ANCIENT GREEKS AND SUICIDE IN THE TRAGEDIES: SOPHOCLES ̓ AJAX AND EURIPIDES ̓ HERACLES

This paper analyzes attitudes towards suicide in ancient Greece as presented in Greek tragedies. Although suicide as a social phenomenon was a common motif in various ancient plays, the focus here will be on two tragedies, Sophocles ̓ Ajax and Euripides ̓ Heracles, in which suicidal tendencies motivated by a loss of honor are most clearly depicted. In these plays, the two heroes are faced with a dilemma: choosing between an honorable death or a life spent in shame. In accordance with the ideals of his creator and the strict heroic code, Sophocles’ Ajax decides to commit suicide. Euripides’ Heracles, however, broken and devastated, chooses life by relying only on himself and his friendship with Theseus.

1. Introduction ncient literary, historical, and philosophical sources show that, despite of being full of vigor, cheerful, and devoted to life, the Greeks never denied a man his right to choose to live or to die of his own free will. 3 Although suicide was an act directed against the gods, in Greek society of the fifth century B.C.E., and even earlier, it was a  The passages from Sophocles᾿ Ajax and Euripides᾿ Heracles quoted in the present paper are from Sophocles, Electra and Other Plays, Ajax, Electra, Women of Trachis, Philoctetes, translated by E. F. Watling, Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondswoerh-Middlesex, 1973, andEuripides, Medea andOther Plays, Medea, Hecabe, Electra, Heracles, Translated with an Introduction by Philip Vellacot, Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondswoerh-Middlesex, 1971. frequent phenomenon. 4 Suicide was a means of avoiding death at the hands of the enemy, and Spartan suicidal heroism in battle was the most common form of altruism. 5 Many women committed suicide after the tragic deaths of their children or husband either as a sacrifice due to unrequited love, which left an indelible mark on both Greek mythology and Greek tragedy. 6 Pythagoreans condemned suicide for religious reasons, or more precisely, out of fear of committing sacrilege. 7 For Philolaus, it was a crime committed not only against the human body (σῶμα) but against the human soul (ψυχή). 8 Passages in Plato᾿s and Aristotle᾿s works indicate that their position regarding suicide was based on legal rather than ethical principles. 9 In Nicomachean Ethics, 10 Aristotle regards suicide as a crime against the community, although he does not specify the nature of this crime nor does he demonstrate any concern for individual well-being. First in The Phaedrus 11 and later in The Laws, 12 Plato states that suicide is disgraceful, yet he recognizes some exceptions to this principle: when suicide results from an extreme and unavoidable personal misfortune or shame caused by participation in utterly unjust activities. 13 Only suicide committed under these circumstances can be excused, but, according to Plato, it is otherwise an act of cowardice or laziness undertaken by individuals too delicate to manage life's vicissitudes. In this regard, the case of Socrates is particularly instructive. 14 Having been found guilty of impiety and corruption of Athenian youths, Socrates was given the opportunity to decide his own punishment. 15 He could probably have avoided death by choosing to go into exile; however, this would have resulted in the loss of Athenian citizenship. Socrates thus opted for the death penalty, thereby remaining faithful not only to his teaching of civic obedience to the law but also to his values and beliefs. With the circumstances of Socrates᾿ death in mind, Plato insists that taking poison as a means of carrying out the death penalty is not an act of suicide but rather one of martyrdom. 