Agathon, then, marks unmistakably the beginning of decadence. The three masters had exhausted the possibilities of the art open to that age. A new impulse from without or the social emancipation of women might have opened new paths of achievement. But no great external influence was to come till Alexander, and then the result for Greece itself was loss of independence and vigour. And the little that could be done with women still in the harem or the slave-market was left to be performed by Menander and his fellow-comedians.[83] Agathon made a valiant effort to carry tragedy into new channels, but lacked the genius to leave more than clever experiments. On a lower plane of achievement stands CRITIAS, the famous leader of the “Thirty Tyrants”. Two tragedies from his pen are known to us, _Pirithous_[84] and _Sisyphus_, both at one time attributed to Euripides; but he is too doctrinaire, too deficient in brilliant idiomatic ease, for such a mistake to endure. The _Pirithous_ deals with Heracles’ descent into Hades to rescue Theseus and to demand of Pluto Persephone’s hand for Pirithous. Of this astounding story we find little trace in the fragments, which are mostly quasi-philosophical dicta. For instance:— A temper sound more stable is than law; The one no politician’s eloquence Can warp, but law by tricks of cunning words Full often is corrupted and unhinged. In strong contrast to these prosaic lines is Critias’ superb apostrophe to the Creator, which may be paraphrased thus:— From all time, O Lord, is thy being; neither is there any that saith, This is my son. All that is created, lo, thou hast woven the firmament about it; the heavens revolve, and all that is therein spinneth like a wheel. Thou hast girded thyself with light; the gloom of dusk is about thee, even as a garment of netted fire. Stars without number dance around thee; they cease not, they move in a measure through thy high places. From the same hymn probably comes the majestic passage which tells of “unwearied Time that in full flood ever begets himself, and the Great Bear and the Less....”