distinct. (Bentley on Phal-
aris, p. 246, ed. Land. , 1816. ) It was a novel and
mixed kind of play, first exhibited by Pratinas, proba-
bly at a period not long subsequent to Olymp 70 2
B. C. 499. (Theatri of the Greeks, id ed. , p. lis. )
The poet, borrowing from tragedy its external form
tod mythological materials, added a chorus of :alyre,
with their lively songs, gestures, and movements. This
? ? species o' composition quickly obtained great celebri-
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EUR
iJsgrin, from not being able tu account for so unusual
? motion of the water. The atory, however, is devoid
of foundation. ( Vtd. Aristoteies. )--From this rapid
movement of the current, the Euripus derived its an-
cient name (ev, bene, and iiirru, jacto). Livy'a ac-
count of irtiii strait appears the most rational. "A
more dangerous station for a fleet," observes this wri-
ter, " can hardly be found; besides that the winds rush
down suddenly and with great fury from the high
mountains-on each side, the strait itself of the Euripus
does not ebb and flow seven limes a day, at staled
hours, as report says; but the current changing irreg-
ularly, like the wind, from one point to another, is
hurried along like a torrent tumbling from a steep
mountain; so that, night or day, ships can never lie
quiet. " (L-c, 2d, 6. ) The strails are now called, by
a corruption of the ancient name, the straits of Negro-
font. Hobhouse visited the Euripus, and the account
given by this intelligent traveller of its appearance in
our own days is deserving of belag cited. "What I
witnessed of the Euripus was, that the stream flows
with violence, like a mill-race, under the bridges, and
? Jut a strong eddy is observable on that side from which
it is about to run, about a hundred yards above the
bridges; the current, however, not being at all appa-
rent at a greater distance, either to the south or north.
Yet the ebbing and flowing are said to be visible at
ten or a dozen leagues distance, at each side of the
? trait, by marks shown of the rising and falling of the
water in several small bays on both coasts. The depth
of the stream is very inconsiderable, not much more
than four feet. The account which Wheler copied
from the Jesuit Babin, respecting the changes of the
Euripus, and which he collected on the spot, though
not from his |>eraonal experience, he not being long
enough in the place, was, that it was subject to the
same laws as the tides of the ocean for eighteen days
of eTery moon, and was irregular, having twelve, thir-
teen, or fourteen Sowings and ebbiugs lor the other
lleven days; that is, that it was regular for the three
U>>t days c? the old moon and the eight first of the
aev>>, then irregular for five days, regular again for the
next seven, and irregular for the other six. The water
seldom rose to two feet, and usually not above one;
and, contrary to the ocean, it flowed towards the sea,
and ebbed towards the main land of Thcssaly, north-
ward. On '. he irregular days it rose for half an huur,
and fell for three quarters; but, when regular, was six
hours in each direction, losing an hour a day. It did
not appear to be influenced by the wind. A Greek of
Athens, who had resided three years at Egripo, told
me that he considered the changes to depend chiefly
on the wind, which, owing to the high lands in the vi-
cinity of the strait, is particularly variable in this place.
The two great gulfs, for so they may be called, at the
north and south of the strait, which present a large
surface to every storm that blows, and receive the
whole force of the Archipelago, communicate with
each other at this narrow shallow channel; so that the
Euripus may be a sort of barometer, indicative of every
change, and of whatever rising and falling of the tide,
not visible in the open expanse of waters there may be
in these seas. I did not, however, see any marks of
the water being ever higher at one time than at another.
The Greek had observed also, that, when the wind was
north or south, tha if, either up or down the strait, the
? Iteration took place o>>. . 'y four times in the twenty-four
? ? boars, but that, when it was from the east, and blew
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coasl of tlie Clack Sea; but what he says aoout the
countries west of Greece, on the shores of the Medi-
terranean, is a mixture if fable and truth, in which
the fabulous part prevails. It would seem that, in his
age, these seas were not yet visited by his country-
men, and that lie obtained his knowledge from the
Phoenicians, who had probably for some tune sailed to
these regions, but who, according to the common poli-
cy of trading nations, spread abroad false accounts of
these unknown countries, in order to deter other na-
tions from following their track, and participating in
'. he advantages of this distant commerce. It is proba-
ble, also, that the Phoenicians long excluded tho Greeks
from the navigation of the Mediterranean; for when
the latter began to form settlements beyond their na-
tive country, they first occupied the shores of the -Ege-
i n, and afterward those of the Black Sea. As the
European shores of this last-mentioned sea are not
well adapted for agriculture, except a comparatively
? mall tract of the peninsula of Crimea, their early set-
tlements were mostly on the Asiatic coasts, and, con-
sequently, little addition was made by these colonies
to the geographical knowledge of Europe. But the
navigation of the Phoenicians was checked in the mid-
dle of the sixth century before Christ, apparently by
their being subjugated by the Persians. About this
time, also, the Greeks began to form settlements in
the southern parts of Italy and on the island of Sicily,
and to navigate the Mediterranean Sea to its full ex-
tent. Accordingly, we find that, in the time of Herodo-
tus (450 B. C. ), not only the countries on each side of
the Mediterranean, and the northern shores of the Black
Sea, were pretty well known to the Greeks, but that,
following the track of the Phoenicians, they ventured to
oass the Columns of Hercules, and to sail as far as the
Lassiterides, or Tin Islands, by which name the Scil-
lv Isles and a part of Cornwall must be understood.
