Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

AEROPE, I. daughter of Catreus, king of Crete, and | (Sueton., l. c.-Dio Cass., 56, 29.) Casaubon degranddaughter, on the father's side, of Minos. She rives the Etrurian term just referred to from the and her sister Clymene, having been guilty of incon- Greek Aioa, "fate;" and Dickinson (Delph. Phæniciz., tinence, were delivered over, by their father, into the c. 11) from the Hebrew, comparing it also with the hands of Nauplius of Euboea, to be conveyed by him Arabic asara, "to create." Lanzi (Saggio di Ling. to foreign lands, and there sold into slavery. Nau- Etrusc., vol. 3, p. 708), after quoting Casaubon's plius, however, married Clymene, and sold merely etymology, suggests the Greek form oioi, the same Aërope. She was purchased by Plisthenes, son of with deo, as the root. The Asi (or, more correctly, Atreus, and became by him the mother of Agamem- Esir) of Scandinavian mythology will furnish, hownon and Menelaus. Plisthenes, however, dying young, ever, a more obvious and satisfactory ground of comAtreus, his father, took Aërope to wife, and brought up parison. The term As is equivalent to " Deus" or Agamemnon and Menelaus as his own sons. Aërope "God," and the plural form is Esir," Gods." Hence subsequently was seduced by Thyestes, brother of Asgard, or Asa-gard, the old northern term for "heavAtreus, an act which was punished so horridly by the en." It is curious to observe that Os in Coptic likeinjured husband. (Vid. Atreus and Thyestes.) Ac-wise signifies "God" or "Lord," with which we may cording to some authorities, Aërope was cast into the compare the Greek 60-105, "holy." So, also, the earsea by Atreus. (Apollod., 3, 2, 3.-Heyne ad Apollod., lier term for "altar" in the Latin language was asa. 1. c.-Schol. in Eurip., Orest., 812.-Brunck ad Soph., (Terent. Scaur., p. 2252, 2258.) In Berosus, moreAj., 1255.)—II. Daughter of Cepheus, became the over, the gods are termed Isi; and good deities or mother of Aëropus by the god Mars. She died in geniuses were called by the ancient Persians Ized. giving birth to her offspring. (Pausan., 8, 44.) (Müller, Etrusker, vol. 2, p. 81.-Kanne, System der Indischen Mythen, p. 228.)

AEROPUS, I. Son of Mars and Aërope. (Vid. Aërope II.)-II. Son of Temenus, who, with his two brothers, left Argos, and settled in Macedonia. Perdiccas, the youngest of the three, was the founder of the Macedonian royal line. (Herod., 8, 137.-Compare Thucyd., 2, 99, and consult the article Macedonia)-III. A king of Macedonia, who succeeded, while yet an infant, his father Philip the First. The Illyrians having made an inroad into Macedonia, and having proved successful at first, were afterward defeated by the Macedonians, the infant king being placed in his cradle in the rear of their line. (Justin, 7, 2.)—IV. A regent of Macedonia during the minority of Orestes, son of Archelaus. He usurped the supreme power, and held it six years, from 409 B.C. to 394 B.C.V. A mountain of Epirus, now Mount Trebeeshna, near the defile anciently called Stena Aoi, or "Gorge of the Aous." On one of the precipices of this mountain stands the fortress of Clissura. (Consult Hughes' Travels, vol. 2, p. 272.)

ÆSARA. Vid. Supplement.

ÆSARUS, a river of Bruttium, on which Crotona was situate. It formed a haven, which, however incommodious compared with those of Tarentum and Brundisium, was long a source of great wealth to this city, as we are assured by Polybius (Frag., 10, 1). The modern name is the Esaro. (Compare Theocritus, Id., 4, 17.)

ESCHINES, I. an Athenian philosopher, of mean birth and indigent circumstances, styled the Socratic (ó Σwkparikóç) for distinction' sake from the orator of the same name mentioned below. He flourished during the fourth century B.C., and obtained instruction from Socrates, who honoured his ardent zeal for knowledge, and held him in high estimation. (Drog. Laert., 2, 60.- Senec., de Benef., 1, 8.) When Eschines addressed himself to the sage for the purpose of becoming his disciple, it was in the following words: “I am poor, but I give myself up entirely to you, which is all I have to give." The reply of Socrates was characteristic:

