hurries from the scene with a parting threat to his father that, come what will, "he shall see his face no more."
Hæmon and Antigone, as we have seen, are lovers, and, even in introducing them at all, Sophocles had gone a step beyond Æschylus, with whom Love is simply the divine and eternal principle of fecundity—a law, and not a passion.[1] But there is little romance or sentiment about these Greek lovers; and modern criticism at once decides that Sophocles has lost his opportunity, for he does not even once bring them on the stage together. Had it been Romeo and Juliet thus torn asunder—what tender farewells, what passionate embraces, there would have been at the last! what sombre and funereal joy in the contemplated suicide![2] In his dialogue with his father, Hæmon scarcely names his love—his appeal is to justice and to public opinion; while his father simply replies that he is not bound to alter the course of law, to suit either a woman's caprice or "a people's veering will."
The Chorus, half in awe and half in wonder, celebrate the power of Love—that irresistible and all-per-
- ↑ The only passage in which Æschylus dwells upon the influence of love is in a fragment of the Danaidæ, where Venus says, "The pure Heavens are enamoured of the Earth; and Love impels Earth to embrace the Heavens; and Rain falling from the Heavens kisses Earth; and she brings forth corn and sheep for the sustenance of man; and from these rainy nuptials the fruits of autumn come to their perfection; and it is I, Love, who am the cause of all these things."
- ↑ Girardin, ii. 326.