16 Unlike Plato, Epictetus, a Stoic philosopher, in The Discourses, approves of the desire to end one's own life if it has become overly difficult and painful. 17 At the same time, he characterizes a act of suicide not motivated by any reason at all as shameful destruction, because no higher goal is supported or achieved by it. 18 All of these attitudes correspond to two principles, shame and honor, which are in opposition to one another and derived directly from an individual's relationship with the moral values of his time. 19 Due to a sense of honor or disgrace, many Greeks were driven to put an end to their lives, as has been recorded by historians 20 and is evident in nearly all cases of suicide depicted in Greek plays. 21

Sophocles᾿ Ajax and Euripides᾿ Heracles
The rise of the Athenian Empire and its collapse after the end of the Peloponnesian War not only brought distrust and destruction but also challenged the entire system of moral values. 22 It comes as no surprise that, during this period, there are numerous examples of death by suicide from all over the Greek world. At the same time, the motifs of bravery, cowardice, shame, and honor became common in the works of Sophocles and Euripides. In Sophocles' seven extant tragedies, Ajax, Haemon, Antigone, Jocasta, Eurydice, and Deianira all die by suicide. Oedipus asks for a sword, and the chorus 23 wonders why he did not use it. 24 Philoctetes tries to commit suicide on stage but is forcefully prevented. Electra begs anyone in the house to slay her (῾for, death will bring me joy᾿). 25 In Euripides' tragedies, Phaedra in Hippolytus, Evadne in The Suppliant Women, and Jocasta and Menoeceus in The Phoenician Women all die by suicide. Euripides abandons the common view of his time, while Sophocles supports it. Thus Euripides' Iphigenia says: ῾To see this sunlight is for us all dearest love! / Below is nothing; and to wish for death, madness.᾿ 26 In all these plays, suicide is presented as a sublime act that comes as a response to the pressures the victim has been exposed to. Of all the these plays, two tragedies particularly stand out. They present the fates of two Greek heroes who disgrace themselves while experiencing a 17 Epict. Discourses 1. 24. 20;1. 25. 18;[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Plato and Aristotle make a clear distinction between acceptable and unacceptable suicide, which for them meant a distinction between honorable and cowardly suicide. The punishment for these must vary according to motives and circumstances. If an act of self-destruction was motivated by cowardice, love suffering or laziness (Ἀργεία δέ kaí ανανδρίας δειλία) -Aristotle uses the word μαλακία to describe the character of such a person -it is a dishonorable act and as such deserves nothing but condemnation and punishment. Plat. Laws 761a 1-2; Plato. Symp. 182d 3-4; Plat. Phd.259a 2-3; Arist. Eth. Nic. 3.111ba 12-15. Cf. Garrison 1991: 13, 15−19;Stalley 1983: 144. 20  Soph.OT 1368: Χορός: οὐκ οἶδ᾽ ὅπως σε φῶ βεβουλεῦσθαι καλῶς: κρείσσων γὰρ ἦσθα μηκέτ᾽ ὢν ἢ ζῶν τυφλός. 24 Segal 1995. Cf. Loraux 1991. 25 Soph. Phil. 1000: Φιλοκτήτης: κρᾶτ᾽ ἐμὸν τόδ᾽ αὐτίκα πέτρᾳ πέτρας ἄνωθεν αἱμάξω πεσών. See Henry 1974: 3−4; Soph. El. 820: "πρὸς ταῦτα καινέτω τις, εἰ βαρύνεται, τῶν ἔνδον ὄντων: ὡς χάρις μέν, ἢν κτάνῃ, λύπη δ᾽, ἐὰν ζῶ: τοῦ βίου δ᾽ οὐδεὶς πόθος. Cf. Ringer 1998. 26 Eur. I. A. 1250-1252. state of insanity sent by jealous gods. One of them decides to kill himself, the other to live with what he did. The former is Sophocles' Ajax and the latter is Euripides ' Heracles. Ajax is one of the greatest Greek heroes of the Trojan War. Therefore, after Achilles dies, he expects to be given the son of Peleus' beautiful, handmade armor. But the council of Achaean princes makes a different decision, and the armor is given to Odysseus. Ajax is deeply shaken, disappointed, desperate, and disgusted. He belongs to a Homeric world in which public recognition is crucial; courage must be confirmed by others' opinion and reward. 