gns are mostly clear. Perseus with the
Gorgon's head, guided by Hermes; the Sun on a winged chariot, and stars
about him; two Sphinxes, holding as victims the men who had failed to
answer the riddles which they sang; and, on the breastplate, the Chimaera
attacking Bellerophon's winged horse, Pegasus. The name Pegasus suggested
to a Greek [Greek: pege], "fountain;" and the great spring of Pirene, near
Corinth, was made by Pegasus stamping on the rock.

Pp. 30-47.]--The Old Man, like other old family servants in Euripides--the
extreme case is in the _Ion_--is absolutely and even morbidly devoted to
his masters. Delightful in this first scene, he becomes a little horrible
in the next, where they plot the murders; not only ferocious himself, but,
what seems worse, inclined to pet and enjoy the bloodthirstiness of his
"little mistress."

Pp. 30-33, ll. 510-545.]--The Signs of Orestes. This scene, I think, has
been greatly misunderstood by critics. In Aeschylus' _Libation-Bearers_,
which deals with the same subject as the _Electra_, the scene is at
Agamemnon's tomb. Orestes lays his tress there in the prologue. Electra
comes bringing libations, sees the hair, compares it with her own, finds
that it is similar "wing for wing" ([Greek: homopteros]--the same word as
here), and guesses that it belongs to Orestes. She then measures the
footprints, and finds one that is like her own, one not; evidently Orestes
and a fellow-traveller! Orestes enters and announces himself; she refuses
to believe, until he shows her a "woven thing," perhaps the robe which he
is wearing, which she recognises as the work of her own hand.

The same signs, described in one case by the same peculiar word, occur
here. The Old Man mentions one after the other, and Electra refutes or
rejects them. It has been thought therefore that this scene was meant as
an attack--a very weak and undignified attack--on Euripides' great master.
No parallel for such an artistically ruinous proceeding is quoted from any
Greek tragedy. And, apart from the improbability _a priori_, I do not
think it even possible to read the scene in this sense. To my mind,
Electra here rejects the signs not from reason, but from a sort of nervous
terror. She dares not believe that Orestes has come; because, if it prove
otherwise, the disappointment will be so terrible. As to both signs, the
lock of hair and the footprints, her arguments may be good; but observe
that she is afraid to make the c