"_In somno enim vos nunc Clytemnestra voco,_"
to which POT., E. P. Oxon., and MÜL. adhere; but I cannot help
thinking with Hermann (Opusc. VI. p. ii. 30), that it is rather flat
(_matt_) when compared with the other. Which of the two the poet meant
cannot perhaps be settled now, as the meaning might depend on the
rhetorical accent which the player was taught to give by the poet; but I
am certain that the version in the text, sanctioned as it is by
WAKEFIELD, SCHÜTZ, HERM., LIN., and PAL. does not deserve to
be stigmatised (in E. P.'s language) as "fanciful nonsense." When
Clytemnestra calls herself "a dream," she uses the same sort of language
which Achilles does to Ulysses regarding his own unsubstantial state as
a Shade.--Odys. XI.
{377}
Note 18 (p. 144).
". . . and seeks
For help from those that are no friends to me."
I have thought it better to retain the old and most obvious
interpretation of this passage; not seeing any proof that
προσίκτορες can be used in this general way as applied to the
gods who are supplicated, without being affixed as an epithet to some
special god; as when we say Ζεὺς ἀφίκτωρ (Suppl. I.)
Note 19 (p. 144).
CHORUS. Whether Hermann in his "_Dissertatio de Choro Eumenidum_"
(Leipzig, 1816) was the first that directed special attention to the
peculiar character of this Chorus as indicated by the Scholiast, I do
not know (Wellauer says so, and I presume he knew). Certain it is that
POT., by neglecting this indication, has lost a great deal of the
dramatic effect of this part of the tragedy. The style of the chorus is
decidedly fitful and exclamatory throughout, and must have formed a
beautiful contrast to the steady stability of the solemn hymn that
follows, beginning, "_Mother night that bore me_." As to the particular
distribution of the parts of this chorus, that is a matter on which, as
SCHOE. remarks, no two critics are likely to agree; nor is minute
accuracy in this respect, even if it were attainable, a matter of any
importance to the dramatic effect of the composition as now read. The
only thing to be taken care of is, that we do not blend in a false
continuity what was evidently spoken fitfully, and by different
speakers, with a sort of _staccato_ movement, as the musicians express
it. This is POT.'s grand error, not only here, but in many other of
the choral parts of our poet; and, in this view, some of Hermann's
remarks (Opusc. VI. 2, 38) on Müller's division are perfectly just. As
for myself, by distributing the parts of the chorus among three voices,
I mean nothing more than that these parts were likely spoken by separate
voices. Scholefield and Dyer's view (Classical Museum, Vol. I. p. 281),
that there were three principal Furies prominent above the rest in this
piece, is not improbable, but admits of no proof. In my versification I
have endeavoured to imitate the rapid Dochmiacs of the original.
Note 20 (p. 145).
"Thou being young dost overleap the old."
The idea of a succession of celestial dynasties proceeding on a system
of "development," as a certain class of modern philosophers are fond to
express it, is characteristic of the Greek mythology.--(See p. 47 above,
Antistrophe I.) The Furies, according to all the genealogies given of
them, were more ancient gods than Apollo, with whom they are here
brought, into collision. Our poet, as we shall see in the opening
invocation of the first grand choral hymn of this piece, makes them the
daughters of most ancient NIGHT, who, according to the Theogony (v.
123), proceeded immediately from the aboriginal CHAOS. Hesiod himself
makes the Erinyes, along with the giants, to be produced from the blood
of Uranus, when his genitals were cut off by Kronos (Theog. 185); a
genealogy, by the way, quite in consistency with the Homeric
representation given in the Introductory Remarks, of the origin of the
Furies from the curses uttered by injured persons, worthy of special
veneration, on those by whom their sacrosanct character had been
violated.
{378}
Note 21 (p. 147).
"But where beheading, eye-out-digging dooms."
In this enumeration of horrors I have omitted κακοῦ τε χλ(ο)υνις,
concerning which LIN. says, "_Omnino de hoc loco maximis in tenebris
versamur; nam neque de lectione, neque de verborum significatione certi
quidquam constat._"
Note 22 (p. 147).
"She was murdered here,
That murdered first her husband."
