The Male Characters Of Euripides

The Male Characters Of Euripides by
E M Blaiklock

Continuing from P. 105

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Characterisation, however, is not forgotten for politics.
The outlines of two portraits appear in this scene. The first is Agamemnon, favourable, say the messengers, to Hecuba's cause, but from no consideration of abstract justice. Self-interest is, as it is destined to be throughout the play, the great king's standard and single motive. If the cost is not too high he is willing to do a favour to the mother and sister of the Trojan priestess for whom he has conceived that strange passion, which, in another context, struck Talthybius as so odd.
The second portrait is that of Odysseus, the typical pŋrwp, above sentiment, above aìòŵş It is significant that Euripides picked the wily and resourceful hero of the two great epics as typical of the class. The Corinthians, would doubtless have extended the criticism to cover all Athenians. The àvaiďŋş, was making his way in fifth century politics. That is amply proved by a full century of documents. The sophists had prepared the way. So, too, some would add, had Socrates and Euripides himself.sl
As a typical, àųsið then, Odysseus makes his first appearance. He comes to take Polyxena from her mother's hands.
The Chorus have prepared us for this sinister figure, who haunts unseen the background of the Troades, and lurks, a sense of hidden evil, in the Aulis play. He is an intelligent man and sees at once that the message he brings has preceded him.
None the less, quite shamelessly, he will repeat it. Hecuba, unprepared for such complete cynicism, has caught at one thought of hope. Odysseus is heavily in her debt. Does he remember, she asks urgently, the day he came to spy out Ilium,
all disfigured in rags, and with gouts of blood upon his cheek?
(II. 239-241)—and how she spared him at his humble prayer?
Odysseus is quite unaffected. Of course he remembers. The incident left a most painful impression on him. He finishes Hecuba's sentences, supplies details for her memory. 'Did you not touch my knees in self abasement?' "Yes, until my hand grew numb within your robe.' 'What, tell me, did you say, you who were my slave on that occasion?' "To avoid death I invented many words' (Il. 245, 246, 249; 250).
'I saved you, and sent you from the land?' 'Yes, so that today I look upon this light of sun' (1l. 247, 248, placed by some after 249, 250). So, in debate, might the " Askos Aóyos have replied, impervious to all the stinging taunts of his opponent. Case-hardened and immoral, such a spirit recked little of injured goodness, its scorn or its appeal. Odysseus is greaved and breastplated in soul as well as in body. Hecuba, disillusioned, bursts into her speech against the 'thankless breed of demagogues, calms her wrath, and makes a long, impassioned plea for mercy.
Odysseus replies with the logic of high politics. However he might like to aid his one-time benefactress, he must consider the common good. He is perfectly reasonable, eminently convincing, and all the more repulsive for the fact. Miss Matthaci finds some virtue in his sacrifice of personal feelings' in order that the community may have its way. It is hard to imagine that such a interpretation approaches Euripides intention. The impression that this Odysseus represented for his creator a disliked and distrusted class is unavoidable. It is easy to plant high ethics in a philosophy of statecraft which is indistinguishable from tyranny. Plato himself did no service to freedom by the doctrine of the State's rights over the individual which he allows Socrates to put into the mouth of the Laws.
There were, no doubt, perfectly logical philosophies of political expediency abroad in Euripides' Athens, and none the more beautiful or less pernicious for their reasoned logic. Here was the old conflict between the claims of humanity and the claims of the community. There is no doubt that Euripides regarded the claims of the majority as immoral. Had Euripides not been emotionally on the side of the minority, he would not have made Polyxena so noble, Hecuba so pitiable, and Odysseus, the cold exponent of 'duty", so unlovely. Miss Matthaei's esay stresses the sense of isolation which makes Hecuba's situation so horrible. She is alone against the world where the community has many a champion. If, by the canons of the State's philosophy, her opposition is 'unreasonable, selfish, anarchic’, then so much the worse for such philosophies. There is a higher law, which by unreason works a greater good and expresses a higher righteousness, be it 'to the Greeks foolishness'. Would Euripides have agreed with Ibsen that the minority is always right?
There are odd similarities between the two dramatists. However that may be, another Caiaphas has argued for expediency, and Polyxena goes, but not at his behest, to death.
Agamemmon enters the action at l. 725. The maid is dead, and Talthybius, kind and humane as ever in Euripides, has told the story of her sacrifice. It is a significant piece of narrative.
The moral victory in the obscure conflict was Polyxena's, and Talthybius succeeds in making all the doctrine of Odysseus, all the glory of Achilles to which it paid service, and all the way of life to which the Hellenes clung, appear shabby, tawdry, unworthy, before the proud scorn with which the maiden poured her life away. The shadow of an evil deed is where the poet has deliberately cast it, over the Greek host, and the common soldier has felt the chill of it:

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expediency abroad in Euripides' Athens, and none the more beautiful or less pernicious for their reasoned logic. Here was the old conflict between the claims of humanity and the claims of the community. There is no doubt that Euripides regarded the claims of the majority!®️ as immoral. Had Euripides not been emotionally on the side of the minority, he would not have made Polyxena so noble, Hecuba so pitiable, and Odysseus, the cold exponent of 'duty", so unlovely. Miss Matthaei's esay stresses the sense of isolation which makes Hecuba's situation so horrible. She is alone against the world where the community has many a champion. If, by the canons of the State's philo-sophy, her opposition is 'unreasonable, selfish, anarchic, ° then so much the worse for such philosophies. There is a higher law, which by unreason works a greater good and expresses a higher righteousness, be it 'to the Greeks foolishness'. Would Euripides have agreed with Ibsen that the minority is always right?
There are odd similarities between the two dramatists. However that may be, another Caiaphas? has argued for expediency, and Polyxena goes, but not at his behest, to death.
Agamemmon enters the action at l. 725. The maid is dead, and Talthybius, kind and humane as ever in Euripides, has told the story of her sacrifice. It is a significant piece of narrative.
The moral victory in the obscure conflict was Polyxena's, and Talthybius succeeds in making all the doctrine of Odysseus, all the glory of Achilles to which it paid service, and all the way of life to which the Hellenes clung, appear shabby, tawdry, unworthy, before the proud scorn with which the maiden poured her life away. The shadow of an evil deed is where the poet has deliberately cast it, over the Greek host, and the common soldier has felt the chill of it:
But some upon the dead were strawing leaves
Out of their hands, and some heap high the pyre, Bringing the pine-billets thither: whoso bare not Heard such and such rebukes of him that bare:
*Dost stand still basest heart with nought in hand-Robe for the maiden, neither ornament?
Nought wilt thou give to one in courage matchless, Noblest of soul?'
(Hecuba 572-579. Way)
This was no generous cheer of Tuscany. The thought of the moral stain upon the victors which is the theme of the Troades is taking shape in Euripides' mind. There is a victory which is of the spirit. In such confidence Alfred flings defiance at the Danes in Chesterton's poem.21 The Trojans of the Hecuba might use his words-
What sign have we save blood and smoke?
Here is my answer then. ...
That on you is fallen the shadow, And not upon the Name;
That though we scatter and though we fly And you hang over us like the sky, You are more tired of victory
Than we are tired of shame.
Tomorrow continue to pursue page 108. Thanks for keeping up.