BEFORE any account of the play itself can be given, some of the characteristics of Greek tragedy in general must be briefly stated. The most prominent of these is a fundamental religious character. In this respect a Greek tragedy may be compared to the passion-plays of the Middle Ages. The legend upon which it was based was as familiar to the Greek spectator as the story of the Passion is to a modern churchman. Many of the legends were derived from Homer, whose poems formed the bible of the Greeks. This would suffice to lend a solemn interest to the representation of them; and when we consider the additional facts that the tragic drama was filled with the expression of feelings of intense patriotism, and that it was the embodiment of the loftiest moral conceptions of the age, the sacred character of the performances becomes clear. In the tragedies of Aeschylus the nobility of mankind is pictured in the Gods; Sophocles struck the key-note of subsequent Greek sentiment by exhibiting the supreme characteristics of mankind in men themselves. This prompted the saying that Euripides portrays men as they are, Sophocles, as they ought to be. He stood midway between the theologic vastness of Aeschylus and the commonplaceness — using the word in no bad sense — of Euripides. Hence his ethical strength and the immortal inspiration of his verse, — παvτì μέσῳ τò κρáτoς θεòς ὤπασεv.

When these masterpieces of tragedy were produced there were few readers in Athens, but many hearers. The costs of the performance were divided between the state and some wealthy and aspiring citizen.