The reasons given by WELL. and HER. (Opusc. vi. 2. 42.) why the two
lines, 203-4 W., should not both be given with STAN., SCHÜTZ, and
MÜL., to Apollo, have satisfied LIN., PAL., FR., SCHOE.,
DR., E. P. Oxon., and BUT. Certainly the epithets ὅμαιμος and
αυθέντης (which latter the Scholiast interprets μιαρὸς) sound anything
but natural in the mouth of Apollo. The emphasis put on ὃμαιμος in this
very connection by the Furies, in v. 575, _infra_, noted by Hermann,
should decide the question.
Note 23 (p. 147).
". . . matrimonial Hera."
Literally the _perfect_ Hera, the _perfecting_ or _consummating_ Hera,
Ἤρα τελεια, marriage being considered the sacred consummating ceremony
of social life, and, therefore, designated among the Greeks by the same
term, τέλος, which they used to express initiation into the Eleusinian
mysteries. As Jove presides over all important turns in human fate,
there is also necessarily a Ζὲυς τελειος. See BLOM. Agam. 946, and
Passow _in voce_ τέλειος. Conf. Æn. iii. 605, _Juno pronuba._
Note 24 (p. 147).
"The nuptial bed, to man and woman fated."
STAN. has remarked that this word _fated_, μορσίμη, so applied, is
Homeric (Od. XVI. 392); and, indeed, though we seem to choose our
wives, we choose them oft-times so strangely, that a man may be said,
without exaggeration, to have as little to do with his marriage as with
his birth or his death--but all the three in a peculiar sense belong to
that Μοῖρα, or divine lot, which distributes all the good and evil of
which human life is made up.
Note 25 (p. 149).
CHORUS. For the arrangement of this Chorus I refer the reader back to
what I said on the previous one. The concluding part I have here
arranged as an Epode, because it seems more continuous in its idea than
what precedes--less violent and exclamatory.
Note 26 (p. 150).
"On Libyan plains beside Tritonian pools."
Æschylus here follows the tradition of Apollodorus (I. 3, § 6), that
the epithet Τριτογένεια, given by Homer to Pallas, was derived from the
lake Tritonis in Libya, near which she is said to have been born.
Compare Virgil Æn. IV. 480.
Note 27 (p. 150).
". . . with forward foot firm planted,
Erect, or with decorous stole high-seated."
I have not the slightest doubt that τίθησιν (ο)ρθὸν πόδα in this
passage can only mean to _plant the foot down firmly and stand erect_;
if so, τίθησι κατηρεφῆ πόδα can only mean to _sit_, "the feet being
covered by the robes while {379} sitting"--LIN.; so also PAL. and
SCHOE. Sitting statues of the gods were very common in ancient times,
as we see in the Egyptian statues, and in the common representations of
the Greek and Roman Jupiter (see Thirlwall's History of Greece, c. VI.).
I am sorry that Hermann (p. 57) should have thrown out the idea that
κατηρεφῆς in this passage may mean "enveloped in clouds," which has
been taken up by Franz--
"Sichtbar sic jezt herschreitet, oder Wolkumhüllt,"
because manifestly κατηρεφῆς, in this sense, forms no natural contrast
to ὀρθὸς. The "_forward foot firm-planted_," I have taken from Müller's
note, p. 112, as, perhaps, pointing out more fully what may have been
in the poet's eye, without, however, meaning to assert seriously
against a severe critic like Hermann, that the words of the text
necessarily imply anything of the kind.
Note 28 (p. 150).
"The ordered battle on Phlegrean fields
Thou musterest."
The peninsula of Pallene in Macedonia, as also the district of Campania
about Baiæ and Cumae, were called Phlegraean, or _fire-fields_ (φλέγω),
in all likelihood from the volcanic nature of the country, to which
Strabo (Lib. V. p. 245) alludes. These volcanic movements in the
religious symbolism of early Greece became giants; and against these
the Supreme Wisdom and his wise daughter had to carry on a war worthy
of gods.
Note 29 (p. 151).
CHORAL HYMN. "This sublime hymn is of a character, in some respects,
kindred to the καταδέσεις, or incantations of antiquity, which were
directed to Hermes, the Earth, and other infernal Deities for the
purpose of _binding down_ certain hated persons to destruction. For this
reason it is called ὕμνος δέσμιος. This character is specially
indicated by the refrain or burden, which occurs in the first pair of
Strophes; such repetitions containing the emphatic words of the
incantation being common in all magical odes. So in Theocritus (Idyll.