It is even reported, that some of their navigators sailed
through the English Channel and entered the North
Sea, and perhaps even the Baltic. It must be ob-
served, however, that Herodotus professes himself to-
tally unacquainted with the islands called Cassilerides
(3, 115), and Strabo (p. 104, cite. ) expresses a very
unfavourable opinion of the alleged northern voyages
of Pylheas. Thus a considerable part of the coasts of
Europe was discovered, while the interior remained
almost unknown. When the Romans began their con-
quests, this deficiency was partly rilled up. The con-
quest }f Italy was followed by that of Spain and the
southern parts of Gaul, and, not long afterward, Sicily,
Greece, and Macedonia were added. Caesar conquer-
ed Gaul and the countries west of the Rhine, together
with the districts lying between ill- different arms by
which that river enters the sea. His two expeditions
into Britain made known also, in some measure, the
nature of that island and the character of its inhabi-
tants. Thus, in the course of little more than two
hundred years, the interior of all those countries was
discovered, the shores of which had been previously
known. In the mean time, nothing was added to the
knowledge of the coasts, the Greeks having lost their
spirit of discovery by sea along with their liberty, and
the Romans not being inclined to naval enterprise.
After the establishment of imperial power at Rome,
the conquests of the Romans went on at a much (. lower
rale, am! the boundaries of the empire soon became
stationary. This circumstance must be chiefly at-
? ? tributed to the nature of the countries which were con-
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? EUROPa.
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ifficiei.
over to Salamis, with the other Athenian women, when
Attica was given up to the invading army of Xerxes;
and the name of the poet, which is formed like a pa-
tronymic from the Euripus, the scene of the first suc-
cessful resistance to the Persian navy, shows that the
minds of his parents were full of the stirring events
of that momentous crisis. Aristophanes repeatedly
imputes meanness of extraction, by the mother's side,
to Euripides. (Thcsmoph. , v. 386. -- Ibid. , v. 455. --
Acharn. , v. 478. -- Equit. , T. 1 T. --Ranac, v. 840. ) He
%sserts that she was an herb-seller; and, according to
Aulus Gellius (15, 20), Theophrastus confirms the
comedian's sarcastic insinuations. Philochorus, on
the contrary, in a work no longer extant, endeavoured
to prove that the mother of our poet was a lady of no-
ble ancestry. (Suidas, >>. v. Evptir. ) Moschopulus
ilso, in hit life of Euripides, quotes this testimony of
Philochorus. A presumptive argument in favour of
the respectability of Euripides, in regard to birth, is
given in Athcnteus (10, p. 424), where he tells us
Qivoxoovv re ~uiui roic &pxaioif ol evyevcaraToi irai-
fef a fact which he instances in the son of Menelaus
ana in Euripides, who, according to TheophrasLus,
officiated, when a boy, as cup-bearer to a chorus com-
posed of the most distinguished Athenians in the festi-
val of the Delian A polio. Whatever one or both his pa-
rents might originally have been, the costly education
which the young Euripides received intimates B cer-
tain degree of wealth and consequence as then at least
possessed by his family. The pupil of Anaxagoras,
Protagoras, and Prodicus (an instructor so notorious
for the extravagant terms which he demanded for his
lessons), could not have been the son of persons at
that time very mean or poor. It is most probable,
therefore, that his father was a man of property, and
made a marriage of disparagement. In early life we
are told that his father made Euripides direct his at-
tention chiefly to gymnastic exercises, and that, in his
seventeenth year, he was crowned in the Eleusinian
and Thcscan contests. (Aul. Gell. , 15, 20. ) The
scholiast memoirs of Euripides ascribe this determina-
tion of the father to an oracle, which was given him
- when his wife was pregnant of the future dramatist,
? ? wherein he was assured that the child
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? EURIPIDES.
