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 HYPSIPYLE 
 
 A Paper read to the Northumberland and 
 
 Durham Classical Association in the 
 
 Common Room, University College, 
 
 Durham, on March 15th, 1913 
 
 BY 
 
 A. H. CRUICKSHANK, M.A. 
 
 Professor of Greek and Classical Lilerature in the University of Durhat 
 
 ©xforti 
 B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STREET 
 
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO . LIMITED. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 
 
 A Paper read to the Northumberland and 
 
 Durham Classical Association in the 
 
 Common Room, University College, 
 
 Durham, on March 15th, 191 3 
 
 A. H. CRUICKSHANK, M.A. 
 
 Professor of Greek and Classical Lileralure in the Univarsxly of Durhatn 
 
 The leterences are to Hunt's Fragmenta Papyracea, Clarendon 
 
 Press, 1912; cf. also Hervverden's edition (A. Oosthoek, Trajccti 
 
 adRhenum, mcmix) and H. v. Arnim's Supplementum Euripideum 
 
 (Bonn, Marcus & Weber, 191 3.) 
 
 ©.vfartj 
 B. H. BLACKWELL, BROAD STRKET 
 
PREFATORY NOTE. 
 
 My best thanks are due to Dr. Hunt for his kind help and 
 suggestions, and to Dr. J. Morison, of Ghisgovv, for revising the 
 proof, and for calling my attention to v. Arnim's Supplementum 
 Euripideum. V. Arnim has done his reconstruction of the 
 play with admirable spirit, though his ignorance of the Iambic 
 metre is at times curious. 
 

 HYPSIPYLE 
 
 My o1)ject this afternoon is to give an account of the play 
 of Euripides called Hypsipyle : not to deal with the 
 legend of that lady as a whole, or to go into the palaeo- 
 graphical details of the papyri which were discovered at 
 Oxyrhynchus in 1906 by Grenfell and Hunt, so much as to 
 excite your sympathy with the human interest which the 
 masterpieces of Greek literature stir in our minds, not 
 merely because they are literature, but because they take 
 us back to the childhood of the world, when the captive 
 Andromache drew water at the well, and the Queen of 
 Lemnos became the slave of Lycurgus and the nurse of 
 Opheltes. 
 
 We will therefore pass rapidly over the early part of 
 Hypsipyle's life, as she appears to us in the first book of 
 Apollonius Rhodius' Argonantica, in Ovid's Hcroidcs, 
 and in Valerius Flaccus. There she is the Queen of 
 Lemnos, an island in the northern Aegean of sinister fame. 
 Twice in the history of Lemnos had hideous massacres 
 taken place. ^ On this, the first, occasion the women, 
 seized by mad jealousy, had slain the men : but Hypsipyle 
 spared her father Thoas and smuggled him out of the 
 country.- Apollonius in his epic shows us Hypsipyle 
 shortly after this event receiving Jason and the heroes of 
 the Argo when they stopped at Lemnos on their way to 
 fetch the golden fleece from Colchis. Hypsipyle offers 
 them hospitality, and Jason stays with her for some time, 
 becoming the father of two sons, who appear in the play 
 of Euripides. And Ovid gives us the letter which she 
 writes to Jason, when he has left her and returned to 
 Thessaly with his benefactress Medea. 
 
 ^ Herod., vi, 138, - Statins makes Bacchus intervene to save his son. 
 
 396888 
 
4 .*. *:.•'.:'•:■•."!•• HYTS'l^YLE 
 
 ]n the play of Euripides we find Hypsipyle a slave at 
 the palace of King- Lycin-gus at Nemea, a little town in 
 Argolis hetween Argos and Corinth,' at the top of the pass 
 over which the railway now slowly creeps, famous for its 
 games of old. She had offended the other Lemnian 
 women by refusing to kill her father, and had gone down 
 to the beach, where sailors carried her off and sold her as 
 a slave at Nauplia, the harbour of Argos. The former 
 Queen of Lemnos is now the nurse of Opheltes, the little 
 son of Lycurgus and Eurydice. It is a time of war; the 
 King of Argos, Adrastus, is on his way to Thebes with six 
 other champions to restore the exiled son of Qidipus, 
 Polynices, to his rights, and he must needs pass through 
 Xeniea. This is the story which the Latin epic poet, 
 Statins, tells in his Thchaid; Hypsipyle appears in her 
 place in the poem, but Statins seems to have followed a 
 different story from that of Euripides, though he has 
 several touches in common. 
 
 We are now in a position to read the legend of Hypsipyle 
 as told us by Hyginus.- ' The seven leaders who were 
 going to besiege Thebes came to Nemea, where Hypsipyle, 
 the daughter of Thoas, was a slave and nurse to the boy 
 Archemorus, or, as he is also called, Opheltes, son of 
 King Lycus {sic). An oracle had been given to the King 
 that he should not lay the boy down on the ground before 
 he could walk. The seven leaders who were going to 
 Thebes came to Hypsipyle seeking for water, and asked her 
 to show them a spring. She, fearing to lay the child on 
 the ground, observes a deep bed of parsley near the foun- 
 tain, on which she laid him. While she draws water for 
 them, the serpent who guarded the fountain devoured the 
 child. Adrastus and the others slew the serpent, and 
 begged Lycus to spare Hypsipyle's life, and instituted 
 
 ^ Nemea is so near to Corinth, the scene of tlie Medea, that it is necessary 
 to suppose that Euripides is following a dift'erent version of the Jason-legend 
 in the Hypsipyle. Robert, however, goes too far in supposing Jasoa to have 
 been killed by the dragon in Colchis. Cf. n. 3, p. 15. 
 