2), we have constantly repeated, '_Iungx, bring me the man, the man whom
I mean, to my dwelling,_' and, in the song of the Fates at the marriage
of Thetis in Catullus, the line--'_Currite ducentes subtemina, currite
fusi!_' and there can be no question, the movements and gestures of the
Furies while singing this hymn were such as to indicate the scapeless
net of woe with which they were now encompassing their victim."--MÜL.
The reader will observe how impressively the metre changes on the
recurrence of this burden, the rhythm in the original being Pæonic _v v
v_--, the agitated nature of which foot, when several times repeated, is
sufficiently obvious. I have done what I could to make the transition
and contrast sensible to the modern ear.
Note 30 (p. 151).
"The seeing and the sightless."
αλα(ο)ισι και δεδορκόσι, _i.e._ the living and the dead; an expression
familiar to the Greeks, and characteristic of a people who delighted to
live in the sun. βλέπειν φάος--_to look on the light_, is the most
common phrase in the tragedians for to live; and wisely so--
"Since light so necessary is to life,
And almost life itself, if it be true
That light is in the soul,
The soul in every part."--MILTON.
POT. has allowed himself to be led quite astray here by a petulant
criticism of De Pauw.
{380}
Note 31 (p. 151).
"The gleeless song, and the lyreless strain."
ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος. "The musical character of this Choral Hymn must be
imagined as working upon the feelings with a certain solemn grandeur.
The κιθάρα or lyre is silent; an instrument which, as the Greeks used
it, always exercised a soothing power, restorative of the equipoise of
the mind: only the flute is heard, whose notes, according to the
unanimous testimony of antiquity, excited feelings, now of thrilling
excitement, now of mute awe; always, however, disturbing the just
emotional tenor of the soul. Assuredly the ὕμνος ἀφόρμιγκτος in this
place is no mere phrase."--MÜLLER.
Note 32 (p. 152).
"This work of labour earnest."
I have paraphrased, or rather interpolated, in this Antistrophe, a
little, because I do not see much in it that is either translatable or
worth translating. A meaning has been squeezed out of the two lines
beginning σπευδόμενοι; but one cannot help feeling, after all, that
there is something wrong, and saying with honest Wellauer, "_certi nihil
video._" The main idea, shimmering through the first three lines, is
plain enough--_that the Furies exercise a function, the legitimacy of
which no one is entitled to question._ This the words, μηδ ες
ἄγκρισιν ἐλθεῖν, plainly indicate; and it is upon this, and SCHOE.'s
conjectural emendation of the first line--
σπευδομένος ἀπέχειν τινὰ τᾶσδε μερίμνας,
"Diesem Geschäft das wir treiben verbleibe man ferne,"
that my paraphrase proceeds. With regard to the second part of this
Strophe, beginning with Μάλα γὰρ (ὀ)υν, I follow WELL. and all the
later editors, except SCHOE., in retaining it for metrical reasons, in
the place to which Heath transposed it. SCHOE's observations, however,
are worthy of serious consideration, as it is manifest that, if these
Pæonic lines be replaced to where they stand in all the old editions,
viz.:--between ὀρχησμοῖς τ᾽ (ε)πιφθόνοις ποδός and πιπτων δ᾽ ουκ ὀιδεν,
their connection with what precedes, and also with what follows, will be
more obvious than what it is now. FR.'s observation, however, in
answer to this, is not to be kept out of view--that this second part of
the Antistrophe takes up the idea, as it takes up the measure, with
which the corresponding part of the Strophe, as now arranged, ends,
viz.--διόμεναί κρατερὸν ὄνθ, which the reader will find clearly brought
out in my version--the concluding lines of the Pæonic section of the
Strophe--
"Though fleet we shall find him,"
being taken up in the opening lines of the Pæonic section of the
Antistrophe--
"But swift as the wind,
We follow and find."
Note 33 (p. 154).
"The cry that called me from Scamander's banks."
The Sigean territory in the Troad was disputed between the Athenians and
the people of Mitylene; which strife Herodotus informs us (V. 94) ended,
by the activity of Pisistratus, in favour of the Athenians--B.C. 606. In
that same territory, continues the historian, there was a temple of
Pallas, where the Athenians hung up the arms of the poet Alcæus, who,
though "_ferox bello_," had been obliged to flee from the battle which
decided the matter in favour of the Athenians. Æschylus, like a true
patriot and poet, throws the claim of the Athenians to this territory as
far back into the heroic times as possible; and, by the words put into
the mouth of Athena, makes the claim {381} on the part of the Lesbians
tantamount to sacrilege.--See SCHOLIAST and STAN.
