ἐρᾶτε μητρὸς παῖδες· ὡς οὐκ ἔστ' ἔρως
τοιοῦτος ἄλλος οἷος ἡδίων ἐρᾶν.[52]
The sentiment here expressed seems to be contradicted by a fragment from an unknown play (No. 887), where a son tells his mother that he cannot be expected to cling to her as much as to his father. The Greeks, as we gather from the Oresteia of Æschylus, believed that the male offspring was specially related by sympathy, duty, and hereditary qualities to his father. The contrast between women and men in respect to the paternal home is well conveyed in the following four lines:
οὐ τῶν τεκόντων ἐστὶν ἀλλὰ τοῦ λέχους·
τὸ δ' ἄρσεν ἕστηκ' ἐν δόμοις ἀεὶ γένος
θεῶν πατρῴων καὶ τάφων τιμάορον.[53]
Some of the most remarkable excerpts from Euripides turn upon the thought of death—a doom accepted by him with magnanimous Greek stoicism. Those which appear to me the most important I have thrown together for convenience of comparison:
τὸ ζῆν δὲ θνήσκειν ἐστί; πλὴν ὅμως βροτῶν
νοσοῦσιν οἱ βλέποντες οἱ δ' ὀλωλότες
οὐδὲν νοσοῦσιν οὐδὲ κέκτηνται κακά.
τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν εἰς ὅσ' ἔρχεται κακά,
τὸν δ' αὖ θανόντα καὶ πόνων πεπαυμένον
χαίροντας εὐφημοῦντας ἐκπέμπειν δόμων.
γῆ καὶ σκιά· τὸ μηδὲν εἰς οὐδὲν ῥέπει.
ἔχει· τί γὰρ τοῦδ' ἐστὶ μεῖζον ἐν βροτοῖς;
τίς γὰρ πετραῖον σκόπελον οὐτίζων δορὶ
ὀδύναισι δώσει; τίς δ' ἀτιμάζων νέκυς,
εἰ μηδὲν αἰσθάνοιντο τῶν παθημάτων;[54]
To these should be added the magnificent words of consolation addressed by Dictys, in the tragedy that bears his name, to Danaë:
καὶ παῖδ' ἀνήσειν τὸν σὸν εἰ θέλοις στένειν;
παῦσαι· βλέπουσα δ' εἰς τὰ τῶν πέλας κακὰ
ῥᾴων γένοι' ἄν, εἰ λογίζεσθαι θέλοις
ὅσοι τε δεσμοῖς ἐκμεμόχθηνται βροτῶν,
ὅσοι τε γηράσκουσιν ὀρφανοὶ τέκνων,
τούς τ' ἐκ μεγίστης ὀλβίας τυραννίδος
τὸ μηδὲν ὄντας· ταῦτά σε σκοπεῖν χρεών.[55]
Close to the thought of death lies that of endurance; and here is a fragment from the Hypsipyle, which might be placed for a motto on the title-page of Epictetus:
θάπτει τε τέκνα χἄτερ' αὖ κτᾶται νέα,
αὐτός τε θνήσκει, καὶ τάδ' ἄχθονται βροτοὶ
εἰς γῆν φέροντες γῆν· ἀναγκαίως δ' ἔχει
βίον θερίζειν ὥστε κάρπιμον στάχυν,
καὶ τὸν μὲν εἶναι τὸν δὲ μή· τί ταῦτα δεῖ
στένειν, ἅπερ δεῖ κατὰ φύσιν διεκπερᾶν;
δεινὸν γὰρ οὐδὲν τῶν ἀναγκαίων βροτοῖς.[56]
On Justice and the punishment of sins we may take the following passages, expressing, with dramatic energy, the intense moral conscience of the Greek race:
πτεροῖσι, κἄπειτ' ἐν Διὸς δέλτου πτυχαῖς
γράφειν τιν' αὐτά, Ζῆνα δ' εἰσορῶντά νιν
θνητοῖς δικάζειν; οὐδ' ὁ πᾶς ἂν οὐρανὸς
Διὸς γράφοντος τὰς βροτῶν ἁμαρτίας
ἐξαρκέσειεν, οὐδ' ἐκεῖνος ἂν σκοπῶν
πέμπειν ἑκάστῳ ζημίαν· ἀλλ' ἡ Δίκη
ἐνταῦθά πού 'στιν ἐγγὺς εἰ βούλεσθ' ὁρᾶν.
