elsewhere, this orthodox Olympian and his epilogue are a sham, devised to suit the demands of an audience which “knew” how Orestes went forth from Argos to Athens. The real drama ends with the wild breakdown of Menelaus, and for the three criminals and their victim the doom falls which sin and bitter madness have made inevitable.[737] But the Orestes is not remarkable as a study in scepticism, like the _Ion_. Even the psychology, superb as it is, cannot be regarded as the cause of the immense popularity which the play won in antiquity.[738] It is pre-eminent for magnificent situations. The sick-bed scene is unforgettable, especially that marvellous hushed song[739] of Electra beside her sleeping brother:— Holy night, outpouring ever Slumber’s boon on souls that mourn, From thy midmost deep dominion Hither bend thy sweeping pinion, Where, ’neath woes that leave it never Lies a princely house forlorn. The whole progress of the later scenes is splendidly exciting, and in the midst Euripides has set the audacious scene of the Phrygian slave who replaces the conventional messenger’s speech with his wild lyrical narrative, incoherent and baffling. Equally brilliant is the finale in which actual lunacy confronts the delirium of despair and grief, with the frail victim flung upon the parapet, the knife brandished in the madman’s grasp, and the flames which are to end the horror already rising behind. The BACCHÆ[740] (Βάκχαι), or _Bacchantes_ (female votaries of the god Bacchus or Dionysus), was produced in 405 B.C., soon after the poet’s death in Macedonia, and with its companion-plays obtained the first prize.