“And race of those who crowd the Agora.”
Footnote 121:
This seems to have been one form of the legends as to the cause of the
curse which Œdipus had launched upon his sons, An alternative
rendering is—
And with a mind enraged
At thought of what they were whom he had reared,
He at his sons did hurl
His curses dire and dark.
Footnote 122:
_Sc._, when Eteocles fell, Apollo took his place at the seventh gate,
and turned the tide of war in favour of the Thebans.
Footnote 123:
I follow in this dialogue the arrangement which Paley adopts from
Hermann.
Footnote 124:
There seems an intentional ambiguity. They are “borne on,” but it is
as the corpses of the dead are borne to the sepulchre.
Footnote 125:
Not here the curse uttered by Œdipus, but that which rested on him and
all his kin. There is possibly an allusion to the curse which Pelops
is said to have uttered against Laios when he stole his son
Chrysippos. Comp. v. 837.
Footnote 126:
As in v. 763 we read of the brothers as made one in death, so now of
the concord which is wrought out by conflict, the concord, _i.e._, of
the grave.
Footnote 127:
The Chorus are called on to change their character, and to pass from
the attitude of suppliants, with outstretched arms, to that of
mourners at a funeral, beating on their breasts. But, perhaps, the
call is addressed to the mourners who are seen approaching with Ismene
and Antigone.
Footnote 128:
The thought is drawn from the _theoris_ or pilgrim-ship, which went
with snow-white sails, and accompanied by joyful pæans, on a solemn
mission from Athens to Delos. In contrast with this type of joy,
Æschylos draws the picture of the boat of Charon, which passes over
the gloomy pool accompanied by the sighs and gestures of bitter
lamentation. So, in the old Attic legend, the ship that annually
carried seven youths and maidens to the Minotaur of Crete was
conspicuous for its black sails.
Footnote 129:
The “Chalyb,” or iron sword, which the Hellenes had imported from the
Skythians. Comp. vv. 70. 86.
Footnote 130:
The lyrical, operative character of Greek tragedies has to be borne in
mind as we read passages like that which follows. They were not meant
to be _read_. Uttered in a passionate recitative, accompanied by
expressive action, they probably formed a very effective element in
the actual representation of the tragedy. We may look on it as the
only extant specimen of the kind of wailing which was characteristic
of Eastern burials, and which was slowly passing away in Greece under
the influence of a higher culture. The early fondness of Æschylos for
a _finale_ of this nature is seen also in _The Persians_, and in a
more solemn and subdued form, in the _Eumenides_. The feeling that
there was something barbaric in these untoward displays of grief,
showed itself alike in the legislation of Solon, and the eloquence of
Pericles.
Footnote 131:
Here, and perhaps throughout, we must think of Antigone as addressing
and looking on the corpse of Polyneikes, Ismene on that of Eteocles.
Footnote 132: