appalled and hesitates but no one doubts the reality of the threat of divine vengeance
if he fails to act. Where Sophocles plays down the effect of matricide by making no
mention of retribution in the form of Furies for Orestes and by making the climax of
his play the killing of Aegisthus, thus ending upon a note of uncomplicated rejoicing
at the cleansing of the house, the overthrow of tyranny and the assertion of justice,
Euripides, having disposed of Aegisthus first (he is stabbed in the back while
performing a sacrifice), makes the climax of his play the horror and torment felt by
both daughter and son at the murder of their mother.
The resolution of the play is effected by the sudden appearance of the gods from
the machine, Castor and Pollux, who pronounce Clytemnestra’s fate just but do not
justify Orestes and Electra, saying that Apollo’s command was not wise. This critical
spirit is in marked contrast to Sophocles. Electra is to marry Pylades, Orestes must
stand trial in Argos. He will be acquitted on equal votes ‘And this shall stand as
precedent for murder trials in times to come that the accused when votes are equal
win the case’ (ll. 1265–1269). How different is this almost gratuitous aetiology from
the complicated Aeschylean resolution that had grown out of the evolving conflict of
wills on both the human and divine planes. Euripides’ gods are here merely machines
for tying up the loose ends of the plot. In other plays (notably the Hippolytusand the
Bacchae) gods representing non-rational forces are fully integrated into the thematic
structure.
As if to emphasize the sceptical spirit in which the poet handles traditional stories,
the gods announce that Clytemnestra is to be buried by Helen (her sister) and
Menelaus, who are just nowreturning from Egypt, for ‘Zeus sent off to Troy a
phantom Helen to stir up strife and slaughter in the human race’ (ll. 1282–1283). We
may recall here an earlier ode in which the chorus told how Pan brought a lamb with
a golden fleece to Atreus’ house, and how his brother Thyestes lay with Atreus’ wife
and took the lamb to his own house, whereupon Zeus in anger reversed the course
of the stars and the sun’s chariot. Such is the story, they say, but they do not believe
that Zeus turned back the sun for any mortal misdeed. But such frightening tales
(mythoi)are useful to mortals, as they promote reverence for the gods (ll. 699–746).
And so the chorus scrutinise the myths; the characters and the gods from the machine
question Apollo’s oracle. Old certainties are not taken for granted in Euripides.
There is evidence that, of all the tragic poets, Euripides was held in the greatest
regard. Plutarch (ADc. 50–c.120) relates the following remarkable anecdote about the
fate of Athenians captured in Sicily:
There is a tradition that many of the Athenian soldiers who returned home safely
visited Euripides to thank him for their deliverance which they owed to his poetry.
Some of them told him that they had been given their freedom in return for
teaching their masters all they could remember of his works, while others, when162 THE GREEKS