Esicus, according to Ovid (Met., 11, 762, seqq.), a aon of Priam and Alexirrhoë, who at an early age You know not the value of your present." After the quitted his father's court and retired to rural scenes. death of his master, he endeavoured to better his worldHe became enamoured of the nymph Hesperia; but ly condition, and, having borrowed a sum of money, she treated his suit with disdain, and, in endeavouring became a perfumer. It appears, however, that he did on one occasion to escape from him, lost her life by not succeed in this new vocation; and, not paying the the bite of a serpent. Esacus, in despair, threw interest of the sum he had borrowed, he was sued for himself headlong from a rock into the sea; but Tethys, the debt. Athenæus (13, p. 611, d) has preserved for pitying his fate, suspended his fall, and changed him us part of a speech delivered by Lysias on this occainto a cormorant.-A different account is given by sion, in which he handles Eschines with considerable Apollodorus. According to this writer, Esacus was severity, and charges him with never paying his debts, the son of Priam, by his first wife Arisba, and mar- with defrauding a certain individual of his property, ried Asterope, who did not long survive her union with corrupting his wife, &c. Not being able to live any him. His grief for her loss induced him to put an end longer at Athens, he betook himself to Sicily, and to his existence. Esacus was endued by his grand-sought to win the favour of the tyrant Dionysius. Acmother Merope with the gift of Prophecy; and he cording to Lucian (de Parasit. ed. Bip., vol. 7, p. transmitted this art to his brother and sister, Helenus 127), he accomplished his object by reading one of his and Cassandra. Priam, having divorced Arisba that dialogues, entitled Miltiades, to the tyrant, who liberalhe might espouse Hecuba, and the latter having ly rewarded him. Plutarch (de Discr. amic. et adulat. dreamed that she had brought forth a blazing torch, ed. Reiske, vol. 6, p. 248) informs us, that he had which wrapped in flames the whole city, Æsacus predicted that the offspring of this marriage would occasion the destruction of his family and country. On this account, the infant Paris, immediately after his birth, was exposed on Mount Ida. (Apollod., 3, 12, 5, seqq., and Heyne, ad loc.)

ESAR, an Etrurian word, equivalent to the Latin Deus. (Sueton., Vit. Aug., 97.) The lightning, having struck a statue of Augustus at Rome, effaced the letter C from the name of CESAR on the pedestal. The augurs declared that, as C was the mark of a hundred, and ESAR the same as Deus, the emperor had only a hundred days to spend on earth, after which he would be taken to the gods. The death of Augustus, soon after, was thought to have verified this prediction.

been strongly recommended to Dionysius by Plato, in a conversation which they had together subsequent to the arrival of Eschines, in which Plato complained to the tyrant of his neglecting a man who had come to him with the most friendly intention, that of improving him by philosophy. The statement of Diogenes Laertius, however, is directly opposite to this, for he informs us that Eschines was slighted by Plato, and introduced to the prince by Aristippus. He remained in Sicily till the expulsion of Dionysius, and then returned to Athens. Here, not daring to become a public rival of Plato or Aristippus, he taught philosophy in private, and received payment for his instructions. He also composed orations and pleadings for others. Besides orations and epistles, Eschines wrote seven So