Note 34 (p. 155).
"He'll neither swear himself, nor take my oath."
"The Greek words, ἀλλ ὅρκον ὀυ δεξαιτ ἄν, ὀυ δοῦναι θέλει have, in the
juridical language of Athens, decidedly only this meaning; and, in the
present passage, there is no reasonable ground for taking them in any
other sense, though it is perfectly true that in some passages, ὅρκου
διδόναι signifies simply to _swear_, and ὅρκον δέχεσθαι, _to accept an
attestation on oath._"--SCHOEMANN.
Note 35 (p. 155).
"In old Ixíon's guise."
"Ixíon was the son of Phlegyas, his mother Dia, a daughter of Deioneus.
He was king of the Lapithæ, or Phlegyes, and the father of Peirithous.
When Deioneus demanded of Ixíon the bridal gifts he had promised, Ixíon
treacherously invited him as though to a banquet, and then contrived to
make him fall into a pit filled with fire. As no one purified Ixíon
from this treacherous murder, and all the gods were indignant at him,
Zeus took pity on him, purified him, and invited him to his
table."--_Mythol. Dict._
Note 36 (p. 156).
"The ancient city of famous Priam thou
Didst sheer uncity."
The original ἄπολιν Ιλίου πόλιν ἔθηκας, contains a mannerism of the
tragedians too characteristic to be omitted. 'Tis one of the many
tricks of that wisdom of words which the curious Greeklings sought,
and did not find, in the rough Gospel of St. Paul.
Note 37 (p. 156).
"For thee, in that thou comest to my halls."
The best exposition that I have seen of the various difficulties of
this speech, is that of SCHOE., unfortunately too long for extract.
As to κατηρτὺκὼς, LIN. has, in the notes to his edition, justly
characterised his own translation of it, in the Dictionary as
_durissimum_. The first ὃμως, of course, must go; and there is nothing
better than changing it with PAUW, MÜLL., and SCHOE., into
ἐμ(ο)ις. The second ὅμως must likewise go; say ὁσιὼς with MÜLL. or
ὅυτως with SCHOE. There is then no difficulty.
Note 38 (p. 157).
CHORAL HYMN. This chorus contains a solemn enumeration of some of the
main texts of Greek morality, and is in that view very important. The
leading measure is the heptasyllabic trochaic verse so common in
English, varied with cretics and dactyles. I have amused myself with
giving a sort of imitation of the rhythm, so far as the trochees and
cretics are concerned; to introduce the dactyles in the places where
they occur, would produce--as I found by experiment--a tripping effect
altogether out of keeping with the general solemnity of the piece.
Note 39 (p. 158).
"But who sports, a careless liver."
'Tis impossible not to agree with SCHOE. that these two lines are
corrupt beyond the hope of emendation. He proposes to read--
τίς δὲ μηδὲν ἐυσεβεῖ
καρδίας ἄγᾳ τρεων.
{382}
A very ingenious restoration; and one which, as matters now stand, I
should have little scruple in introducing into the text; but, for
poetical purposes, I have not been willing to lose the image with which
the present reading, ἐν φάει, supplies me and FR.--
"Wer der nicht bei Wonneglanz
Trauer auch im Herzen hegt," etc.
Note 40 (p. 158).
"To the wise mean strength is given,
Thus the gods have ruled in heaven."
This is one of those current common-places of ancient wisdom, which are
now so cheap to the ear, but are still as remote from the general temper
and the public heart as they were some thousands of years ago, when
first promulgated by some prophetic Phemonoe of the Primeval Pelasgi.
The great philosopher of common sense, Aristotle, seized this maxim, as
the groundwork of practical ethics, some three hundred years before
Christ--῾Φθείρεται γαρ, says he, ἡ σωφροσύνη και ἡ ἀνδρεία ὑπὸ τῆς
ὑπερβολῆς καὶ τῆς ἐλλειψεως, ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς μεσότητος σώζεται; and Horace,
the poet of common sense, preached many a quiet, tuneful sermon to the
same ancient text--
"Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula."
Note 41 (p. 158).
"Pride, that lifts itself unduly."
