Chapter III: Part 3

Behind this Olympian system, however, there is a possibility of some real Providence or impersonal Governance of the world, to which here, for a moment, Hecuba makes a passionate approach. If there is _any_ explanation, _any_ justice, even in the form of mere punishment of the wicked, she will be content and give worship! But it seems that there is not. Then at last there remains--what most but not all modern freethinkers would probably have begun to doubt at the very beginning--the world of the departed, the spirits of the dead, who are true, and in their dim way love her still (p. 71 "Thy father far away shall comfort thee," and the last scene of the play).

This last religion, faint and shattered by doubt as it is, represents a return to the most primitive "Pelasgian" beliefs, a worship of the Dead which existed long before the Olympian system, and has long outlived it.

P. 57, l. 922, The firebrand's image.]--Hecuba, just before Paris' birth, dreamed that she gave birth to a fire-brand. The prophets therefore advised that the babe should be killed; but Priam disobeyed them.

P. 57, l. 924, Three Crowns of Life.]--On the Judgment of Paris see Miss Harrison, _Prolegomena_, pp. 292 ff. Late writers degrade the story into a beauty contest between three thoroughly personal goddesses--and a contest complicated by bribery. But originally the Judgment is rather a Choice between three possible lives, like the Choice of Heracles between Work and Idleness. The elements of the choice vary in different versions: but in general Hera is royalty; Athena is prowess in war or personal merit; Aphrodite, of course, is love. And the goddesses are not really to be distinguished from the gifts they bring. They are what they give, and nothing more. Cf. the wonderful lyric _Androm._ 274 ff., where they come to "a young man walking to and fro alone, in an empty hut in the firelight."

There is an extraordinary effect in Helen herself _being_ one of the Crowns of Life--a fair equivalent for the throne of the world.

P. 57, l. 940 ff., Alexander . . . Paris.]--Two plays on words in the Greek.

P. 58, l. 956, The old Gate-Warden.]--He and the Watchers are, of course, safely dead. But on the general lines of the tradition it may well be that Helen is speaking the truth. She loved both Menelaus and Paris; and, according to some versions, hated Deiphobus, the Trojan prince who seized her after Paris' death. There is a reference to Deiphobus in the MSS. of the play here, but I follow Wilamowitz in thinking it spurious.

Pp. 63 ff., Chorus.]--On the Trojan Zeus see above, on p. 11. Mount Ida caught the rays of the rising sun in some special manner and distributed them to the rest of the world; and in this gleam of heavenly fire the God had his dwelling, which is now the brighter for the flames of his City going up like incense!

Nothing definite is known of the Golden Images and the Moon-Feasts.

P. 64, l. 1088, Towers of the Giants.]--The prehistoric castles of Tiryns and Mycenae.

P. 65, l. 1111, May Helen be there.]--(Cf. above.) Pitane was one of the five divisions of Sparta. Athena had a "Bronzen House" on the acropolis of Sparta. Simois, of course, the river of Troy.

P. 71, l. 1232, I make thee whole.]--Here as elsewhere Hecuba fluctuates between fidelity to the oldest and most instinctive religion, and a rejection of all Gods.

P. 72, l. 1240, Lo, I have seen the open hand of God.]--The text is, perhaps, imperfect here; but Professor Wilamowitz agrees with me that Hecuba has seen something like a vision. The meaning of this speech is of the utmost importance. It expresses the inmost theme of the whole play, a search for an answer to the injustice of suffering in the very splendour and beauty of suffering. Of course it must be suffering of a particular kind, or, what comes to the same thing, suffering borne in a particular way; but in that case the answer seems to me to hold. One does not really think the world evil because there are martyrs or heroes in it. For them the elements of beauty which exist in any great trial of the spirit become so great as to overpower the evil that created them--to turn it from shame and misery into tragedy. Of course to most sufferers, to children and animals and weak people, or those without inspiration, the doctrine brings no help. It is a thing invented by a poet for himself.

P. 75, l. 1288, Thou of the Ages.]--The Phrygian All-Father, identified with Zeus, son of Kronos. (Cf. on p. 11.)

P. 76, l. 1304, Now hast thou found thy prayer.]--The Gods have deserted her, but she has still the dead. (Cf. above, on p. 71.)

P. 79, l. 1332, Forth to the dark Greek ships.]--Curiously like another magnificent ending of a great poem, that of the _Chanson de Roland_, where Charlemagne is called forth on a fresh quest:

"Deus," dist li Reis, "si penuse est ma vie!"
Pluret des oilz, sa barbe blanche tiret. . . .

Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. Edinburgh & London

BY THE SAME AUTHOR

HISTORY OF ANCIENT GREEK LITERATURE.

ANDROMACHE: A Play.

CARLYON SAHIB: A Play.

THE EXPLOITATION OF INFERIOR RACES, IN ANCIENT AND MODERN TIMES: An
Essay in "Liberalism and the Empire."

EURIPIDIS FABULAE: Brevi Adnotatione Critica Instructae, Vols. I. and II.

EURIPIDES: Hippolytus; Bacchae; Aristophanes' 'Frogs.' Translated into
English verse.

Transcriber's notes:

The following changes were made to the original text:

Page 57: Gesperrt emphasis changed to italics. "_She_" for "S h e". Page 58: similarly "_thee_" for "t h e e" Page 59: similarly "_She_" for "S h e". Page 62: similarly "_thou_" for "t h o u". Page 76: similarly "_Ye_" for "Y e" and "_ye_" for "y e".

Page 91: changed "fire-brand's" to "firebrand's" to match referenced text.
"P. 57, l. 922, The firebrand's image.]"

Minor punctuation changes made.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Trojan Women of Euripides, by Euripides

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