29 Since Ajax is not a resolute Stoic but a short-tempered warrior: he must spill blood to clear his name. However, by killing sheep instead of the Atridae and Odysseus, he has disgraced himself even more, so he essentially goes into solitude forever. Sophocles᾿ Ajax thus provides the most appropriate starting point for a study of suicide triggered by the loss of honor. 30 All Sophocles' tragedies commence with a man of superhuman, heroic proportions, highly developed ethics, and psychological strength. 31 As Zdeslav Dukat states, he has to choose. 32 One option is that of common mortals, which is a compromise with the demands of the worldly order guarded and governed by the gods. Yet, for Sophocles' tragic hero, a compromise represents a betrayal of his own nature and heroism. Therefore, he chooses another option, which involves suffering, potential or certain disaster, and physical destruction. Once he makes his decision, the tragic hero adheres to it, while dramatic suspense is provided by attempts from those around him to dissuade him. Such attempts vary in nature from friendly persuasion to brutal force. The hero, however, indifferent to the consequences, turns a deaf ear and remains resolute. This results in his increasingly greater isolation: those around him start considering him delirious, unreasonable, and terrible (δεινός 33 ), so he has no other choice but to turn to nature (Ajax invokes clamorous paths, sea caves, coastal meadows) or beasts as the only possible interlocutors. 34 Ajax is representative of a negative relationship between the individual and society and displays a certain degree of noncompliance with society᾿s expectations. 35 His decision to commit suicide is motivated by intense shame, but at the same time he also desires revenge. 36 Because he holds onto traditional values that no longer prevail, he commits suicide, believing this act will direct attention to moral values that are no longer respected. τέχνῃ εἶρξαι κατ᾽ ἦμαρ τοὐμφανὲς τὸ νῦν τόδε Αἴανθ᾽ ὑπὸ σκηναῖσι μηδ᾽ ἀφέντ᾽ ἐᾶν, εἰ ζῶντ᾽ ἐκεῖνον εἰσιδεῖν θέλοι ποτέ. ἐλᾷ γὰρ αὐτὸν τῇδε θἠμέρᾳ μόνῃ δίας Ἀθάνας μῆνις, ὡς ἔφη λέγων. τὰ γὰρ περισσὰ κἀνόνητα σώματα πίπτειν βαρείαις πρὸς θεῶν δυσπραξίαις ἔφασχ᾽ ὁ μάντις, ὅστις ἀνθρώπου φύσιν βλαστὼν ἔπειτα μὴ κατ᾽ ἄνθρωπον φρονῇ. κεῖνος δ᾽ ἀπ᾽ οἴκων εὐθὺς ἐξορμώμενος ἄνους καλῶς λέγοντος ηὑρέθη πατρός. ὁ μὲν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἐννέπει: τέκνον, δόρει βούλου κρατεῖν μέν, σὺν θεῷ δ᾽ ἀεὶ κρατεῖν. ὁ δ᾽ ὑψικόμπως κἀφρόνως ἠμείψατο: πάτερ, θεοῖς μὲν κἂν ὁ μηδὲν ὢν ὁμοῦ κράτος κατακτήσαιτ᾽: ἐγὼ δὲ καὶ δίχα κείνων πέποιθα τοῦτ᾽ ἐπισπάσειν κλέος. τοσόνδ᾽ ἐκόμπει μῦθον. εἶτα δεύτερον δίας Ἀθάνας, ἡνίκ᾽ ὀτρύνουσά νιν ηὐδᾶτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἐχθροῖς χεῖρα φοινίαν τρέπειν, τότ᾽ ἀντιφωνεῖ δεινὸν ἄρρητόν τ᾽ ἔπος: ἄνασσα, τοῖς ἄλλοισιν Ἀργείων πέλας ἵστω, καθ᾽ ἡμᾶς δ᾽ οὔποτ᾽ ἐκρήξει μάχη. τοιοῖσδέ τοι λόγοισιν ἀστεργῆ θεᾶς ἐκτήσατ᾽ ὀργήν, οὐ κατ᾽ ἄνθρωπον φρονῶν. ἀλλ᾽ εἴπερ ἔστι τῇδε θἠμέρᾳ, τάχ᾽ ἂν γενοίμεθ᾽ αὐτοῦ σὺν θεῷ σωτήριοι. τοσαῦθ᾽ ὁ μάντις εἶφ᾽: ὁ δ᾽ εὐθὺς ἐξ ἕδρας πέμπει με σοὶ φέροντα τάσδ᾽ ἐπιστολὰς Τεῦκρος φυλάσσειν. εἰ δ᾽ ἀπεστερήμεθα, οὐκ ἔστιν ἁνὴρ κεῖνος, εἰ Κάλχας σοφός.   Ibid. 103.

33
Also of note is the deep dualistic meaning of this epithet: terrible, fearful, dangerous, but also: marvelous, strange, marvelously strong, powerful, clever, skillful. Hence the dilemma regarding the translation of its comparative form, added to the noun ῾man᾿ in verse 333 of Antigone. Cf. Soph. Ant. 333.

