"And who would wish to make their friends their lord."
Where the real ground of objection is so darkly indicated, a translator
is at liberty to smuggle a sort of commentary into the text.
{409}
Note 28 (p. 229).
"The wrath of suppliant Jove."
_i.e._ Jove the protector of suppliants. See above, Note 1.
Note 29 (p. 230).
"Like a heifer young by the wolf pursued."
The scholar will recognize here a deviation from WELL.'s text
λευκόστικτον, and the adoption of Hermann's admirable emendation,
λυκοδίωκτον. PAL. has received this into his text, and LIN.,
generally a severe censor, approves.--_Class. Museum_, No. VII. p. 31.
Both on metrical and philological grounds, the reading demands
reception.
Note 30 (p. 230).
"Thou art the state, and the people art thou."
This is a very interesting passage in reference to the political
constitution--if the term constitution be here allowable--of the loose
political aggregates of the heroic ages. The Chorus, of course, speak
only their own feelings; but their feelings, in this case, are in
remarkable consistency with the usages of the ancient Greeks, as
described by Homer. The government of the heroic ages, as it appears in
the Iliad, was a monarchy, on common occasions absolute, but liable to
be limited by a circumambient atmosphere of oligarchy, and the
prospective possibility of resistance on the part of a people habitually
passive. Another remarkable circumstance, is the identity of church and
state, well indicated by Virgil, in that line--
Rex Anius, rex idem hominum Phœbique sacerdos.
ÆNEID III.
and concerning which, Ottfried Müller says--"In ancient Greece it may
be said, with almost equal truth, that the kings were priests, as that
the priests were kings" (Mythology, Leitch, p. 187). On this identity of
church and state were founded those laws against the worship of strange
gods, which formed so remarkable an exception to the comprehensive
spirit of toleration that Hume and Gibbon have not unjustly lauded as
one of the advantageous concomitants of Polytheism. The intolerance,
which is the necessary consequence of such an identity, has found its
thorough and consistent champions only among the Mahommedan and
Christian monotheists of modern times. Even the large-hearted and
liberal-minded Dr. Arnold was so far possessed by the ancient doctrine
of the identity of church and state, that he could not conceive of the
possibility of admitting Jews to deliberate in the senate of a Christian
state. In modern times, also, we have witnessed with wonder the full
development of a doctrine most characteristically Homeric, that the
absolute power of kings, whether in civil or in ecclesiastical matters,
is equally _of divine right_.
Τιμὴ τ´ ἐκ Διός ἐστι, φιλεῖ δέ ἑ μητίετα Ζεύς.
IL. II. 197.
"For from Jove the honor cometh, him the counsellor Jove doth love."
On this very interesting subject every page of Homer is pregnant with
instruction; but those who are not familiar with that bible of
classical scholars will find a bright reflection of the most important
truths in GROTE, Hist. Greece, P. I. c. XX.
Note 31 (p. 231).
"Without the people
I cannot do this thing."
Æschylus makes the monarch of the heroic ages speak here with a strong
tincture of the democracy of the latter times of Greece, no doubt
securing {410} to himself thereby immense billows of applause from his
Athenian auditors, as the tragedians were fond of doing, by giving
utterance to liberal sentiments like that of Æmon in Sophocles--"πόλις
γὰρ ὀυκ ἒσθ ἣτις ἀνδρός ἐσθ᾽ ἑνός." But how little the people had to
say in the government of the heroic ages appears strikingly in that most
dramatic scene described in the second book of the Iliad, which GROTE
(II. 94) has, with admirable judgment, brought prominently forward in
his remarks on the power of the ἀγορά, or popular assembly, in the
heroic ages. Ulysses holds forth the orthodox doctrine in these terms--
"Sit thee down, and cease thy murmurings: sit, and hear thy betters
speak,
Thou unwarlike, not in battle known, in council all unheard!
Soothly all who are Achæans are not kings, and cannot be;
Evil is the sway of many; only one may bear the rule,
One be king, to whom the deep-designing Kronos' mighty son
Gave the sceptre and the right."--Il. II. 200.
Note 32 (p. 233).
". . . possessory Jove."
Ζεύς κτήσιος.--An epithet characteristic of Jove, as the supreme
disposer of human affairs. KLAUSEN (Theolog. II. 15) compares the
epithet κλαριος from κλῆρος, _a lot_, which I have paraphrased in p.
230 above.
"_The Jove that allotteth their lot to all._"
KLAUSEN quotes Pausanias (I. 31-4) to the effect that Ζευς κτησιος
was worshipped in Attica along with Ceres, Minerva, Cora, and the
awful Maids or Furies.
Note 33 (p. 234).
"The pillar-compassed seats divine."
