Θρῄκην περάσαντες μόγις πολλῷ πονῳ
--is remarkable for being divided into two equal halves, in violation of
the common cæsuras, the laws of which Porson has pointed out so
curiously. Whether there was a special cause for this in the present
case--the wish, namely, on the part of the poet to make a harsh line
suit a harsh subject, I shall not assert, as the line does not fall
particularly harsh on my ear; I have at least done something, by the
help of rough consonants and monosyllables, to make my English line come
up to the great metrician's idea of the Greek.
Note 19 (p. 317).
"By the mute sea-monsters riven."
It needs hardly be mentioned here that the restless state of the dead
body in death by drowning, implied, according to the sensuous
metaphysics of the vulgar Greeks, an equally restless condition of the
soul in Hades. Hence the point of Achilles' wrath against Lycaon, in
Iliad XXI. 122--
"Go, and with the fishes lay thee; they shall lick thy bloody wound
With a greedy unconcern; thy mother shall not weep for thee
There, nor dew thy bier with sorrow; but Scamander's whirling flood
To the bosom deep shall bear thee of the broad and briny sea."
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And, in the same book, of another victim of the same inexorable wrath
it is said--
"To the eels and to the fishes, occupation meet he gave,
As they gnawed his flesh, and nicely picked the fat from off his
bones."--v. 203.
Note 20 (p. 318).
"Of the pale green olive, ever leafy-fair."
I think it right so to translate, because such is actually the colour of
the olive; but I must state, at the same time, that the word in the
original is ξανθῆς, which has been imitated by Virgil, Æn. V. 309. How
the same word should mean both _yellow_ and _green_, I cannot
understand. No doubt the light green of many trees, when the leafage
first comes out in spring, has a yellowish appearance; but the
ever-green olive is always γλαυκός, as Sophocles has it (O. C. 701).
What we call _olive-coloured_ is a mixture of green and yellow; does
this come from the colour of the fruit or the oil?
Note 21 (p. 318).
"The god Darius."
The word δαίμονα here used is that by which both Homer and Æschylus
designate the highest celestial beings, from which practice we see what
an easy transition there was in the minds of the early Christians to
the deification of the martyrs, and the canonization of the saints.
Compare Æn. V. v. 47. There is nothing in Popery which is not seated
in the deepest roots of human nature.
Note 22 (p. 319).
"O Aïdóneus, thy charge release."
_i.e._ Pluto. The reader must not be surprised to see Æschylus putting
the names of Greek gods and Greek feelings and ideas generally into the
mouths of Persian characters. His excuse lies partly in the fact, that
these divine powers and human feelings, though in a Greek form, belonged
to the universal heart of man, and partly in the extreme nationality of
the old Hellenic culture, which was not apt to go abroad with curiously
inquiring eyes into the regions of the barbarian. A national poet,
moreover, addressing the masses, must beware of being too learned.
Shakespere, in his foreign dramas, though less erudite, is much more
effective than Southey in his Epics.
Note 23 (p. 319).
"Come, dread lord!"
The word in the original here is βαλὴν, a Phœnician word, the same as
_Baal_ and _Belus_, meaning _lord_.--See Gesenius, _voce Baal_. This
root appears significantly in some Carthaginian names, as HANNIBAL,
HASDRUBAL, etc.
Note 24 (p. 319).
"The disc of thy regal tiara showing."
This word belongs as characteristically to the ancient kings of the
East, in respect of their head-gear, as the _triregno_ or triple crown,
in modern language, belongs to the Pope, and the iron crown to the
sovereigns of Lombardy. Accordingly we find Virgil giving it to Priam--
"Sceptrumque sacerque tiaras."--ÆNEID VII. 247.
See further, Dr. Smith's Dict. Antiq. _in voce tiara_, and also
φάλαρον, which I translate _disc_. As for the _sandals_, the reader
will observe that _saffron_ is a colour, like _purple_, peculiarly
regal and luxurious--στολίδα κροκόεσσαν ἀνεῖσα τρυφᾶς.--Eurip.
Phœniss. 1491.--_Matth_.
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Note 25 (p. 320).
"Why should'st thou die, and leave the land,
Thou master of the mighty hand?
Why should thy son with foolish venture
Shake thy sure Empire to its centre?"
Here I may say with BUCK., "I have given the best sense I can to the
text, but nothing is here certain but the uncertainty of the reading."
For a translator, δι ἄνοιαν, proposed by BLOM., is convenient enough.
Note 26 (p. 320).
"Triremes no more?"
ναες ἄναες (α)ναες--A phraseology of which we have found many
instances, and of which the Greeks are very fond. So in Homer, before
the fight between Ulysses and Irus, one of the spectators foreseeing
the discomfiture of the latter, says--
Ἠ τάχα ῏Ιρος (α)Ιρος ἐπίσπαστον κακον ἔξει
ὁιην ἐκ ρακέων ὁ γέρων ἐπιγουνίδα φαινει.
"Irus soon shall be no Irus, crushed by such dire weight of woes,
Self-incurred; beneath his tatters what a thigh the old man shows!"
Note 27 (p. 322).
"But when man to run is eager, swift is the god to add a spur."
This is sound morality and orthodox theology, even at the present hour.
_Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat_. Observe here how high Æschylus
rises in moral tone above Herodotus, who, in the style that offends us
so much in Homer, represents Xerxes, after yielding to the sensible
advice of his father's counsellor Artabanus, as urged on to his ruin by
a god-sent vision thrice repeated (VII. 12-18). The whole expedition,
according to the historian, is as much a matter of divine planning as
the death of Hector by Athena's cruel deceit in Iliad XXII. 299. Even
Artabanus is carried along by the stream of evil counsel, confessing
that δαιμονίη τις γίνεται ὁρμὴ, _there is an impulse from the gods_ in
the matter which a man may not resist.--See GROTE.
Note 28 (p. 323).
"Converse with the sons of folly taught thy eager son to err."
The original word for _eager_ here is the same as that translated above
_impetuous_--θούριος, and had a peculiar significancy to a Greek
ear, as being that epithet by which Mars is constantly designated in the
Iliad; and this god, as the readers of that poem well know, signifies
only the wild, unreasoning hurricane power of battle, as distinguished
from the calmly-calculated, surely-guided hostility of the wise Athena.
With regard to the matter of fact asserted in this line, it is literally
true that the son of Darius was not of himself originally much inclined
to the Greek expedition (ὲπὶ μεν τὴν Ἑλλάδα ὀυδαμῶς πρόθυμος ᾖν κατ
ἀρχὰς στρατέυεσθαι.--Herod. VII. 5), but, like all weaklings in high
places, was wrought upon by others; in this case, specially, by his
cousin Mardonius, according to the account of Herodotus.--See GROTE,
Vol. V. p. 4.
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Note 29 (p. 323).
". . . First the Mede was king
Of the vast host of people."
Two peculiarities in this enumeration of the early Persian kings will
strike the reader. _First_, Two of the Median kings--ASTYAGES and
CYAXARES, according to the common account, are named before CYRUS
the Great, who, as being the first native Persian sovereign, is commonly
regarded as the founder of the later Persian empire. _Second_, Between
MARDUS (commonly called SMERDIS), and Darius, the father of Xerxes,
two intermediate names--contrary to common account--are introduced. I do
not believe our historical materials are such as entitle us curiously to
scrutinize these matters.
Note 30 (p. 328).
"A Maryandine wailer."
The _Maryandini_ were a Bithynian people, near the Greek city of
Heraclea, Xenoph. Anab. vi. 2; Strabo xii. p. 542. The peasants in
that quarter were famous for singing a rustic wail, which is alluded
to in the text. See POLLUX, Lib. iv. περὶ ᾳσμάτων ἐθνικῶν. The
_Mysians_ mentioned, p. 331, below, were their next door neighbours;
and the Phrygians generally, who in a large sense include the Mysians
and Bithynians, were famous for their violent and passionate music,
displayed principally in the worship of Cybele. So the Phrygian in
Euripides (Orest. 1384) is introduced wailing ἁρμάτειον μέλος βαρβαρῳ
βοᾳ. The critics who have considered this last scene of the cantata
ridiculous, have not attended either to human nature or to the customs
of the Persians, as STAN. quotes them from HEROD. ix. 24, and
CURTIUS iii. 12.
Note 31 (p. 328).
_Leader of the Chorus_. I have here adopted LIN.'s view, that the
Leader of the Chorus here addresses the whole body; and, for the sake
of symmetry, have repeated the couplet in the Antistrophe. No violence
is thus done to the meaning of ἐκπεύθου. Another way is, with PAL.,
to put the line into the mouth of Xerxes--"_Cry out and ask me!_"
Note 32 (p. 331).
"Oaring with the oars of woe!"
I have carefully retained the original phraseology here, as being
characteristic of the Greek tragedians, perhaps of the maritime
propensities of the Athenians. See in SEVEN AGAINST THEBES, p. 286
above, and CHŒOPHORÆ, p. 112, Strophe VII. Euripides, in Iphig. Aul.
131, applies the same verb to the lower extremities, making Agamemnon
say to his old servant ερέσσον σὸν πόδα--as if one of our jolly tars
should say in his pleasant slang, "_Come along, my boy, put the oars
to your old hull, and move off!_"
Note 33 (p. 332).
"Sons of Susa, with delicate feet."
I should be most happy for the sake of Æschylus, and my translation,
to think there was nothing in the ἁβροβάται. of this passage but the
natural expression of grief so simply given in the scriptural
narrative, I Kings xxi. 27; and in that stanza of one of Mr.
Tennyson's most beautiful poems--
"Full knee-deep lies the wintry snow,
And the winter winds are wearily sighing;
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Toll ye the church bell sad and slow,
And _tread softly_ and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying."
But there is more in ἁβρός than mere _gentleness_, and to the Greek
ear it would no doubt speak of the general luxuriance and effeminacy of
the Persian manners. To put such an allusion into the mouth of Xerxes on
the present occasion is no doubt in the worst possible taste; but the
Greeks were too intensely national in their feelings to take a curious
account of such matters.
[End of Notes]
LIST OF EDITIONS,
COMMENTARIES, AND TRANSLATIONS
USED BY THE TRANSLATOR
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_Editions of the whole Plays._
Aldus: Venet, 1518.
Victorius: ex officina Stephani; 1557.
Foulis: Glasguæ; 1746.
Schütz: 2 vols. Oxon.; 1810.
Butler: Cantab.; 1809-16, ex editione Stanleii; 4 vols. 4to.
Wellauer: cum. Lexico. Lipsiæ; 1823-31.
Scholefield: Cantab.; 1828.
Paley: Cantab.; 1844-47. 2 vols. 8vo.
_Editions of the Separate Plays._