EURIPIDES.
(he roet to accept the invitations of Archela'us. Per-
nips, too, a prosecution in which he became involved,
on a charge of impiety, grounded upon a line in the
Hippolytus (Arittot. , Rhtt, 3, 16), might have had
some share in producing this determination to quit
Athens; nor ought we to omit, that, in all likelihood,
his political sentiments may have exposed him to con-
tinual danger. In Macedonia he is said to have writ-
tea a play in honour of Archelaiis, and to have in-
scribed it with his patron's name, who was so much
pleased with the manners and abilities of his guest as
to appoint him one of his ministers. He composed in
this simf country also some other dramatic pieces, in
one of which (the Baccha) he seems to have been in-
spired by the wild scenery of the land to which he had
come. No farther particulars are recorded of Euripi-
des, except a few apocryphal anecdotes and apoph-
thegms. His death is said to have been, like that of
/Eschylus, in its nature extraordinary. Either from
chance or malice, the aged dramatist was exposed, ac-
cording to the common account, to the attack of some
ferocious hounds, and by them so dreadfully mangled
as to expire soon afterward, in his seventy-fifth year.
This story, however, is clearly a fabrication, for Aris-
tophanes in the Frogs would certainly have alluded to
the manner of bis death, had there been anything re-
markable in it. He died B. C. 406, on the same day on
which Dionysius assumed the tyranny. (Clinton, Fast.
Hcllen. , vol. I, p. 81. ) The Athenians entreated Ar-
chelaiis to send the body to the poet's native city for
interment. The request was refused, and, with every
demonstration of grief and respect, Euripides was
buried at Pella. A cenotaph, however, was erected to
Ms memory at Athens. --" If we consider Euripides
by himself," observes Schlegel (vol. I, p. 198, scqq. ),
"without any comparison with his predecessors; if we
? elect many of his best pieces, and some single pas-
sages of others, we must bestow extraordinary praise
upon him. On the other hand, if we view him in con-
nexion with the history of his art; if in his pieces wc
always regard the whole, and particularly his object, as
generally displayed in those which have come down to
? is, we cannot forbear blaming him strongly, and on
many accounts. There are few writers of whom so
much good and so much ill may be said with truth.
His mind, to whose ingenuity there were no bounds,
was exercised in every intellectual art; but this pro-
fusion of brilliant and amiable qualities was not gov-
erned in him by that elevated seriousness of disposi-
tion, or that vigorous and artist-like moderation, which
we revere lnischylus and Sophocles. He always
strives to please alone, careless by what means.
Hence he is so unequal to himself. He sometimes
has passages overpoweringly beautiful, and at other
times sinks into real lowness of style. With all his
faults, he possesses astonishing ease, and a sort of fas-
cinating charm. --We have some cutting sayings of
Sophocles concerning Euripides, although the former
wis so void of all the jealousy of an artist that he
mourned over the death of the latter; and, in a piece
which he shortly after brought upon the stage, did not
allow his actors the ornament of a garland. I hold
myielf justified in applying to Euripides particularly,
those accusations of Plato against the tragic poets, that
tney gave up men too much to the power of the pas-
nous, and made them effeminate by putting immod-
erate lamentations into the mouths of their heroes, be-
? ? cause their groundlessness would be too clear if refer-
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? EURIPIDES.
EURIPIDES.
in unessential ornament, its songs sre often altogether
episodical, without reference lo tho action; more glit-
tering than energetic or really inspired. 'The cho-
iis,' says Aristotle {Poet. , 18, 21), ' must be consid-
ered as one of the actors, and as a part of the whole;
t must endeavour to assist the others; not as Eurip-
ides, hut as Sophocles, employs it. ' The ancient
comic writers enjoyed the privilege of sometimes ma-
ting the chorus address the audience in their own
oame; this was called a Parabasis. Although it by
ao means belongs to tragedy, yet Euripides, according
? jj the testimony of Julius Pollux, often employed it,
? nd so far forgot himself in it, that, in the piece called
4 The Daughter* of Danaus,' he made the chorus,
consisting of women, use grammatical forms which be-
longed to the masculine gender alone. Thus our poet
took away the internal essence, of tragedy, and injured
the beautiful symmetry of its exterior structure. He
generally sacrifices the whole to parts, and in these,
again, he rather seeks after extraneous attractions than
genuine poetic beauty. In the music of the accompa-
niments he adopted all the innovations of which Timo-
theus was the author, and selected those measures
which are most suitable to the effeminacy of his poe-
try. He acted in a similar way as regarded prosody;
the construction of his verses is luxuriant, and ap-
proaches irregularity. This melting and unmanly turn
would indubitably, on a close examination, show itself
in the rhythm of hia choruses. Ho everywhere su-
perfluously brings in those merely corporeal charms,
which Winckelmann calls a flattery of the coarse out-
ward sense; everything which is stimulating or stri-
king, or, in a word, which has a lively effect, without
any real intrinsic value for the mind and the feelings.
