Page:Tragedies of Euripides (Way 1896) v2.djvu/24

Whatever meaning and weight this imputation may have, it is significant that it was not made even in the Thesmophoriazusæ, brought out five years before, the whole theme of which is the women's impeachment of Euripides for taxing them with unchastity. It is too much to suppose that Aristophanes would have neglected to make the fullest use of a scandal so apposite to the whole tenor of that play, had he been in possession of it. It may well be that the story is of that numerous family of slanders which do not lift their heads during a man's life.

Departure from Athens.Aeschylus, at the age of fifty-seven, disgusted, it is said, with the preference of Sophocles to himself, forsook Athens for Sicily; and though he returned for a time, he again left his country finally ten years after. Euripides was seventy-two when he accepted the invitation of Archelaus, king of Macedonia, to repair to his court, whither other distinguished Greeks,—painters, poets, and musicians,—friends of Euripides, had preceded him, and where men of letters were not only honoured guests, but (as happened, it is said, to Euripides himself) were sometimes placed in positions of official dignity. He visited Magnesia on the way, and was there fêted and loaded with every honour. The court of Macedonia may well have seemed a haven of rest to him, after the ceaseless vexations, the political unrest, and the now imminent perils of Athens. Amidst the magnificent scenery of that northern land, its forest-clad mountains, its lovely