I will not multiply citations here to show the reader how this pride or
insolence of disposition, ὓβρις (the German _Uebermuth_), is marked by
the Greek moralists as the great source of all the darker crimes with
which the annals of our floundering race are stained (See Note, p. 349
above). They are wrong who tell us that Humility is a Christian and not
a Heathen virtue: no doubt the name ταπεινοφροσύνη, used in the New
Testament, was not the fashionable one among the Greeks: but that they
had the thing, every page of their poetry testifies, with this
difference, however, to be carefully noted, that while Heathen humility
is founded solely on a sense of dependence, Christian humility proceeds
also, and perhaps more decidedly, from a sense of guilt. Neither does
the phraseology of Heathen and Christian writers on this subject differ
always so much as people seem to imagine; between the μη ὐπερφρον(ε)ιν
παρ ὃ δεῖ φρονεῖν of St. Paul (Rom. xii. 3), and the ὀυδεπώποτε ὐπερ
ἄνθρωπον ἐφρόνησα of Xenophon (Cyropaed. VIII), it were a foolish
subtlety that should attempt to make a distinction.
Note 42 (p. 159).
"Give the air-shattering Tyrrhene trump free voice."
"It is a correct and significant observation made by the Scholiast on
Iliad XVIII. 219, that Homer never mentions the trumpet (σάλπιγξ) in
the narrative part of his poem, but only for a comparison: familiar as
he was with the instrument, he was not ignorant that the use of it was
new, and not native in Greece. Indeed, it was never universally
adopted in that country: the Spartans and Cretans marching into battle,
first to the accompaniment of the lyre, and afterwards of the flute.
The tragedians again are quite familiar with the Tuscan origin of the
trumpet, though they make no scruple of introducing it into their
descriptions of the Hellenic heroic age"--MÜLL.; Etrusker I. p. 286.
{383}
Note 43 (p. 160).
_Enter_ APOLLO. Here commences a debate between the daughters of Night
and the god accusing and defending, which, as Grote (History of Greece,
I. 512) remarks, is "eminently curious." And not only curious, but
unfortunately, to our modern sense at least, not a little ludicrous in
some places. The fact is, that the strange moral contradictions and
inconsistencies so common in the Greek mythology, so long as they are
concealed or palliated under a fair imaginative show, give small
offence; but when placed before the understanding, in order to be
interrogated by the strict forms of judicial logic, they necessarily
produce a collision with our practical reason and a smile is the result.
Note 44 (p. 161)
". . . himself did bind
With bonds his hoary-dated father Kronos."
"In the fable of the binding of Kronos by his son Jove, Æschylus saw
nothing disrespectful to the character of the supreme ruler, but only
the imaginative embodiment of the fact, that one celestial dynasty had
been succeeded by another. The image of binding, and of the battles of
the Titans generally, might seem to his mind not the most appropriate;
but the offence that lay in them was softened not a little by the
consideration that the enchainment of Kronos and the Titans was only a
temporary affair, leading to a reconciliation. The result was, that the
Titans themselves at last acknowledged the justice of their punishment,
and submitted themselves to Jove, as the alone legitimate ruler of
Earth; and Herr Welcker is quite wrong in supposing that either here, or
in the Agamemnon, or the Prometheus, there is any indication that the
mind of Æschylus was fundamentally at war with his age in regard to the
celestial dynasties."--SCHOEMANN's Prometheus, p. 97.
Note 45 (p. 162).
". . . How
With any clanship share lustration?"
Or, with BUCK., "what laver of his tribe shall receive him?"--the
word in the original being φρατόρων. The ancient Hellenic tribes
φράτραι were social unions, founded originally in the family tie, and
afterwards extended. These unions had certain religious ceremonies
which they performed in common, and to which allusion is here made.
(Compare Livy VI. 40, 41, _nos privatim auspicia habemus_ of the
Patrician families.) To be ἀφρήτωρ, or _excluded from a tribe_ (Il.
IX. 63), was among the Greeks of the heroic ages a penalty half-civil,
half-religious, similar in character to the _excommunication_ of the
middle ages. Of this extremely interesting subject, the English reader
will find a most luminous exposition in GROTE's _Greece_, vol. iii.
p. 74.
Note 46 (p. 162).
". . . whom we call
The mother begets not."