34
For interpretations that emphasize the role of Ajax᾿s social isolation, see : Knox 1961: 1−37;Knox 1964;Sorum 1986: 361−377.  Thus, the armor of Achilles is awarded to Odysseus, who is intelligent, treacherous, and corrupt -in short, a true Euripidean Odysseus, a Levantine sponger, rather than a noble and idealized Homeric nobleman, πολύτροπος. 37 Ajax believes that his suicide will be his revenge. He apparently belongs to a heroic, Homeric society in which ἀρετή stands above all else, and in the play the reward goes to Odysseus, who symbolically represents a new society with a different system of values. By committing suicide, Ajax wants to avoid mockery, to reconcile himself with the gods, and also to prove to his family that he is anything but a coward. 38 In terms of his relationship to society, his suicide will allow him to retain his honor and avoid shame. Besides these ῾positive᾿ reasons for committing suicide, Ajax also has negative motives, which spring from his rejection of his culture᾿s values and are revealed by his growing, self-imposed isolation from the gods and men. 39 To emphasize the individuality of tragic heroes more forcefully, Sophocles creates their opposites -characters of modest, mortal dimensions: Antigone is accompanied by Ismene, Electra by Chrysothemis, and Ajax by Odysseus. 40 These characters are exponents of traditional Greek moderation, σωφροσύνη: they do not strive for the impossible and therefore fare well. 41 Our sympathy, however, lies with a tragic hero, no matter how unrealistic the aspirations are in which he stubbornly perseveres. Powerless and miserable before the gods, misunderstood and humiliated by men, a tragic hero wins, through suffering and disaster, a somewhat strange moral victory. The price is paid by those around him, whom he ignores: he cannot be distracted even by troubles of his fellow men. Unlike in more extreme situations such as war, 42 in everyday life he is not a paragon of good behavior; in fact, he is often a horrifying example of antisociality. 43 The most important characteristic of Sophocles᾿ tragedy is the strict separation of the divine and human spheres. 44 The actions of his characters, and especially those of a tragic hero, are not induced by gods: the causes and motives come from the characters themselves. And they are the ones who bear full responsibility for the destructive consequences of their own actions. A self-reliant and arrogant man makes a decision in accordance with his own nature and then tries to act on it, despite the resistance of the gods and men. 45

43
On the depiction of Sophocles` Ajax as a kind of ancient Don Quixote who inspires respect and admiration but is excluded from the normal processes of society, see Jouan 1987: 67−73. 44 Kitto 1962: 9.

45
"The whole scenario of the tragedy represents a boat with Ajax`s tent; the chorus consists of sailors, Ajax too is a sailor, the helmsman of the ship. Thus, beginning by sailing in, at the end Ajax sets off for 'ablution' and 'the meadows on the banks'. It is clear what these waters and 'banks' are; but the 'ship' too has unambiguous semantics in myth. The personification of waters beyond the grave, Ajax`s ship, the chorus of his friends, and Sophocles wrote Ajax between 449 and 442 B.C.E., when the power and glory of Athens were at their highest. Euripides, however, wrote Heracles between 424 and 418 B.C.E., during the Peloponnesian War, when Athens suffered her first great defeats and was stricken by a terrible plague. It therefore comes as no surprise that Heracles is a tragedy about survival. It portrays the moral courage of a man who eventually accepts the punishment for his crime in spite of the fact that his life sentence of emotional pain is unbearable. This tragedy takes us to the city of Thebes where, during Heracles' absence, Lycus assumes the throne by killing Creon, the father of the hero's wife, Megara. Now, fearing revenge, he intends to slay her, her children, and Heracles' father, Amphitryon. Heracles arrives in the nick of time and kills him. He saves his family after completing his final labor. Just then, when he is at his happiest, old Hera's hatred catches up with him. In a fit of madness induced by Hera, Heracles kills his wife and three sons. After regaining consciousness, he wants to commit suicide, but Theseus stops him. Ajax himself and his madness − all of these express death in image. Storm, murky waters, dirt, winter with its cold rain and icy wind -all these images of the physical world lie beneath the ethical concepts of the tragedy. Ajax᾿ insanity is called 'a cold' by Tecmessa; in her words, sung in melos -and melos always contains the layer of most ancient images -'Ajax lies dirty, ill with bad weather'. Of course in Sophocles we understand this image in the form of stormy misfortune from defamed honor, but the fact is that the figurative meaning of the concept sprang from the mythological image and is expressed in its terms. And this case is not unique.

