βιᾶται δ᾽ἁ τάλαινα πειθὼ
προβουλόπαις ἄφερτος Ἄτας--
in which two evil powers are personified--_Ate_, destruction, and
_Peitho_, persuasion, which here must be understood of that evil
self-persuasion, by which, in the pride of self-will and vain
confidence, a man justifies his worst deeds to himself, and is driven
recklessly on to destruction. The case of Napoleon, in his Russian
expedition, is in point. What follows shows that Paris is meant. As to
the strange, truly Æschylean compound, προβουλόπαις, CON. says well,
that the simple πρόβουλος means "one who joins in a preliminary vote,"
and, of course, the compound is, as LIN. has it, a "forecounselling
child."
Note 42 (p. 54).
"Even as a boy in wanton sport."
There is a great upheaping of incongruous images in this passage for
which, perhaps, the poet may be blamed; as the one prevents the other
from coming with a vivid and distinct impression on the mind. This image
of the boy chasing the butterfly is, however, the one which places the
inconsiderate love of Paris and Helen most distinctly before us; and it
comes, therefore, with peculiar propriety, preceded by the more general
and vague images, and immediately before the mention of the offender.
Note 43 (p. 54).
"The prophets of the house loud wailing."
δόμων προφῆται. I have retained the original word here, because it
appears most appropriate to the passage; but the reader must be warned,
by a reference to the familiar example in Epist. Tit. I. 12, that with
the ancients the characters of poet and prophet were confounded in a
way that belongs not at all to our modern usage of the same words.
Epimenides of Crete, in fact, to whom the Apostle Paul alludes, was not
only a prophet, but also a physician, like Apollo (ἱατρόμαντις, Eumen.
v. 62). In the same way the Hebrew word _Nabah_, prophetess, is applied
to Miriam, Exod. xv. 20; and it may well be, that Æschylus, in the true
spirit of these old times, and also following the deep religious
inspiration of his Muse, alludes here to a character more sacred than
the Homeric ἀοιδὸς, _Minstrel_ or _Bard_, and this distinction should,
of course, be preserved in the translation. SEW. with great happiness,
in my opinion, has given "the bards of fate;" but it were useless to
press any such nice matter in this passage, especially when we call to
mind the high estimation in which the Homeric ἀοιδὸς stands in the
Odyss., and the remarkable passage, III. 267, where a minstrel is
represented as appointed by Agamemnon to counsel and control Clytemnestra
in his absence, pretty much as a family confessor would do in a modern
Roman Catholic family.
Note 44 (p. 54).
"He silent stood in sadness, not in wrath."
Here commences one of the most difficult, and at the same time one of
the most beautiful passages in the Agamemnon. The words,
πάρεστι σιγᾶς᾽, ἄτιμος, ἀλόιδορος
ἅδιστος ἀφἐμένων ἰδεῖν,
are so corrupt, that a translator is quite justified in striking that
sense out of them which is most fit on grounds of taste, and in this
view I have little hesitation in adopting Hermann's reading,
{345}
πάρεστι σιγὰς (σιγηλος) ἄτιμος ἀλόιδορος
ἄληστος ἀφεμένων ἰδεῖν;
modified thus by Orelli--
ἄπιστος ἀφεμέναν ἰδεῖν--(_See Wellauer_).
With a reference to Menelaus and not to Helen. In doing so, I am not at
all moved by any merely philological consideration; but I may observe
that the remark made by WELL., PEILE, and CON., that the words
cannot refer to Menelaus, because he has not yet been mentioned, can
have little weight in the present chorus, in the first antistrophe of
which Paris is first alluded to, by dim indications, and afterwards
distinctly by name. This method of merely hinting at a person, before
naming him, is common in all poetry, but peculiarly characteristic of
Æschylus. Besides, it is impossible to deny that the πόθος in the next
line refers to Menelaus, and can refer to no other. CON., who refers
the words to Helen, translates thus--
"She stands in silence, scorned, yet unrebuking,
Most sweetly sorrowfully looking
Of brides that have from wedlock fled;"
to which I have this further objection, that it is contrary to the poet's
intention and to the moral tone of the piece, to paint the fair fugitive
with such an engaging look of reluctance to leave her husband; on the
contrary, he blames her in the strongest language, ἄτλητα τλᾶσα, and
represents her as leaving Argos with all the hurry of a common elopement,
where both parties are equally willing for the amorous flight, ῎Βέβακε
ρίμφα διὰ πυλᾶν. After which our fancy has nothing to do but imagine her
giving her sails to the wind as swiftly as possible, and bounding gaily
over the broad back of ocean with her gay paramour. In this connection,
to say "_she_ STANDS," appears quite out of place. In my view of this
"very difficult and all but desperate passage" (PEILE) I am supported
by SYM. in an able note, which every student ought to read, by MED.
