The Supernatural in the Tragedies of Euripides 91 



the foundations of their behefs. One fate appeared for the 

 righteous and the wicked, for those that sacrificed and for those 

 that sacrificed not. This bitter experience had shaken the already 

 weakened joints of the ancestral religious structure, and finally 

 the old beliefs themselves went by the board. 



Euripides is above all others the spokesman of his time, the 

 poet in whom the spirit of revolt against the older conceptions of 

 the supernatural appears. How far the dissolution of the tra- 

 ditional beliefs had proceeded in his time is difficult to say. It is, 

 however, probable that his attacks on the religion of the masses 

 were preceded by other attacks. At any rate, people's minds in 

 Euripides' days were prepared to hear, even in the theatre, doubt 

 cast on what concerned the Gods ; and when Euripides approached 

 religious tradition with scepticism and liberal frankness he was 

 supported by the spirit of the time in which he lived. 



Here the question arises: If Euripides was so at variance with 

 the traditional beliefs, why then did he make such frequent use of 

 the supernatural in his tragedies ? It is possible, though not very 

 probable, that one of his reasons was to counteract the popular 

 prejudice against his supposed atheism. The main reason, how- 

 ever, was that he could not put aside the historic atmosphere of 

 the Attic drama. Tradition and dramatic propriety compelled 

 him to take his themes from the myths and heroic legends, how- 

 ever abhorrent many of these must have been to him. No one in 

 Euripides' days could have broken free from these traditions ; in 

 attempting to do so he must have wrecked either his fame or his 

 art. And above all we must not forget that Euripides was a 

 dramatic poet and not a theological teacher. His task was rather 

 to interest than to instruct, not to inculcate certain sceptical views 

 and theological criticism, but to give to the people the pleasure 

 which a good tragedy can afford. 



We must, moreover, always bear in mind that it will not do to 

 take, without discrimination, all the views which his characters 

 maintain for the reflective opinion of the dramatic poet. Fre- 

 quently these views are contradictory and necessarily vary ac- 

 cording to the dramatis personge and to the dramatic situation. 



But after all due allowances have been made it cannot be 



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