HERACLES: ...Now, for a last affliction, I have topped our house of crime with murder of my sons. No choice is left me. I am too much defiled to live In my beloved Thebes. Even if I stayed, I could Enter no temple, join no company of friends. Cursed as I am, no one would dare to speak to me. In Argos, then? It's Argos I am banished from. Then must I try some other city? -and meet the glance Of timid ill-will, a marked man, the prisoner Of barbed allusions -'Is not that the son of Zeus Who killed his wife and children? He's not wanted here, Among his fellows, change is a most bitter thing. A man settled in ill luck feels no pain; to him
Ajax himself calls what has happened to him 'a wave of a bloody sea storm that circles, coming from all sides.' He has perished for his impudence of his audacity, for hubris; Agamemnon at the end of the tragedy speaks figuratively of Ajax where he cites the parable of the impudent sailor seafarer who forces the sailors to sail in a winter storm and who perishes from a foul weather illness (both terms for 'cold' are untranslatable in their meanings that are sometimes liberal, sometimes figural). Thus the whole story of Ajax and his insanity is an impudent (in respect to the gods) sailing in a boat against the current in a storm, in the severe cold of winter. Here is the 'dirty winter' that Tecmessa uses to designate Ajax` illness." (Freidenberg 1997: 149 As opposed to his depiction as an indifferent father in some other tragedies such as Sophocles᾿ Women of Trachis, 47 the Heracles in Euripides` tragedy is a loving and responsible parent who suffers the worst fate of a father: he becomes the murderer of his own children. Starting from this act, Euripides lucidly tells the story of the famous hero, whose life's central point is the ethical question of undue suffering. 48 After he realizes he has committed a terrible crime, the tragic hero is faced with a dilemma: either live the rest of his life filled with unbearable emotional pain and shame, 49 or commit suicide and put an end to the suffering. Heracles is cast in Greek myths and cults as having not only his own character but also an elaborate and motivated psychology. 50 He represents the universal best friend, the divine figure with whom the Greeks associated the advanced human capacity to love those who are non-kin. 51 In Euripides' tragedy, this principle is particularly emphasized through Heracles' relationship with other humans, and this friendship alone can offer some protection against the vindictiveness of the gods.
The main characteristic of Euripides᾿ entire oeuvre is indeed his anthropodicy. Heracles chooses Amphitryon, a profoundly tragic figure, as his true father 52 rather than Zeus, and Theseus rushes to his assistance at the most difficult time. 53 As Philip Vellacott writes: The world presented here is the familiar world where neither birth nor wealth, piety nor courage nor innocence, gives any guarantee against the power of wickedness or the malevolence of chance. What the spirit of man can aim at achieving is a dignity which remains when the gods have withdrawn or joined the side of evil, a serene despair which knows that the world contains no higher hope than the human spirit can find within itself. And in Heracles a further encouragement is given: the firmness of human friendship as the one resource available in the depth of suffering.
And also: In this play Amphitryon in particular illustrates what must have been the progress of many religiouslyminded Athenians, from belief in divine goodness and a rather smug confidence in divine favour, to a conviction that the whole concept of moral goodness begins, operates, and ends in man alone. 54 Due to this idea, of all the surviving Greek tragedies, only Heracles deserves the epithet ῾humanist᾿ in the truest sense of the word. 55 Even though it is a play that provides a mythical explanation for a traditional hero᾿s place in the Athenian cult, Heracles truly calls traditional religion into question and replaces it with more human-centered ethics. 56 Euripides᾿ contemporaries could have associated such ideas with Protagoras, and later ancient tradition believed that it was in Euripides᾿s home where the philosopher read out his famous treatise on the gods, beginning with the sentence: ῾Man is the measure of all things.