From a conjecture of PAL., περιστύλους; the πυλισσόυχων being
evidently repeated by a wandering of the eye or ear of the
transcriber. Sophocles, I recollect, in the Antigone, has
ἀμφικίονας ναοὺς. Of course, in the case of such blunders, where
the true reading cannot be restored, the best that can be done is to
substitute an appropriate one.
Note 34 (p. 235).
". . . the assembly of the people."
The word ἀγορά, _popular assembly_, does not occur here; but it is
plainly implied. It is to be distinguished from the βουλή, or _council
of the chiefs_.--See GROTE as above, and HOMER _passim_.
Note 35 (p. 235).
"All crowning Consummator."
As the opening words of this prayer generally are one of the finest
testimonies to the sovereignty of Jove to be found in the poet, so the
conjunction of words τελέων τελειὸτατον, κράτος is particularly to be
noted. The adjectives τέλειος, τελεος, παντελής, and the verb τελέω,
are often applied with a peculiar significancy to the king of the
gods, as he who alone can conduct to a happy end every undertaking,
under whatever auspices commenced. This doctrine is most reverently
announced by the Chorus of this play towards the end (p. 244), in
these comprehensive terms--
τι δε ἄνευ σέθεν
θνατοισι τελειον εστι.
"What thing to mortal men is completed without thee." And in this
sense Clytemnestra, in the Agamemnon (p. 69), prays--
Ζεῦ Ζεῦ τέλειε τὰς εμὰς ἐυχὰς τὲλει.
{411}
On the over-ruling special providence of Jove generally the scholar
should read KLAUSEN, _Theol._ II., 15, and _Class. Mus._ No. XXVI.
pp. 429-433.
Note 36 (p. 236).
". . . hence by the brize."
The reader will observe that the course of Io's wanderings here sketched
is something very different from that given in the Prometheus, and much
more intelligible. The geography is so familiar to the general reader
from the Acts of the Apostles, that comment is unnecessary.
Note 37 (p. 236).
"Divinely fretted with fitful oar she hies."
The partiality of Æschylus for sea-phrases has been often observed.
Here, however, Paley for the ἐρεσσομένα, of the vulgate has proposed
ἐρεθομένα, aptly for the sense and the metre; but LIN. (_Class.
Mus._ No. VII. 30) seems right in allowing the text to remain. I have
taken up both readings into my rendering.
Note 38 (p. 236).
"Nor dared to approach this thing of human face."
It is difficult to know what δυσχερὲς in the text refers. POT.
refers it to the mind of the maid--
"Disdaining to be touched."
To me it seems more natural to refer the difficulty of touching to the
superstitious fears of the Egyptians; and to translate "_not safely to
be meddled with_." This is the feeling that my translation has
attempted to bring out.
Note 39 (p. 237).
"Jove's decided will."
I adopt Heath's emendation Βούλιος for δούλιος. WELL., with
superstitious reverence for the most corrupt text extant, retaining the
δούλίος, is forced to explain δούλιος φρην, "_dictum videtur de
hominibus qui Jovis auxilium imploraverunt;_" but this will never do.
The reader is requested to observe what a pious interpretation is, in
this passage, given to the connection of Jove and Io--how different
from that given by Prometheus, p. 202 above. We may be assured that
the orthodox Heathen view of this and other such matters lies in the
present beautifully-toned hymn, and not in the hostile taunts which
the poet, for purely dramatic purposes, puts into the mouth of the
enemy of Jove.
Note 40 (p. 240).
"Holy Hecate's aid avail thee."
Hecate is an epithet of Artemis, as Hecatos of Apollo, meaning _far_
or _distant_ (ἕκας). According to the prevalent opinion among
mythologists, both ancient and modern, this goddess is merely an
impersonation of the MOON, as PHOEBUS of the SUN. The term
"far-darting" applies to both equally; the rays of the great
luminaries being fitly represented as arrows of a far-shooting deity.
In the Strophe which follows, Phoebus, under the name of Λυκειος, is
called upon to be gracious to the youth of Argos.
ἐυμενὴς δ᾽ (ο) Λύκειος
ἔστω πάσᾳ νεολαίᾳ,
and in the translation I have taken the liberty, _pro hac vice_, as
the lawyers say, to suppose that this epithet, as some modern scholars
suggest, has nothing to do etymologically with λύκος, _a wolf_, but
rather with the root {412} λυκ, which we find in the substantive
λυκάβας, and in the Latin _luceo_. Æschylus, however, in the SEVEN
AGAINST THEBES (p. 266 above), adopts the derivation from λύκος, as
will be seen from my version. I have only to add that, if Artemis be
the Moon, her function as the patroness of parturition, alluded to in
the present passage, is the most natural thing in the world. On this
whole subject, KEIGHTLEY, c. viii. is very sensible.
