The Supernatural in the Tragedies of Euripides 53 



A bold sentiment, indeed, plainly indicating a disbelief in the 

 popular theology ! The same idea recurs in the following verses 

 where Hecuba says : 



Tr. 1280-81 : 



103 ■&eol. KoX tL rovs ^eoiis KaKCc; 



Kai irplv yap ovk f/Kovaav avaKoXovfxevoL. 



" O ye Gods ! — why call I on the Gods ? 

 For called on heretofore they hearkened not ! " 



and vv. 1240 ff. she says: 



" Nought was in Heaven's design, save woes to me 

 And Troy, above all cities loathed of them. 

 In vain we sacrificed ! " 



In these passages is expressed the inmost theme of the whole 

 play, a search for an answer to the question : if the righteous are 

 not treated better in this life than the wicked, if injustice triumphs 

 over justice, what must we think of the Gods? "Such Gods are 

 as a matter of fact the moral inferiors to good men, and Euripides 

 will never blind his eyes to their inferiority ; and as soon as peo- 

 ple see that their God is bad, they tend to cease believing in his 

 existence at all." (Murray, Troj. Women.) 



The same thought that the Gods turn a deaf ear to the cries of 

 mankind in distress finds expression in the following choral ode : 



Tr. 1060 ff.: 



ovTca 8r] Tov kv 'IXtco 



vabv . . . wpovdo^Kas . . . & ZeD, . . . iiva^ 



ohpavLov edpavov eTrt/Se/Scbs 



ai^epa t' eyuds iroXeos oKopikvas, k. t. X. 



" So then thy temple in Troy fair-gleaming. 

 And thine altar of incense heavenward steaming 



Hast thou rendered up to our foes Achaean, 

 O Zeus, and the flame of our sacrificing, etc. ... 

 Dost thou care, O King, I muse, heart-aching, — 

 Thou who sittest on high in the far blue heaven 

 Enthroned, — that my city to ruin is given, etc." 



Long before Euripides Homer had represented Zeus as ald^ept. 

 vaioiiv, cf. Iliad II, 412. In vv 1078-79 Euripides shows us Zeus 

 enthroned on his celestial seat and on ether, while in other pas- 



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