ἐγγύς τε ναίειν τῆς βροτῶν ἁμαρτίας.[57]
They stand, however, in somewhat curious opposition to a fragment from Bellerophon about Divine Justice:
οὐκ εἰσίν, οὐκ εἴσ'. εἴ τις ἀνθρώπων λέγει,
μὴ τῷ παλαιῷ μῶρος ὢν χρήσθω λόγῳ.
σκέψασθε δ' αὐτὰ μὴ 'πι τοῖς ἐμοῖς λόγοις
γνώμην ἔχοντες· φήμ' ἐγὼ τυραννίδα
κτείνειν τε πλείστους κτημάτων τ' ἀποστερεῖν,
ὅρκους τε παραβαίνοντας ἐκπορθεῖν, πόλεις,
καὶ ταῦτα δρῶντες μᾶλλον εἰσ' εὐδαίμονες
τῶν εὐσεβούντων ἡσυχῆ καθ' ἡμέραν·
πόλεις τε μικρὰς οἶδα τιμώσας θεοὺς
αἳ μειζόνων κλύουσι δυσσεβεστέρων
λόγχης ἀριθμῷ πλείονος κρατούμεναι.[58]
In which of the fragments just quoted was the poet speaking in his own person? In neither, perhaps, fully; partly, perhaps, in both. About wealth he utters in like manner seemingly contradictory oracles:
καὶ κτᾶσθε πλοῦτον πάντοθεν θηρώμενοι
σύμμικτα μὴ δίκαια καὶ δίκαι' ὁμοῦ·
ἔπειτ' ἀμᾶσθε τῶνδε δύστηνον θέρος.
ὡς οὔτε μήτηρ ἡδονὰς τοιάσδ' ἔχει
οὐ παῖδες ἀνθρώποισιν οὐ φίλος πατήρ,
οἵας σὺ χοἰ σὲ δώμασιν κεκτημένοι.
εἰ δ' ἡ Κύπρις τοιοῦτον ὀφθαλμοῖς ὁρᾷ
οὐ θαῦμ' ἔρωτας μυρίους αὐτὴν τρέφειν.[59]
In what he says of noble birth Euripides never wavers. The true democrat speaks through his verse, and yet no poet has spoken more emphatically of bravery and honor. We may take the following examples in their order:
ὁ μὲν γὰρ ἐσθλὸς εὐγενὴς ἔμοιγ' ἀνὴρ
ὁ δ' οὐ δίκαιος κἂν ἀμείνονος πατρὸς
Ζηνὸς πεφύκῃ δυσγενὴς εἶναι δοκεῖ.
τὴν εὐγένειαν· τοὺς γὰρ ἀνδρείους φύσιν
καὶ τοὺς δικαίους τῶν κενῶν δοξασμάτων
κἂν ὦσι δούλων εὐγενεστέρους λέγω.
πρέπει χαρακτὴρ χρηστὸς εἰς εὐψυχίαν.
ἅπασα δὲ χθὼν ἀνδρὶ γενναίῳ πατρίς.[60]
Further to illustrate his conception of true nobility, using for this purpose in particular the fragments of the Antiope, would be easy. It appears throughout that Euripides was bent on contrasting the honor that is won by labor with the pleasures of a lazy life. Against the hedonism which lay so near at hand to pagans in the license of the flesh, the Greeks set up an ideal of glory attainable alone by toil. This morality found expression in the famous lines of Hesiod on ἀρετή, in the action of Achilles, in the proverb πάντα τὰ καλὰ χαλεπά, and in the fable of the choice of Hercules. Euripides varies the theme in his iambics by a hundred modulations:
οὐδεὶς γὰρ ὢν ῥᾴθυμος εὐκλεὴς ἀνήρ.
ἀλλ' οἱ πόνοι τίκτουσι τὴν εὐδοξίαν.
εὔκλειαν εἰσεκτήσατ' ἀλλὰ χρὴ πονεῖν.
οὔτ' οἶκον οὔτε γαῖαν ὀρθώσειεν ἄν.
The political morality deduced from this view of life is stern and noble:
εὖ δ' οἶκος, εἴς τ' αὖ πόλεμον ἰσχύει μέγα·
σοφὸν γὰρ ἓν βούλευμα τὰς πολλὰς χέρας
νικᾷ· σὺν ὄχλῳ δ' ἀμαθία πλεῖστον κακόν.