Strange as this doctrine may seem to our modern physiologists, it seems
founded on a very natural notion; and to the Greeks, who had such a low
estimate of women, must have appeared perfectly orthodox. The same
doctrine is enunciated by the poet in the Suppliants, v. 279, when he
says, "the male artist has imprinted a Cyprian character on your female
features"--the image being borrowed from the art of coining. And this,
like many fancies cherished by the Greeks, seems to have had its home
originally in {384} Egypt. STAN. quotes from Diodorus I. 80, who
says--"The Egyptians count none of their sons bastards, not even the
sons of a bought slave. For they are of opinion that the father is the
only author of generation; the mother but supplieth space and
nourishment to the fœtus." In the play of Euripides, Orestes uses the
same argument (Orest. 543).
Note 47 (p. 162).
"Now, hear my ordinance, Athenians!"
This address of the goddess, of practical wisdom, in constituting the
Court of the Areopagus, was pointed by the poet directly against the
democratic spirit, in his day beginning to become rampant in Athens; and
is applicable not less to all times in which great and, perhaps,
necessary social changes take place. The poet states, with the most
solemn distinctness, that the mere love of liberty will never protect
liberty from degenerating into licentiousness; but that a religious
reverence for law is as essential to society as a religious jealousy of
despotism. Only he who profoundly fears God can dispense with the fear
of man; and he who fears both God and man is the only good citizen.
Note 48 (p. 162).
". . . Here, on this hill,
The embattled Amazons pitched their tents of yore."
The Amazons, "as strong as men" (αντιάνειραι, Il. III. 189),
are famous in the history of the Trojan war; and their expedition
against Athens, mentioned here, was familiar to every Athenian eye, from
the painting in the _Stoa Pœcile_, described by Pausanias (I. 15). As
to the historical reality of these hardy females, the sober Arrian (VII.
13) is by no means inclined (after the modern German fashion) to brush
them, with a stroke of his pen, out of the world of realities; and,
considering what a strange and strangely adaptable creature man is, I
see no reason why we should be sceptical as to their historical
existence.
Note 49 (p. 163).
"Thou say'st."
"This is an ancient way of replying to a captious question, as we see
in the Gospel (Matth. xxvii.), where, when Pilate asks, 'art thou the
king of the Jews,' our Lord, Jesus Christ, answers in these very words
Συ λέγεις--'_Thou say'st._'"--STAN.
Note 50 (p. 163).
"Such were thy deeds in Pheres' house."
"Alluding to Admetus, son of Pheres, whom Apollo raised from the dead,
having obtained this boon from the Fates, on condition that some one
should die in his stead.--See the well-known play of Euripides, the
Alcestes."--STAN. The Scholiast on that play, v. 12, as Dindorf notes,
remarks that, on this occasion, Apollo moved the inflexible goddesses by
the potent influence of wine. This is alluded to a few lines below.
Note 51 (p. 164).
". . . all my father lives in me."
κάρτα δ᾽ ειμι τοῦ πατρος; specially wisdom and energy.--So Milton--
"All my father shines in me."--Paradise Lost, VII.
Compare the Homeric epithet of Pallas ὁβριμοπάτρη with Nägelsbach's
Comprehensive Commentary--Hom. Theologie, p. 100.
{385}
Note 52 (p. 164).
_Apollo_, FR., who examined the Medicean Codex, says that there is
here discernible the mark which introduces a new speaker. Who that
speaker is, however, the sense does not allow us to decide; but Orestes
and the Chorus having spoken, I do not see why Apollo, who showed such
eagerness before, should not now also, put in his word; and, therefore,
deserting WELL., I follow the old arrangement of VICT. and STAN.
Note 53 (p. 167).
"Sharing alone the strong keys that unlock
His thunder-halls."
As Pallas possesses all her father's characteristic qualities of wisdom
and strength, so she is entitled to wield all his instruments, and even
the thunder. STAN. quotes--
"Ipsa (Pallas) Jovis rapidum jaculata e nubibus ignem."--Virgil, ÆN.
I. 46.
And Wakefield compares CALLIM, Lavac. Pall, 132. So the _aegis_, or
_shield of dark-rushing storms_ (ἀισσω), belongs to Pallas no less than
to Zeus (Il. V. 738).
Note 54 (p. 167).
". . . thou shalt hold
An honoured seat beside Erectheus' home."
