model for Aeschylus’ _Persians_ (472 B.C.) on the same subject. But by laying the scenes of these plays in Asia Minor or Persia the dramatists gained remoteness of place instead of the usual remoteness of time. As Racine[230] wrote on a similar occasion: “The general public makes hardly any distinction between that which is removed from them by a thousand years or by a thousand leagues.” A still further innovation was made toward the close of the fifth century by Agathon, in whose _Antheus_ both incidents and character names were entirely fictitious. A very similar development can be traced in mediaeval times. Originally the gospel story was the theme, then subordinate incidents of Scripture, then the lives of saints since Bible times, then allegorical tales, etc. But in practice Greek tragedians did not avail themselves of their liberty. Agathon’s innovation was not followed up; and though the Greeks did not sharply differentiate mythology and history,[231] they did not take kindly to the treatment of contemporary events in tragedy. The three plays above mentioned exhaust the instances at Athens. Even in mythological subjects experimentation soon led them to confine themselves to the stories of a few houses—to the misfortunes of Oedipus, Orestes, Meleager, Thyestes, etc. This tendency is illustrated by the fact that three of the extant tragedies, Aeschylus’ _Libation-Bearers_, Sophocles’ _Electra_, and Euripides’ play of the same name, ring the changes upon the same topic. Since almost every playwright of consequence would turn his hand to these oft-tried themes, the only chance of success necessarily lay in improving upon the dramatic technique and the elaboration of character and plot already displayed by one’s rivals. As Aristotle wrote,[232] each poet was expected “to surpass that which was the strong point of each of his predecessors.” We are therefore not surprised to learn from the same source that in his day the finest tragedies were based upon these hackneyed subjects. Furthermore, the practice is commended by so high a modern authority as Goethe: “If I were to begin my artistic life over again, I should never deal with a new story. I should always invest the old stories with new and more vital meanings.”