52 Ernest Heinrich Klotsche 



jan Women," at this moment of the history of the world. To 

 the people of the present day might the prophetess Cassandra 

 speak her message just as well as to those nearly three thousand 

 years ago : 



" Sooth, he were best shun war, whoso is wise : 

 If war must be, his country's crown of pride 

 Is death heroic, craven death her shame." 



(400-02.) 



And Poseidon, when mourning over the fall of Troy, has the 

 same to say of the terrors of war, which we have to say of them 

 to-day : 



" Fool, that in sack of towns lays temples waste, 

 And tombs, the sanctuaries of the dead ! 

 He, sowing desolation, reaps destruction." 



(95-97.) 



Euripides generally employs a God, through whom the predic- 

 tion of the future in the finales of his tragedies is made. In the 

 " Troades " he uses the more impressive method of a mortal 

 soothsayer to reveal the future. Cassandra in a state of frenzy 

 comes, on the stage (308), singing a wild strain on her supposed 

 nuptials with the Argive king. Then she imparts to Hecuba a 

 long prophecy. She sees the vision of Agamemnon's body^ — 

 murdered by his wife — and other impending events. Talthybius 

 intervenes and receives a summary of the future wanderings of 

 Odysseus. Finally she declares that she will come a victress to 

 Hades after the death of herself and Agamemnon : vv. 353-460. 



At times Euripides is openly iconoclastic in dealing with cur- 

 rent religious practice. Even prayer and sacrifices are sometimes 

 regarded as of doubtful aid. A striking instance is found in the 

 prayer which he puts into the mouth of Hecuba : 



Tr. 469-71 : 



3> d^eoi- KaKovs iJ-iv avaKoXw rovs (TvufMaxovs, 

 o/xws 5' €x« 7"i crxviJ'O- KtKXrja-KeLv d^eovs, 

 orav Tis rjfxuiv SvaTVXV XdjSrj tvxv^- 



" O Gods ! to sorry helpers I appeal ; 

 Yet to invoke the Gods hath some fair show 

 When child of man on evil fortune lights." 



106 