Erectheus, who, as his name signifies (ἔραζε, _Eretz_, Heb., _Erde_,
Teut., _Earth_), was the earth-born, or Adam of Attic legend, had a
temple on the Acropolis, beside the temple of the city-protecting
(πολιάς) Pallas, of which the ruins yet remain. The cave of the Furies
was on the Hill of Mars, directly opposite.--See Introductory Remarks.
Note 55 (p. 168).
". . . save my city
From brothered strife, and from domestic brawls."
It was a principle with the Romans that no victory in a civil war
should be followed by a triumph; and, accordingly, in the famous
triumph of Julius Cæsar, which lasted three days, there was nothing to
remind the Roman eye that the conqueror of Pharsalia had ever plucked a
leaf from Pompey's laurels. In v. 826, I read with MÜL. ὀυ δόμοις
παρων, the present reading, μόλις, being clumsy any way that I have
seen it translated.
Note 56 (p. 169).
"The fortress of gods."
This designation is given to Athens with special reference to the
Persian wars; for the Persians destroyed everywhere the temples of the
Greek gods (only in the single case of Delos are they said to have made
an exception), and the Athenians, in conquering the Persians, saved not
only their own lives, but the temples of the gods from destruction.
Note 57 (p. 169).
"Woe to the wretch, by their wrath smitten."
WELL., as usual, is too cautious in not changing μὴ κύρσας into δὴ
κύρσας with PAUW and MÜL., or μὴν with LIN. and SCHOE.
Note 58 (p. 169).
"Not for his own, for guilt inherited."
"The sins of the fathers, as in the Old Testament, so also among the
Greeks, are visited on the children even to the third and fourth
generation; nay, even the idea of original sin, derived from the Titanic
men of the early ages, and exhibiting itself as a rebellious inclination
against the gods more or less in all--this essentially Christian idea
was not altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks."--SCHOEMANN.
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Note 59 (p. 170).
"And, when Hermes is near thee."
What we call a "god-send," or a "wind-fall," was called by the Greeks
ἓρμαιον, or a thing given by the grace of Hermes. In his original
capacity as the patron god of Arcadian shepherds, Hermes was, in like
manner, looked on as the giver of patriarchal wealth in the shape of
flocks.--Il. xiv. 490.
Note 60 (p. 170).
"Ye Fates, high-presiding."
There is no small difficulty in this passage, from the state of the
text; but, unless it be the Furies themselves that are spoken of, as
KL. imagines (Theol. p. 45), I cannot think there are any celestial
powers to whom the strong language of the Strophe will apply but the
Fates. If the former supposition be adopted, we must interrupt the
chaunt between Athena and the Furies, putting this Strophe into the
mouth of the Areopagites, as, indeed, KL. proposes; but this seems
rather a bold measure, and has found no favour. It remains, therefore,
only to make such changes in the text as will admit of the application
of the whole passage to the Fates, who stand in the closest relation to
the Furies, as is evident from Strophe III. of the chorus (p. 146
above). This MÜL. has done; and I follow him, not, however, without
desiring some more distinct proof that ματροκασιγνῆται, in Greek, can
possibly mean sisters.--See SCHOE.'s note.
Note 61 (p. 170).
"Jove, that rules the forum, nobly
In the high debate hath conquered."
Ζεὺς ἀγορᾶιος. The students of Homer may recollect the appeal of
Telemachus to the Ithacans in council assembled (Odys. II. 68). Jove,
as we have already had occasion to remark, has a peculiar right of
presidency over every grand event of human life, and every important
social institution; so that, on certain occasions, the Greek Polytheism
becomes, for the need, a Monotheism--somewhat after the same fashion as
the aristocratic Government of the old Roman Republic had the power of
suddenly changing itself, on important occasions, into an absolute
monarchy, by the creation of a Dictator.
Note 62 (p. 172).
"Gracious-minded sisterhood."
The Furies were called Ευμενίδες, or gracious, to propitiate their
stern deity by complimentary language. Suidas says (_voc_. Ευμενίδες)
that Athena, in this play, calls the Furies expressly by this name; but
the fact is, that it does not occur in the whole play. Either,
therefore, the word ἔυφρων, which I have translated "gracious-minded"
in the play, must be considered to have given occasion to the remark of
the lexicographer (which seems sufficient), or, with HERMANN and
SCHOE., we must suppose something to have fallen out of the present
speech.