Note 41 (p. 241).
"The bulging fence-work on each side."
(παράῤῥυσεις, more commonly παραῤῥύματα.) "The ancients, as early as
the time of Homer, had various preparations raised above the edge of
a vessel, made of skins and wicker-work, which were intended as a
protection against high waves, and also to serve as a kind of
breast-work behind which the men might be safe from the attacks of the
enemy."--DICT. ANTIQ _voce_ SHIPS.
Note 42 (p. 241).
". . . the prow
Fronted with eyes to track its watery way."
"It is very common to represent an eye on each side of the prow of
ancient ships."--Do., and woodcuts there from Montfaucon. This custom,
PAL. remarks, still continues in the Mediterranean.
Note 43 (p. 241).
"To champion our need."
WELLAUER says that the "sense demands" a distribution of the
concluding part of this speech between Danaus and the Chorus; but I can
see no reason for disturbing the ancient order, which is retained by
BUT., though not by PAL. That the sense requires no change, the
translation should make evident.
Note 44 (p. 242).
". . . their ships dark-fronted."
(κυανώπιδες.) The reader will call to mind the νῆες μέλαιναι, the
black ships in Homer.--See DICT. ANTIQ. _voce_ SHIPS.
Note 45 (p. 242).
"A strong-limbed race with noon-day sweats well hardened."
This sentiment must have awakened a hearty response in the minds of the
Greeks, who were superior to the moderns in nothing so much as in the
prominency which they gave to gymnastic exercises, and their contempt
for all sorts of σκιοτροφία--_rearing in the shade_--which our modern
bookish system tends to foster.
Note 46 (p. 242).
"No Mars is in her."
ὄυκ ἔνεστ Ἄρης, a proverbial expression for _pithless_, _nerveless_. The
same expression is used in the initiatory anapæsts of the Agamemnon.
Ἄρης δ ὄυκ ἔνι χώρᾳ.
Note 47 (p. 242).
"Good Greek corn is better than papyrus."
"Præter alios plurimos usus etiam in cibis recepta fuit
papyrus"--ABUL. FADI--"radix ejus pulcis est; quapropter eam
masticant et sugunt Ægyptii." --OLAUS CELSIUS, _Hierozoicon, Upsal_,
1745. I consulted this valuable work myself, but owe the original
reference to an excellent "Essay on the Papyrus of the Ancients, by W.
H. DE VRIESE," translated from the Dutch by W. B. MACDONALD, Esq. of
Rammerscales, in the _Class. Mus._ No. XVI. {413} p. 202, In that
article it is stated that "when Guilandinus was in Egypt in the year
1559-60, the pith was then used as food." HERODOTUS (Euterp. 92) says
that they eat the lower part, roasting it in an oven (κλιβάνῳ
πνίξαντες). PLINY (XIII. 11) says, "mandunt quoque, crudum
decoctumque succum tantum devorantes." In the text, of course, the
allusion is a sort of proverbial ground of superiority, on the part of
the Greeks, over the sons of the Nile, pretty much in the spirit of Dr.
Johnston's famous definition of oats--"_food for horses in England, and
for men in Scotland._" I have only further to add, that the papyrus
belongs to the natural family of the _Cyperaceæ_ or _Sedges_, and,
though not now common in Egypt, is a well-known plant, and to be seen in
most of our botanical gardens.
Note 48 (p. 242).
"The shepherds of the ships."
I have retained this phrase scrupulously--ποιμένες ναῶν--as an
interesting relique of the patriarchal age. So in the opening choral
chaunt of the Persians, Xerxes is "shepherd of many sheep," and a
little farther on in the same play, _Atossa_ asks the Chorus, "who is
shepherd of this (the Athenian) people?" It is in such small
peculiarities that the whole character and expression of a language
lies.
Note 49 (p. 242).
". . . on this coast
Harbours are few."
"Nauplia was almost the only harbour on the coast of Argolis."--PAL.,
from BOTH. I am not topographer enough to be able to confirm this.
Note 50 (p. 243).
"On a hanging cliff where lone winds sigh."
κρεμὰς. _Robortellus_: which WELL. might surely have adopted. The
description of wild mountain loneliness is here very fine. Let the
reader imagine such a region as that of BEN-MACDHUI in Aberdeenshire,
so well described in _Blackwood's Magazine_, August, 1847. ὀιόφρων is
more than ὄιος; and I have ventured on a periphrasis. Hermann's Latin
translation given by PAL. is--"_saxum praeruptum, capris inaccessum,
incommonstrabile, solitudine vastum, propendens, vulturibus
habitatum._"
Note 51 (p. 244).