 2 C. 74. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 5 
 
 funeral games for the boy, which take place every four 
 years; the victors in the Nemean games receive a crown 
 of parsley.' 
 
 The legend of Hypsipyle is worth considering, because 
 it shows us how rich is Greek mythology in legends less 
 horrible and less familiar to us than those of the houses 
 of Atreus and Oedipus. The vicissitudes and the happy 
 ending which distinguish the story m?ke it especially 
 suited to the genius of Euripides. The effect which the 
 play as a whole had on its hearers must have been like that 
 which the mellow genius of Shakespeare aimed at in such 
 romantic works as Cynibcliuc, The Winter's Talc, and 
 llic Tempest, works in which the author seeks to impress 
 less by epigram than by atmosphere. It is a curious fact 
 also that Hypsipyle, like those plays of our great English 
 dramatist, was one of the last creations of the author.^ 
 
 Let us now endeavour to reconstruct the play of 
 Hypsipyle as Euripides has given it to us, in a version 
 which differs from its presentation in several other writers, 
 premising that the fragments, though they amount to 300 
 lines out of 1,700, are very defective in the middle of the 
 play, and that much conjecture throughout is necessary. 
 You will not, I trust, accuse me of ignoring other theories 
 as to the plot if I give you the one which, on weighing the 
 evidence, commends itself most to me.- 
 
 Hypsipyle appears upon the stage in front of the royal 
 palace, and, as is the custom in the plays of Euripides, 
 tells in a long prologue who she is and what has befallen 
 her. The first lines of the play are preserved to us in the 
 Frogs of Aristophanes : they refer to Dionysus, the 
 father of Thoas, the King of Lemnos, and grandfather of 
 
 ^ Ur. Hadovv lias pointed out to me that Fhotius in liis note on the verb 
 KporaXiCeiv (Le.vtc, p. l8o) used in the //v/)<ii/>v/(', refers to Kuripides as 
 u KoifxiKos- 1 he word may sound stran<,^e ni connection with a 1 ragedian, 
 but Fiiotius may be tliinking of the Euripidean plays which liave a happy 
 ending. 
 
 2 For example Herwerden thinks that (l) the son spoke the prologue, and 
 (2) was not admitted to the house. He truly says ' micamus in tenebris.' 
 
O IIYPSIPYLE 
 
 Hypsipyle. It is clear at once that the old complaint 
 ouSev 7r/909 Aiovvaov has no bearing- on this particular 
 play, and we are prepared at once to expect the ultimate 
 intervention of Dionysus in the affairs of his own family. 
 
 Hypsipyle re-enters the palace, and two young men 
 make their appearance, Euneos and Thoas by name : they 
 are the long-lost sons of Hypsipyle by Jason, and they are 
 travelling- over the world to discover their mother, bearing 
 with them a precious jewel, ' a golden vine,' which is the 
 proof of their own identity. As they stand before the 
 palace they look up at the pediment above the huge pillars 
 and admire the carvings there, much as Aeneas does at the 
 beginning of the sixth book of the Acncid before the 
 temple of Apollo.^ 
 
 They knock, and when Hypsipyle reappears they ask for 
 a night's lodging. Hypsipyle comes out talking to the 
 baby in her arms; she says his father is away, but that he 
 will come back with many toys, which will delight the 
 baby and put a stop to his complaints. She starts when 
 she sees the young* men, and says with a familiar touch of 
 ' irony/ ' How happy is your mother, whoever she was.'^ 
 She explains that the King, Lycurgus, is away from home, 
 but when the young men offer to seek shelter elsewhere 
 she presses them to stay, and they eventually pass into the 
 palace. 
 
 Hypsipyle then sings a monody to the baby, and amuses 
 him first with a mirror and then with a rattle f the passage 
 is one which excited the wrath of Aristophanes. She has 
 no time, she says, now to weave as she did of old in 
 Lemnos : now her task is to sing or do what else she can 
 to please the baby or put him to sleep. 
 
 Apparently she puts him down, and the chorus of 
 Nemean women enters. They ask the captive what she is 
 
 ^ Cf. also Ion, 184. H. v. Arnim thinks that this passage (preserved in 
 Galen, xvii, I. p. 519) is spoken by Hypsipyle to the baby. - Cf. /o;/, 308. 
 
