"Bells of gold
Embossed his glittering helmet, and where'er
Their sound was heard, there lay the press of war,
And Death was busiest there."--MADOC. II. 18.
Note 25 (p. 274).
"His race from those whom Ares spared he draws."
That is to say, he belonged to one of the oldest originally Theban
families--was one of the children of the soil, sprung from the teeth of
the {421} old Theban dragon, which Cadmus, by the advice of Athena,
sowed in the Earth; and from that act, the old race of Thebans were
called σπαρτόι, or the _Sown_. See STAN.'s note.
Note 26 (p. 274).
"Proud Capaneus before the Electran gate."
This gate was so called from Electra, the sister of Cadmus. _Pausan_.
IX. 8-3. And was the gate which led to Platæa and Athens. _Unger_. p.
274.
Note 27 (p. 275).
". . . The third lot to Eteocles
Leapt from the upturned brazen helm."
The custom of using the helmet, for the _situla_ or urn, when lots were
taken in war, must have been noted by the most superficial student of
Homer. STAN. has collected many instances, of which one may suffice--
"Quickly, in the brazen helm, we shake the lot; and first of all,
Of Eurylochus, mighty-hearted, leapt the lot."--ODYSSEY X. 206.
Note 28 (p. 275).
"At the Netaean gate."
So called from Neis, a son of Zethus, the brother of Amphion. _Pausan_.
IX. 8; _Unger_. p. 313.
Note 29 (p. 276).
"Black smoke, the volumed sister of the flame."
Just as Homer, in a familiar passage, calls "sleep the mother of death"
(Il. XIV. 231), adopted by SHELLEY in the exquisite exordium of Queen
Mab--
"How beautiful is Death,
Death and his brother Sleep!"
MITCHELL, in a note on the metaphors of Æschylus (Aristoph. Ran. 871),
mentions this as being one of those tropes, where the high-vaulting
tragedian has jerked himself over from the sublime into the
closely-bordering territory of the ridiculous; but neither here nor in
διαδρομᾶν (ο)μαίμονες, which he quarrels with, is there anything
offensive to the laws of good taste. It sounds, indeed, a little queer
to translate literally, _Rapine near akin to running hither and
thither_; but, as a matter of plain fact, it is true that, when in the
confusion of the taking of a city, men run hither and thither, rapine
is the result. In my version, _Plunder, daughter of Confusion_ (p. 272
above), expresses the idea intelligibly enough, I hope, to an English
ear.
Note 30 (p. 276).
"Round its hollow belly was embossed
A ring of knotted snakes."