cratic dialogues in the true spirit of his master, on know not how he might have met these disgracefu temperance, moderation, humanity, integrity, and other charges. If, however, any inference is to be drawn virtues. Their titles were, Miriúdng, Kazhíaç, 'Asio- from the feeble manner in which he replies to similar χος, Ασπασία, ̓Αλκιβιάδης, Τηλαυγής, and Ρίνων. charges, made by the same orator on a difierent occaOf these none remain. We have, indeed, three dia- sion, we should be led to suspect that they were, in logues extant, which go under the name of Æschines, some degree, based upon the truth. Nor, indeed, is but the first and second are not his, and very probably it probable, that, with all the license allowed the ancient the third also was never composed by him. (Meiners, orators, Demosthenes would have ventured to make Judicium de quibusdam Socraticorum reliquiis.-Com- such assertions in the presence of the Athenian peorent. Soc. Goett., vol. 5, p. 45, 1782.-Fischer, ad ple if unsupported by facts. Suidas calls the mother Esch. Dial, p. 23, 49, 107, ed. 1786.) Their titles of Eschines TELEOтpia, a 1etainer to the female priestare : 1. Περὶ 'Αρετῆς, εἰ διδακτόν. Concerning vir- hood in initiations. Photius (Biblioth., vol. 1, p. 20, tue, and whether it can be communicated by instruc- ed. Bekker) says, that she was iɛpeia, a priestess;" tion. 2. 'Epusias, î πεрì пλоúrov. "Eryxias, or while another authority (Lucian, in Somn.-vol. 1, ed. concerning riches." 3. Αξίοχος, ἢ περὶ θανάτου. Βip., p. 13) makes her to have been τυμπανιστρία, α "Axiochus, or concerning death." This last is attrib- kind of minstrel who beat the tabour in the feasts of uted by some to Xenocrates of Chalcedon, and, what Cybele. From all that we can learn of the early life makes it extremely probable that Xenocrates was the of Eschines, it would appear, that, after having aided author of the piece, is the circumstance of its contain- his father in the management of a school, he became ing the word εктрνоνоτрópоç, for which Pollux cites clerk to one of the lower class of magistrates. Tired the Axiochus of this very philosopher. Diogenes Laer- of this station, he attached himself to a company of tratius, moreover, informs us, that Xenocrates wrote a gedians, but was intrusted merely with third-rate charwork on death, but the manner in which he speaks of acters. It is said that, on one occasion, when personthis production does not seem to indicate that it had ating Enomaus, he chanced to fall upon the stage, a the form of a dialogue. A letter, ascribed to Eschi- circumstance which occasioned his disgraceful dismisnes, is, in like manner, supposed to be the production sion from the troop. Hence the name of Enomaus, of another writer. Eschines pretended to have re- which Demosthenes, in ridicule, applies to him. (Deceived his dialogues from Xanthippe, the wife of Soc-mosth., de Corona, 307, ed. Reiske.) On the other rates; and Diogenes Laertius states that Aristippus, hand, Eschines himself states, that from early life he when reading them, called out, Tófεv ooì, noтà, Tavτa; followed the profession of arms, served on many occa"where did you get these from, you thief?" Little sions with distinction, and had a crown decreed him by reliance, however, can be placed on either of these ac- the people for his meritorious exertions. It is more counts. The three dialogues ascribed to Eschines than probable that Eschines here selects the fairest are found in the old editions of Plato, since that of Al- parts of his career, and Demosthenes, on the contrary, dus, 1513. The Axiochus is given by Wolf, in the whatever was calculated to bring him into contempt. collection entitled Doctrina recte vivendi ac monendi, Some ancient writers make him to have been a disciple Basil., 1577 and 1586, 8vo. Le Clerc first published of Isocrates and Plato, but others, with far more probathese dialogues separately, at Amsterdam, 1711, in 8vo. bility, assign him Nature alone for an instructress, and Horræus gave a new edition and a new Latin version affirm that the public tribunals and the theatre were his at Leuwarde, 1718, in 8vo. Fischer published four only places of initiation into the precepts of the oratorioditions successively at Leipsic, in 1758, 1766, 1786, cal art. Eschines must have possessed strong natuand 1788, 8vo. The last contains merely the text ral talents to become as eminent as he did, and to be with an Index, so that the third is the most useful to able to contest the prize of eloquence with so powerful the student. Fischer's editions are decidedly the best. a competitor as Demosthenes. It was a long time, The letter mentioned above was published by Sammet, however, before he became much known as a public in his edition of the letters of Eschines the orator.-II. speaker, and he was already advanced in life when he An Athenian orator, born 397 B.C., sixteen years be- commenced taking part in the politics of the day. fore Demosthenes. According to the account which (Recherches sur la vie et sur les ouvrages d'Eschine, Eschines gives of his own parentage, his father was par l'Abbé Vatry. Mem. Acad. des Inscr., &c., vol. of a family that had a community of altars with the race 14, p. 87.) When Eschines began his public career, of the Eteobutada. Having lost his property by the the Athenians were engaged in a war with Philip of calamities of war, he turned his attention, as the son Macedon. The orator showed himself at first one of tells us, to gymnastic exercises; but, being subsequent- the most violent opposers of this monarch, and proly driven out by the thirty tyrants, he retired to Asia, posed sending ambassadors throughout Greece, in orwhere he served in a military capacity, and greatly dis-der to raise up enemies against him. He himself went tinguished himself. He contributed afterward to the restoration of the popular power in Athens. One of the orator's brothers served under Iphicrates, and held a command for three years, while another, the youngest, was sent as ambassador from the republic to the king of Persia. Such is the account of Eschines himself (de male gesta leg., p. 47 and 48, ed. Steph.). That given by Demosthenes, however, in his oration for the crown, is widely different. According to the latter, the father of Eschines was originally a slave to a schoolmaster, and his first name was Tromes, which, upon gaining his freedom, he changed to Atrometus, in accordance with Athenian usage. His mother was at first named Empusa, an appellation which Demosthenes informs us was given to her on account of her habits of life, she being a common courtesan. This name was afterward changed to Glaucothea. (Demosth., de Corona, p. 270, ed. Reiske.) The statement of Demosthenes, coming as it does from the lips of a rival, might well be suspected of exaggeration; and as Eschines did not reply to the speech of his opponent, we