θεούς τε τιμᾶν τούς τε φύσαντας γονεῖς,
νόμους τε κοινοὺς Ἑλλάδος· καὶ ταῦτα δρῶν
κάλλιστον ἕξεις στέφανον εὐκλείας ἀεί.[62]
Nor is the condemnation of mere pleasure-seeking less severe:
τὰ μὲν κατ' οἴκους ἀμελίᾳ παρεὶς ἐᾷ,
μολπαῖσι δ' ἡσθεὶς τοῦτ' ἀεὶ θηρεύεται,
ἀργὸς μὲν οἴκοις καὶ πόλει γενήσεται
φίλοισι δ' οὐδείς· ἡ φύσις γὰρ οἴχεται
ὅταν γλυκείας ἡδονῆς ἥσσων τις ᾖ.[63]
The indifference induced by satiety is well characterized in the following lines:
λέκτροις ἐπ' αἰσχροῖς εἶδον ἐκπεπληγμένους.
δαιτὸς δὲ πληρωθείς τις ἄσμενος πάλιν
φαύλῃ διαίτῃ προσβαλὼν ἥσθη στόμα.[64]
In the foregoing specimens no selection has been made of lines remarkable for their æsthetic beauty. This omission is due to Stobæus, who was more bent on extracting moral maxims than strains of poetry comparable with the invocation of Hippolytus to Artemis. Two, however, I have marked for translation on account of their artistic charm; the first for its pretty touch of picturesqueness, the second for its sympathy with sculpture:
χελιδόνων μουσεῖον.
ἄφρῳ θαλάσσης, παρθένου τ' εἰκώ τινα
ἐξ αὐτομόρφων λαΐνων τειχισμάτων
σοφῆς ἄγαλμα χειρός.[65]
Some passages, worthy of preservation, yet not easily classified, may wind up the series. Here is "Envy, eldest born of hell:"
βροτοῖς ἔφυσε τὸν δυσώνυμον φθόνον;
ποῦ καί ποτ' οἰκεῖ σωμάτων λαχὼν μέρος;
ἐν χερσὶν ἢ σπλάγχνοισιν ἢ παρ' ὄμματα
ἔσθ' ἡμίν; ὡς ἦν μόχθος ἰατροῖς μέγας
τομαῖς ἀφαιρεῖν ἢ ποτοῖς ἢ φαρμάκοις
πασῶν μεγίστην τῶν ἐν ἀνθρώποις νόσων.[66]
The next couplet is pregnant with a home-truth which most men have had occasion to feel:
αὐτοὶ δ' ὅταν σφαλῶμεν οὐ γιγνώσκομεν.[67]
The value attached by Greek political philosophers to the ἦθος, or temperament, of states, and their dislike of demagogy, are accounted for in these four lines:
τὸν μὲν γὰρ οὐδεὶς ἂν διαστρέψαι ποτὲ
ῥήτωρ δύναιτο, τὸν δ' ἄνω τε καὶ κάτω
λόγοις ταράσσων πολλάκις λυμαίνεται.[68]
One single line, noticeable for its weighty meaning, and Euripidean by reason of its pathos, shall end the list:
The lasting title to fame of Euripides consists in his having dealt with the deeper problems of life in a spirit which became permanent among the Greeks, so that his poems, like those of Menander, never lost their value as expressions of current philosophy. Nothing strikes the student of later Greek literature more strongly than this prolongation of the Euripidean tone of thought and feeling. In the decline of tragic poetry the literary sceptre was transferred to comedy, and the comic playwrights may be described as the true successors of Euripides. The dialectic method, degenerating into sophistic quibbling, which he affected, was indeed dropped, and a more harmonious form of art than the Euripidean was created for comedy by Menander, when the Athenians, after passing through their disputatious period, had settled down into a tranquil acceptation of the facts of life. Yet this return to harmony of form and purity of perception did not abate the influence of Euripides. Here and there throughout his tragedies he had said once and for all, and well said, what the Greeks were bound to think and feel upon important matters, and his sensitive, susceptible temperament repeated itself over and over again among his literary successors. The exclamation of Philemon that, if he could believe in immortality, he would hang himself to see Euripides, is characteristic not only of Philemon, but also of the whole Macedonian period of Greek literature.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] Worsley's translation, Iliad, vol. i. p. 154.
[14] See vol. i. pp. 91-123.
