spoken by these exiles waiting on the shore.--In their craving
for home the island of Delos becomes the symbol for all that is
Greek. Delos, the birth-place of Apollo and of a kinder Artemis
than that which they now serve, was the meeting-place of all the
Ionians. The palm-tree, the laurel, the olive, and the Orbed Lake
of Delos were all celebrated in ritual poetry. The singing Swan is
not a myth; it is a migratory swan, with a bell-like cry, which
comes in the winter down from South Russia to Greece.
Isle of Pain and Love.--Literally, "Beloved birth-pang of Leto."
When Leto was about to give birth to her twin children and no land
would receive her, the little rock of Delos pitied her and gave
her a resting-place.
P. 64, 11. 1106 ff., Ah the old tears.--The singer's mind goes
back to her old grief, when her city was taken and she sold as a
slave from market to market till she reached Thoas. Then comes the
thought of Iphigenia's happy voyage to Greece and freedom; then a
dream-like longing to fly home, to watch the dances where once she
danced for the prize of beauty.
P. 67, 1. 1156, Iphigenia enters, carrying the Image.--It would
probably be a sort of Palladion--a rough figure with a shield
(originally typifying the moon?), not very large. She would
probably hold it in a robe of some sort, that her bare hand might
not touch a thing so holy. At sight of Thoas she would probably
cover it up altogether. It is not quite clear when she puts the
image down.
P. 67, 1. 1161, I unsay that word.--It was a bad omen for Thoas to
say at so critical a moment that a rule was broken. The priestess
declares the word unsaid--just the opposite of "accepting" an
omen.--Dr. Verrall, however, suggests to me that the line means,
"I ask Hosia (the spirit of Holiness) to take in charge what I am
going to say"; i.e. all the falsehoods into which she is about to
plunge.
This scene of the fooling of Thoas is full of wit and double
meanings. The end of it is rather like the famous scene in Forget-
me-not, where the Corsican avenger is induced to turn his back in
order to let a lady pass out of the room without being seen and
compromised, the lady in question being really the person whom he
has sworn to kill.
P. 72, 11. 1203 ff.--This change of metre denotes increasing
tension of excitement.
Each individual invention of Iphigenia seems clearly to have its
purpose. She wants to combine a great appearance of precaution
against the escape of the strangers--hence the soldiers, the
bonds, &c.--with the greatest possible reality of precaution
against any one preventing their escape: hence she takes the
soldiers without an officer, the townsfolk are forbidden to follow
or even to look, and the King is left at the Temple. The exact
motive of all the veiling I do not see; perhaps it adds to the
effect to represent Thoas as deliberately hiding his eyes while he
is deceived. But in any case her precautions all seem sound
according to ancient theology.
P. 77, 11. 1235, 1282, Oh, fair the fruits of Leto blow, &c.--A
curious and rather difficult little ritual hymn explaining how
Apollo came from Delos to Delphi. It acts more as an interlude
than anything else, to fill the time until we learn the issue of
the attempt at escape.
All Delphi originally belonged to Mother Earth. The oracles were
given by her daughter Themis, and the place guarded by an ancient
earth-born Dragon. Apollo came, slew the Dragon, and turned Themis
away. Earth took revenge upon him in a curious manner: she
invented Dreams, which told the future freely, though, it would
seem, confusedly, and, so to speak, spoiled the trade of Delphi
until Apollo appealed to Zeus for protection.--The story is not
very creditable to the gods, and is expressly denied by Aeschylus
on that ground. According to them there was never any strife;
Earth, Themis, Phoebe peacefully succeeded one another at Delphi,
and Phoebe gave it as a birth-gift to Phoebus or Apollo.
I think the story is probably a case of the infant Sun slaying the
Serpent of darkness. The ancient identification of Phoebus Apollo
with the sun and Artemis Hecate with the moon seems to me to
withstand all modern criticisms, though of course there are many
other elements combined with the Sun and Moon elements.
P. 79, 1. 1284, Messenger.--This excited rush upon the stage of a
man clamouring for the King is very clever as a next step in the
story. One sees at once the sort of thing that has happened, and
wants to know what exactly.
P. 80, 1. 1302, "This good messenger."--There is nothing to tell
us what the good messenger is. Probably a large sacred knocker,
such as were often on temple doors. (They served for suppliants to
catch hold of as well as for summoning the people inside.) But it
may be a gong or a horn hanging by the door, or the like.
P. 82, 1. 1325, Aye tell thy tale.--It is perhaps a little awkward
that Thoas should ask for the whole story before taking any steps
to pursue Iphigenia. But partly he is so amazed that he wants to
hear all he can before moving; partly, he is represented as being
really sure of his prey, as king of all the Taurian seas.
P. 83, 1. 1350, The prow was held by stay-poles.--The ship was
afloat, having been just dragged off the shore, bow forwards. The
men were raising the anchor, and holding the prow steady by long
punt-poles. The ladder seems to have been a rope-ladder; but the
Greek is difficult, and I do not know of any mention of a rope-
ladder elsewhere in Greek literature.
P. 84, 1. 1384, The Maid of Argos and the carven wood of Heaven--
Observe how closely Iphigenia and the image are united. She
appears with it in her arms; she must fly together with it, or
die; she and the image enter the ship together. There is religion
behind this. Perhaps there was some old statue of the goddess
carrying her own image, as Athena sometimes carries a Palladion;
when Iphigenia became the priestess and Artemis the goddess, this
was interpreted as the priestess carrying the goddess' image.
P. 85, 1. 1415, There is One who rules the sea.--Poseidon, the
sea god, was traditionally a friend of Troy. See the first scene
of The Trojan Women.
P. 86, 1. 1435, ATHENA.--Modern readers complain a good deal of
this appearance of the God from the Machine. Some day I hope to
discuss the Deus ex Machina at length, but in the meantime I would
point out the following facts: 1. A theophany or appearance of a
god seems to have been in the essence of the original conception
of Greek Drama; a study of the fragments of Aeschylus will
illustrate this. What Euripides did, apparently, was to invent, or
use when invented, an improved kind of stage machinery for
introducing the god in the air. 2. The theophany seems to have
been effective with the Greek audience, and I believe it would
usually be so with any audience that was not highly sophisticated
and accustomed to associate such appearances with pantomime
fairies. 3. In nearly all cases the god who appears not only
speaks lines of great beauty and serenity, but also comes with
counsel and comfort which have something of heaven about them. The
Dioscori of the Electra are most typical, healing the agony of
revenge by sheer forgiveness; the beautiful Artemis of the
Hippolytus is different, but divine also. But every case needs its
special treatment.
P. 87, 1. 1457, Artemis the Tauropole.--On the rite of Artemis
Tauropolos at Halae, see Preface, p. vi. There is a play on words
in "Tauropole"; it is interesting to see that Euripides has
prepared for it as early as Orestes' first speech, 11. 84 f.,
though I did not think it worth representing in English there.