{0a} This fragment is from the collection of M. Fauriel; _Chants
Populaires de le Grèce_.
{0b} _Empedocles on Etna_.
{0c} Ballet des Arts, dansé par sa Majesté; le 8 janvier, 1663. A
Paris, par Robert Ballard, MDCLXIII.
{0d} These and the following ditties are from the modern Greek ballads
collected by MM. Fauriel and Legrand.
{0e} See Couat, _La Poesie Alexandrine_, p. 68 _et seq._, Paris 1882.
{0f} See Couat, _op. cit._ p. 395.
{0g} Couat, p. 434.
{0h} See Helbig, _Campenische Wandmalerie_, and Brunn, _Die griechischen
Bukoliker und die Bildende Kunst_.
{0i} The _Hecale_ of Callimachus, or Theseus and the Marathonian Bull,
seems to have been rather a heroic idyl than an epic.
{6} Or reading Αίολικόν=Aeolian, cf. Thucyd. iii. 102.
{9} These are places famous in the oldest legends of Arcadia.
{11} Reading, καταδήσομαι. Cf. Fritzsche’s note and Harpocration, s.v.
{13} On the word ραμβος, see Lobeck, _Aglaoph._ p. 700; and ‘The Bull
Roarer,’ in the translator’s _Custom and Myth_.
{19} Reading καταδήσομαι. Cf. line 3, and note.
{21} He refers to a piece of folk-lore.
{24} The shovel was used for tossing the sand of the lists; the sheep
were food for Aegon’s great appetite.
{26} Reading έρίσδεις.
{34} Melanthius was the treacherous goatherd put to a cruel death by
Odysseus.
{36} Ameis and Fritzsche take νιν (as here) to be the dog, not Galatea.
The sex of the Cyclops’s sheep-dog makes the meaning obscure.
{40} Or, δόμον Ώρομέδοντος. Hermann renders this _domum Oromedonteam_ a
gigantic house.’ Oromedon or Eurymedon was the king of the Gigantes,
mentioned in Odyssey vii. 58.
{41} έσχατα. This is taken by some to mean _algam infimam_, ‘the bottom
weeds of the deepest seas’, by others, the sea-weed highest on the shore,
at high watermark.
{42} Comatas was a goatherd who devoutly served the Muses, and
sacrificed to them his masters goats. His master therefore shut him up
in a cedar chest, opening which at the year’s end he found Comatas alive,
by miracle, the bees having fed him with honey. Thus, in a mediaeval
legend, the Blessed Virgin took the place, for a year, of the frail nun
who had devoutly served her.
{43} Sneezing in Sicily, as in most countries, was a happy omen.
{50} A superfluous and apocryphal line is here omitted.
{53} An allusion to the common superstition (cf. Idyl xii. 24) that
perjurers and liars were punished by pimples and blotches. The old Irish
held that blotches showed themselves on the faces of Brehons who gave
unjust judgments.
{54} Spring in the south, like Night in the tropics, comes ‘at one
stride’; but Wordsworth finds the rendering distasteful ‘neque sic
redditum valde placet.’
{57} ‘Quant à ta manière, je ne puis la rendre.’—SAINTE-BEUVE.
{61} Reading μηνοφόρως.
{70} Cf. Wordsworth’s proposed conjecture—
μετάρσι’, έτων παρεόντων.
Meineke observes ‘tota haec carminis pars luxata et foedissime depravata
est’. There seems to be a rude early pun in lines 73, 74.
{72} The reading—
ού φθεγξη; λύκον εΐδες; επαιξέ τις, ως σοφός, εΐπε,—makes good sense. ως
σοφός is put in the mouth of the girl, and would mean ‘a good guess’!
The allusion of a guest to the superstition that the wolf struck people
dumb is taken by Cynisca for a reference to young Wolf, her secret lover.
{73} Or, as Wordsworth suggests, reading δάκρυσι, ‘for him your cheeks
are wet with tears.’
{74a} Shaving in the bronze, and still more, of course, in the stone
age, was an uncomfortable and difficult process. The backward and
barbarous Thracians were therefore trimmed in the roughest way, like
Aeschines, with his long gnawed moustache.
{74b} The Megarians having inquired of the Delphic oracle as to their
rank among Greek cities, were told that they were absolute last, and not
in the reckoning at all.
{77} Our Lady, here, is Persephone. The ejaculation served for the old
as well as for the new religion of Sicily. The dialogue is here arranged
as in Fritzsche’s text, and in line 8 his punctuation is followed.
{78a} If cats are meant, the proverb is probably Alexandrian. Common as
cats were in Egypt, they were late comers in Greece.
{78b} Most of the dialogue has been distributed as in the text of
Fritzsche.
{82} Reading πέρυσιν.
{89} _I.e._ Syracuse, a colony of the Ephyraeans or Corinthians. The
Maiden is Persephone, the Mother Demeter.