 ^ Hervverden's reconstruction (p. 15) seems to me improbable. V. Arnim 
 thinks that Hypsipyle compares the baby's eyes to a mirror. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 7 
 
 doing? Is she sweeping or watering the ground in front 
 of the palace? Or is she singing of the ship Argo as 
 usual, or of the golden fleece, or of Lemnos; is it a time 
 for this when an Argive host is on its way past Nemea to 
 Thebes, ' the fort of the harp, the work of the hand of 
 Amphion ' ?^ 
 
 Hypsipyle replies that her thoughts are ever dwelling 
 on the past; she tells of the heroes of the Argo: how 
 Peleus made fast the stern cables of the ship, when there 
 was a calm, and Orpheus made music standing by the 
 main mast, what time the heroes plied the oar or rested 
 from their toil. She does not take any interest in the 
 political affairs of Argos. 
 
 The chorus console her by the example of other ladies 
 who had left their homes afar. Europa left Tyre and had 
 three happy children, and lo too had wandered far from 
 Argos. They feel certain that her grandfather, Dionysus, 
 will come some day and save her. 
 
 But Hypsipyle refuses all consolation : she says that 
 Procris, whom her husband, Cephalus, slew by mistake in 
 the hunt, was bewailed : but ' who even with the aid of 
 Calliope the muse can bewail me ? ' 
 
 The chorus break into anapaests, to announce that some- 
 one is approaching. Dorian soldiers are seen : what do 
 they want? 
 
 Amphiaraus the seer enters with attendants and speaks 
 thus : 
 
 Amphiaraus. O what a hateful thing is solitude, - 
 What time the weary traveller hath need 
 And sees bare fields and lonely habitations 
 Helpless, without a town or guide to tell him 
 Whither to turn; and this is my mishap. 
 How glad am I to see this Nemean land 
 Of Zeus, how glad to see th' abodes of men! 
 Ho woman! whether slave thou art in charge 
 Of this abode, or free from servitude, 
 
 ^ This refers to the legend that while Amphion played, the stones obeyed 
 his voice and built the wall of Thebes (Hor., O/^-s. iii. ll). 
 ^ In the MS. ipt]/xiai. The editors amend to c/cStj^ioj. 
 
8 HYPSIPYLE 
 
 I ask thee whose this house is, whose the sheep 
 That I see grazing in this land of PhHus. 
 
 Hypsipyle. It is the palace of the rich Lycurgus, 
 Whom all th' Asopian land hath chosen warder 
 Of the God's temple: Zeus they worship here. 
 Amphiaraus. I fain would fill my pitchers with pure water, 
 With flowing water fit for sacrifice; 
 For that which stands in pools is not so pure. 
 And all is muddied by my thirsty host. 
 Hypsipyle. Who are you, friends, and from what country 
 
 come ye ? 
 Amphiaraus. Argives are w^e from great Mycenae sprung; 
 We cross the frontier, and are fain to offer 
 Sacrifice for the armed sons of Danaus. 
 Our goal is Cadmus' gate : 'tis Thebes we seek, 
 If only, lady, heav'n send us good fortune. 
 Hypsipyle. And what your quest, if 'tis allowed to hear it ? 
 Amphiaraus. We bring the exile Polynices home. 
 Hypsipyle. And who art thou that labourest thus for 
 
 others ? 
 Amphiaraus. The seer Amphiaraus, Oicles' son. 
 
 Hypsipyle, of course, knows who Amphiaraus is, and 
 then she tells him w4io she is. He goes on to say how he 
 has been persuaded against his will by his wife to take part 
 in the war. Polynices had given his wife, Eriphyle, a 
 famous necklace, an heirloom in his family, given by 
 Aphrodite to Harmonia at her wedding with Cadmus. As 
 he is a seer he knows that the expedition will fail : still he 
 goes. Hypsipyle offers to bring him to where there is 
 water, and they go off together, she carrying the babe. 
 
 While they are away the chorus tell how two exiles, 
 Polynices of Thebes and Tydeus of Aetolia, quarrelled in 
 front of the palace of Adrastus at Argos, whither they had 
 come for shelter, and how the King separated them and 
 took them as his sons-in-law, believing that he was thereby 
 fulfilling an oracle, and how' he had promised to restore 
 both to their countries. This chorus is clearly appropriate 
 to the situation, for the expedition which seeks to restore 
 Polynice is at the gates. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 9 
 
 After a time Hypsipyle comes 1)ack and laments the 
 death of the cliikl, while the chorns draw out the story 
 from her. As far as we can make out he had left the place 
 where she put him, in the desire of picking- flowers, and 
 was then slain by the serpent who i^uarded the fountain. 
 
 You will observe that we are reconstructing the play 
 without so far having recourse to a messenger. A Greek 
 play without a messenger ? you will say. Why, it is almost 
 like ' Hamlet ' with the part of Hamlet omitted. Never- 
 theless it seems simpler to suppose that Hypsipyle herself 
 reports the story here.^ She consults with the chorus 
 what to do. 
 
 Hypsipyle. Dear ladies, how I fear that 1 must die ! 
 Chorus. Hast thou no word of hope to give thy friends? 
 Hypsipyle. Flight is the word, if only I knew how. 
 Chorus. What hast thou found that braces up the will? 
 
 Hypsipyle. I fear the fate which the child's death will 
 bring. 
 
