NATIONAL STYLE ]79 



planks asunder and snorting in his labour, mark the 

 yEschylean style, when the poet gives a free rein to the 

 impulse of his ' mighty line ' : 

 a a- 



8/j.ual yvvcuK.es, a'iSe Topyovwv 

 es Kal 



Of such sort are the ponderous iambics, struggling beneath 

 their Marathonian panoply : 



dAA.' ou 



.ZEschylus proves that Greek could be voluminous as well as 

 voluble. But in his hands the style was not always pushed 

 to the extreme of emphasis and exaggeration. Tragic 

 solemnity of diction reaches the height of massive yet 

 elastic energy in Cassandra's prophetic speeches delivered at 

 the gate of Agamemnon's palace. These are the sublimest 

 examples of dramatic poetry bequeathed to us by antiquity. 

 They are certainly unique in Greek literature for verbal 

 weight combined with fiery movement. 



The Athenians refused to follow the leading of either Pindar 

 or /Eschylus. The ironical, analytical, dialectical instinct of 

 the people drew them aside to other issues. Just as sculpture, 

 after emerging from archaic clumsiness, passed rapidly through 

 the heroic beauty of Pheidias to the elegance and grace of 

 Praxiteles just as architecture refined upon the Doric column 

 in the Parthenon, and introduced the slender Ionic type so 

 literary style grew lighter and more delicate as years advanced. 

 The gravity of Sophocles has less of volume than the gravity 

 of his great predecessor. These lines from the ' Antigone ' 

 reveal the tragic manner at its purest, in its most character- 

 istically Attic form : 



ou yap ri poi Zeus -t\v 6 Krjpv^as ra5e 

 ouS' r) i-vvoiKOS T<av Karoo Oeuv A/KTJ 

 ou5e ffBevfiv roffovrov (p6jji.t)v ra (To. 

 K7]pvyfj.aO' &&T' aypairra KafftyaAri flewi/ 

 v6fj.ifj.a SvvaffOai 6vijrbv ovQ" 1 vTrepdpa/At'iv. 

 ou yap n vvv ye /co%0es, aAA.' det TTOTC 

 77 roura, KovSels olSev e oVou 'fyavr). 



K2 