CHORUS (_in separate voices, and short hurried exclamations_). I most
cordially agree with WELL. in attaching the ten verses 805-15 to what
follows, rather than making it stand as an Epode to what precedes. A
change of style is distinctly felt at the conclusion of the third
Antistrophe; the dim apprehension of approaching harm becomes a
distinct perception, and the choral music more turbid, sudden, and
exclamatory. This I have indicated by breaking up the general chaunt
into individual voices.--See p. 377, Note 19.
Note 52 (p. 245).
"Hence to the ships! to the good ships fare ye!"
"What follows is most corrupt, but so made up of short sentences,
commands, and exclamations, that if the whole passage were wanting, it
would not be much missed. It is very tasteless, and full of turgid
phraseology."--PALEY. All this is very true, if we look on the
Suppliants as a play written to be read; but, being an opera composed
for music, what appears to us tasteless and extravagant, without that
stimulating emotional atmosphere, {414} might have been, to the
Athenians who heard it, the grand floodtide and tempestuous triumph of
the piece. Compare, especially, the passionate Oriental coronach with
which "The Persians" concludes. We must never forget that we possess
only the skeleton of the sacred opera of the Greeks.
Note 53 (p. 248).
"To find stray goods the world all over, Hermes
Is prince of patrons."
"_Rei furtivae_," as the civil law says, "_acterna est auctoritas_"; and
the Herald, being sent out on a mission to reclaim what was abstracted,
requires no credentials but the fact of the heraldship, which he
exercises under the patronage of the herald-god Hermes. It may be also,
as the commentators suggest--though I recollect no passage to prove
it--that Hermes, being a thief himself, and the patron of thieves, was
the most apt deity to whose intervention might be referred the recovery
of stolen goods. Something of this kind seems implied in the epithet
μαστηριῳ, _the searcher_, here given to Hermes.
Note 54 (p. 250).
"In the general view, and publishes their praise."
After these words I have missed out a line, of which I can make nothing
satisfactory--
κἄλωρα κωλύουσαν ὡς μένειν ἐρῶ.
A few lines below, for (ὀ)υν ἐκληρώθη δορὶ, I have followed PAL. in
adopting HEATH's εἵνεκ᾽ ἠρόθη δορὶ.
Note 55 (p. 251).
CHORAL HYMN. This final Chorus of the Suppliants and the opening one
of the Persians are remarkable for the use of that peculiar rhythm,
technically called the _Ionic a minore_, of which a familiar example
exists in Horace, Ode III. 12. What the æsthetical or moral effect of
this measure was on an Athenian ear it is perhaps impossible for us, at
the present day, to know; but I have thought it right, in both cases,
when it occurs, to mark the peculiarity by the adoption of an English
rhythm, in some similar degree removed from the vulgar use, and not
without a certain cognate character. In modern music, at least, the
Ionic of the Greek text and the measure used in my translation are mere
varieties of the same rhythmical genus marked musically by ¾. As for
the structure of the Chorus, its division into two semi-choruses is
anticipative of the division of feeling among the sisters, which
afterwards arose when the conduct of their stern father forced them to
choose between filial and connubial duty. One thing also is plain, that
there is nothing of a real moral finale in this Chorus. Regarded as a
concluding ode, it were a most weak and impotent performance. The tone
of grateful jubilee with which it sets out, is, after the second
Strophe, suddenly changed into the original note of apprehension,
evil-foreboding, doubt, and anxiety, plainly pointing to the terrible
catastrophe to be unveiled in the immediately succeeding play.
Note 56 (p. 251).
"Yet, mighty praise be thine,
Cyprian queen divine!"
The Chorus here are evidently moved by a religious apprehension that, in
placing themselves under the patronage of the goddess of chastity, they
may have treated lightly the power and the functions of the great
goddess of {415} love. To reconcile the claims of opposing deities was a
great problem of practical piety with all devout polytheists. The
introduction of Aphrodite here, as has been remarked, is also plainly
prophetic of the part which Hypermnestra is to play in the subsequent
piece, under the influence of the great Cyprian goddess preferring the
love of a husband to the command of a father.
Note 57 (p. 252).
"Lovely Harmonia."
"Hesiod says that Harmonia (ἁρμονία--order or arrangement) was the
daughter of Ares and Aphrodite. This has evidently all the appearance
of a physical myth; for from love and strife--_i.e._ attraction and
repulsion--arises the order or harmony of the universe."--KEIGHTLEY.
Note 58 (p. 252).
"Yet must I fear the chase."
φυγάδεσσιν δ ἒπιπλόιας. HAUPT adopted by PAL. An excellent
conjecture.