and SEW., BUCK., HUMB., and DROYS. Neither is FR. against me,
because, though following a new reading of Hermann,
πάρεστι σιγὰς ἀτίμους ἀλοιδόρους
᾽αισχρῶς ἀφειμενων ιδειν,
he avoids all special allusions to Menelaus, it is evident that the
picture of solitary desolation given in his translation can have no
reference but to the palace of the king of Sparta--
"Ein Schweigen, sieh! voll von Schmach, nicht gebrochen church
Vorwurf, beherrscht die Einsamkeit."
Note 45 (p. 56).
"The bolt from on high shall blast his eye."
"PEILE greatly admires Klausen's interpretation"--
"Jacitur oculis a Jove fulmen,"
but the passages which the latter adduce are not to the point. The
Greeks do not attribute any governing virtue to the eyes of the gods,
further than this, that the immortal beings who are supposed to govern
human affairs must see, and take cognizance of them. Jupiter's eye may
glare like lightning, but the real lightning is always hurled from his
hand. Compare Soph. Antiq. 157. The words βάλλεται ὄσσοις Λιόθεν can
bear no other sense naturally than "is flashed in the eyes from
Jove."--CON.
Note 46 (p. 57).
"Where women wield the spear."
The spear (δόρυ) is with the Greeks the regular emblem of war, as
the sword is with us; so a famous warrior in Homer is δουρικλυτὸς, a
famous {346} spearman, and a warrior generally ἀιχμητὴς. Further, as
in the heroic or semi-civilized age, authority presents itself, not
under the form of law and peaceful order, so much as under that of force
and war, the spear comes to be a general emblem of authority; so in the
present passage. St. Paul's language, Rom. xiii. 4, _the magistrate
weareth not the sword_ (μάχαιραν) _in vain_, gives the modern
counterpart of the Æschylean phraseology.
Note 47 (p. 57).
". . . our healer from much harm."
παιώνιος. I have no hesitation whatever in leaving WELL. here, much as
I generally admire his judicious caution. "Ἀγώνίους in the next line,"
says CON., "at once convicts the old reading of tautology, and
accounts for its introduction." When a clear cause for a corrupt reading
is shown by a natural wandering of the eye, I see no wisdom in
obstinately adhering to a less appropriate reading. The emendation
originated, according to PEILE, with a writer in the Classical
Journal; and was thence adopted by SCHOLEFIELD, PEILE, CON., and
FRANZ, who names Ahrens as its author. LINW. also calls it "very
probable."
Note 48 (p. 57).
". . . ye sun-fronting gods."
δαίμονες ἀντήλιοι. MED. has given the words a special application--
"Ye images of our gods that stand
Before the eastern gate."
But I suppose the reference may be only to the general custom of
placing the statues of the gods in open public places, and in
positions where they might front the sun.--See Hesychius and Tertullian,
quoted by STAN.
Note 49 (p. 58).
"His pledge is forfeited."
I agree with CON. that the juridical language used in the previous
line fixes down the meaning of ρυσίου here beyond dispute; which
meaning, indeed--ἐνέχυρον, a _pledge_ or _gage_, is that given by the
Scholiast on Iliad XI. 674. STAN. enounces this clearly in his Notes;
only there is no need of supposing, with him, that the gage means Helen,
or any one else. 'Tis merely a juridical way of saying that Paris was
worsted in battle--he has forfeited his caution-money.
Note 50 (p. 59).
"These spoils, a shining grace, there to remain
An heritage for ever."
The word ἀρχαῖον in this version seems most naturally to have a
prospective reference, to express which a paraphrase seems necessary in
English; but a similar use of _Vetustas_ is common in Latin.--Cic.
Attic. XIV. 9, pro-Mil. 35. Virgil's Æneid X. 792. SEW. takes it
retrospectively; thus
"Unto their ancient homes in Hellas land
A pride and joy."
Note 51 (p. 60).
"No more than dyer's art can tincture brass."