᾿ 57 After a long debate, Heracles, once a powerful and victorious hero, now defeated and broken, decides to accept Theseus' counsel and support and thus, once again, becomes a rescuer, this time of his own life. 58 Heracles dismisses suicide and opts for a life full of compromises and limitations, as recommended by Theseus. He says that he has become ῾a wrecked ship taken in tow᾿ 59 . But Heracles is no wrecked ship. He is a child of his author and 52 Eur. Her. 1260−1265: πρῶτον μὲν ἐκ τοῦδ᾽ ἐγενόμην, ὅστις κτανὼν μητρὸς γεραιὸν πατέρα προστρόπαιος ὢν ἔγημε τὴν τεκοῦσαν Ἀλκμήνην ἐμέ. ὅταν δὲ κρηπὶς μὴ καταβληθῇ γένους ὀρθῶς, ἀνάγκη δυστυχεῖν τοὺς ἐκγόνους. Ζεὺς δ᾽ -ὅστις ὁ Ζεύς -πολέμιόν μ᾽ ἐγείνατο Ἥρᾳ -σὺ μέντοι μηδὲν ἀχθεσθῇς, γέρον: πατέρα γὰρ ἀντὶ Ζηνὸς ἡγοῦμαι σὲ ἐγώ: ἔτ᾽ ἐν γάλακτί τ᾽ ὄντι γοργωποὺς ὄφεις ἐπεισέφρησε σπαργάνοισι τοῖς ἐμοῖς ἡ τοῦ Διὸς σύλλεκτρος, ὡς ὀλοίμεθα.   Eur. Her. 1424: εἰς Ἀθήνας πέμψομαι Θηβῶν ἄπο. ἀλλ᾽ ἐσκόμιζε τέκνα δυσκόμιστα γῇ: ἡμεῖς δ᾽ ἀναλώσαντες αἰσχύναις δόμον, Θησεῖ πανώλεις ἑψόμεσθ᾽ ἐφολκίδες. ὅστις δὲ πλοῦτον ἢ σθένος μᾶλλον φίλων ἀγαθῶν his times. In Heracles, Euripides forces his hero (who denies that gods can be vindictive and calls myths mere poetic fiction) and his audience to leave heroic myths behind and step into the more exalting world of adults, which is admittedly full of disappointments, but is also a world of moral responsibility, integrity, and reliability. 60 In this world man must find support in his fellow humans, who are not necessarily his kin but are of a kindred spirit and mind.

Conclusion
Ancient philosophers made a clear distinction between honorable and dishonorable suicide with regard to motives and circumstances. The question of honor seems to be the main issue for Athenians and also a common denominator of various discussions on the subject. Despite religious and social sanctions, suicide was very often an individual's the response to social pressures, and it was usually done out of a desire to defend one᾿s honor, out of fear of embarrassment, or for the common good of the community and other interest groups. Unlike the philosophers, Greek tragedy directs attention not toward the act of selfdestruction itself, but instead toward the inner world of those who choose suicide and their thoughts and state of mind, thereby giving Athenian audiences a taste of their agony.
Written in two different epochs, the plays of Euripides and Sophocles depict the character and spirit of two different personalities, Heracles and Ajax, who, when faced with severe life blows and personal emotional suffering, take opposing views on life. Heracles, written at the time of crippling Athenian defeats during the Peloponnesian War, is a tragedy of survival. Hence the main character takes a contemplative approach toward suffering: he thinks it through and comes to his senses. He accepts himself and he accepts life as it is. Ajax is a child of a different era, of heroic and chivalrous times, and his author was enamored of Pan-Hellenism, which celebrated heroic victories and believed in a just order. Ajax has no true friend, no one who would support him and dissuade him from his suicidal thoughts. Teucro, his half-brother, is absent and, besides, has a weak character. Tecmessa, however loyal, is still a former slave and his unlawful wife, and the way he speaks to her reveals how little psychological intimacy they share. The Salaminian sailors stand by their captain but are still his subordinates. Perhaps no friend would have been of any value to him, as Sophocles' Ajax is too vain and obstinate. He is indeed the loneliest figure in Greek tragedy, and therefore it is not surpising that he is the only man to kill himself on stage. For Euripides, as well as for his Heracles, everything is shaken and much of it is destroyed. Amid the despair and hopelessness of the Peloponnesian War, he only has his own self and his heroes. Just a crumb of glory. Thus, his Heracles has Theseus, a friend of the kind that Ajax does not: a matching hero, whose support is both moral and material, 61 and whose πεπᾶσθαι βούλεται, κακῶς φρονεῖ. 60 Hall 2010: 268.

61
Theseus says (1322-1339, translated by Vellacott): ῾Well, then: obey the law, leave Thebes; and come with me / To Pallas' fortress, Athens. There I'll purify / Your hands from blood, provide you money and a house, / And give you those possessions which my citizens / Gave me when I had killed the Minotaur, and saved / Their fourteen children. Plots of land assigned to me / Throughout my country henceforth shall be yours, and while / You live shall bear you name. When you depart to death / The State of Athens shall revere your memory / With solemn sacrifice and monuments of stone. / Our citizens count it their pride to have a name / Among