He strives after effect in a degree which cannot be con-
ceded even to a dramatic poet. Thus, for example,
he sri join lets any opportunity escape of having his
personages seized with sudden and groundless terror;
his old men always complain of the infirmities of old
age, and are particularly given to mount, with totter-
ing knees, the ascent from the orchestra to the stage,
which, frequently, too, represented the declivity of a
mountain, while they lament their wretchedness. His
object throughout is emotion, for the sake of which he
not only offends against decorum, but sacrifices the
connexion of his pieces. He is forcible in his deline-
ations of misfortune; but he often lays claim to our
pity, not for some internal pain of the soul, a pain too
retiring in its nature, and borne in a manly manner, but
for mere corporeal suffering. He likes to reduce his
heroes to a state of beggary; makes them suffer hun-
ger and want, and brings them on the stage with all the
exterior signs of indigence, covered with rags, aa Aris-
tophanes so humorously throws in his teeth in the
Acharnians (v. 410-448). --Euripides had visited the
schools of the philosophers, and takes a pride in allu-
ding to all sorts of philosophical theories; in my opin-
ion, in a very imperfect manner, so that one cannot un-
derstand these instructions unless one knows them be-
forehand. He thinks it too vulgar to believe in the
gods in the simple way of the common people, and
therefore takes care, on every opportunity, to insinuate
something of an allegorical meaning, and to give the
world to understand what an equivocal ^ort of creed
he has to boast of. We can distinguish in him a two-
fold personage: the poet, whose productions were
dedicated to a religious solemnity, who stood uniL-r the
? ? orntection of religion, and must therefore honour it on
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? EURIPIDES.
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great suscepticiiity even for the more lofty charms of
womanly virtue, but no real respect. --That independ-
ent freedom in the method of treating the story, which
was one of the privileges of the tragic art, frequent-
ly, in Euripides, degenerates into unbounded caprice.
It is well known that the fables of Hyginus, which
differ so much from the relations of other writers, are
partly extracted from his pieces. As he often over-
turned what had hitherto been well known and gener-
ally received, he was obliged to use prologues, in
which he announces the situation of affairs according
to his acceptation, and makes known the course of
evtnta. (Compare the amusing scene in Aristopha-
nes, Ranee, 1177, scqq. , and Porson's explanation of
the employment of such prologues by Euripides, Pra-
Uct. in Eurtp. , p. 6, scqq. ) These prologues make
the beginnings of tbe plays of Euripides very uniform;
it has the appearanco of great deficiency of art when
somebody comes out and says, 'I am so and so; such
and such things have already happened, and this is what
is going to happen. ' This method may be compared
to the labels coming out of the mouths of the figures in
old pictures, which can only be excused by the great
simplicity of their antique style. But then, all the rest
must harmonize with it, which is by no means the case
with Euripides, whose personages discourse according
to the newest fashion of the manners of his time. In
his prologues, as well as in the denouement of his plots,
he is very lavish of unmeaning appearances of gods,
who are elevated above men only by being suspended
in a machine, and might very easily be spared. He
pushes to excess the method which the ancient tragic
writers have of treating the action, by throwing ev-
erything into large masses, with repose and motion
following at stated intervals. At one time he unrea-
sonably prolongs, with too great fondness for vivacity of
dialogue, that change of speakers at every verse which
was usual even with his predecessors, in which ques-
tions and answers, or reproaches and replies, are shot to
and fro like darts; and this he sometimes does so arbi-
trarily, that half of tbe lines might be dispensed with.
