[747] Murray, _Euripides and his Age_, p. 196. My quotation, of course, does not imply that Professor Murray is guilty of the confusion of thought in question. [748] The view mentioned in this paragraph will be found worked out in the present writer’s _Riddle of the Bacchæ_. This theory has met with much scepticism, but received the honour of almost entire acceptance by the late Dr. Verrall in _The Bacchantes of Euripides_. Dr. Verrall improved the statement of the theory, in particular by rejecting the supposition of a plot between Tiresias and the Stranger. Mr. W. H. Salter, in his delightful _Essays on Two Moderns_, also accepts this view of the play in the main (pp. 50-68). Dr. R. Nihard, in _Le Problème des Bacchantes d’Euripide_ (Louvain, 1912), a useful study, rejects it. [749] vv. 632 _sq._:— πρὸς δὲ τοῖσδ’ αὐτῷ τάδ’ ἄλλα Βάκχιος λυμαίνεται· δώματ’ ἔρρηξεν χαμᾶζε. συντεθράνωται δ’ ἅπαν ... συντεθράνωται, however, is elsewhere only known to us by the explanation of Hesychius, συμπέπτωκε, and Verrall points out that it ought to mean “it has all been put together again”. [750] To this view no complete answer has yet been made. All that can possibly be said is what Professor Gilbert Murray (_Euripides and his Age_, pp. 186 _sq._) and (in a letter to the present writer) Professor U. von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff suggest, that the palace is in the main destroyed, but the façade is more or less undamaged. This does away with the testimony to Dionysus’ imposture which the audience receive from their own eyes, but it leaves untouched the incredible silence of Pentheus. Moreover, Dionysus’ words as they stand mean that the building is utterly destroyed. That they do not mean this is only suggested in despair, because, if they do mean this, they are absurdly and patently false. [751] v. 233 _sq._: ξένος, γόης ἐπῳδός. [752] The attachment between Artemis and Hippolytus is a remarkable exception. The stories concerning the “loves” of gods and goddesses for mortals are evidently beside the question. [753] vv. 1325 _sq._ [754] _Bellerophon_, _fr._ 294, 7: εἰ θεοί τι δρῶσιν αἰσχρόν, οὐκ εἰσὶν θεοί. [755] _Arrangement_: Croiset gives: protagonist, Agamemnon, Achilles; deuteragonist, Old Man, Iphigenia, messenger; tritagonist, Menelaus, Clytæmnestra. [756] For these see Professor Murray’s text, especially his preface. [757] It contains, for instance, unmetrical verses. [758] vv. 1366 _sq._ [759] vv. 919-74. [760] For what follows cp. Professor Murray, _Euripides and his Age_, pp. 173-5. [761] v. 414. [762] The elision of αι in v. 407. [763] _Poetic_, 1454_a_. [764] _Arrangement_: protagonist, Odysseus; deuteragonist, Silenus; tritagonist, Polyphemus. [765] The _Detectives_ (Ἰχνευταί) of Sophocles is now known to us by extensive fragments, see pp. 175 _sq._ [766] Murray puts it “perhaps even before 438”. [767] It attracted little attention from ancient scholars. There are no scholia, and the hypothesis is incomplete.