F. L. Lucas's Messene Redeemed (1940) is a verse play or long poem (some 900 lines), based on Pausanias, about the struggle for independence of ancient Messene against Sparta. As well as narrating Messenian history from earliest times to the defeat of Sparta at Leuctra (371 BC) and the return of the exiles, it dramatizes two episodes in play-form: one from the First Messenian War (c.743 – 724 BC) – the "honour killing" of his daughter Laodice by Aristodemus at Ithome, and one from the end of the Second (c.685 – 668 BC) – the last hours of Eira.
Some reviewers treated the work as verse drama (it contains stage-directions), though the author called it a poem. The two dramatized episodes are not labelled 'scenes' or 'acts', but alternate with the linking narration, spoken by an Old Reciter and a Young. The play begins with an Induction set in the 'present' (369 BC), but like The Taming of the Shrew, does not return to it at the end.
Summary
Induction, 369 BC. A traveller, making for Pylos on his way to Messene-in-Sicily, arrives at Ithome, and is surprised to find a new Messene being built near the old site, to the music of flute-players. He is told that the Messenians have returned from exile in Sicily, following Epaminondas's recent victory over Sparta at Leuctra (371 BC). A dramatic performance is about to begin in the temporary theatre. The traveller is invited to join the audience.
First Messenian War
An Old Reciter enters and intones, in epic style, the story of Messene's origins, the outbreak of the first war against Sparta centuries earlier (743 BC), and the Messenians' retreat to Ithome (c.738 BC).
First scene, early 720s BC. A group of women and girls at the Klepsydra spring on Ithome talk about the war and gossip about men. They are interrupted by the return of two envoys from Delphi, one wounded and dying. King Euphaes and the citizens gather to hear the Pythia's words. Apollo has pronounced that for Ithome to be saved a maiden of the House of Aepytus must be sacrificed. The wounded envoy dies after delivering Apollo's message. Comaetho, daughter of Lyciscus and Praxilla, is chosen – but spared when her parents reveal she was adopted. The people then nominate Laodice, Aristodemus' daughter, beloved of Leon, the other envoy. (Leon, ironically, had not been told the message his comrade was carrying.) Leon tries to save her by claiming that she is with child by him. She denies this. He produces "evidence" and is arrested. Enraged, her father drags her indoors – and emerges moments later, blade dripping, to say that Leon lied. Has Apollo's will been done? The high priest declares the "sacrifice" invalid. The king over-rules him. Leon, maddened by grief and despair, curses Aristodemus and Messene. Comaetho and her parents flee. The scene closes with a touching lament for Laodice by the remaining women and girls.
The Old Reciter resumes, telling of the deaths in battle of Leon and King Euphaes, the hopes raised, then dashed, by the Pythia's second prophecy (the hundred tripods episode), the appearance of Laodice to her father in a dream, Aristodemus' suicide on her tomb, and the defeat and enslavement of the Messenians (c.724 BC).
Second Messenian War
A Young Reciter enters and, in swifter metre, takes up the story of Aristomenes' revolt at Andania fifty years later in the Second War of independence (c. 685 BC). He sings of Aristomenes' guerrilla raids into Laconia, his placing one night of a Spartan shield (defiantly inscribed) on the temple of Athena in Lacedaemon, his subsequent capture with comrades, wounded. Aristomenes alone survives being thrown into Caeadas chasm on Taygetus. He finds his way out by following a scavenging fox, returns "from the dead", gains revenge, and leads the Messenians to the stronghold of Eira (c.679 BC).
Second scene: Eira, eleven years later (c.668 BC); a night of storm. Lysander, a Spartan cowherd, "a pretty lad", enters, apparently a deserter to the Messenians. He's having a secret affair with Timarete, wife of Nicon (a love-scene follows); but now that the Spartans are laying siege, his loyalties waver. When he overhears that the watch have dropped their guard in the atrocious weather, he slips out and alerts the enemy. They launch a surprise attack. Lysander is seen guiding them. Timarete confesses the affair, but denies treason. In the chaos, Aristomenes prevents the revenge killing of Timarete, and rallies the defenders. Theoclus the Seer tells him that the Pythia's third prophecy, the riddle –
"The day a he-goat drinks on Neda's eddying shore
No more can I save Messene. For doom stands at her door."