They  are  commonly  called  Trilogies.  Among  the
extant  works  of  iEschylus,  to  go  no  further,  the
Seven  against  Thebes  is  known  to  have  been  the
third  drama  of  a  trilogy  in  which  it  was  preceded


iESCHYLUS  59

by  one  concerning  Laius  and  another  concerning
(Edipus;  the  Prometheus  Bound  was  the  first  or
the  second  drama  of  a  trilogy,  too,  where  it  was
followed  by  a  drama  called  Prometheus  Unbound —
though  whether  the  third  of  the  series,  which  was
named  Prometheus  the  Fire  Bearer,  began  or  ended
it  has  been  more  or  less  disputed.  Originally,  we
are  told,  such  tragic  trilogies  were  regularly  fol-
lowed by  a  fourth  drama,  of  distinctly  different
character,  where  the  chorus  was  composed  of
Satyrs,  and  the  subject,  whether  connected  with
the  trilogy  or  not,  was  treated  in  a  spirit  of  broad
and  ribald  burlesque.  The  only  extant  example
of  such  comic  afterpiece,  however,  chances  to  be
a  dreary  drama  of  Euripides  called  the  Cyclops;
it  concerns  the  adventure  of  Odysseus  with  Pol-
yphemus, it  is  animated — if  at  all — only  by  the
buffoonery  of  conventional  drunkenness,  and  those
who  know  it  in  Greek  generally  pronounce  it  as
empty  in  the  original  as  it  is  when  translated.'
We  therefore  have  no  means  of  knowing  what
an  iEschylean  tetralogy — ^as  the  full  group  was
called,  of  three  tragic  dramas  followed  by  a  comic
— may  originally  have  been  like.  Without  the
trilogy  of  which  Orestes  is  the  central  figure,  we
should  be  equally  in  the  dark  concerning  the  three
tragic  dramas,  taken  by  themselves.
