The Male Characters of Euripides by
Professor E M Blaiklock
THE AMAZON'S SON
From page 51 continues
And so Hippolytus goes out to doom, noble in so many ways, but like Admetus and Jason, blind to the full truth. He is one of Aristotle's tragic characters.
The final scene after the catastrophe, is convincingly analysed by S. M. Adams (C.R. XL. pp. 118, 119.) who points out that it falls into three movements. The first (Il. 1282-134I) deals with Theseus.
Artemis breaks down his üßpıs, tells him the truth, and reduces him to pity. The second movement (Il. I342-1388) covers the return of the dying Hippolytus, still blind to the cause of his ruin, still protesting. The third movement (Il. I389-
1458) brings him to enlightenment and a gentle death.
The final page of Theseus' tragedy can be passed over. The king comes to repentance and recognition of his fault by divine revelation, not by a process of the mind as Admetus did.
Dramas must end somewhere, and the proportions of the Athenian programme imposed most definite limits. Euripides proposes to devote his restricted space to Hippolytus. And Hippolytus enters, borne of his serving men, and still claiming
rwopooivn :
(Hipp. 1364, 5)
The persistence of the claim is significant. Of curéßela and oeuvóns Hippolytus had his abundant share. We have heard Phaedra pray that he will win owpoon, and even if Murray's translation is incomplete,
'mercy' is, at least, one aspect of that
sober sense of proportion, which is the spirit of the Greek virtue. Like the ayám of the Christian apostle's letter, without which no knowledge of "mysteries' avails, it colours and tempers all other qualities of soul. Had Hippolytus been ocopwv, the plot of Aphrodite would have fallen short of tragedy.
That such was Euripides' conception of the character is not disproved by Artemis word in 1. I402 (Tyuns dufuchen
офрообть бїх0єто). Euripides was at no pains to prove that the goddess herself conceived of virtue roundly. If theology is in her myths she was a being merciless enough.
Continued from page 52
THE MALE CHARACTERS OF EURIPIDES
Men become similar to the objects of their worship, and it would be very like Euripides to show a goddess as blind to an aspect of moral truth as her worshipper. What Artemis is enabled to do in this scene from the resources of her omniscience, is to bring the dying youth to understanding and acquiescence in his fate.
As Adams says, she 'alters the attitude of Hippolytus so that he dies in the odour of owpoon.’ Such is the significance of the final words of the chorus in the stanza which the tribute to Pericles replaced. He has at last, though too late, won what he lacked:
Adams' closing paragraph is worth quoting. 'What Artemis does for Hippolytus she does also for the play. Pain and resentment fade leaving behind them pity. For pain and resentment, rather than fear, are, I think the emotions aroused by the body of this play, and the emphasis laid on the other element in the tragic catharsis is vital to the success of the piece as tragedy. It is not enough that a poet should profoundly understand and sympathise with his characters; he must make his audience do so; and when he makes his action turn on human weakness rather than on human strength, his task is much more difficult-until he secures an audience more interested in weakness than in strength.’