Or if thou seek to harm them, 'tis all one;
For they can feel no joy nor suffer pain,
Nathless high Nemesis is throned above us,
And Justice doth exact the dead man's due.
[16] See vol. i. pp. 372-435.
For thou alone of ills incurable
Art healer: no pain preyeth on the dead.
Nor sacrifice nor incense aught avails;
He hath no altar and no hymns of gladness;
Prayer stands aloof from him, Persuasion fails.
And love still prompts the land to yearn for bridals;
The rain that falls in rivers from the sky,
Impregnates earth, and she brings forth for men
The flocks and herds and life of teeming Ceres;
The bloom of forests by dews hymeneal
Is perfected: in all which things I rule.
Yea, Zeus is all things, and the power above them.
Well might I shadow forth its power as thus:
When the clear, eager frost has fallen, boys
Seize with their fingers the firm frozen ice,
And first they feel an unaccustomed pleasure,
But in the end it melts, and they to leave it
Or in their hands to hold it know not how;
Even so the same desire drives wilful lovers
To do and not to do by frequent changes.
There is not anything, nor will be ever,
Than woman worse, let what will fall on men.
It is right to observe that Welcker and Ahrens have conjecturally pieced together this and many other scattered fragments, and connected them in such a way as to reconstitute a tragedy with Argos for its scene, not Thebes.
Of sinners, even such should thrive and prosper,
While men by virtue moulded, sprung from sires
Complete in goodness, should be born to suffer.
Nay, but the gods do ill in dealing thus
With mortals! It were well that pious men
Should take some signal guerdon at their hands;
But evil-doers, on their heads should fall
Conspicuous punishment for deeds ill-done.
Then should no wicked man fare well and flourish.
From the Aletes.
Is irksome to his friends and does not know it.
Better than sophists may discover truth.
And sets them on the tyrant's hated throne:
Wealth finds no foes, or none but covert foes,
Climbs pathless ways, and treads where tracks are beaten;
While poor men, what luck gives them, may not use:
A misshaped body, an ill-sounding name,
Wealth turns by words to beauty, gifts with wisdom;
For wealth alone hath privilege of freedom
In joy and sickness, and can hide its sorrow.
[27] Tyrants are wise by wise society.
[28] Man is but wind and shadow, naught besides.
If nothing else, at least her shivering top
Moves 'neath the breeze and waves her leafy pinions.
Or women, but the souls of gods above
He furrows, and makes onslaught on the sea:
Against his force Zeus the all-powerful
Is impotent—he yields and bends with pleasure.
Curse, and no greater blessing than a good one.
Each after trial speaks by his experience.
In her one name names manifold are blended;
For she is Death, imperishable power,
Frenetic fury, irresistible longing,
Wailing and groaning. Her one force includes
All energy, all languor, and all violence.
Into the vitals of whatever thing
Hath breath of life, she sinks. Who feeds her not?
She creeps into the fishes of the sea
And the four-footed creatures of dry land,
Shakes mid the birds her own aerial plumes,
Sways beasts and mortal men and gods above.
Which of the gods hath she not thrown in wrestling?
If right allow, and to speak truth is right,
She rules the heart of Zeus. Without or spear
Or sword, I therefore bid you know, Dame Kupris
Fells at a blow of gods and men the counsels.
I've noticed how to this we women fall,
How we are naught. In girlhood and at home
Our life's the sweetest life men ever know,
For careless joy is a glad nurse to all:
But when we come to youth, gleeful and gay,
Forth are we thrust, and bought and sold and bartered,
Far from our household gods, from parents far,
Some to strange husbands, to barbarians some,
To homes uncouth, to houses foul with shame.
Yea, let but one night yoke us, all these things
Must needs forthwith be praised and held for fair.
From the womb are issued equal, sons alike of mother earth;
But our lots how diverse! Some are nursed by fortune harsh and rude,
Some by gentle ease, while others bare their necks to servitude.
Were vain before his life be wholly done;
For in short time and swift great power and riches
Have fallen by the dower of fate malign,
When fortune veers and thus the gods decree.
Old age hath all the ills that flesh is heir to—
Vain thoughts and powerless deeds and vanished mind.
If tears could raise the dead to life again,
Gold would be valueless compared with crying.
But now, old man, these sorrows nought avail
To bring to light him whom the grave hath covered;
Else had my father, too, by grace of tears,
The day revisited.
The second of these extracts finds a close echo in some beautiful lines on the inutility of tears by Philemon [Sardius fr. i.]
