76 ■ Ernest Heinrich Klotsche 



the supernatural in contrast with ^schylus. According to the 

 latter the Furies are real deities, living persons of objective ex- 

 istence, who even come upon the stage to torture the murderer. 

 According to Euripides Orestes in his delirium fancies he sees 

 the forms of the Furies pursuing him, while Electra expresses her 

 disbelief in the visible presence of them. She admits that a 

 fancied illness is as afflicting to the patient, as a real one, but 

 insists that the illness is nothing but a vision that haunts the brain 

 of a delirious man : 



Or. 311-15: 



aXka kXLvov els evvqv 5e/xas, 

 Kttt fjiij TO rap^ovv KaKcjjo^ovv a' eK hetxvloiv 

 ayaf airodexov, /J-eve 8' knl crrpcoTov \exovs. 

 Kav fxri voafis yap, dXXa So^dfets voaelv 

 Kafiaros ^poroicnv awopiare ■yiyverai. 



"... But lay thee down, 

 And heed not terrors overmuch, that scare 

 Thee from thy couch, but on thy bed abide. 

 For, though thy sickness be but of the brain, 

 This is affliction, this despair, to men." 



16. The Iphigenia at Aulis 



The " Iphigenia at Aulis " was acted after the death of Euripi- 

 des. Its subject forms a prelude to the "Iphigenia in Tauris." 

 Calchas the prophet had proclaimed — and he was backed by 

 Odysseus and Menelaus — that Artemis claims the sacrifice of 

 Iphigenia, eldest daughter of Agamemnon, before the adverse 

 winds can fall. Iphigenia, doomed by her father to die at Aulis, 

 is miraculously saved by the Goddess and removed to another 

 land, the Tauric Chersonese. 



As in the " Hippolytus " so also in the " Iphigenia at Aulis," a 

 characteristic passage is contained, where Euripides refers to an 

 oath which is invalid. This is the oath sworn to Tyndareus by 

 Helen's suitors : 



I. A. 390 ff. : 



&p.0(Tav Tov 'Yvvha.peiov opKov ol KaK6cf)poi>es 



4>CK6yap,OL p-vrjarripes . ■ . 



oils \al3(hv cTTpaTev'- eroipoi 6' elcrt fxcopiq. (ppevcbv. 



130 



