omparison at all. And as to the footprint,
she says there cannot be one, when the Old Man has just seen it! And,
anyhow, she will not go to see it! Similarly as to the robe, she does her
best to deny that she ever wove it, though she and the Old Man both
remember it perfectly. She is fighting tremulously, with all her flagging
strength, against the thing she longs for. The whole point of the scene
requires that one ray of hope after another should be shown to Electra,
and that she should passionately, blindly, reject them all. That is what
Euripides wanted the signs for.

But why, it may be asked, did he adopt Aeschylus' signs, and even his
peculiar word? Because, whether invented by Aeschylus or not, these signs
were a canonical part of the story by the time Euripides wrote. Every one
who knew the story of Orestes' return at all, knew of the hair and the
footprint. Aristophanes in the _Clouds_ (534 ff.) uses them proverbially,
when he speaks of his comedy "recognising its brother's tress." It would
have been frivolous to invent new ones. As a matter of fact, it seems
probable that the signs are older than Aeschylus; neither they nor the
word [Greek: homopteros] particularly suit Aeschylus' purpose. (Cf. Dr.
Verrall's introduction to the _Libation-Bearers_.) They probably come from
the old lyric poet, Stesichorus.

P. 43, l. 652, New-mothered of a Man-Child.]--Her true Man-Child, the
Avenger whom they had sought to rob her of! This pitiless plan was
suggested apparently by the sacrifice to the Nymphs (p. 40). "Weep my
babe's low station" is of course ironical. The babe would set a seal on
Electra's degradation to the peasant class, and so end the blood-feud, as
far as she was concerned. Clytemnestra, longing for peace, must rejoice in
Electra's degradation. Yet she has motherly feelings too, and in fact
hardly knows what to think or do till she can consult Aegisthus (p. 71).
Electra, it would seem, actually calculates upon these feelings, while
despising them.

P. 45, l. 669, If but some man will guide me.]--A suggestion of the
irresolution or melancholia that beset Orestes afterwards, alternating
with furious action. (Cf. Aeschylus' _Libation-Bearers_, Euripides'
_Andromache_ and _Orestes_.)

P. 45, l. 671, Zeus of my sires, &c]--In this invocation, short and
comparatively unmoving, one can see perhaps an effect of Aeschylus' play.
In the _Libation-Bearers_ the invocation of Agamemnon comprises 200 lines
of extraor