At another time he pours forth long, endless speeches;
\r endeavours to show his skill as an orator in its ut-
most brilliancy, by ingenious syllogisms, or by exciting
pi'v. Many of his scenes resemble a suit at law, in
which two persons, who are the parties opposed to one
another, or sometimes in the presence of a third per-
son as judge, do not confine themselves to what their
present situation requires , but, beginning their story
at the most remote period, accuse their adversary and
juatify themselves, doing all this with those turns
which are familiar to pleaders, and frequently with
those which are usual among sycophants. Thus the
poet attempted to make his poetry entertaining to tbe
Athenians by its resemblance to their daily and favour-
ite pursuit, carrying on and deciding, or at least listen-
ing to, lawsuits. On this account Quintilian particu-
larly recommends him to the young orator, who may
learn more by studying him than the older tragedians;
an opinion marked with his usual accuracy. But it is
<<asy to see that auch a recommendation conveys no
high eulogium, since eloquence may indeed find place
in the drama when it is suitable to the capacity and
abject of the person who is speaking; but when rhet-
oric iteps into the place of the immediate expression
of ths soul, it is no longer poetical. --The style of Eu-
ripides is. on the whole, not compressed enough, al-
? ? though it presents us with some very happily-drawn
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? EURIPIDES.
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ire uave remaining at the present day o. ily eighteen
tragedies and one aatyric piece. The lollowing are
. he titles and subjects: 1. 'Exatn, Hecuba. The sac-
rifice of Polyxena, whom the Greeks immolate to the
wanes of Achilles, and the vengeance which Hecuba,
doubly unfortunate in having been reduced to captivity
and deprived of her children, takes upon Polymneslor,
the murderer of her son Polydorus, form the subject of
this tragedy. The scene is laid in the Grecian camp
in the Thracian Chersonese. The shade of Polydorus,
whose body remains without the rites of sepulture, has
the prologue assigned it. Ennius and L. Acciua, and
in modern times Erasmus of Rotterdam, have trans-
lated this play into Latin verse. Ludovico Dolce has
given an Italian version of it; several passages have
been rendered into French by La Harpe; Racine owes
to it some fine verses in his Andromache and Iphigenia,
and Voltaire has imitated some parts in his Meropc. --
2. 'Opiarrje, Orestes. The scene of this play is laid
at Argos, the seventh day after the murder of Clytem-
ncstra. It is on this day that the people, in full as-
sembly, are to sit in judgment upon Orestes and Elec-
'. ra. The only hope of the accused is in Menelaus,
who has just arrived; but this prince, who secretly
aims at the succession, stirs up the people in private
to pronounce sentence of condemnation against the
parricides. The sentence is accordingly pronounced,
but the execution of it is left to the culprits themselves.
They meditate taking vengeance by slaying Helen;
but this princess is saved by the intervention of Apol-
lo, who brings about a double marriage, by uniting
Orestes with Hermicne, the daughter of Helen, and
Electra with Pylades. This denouement is unworthy
of the tragedy. The piece, moreover, is full of comic
and satiric traits. Some commentators think they rec-
ognise the portrait of Socrates in that of the simple
ind virtuous citizen who, in the assembly of the people,
undertakes the defence of Orestes. This play is as-
cribed by some to Euripides the younger, nephew of
the former. --3. iomaaat, Phanisstt. The subject
of this piece is the death of Eteoclis and Polynices.
The chorus is composed of young Phoenician females,
sent, according to the custom established by Agenor,
to the city of Thebes, in order to be consecrated to
the service of the temple at Delphi. The prologue is
issigned to Jocasta. Grotius regards the Phoenissaj
n<< the chef-d'osuvre of Euripides: a more elevated and
heroic tone prevails throughout it than is to be found in
any other of his pieces. The subject of the Phcenis-
<n; is that also of the Thebais of Seneca. Statius has
likewise imitated it in his epic poem, and Rotrou in
the first two acts of his Antigone. --4. Mf/dcia, Medear
The vengeance taken by Medea on the ungrateful Ja-
lon, to whom she has sacrificed all, and who, on his
irrival at Corinth, abandons her for a royal bride, forms
the subject of this tragedy. What constitutes the
principal charm of the piece is the simplicity and clear-
ness of the action, and the force and natural cast of
. he characters. The exposition of the play is made in
a monologue by the nurse: the chorus is composed of
Corinthian females, a circumstance which does not fail
to give an air of great improbability to this portion of
the plot. It is said that Euripides gave to the world
two editions of this tragedy, and that, in the first, the
children rf Medea were put to death by the Corinthi-
ans, <hii3 tnthe second, which has come down to us, it
iu their mother heraelf who slays them. Accotdiug to
? ? this hypothesis, the 1378th verse and those immediate-
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? EURIPIDES.
