The Supernatural in the Tragedies of Euripides 55 



" Even as our soul, which is air, holds us together, so breath 

 {TTvtvixa) and air encompass the whole universe." The doctrine 

 that the supreme Godhead is the Air is ascribed by Cicero in De 

 Nat. Deor. I, 29, to Diogenes of Apollonia. Diogenes deified air 

 and spoke of it as omnipresent. It is by virtue of its intelligence, 

 according to Diogenes, that " the element of Air steers all things 

 and has power over all things." Then in line 886 Euripides gives 

 us a pantheistic interpretation of Zeus. The divine principle, 

 which the common people in ignorance of its nature call Zeus, 

 shows itself as intellect in the mind of man {vovs jSporcbv), and as 

 necessary and immutable law in nature (avajKr] 4>vaews), of which 

 he says Ale. 965 : that above it there is nothing (Kpeiaaov ov8ev 

 avayK-qs); cf. also Helen 514! Setvij? avayKrjs ovbev laxv^t.v Tr\eov. 

 This pantheism finds expression elsewhere in Euripides' poetry. 

 In Fragm. 935 he identifies divinity with all embracing ether : 



" Seest thou the boundless ether there on high, 

 That folds the earth around with dewy arms? 

 This deem thou Zeus, this reckon one with God." 



Cf. also Fragm. 596. Such utterances explain how Aristophanes 

 should have accused Euripides of convincing men that there are 

 no Gods. Finally in the last verse of the prayer the poet charac- 

 terizes the divine reason as world-ruling Justice. To Euripides 

 Justice and God are one, cf. also El. 771 : 



"Gods! All-seeing Justice thou hast come at last!" 



Euripides conceives of Justice as a quasi-personal being, the 

 "Weltgeist" or "Weltvernunft " as the German critic Nestle 

 calls it in his " Euripides," a being not transcendent but immanent 

 in all things, forming and directing all things to universal har- 

 mony. This idea which preeminently pervades the dramas of 

 Sophocles was generally not carried out by Euripides and recon- 

 ciled with the inequality of the distribution of blessings and evils 

 among men. So also Hecuba's prayer breathes discord rather 

 than harmony. "If there is any explanation, any justice, she will 

 be content and give worship (Trpoariv^aixrjv ae), but it seems that 

 there is not." 



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