, l. 1347) must have
suggested to the audience the ships of the great expedition against
Sicily, then drawing near to its destruction. The Athenian fleet was
destroyed early in September 413 B.C.: this play was probably produced in
the spring of the same year, at which time the last reinforcements were
being sent out.

P. 78, l. 1249.]--Marriage of Pylades and Electra. A good example of the
essentially historic nature of Greek tragedy. No one would have invented a
marriage between Electra and Pylades for the purposes of this play. It is
even a little disturbing. But it is here, because it was a fixed fact in
the tradition (cf. _Iphigenia in Tauris_, l. 915 ff.), and could not be
ignored. Doubtless these were people living who claimed descent from
Pylades and Electra.

P. 79, l. 1253, Scourge thee as a burning wheel.]--At certain feasts a big
wheel soaked in some inflammable resin or tar was set fire to and rolled
down a mountain.

P. 79, l. 1258, There is a hill in Athens.]--The great fame of the
Areopagus as a tribunal for man-slaying (see Aeschylus' _Eumenides_)
cannot have been due merely to its incorruptibility. Hardly any Athenian
tribunal was corruptible. But the Areopagus in very ancient times seems to
have superseded the early systems of "blood-feud" or "blood-debt" by a
humane and rational system of law, taking account of intention,
provocation, and the varying degrees of guilt. The Erinyes, being the old
Pelasgian avengers of blood, now superseded, have their dwelling in a
cavern underneath the Areopagus.

P. 80, ll. 1276 ff.]--The graves of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra actually
existed in Argos (Paus. ii. 16, 7). They form, so to speak, the concrete
material fact round which the legend of this play circles (cf. Ridgeway in
_Hellenic Journal_, xxiv. p. xxxix.).

P. 80, l. 1280.]--Helen. The story here adumbrated is taken from
Stesichorus, and forms the plot of Euripides' play _Helena_ (cf.
Herodotus, ii. 113 ff.).

P. 80, l, 1295, I also, sons of Tyndareus.]--Observe that Electra claims
the gods as cousins (cf. p. 22, l. 313), addressing them by the name of
their mortal father. The Chorus has called them "sons of Zeus." In the
same spirit she faces the gods, complains, and even argues, while Orestes
never raises his eyes to them.

P. 80, l. 1300.]--Keres. The death-spirits that flutter over our heads, as
Homer says, "innumerable, whom no man can fly nor hide from."

P. 82, l. 1329, Yea, our peace is ri