χαλκοῦ βαφὰς. One cannot dye a hard impenetrable substance, like copper
or brass, by the mere process of steeping, as may be done with a soft
substance like cloth. Clytemnestra seems to say that her ears are
impenetrable in the same way. So SYM., CON., SEW.; and I have
little doubt as to this being the true meaning--but should we not read
χαλκὸς _more than the brass knows dyeing?_
{347}
Note 52 (p. 60).
"Far from the honors of the blissful gods."
χωρὶς ἡ τιμὴ θεῶν. I translate so, simply because this rendering seems
to lie most naturally in the words, when interpreted by the immediately
preceding context. The other translation which I originally had here,
"To every god his separate hour belongs
Of rightful honor,"
seems to spring from the contrast of the "pæan to the Furies" mentioned
below, with the hymns of joyful thanksgivings to the gods that suit the
present occasion. But when the term "gods" is used generally on a joyful
occasion, it seems more agreeable to Greek feeling to interpret it as
excluding than as including the Furies. The hymns in the Eumenides show
that they were considered as a dreadful power in the background, rather
than prominent figures in the foreground of Hellenic polytheism. But,
however this be, the more obvious key to such a doubtful passage is
surely that of the train of thought which immediately precedes.
Note 53 (p. 61).
"Fire and the sea, sworn enemies of old," etc.
This passage, in the original, boils with a series of high-sounding
words, δυσκύμαντα, κεροτοπούμεναι, ὀμβροκτύπῳ, extremely characteristic
both of the general genius of the poet and the special subject of poetic
description. I have endeavoured, according to the best of my ability,
not to lose a single line of this powerful painting; but, as it is more
than likely I may have missed some point, or brought it feebly out, I
would refer the reader to the able versions of SYM. and MED., which
are very good in this place. About the κακὸς ποιμὴν, whether it refer to
the whole tempest, as SYM. makes it, or to a part of it (στρόβος) as
in my version, there can be no doubt, I think, that here ποιμὴν can mean
nothing but "pilot," as in the Persian ποιμάνωρ means a commander. There
can be no objection to retaining the word "shepherd," but I do not like
CON.'s "demon-swain" at all. It seems to me to bring in a foreign, and
somewhat of a Gothic idea.
Note 54 (p. 61).
"That ocean hell."
ἅδην πόντιον, I took this from MED. and give him a thousand thanks for
supplying me with so literal, and yet so admirable a translation. SYM.
is also excellent here, though, as usual, too fine--
"O how the day looked lovely, when ashore
We crawled, escaped from the watery jaws
Of a sea death."
Note 55 (p. 61).
"Far-labouring o'er the loosely-driving main."
There is a fine word in the original here, σποδουμένου, easily and
admirably rendered by FR.--zerstaübt--but to express which I have
found myself forced to have recourse to a cognate idea. The main idea
is dispersion and diffusion, _to drive about like dust_, or, perhaps,
the meaning may be, _to rub down to dust_.--See Passow. In the present
passage the context makes the former meaning preferable.
Note 56 (p. 61).
"By Jove's devising."
The reader will note here the supreme controlling power of Jove,
forming, as it were, a sort of monotheistic keystone to the many-stoned
arch of Hellenic Polytheism. Μηχαναῖς Διὸς here is just equivalent to
our phrase _by Divine interposition_, or, _by the interposition of
Divine Providence_, or the supreme moral superintendence of Jove.
{348}
Note 57 (p. 62).
"Helen the taker!"
There is an etymological allusion in the original here, concerning
which see the Notes to the Prometheus Bound, v. 85. The first syllable
of Helen's name in Greek means to take, from ἁιρέω 2 aor (ἑ)ιλον. "No
one who understands the deep philosophy of Æschylus and his oriental
turn of thought will suspect the play upon the name of Helen to be a
frigid exercise of wit," says SEW., who has transmuted the pun into
English in no bad fashion thus--
"Helen, since as suited well
Hell of nations, heroes' hell,
Hell of cities, from the tissued
Harem-chamber veils she issued."
Note 58 (p. 62).
". . . giant Zephyr."
I see no reason why so many translators, from STAN. downward, should
have been so fond to render γίγαντος "_earth-born_" here, as if there
were any proof that any such genealogical idea was hovering before the
mind of the poet when he used the word. I entirely agree with CON.
that the notion of _strength_ may have been all that was intended (as,
indeed, we find in Homer the Zephyr always the strongest wind), and,
therefore, I retain the original word. SYM. Anglicising, after his
fashion, says, not inaptly--
"Fanned by Zephyr's buxom gales;"
and CON. changes _giant_ into _Titan_, perhaps wisely, to avoid
certain ludicrous associations.
