THE 'AGAMEMNON* AND ^TRACHINI&> 25 



a second and more loved wife, displacing Deianira, the mother 

 of his children. It would not be noble in any woman to sub- 

 mit to this. No special misfortunes these of Deianira. The 

 great man's work gives him no leisure for home life. The woman 

 in middle age finds herself supplanted. Yet such is the charm 

 of sweet heroic simplicity in Deianira, that she actually wins 

 our sympathy for Heracles, since we derive our first impression 

 of this demigod from the woman he had loved, and who loved 

 him ever. 



The play begins when Deianira is alone at Trachis musing 

 over her past life. Musing in the porch, white-robed, fair- 

 armed, she tells us how her hero freed her long years ago from 

 peril worse than death, and won her as his bride, how she has 

 lived much alone, and ever anxious, and how even now she 

 has most cause of all for fear ; and the very prophecy which 

 lends a bitter irony to Heracles' fate strikes the key-note of 

 Deianira's present dread; otherwise unreasonable, he her lord 

 being so mighty. In this way we learn quite simply the spot 

 where the tragedy takes place, the names of the principal per- 

 sons of the drama, the absence of Heracles, his wife's charac- 

 ter, and the impending doom. A short scene follows, in which 

 Deianira, at the suggestion of an aged matron, sends Hyllus, 

 her son, to seek for Heracles. There is here a touch of the 

 skilful playwright. Hyllus and the nurse are required later, 

 reappearing at the very crisis of Deianira's fate. If they had 

 not been previously introduced, the audience would have spent 

 some time in wondering who these were, and thus their atten- 

 tion would have been distracted. Sophocles, however, makes 

 skilful use of this little piece of scaffolding to confirm our 

 opinion of Deianira's character by showing the mutual love of 

 son and mother and her gentleness to the old nurse. When 

 Hyllus leaves, the chorus enters, a band of pleasant girls, 

 very sorry for their noble guest, and anxious to comfort her. 

 How ? First by pointing out that Heracles has never come 

 to any harm yet, then by observing that things cannot always 

 remain at the worst, and lastly by that exhortation to trust in 

 Providence so natural to the young girl. The queen listens 

 very kindly, and thinks of quite other things as they speak 

 thinks how young they are : 