 Chorus. Hard-fated one ! thou know'st what suffering is ! 
 
 Hypsipyle. I know what suffering is and will avoid it. 
 
 Chorus. Where turn'st thou then? What city will re- 
 ceive thee ? 
 
 Hypsipyle. My feet and zealous thought will settle that. 
 
 Chorus. The frontiers are well guarded on all sides. 
 
 Hypsipyle. 'Tis so: 'tis truth; still I shall fmd a way. 
 
 Chorus. Take counsel with us, for we are thy friends. 
 
 Hypsipyle. What say you if I found a friendly guide? 
 
 Chorus. No one will run a risk to help a slave. 
 
 It is possible that Hypsipyle here raised the question 
 whether the young men she had just befriended would help 
 her to escape. It seems, however, probable from what she 
 says later that she decides to tell the Queen what has hap- 
 pened in the hope of disarming her wrath. Accordingly 
 we next find what seems to be a dialogue between the 
 
 ^ Robert (Hermes, xliv, 396) argues with much persuasiveness in favour of 
 having a Messenger He points out that, except the Cyclops and Troachs, 
 every play of Euripides has a Messenger. 
 
10 IIYPSIPYLE 
 
 Queen Eurydice and the heroine, in which the latter de- 
 fends herself by sayini^- how fond slie was of the child. 
 The Queen, however, condemns her to die for her care- 
 lessness. We cannot tell if the dead child is broui;ht on 
 the stage and lamented over by his mother. It would be 
 a pathetic scene, such as Euripides wrote well. In 
 Statins, the King Lycurgus, returns at this point and 
 threatens Hypsipyle's life, but there is no sign of his 
 appearance in the play : indeed, there is no room for him, 
 for as ' all the extant Greek plays could be performed by 
 three actors,'^ it would be rash to assume that this play 
 required four. 
 
 There follows a much mutilated chorus of an anapaestic 
 character, singing the praises of Dionysus in strains which 
 recall the first chorus of the Bacchac.^ No doubt it in- 
 vokes the God to come to the rescue of his granddaughter. 
 It will be noted that this chorus was also to all appearance 
 appropriate to the action. 
 
 What, you will ask, has happened to the two sons of 
 Hypsipyle who were admitted to the palace to spend the 
 night ? The experienced playgoer knows that characters 
 do not arrive on the Greek stage, or on any stage, for 
 nothing; what are they going to do? The answer unfor- 
 tunately must remain uncertain. There was one form of 
 the story in which the sons rescued their mother from 
 death, but there is nothing to show that Euripides adopted 
 that treatment of the plot.^ All we know is that at the 
 end of the play a recognition has taken place between 
 Hypsipyle and her sons, and that Amphiaraus has had 
 something to do with it. It has been conjectured that it 
 came about in this way; that Eurydice, the Queen, invited 
 the two strangers to decide the question of Hypsipyle's 
 punishment, that they decided in favour of putting her to 
 death for her carelessness, and that then, as she was being 
 
 ^ Haighs Attic 'lluatrc, p. 224. - Bacchae, 142. 
 
 ^ Anthol. Pal., iii, 10. cf. however n. i, p. 16. 
 
HYPSIPYLE II 
 
 led off to death, she recalled her past life and disclosed 
 who she was; the one person in the world that the young 
 men wanted to hnd. Another way in which the sons might 
 find out Hypsipyle would be from conversation with 
 Amphiaraus : indeed, it was difficult for a recognition not 
 to take place : for all they had to do was to come out at 
 the front door, and they would find the Argive army 
 grateful to Hypsipyle for having led them to the fountain, 
 and knowing the name of their guide : they might very 
 naturally come out of the palace on hearing a dispute 
 between those who wished to punish Hypsipyle for her 
 carelessness and those whom she had benefited. Some- 
 thing like this is suggested by Statins' narrative, but we 
 must remember that he could draw on a larger canvas than 
 a Greek playwright. 
 
 From the fragments of the next scene which we possess 
 it is clear that Amphiaraus makes a strong and, as far as 
 we can make out, successful effort to save Hypsipyle's life. 
 It must be remembered that Amphiaraus is a prophet, a 
 difiicult character for both the poet and the dramatis 
 pcrsonac to cope with: for a man who knows what is 
 going to happen can ruin any plot, and it must have re- 
 quired much skill for Euripides to preserve in this play the 
 verisimilitude of which he w^as so fond. 
 
 I will now attempt to give you a rendering of a fairly 
 complete passage of sixty lines. Hypsipyle is on her way 
 to death and she implores Amphiaraus to help her : the 
 Queen is present but veiled. Amphiaraus has come back 
 because as a prophet he foresees that Hypsipyle will be in 
 trouble. There is no need, therefore, to suppose that the 
 young men were sent to fetch him.^ 
 
 Hypsipyle. Thus seemest thou to gratify blind rage 
 Before thou hearest rightly how things chanced. 
 I see thee silent, answering nought 1 say. 
 I am to blame for the child's death, 'tis true, 
 
 ^ Cf. Herwerden, p. lO. 
 