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que nous avuns maintenant do cette princesae. I. a
plupart dc ccux qui out enlendu parlcr d'Andromaque
ne la connoisscrit quo pour la veuve d'Hector, et pour
la rone d'Astyanax. On ne croit pas qu'elle doivo
aimer un autre man m un autre tils; et je doute que
Its lannes d'Andromaque euseent fait sur l't-sprit de
incs spectateurs I'impression qu'elles ont faite, si elles
avoient coule pour un autre fils que celui qu'elle avoit
d'Hector. " It is easy to perceive from this how much
'?
he French poet has ennobled by the change the char-
acter of his heroine. --8. 'Lterider, Supplices, "The
Fema. t Suppliants. " The scene of this tragedy is laid
in front of the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, whither the
Argive females, whose husbands have perished before
Thebes, have followed their king Adrastus, in the hop*
of engaging Theseus to take up anna in their behalf,
and obtain the rites of sepulture for their dead, whose
bodies were withheld by the Thebans. Theseus yields
to their request and promises his assistance. In ex-
hibiting this play the third year of the 90th Olympiad,
the fourteenth of the Peloponncsian war, Euripides
wished, it is said, to detach the Argives from the Spar-
tan cause. His attempt, however, failed, and the
treaty was signed by which Mantinea was sacrificed to
the ambition of Lacedasmon. The exposition of this
piece has not the same fault as the rest: it is impo-
sing and splendid, and made without the intervention
of an actual prologue; for the monologue by which
-Eihra. the mother of Theseus, makes known the sub-
ject of the piece, is a prayer addressed to Ceres, in
which the recital naturally finds a place. --9. 'lityeveia
i h kiiidt, Iphigenia in Aulide, "Iphigenia at
Aulis. " The subject of this tragedy is the intended
sacrifice of Iphigenia, and her rescue by Diana, who
substitutes another victim. It is the only one of the
plays of Euripides that has no prologue, for it is well
known that the Rhesus, which is also deficient in this
lespect, had one formerly. Hence Musgrave has con-
jacturedthat the present play had also once a prologue,
B which tb"? exposition of the piece was made by Di-
ana; and . E. ian {Hist. An. , 7, 39) cites a passage of
the Iphigenia which we do not now find in it, and
which could only have been pronounced by Diana; it
announces what she intends to do for the purpose of
saving Iphigenia. Eichstadt, however, and Bockh,
maintain, that the Iphigenia which wo at present have
could not have been furnished with a prologue, since,
if it had been, this prologue ought to have contained
the recital which is put in the mouth of Agamemnon
at verse 49, scqq. Hence Bockh concludes, that there
were two tragedies with this name, one written by Eu-
ripides and having a prologue, the other composed by
Euripides the younger, and which is also the one that
we now possess, ( Eichstadt, de Dram. Gracorum
Comko-Salyrieo, p. 99. --Bockh, Gracoe Tragozdia
Principum, &c, p. 216. --Consult also Bremi, Philo-
log. Bcytrdge out cter Scheeis, p. 143, and Jacobs,
Zusdtze s<< Sutzer, vol. 5, pt. 3, p. 401. ) Racine has.
made the story of Iphigenia the subject of one of his
chefs-d'asuvre. (Consult the Comparaison de Vlphi-
gene a*Euripide arcc l'l phi genie de Racine, par Louis
Racine, in the Mem. &? I'Acad, des Inscrip. , dec, vol.
8. p. 283. ) It has also been treated by Lmlovico
Dulce and by Rotrou. --10. 'Ifiyivtia ri ivTavpoic,
fphgenia in Tmcride, "Iphigenia in Tauris. " The
daughter of Agamemnon, rescued by Diana from the
knife olthe aaerincer, and transported to Tauris, there
? ? serves the goddess as a priestess in her temple. Ores-
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? EURIPIDES.
EURIPIDES.
Hercules jurens. After having killed, in his phrensy,
his wife and chi'dren, Hercules proceeds to submit
himself to certain expiatory ceremonies, and to seek
repose at Athens. Amphitryon appears in the pro-
logue: the scene is laid at Thebes. --17. 'Hfjurpa,
Elcclra. The subject of this piece has been treatcii
slso by ^Eachylus and Sophocles, but by each in his
peculiar way. Euripides transfers the scene from the
palace of jEgislhus to the country near Argos: the
eincaition of the play is made by a cultivator, to
vraom Electra has been compelled to give her hand,
ou, who has taken no advantage of this, and has re-
spected in her the daughter of a royal line. On com-
paring Euripides with Sophocles, we will find him in-
terior to the latter in the manner of treating the subject:
be has succeeded, however, in embellishing it with in-
teresting episodes. --18. 'Prjooc, Rhesus. A subject
derived from the tenth book of the Iliad. Some able
critics have proved that this piece was never written by
Euripides. (Consult Dissertation sur la tragidie de
Rliesus, pw Hardion, in the Mem. de I'Acad. des
inscr. et Belles-Lctlrcs, vol. 10, p. 323. --Valckenaer,
Diatribe Euripidca, c. 9, seqq. --Beck's Euripides,
vol. 3, p. 444, seqq. , Ac. )--19. 4ae6W, Phaithon.
