16 
Olivia Pound 
family ties, and the revenge to be exacted for shedding blood 
were themes very familiar to Greek tragedy.*® 
Throughout both plays by Swinburne appears the persistent 
problem of existence, how best to live to satisfy the gods. When 
Althaea is warning Meleager she describes to him a well-ordered 
life.®° 
Child, if a man serve law through all his life 
And with his whole heart worship, him all gods 
Praise, . 
Be man at one with equal-minded gods, 
So shall he prosper; not through laws torn up, 
Violated rule and a new face of things. 
Life is represented as a bitter and uncertain chance which man 
is powerless to better. Althaea says :** 
and what chance 
The gods cast lot for and shake out on us, 
That shall we take, and that much bear withal. 
The chorus in Atalanta describes the life of man as made up 
of strange elements, combined by the gods in some inexplicable 
way.” 
Before the beginning of years 
There came to the making of man 
Time, with a gift of tears; 
Grief, with a glass that ran; 
Pleasure, with pain for leaven; 
Summer, with flowers that fell; 
Remembrance fallen from heaven, 
And madness risen from hell; 
Strength without hands to smite; 
Love that endures for a breath; 
Night, the shadow of light, 
And life, the shadow of death. 
59 Cf. Agamemnon, Orestes, Antigone, etc. 
69 Atalanta in Calydon, p. 265. 
61 Tbid., p. 258. 
62 Atalanta in Calydon, p. 258. 
356 