12 HYPSIPYLE 
 
 But tliat 1 killed him, that is false indeed; 
 Killed him ! my darling-, whom upon my arms 
 1 carried, loving him as if my own, 
 A great support to me in all my sorrow. 
 O prow of Argo and the white sea spray, 
 
 my twin sons, how foully do 1 die ! 
 
 ( ) seer, the son of Oicles, this is death : 
 Come, help me, do not see me perish thus 
 Unworthily, for thus hast been my ruin. 
 Come, for thou knowest that I speak the truth: 
 The Queen will listen to thy evidence. [A pause. 
 
 To the Attendants. Lead on: I see no friend here 
 
 who will save me ; 
 The shame which stayed my flight has helped me not.^ 
 
 Amphiaraus. Stay thy hand. Queen, who leadest this poor 
 lady 
 To death : for by thy grace and outward semblance 
 
 1 judge thy birth and mind alike are noble. 
 
 Hypsipyle. Amphiaraus, at thy knees I fall; 
 I pray thee by thy beard and Phoebus' art, 
 For at the very crisis of my life 
 Thou art come, O save me : 'tis for thee I perish. 
 I am to die : thou seest at thy knees 
 The slave who led thy army to the fountain. 
 I know that thou, the just one, wilt act justly : 
 If not, thy fame in Argos and in Greece is lost. 
 
 thou that seest the future in the fire 
 Of holy sacrifice, tell the child's fate 
 
 As thou did'st see it, to the Queen my mistress. 
 She says that I conspired against the house to slay 
 him. 
 
 Amphiaraus. I have returned because my mind foresaw 
 What thou would'st suffer, now the child is dead. 
 
 1 come to help thee, lady, in thy need. 
 Not force but holiness my argument. 
 Shameful it is to take a benefit 
 
 And then ungratefully make no return. 
 
 [To the Queen.'] Friend, I would speak to thee; unveil 
 
 thy face : 
 Fear not; all Greece w^ill tell thee of my goodness, 
 For self-restraint hath ever been my wont, 
 And to consider what is excellent. 
 
 ^ I'his is the passa_Q;e wliich leads us to suppose that Hypsipyle had i p- 
 solved to confess the disaster to the Queen. Tlie Greek runs thus : k^vol 8' 
 4ir-)j^(:(TQr]v apa. Hervverden takes iirai5e7<T6ai = iK^Tevcii/ and translates : 
 ' frustra ergo iinploravi veniam, sive commiserationem.' 
 
HYPSIPYLE 13 
 
 Then next hear me, be not in act so hasty : 
 Mistaken acts will aye receive a pardon 
 Except about the life of man or woman. 
 
 The Queen. Stranger and neighbour from the land of 
 Argos, 
 I know thy goodness : all men speak thereof, 
 Else had I never shown my face to thee. 
 Speak if thou wilt : I'll hear thy words, O King, 
 And tell thee all my heart; it is thy dne. 
 
 Amphiaraus. Lady, thou hast hot wrath for this disaster: 
 I wish to calm thy wrath, I see this woman 
 No clearer than I see the path of right. 
 I tell no lies; I reverence the God 
 Phoebus, whose sacrificial art is mine. 
 'Twas I persuaded this poor soul to show me 
 The spring, that I might offer for the host 
 A pure libation on the borderland. 
 
 Here the passage becomes defective : but Amphiaraus 
 seems to have described the appearance of the serpent and 
 the death of the child, the consternation of the warriors, 
 and the death of the serpent by his bow. He explains to 
 the Queen that the death of Archemorus is, as his name 
 implies, an omen, ' a beginning of fate ' : but an omen not 
 to the Queen so much as to the seven champions who are 
 going up against Thebes, and of whom only one, namely, 
 Adrastus, will return alive. Then follows the most fam- 
 ous passage in the play, some of which is preserved to us 
 in several ancient authors, and which has been translated 
 by Cicero in the Tusculan Disputations. 
 Amphiaraus. This is the truth, O Queen, be sure of that. 
 But listen now to my consoling words. 
 There is no mortal who hath not had sorrow. 
 And buried children and begotten others. 
 And died himself; we carry earth to earth. 
 And dust to dust : it is the law of nature. 
 And yet we grieve ! Why, life is like a crop 
 Of corn we reap, when harvest time is come. 
 One man must live, another man must die; 
 Why mourn for that which life makes men^ go 
 through ? 
 
 ' Sie:<irepau, cf. Siipp. 954. The MS. licie is detective, l)ut Stobaeus, p. 108, 
 has the passage. 
 
14 IIYPSIPYLE 
 
 Grant us to give the child fit burial, 
 
 For we have brought from home whate'er he needs : 
 
 Our labour will not be in vain : thy sorrows 
 
 Will benefit the world of men for ever. 
 
 Archemorus shall have a famous tomb 
 
 And we will found a contest in his name, 
 
 And crowns of parsley for the conqueror : 
 
 All men shall prize the games of Nemea, 
 
 And thy dear son shall never be forgotten. 
 
 Come, dry thy tears, and loose thy slave, for she 
 
 Is guiltless : true, thy suffering has been great, 
 
 But all ends well; in this high festival 
 
 Thou w^th thy son wilt ever be remembered. 
 
