of which Thucydides speaks, (ii. 54,) which led the people, at every crisis in the war, to fall back blindly on uncertain or spurious oracles which had never had the Delphic stamp upon them. In the language which describes how the great cannot prosper without those of low estate, nor the poor without the rich, (Aias, 158–163,) we may see his desire to close, if it were possible, the breach that was becoming wider every day, and to prevent the war of classes, the oligarchic conspiracies, the democratic passions, which were bringing ruin upon his beloved city.[1] The yearning of the Greeks before Troy to bring back Philoctetes may well be thought of as having been chosen as a subject from its parallelism to the desire of the great majority of Athenians for the recall of Alcibiades. The language of Œdipus to Theseus (Œd. Col., 607–620,) speaks of a deep feeling of regret at the alienation between Thebes and Athens, and a hope, (fulfilled, let us remember, shortly after the play was performed,) that it might one day be removed, and a true alliance take its place.[2] Assum-
- ↑ In one of the extant Fragments, we find a striking protest against the lower forms of demagogy:—
"Ne'er can a state in peace and safety dwell
Where justice and the law of self-control
Are trampled under foot, and brawling knave,
With crafty hand and cruel goad, drives on
The state to his own purpose."—Fragm., 606. - ↑ It will not be thought, I trust, too bold a conjecture to suggest that we may probably find, in the stainless honour and chivalrous generosity of Theseus, in the Œd. Col., something like a reminiscence of the statesman
