Whenever the tragic deed,
however, is done within the family--when murder or the like is done or
meditated by brother on brother, by son on father, by mother on son,
or son on mother--these are the situations the poet should seek after.
The traditional stories, accordingly, must be kept as they are, e.g.
the murder of Clytaemnestra by Orestes and of Eriphyle by Alcmeon. At
the same time even with these there is something left to the poet
himself; it is for him to devise the right way of treating them. Let
us explain more clearly what we mean by 'the right way'. The deed of
horror may be done by the doer knowingly and consciously, as in the
old poets, and in Medea's murder of her children in Euripides. Or he
may do it, but in ignorance of his relationship, and discover that
afterwards, as does the _Oedipus_ in Sophocles. Here the deed is
outside the play; but it may be within it, like the act of the Alcmeon
in Astydamas, or that of the Telegonus in _Ulysses Wounded_. A third
possibility is for one meditating some deadly injury to another, in
ignorance of his relationship, to make the discovery in time to draw
back.
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