 We only possess the beginning of the Queen's answer, 
 but she seems to have relented to the arguments of 
 Amphiaraus. What we have runs something like this : 
 EuRYDicE. My child, this counsel gives thee honour due, 
 And I am bound to reverence Oicles' son. 
 We judge men's deeds by what we know of them. 
 And of the life they lead, or good or bad. 
 'Tis fit that we should tr-ust the chaste and pure, 
 But to have dealings with bad men is wrong. 
 
 The last four lines are already known to us from a quota- 
 tion in an old Florilegium. 
 
 I have already pointed out that we do not know how the 
 recognition between Hypsipyle and her sons was effected. 
 This is particularly to be deplored, because we possess a 
 long and charming dialogue between the mother and her 
 sons : while she speaks in lyrical metres, they use the more 
 restrained Iambic line.^ 
 
 Hypsipyle. The chariot of fate hath hurried me 
 And my children along one road : 
 Backwards and forw^ards hath destiny 
 Wliirled us to fear and the favour of God. 
 Now his anger is gone : 
 And out of the clouds hath the day-star shone. 
 
 Amphiaraus. This favour that thou hast is due to me. 
 Since thou did'st show a kindness to a stranger. 
 I paid thy debt by zeal for thy two sons. 
 Keep safe thy children; children, keep your mother; 
 
 ^ Cf. Ion, 1445. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 15 
 
 Farewell : for we must now pursue our road 
 And lead the Argive Army on to Thebes. 
 
 Son I. Mayest thou be prosperous, friend, for thou art 
 worthy. 
 
 Son II. Aye, aye, be prosperous, l^earest mother mine, 
 How greedily some God hath flouted thee. 
 
 Hypsipyle. Alas ! my son, when I think of the flight 
 (If thou knewest it all!) from the Lemnian isle, 
 Because I had not the heart to smite 
 The old man's head, with the blow of guile. 
 
 EuNEOS. Say, did the word go forth to kill my father? 
 
 Hypsipyle. I shiver e'en now with fright 
 
 As I think of the deed that was done. 
 
 Like Gorgons^ they slew in the night 
 
 Their bedfellows : pity had none. 
 EuNEOS. And how did'st thou, the disobedient, flee? 
 
 Hypsipyle. I went down to the strand 
 
 Where the deep booming breakers roll on to the land, 
 The desolate lair of the fowls of the air. 
 
 EuNEOS. And then who brought thee hither from that 
 place ? 
 
 Hypsipyle. To Nauplia's mart sea-faring folk 
 Brought me, and placed me 'neath the yoke 
 Of bondage; I was bought and sold, 
 A sorry thrall, for Grecian gold. 
 
 EuNEOS. Alas! my mother. 
 
 Hypsipyle. Oh do not groan, the past is gone 
 And we are happy now. 
 Come tell me, who took care of you ?- 
 How wast thou bred, when I had fled ? 
 Come tell thy mother how. 
 
 EuNEOS. The Argo took us to the Colchian land.^ 
 
 Hypsipyle. Away from her that bore you. 
 You knew not what before you. 
 
 ^ Reading Topyoues : M.S. has rop7aoey which Hesychius interprets ' sea- 
 nymphs,' a meaning unsuitable here. Herwerden's note gives reason for 
 interpreting FopydSes as a synonym of Fopyoyes. For- the antithesis of yvya7K€s 
 and Topyoues, cf. Euiucn. 48. 
 
 - Greek aAAa (Tv wus irpdcpris ode t' iu rivt x^ipi ; 
 
 ^ This passage is difficult: we should have expected Jason to take- his 
 children on his return from Colchis to his Thessalian home lolcus. And the 
 two words Colchis and lolcus may have been confused here. (Hunt, Iler- 
 werden, Mahafty read es 'IwA/cbi/ iroKiv for es KoKxi^'v ttoKlv). 
 
l6 HYPSIPYLE 
 
 EuNEOS. Then when our father Jason died, dear mother — 
 
 Hypsipvle. Ha ! by that word my heart is stirred : 
 
 When Jason's name 1 hear, then flows the silent tear. 
 
 EuNEOS. Orpheus took me and Thoas here to Thrace. 
 Hypsipyle. What favour did he condescend 
 To show the orphans of his friend ? 
 
 EuNKOS. He taui^ht me how to play the Asian harp, 
 And Thoas he arrayed in warlike gear. 
 
 Hypsipyle. And how to Lenmos once again 
 Sped you across tlr Aegean main? 
 
 EuNEOS. Thoas thy father took his children twain. 
 
 Hypsipyle. O Hves he yet ? 
 
 EuNEOs. Yes, Bacchus saved his son. 
 
