his old comrade in arms. It is indeed curious how often the tragedians ascribe an overbearing and brutal bullying to heralds, a feature never found in Homer, and indeed wholly inconsistent with their duties. The chorus interferes, and presently Demophon, king of Athens, appears, and dismisses the herald, not without personal threats of violence. The poet evidently had before him another version of the legend, in which the herald was slain by the Athenians. But when Demophon has duly undertaken the task of protecting the fugitives, Hie prophets tell him that a noble virgin must be sacrificed to insure him the victory. This dreadful news leads to a pathetic outburst of despair in Iolaus, who sees himself again driven from a place of refuge, and wandering with his helpless charge, owing to the hard conditions imposed on his protectors. But the old man's idle offers of his own life are interrupted by the entrance of Macaria, one of the fugitive children, who, when she hears the oracle, calmly offers her own life. I shall speak in another chapter of the drawing of her character in comparison with other heroines in Euripides' plays. Unfortunately the narrative of her sacrifice is lost.
The interest of the spectator is then transferred to the approaching battle, and the warlike energy of the decrepit Iolaus, who insists on going to the battle; and as the putting on of armour would doubtless have been impossible to an actor stuffed out in the tragic costume, the messenger, a servant of Hyllus, discreetly offers to carry it for him to the field. The manifestly comic drawing of Iolaus in this scene seems to me as possibly a satire on some effete Athenian general, who undertook active duty when unfit for it. But by a miracle, which is presently narrated by a messenger, he recovers his youth, and with Hyllus, defeats and captures Eurystheus, his persecutor. The mutilated concluding scene raises another discussion, not of legendary but of then pressing interest—the fate of prisoners taken in battle.