Note 59 (p. 62).
"Kin but not kind."
Another etymological allusion; κῆδος meaning both _kin_ and _care_.
SEW. has turned it differently--
"And a marriage truly hight,
A marjoy," etc.
HARF. does not relish this "absurd punning" at all, and misses it out
in this place; so also POTTER; but I agree altogether with SEW. that
"there is nothing more fatal to any poet than to generalize his
particularities." Shakespere also puts puns into his most serious
passages; a peculiarity which we must even tolerate like an affected way
of walking or talking in a beautiful woman; though, for the reason
stated in the note to the Prometheus, above referred to, the ancient,
when he puns upon proper names, is by no means to be considered as an
offender against the laws of good taste, in the same way as the modern.
Note 60 (p. 63).
"A servant of Até, a priest of Ruin."
Até the goddess of destruction, already mentioned (p. 53), and whose
name has been naturalized in English by the authority of Shakespere. In
Homer ατη appears (1) as an infatuation of mind leading to perdition;
(2) as that perdition effected; (3) as an allegorical personage, eldest
born of Jove, the cause of that infatuation of mind and consequent
perdition (Il. XIX. v. 91). In the tragedians, Ἄτη is more habitually
clothed with a distinct and prominent personality.
Note 61 (p. 64).
"A haughty heart."
In a passage hopelessly corrupt, and where no two editors agree in the
reading, I have necessarily been reduced to the expedient of translating
with a certain degree of looseness from the text of the MSS. as given by
{349} WELL. Through this text, broken and disjointed as it is, the
meaning glimmers with a light sufficient to guide the reader, who wishes
only to arrive at the idea, without aspiring at the reconstitution of
the lost grammatical form of the text; and it is a satisfaction to think
that all the translators, from POT. to CON., however they may vary
in single phrases, give substantially the same idea, and in a great
measure the same phrase. This idea, a most important one in the Greek
system of morals, is well expressed by SYM. in his note on this
place--"The Chorus here moralizes and dwells on the consequences to
succeeding generations of the crimes of their predecessors. He traces,
as it were, a moral succession, handed down from father to son, where
one transgression begets another as its inevitable result. The first
parent stock was 'ὕβρις' a spirit of insolence or insubordination,
breaking out into acts of outrage, the forerunner of every calamity in a
Grecian republic, against which the philosophers and tragedians largely
declaimed. They denounced it as well from a principle of policy as a
sentiment of religion. In short, the poet treats here of the moral
concatenation of cause and effect, the consequence to the descendants of
their progenitors' misconduct, operating either by the force of example
or of hereditary disposition, which in the mind of the Chorus produces
the effect of an irresistible fatality."--I may mention that I have
retained the original word δάιμων in its English form "demon,"
this being, according to my feeling, one of the few places where the one
can be used for the other without substituting a modern, and, therefore,
a false idea.
Note 62 (p. 65).
"Fawn with watery love."
ῦδαρεῖ σάινειν φιλότητι. This is one of those bold dramatic touches
which mark the hand of a Shakespere, or an Æschylus, and, by transmuting
or diluting which, the translator, in my opinion, commits a capital
sin. HARF., with his squeamish sensibility, has slurred over the whole
passage, and even FR., like all Germans, an advocate for close
translation, gives the rapid generality of "_trügend_;" MED., from
carelessness, I hope, and not from principle, has sinned in the same
way, and KENNEDY likewise; but I am happy in having both CON. and
SYM. for my companions, when I retain a simile which is as
characteristic of my author as a crooked beak is of an eagle. This note
may serve for not a few similar cases, where the nice critic will do
well to consult the Greek author before he blames the English translator.
Note 63 (p. 67).
"He might have boasted of a triple coil."
I consider it quite legitimate in a translator, where critical doctors
differ, and where decision is difficult or impossible, to embody in his
version the ideas of both parties, where that can be done naturally,
and without forcing, as in the present instance. It seems to me on the
one hand that την κάτω γὰρ ὀυ λέγω has more pregnancy of expression
when applied to the dead Geryon, than when interpreted of the earth;
and, on the other hand, I cannot think with SYM. that the expression
τρίμοιρον χλαῖναν, when applied to the earth, is "rank nonsense." There
are many phrases in Æschylus that, if translated literally, sound very
like nonsense in English. The parenthetic clause "_of him below I speak
not_," is added from a superstitious feeling, to avoid the bad omen of
speaking of a living person as dead. So WELL. and SYM., and this
appears the most natural qualification in the circumstances.
