"Nor would I counteract the laws of Heaven;
My heart would chain my tongue, e'en were it given
To drag the secret of the Fates to the day."
Note 70 (p. 71).
". . . the household altar."
κτησίου βωμοῦ. Literally, _the altar of our family wealth or
possession_. In the same way, Jove, the supreme disposer of all human
wealth, is called Ζεὺς κτήσιος, possessory Jove. See the Suppliants,
v. 440--my translation.
Note 71 (p. 72).
"My way-god, my leader Apollo!"
"Agyieus (from ἀγυιὰ, a way), a surname of Apollo, describing him as
the protector of the streets and public places. As such he was
worshipped at Acharnæ, Mycenæ, and Tegea."--Dr. SCHMITZ, in the
Mythol. Dict. In the same way, by ενοδιον θεὰν (Soph. Antig. 1200), or
"the way goddess," is understood Hecate. The Hindoos make their god
_Pollear_ perform a similar function, placing his image in all temples,
streets, highways, and, in the country, at the foot of some tree, that
travellers may make their adorations and offerings to him before they
pursue their journey.--SONNERAT in notes to the Curse of Kehama,
Canto V.
Note 72 (p. 73).
"Apollo, my leader, whither hast thou led me?"
In this Antistrophe, and the preceding Strophe, there is one of those
plays on the name of the god addressed, which appear inappropriate to
us, {352} but were meant earnestly enough by the ancients, accustomed to
deal with an original language from which the significancy of proper
names had not been rubbed away.--See note on Prometheus, v. 85. Besides
this, there was naturally a peculiar significancy attached to the names
of the gods.--See note 18, p. 338, above. In the present passage the
first pun is on the name Απόλλων, Apollo, and the verb ἀπόλλυμι, which
signifies to _destroy_) so the Hebrew ABADDON from ABAD, he
_perished_.--Apoc. ix. 11), a function of the Sun god familiar enough to
the Greek mind, from the description of the pestilence in the opening
scene of the Iliad. The second pun is on the title ἀγυιεὺς, leader, or
way-god, concerning which see previous note. I have here, as in the case
of Helen and Prometheus (v. 85), taken the simple plan of explaining the
epithet in the text. The translator who will not do this must either,
like CON. and SYM., leave the play on the words altogether
imperceptible to the English reader, or, like SEW., be driven to the
necessity of inventing a new pun, which may not always be happy English,
and is certainly not Greek, thus--
"Apollo! Apollo!
Leader! appaller mine!
Yea! for the second time thou hast with ease
Appalled me, and destroyed me."
Note 73 (p. 74).
"The blithe blood, that crimson ran
In my veins, runs pale and wan."
With this SYM. aptly compares a passage from the speech of Theodosius
in Massinger's Emperor of the East--
"What an earthquake I feel in me!
And on the sudden my whole fabric totters;
My blood within me turns, and through my veins
Parting with natural redness, I discern it
Changed to a fatal yellow."
Even more strongly expressed than in our Greek poet, perhaps a little
too strongly, the words, _I discern it_, certainly not improving the
passage. HARF., as is his fashion, fears to follow the boldness of
his author, and translates--
"The ruddy drop is curdling at my heart."
And in the same spirit FR. gives _dunkelroth_.
Note 74 (p. 74).
"As when in the mortal anguish."
SYM. takes his stand too confidently on a corrupt text, when he says,
"POT. has entirely omitted the fallen warrior bleeding drop by drop,
which is, as it were, introduced into the background by the poet to
aggravate the gloom of the picture." I read καιρία with DIND., CON.,
LINW., and FR., with which single word the fallen warrior
disappears, who comes in, even in SYM.'s version, rather abruptly.
Note 75 (p. 74).
". . . she seizes him
By the strong black horn."