The Male Characters of Euripides by
Professor E.M.Blaiklock MA., Litt.D.

IO THE MALE CHARACTERS OF EURIPIDES

It is Heracles, 'half God, half man, which made the god-part God the more.' Verral will have none of him, but there is no doubt that competent acting within the framework of Euripides' text could bring the man-god into the death-reek of the play like the incarnation of ebullient life. He inevitably forms a background for Admetus' sorrow, and the king earns a tribute of regard by the hospitality which hides his grief for a guest's sake and the claims of old friendship. Verrall, of course, is obviously correct when he insists that the theme of the play is not Hospitality Rewarded. The scene nevertheless must have significance. J. L. Myresa sees in the arrival of Heracles the first of Admetus' tests. From it he and the Code issue triumphant. He reveals himself just the autochthonous Athenian whom we already suspect him to be, and whom Euripides must needs make him, if his probation is to make us voeiv, ópâv, ourévas, when we come with him to the later ordeals. His self-complacency remains. He is the model of Hellenic virtue. It is at this point that the chorus celebrates his noble birth, his right-mindedness, his possession of the wisdom that is virtue, his piety that will surely bring him good. Both Admetus and the audience need a shock before their eyes are opened. And that shock they are to have from Pheres. The door, at any rate, closes behind Balaustion's hero laughing with gay life abundant, or if you will, behind Verrall's comic bravo. Whichever of them has gone to table, Admetus is left alone, shaken by his ordeal, and facing his grief. But not for long. With the punctuality of Scrooge's second visitant comes Pheres. Browning imagines that the old man's arrival breaks a thread of sorrow which was leading Admetus to self-realisation and repentance:
You see the worst of the interruption was,
It plucked back with an over-hasty hand Admetus from descending to the truth.
(I told you) put him on the brink again.
Full i' the noise and glare where late he stood.
It was enough, indeed, to stir the old baseness in him. Diamond
selfishness of each is so clear, so evident to the other. Pheres
yairos juáprnkas, ailà Taina rov
фереи анауку катер бита бафора.
(Alc. 614-617)
All this with a sigh! "Yes such things must be borne though hard they be.' Her body must undoubtedly be honoured.
Hence the array of robes and costly stuff, for she died in Admetus' stead and,
Kept me from being childless nor allowed That I bereft of thee should peak and pine In melancholy age; she for her sex, All of her sisters put in evidence.
By daring such a feat that female life Might prove more excellent than men suppose.
So Browning, a trifle freely, on Il. 621-624 Does Pheres mark the mounting blood in his son's face as he ends weakly in comedy?
onui ToLourous yauous
AÚELY PPOTOLATV, Y YOUET OUK EELOV.
(Alc. 627, 628)
A sorry business marriage, but on terms like these, why, men might consider it! But to the last line and a half of the speech it is the image of his own nature that fires Admetus' wrath.

So in old Pheres young Admetus showed Pushed to completion: and a shudder ran.

From the Chorus Admetus had accepted consolation formal and orthodox enough. On his father's kindred lips it took another sound. This is the second test, and the Code is disastrously broken. In the old Admetus, a father, surely, would be granted the honour and the reticence accorded to a guest. The old Admetus, however, is slowly passing, In a round forty lines as unfeeling as Pheres' own, the young man pours his contempt upon selfish age. The satire is very bitter where he suggests that he is some foundling and no son, another, reared by stealth in place of flesh and blood. There is, however, no doubt of blood-relationship between these kindred minds. 'If death come near,' shouts" Admetus, "no one wants to die (Al.
671, 672). No one, indeed, and Admetus was included as the old man marked too well. He was, as Browning says, 'the stouter stuff.' He knew his son. He had seen the truth, but had hidden it decently until provoked beyond patience:
Did he commence, 'Why let her die for you?'
And rouse the coiled and quiet ugliness
"What is so good to man as man's own life?"
No: but the other did; and for his pains
Out full in the face of him the venom leapt.

Pheres, tongue-free, bares his son to the depths:
eiT' eury cruiav
Aeyeis, yuvaros i KaKio noonueros.
(Alc. 696, 697)
ejunv, indeed!—

Criest cowardice
On me, I wonder, thou-the poor poltzoon
A very woman worsted, daring death
Just for the sake of thee.

Here, perhaps, the Chorus, as Balaustion remarks, had this been Sophocles, might have spoken out boldly and explained the man.' There is really little need for explanation. The drama is too true to life. Admetus, angry, insulting and worse than petty, as the contest of speeches breaks down into the rapid play of reproach and retort, shows clearly enough what has happened to him. He has heard the crushing truth bur still resists it:

So old selfish Pheres went his way,
Case-hardened as he came: and left the youth
(Only half selfish now, since sensitive)
To go on learning.