{350}
Note 64 (p. 67).
"Thy Phocian spear-guest."
Speaking of the era of the great Doric migration with regard to Megara,
Bishop THIRLWALL (Hist. Greece, c. VII.) writes as follows:--"Megara
itself was, at this time, only one, though probably the principal, among
five little townships which were independent of each other, and were not
unfrequently engaged in hostilities, which, however, were so mitigated
and regulated by local usage as to present rather the image than the
reality of war. They were never allowed to interrupt the labours of the
husbandman. The captive taken in these feuds was entertained as a guest
in his enemy's house, and when his ransom was fixed, was dismissed
before it was paid. If he discharged his debt of honour he became, under
a peculiar name (δορύξενος), the friend of his host; a breach of the
compact dishonoured him for life both among the strangers and his
neighbours--a picture of society which we could scarcely believe to have
been drawn from life, if it did not agree with other institutions which
we find described upon the best authority as prevailing at the same
period in other parts of Greece."
Note 65 (p. 69).
"Come, boy, unbind these sandals."
This passage will at once suggest to the Christian reader the well-known
passage in Exod. iii. 5., "take off thy shoes from thy feet, for the
ground where thou standest is holy ground," which KEN. aptly adduces,
and compares it with Lev. xxx. 19, and Juvenal Sat. VI. 159--
"Observant ubi festa mero pede Sabbata reges,"
and other passages. In the same way the hand held up in attestation
before a bench of grave judges, according to our modern usage, must be
ungloved.
Note 66 (p. 69).
"Jove, Jove the perfecter! perfect thou my vow."
Ζεῦ τέλειε. I see no reason in the connection of this passage to give
the epithet of τέλειος a special allusion to Jove, as along with Juno,
the patron of marriage. BLOM., PEILE, and among the translators,
MED. and KEN. take this view. But POT., SYM., CON., FR.,
VOSS., and DROYS. content themselves with the more obvious and
general meaning. It is not contended, I presume, by any one that the
epithet τέλειος, when applied to Jove, _necessarily_ refers to marriage,
independently of the context, as for instance in Eumen. 28. The origin
of the epithet may be seen in Homer, Il. IV. 160-168, etc.
Note 67 (p. 69).
". . . unbidden and unhired."
"Poor Louis! With them it is a hollow phantasmagoria, where, like mimes,
they mope and mow, and _utter false sounds for hire_, but with thee it
is frightful earnest."--CARLYLE's French Revolution; the ancient and
the modern, with equal felicity, alluding to the custom prevalent in
ancient times of hiring women to mourn for the dead. We must also note,
however, that there is an example here of that spontaneous prophecy of
the heart by god-given presentiment, which is so often mentioned in
Homer. The ancients, indeed, were the furthest possible removed from
that narrow conception of a certain modern theology, which confines the
higher influences of inspiration to a privileged sacerdotal order. In
St. Paul's writings, the whole Church prophesies; and so in Homer the
fair Helen, {351} who had no pretensions to the character of a
professional soothsayer, prefaces her interpretation of an omen by
saying,
"Hear my word; as in my heart the immortal gods suggest the thought,
I will read the omen rightly, as the sure event shall show."
ODYS. XV. 172.
The words used by Homer to express this action of the divine on the
human mind are βάλλειν ὑποτίθεσθαι, and such like, to _throw into_, and
to _put under_, or _suggest_.
Note 68 (p. 70).
"Unloosed their cables from the shore."
I have not been curious in rendering this passage, as the word παρήβησεν
is hopelessly corrupt; but the general notion of my translation is taken
from SYM.'s note.
Note 69 (p. 71).
". . . Were link with link
In the chain of things not bound together."
ἐι δὲ μὴ τεταγμένα μοῖρα κ. τ. λ. In my opinion, SYM., CON., and
PEILE, are wrong in giving a different meaning to μοῖραν from that
which they assign to μοῖρα immediately preceding. In such phrases as
"_truditur dies die_" (Horace) and "_Day uttereth speech unto day_,"
the reader naturally attaches the same idea to the same word immediately
repeated. The literal translation of this passage, "if by the ordinance
of the gods ordered Fate did not hinder Fate," seems merely to express
the concatenation of things by divine decree as given in my version.
SYM.'s version is--
"I pause. Some Fate from Heaven forbids
The Fate within to utter more,
Else had my heart outrun my tongue,
And poured the torrent o'er."