Euripides and the new school 33 



Sophocles there are already signs 1 of the questioning that was soon 

 to become outspoken, as to the justice of the relation of master and 

 slave. Agriculture is hardly mentioned. The words yecopyos, yecopyeiv, 

 yewpjia, are (as in Aeschylus) not used. A reference to ploughing 

 occurs in a famous passage 2 celebrating the resourcefulness of Man. 

 The herdsman, usually a slave, is once 3 spoken of as perhaps a hired 

 servant. One curious passage 4 calls for notice. In the Trachiniae 

 the indifference of Heracles to his children is compared by his wife 

 Deianira to the conduct of a farmer (777x779) who has got a farm at a 

 distance (apovpav C/CTOTTOV) and only visits it at seed-time and harvest. 

 The man is apparently a non-resident landowner, living presumably 

 in the city (surely Athens is in the poet's mind) and working his farm 

 by deputy a steward and only inspecting it at important seasons. 

 Whether the labour employed is slave or free, there is nothing to 

 shew. It is of interest to find the situation sufficiently real to be used 

 in a simile. But I infer that the situation, like the conduct of Heracles, 

 is regarded as exceptional. 



Euripides takes us into a very different atmosphere. An age of 

 movement was also an age of criticism and inquiry, social religious 

 political ethical. The intellectual leaders came from various parts of 

 the Greek world, but the intellectual centre of ' obstinate questionings ' 

 was Athens, and their poet Euripides. The use of drama, with plots 

 drawn from ancient legend, as a vehicle for reflexions on human 

 problems, addressed to a contemporary audience and certain to evoke 

 assent and dissent, is the regular practice of Euripides. His plays 

 give us a mass of information as to the questions exercising the 

 minds of thoughtful men in a stirring period. The point of view is 

 that of the new school, the enlightened ' thinkers ' who claimed the 

 right to challenge traditional principles, opinions, prejudices, and 

 institutions, testing them by the canons of human reason fearlessly 

 applied. This attitude was naturally resented by men of the old 

 school, averse to any disturbing influence tending to undermine the 

 traditional morality, and certain to react upon politics. Their opposi- 

 tion can still be traced in the comedies of Aristophanes and in various 

 political movements during the Peloponnesian war. Among the 

 topics to which the new school turned their attention were two of 

 special interest to Euripides. The power of wealth was shewing itself 

 in the growth of capitalistic enterprise, an illustration of which is 

 seen in the case of the rich slave-owner Nicias. Poverty 5 and its 



1 Track 52-3, 61-3, T 763-4, Fragm 518, 677, Dind, 



2 Antig 338-40. The use of horses for ploughing is strange. Jebb thinks that mules are. 

 meant. 



3 O Tioig. 4 Track 31-3. 



5 Electra 37-8, 375-6, Pkoenissae 405, fragm 143 and many more. 

 H. A. q. 