in this capacity to Megalopolis, to confer with the general council of Arcadia. When the Athenians sent ten ambassadors to negotiate a peace with Philip, who had been at war with them on account of Amphipolis, Eschines, who was thought to be devoted to the public good, was one of the number. Demosthenes was a colleague of his on that occasion, and we have the express testimony of the latter in favour of the correctness and integrity which on this occasion marked the conduct of his rival. A change, however, soon took place. Eschines, on his return, after having at first strenuously opposed the projected peace, on the morrow as earnestly advised it. The gold of Macedon had, without doubt, been instrumental in producing this revolution in his sentiments, and we find him ever afterward a warm partisan of Philip's, and blindly seconding all his ambitious designs. From this period Eschines and Demosthenes became open antagonists. The latter, in concert with Timarchus, having meditated an impeachment of his rival for his conduct on another embassy, when he and four colleagues purpose

ESCHINES.

The an

The one endeavours to steal, the other to force, the assent of his auditors. In the harmony and elegance, the strength and beauty of their language, both are deserving of high commendation, but the figures of the one are finer, of the other bolder. In Demosthenes we see a more sustained effort, in Eschines vivid, though momentary, flashes of oratory.-Besides the speeches above mentioned, twelve epistles are attributed to Eschines, which he is supposed to have written from Rhodes. Photius makes the number only nine, and states that they were called, from this circumstance, the Muses of Eschines. One of It was first the best editions of Eschines is that of Wolf, containing also the orations of Demosthenes. printed at Basle by Oporinus, afterward at the same place in 1549 and 1572, at Venice in 1550, and at Frankfort in 1604. The orations of Eschines are also contained in Reiske's excellent edition of the Greek Orators, Lips., 1770, &c., 12 vols. 8vo, and in the valuable London edition, recently published, of the works of Demosthenes and Eschines, 10 vols. 8vo, 1827. To these may be added the edition of Foulkes and Friend, Oxon., 1696, 8vo, and that of Stock, Dublin, 1769, 2 These last two editions, however, contain vols. 8vo. The epistles were published sepmerely the orations of Eschines and Demosthenes reIII. The auspecting the crown. arately by Sammet, Lips., 1771, 8vo.