For ill folk odious insults heap upon me.
They bring forgetfulness of present woes.
How truly are we naught but like to shadows
Rolling superfluous weight of earth around!
That breathed dark dreams in night, by day are solaced.
I seek; from heaven I ask what may be prayed for.
[38] See Goethe, Sämmtliche Werke, 1840, vol. xxxiii, pp. 22-43.
Not one is greater than the tribe of athletes;
For, first, they never learn how to live well,
Nor, indeed, could they; seeing that a man,
Slave to his jaws and belly, cannot hope
To heap up wealth superior to his sire's.
How to be poor and row in fortune's boat
They know no better; for they have not learned
Manners that make men proof against ill luck.
Lustrous in youth, they lounge like living statues.
Decking the streets; but when sad old age comes,
They fall and perish like a threadbare coat.
I've often blamed the customs of us Hellenes,
Who for the sake of such men meet together
To honor idle sport and feed our fill;
For who, I pray you, by his skill in wrestling,
Swiftness of foot, good boxing, strength at quoits,
Has served his city by the crown he gains?
Will they meet men in fight with quoits in hand,
Or in the press of shields drive forth the foeman
By force of fisticuffs from hearth and home?
Such follies are forgotten face to face
With steel. We therefore ought to crown with wreaths
Men wise and good, and him who guides the State,
A man well-tempered, just, and sound in counsel,
Or one who by his words averts ill deeds,
Warding off strife and warfare; for such things
Bring honor on the city and all Hellenes.
Aside to folly or to sensual joy!
Surely there is another sort of love
For a soul, just, well-tempered, strong, and good.
And there should be this law for mortal men,
To love the pure and temperate, and to leave
Kupris, the daughter of high Zeus, alone.
We find a witty contradiction to the sentiment of these lines in a fragment of Amphis [Dithyrambus, fr. 2]:
ἔρως τις ἐστὶν ὅστις ὡραῖον φιλῶν
τρόπων ἐραστής ἐστι τὴν ὄψιν παρείς;
ἄφρων γ' ἀληθῶς.
The lord and master of all deities,
Is either dull of soul, or, dead to beauty,
Knows not the greatest god that governs men.
Augè, 269.
Should they find worthy objects for their loving,
Then is there nothing left of joy to long for.
Andromeda, 147.
Filled with all craft to do impossible things,
Love, among gods the most unconquerable.
Hippolytus, 431.
Either teach not how beauteous beauty is,
Or help poor lovers, whom like clay thou mouldest,
Through toil and labor to a happy end.
Thus shalt thou gain high honor: otherwise
The loving lessons that men learn of thee,
Will rob thee of their worship and good-will.
Andromeda, 135.
Antigone, 161.
Mirrors and hair-dyes are his favorite toys;
Labor he shuns. I take this truth to witness:
No beggar for his bread was known to love,
But with rich men his beauty-bloom abounds.
And dire the blast of rivers and hot fire,
And dire is want, and dire are countless things;
But nothing is so dire and dread as woman.
No painting could express her dreadfulness,
No words describe it. If a god made woman,
And fashioned her, he was for men the artist
Of woes unnumbered, and their deadly foe.
Incert. Fab., 880.
Melanippide, 507.
Those whom we meet abroad are nothing worth.
Meleager, 527.
For mothers know they're theirs, while fathers think it.
Incert. Fab., 883.
Nor aught besides, so hard to guard as woman.
Danaë, 323.
Another fire mightier and more invincible
Is woman.
Hippolytus, 430.
By poison at a woman's hand or wiles.
Cretan Women, 467.
Or wed great riches, know not how to wed;
For when the woman's part doth rule the house,
The man's a slave; large dowers are worse than none,
Seeing they make divorce more difficult.
Melanippide, 513.
Seeing a man's strength lasteth, while the bloom
Of beauty quickly leaves a woman's form.
Æolus, 22.
Might haply sport, and with a crowd of kisses
Might win my soul forth; for there is no greater
Love-charm than close companionship, my father.
Danaë, 325.
And fair the tranquil reaches of the sea,
And flowery earth in May, and bounding waters;
And so right many fair things I might praise;
Yet nothing is so radiant and so fair
As for souls childless, with desire sore-smitten,
To see the light of babes about the house.
Ib., 327.
Sons, love your mother; for there is no love
Sweeter than this that can be loved by men.
Erechtheus, 370.
