In  Homer's  verses,  which  were  constantly  in  their
mouths,  he  lived  and  moved  as  a  familiar  figure ;  they
never  douhted  that  he  was  aU  that  Homer  made  him,
chosen  captain  of  the  whole  Grecian  hosts,  the  first
man  in  Greece  (and  Greece  was  the  world),  "  the  king  of
men."  And  here  we  are  to  see  him  in  the  hour  of  his
triumph,  the  representative  of  Greece  victorious  over
the  barbarian  world.  And  as  the  actors,  from  the  first,
are  heroes  great  from  their  fame  and  position,  so,  as
the  play  goes  on,  the  action  is  caught  up  into  the  hands
of  the  gods  themselves,  and  we  are  admitted  to  see
and  hear  Apollo,  and  Minerva,  and  the  Furies.  But
this  greatness  of  fame  and  position  is  something
merely  outward, — it  serves  to  create  a  prejudice  in
favour  of  the  persons,  to  insure  attention  to  aU  they
do  or  say;  but  their  real  greatness  lies,  of  course,  in
their  characters  as  depicted  by  the  poet.  In  this
direction  we  shall  have  to  look  for  one  of  the  chief
elements  of  sublimity :  in  the  force  of  intellect  exhib-
ited by  the  actors;  the  intensity — not  violence,  but
restrained  intensity — of  the  emotions  expressed;  and
the  strength  of  the  wills  which  are  shown  conflicting.