 Here the fragment ends; the subsequent appearance of 
 the name Dionysus in the margin on a parallel column 
 leads us to conjecture that in accordance with the favourite 
 practice of Euripides, the God appeared at the end of the 
 play, and arranged the future lot of each character. We 
 may suppose that he told Euneos the son to go and live 
 at Athens, for there was at Athens a family of musicians 
 who traced their descent from Euneos, the son of Hypsi- 
 pyle, and Euripides is fond of any detail which redounds 
 to the glory of Athens.^ 
 
 Such is a reconstruction of the play as far as the 
 newly-discovered fragments can help us : it is defective, 
 yet it is probably nearer the truth than was Hartung- in 
 his reconstruction, written before the papyri were found, 
 and based largely on the story as it is told in Statius' 
 Thcbaid. 
 
 I should like now to deal hastily with one or two points 
 of interest. 
 
 (a) First and foremost we must tackle Aristophanes. 
 Whenever Aristophanes fastens on a play of Euripides we 
 may be sure of tw^o things — (i) that it w^as a new one^, 
 
 1 Robert (Hermes, xliv. 397) ingeniously suggests that Dionysus appears 
 to compose a quarrel between the two sons of Hypsipyle and the returning 
 Lycurgus. 
 
 - Euripides RcsfHutits, ii, 430 — 442 (a.d. 1844). 
 
 ■'' Cf. however Scholiast on Frogs, 53. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 17 
 
 (2) that it was a good one. Now in the Frogs he fastens 
 on the Hypsipylc with great vigour. The Frogs was 
 played in 405 b.c. The SchoHast on Frogs 55 tells us 
 that the Hypsipylc, the Antiope, and the FJioenissae had 
 all recently appeared, and were fine plays. But we must 
 not therefore infer that they formed a trilogy. 
 
 The first three lines of the play are quoted in the Frogs 
 121 1. You will remember that Aeschylus is there repre- 
 sented as satirizing the monotony of the prologues of 
 Euripides. He says that he can spoil them all by intro- 
 ducing the words XyKvOcov aircoXeaev, ' he lost an oil flask.' 
 Professor Murray/ in his translation of the Frogs, be- 
 lieves that the sarcasm is also aimed at the tragic style 
 of Euripides, which is so little elevated that ' prosaic words 
 are quite at home in it.'^ He points out that an Athenian 
 usually carried a cruse of olive oil about with him, which 
 he was very likely to lose, and goes on to say, ' I can find 
 no object which both ancient Greek and modern Eng- 
 lishman would habitually use and lose except an umbrella.' 
 Consequently the first three lines of the play became the 
 following in his hands: — 
 
 E. Dionysus who with wand and fawn-skin dight 
 On great Parnassus dances in the light 
 Of leaping brands — 
 
 A. Found Jiis umljrella gone! 
 
 (2) When Aeschylus compares the lyric compositions of 
 Euripides with his own there are several hits at the 
 Hypsipylc. In the first place he introduces the Muse of 
 Euripides as a sorry-looking female playing not on the 
 lyre, but with the castanets.^ This may well refer to the 
 woe-begone Hypsipylc and the rattle with which she 
 amuses the baby. Wlien the Muse gets to work she sings 
 an ode made up of bits of the lyrics of Euripides. At line 
 1243 we have the words, laroToi'a Tn-jviafiaTu, ' woof 
 
 ^ Athetiiati Drama, iii, p. 306. , 
 
 - For 'Comic' usages in this play cf. 62, 5 kwXv^i, and 64, col. ii, 81 opuewy. 
 
 ^ Frogs, 1233. 
 
l8 HYPSIPYLE 
 
 stretched on the loom,' wliicli recalls the words of Hypsi- 
 I)yle' near the beginning;-, lii I'vogs 1247 olvdv6a<^ <ydvo<; 
 dfiTTeXov, ' glory of the vine-tendril,' is said by the Scholiast 
 on Aristophanes to be a parody of the Hypsipylc, and in 
 the next line he says the same of the words 7r6pi(Ba\\ 
 0) reKvoi', coXepa^, ' embrace me, my son.' The point in 
 these words which is satirized is the rhythm. The tribrach 
 or anapaest, for the reading with which the glyconic line 
 begins is uncertain, was a metrical experiment wdiich did 
 not commend itself to Aristophanes. The words probably 
 occurred in the recognition scene between Hypsipyle and 
 her sons. A line or two further down Aeschylus says : 
 ' Do you dare to blame my odes when yours are as full of 
 tricks as is the harlot Cyrene ? ' Here occurs the epithet 
 hwheKafjii^-^avov, ' of twelve wiles.' The Scholiast tells us 
 this was a word used in this play, but whether as an 
 epithet of avrpov, ' a cave,' or darpoi-, ' a star,' is un- 
 certain. Both are read in the MSS. If of the former it 
 would refer to the lair of the dragon; if of the latter it 
 is taken to refer to the Sun whose path is in the Zodiac. 
 In any case it must be conceded that the word is an odd 
 one, and that Aristophanes can hardly be blamed for 
 fastening on it. 
 
 (3) In the Frogs, 64, Dionysus is comparing his love for 
 Euripides to the feeling which his hungry brother Heracles 
 would have for ' pea soup.' And he says ap' eichihdo-Kco to 
 aa(p6<;, tj 'repa (f)pdaco; ' Am I telling you my meaning 
 clearly, or shall I put it in some other way ? ' The 
 Scholiast tells us that the first half of the line comes from 
 the Hypsipyle. 
 