iy wasted time in Macedonia, while Philip was prose-orations of Eschines, and it would seem that these cuting his conquests in Thrace, Eschines anticipated were his sole remaining productions, even at an early their attack by an accusation of Timarchus himself, and period, since Photius states that it was customary to The most celebrated of these haspoke with so much energy, that the latter either hung designate these speeches by the name of "the Graces himself in despair, or, according to another authority, of Eschines." was condemned, and deprived of his rights as a citizen. rangues is the one ostensibly directed against CtesiDemosthenes, however, not intimidated by the blow, phon, but in reality against Demosthenes. It is repreferred his original charge against Eschines, and, markable for order, clearness, and precision, and was according to Photius (Biblioth., vol. 1, p. 20, ed. Bek- selected by Cicero to be translated into Latin.—The ker), came so near accomplishing the object he had in Abbé Barthelemy makes the eloquence of Eschines to view, that his rival was only saved by the active inter- be distinguished by a happy flow of words, by an abunference of a wealthy citizen named Eubulus, an open dance and clearness of ideas, and by an air of great enemy of Demosthenes, and by the judges rising from ease, which arose less from art than nature. their seats before the accusation was brought to a close. cient writers appear to agree in this, that the manner After many subsequent collisions, Eschines was com- of Eschines is softer, more insinuating, and more delpelled to yield to the patriotism and eloquence of his icate than that of Demosthenes, but that the latter is adversary. Their most famous controversy was that more grave, forcible, and convincing. The one has A little after the battle more of address, and the other more of strength and which related to the crown. of Cheronea, Demosthenes was commissioned to re-energy. pair the fortifications of Athens. He expended, in the performance of this task, thirteen talents, ten of which he received from the public treasury, while the remaining three were generously given from his own private purse. As a mark of public gratitude for this act of liberality, Ctesiphon proposed to the people to decree a crown of gold to the orator. Eschines immediately preferred an impeachment against Ctesiphon, alleging that such a decree was an infringement of the established laws of the republic, since Demosthenes still held some public offices, and his accounts had not therefore been settled, and besides, since he was not such a friend to the state as Ctesiphon had represented him to be, who had, therefore, put upon record documents of a false and erroneous character. Demosthenes, on whom the attack was virtually made, appeared in defence of the accused. This celebrated cause, after having been delayed for some time in consequence of the troubles attendant on the death of Philip, was at last brought to a hearing. Ability and eloquence was displayed on both sides, but the palm was won by Demosthenes; and his rival, being found guilty of having brought an unjust accusation, was obliged to undergo the punishment he had intended for Ctesiphon, and was banished from his country. It is stated by Photius (Biblioth., vol. 2, p. 493, ed. Bekker), that Eschines, when he left Athens, was followed and assisted by Demosthe-thor of a harangue entitled Deliaca, which some have nes, and that, upon the latter's offering him consolation, attributed to the orator Eschines. (Diog. Laert.)— he replied, "How shall I be able to bear my exile IV. An Arcadian, a disciple of Isocrates. (Id.)-V. A from a city, in which I leave behind me enemies more Mytilenean, surnamed the scourge of orators, pnTOPOgenerous than it is possible to find friends in any other!" | μúorış. (Id.)—VI. A native of Neapolis, and member Plutarch, however, ascribes this very answer to De- of the Academic sect, about B.C. 109. VII. A namosthenes, when his opponents made a similar offer to tive of Miletus, and orator, whose style of speaking is him as he was departing from Athens into exile. Es- represented by Cicero as of the florid and Asiatic kind. chines retired to Asia with the intention of presenting (Cic., Brut., c. 95.)-VIII. An Athenian physician who cured the quinsy, affections of the palate, cancers, &c., himself before Alexander; but the death of that monarch compelled him to change his views, and take up by employing the cinders of excrements. (Plin., 28, 4.) Here he opened a school of IX. A distinguished individual among the Eretrians, his residence at Rhodes. eloquence, and commenced his lectures by reading the who disclosed to the Athenians the treacherous designs two orations which had been the occasion of his banish- of some of his countrymen, when the former had marchment. His hearers loudly applauded his own speech; ed to their aid against the Persians. (Herod., 6, 100.) ESCHRION, I. a Mytilenean poet, intimate with but when he came to that of Demosthenes, they were He accompanied Alexander in his Asiatic What would Aristotle. thrown into transports of admiration. He is mentioned by Athenæus you have said," exclaimed Eschines, according to the expedition. Consult Vossius, de Poet. Græc.-II. An common account, "had you heard Demosthenes him- Iambic poet of Samos. Some of his verses The statement of Pho- (7, 296, e, and 8, 335, c), and also by Tzetzes, in his self pronounce this oration?" tius, however, is different from this, and certainly more scholia on Lycophron (v. 688–9). are preserved by Athenæus and in the Anthology. probable. The auditors of Eschines at Rhodes expressed, as he informs us, their surprise that a man of (Compare Jacobs, ad Anthol., vol. 1, part 1, p. 385.) so much ability should have been overcome by De--III. A physician, preceptor to Galen. (Vid. Supmosthenes.; Had you heard that wild beast (rov n-plement.)-IV. A Greek writer, who composed a work píov ÈKεívov)," exclaimed Eschines, "you would have on husbandry, &c., which is cited by Pliny, and also ceased to be at a loss on this head" (el hкovoare Tou by Varro, R. R., 1, 1. θηρίου ἐκείνου οὐκ ἂν ὑμῖν τοῦτο ἀπόρητο. Phot., Biblioth., vol. 1, p. 20, ed. Bekker). He subsequently transferred his school from Rhodes to Samos, where We have only three he died at the age of 75 years.

46

[ocr errors]

ÆSCHYLUS, I. a celebrated tragic writer, son of Euphorion, born of a noble family at Eleusis in Attica, in the fourth year of the sixty-third Olympiad, B.C. 525. (Compare Vit. Anonym. given in Stanley's ed.,

