Malta.
_Passage in Sophocles_ (Vol. viii., pp. 73. 478. 631.).--Your correspondent
M. is quite right in translating [Greek: prassein] _fares_, and referring
it not to [Greek: Theos], but to the person whom the Deity has infatuated;
and he is equally right in explaining [Greek: oligoston chronon] _for a
very short time_. [Greek: Prassei], the old reading restored by Herman, is
probably right; but it must still be referred to the same person: _Ille
vero versatur_, &c. MR. BUCKTON explains [Greek: hôi], which is the
relative to [Greek: noun], to signify _when_, and translates [Greek:
bonleuetai] as if it were equivalent with [Greek: bouletai]. [Greek: Ton
noun hôi bouleuetai] is _the mental power with which he_ ([Greek: ho
blaphtheis], not [Greek: Theos]) _deliberates_. [Greek: Atê] is, as M.
properly explains it, not _destruction_, but _infatuation, mental delusion;
that judicial blindness which leads a man to his ruin_, not the ruin
itself. It is a leading idea in the Homeric theology (_Il._ xix. 88., xxiv.
480., &c.).
Though the idea in the Antigone closely resembles that which is cited in
the Scholia, it seems more than probable that the original source of both
passages is derived from some much earlier author than a cotemporary of
Sophocles. As to the line given in Boswell, it is not an Iambic verse, nor
even Greek. It was probably made out of the Latin by some one who would try
his hand, with little knowledge either of the metre or the language. MR.
BUCKTON says, that to translate late [Greek: oligoston] _very short_, is
not to translate agreeably to the admonition of the old scholiast. Now, the
words of the scholiast are [Greek: oude oligon], _not even a little_, that
is, _a very little_: so [Greek: oude tutthon], [Greek: oud' êbaion], {43}
[Greek: oude minuntha], and many forms of the same kind.