 (b) The second point for consideration is the famous 
 passage in which Amphiaraus consoles Eurydice for the 
 loss of her child : 34 (60) 90-96.- It is quoted with ap- 
 proval by Plutarch^ Clement of Alexandria"^, Stobaeus^, 
 
 ^ Hypsipyle, iii, (l) 12. 
 
 ^ c/. Supra, p. 13. ^ MoraJia, no. ^ Stront, iv, p. 587. ^ 108. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 19 
 
 and Marcus Aureliiis^ : it is translated and defended 
 against Stoic critics by Cicero. Cold and constrained as 
 it may sound to us, it is a typical example of the way in 
 which Euripides lent himself to quotation, a quality which 
 makes his fragments so rich and so interesting ; and which 
 partly explains the affection which posterity felt for him. 
 
 (c) The perusal of the new discoveries in Egypt reveals 
 to us many new words and many new uses of familiar 
 ones. I will only mention a few of the oVaf Xeyo/xeva 
 in this play : eKjaXijia^o), cipoSvpofiai, yLtr^Xo/Socr/^o?, /jLaic- 
 P07t6\o<;, /jiouoL/a]To^, dTro/iaarLSto^. We get one more in- 
 stance of BiBda/co/jiai, ' I teach,' used as an equivalent to 
 the active voice^ : and one more example of dvalrLO'^ with 
 three terminations. Homeric forms like dy^LoXoto^ are 
 found, and the Attic 77 is not banished from words like 
 r)S6/ji6vo<; in choric passages. 
 
 (d) I should like to call your attention to a passage 
 characteristic of Euripides' lyrics^ — 
 
 TEKva T dvd fiiav ohov 
 dvairakiv irpo'-^aaev 
 eirl (f)6^ov eVl 
 
 Here we get twenty-four short syllables running : we 
 cannot imitate such an effect in English poetry. It must 
 have had a gossamer-like texture very different from the 
 heay tramp of Aeschylus, and it is one of the things which 
 provoked the comedian's anger. 
 
 {e) As might be expected, the play throws light on 
 several other plays of Euripides. As a specimen I will 
 single out (5) 3, 1. 31, where Amphiaraus complains that 
 standing" water is not SaTrer/K. The context shows that 
 
 ■^fe 
 
 - 41 (64), 1. 101, cj. Plato Republic p. 421 x^^ovs Srj/xiovpyohs SiSd^eTai. 
 It is used of Orpheus teaching Euneos music, the one person in the world 
 who would not require to engage a music-master for his ward. 
 
 •' Cf. Bacchae, 576, aKiapoKo/j-oio (Nauck) ^ 41, 64, cu/ init. 
 
20 HYPSTPYLE 
 
 it must mean 'pure.' By derivation the word means 
 * fallen from Zeus ' : that is to say ' fallen as rain from 
 heaven,' and it is clear that the rain falls as much on lakes 
 as on running- streams. Homer uses the word of rivers, 
 of the Spercheus in Iliad i6, 176, of the Nile in Od., 4, 477. 
 It may be suggested that as there is no rain in Egypt, the 
 epithet was not an appropriate one for the latter river, and 
 that in the Odyssey the word has become a stock epithet 
 of a river. It is easy to say that SuTrery]^ is one of the 
 Homeric words which later waiters misuse.^ This is 
 one of the places where our students of folk lore should be 
 able to help us. Is the distinction which it is natural to 
 draw between the water of a lake and the water of a river 
 based, either among the Greeks or elsewhere in primitive 
 ideas, on the fact that the one comes from heaven and 
 the other seems to have been always there ? In the 
 Bacchae 1268 it is obvious that the word being used of the 
 air must mean ' pure.' It is in the passage where Agave 
 begins to see more clearly and to understand what she 
 has done. She says that the air seems to her now 
 XrtyLt7r/3oTe/?o? rj irplv /cat Si/TrerecrTe/^oc, ' clearer than be- 
 fore and less fogg-y.' In the Rhesus, 1. 43, it is used of 
 the bright lights in the Greek camp before Troy. The 
 use of the word in the Hypsipyle is in this respect nearer 
 to Homer in that though it must mean ' pure,' it is at any 
 rate used of water. 
 
 One last word as to the papyrus : the play is written on 
 the ' reverse ' side of a document which on the ' right ' 
 side contained bankers' accounts of the first century a.d. 
 It is supposed that the play was copied on to the back of 
 these accounts a century or so later. The height of the 
 column is 37' i cm., or about 14^ inches. Specimens of 
 
 ^ Cf. .Sandy's Bacchae, 1268 note; and Herodotus, viii, 11, erepaXK^ws. 
 
HYPSIPYLE 21 
 
 facsimiles will be found in Grenfell and Hunt's Oxyrhyn- 
 chits Papyri, vol. 6. The papyrus is much mutilated, dis- 
 coloured, and worm-eaten. The writing is of a sloping 
 uncial type with occasional use of cursive forms. The 
 copyist has not done his work very well, and emendations 
 are required from time to time. 
 
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