55

and the Arundel Marbles.) Pausanias (1, 14) records a story of his boyhood, professedly on the authority of the poet himself, that, having fallen asleep while watching the clusters of grapes in a vineyard, Bacchus appeared to him, and bade him turn his attention to tragic composition. This account, if true, shows that his mind was, at a very early period, enthusiastically struck with the exhibitions of the infant drama. An impression like this, acting upon his fervid imagination, would naturally produce such a dream as is described. To this same origin must, no doubt, be traced the common account relative to Eschylus, that he was accustomed to write under the influence of wine; and in confirmation of which Lucian (Demosth. Encom.ed. Bip. vol. 9, p. 144) cites the authority of Callisthenes, and Athenæus (10, 33) that of Chameleon. The inspiration of Bacchus, in such a case, can mean nothing more than the true inspiration of poetry, (Mohnike, Litt. der Gr. und Rom., vol. 1, p. 359.) At the age of twenty-five, Eschylus made his first public attempt as a tragic author, in the 70th Olympiad, B.C. 499. (Suid. in Aiox.-Clinton's Fasti Hellenici, p. 21, 2d ed.) The next notice which we have of him is in the third year of the 72d Olympiad, B.C. 490, when, along with his two celebrated brothers Cynægirus and Aminias, he was graced at Marathon with the praises due to pre-eminent bravery, being then in his 35th year. (Marm. Arund., No. 49.-Vit. Anonym.) Six years after that memorable battle, he gained his first tragic victory. Four years after this was fought the battle of Salamis, in which Eschylus took part with his brother Aminias, to whose extraordinary valour the porcia were decreed. (Herod., 8, 93.—Elian, Var. Hist., 5, 19.) In the following year he served in the Athenian troops at Platea. Eight years afterward (Argument. ad Pers.) he gained the prize with a tetralogy, composed of the Persa, the Phineus, the Glaucus Potniensis, and the Prometheus Ignifer, a satyric drama (or, to give their Greek titles, the IIépσαι, Φινεύς, Γλαύκος Ποτνιεύς, and Προμηθεὺς πυρφόpos). The latter part of the poet's life is involved in much obscurity. (Compare Blomfield, ad Pers. Præf., p. xxii.-Id. ad Arg. in Agamem., p. xix. et xx.-Böckh, de Græc. Trag. Princip., c. 4, seqq.) That he quitted Athens and died in Sicily, is agreed on all hands, but the time and cause of his departure are points of doubt and conjecture. It seems that Eschylus had laid himself open to a charge of profanation, by too boldly introducing on the stage something connected with the mysteries. According to Clemens Alexandrinus, he was tried and acquitted of the charge (v ̓Αρείῳ πάγῳ κριθεὶς, οὕτως ἀφείσθη, ἐπιδείξας, αὐτὸν pi pevnévov.-Clem. Alex., Strom., 2.) The more romantic narrative of Ælian (Var. Hist., 5, 19) informs us, that the Athenians stood ready to stone him to death, when his brother Aminias, who interceded for him, dexterously dropped his robe and showed the stump of his own arm lost at the battle of Salamis. This act of fraternal affection and presence of mind had the desired effect on the quick and impulsive temper of the Athenians, and Eschylus was pardoned. But the peril which he had encountered, the dread of a multitude ever merciless in their superstitions, indignation at the treatment which he had received, joined, in all likelihood, to feelings of vexation and jealousy at witnessing the preference occasionally given to young and aspiring rivals, were motives sufficiently powerful to induce the proud-spirited poet to abandon his native city, and seek a retreat in the court of the munificent and literary Hiero, prince of Syracuse. (Vit. Anonym.Pausan, 1, 2-Plut, de Exil., Op., vol. 8, p. 385, ed. Reiske.) This must have been before the second year of the 78th Olympiad, B.C. 467, for in that year Hiero died. The author of the anonymous life of Eschylus, which has come down to us, mentions, among other reasons for his voluntary banishment, a victory obtained

