The Supernatural in the Tragedies of Euripides 27 



Orestes, who prays to his patron God : 



Andr. 900 : 



5> ^ol^' aKecTTCcp, TrijfiaTcov doir]s \vcnv. 



" O Healer Phoebus, grant from woes release ! " 



assumes that the Gods do wrong; in the following verse (901) he 

 asks Hermione : 



"What ails thee? Art thou wronged of Gods or men?" 



and Hermione answers in the affirmative : 



" Of myself partly, partly of my lord, 

 In part of some God : ruin is everywhere ! " 



In the choral ode (lOOQff.) the divine founders of Troy, Apollo 

 and Poseidon, are upbraided for having abandoned to destruction 

 their once beloved city : 



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CO $01/36 irvpyuaas 



Tov ev 'IXLu evrecxv T^o-yov k. t. X. 



Ta\a.Lvav fxe'^elre Tpoiaf, 



" O Phoebus, who gavest to Ilium glory 



Of diadem-towers on her hights, — and O Master 

 Of Sea-depths, whose .grey-gleaming steeds o'er the hoary 

 Surf-ridges speed, — to the War-god, The Waster 

 With spears, for what cause for a spoil did he cast her, 

 Whom your own hands had fashioned, dishonoured to lie 

 In wretchedness, wretchedness — her that was Troy?" 



In the famous speech which the poet puts into the mouth of 

 Andromache, and in which he expresses his own dislike of the 

 Spartans, he pronounces an imprecation on that people : 



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ov \eyovTes aWa fiev 

 yXdoaari, 4>povovvTes 6' tiXX' e4>evpL<TKe(T^' aei; 



" Convicted liars, saying 

 This with the tongue, while still your hearts mean that, 

 Now ruin seize ye ! " 



The oracle-god is portrayed as a pitiless character, who con- 



8i 