{93} Deipyle, daughter of Adrastus.
{98} Reading—πιείρα ατε λαον ανέδραμε κόσμος αρούρα. See also
Wordsworth’s note on line 26.
{104} For αδέα Wordsworth and Hermann conjecture Ἄρεα. The sense would
be that Eunica, who thinks herself another Cypris, or Aphrodite is, in
turn, to be rejected by her Ares, her soldier-lover, as she has rejected
the herdsman.
{105} Reading επιμύσσησι.
{106a} Reading τα φυκιοέντα τε λαίφη.
{106b} κώπα.
{106c} ουδος δ’ ουχι θύραν εΐχ’, and in the next line ά γαρ πενία σφας
ετήρει.
{106d} αυδάν.
{107} Reading, with Fritzsche—
αλλ’ όνος εν ράμνω, το τε λύχνιον εν πρυτανείω
φαντι γαρ αγρυπνίαν τόδ’ εχειν
The lines seem to contain two popular saws, of which it is difficult to
guess the meaning. The first saw appears to express helplessness; the
second, to hint that such comforts as lamps lit all night long exist in
towns, but are out of the reach of poor fishermen.
{108a} Reading ηρέμ’ ενυξα και νύξας εχάλαξα. Asphalion first hooked
his fish, which ran gamely, and nearly doubled up the rod. Then the fish
sulked, and the angler half despaired of landing him. To stir the sullen
fish, he reminded him of his wound, probably, as we do now, by keeping a
tight line, and tapping the butt of the rod. Then he slackened, giving
the fish line in case of a sudden rush; but as there was no such rush, he
took in line, or perhaps only showed his fish the butt (for it is not
probable that Asphalion had a reel), and so landed him. The
Mediterranean fishers generally toss the fish to land with no display of
science, but Asphalion’s imaginary capture was a monster.
{108b} It is difficult to understand this proceeding. Perhaps Asphalion
had some small net fastened with strings to his boat, in which he towed
fish to shore, that the contact with the water might keep them fresher
than they were likely to be in the bottom of the coble. On the other
hand, Asphalion was fishing from a rock. His dream may have been
confused.
{111} πυρεΐα appear to have been ‘fire sticks,’ by rubbing which
together the heroes struck a light.
{118} Or εγχεα λοΰσαι, ‘wash the spears,’ as in the Zulu idiom.
{124} In line 57 for τηλε read Wordsworth’s conjecture τηδε = ενταΰθα.
{127} Odyssey. xix. 36 seq. (Reading απερ not ατερ.) ‘Father, surely a
great marvel is this that I behold with mine eyes meseems, at least, that
the walls of the hall . . . are bright as it were with flaming fire’ . . .
‘Lo! this is the wont of the gods that hold Olympus.’
{128} ξηρον, _prae timore non lacrymantem_ (Paley).
{129} Reading, after Fritzsche, ρωγάδος εκ πέτρας. We should have
expected the accursed ashes (like those of Wyclif) to be thrown _into_
the river; cf. Virgil, Ecl. viii. 101, ‘Fer cineres, Amarylli, foras,
rivoque fluenti transque caput lace nec respexeris.’ Virgil’s knowledge
of these observances was not inferior to that of Theocritus.
{130} Reading εστεμμένω. If εστεμμνον is read, the phrase will mean
‘pure brimming water.’
{135} Reading οσσον.
{143} Reading αλλη, as in Wordsworth’s conjecture, instead of υλη.
{144} Reading ποπανεύματα.
{145} Πένθημα και ου πενθηα, a play on words difficult to retain in
English. Compare Idyl xiii. line 74.
{147} The conjecture εμα δ’ gives a good sense, _mea vero Helena me
potius ultra petit_.
{148} Reading, as in Wordsworth’s conjecture, μη ’πιβάλης ταν χεΐρα, και
ει γ’ ετι χεΐλος, αμύξω.
{150a} Reading οΐδ’, ακρατιμίη εσσι, with Fritzsche. Compare the
conjecture of Wordsworth, Ὀύδ’ ακρα τι μη εσσι.
{150b} See Wordsworth’s explanation.
{153} Syracuse.
{165} Reading, πεδοικισται (that is, the Corinthian founders of
Syracuse), and following Wordsworth’s other conjectures.
{167} This epigram may have been added by the first editor of
Theocritus, Artemidorus the Grammarian.
{176} This conjecture of Meineke’s offers, at least, a meaning.
{181} _Les hommes sont tous condamnés à mort_, _avec des sursis
indéfinis_.—VICTOR HUGO.
{205} Alcmena bore Iphicles to Amphictyon, Hercules to Zeus.
{208} Reading, with Weise, ποτάγει δε πολυ πλεον αμμε γαλάνα.
{210} For the translations into verse I have to thank Mr. Ernest Myers.