[Footnote 170: Pulpitum, a stage.] [Footnote 171: Tyler, "Theology of Greek Poets," pp. 205, 206.] Now it is unquestionable that, with the tragedians, Zeus is the Supreme God. Æschylus is pre-eminently the theological poet of Greece. The great problems which lie at the foundation of religious faith and practice are the main staple of nearly all his tragedies. Homer, Hesiod, the sacred poets, had looked at these questions in their purely poetic aspects. The subsequent philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, developed them more fully by their didactic method. Æschylus stands on the dividing-line between them, no less poetic than the former, scarcely less philosophical than the latter, but more intensely practical, personal, and _theological_ than either. The character of the Supreme Divinity, as represented in his tragedies, approaches more nearly to the Christian idea of God. He is the Universal Father--Father of gods and men; the Universal Cause (παναίτιος, Agamem. 1485); the All-seer and All-doer (παντόπτης, πανεργέτης, ibid, and Sup. 139); the All-wise and All-controlling (παγκρατής, Sup. 813); the Just and the Executor of justice (δικηφόρος, Agamem. 525); true and incapable of falsehood (Prom. 1031); ψευδηγορεῖν γὰρ οὐκ ἐπίσταταί στόμα τὸ δίον, ἀλλὰ πᾶν ἔπος τελεῖ,-- holy (ἁγνός, Sup. 650); merciful (πρευμένης, ibid. 139); the God especially of the suppliant and the stranger (Supplices, passim); the most high and perfect One (τέλειον ὕψιστον, Eumen. 28); King of kings, of the happy, most happy, of the perfect, most perfect power, blessed Zeus (Sup. 522).[172] Such are some of the titles by which Zeus is most frequently addressed; such the attributes commonly ascribed to him in Æschylus. Sophocles was the great master who carried Greek tragedy to its highest perfection. Only seven out of more than a hundred of his tragedies have come down to us. There are passages cited by Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, and others which are not found in those tragedies now extant. The most famous and extensively quoted passage is given by Cudworth.[173] Εἶς ταῖς ἀληθείαισιν, εἰς ἐστίν θεὸς, Ὂς οὐρανόν τ᾽ έτευξε καὶ γαῖαν μακρὰν, Πόντου τε χαροπὸν οἶδμα, κἀνέμων βίαν, κ. τ. λ.[174] This "one only God" is Zeus, who is the God of justice, and reigns supreme: "Still in yon starry heaven supreme, Jove, all-beholding, all-directing, dwells-- To him commit thy vengeance."--"Electra," p. 174 sqq. This description of the unsleeping, undecaying power and dominion of Zeus is worthy of some Hebrew prophet-- "Spurning the power of age, enthroned in might, Thou dwell'st mid heaven's broad light; This was in ages past thy firm decree, Is now, and shall forever be: That none of mortal race on earth shall know A life of joy serene, a course unmarked by woe." "Antigone," pp. 606-614.[175] [Footnote 172: Tyler, "Theology of Greek Poets," pp. 213, 214.]