There is, perhaps, no woman’s character in the range of Greek tragedy so profoundly studied. Not Aeschylus’ Clytemnestra, not Phaedra nor Medea. One’s thoughts can only wander towards two great heroines of “lost” plays, Althaea in the Meleager, and Stheneboea in the Bellerophon.
[Footnote: Most of this introduction is reprinted, by the kind permission of the Editors, from an article in the Independent Review vol. i. No. 4.]