Belongs not to her parents, but her bed;
Men stay within the house, and stand for aye
Avengeful guardians of its shrines and graves.
Danaë, 330.
And life be dying?—save alone that men
Living bear grief, but when they yield their breath
They grieve no more and have no sorrow then.
Incert. Fab., 821.
Cresphontes, 454.
The dead are dust; mere naught to nothing tendeth.
Meleager, 537.
For what mid men than death is mightier?
Who can inflict pain on the stony scaur
By wounding it with spear-point? Who can hurt
The dead, when dead men have no sense of suffering?
Antigone, 160.
Or send thy son back if thou wilt but groan?
Nay, cease; and, gazing at thy neighbor's grief,
Grow calm: if thou wilt take the pains to reckon
How many have toiled out their lives in bonds,
How many wear to old age, robbed of children,
And all who from the tyrant's height of glory
Have sunk to nothing. These things shouldst thou heed.
Dictys, 334.
He buries children, then begets new sons,
Then dies himself: and men forsooth are grieved,
Consigning dust to dust. Yet needs must be
Lives should be garnered like ripe harvest-sheaves,
And one man live, another perish. Why
Mourn over that which nature puts upon us?
Naught that must be is terrible to mortals.
Hypsipyle, 752.
On wings, and then that on Jove's red-leaved tablets
Some one doth write them, and Jove looks at them
In judging mortals? Not the whole broad heaven,
If Jove should write our sins, would be enough,
Nor he suffice to punish them. But Justice
Is here, is somewhere near us; do but look.
Melanippide, 488.
And dwells hard by to human sinfulness.
Alopé, 149.
There are not; no, there are not. Let no fool,
Led by the old false fable, thus deceive you.
Look at the facts themselves, yielding my words
No undue credence: for I say that kings
Kill, rob, break oaths, lay cities waste by fraud,
And doing thus are happier than those
Who live calm pious lives day after day.
How many little states that serve the gods
Are subject to the godless but more strong,
Made slaves by might of a superior army!
Bellerophontes, 293.
By force, get wealth, hunting it whence ye can,
By indiscriminate armfuls, right and wrong;
Then reap of all these things the wretched harvest.
Ino, 420.
For never had a mother's smile for men,
Nor son, nor father dear, such perfect charm,
As thou and they who hold thee for their guest.
If Kupris darts such glamour from her gaze,
No wonder that she breeds a myriad loves!
Bellerophontes, 288.
The good man in my sight is nobly born;
While he who is not righteous, though his sire
Than Zeus be loftier, seems to me but base.
Dictys, 341.
For men of courage and of virtuous soul,
Though born of slaves, are far above vain titles.
Melanippide, 496.
Show their good breed and spirit by brave bearing!
Danaë, 328.
The whole earth is a brave man's fatherland.
Incert. Frag. 866.
For no slack heart or hand was ever famous.
'Tis toil and danger that beget fair fame.
Archelaus, 233.
Cannot win fame: fame is the meed of travail.
Ibid. 234.
Could never raise a house or State to honor.
Ibid. 235.
Ibid. 236.
Ibid. 238.
The household, and in war of force is found;
For one wise word in season hath more strength
Than many hands. Crowds and no brains breed ruin.
Antiope, 205.
Honor the gods, the parents that begot you,
The laws that govern Hellas. Follow these,
And you will win the fairest crown of honor.
Ibid. 221.
Casts to the winds economy, and spends
His days in seeking after feast and song,
At home and in the State will be a drone,
And to his friends be nothing. Character
Is, for the slaves of honeyed pleasure, gone.
Ibid. 196.
Desert fair wives to dote on ugly women;
With rich meat surfeited, they gladly turn
To humble fare, and find fresh appetite.
Antiope, 187.
The tuneful haunt of swallows.
Alcmene, 91.
Surrounded, and the image of a maiden
Carved from the stony bastions nature-wrought
By some wise workman's craft?
Andromeda, 127.
That curse unutterable, odious envy?
Where dwells it? In what member lies its lair?
Is it our hands, our entrails, or our eyes
That harbor it? Full ill would fare the leech
Who with the knife, or potions, or strong drugs,
Should seek to clear away this worst disease.
Ino, 418.
But when we fail we have no wisdom left.
Incert. Fab. 862.
No rhetorician can upset the one;
The other he may tumble upside down
With words, and do it often grievous wrong.
Peirithous, 598.