blunder not to slay their father Jason also. This you know I have not done. Hence I have not murdered my children either.” Just as Carcinus there smoothed away what was felt to be too dreadful in Euripides, so in _Œdipus_ he appears[100] to have dealt with the improbabilities which cling to _Œdipus Tyrannus_. He excelled, moreover, in the portrayal of passion: Cercyon, struggling with horrified grief in Carcinus’ _Alope_, is cited by Aristotle.[101] The _Ærope_ too had sensational success. That bloodthirsty savage Alexander, tyrant of Pheræ, was so moved by the emotion wherewith the actor Theodorus performed his part, that he burst into tears.[102] Two points in his actual fragments strike a modern reader. The first is a curious flatness of style noticeable in the one fairly long passage; every word seems to be a second-best. The opening lines will be sufficient:— λέγουσι Δήμητρός ποτ’ ἄρρητον κόρην Πλούτωνα κρυφίοις ἁρπάσαι βουλεύμασι, δῦναί τε γαίας εἰς μελαμφαεῖς μυχούς. πόθῳ δὲ μητέρ’ ἠφανισμένης κόρης μαστῆρ’ ἐπελθεῖν πᾶσαν ἐν κύκλῳ χθόνα. To turn from this dingy verbiage to his amazing brilliance in epigram is like passing from an auctioneer’s showroom into a lighthouse. (The difference, we note, is between narrative and “rhetoric”.) Such a sentence as οὐδεὶς ἔπαινον ἡδοναῖς ἐκτήσατο (“no man ever won praise by his pleasures”) positively bewilders by its glitter. It is perhaps not absolutely perfect: its miraculous ease might allow a careless reader to pass it by; but that is a defect which Carcinus shares with most masters of epigram, notably with Terence and Congreve. More substantial is the wit of this fragment:— χαίρω σ’ ὁρῶν φθονοῦντα, τοῦτ’ εἰδώς, ὅτι ἓν δρᾷ μόνον δίκαιον ὧν ποιεῖ φθόνος· λυπεῖ γὰρ αὐτόχρημα τοὺς κεκτημένους. “I rejoice to see that you harbour spite, for I know that of all its effects there is one that is just—it straightway stings those who cherish it.” One notices the exquisite skill which has inserted the second line, serving admirably to prepare for and throw into relief the vigorous third verse. THEODECTES of Phaselis enjoyed a brilliant career. During his forty-one years he was a pupil of Plato, Isocrates, and Aristotle, obtained great distinction as an orator (Cicero[103] praises him), produced fifty plays, and obtained the first prize at eight of the thirteen contests in which he competed. Alexander the Great decked his statue with garlands in memory of the days when they had studied together under Aristotle. That philosopher quotes him several times, and in particular pays Theodectes the high honour of coupling him with Sophocles; the examples which he gives[104] of _peripeteia_ are the _Œdipus Tyrannus_ and the _Lynceus_ of Theodectes. The same drama is used[105] to exemplify another vital point, the difference between Complication and _Dénouement_.