398 LITERARY PAPERS 



justice, and a crop of sycophants at Athens made their liv- 

 ing by levying blackmail, which their victims were afraid to 

 refuse. 



From the dramatic writers passages bearing on Truth in 

 its relations with practical life may be culled. Many of these 

 passages refer specifically to Truth. In the words of Poly- 

 nices, "The speech of Truth is simple and those things which 

 are just need not wily interpretation; for they have energy 

 themselves; but the unjust speech, unsound in itself, re- 

 quires cunning preparation to gloze it." The writings of the 

 dramatists besides are replete with passages containing the 

 truths of Truth in sympathy with much present-day thought. 

 Imperfect though words be to express the full purport of the 

 idea, nevertheless, in the mouth of Eteocles Euripides shows 

 what power he thought they might possess uttered in Truth's 

 cause. Eteocles addressed his mother Jocasta thus: "But 

 he ought to effect a reconciliation not by arms, for speech 

 does everything which even the sword of the enemy could 

 do." 



Many other passages might be pointed out in which occur 

 beautiful eulogies to Truth, showing the dawn in the Greek 

 mind of the idea of universal Truth. 



But too often a feeling that truth is inexpedient is manifested, 

 where revenge, hostility, or the relations of the sexes are con- 

 cerned. Falsehood and deception have full play to gain some 

 other end considered good in itself. Again, some truths were not 

 considered decorous to tell. Electra pleads with Orestes that 

 it is not becoming a virgin to tell why her most unholy mother 

 slew her husband Agamemnon. 



Deception and falsehood are often practiced in Greek drama 

 in connection with the preservation of the life or the prestige 

 of an individual; apparently untruthfulness in such a cause 

 was not opposed to the ethics of the time. Iphigenia by the arts 

 of Ulysses, under pretense of being wedded to Achilles, was 

 drawn to Aulis. Later on, her escape from Tauris was ef- 

 fected by a plot against her preserver. Even Pylades in the 

 Greek play concealed the identity of himself and companion. 

 It is interesting to note just here what an advance Goethe has 



