The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-03-14

temnestra. The characters are all hu-
man, and the character drawing is clear
and powerful. Clytemnestra Outdoes
Lady Macbeth on her own ground, and
the scene in which the captive proph-
etess, Cassandra, goes to her death is
without a parallel for effectiveness in
the Greek drama. The whole is q great
masterpiece and doubtless stamps
Aeschylus as one of the half dozen
greatest poets of the world.
The "Oedipus URANUS of Sophocles
powerfully sets forth the successive
steps by which the prosperous King
Oedipus discovers that he has unwit-
tingly murdered his own father and be-
come the parent of children by his own
mother. The inevitable way in which
the action moves straight and undis-
tracted toward the catastrophe" doubt
"Oedipus Tyrannus" as the type of the
highest Greek tragedy.
Antigone, the daughter of this same
Oedipus is, in SOphOcles' hands, the
most interesting woman in Greek liter
ature, and hence this is the most cell
ebrated Greek drama. She defies the
law of the land in burying the corpse
of her brother, Polynices, and suffers
martyrdOm in consequence. 1t is i'm
possible to conceive Of lOftier language
than her defiance Of CreOn:
Nor did deem they edicts strong enough.
That thou a mortal man, shouldst over
pass
The unwritten laws of God that know not
change.
They are not of today nor yesterday.
But live forever
OF the three great tragic poets,
Aeschylus is the greatest poetic genius.
The legend that the god Dionysus di-
rected the boy in a vision to devote
himself to the tragedy might well have
been true. A very demiurge he is-ele-
mental, god-intoxicated, of sublime inn
aginative power, creator of the most
splendid lyrics. The masterful self-suf-
ficiency of his Clytemnestra, the plastic
beauty of his Iphigenia, the sublime IN
yieldingness Of his these
things and many more place him among
ancient poets, perhaps second only to
Homer.
SophocIes had, perhaps, the happiest
beauty, wealth, victory with his first
tragedy and the primacy in letters for
all his sixty years thereafter, such re-
pute for gentleness as to make him the
idol of the people and for good judg-
ment as to induce the pOpulace to elect
him general and counselor. And so
he was the fit xponent-artistic and
spiritual-of the age Of Pericles.
Very different from both was Euri-
pides-the lonely thinker, philosophical,
radical, innovator in poetry and music,
prophet of a cosmopolitan humanity, -
kinsman of the troubled spirits of all
ages, forerunner OF romantic drama.
most appreciative of feminine worth,
realist, and 50 bringing his characters
down into the everyday atmosphere,
and hence charged with replacing the
heroic by the sensational. He is seen
at his best in such plays as 1.-The
Bacchae," "Alcestis" and 'Iphigenia in
Tauris" Both Aeschvlus and Euripides
are nearer to us that Sophocles. The
Hebrew Scriptures have prepared US
for Aeschylus, whom we recognize as
akin to Job and Isaiah; through his
more modern spirit we can apprehend
Euripides most readily of all. Sopho-
cles is an Athenian of Athenians, and
fully to appreciate him we must be-
come in a sense AttieiZed-
Good translations are MOrshead's and
Miss Swanwicl's of AeschyluS. Plump
tres of Aesehylus and coph loles. CAMP
bells of Sophocles, Ways Of Euripides.
and most excellent versions Of single
plays might De mentioned, e g, bTONn-
ing's "Alcestis'' (BaIaustiOn) and Her
cules Furens" To be read in cOnnec-
ton Herewith may be recommended,
besides the histories Of Greek litera-
ture, chapters in Jebb's Classical
Greek Poetry" Symonds' Greek PO-
ets.'' Mahaffy's Social Life in Greece, -
MoultOn's Ancient Classical Drama, -
etc
There were many comedians before
Aristophanes agnes, Crates, Craft
nus. EupOlis and others-but for us
comedy means primarily Aristophanes.
He belongs to the second half of the
fifth century. was a contemporary and
cordial hater of Euripides, and left
forty-four comedies, Of which eleven
are extant. He represents what Z
called old comedy. e., personal and
p0litical satire-and was the great bur-
lesque. critic OF Athens. Demagogues
like Cleon. philosophers like Socrates.
poets like Euripides were ridiculed and
maIigned. When liberty Of personal sat
ire was somewhat curtailed BY law, or