represented was that of men who believed, with all the Hellenes, in
Zeus, Apollo, and Athena, or in the power of Moira and the Erinyes,--
not merely because it represented

'the dread strife
Of poor humanity's afflicted will
Struggling in vain with ruthless destiny,'

but much more because it awakened in the Athenian spectator emotions
of wonder concerning human life, and of admiration for nobleness in
the unfortunate--a sense of the infinite value of personal uprightness
and of domestic purity--which in the most universal sense of the word
were truly religious,--because it expressed a consciousness of depths
which Plato never fathomed, and an ideal of character which, if less
complete than Shakespeare's, is not less noble. It is indeed a 'rough'
generalization that ranks the Agamemnon with the Adoniazusae as a
religious composition.

II. This spiritual side of tragic poetry deserves to be emphasized
both as the most essential aspect of it, and as giving it the most
permanent claim to lasting recognition. And yet, apart from this,
merely as dramas, the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides
will never cease to be admired. These poets are teachers, but they
teach through art. To ask simply, as Carlyle once did, 'What did they
think?' is not the way to understand or learn from them.

Considered simply as works of art, the plays of Sophocles stand alone
amongst dramatic writings in their degree of concentration and complex
unity.