EURIPIDES EUROPE. 



109 



nmier Anuxngoras (not Socrates). These studies had 

 so powerful an influence on his poetry, that he might 

 be called the rhetorical tragedian with no less truth 

 than he is called the philosophical tragedian. Euri- 

 pides lived at a time when Greek tragedy was carried 

 to its greatest perfection by Sophocles, to be ranked 

 as second to whom is high glory. These two poets 

 were the favourites of their age. The tragedies of 

 Euripides were represented at the same time with 

 those of Sophocles, and sometimes gained the prize 

 in preference. The critics, indeed, did not agree 

 unanimously in this decision of the public ; and the 

 unsparing satire of Aristophanes was directed against 

 the popular poet, whom he ridiculed in cutting paro- 

 dies. " Aristophanes," says Richter, " like another 

 Moses, showers his frogs on Euripides, only to chas- 

 tise his lax and relaxing morality, not blinded, like 

 Socrates, by his moral sentences to the immoral 

 tendency of the whole." 



The number of his tragedies has been variously 

 stated, from seventy-five to ninety-two ; as it is 

 known that he finished his works with great care, 

 the former estimate seems more probable. Only 

 nineteen are extant, on the merit of which we have 

 tlie following criticism by A. W. Schlegel : " Consi- 

 d^ring Euripides by himself, without comparing him 

 witli his predecessors, selecting many of his better 

 pieces, and taking single passages in others, we 

 cannot deny him extraordinary merit. But if we 

 regard him in connexion with the history of the art, 

 and look at the whole scope and aim of his pieces, 

 as it appears in those which have come down to us, 

 we find cause for much and severe censure. Of few 

 writers can so much good and evil be truly said. He 

 had an inexhaustible invention, and the most various 

 accomplishments ; but, amidst an abundance of bril- 

 liant and attractive qualities, there is wanting that 

 elevated gravity of spirit, and that nice dramatic 

 tact, which we admire La JEschylus and Sophocles. 

 He is always aiming to please, no matter by what 

 means. Hence it is that he is so unequal : frequently 

 he has passages of exquisite beauty ; at other times 

 he sinks into mere common-place. With all his 

 faults, he has an admirable ease, and a certain insi- 

 nuating grace." If the reader would view both sides 

 of the poet's character, he may peruse A. W. Schle- 

 gel's essay, A Comparison of the Pliaedra of Eurip- 

 ides with that of Racine, in connexion with what he 

 has said in the fifth of his Lectures on the Dramatic 

 Art and Literature. A part of the faults of Euripides 

 may be charged to the age in which he lived, which 

 was an age of sophistical disquisition, of political 

 controversy, and rhetorical art ; though it can never 

 be a sufficient apology for wrong that it is fashion- 

 able. 



Euripides made it a chief aim to awaken the ten- 

 der emotions. " He knew," says another critic, 

 " the nature of the passions, and had the art of in- 

 venting situations in which they could have their full 

 play. Withal he has an elegiac tone, which seldom 

 or never fails of its effect. Most of his characters 

 were once in the enjoyment of distinguished pros- 

 perity, and the retrospect, in their present situation, 

 checks the violence of the passions, and lowers them 

 to the tone of lamentation. For this reason, in his 

 tragedies, the passions are breathed forth in soft 

 complaints, rather than raised to a lofty height ; for 

 the same reason, he is so rich in moral sentences, 

 and philosophical declamations, as his personages 

 have always coolness enough to reflect on their situa- 

 tion. Euripides knew well what was suited to pro- 

 duce an effect at the moment. The times of boldness, 

 when ^Eschylus wrote, were past, and the power of 

 the state was beginning gradually to sink. The 

 pathetic manner of Euripides then became popular." 



Various faults may be found with his loose plan, his 

 often unintelligible changes of character, his super- 

 fluous choruses, and sometimes, too, his subject ; but 

 he stands pre-eminent in true, natural expression of 

 the passions, in interesting situations, original group- 

 ings of character, and various knowledge of human 

 nature. He is a master, too, in the art of managing 

 the dialogue, in adapting the speeches and answers 

 to the character, the sex, and station, the known or 

 private views, the present disposition of the speaker, 

 and the necessity of the moment, in short, to all that 

 gives distinctness and individuality to a person. 

 There is, too, a certain tenderness and softness dif- 

 fused over his writings, which cannot fail to please 

 the mind. He has been often called the woman- 

 hater, probably on account of his many severe sen- 

 tences on the follies of the female sex. Yet he was 

 not disinclined to the sex, and is said to have had 

 two wives. We meet, too, in his works, occasional 

 descriptions of female loveliness, and his sensibility 

 to the nobler charms of female purity and virtue 

 cannot be denied. It is not likely, as has been said, 

 that his hatred of women, and of his own wife in 

 particular, drove him from Athens to Macedonia ; 

 he went at the invitation of king Archelaus, whose 

 favour and confidence he enjoyed. According to the 

 tradition, he there met with an unfortunate end, 

 being torn to pieces by dogs, or dying in consequence 

 of their bites. The monarch erected a splendid 

 monument, with the inscription, " Thy memory, O 

 Euripides, will never perish." Still more honourable 

 was the inscription on the cenotaph at Athens : " All 

 Greece is the monument of Euripides ; the Macedon- 

 ian earth covers only his bones." Sophocles, who 

 survived him, publicly mourned his loss. 



The most celebrated editions of Euripides are 

 those of Paul Stephanus (Paris, 1602, 2 vols.) of 

 Barnes (Cambridge, 1694, folio), of Musgrave (Ox- 

 ford, 1778, 4 vols. 4to,) and of Morus and Beck 

 (Leipsic, 1779 88, 4to). The latest critical edi- 

 tions are by Matthias (Leipsic, 1813 20, 6 vols.), 

 and by Bothe (Leipsic, 1825, sqq.) Valkenaer, 

 Brunck, Person, Markland, &c. have devoted them- 

 selves to the illustration of single tragedies. 



EUROPA, in mythology ; the daughter of Agenor, 

 king of the Phoenicians, and the nymph Mella, or 

 Telephassa, and sister of Cadmus, whose name signi- 

 fying the white, is said to have been given to the 

 European continent, whose inhabitants are white. 

 The fable relates, that one of Juno's attendants stole 

 a paint-box from the toilet of her mistress, and gave 

 it to Europa. Her native beauty, heightened by 

 this means, won the love of Jupiter, who, in order 

 to possess her, changed himself into a white bull, 

 and appeared in this shape on the shores of the sea, 

 where she was strolling with her companions. At- 

 tracted by the beauty and gentleness of the animal, 

 she even ventured to mount upon his back, when he 

 immediately plunged into the sea with his lovely 

 prize, and swam to the island of Crete. Here he 

 transformed himself into a beautiful youth, and had 

 by her Minos, Sarpedon, and Rhadamanthus. She 

 afterwards married Asterius, king of Crete, who, 

 being childless, adopted her three sons. 



EUROPE ; the smallest of the great divisions of 

 our globe, but distinguished above the rest by the 

 character of its population, the superior cultivation 

 of the soil, and the flourishing condition of arts, 

 sciences, industry, and commerce, the multitude of 

 large and well-built cities, and its power and influ- 

 ence over the other parts of the world. 



Of the origin of its name and its inhabitants, his- 

 tory furnishes no certain account. It is most proba- 

 ble, that the first inhabitants emigrated from Asia, 

 the cradle of the human race. Greece was first peo- 



