Nos. 3, 4. Some Neglected Points in the Fourth Eclogue. H. J. ROSE . The Indo-European Languages of Eastern Turkestan. T. A. SINCLAIR . The Homeric Hymns. T. L. AGAR. A Peisistratean Edition of the Hesiodic Poems. †HUGH G. EVELYN White. 142 151 NORMAN H. BAYNES An Inscribed Raetic' Fibula. J. WHATMOUGH The Trial of Epaminondas. M. CARY A Traditional Form in Religious Language. A. D. Nock Virgil's Marble Temple: Georgics III. 10-39. D. L. DREW Summaries of Periodicals : Literature and General INDICES TO VOL. XVIII. . 209 215 THE objects of the Classical Association are to promote the development and maintain the well-being of classical studies, and in particular (a) to impress upon public opinion the claim of such studies to an eminent place in the national scheme of education; (b) to improve the practice of classical teaching; (c) to encourage investigation and call attention to new discoveries; (d) to create opportunities for intercourse among lovers of classical learning. Membership of the Association is open to men and women alike. The annual subscription is 5s. (life composition, £3 15s.), and there is an entrance fee of 5s. (not charged to Libraries). Members receive a copy of the annual Proceedings of the Association and, on payment of 2s. 6d., of The Year's Work in Classical Studies (both post free). They may also obtain the Classical Review and Classical Quarterly at reduced prices, provided that the subscriptions be paid before January 31st in each year. Subscriptions sent in later than that date must be at the rates offered to the general public. Inquiries and applications for membership should be addressed to the Hon. Treasurer, Prof. H. A. Ormerod, 46, Cliff Road, Hyde Park, Leeds; or to either of the Hon. Secretaries, Rev. G. C. Richards, Oriel College, Oxford, and Mr. M. P. Charlesworth, St. John's College, Cambridge; or to the Hon. Secretary of any of the district Branches-viz., Mr. E. W. V. Clifton, 26, Danesbury Road, Chorlton-cum-Hardy, near Manchester; Dr. G. A. Auden, Education Office, Margaret Street, Birmingham; Miss F. M. Rees, The University, Liverpool; Mr. E. P. Barker, 426, Woodborough Road, Nottingham; Miss P. K. Downes, Redland High School, Bristol; Mr. Basil Anderton, The Public Library, New Bridge Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; Miss C. E. Parker, Westfield College, Hampstead; Mr. W. E. Nash-Williams, University College, Cardiff; Mr. E. E. Bibby, The University, Leeds; Miss E. M. Watson, Central Girls' School, Sheffield; Mr. E. D. T. Jenkins, University College, Aberystwyth; Mr. J. Whatmough, University College, Bangor; Miss Buckley, Simon Langton School for Girls, Canterbury; Miss D. J. L. Poole, 19, Banbury Road, Oxford; Mr. J. M. Gaussen, 6, Lewes Crescent, Brighton; Mr. A. B. Jeffries, 100, Cedar Road, Southampton; and Mr. F. Fletcher, University College, Exeter. The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies 19 BLOOMSBURY SQUARE, LONDON, W.C. 1 President: PROFESSOR J. S. REID, D.LITT. THE Society embraces the history, art, and archaeology of Rome, Italy, and the Roman Empire, down to about A.D. 700. In connexion with the Hellenic Society, the Roman Society maintains a joint library of Greek and Roman art, archaeology and history, and a collection of lantern slides and photographs. Members may borrow books and slides, and these can be sent through the post. Communications respecting books and slides should be made to the Librarian. Afternoon meetings for the reading and discussion of papers are held at Burlington House, W. Notices of these are sent to all members. Life-membership composition for persons over fifty years of age ten guineas, for others fifteen guineas. Annual subscription one guinea. There is at present no entrance fee. Persons desirous of joining the Society should communicate with the Secretary. THE JOURNAL OF ROMAN STUDIES (II x 7 inches) is published by the Society in half-yearly parts, and sent post free to all members. The papers in Vols. I.