Of this play we have about eighty verses remaining.
Clymene, the mother of Phaethon, is the wife of Me-
rops, king of the Ethiopians, and Phaethon passes for
the son of this prince. The young man, having con-
ceivrd some doubts respecting his origin, addresses
himself to the Sun. The catastrophe, which cost him
his life, is well known. In the tragedy of Euripides,
the body of her son is brought to Clymene, at the very
moment when Merops is occupied with the care of
procuring for him a bride. --20. Aavt'ui, Danae. Of
this play we have the commencement alone, unless the
eix'. y-five verses, which commonly pass for a part of
the prologue, are rather to be considered as the produc-
tion of some imitator, who has proceeded no farther in
iis attempt to ape the style of Euripides. This last
:>>the hypothesis of Wolf. (Litt. Anal. , vol. 2, p. 394. )
--The ancient writers cite also a poem of Euripides,
to which we have already alluded, under the title of
EiriKtia'eiov, " Funeral hymn," on the death of Nicias
and Demosthenes, as well as of the other Athenians
who perished in the disastrous expedition against Syra-
cuse. We possess also two Epigrams of Euripides,
each consisting of four verses, ono of which has been
preserved for us in the Anthology, and the other in
Athenmtis. There have also come down to us five
letters, ascribed to Euripides, and written with suffi-
cient purity and simplicity of style to warrant the belief
that they are genuine productions. (Compare the re-
marks of Beck in his edition of the poet--vol. 7, ed.
Glasg. , p. 720. )--Of the numerous fragments of Eurip-
ides that have reached us, it seems unnecessary here
to speak. The only production worth mentioning, af-
ter those already noticed, is the satyric drama entitled
Cyclops (KvkZu^). The Greek satyric drama must
not be confounded with the satire of the Romans,
from which it was totally distinct. (Bentley on Phal-
aris, p. 246, ed. Land. , 1816. ) It was a novel and
mixed kind of play, first exhibited by Pratinas, proba-
bly at a period not long subsequent to Olymp 70 2
B. C. 499. (Theatri of the Greeks, id ed. , p. lis. )
The poet, borrowing from tragedy its external form
tod mythological materials, added a chorus of :alyre,
with their lively songs, gestures, and movements. This
? ? species o' composition quickly obtained great celebri-
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? EURIPUS.
EUR
iJsgrin, from not being able tu account for so unusual
? motion of the water. The atory, however, is devoid
of foundation. ( Vtd. Aristoteies. )--From this rapid
movement of the current, the Euripus derived its an-
cient name (ev, bene, and iiirru, jacto). Livy'a ac-
count of irtiii strait appears the most rational. "A
more dangerous station for a fleet," observes this wri-
ter, " can hardly be found; besides that the winds rush
down suddenly and with great fury from the high
mountains-on each side, the strait itself of the Euripus
does not ebb and flow seven limes a day, at staled
hours, as report says; but the current changing irreg-
ularly, like the wind, from one point to another, is
hurried along like a torrent tumbling from a steep
mountain; so that, night or day, ships can never lie
quiet. " (L-c, 2d, 6. ) The strails are now called, by
a corruption of the ancient name, the straits of Negro-
font. Hobhouse visited the Euripus, and the account
given by this intelligent traveller of its appearance in
our own days is deserving of belag cited. "What I
witnessed of the Euripus was, that the stream flows
with violence, like a mill-race, under the bridges, and
? Jut a strong eddy is observable on that side from which
it is about to run, about a hundred yards above the
bridges; the current, however, not being at all appa-
rent at a greater distance, either to the south or north.