Sit

over him by Simonides, in an elegiac contest; and what is more probable, the success of Sophocles, who carried off from him the tragic prize, according to the common account, in the 78th Olympiad, B.Č. 468. Plutarch, in his life of Cimon, confirms the latter statement. If so, Eschylus could not have been more than a year in Sicily before Hiero's death. The common account, relative to the cause which drove the poet from his country, is grounded upon an obscure allusion in Aristotle's Ethics, explained by Clemens Alexandrinus and Ælian. In Sicily, Eschylus composed a drama, entitled Etna, to gratify his royal host, who had recently founded a city of that name. During the remainder of his life, it is doubtful whether he ever returned to Athens. If he did not, those pieces of his, which were composed in the interval, might be exhibited on the Athenian stage under the care of some friend or relation, as was not unfrequently the case. Among these dramas was the Orestean tetralogy (Argument. ad Agamem.--Schol. ad Aristoph., Ran., 1155), which won the prize in the second year of the 80th Olympiad, B.C. 458, two years before his death. At any rate, his residence in Sicily must have been of considerable length, as it was sufficient to affect the purity of his language. We are told by Athenæus, that many Sicilian words are to be found in his later plays. Eschylus certainly has some Sicilian forms in his extant dramas: thus Tedúрcios, εdaíxμiοi, пεdúoрoi, μúo σων, μα, &c., for μεταρσιος, μεταίχμιοι, μετέωροι, μeilov, prεp, &c. (Comp. Blomfield, Prom. Vinct., 277, Gloss., and Bockh, de Trag. Græc., c. 5.) The poet died at Gela, in the 69th year of his age, in the 81st Olympiad, B. C. 456. His death, if the common accounts be true, was of a most singular nature. ting motionless, in silence and meditation, in the fields, his head, now bald, was mistaken for a stone by an eagle, which happened to be flying over him with a tortoise in her claws. The bird dropped the tortoise to break the shell; and the poet was killed by the blow. It is more than probable, however, that this statement is purely fabulous, and that it was invented in order to meet a supposed prophecy, that he would receive his death from on high. The Geloans, to show their respect for so illustrious a sojourner, interred him with much pomp in the public cemetery.-Eschylus is said to have composed seventy dramas, of which five were satyric, and to have been thirteen times victor. The account of Pausanias, however, would almost imply a larger proportion of satyric dramas. In fact, considerable discrepance exists respecting the number of plays ascribed to Eschylus. Only seven of his trage dies remain, together with fragments of others preserved in the citations of the grammarians, and two epigrams in the Anthology. The titles of the dramas. which have reached us are as follows: 1. Пpoμndeùç δεσμώτης (Prometheus Vinctus). 2. Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας (Septem contra Thebas). 3. Πέρσαι (Persa). 4. 'Ayauέuvwv (Agamemnon). 5. Xongópot (Choëphoræ). 6. Evμévideç (Eumenides). 7. 'IKÉTides (Supplices). A short account of each of these will be given towards the close of the present article. This great dramatist was the author of the fifth form of tragedy. (Vid. Theatrum.) He added a second actor to the locutor of Thespis and Phrynichus, and thus introduced the dialogue. He abridged the immoderate length of the choral odes, making them more subservient to the main interest of the plot, and expanded the short episodes into scenes of competent extent. To these improvements in the economy of the drama, he added the decorations of art in its exhibition. A regular stage (Vitruv., Præf., lib. 7), with appropriate scenery, was erected; the actors were furnished with becoming dresses, and raised to the stature of the heroes represented by the thick-soled cothurnus (Horat., Ep. ad Pis., 280); while the face was brought to the heroic cast by a mask of proportionate size and strongly

