A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

EURIPIDES. EURIPIDES. 105
awaited him, would have much temptation for one with vicious habits, yet it is also one on which'
situated as Euripides was at Athens. The attacks men are very apt to avenge themselves by reports:
of Aristophanes and others had probably not been and insinuations of the kind we are alluding to.
without their effect; there was a strong, violent, Certainly the calumny in question seems to be
and unscrupulous party against him, whose in- contradicted in a great measure by the spirit of the
trigues and influence were apparent in the results Hippolytus, in which the hero is clearly a great
of the dramatic contests; if we may believe the favourite with the author, and from which it has
testimony of Varro (ap. Gell. xvii. 4), he wrote 75 been inferred that his own tendency was even to
tragedies and gained the prize only five times; ac- asceticism. (Keble, Prael. Acad. p. 606, &c.)'
cording to Thomas Magister, 15 of his plays out of It may be added, that a speculative character, like
92 were successful. After his death, indeed, his that of Euripides, is one over which such lower
high poetical merits seem to have been fully and temptations have usually less power, and which is
generally recognized; but so have been those of liable rather to those of a spiritual and intellectual:
Wordswerth among ourselves even in his lifetime; kind. (See Butler's Anal. part ii. c. 6.) Nor
and yet to the poems'of both, the powv&ava evvs- does there appear to be any better foundation for,roiTs of Pindar is perhaps especially applicable. that other charge which has been brought against
Euripides, again, must have been aware that his him, of hatred to the female sex. The alleged
philosophical tenets were regarded, whether justly infidelity of his wife, which is commonly adduced
or not, with considerable suspicion, and he had to account for it, has been discussed above; and
already been assailed with a charge of impiety in a we may perhaps safely pass over the other statecourt of justice, on the ground of the well-known line ment, found in Gellius (xv. 20), where it is attriin the Hippolytus (607), supposed to be expres- buted to his having had two wives at once,-a
sive of mental reservation. (Arist. Rhet. iii. 15. ~ 8.) double dose of matrimony! The charge no doubt
He did not live long to enjoy the honours and originated in the austerity of his temper and depleasures of the Macedonian court, as his death meanour above mentioned (Suid. s. v.); but certook place in B. C. 406. Most testimonies agree tainly he who'drew such characters as Antigone,
in stating that he was torn in pieces by the king's Iphigeneia, and, above all, Alcestis, was not blind
-dogs, which, according to some, were set upon him to the gentleness, the strong affection, the selfthrough envy by Arrhidaeus and Crateuas, two abandoning devotedness of women.' And if his
rival poets. But even with the account of his end plays contain specimens of the sex far different
scandal has been busy, reporting that he met it at from these, we must not forget, what has indeed
the hands of women while he was going one night almost passed into a proverb, that women are both
to keep a criminal assignation,-and this at the age better and worse than men, and that one especial
of 75! The story seems to be a mixture of the characteristic of Euripides was to represent human
two calumnies with respect to the profligacy of his nature as it is. (Arist. PoEt. 46.)
character and his hatred of the female sex. The With respect to the world and the Deity, he
Athenians sent to ask for his remains, but Arche- seems to have adopted the doctrines of his master,
laiis refused to give them up, and buried them in not unmixed apparently with pantheistic views.
Macedonia with great honour. The regret of So- [ANAxAGORAS.] (Valck. Diatr. 4-6; Hartung,
phocles for his death is said to have been so great, E- ur. Rest. p. 95, &c.) To class him with atheists,
that at the representation of his next play he made and to speak in the same breath, as Sir T. Browne
his actors appear uncrowned. (Ael. V. H. xiii. 4; does (Rel. Med. ~ 47), of "the impieties of Lucian,
Diod. xiii. 103; Gell. xv. 20; Paus. i. 20; Thom. Euripides, and Julian," is undoubtedly unjust.
Mag. VTit. Eur.; Suid. s. v. Evplnri87s; Steph. Byz. At the same' time, it must be confessed that we
s. v. BOPiaeKos; Eur. Arch.'ed. Wagner, p. 111; look in vain in his plays for the high faith of
see Barnes, Vit. Eur. ~ 31; Bayle, Dict. Histor. Aeschylus, which ever recognizes the hand of Pros. v. Euripides, and the authorities there re- vidence guiding the troubled course of events and
ferred to.) The statue of Euripides in the theatre over-ruling them for good; nor can we fail to adat Athens is mentioned by Pausanias (i. 21). The mit that the pupil of Anaxagoras could not sympaadmiration felt for him by foreigners, even in his thise with the popular religious system around him,
lifetime, may be illustrated not only by the patro- nor throw himself cordially into it. Aeschylus
nage of Archelails, but also by what Plutarch indeed rose above while he adopted it, and formally
records (Nic. 29), that many of the Athenian retaining its legends, imparted to them a higher
prisoners in Sicily regained their liberty by re- and deeper moral significance. Such, however,
citing his verses to their masters, and that the was not the case with Euripides; and there is
Caunians on one occasion having at first refused to much truth in what Miller says (Greek Literature,
admit into their harbour an Athenian ship pur- p. 358), that " with respect to the mythical tradisued by pirates, allowed it to put in when they tions' which the tragic muse had selected as her
found that some of the crew could repeat fragments subjects, he stood on an entirely different footing
of his poems. from Aeschylus and from Sophocles. He could
We have already intimated that the accounts not bring his philosophical convictions with regard
which we find in Athenaeus and others of the pro- to the nature of God and His relation to mankind
fligacy of Euripides are mere idle scandal, and into harmony with the contents of these legends,
scarcely worthy of serious refutation. (Athen. xiii. nor could he pass over in silence their incongruipp. 557, e., 603, e.; comp. Suid. I. c.; Arist. Ran. ties. Hence it is that he is driven to the strange.1045; Schol. ad loc.) On the authority of Alex- necessity of carrying on a sort of polemical discusander Aetolus (ap. Gell. xv. 20; comp. Ael. V. H. sion with the very materials and subjects of whi*ch
viii. 13) we learn that he was, like his master he had to treat." (Here. Fur. 1316,1317, Androea.
Anaxagoras, of a serious temper and averse to 1138, Orest. 406, eon, 445, &c., Fragm. Beller.
mirth (o'rpvcuvps ial LuooyiAcws); and though such ed. Wagner, p. 147; Clem. Alex. Protrept. 7.)
a character is indeed by no means incompatible And if we may regard the Bacchae, written to