Yet the ebbing and flowing are said to be visible at
ten or a dozen leagues distance, at each side of the
? trait, by marks shown of the rising and falling of the
water in several small bays on both coasts. The depth
of the stream is very inconsiderable, not much more
than four feet. The account which Wheler copied
from the Jesuit Babin, respecting the changes of the
Euripus, and which he collected on the spot, though
not from his |>eraonal experience, he not being long
enough in the place, was, that it was subject to the
same laws as the tides of the ocean for eighteen days
of eTery moon, and was irregular, having twelve, thir-
teen, or fourteen Sowings and ebbiugs lor the other
lleven days; that is, that it was regular for the three
U>>t days c? the old moon and the eight first of the
aev>>, then irregular for five days, regular again for the
next seven, and irregular for the other six. The water
seldom rose to two feet, and usually not above one;
and, contrary to the ocean, it flowed towards the sea,
and ebbed towards the main land of Thcssaly, north-
ward. On '. he irregular days it rose for half an huur,
and fell for three quarters; but, when regular, was six
hours in each direction, losing an hour a day. It did
not appear to be influenced by the wind. A Greek of
Athens, who had resided three years at Egripo, told
me that he considered the changes to depend chiefly
on the wind, which, owing to the high lands in the vi-
cinity of the strait, is particularly variable in this place.
The two great gulfs, for so they may be called, at the
north and south of the strait, which present a large
surface to every storm that blows, and receive the
whole force of the Archipelago, communicate with
each other at this narrow shallow channel; so that the
Euripus may be a sort of barometer, indicative of every
change, and of whatever rising and falling of the tide,
not visible in the open expanse of waters there may be
in these seas. I did not, however, see any marks of
the water being ever higher at one time than at another.
The Greek had observed also, that, when the wind was
north or south, tha if, either up or down the strait, the
? Iteration took place o>>. . 'y four times in the twenty-four
? ? boars, but that, when it was from the east, and blew
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? EUROPA.
TUROPA.
coasl of tlie Clack Sea; but what he says aoout the
countries west of Greece, on the shores of the Medi-
terranean, is a mixture if fable and truth, in which
the fabulous part prevails. It would seem that, in his
age, these seas were not yet visited by his country-
men, and that lie obtained his knowledge from the
Phoenicians, who had probably for some tune sailed to
these regions, but who, according to the common poli-
cy of trading nations, spread abroad false accounts of
these unknown countries, in order to deter other na-
tions from following their track, and participating in
'. he advantages of this distant commerce. It is proba-
ble, also, that the Phoenicians long excluded tho Greeks
from the navigation of the Mediterranean; for when
the latter began to form settlements beyond their na-
tive country, they first occupied the shores of the -Ege-
i n, and afterward those of the Black Sea. As the
European shores of this last-mentioned sea are not
well adapted for agriculture, except a comparatively
? mall tract of the peninsula of Crimea, their early set-
tlements were mostly on the Asiatic coasts, and, con-
sequently, little addition was made by these colonies
to the geographical knowledge of Europe. But the
navigation of the Phoenicians was checked in the mid-
dle of the sixth century before Christ, apparently by
their being subjugated by the Persians. About this
time, also, the Greeks began to form settlements in
the southern parts of Italy and on the island of Sicily,
and to navigate the Mediterranean Sea to its full ex-
tent. Accordingly, we find that, in the time of Herodo-
tus (450 B. C. ), not only the countries on each side of
the Mediterranean, and the northern shores of the Black
Sea, were pretty well known to the Greeks, but that,
following the track of the Phoenicians, they ventured to
oass the Columns of Hercules, and to sail as far as the
Lassiterides, or Tin Islands, by which name the Scil-
lv Isles and a part of Cornwall must be understood.
It is even reported, that some of their navigators sailed
through the English Channel and entered the North
Sea, and perhaps even the Baltic. It must be ob-
served, however, that Herodotus professes himself to-
tally unacquainted with the islands called Cassilerides
(3, 115), and Strabo (p. 104, cite. ) expresses a very
unfavourable opinion of the alleged northern voyages
of Pylheas. Thus a considerable part of the coasts of
Europe was discovered, while the interior remained
almost unknown. When the Romans began their con-
quests, this deficiency was partly rilled up. The con-
quest }f Italy was followed by that of Spain and the
southern parts of Gaul, and, not long afterward, Sicily,
Greece, and Macedonia were added. Caesar conquer-
ed Gaul and the countries west of the Rhine, together
with the districts lying between ill- different arms by
which that river enters the sea. His two expeditions
into Britain made known also, in some measure, the
nature of that island and the character of its inhabi-
tants. Thus, in the course of little more than two
hundred years, the interior of all those countries was
discovered, the shores of which had been previously
known. In the mean time, nothing was added to the
knowledge of the coasts, the Greeks having lost their
spirit of discovery by sea along with their liberty, and
the Romans not being inclined to naval enterprise.
After the establishment of imperial power at Rome,
the conquests of the Romans went on at a much (. lower
rale, am! the boundaries of the empire soon became
stationary. This circumstance must be chiefly at-
? ? tributed to the nature of the countries which were con-
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? EUROPa.
EUROPA.
ifficiei.