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

marked character, which was also so contrived as to seems to be proudly penetrated. He had lived to be give power aud distinctness to the voice. He paid an eyewitness of the greatest and most glorious event great attention to the choral dances, and invented sev- of which Greece could boast, the defeat and destruction eral figure-dances himself. Among his other improve- of the enormous hosts of the Persians under Darius and ments is mentioned the introduction of a practice, Xerxes, and had fought with distinguished valour in which subsequently became established as a fixed and the combats of Marathon and Salamis. In the Persa, essential rule, the removal of all deeds of bloodshed and the Seven against Thebes, he pours forth a warlike and murder from the public view (Philostr., Vit. strain; the personal inclination of the poet for the life Apollon., 6, 11), a rule only violated on one occasion, of a hero beams forth in a manner which cannot be namely, by Sophocles in his play of the Ajax. In mistaken. The tragedies of Eschylus are, on the short, so many and so important were the alterations whole, one proof among many, that in art, as in nature, and additions of Eschylus, that he was considered by gigantic proportions precede those of the ordinary the Athenians as the Father of Tragedy (Philostr., l. standard, which then grow less and less, till they reach c.), and, as a mark of distinguished honour paid to meanness and insignificance; and also that poetry, on his merits, they passed a decree, after his death, that its first appearance, is always next to religion in estia chorus should be allowed to any poet who chose to mation, whatever form the latter may take among the re-exhibit the dramas of Eschylus. (Philostr., l. c.) race of men then existing. The tragic style of ÆsAristophanes alludes to this custom of re-exhibiting chylus is far from perfect (compare Porson, Prælect. the plays of Eschylus in the opening of the Acharni- in Eurip., p. 6), and frequently deviates into the Epic ans (v. 9, seqq.). Quintilian, however (10, 1), assigns and the Lyric, elements not qualified to harmonize a very different reason for this practice, and makes it with the drama. He is often abrupt, disproportioned, to have been adopted for the purpose of presenting and harsh. It was very possible that more skilful these dramas in a more correct form than that in which tragic writers might compose after him, but he must they were left by the author himself. What authority always remain unsurpassed in his almost superhuman he had for such an assertion, does not now appear. vastness, since even Sophocles, his more fortunate In philosophical sentiments, Eschylus is said to have and more youthful rival, could not equal him in this. been a Pythagorean. (Cic., Tusc. Disp., 2, 9.) In his The latter uttered a sentiment concerning him by extant dramas the tenets of this sect may occasionally which he showed himself to have reflected on the art be traced; as, deep veneration in what concerns the in which he excelled. Eschylus does what is right, gods (Agamem., 371), high regard for the sanctity of but without knowing it." Simple words, which, howan oath and the nuptial bond (Eumen., 217), the im- ever, exhaust all that we understand by a genius which mortality of the soul (Choëph., 321), the origin of produces its effects unconsciously. (Theatre of the names from imposition and not from nature (Agamem., Greeks, p. 114, seqq., 2d ed.)-It only remains to 682.-Prom. Vinct., 84, 742), the importance of num- give a brief account of the tragedies of Eschylus bers (Prom. Vinct., 468), the science of physiognomy which have reached us entire. I. Пpoundeve degués(Agamem., 797), the sacred character of suppliants 7ng ("Prometheus in chains"). All the personages (Suppl., 351.- Eumen., 233), &c. Eschylus, ob- of this tragedy are divinities, and yet the piece, notserves Schlegel (Dram. Lit., p. 135, seqq.), must be con- withstanding, carries with it an air of general interest, sidered as the creator of tragedy; it sprang forth from for it involves the well-being of the human race. Tho his head in complete armour, like Minerva from the brain subject is Prometheus, punished for having been the of Jove. He clothed it as became its dignity, and not benefactor of men in stealing for them the fire from only instructed the chorus in the song and the dance, the skies; or, to express the same idea in a moral but came forward himself as an actor. (Athenæus, 1, point of view, it is strength and decision of character 22.) He sketches characters with a few bold and struggling against injustice and adversity. In this powerful strokes. His plots are extremely simple. drama, which stands alone of its kind, we recognise, He had not yet arrived at the art of splitting an action amid strength and sublimity of conception, a wild and into parts numerous and rich, and distributing their untutored daring, which betrays the rudeness of early complication and denouement into well-proportioned tragedy, and the infancy of the art. The scenery is steps. Hence in his writings there often arises a ces- awfully terrific: the lonely rock frowning over the sation of action, which he makes us feel still more by waves, the stern and imperious sons of Pallas and his unreasonably long choruses. But, on the other Styx holding up Prometheus to its rifted side while hand, all his poetry displays a lofty and grave disposi- Vulcan fixes his chains, Oceanus on his hippogriff, the tion. No soft emotions, but terror alone remains in fury of the whirlwind, the pealing thunder, and Promehim; the head of Medusa is held up before the petrified theus himself undismayed amid the warfare of the elespectators. His method of considering destiny is ex- ments, and bidding defiance even to the monarch of tremely harsh; it hovers over mortals in all its gloomy the skies, present a picture pregnant with fearful inmagnificence. The buskin of Eschylus has, as it terest, and worthy the genius of Eschylus. This t were, the weight of brass; on it none but gigantic drama was translated into Latin by the poet Attius, forms stalk before us. It almost seems to cost him some fragments of whose version are preserved for us an effort to paint mere men; he frequently brings gods by Cicero (Tusc. Quæst., 2, 10). The question relaon the stage, particularly the Titans, those ancient tive to the remaining pieces of the Tetralogy, of which deities who shadow forth the dark primeval powers of this play formed a part, may be seen discussed in nature, and who had long been driven into Tartarus, Schütz's edition of Eschylus (vol. 5, p. 120, seqq.). beneath a world governed in tranquillity. In conformity with the standard of his dramatis personæ, he seeks to swell out the language which they employ to a colossal size; hence there arise rugged compound words, an over-multitude of epithets, and often an extreme intricacy of syntax in the choruses, which is the cause of great obscurity. He is similar to Dante and Shakspeare in the peculiar strangeness of his imaginations and expressions, yet these images are not deficient in that terrible grace which the ancients particularly praise in Eschylus. The poet flourished exactly when the freedom of Greece, rescued from its enemies, was in its first strength, with a consciousness of which he

2. Ἑπτὰ ἐπὶ Θήβας (“The Seven Chiefs against Thebes"). The subject of the piece is the siege of Thebes, by the seven confederated chieftains, who had espoused the cause of Polynices against his brother Eteocles. It is said that Eschylus particularly valued himself on this tragedy, and certainly not without reason, both as regards the animation of the scenes that are portrayed, the sublimity of the dialogue, and the strong delineations of character which it contains. This drama has the additional merit of having given birth to the Antigone of Sophocles, the Phonisse of Euripides, and the Thebaid of Statius. Besides the Siege of Thebes, Eschylus wrote three tragedies also

« PoprzedniaDalej »