-V. include articles by English, American, French, and other foreign scholars, and amongst others: THE CLASSICAL QUARTERLY JANUARY, 1924. EURIPIDES AND MENANDER. GREEK New Comedy, as we know it from references and fragmentary MSS., is the meeting-place of three confluent streams-comedy of manners, Aristophanic comedy, and tragedy. From Sicilian comedy, through Epicharmus at Syracuse and Crates and Pherecrates at Athens, it inherited Certain stock stage figures, and a tradition of 'invented' plots and sententious speech. Old Comedy it resembled in its fun and informality and many stage conventions; and, indeed, the resemblance was so marked, in at least one of the later plays of Aristophanes, that the writer of his life, mistaking effect for cause, claimed the lost Cocalus as the original model of New Comedy. Perhaps most important of all was the influence of tragedy; and this influence may be estimated by a direct comparison between Euripides and Menander, both in the spirit and form of their plays and in the social and philosophic theories underlying them. The strongest bond between Euripides and the New Comedy poets is their interest in contemporary life and character and manners, and their recognition of the common humanity underlying all sorts and conditions of men. The abstract theory of universal brotherhood finds full expression in New Comedy in the claims that 'all men have one nature,' and the frequent reminders that 'you are but human'; and they are summed up in the words:1 ἔξωθέν εἰσιν οἱ δοκοῦντες εὐτυχεῖν λαμπροί, τὰ δ ̓ ἔνδον πᾶσιν ἀνθρώποις ἴσοι -a couplet borrowed straight from Euripides (Androm. 330). With Euripides, though the corollaries to a belief in the unity of mankind (the falseness of conventional standards on questions of slavery and poverty) are freely expressed, his personal conviction is most evident, not in maxims but in characters. His Theseus, the personification of the poet's ideal for Athens, is represented in the Supplices as washing the wounds of the dead Argive chiefs; and when average Greek opinion, in the form of Adrastus, shows disgust, the answer is quick : τί δ' αἰσχρὸν ἀνθρώποισι τἀλλήλων κακά ; So too in Euripides the humble and low-born are held up to the pity and admiration of the audience: the peasants of the Electra and the Orestes (v. 918), NO. I., VOL. XVIII. 1 Cf. Kock, Com. Att. Frag. 602, 531, 538, 669. A or the loyal slaves of Klytaimnestra and Kreousa (Iph. Aul. 867; Ion 730 sqq.). The emptiness of wealth and high birth was not an original discovery of Euripides, but it is a subject to which both he and Menander give great prominence. In both, protests against simple riches as a standard of nobility are too widespread to need illustration. Euripides is constantly claiming that, though rank and riches are by no means without effect, they are of no importance whatever in determining a man's true worth, and that poverty and slavery are no bar to real nobility. In all these points his words are echoed, and his position supported by the poets of New Comedy.1 Slavery is the question on which Euripides seems to touch with the deepest feeling. He does not indeed regard it as a social wrong to be abolished: slavery is unquestioned as an economic necessity, and the line between Greek and barbarian is still distinct. But almost every play reveals his deep pity and understanding, and a recognition that true slavery can be only of the mind, not of the body. A typical passage is from the Ion: ἓν γάρ τι τοῖς δούλοισιν αἰσχύνην φέρει, τοὔνομα· τὰ δ ̓ ἄλλα πάντα τῶν ἐλευθέρων οὐδεὶς κακίων δοῦλος, ὅστις ἐσθλὸς ᾖ, and its substance appears elsewhere. The New Comedy attitude toward slaves is at bottom the same, though a real sympathy for them does not exclude passages in which lying and cunning slaves play a prominent part. Some passages from Menander and Philemon might as easily be attributed to Euripides-e.g.: ἐλευθέρως δούλευε· δοῦλος οὐκ ἔσει. Other passages dwell on the state of slavery, either in justification or protest, as though there were a growing consciousness that it called for explanation. Yet others point out the demoralizing effects of slavery, and call for justice® and a certain amount of freedom. It is clear, even from such isolated fragments, that slavery was a question of interest to New Comedy poets. The representation of slaves on the stage was in itself only a natural consequence of the change in the sphere of drama: slaves were as essential to domestic life and intrigue on the stage as they were to the household of every Athenian off it. But the expression of the rights of slaves, and the sympathetic tone of many references to them, is evidence of the debt which New Comedy here owes to Euripides. A further sign of his influence may be found in the critical and speculative temper of much of New Comedy writing. Much of the scepticism and philosophic tendencies of New Comedy simply reflects the questionings of the age; but certain manifestations of them can be definitely traced back to 1 Cf. Eur. El. 550, fr. 345, 53, 54 (N.); Men. Mon. 20. 2 Ion 854; cf. Hel. 728, fr. 515, 828 (N.). 3 Men. K. 857; cf. Phil. K. 22, 95. V. Phil. K. 31; Men. K. 1093. 5 Men. K. 370. 6 Men. K. 110. 7 Men. K. 370. |