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Footnote 206:
The daughters of Danaos are always represented as fifty in number. It
seems probable, however, that the vocal chorus was limited to twelve,
the others appearing as mutes.
Footnote 207:
The alluvial deposit of the Delta.
Footnote 208:
Syria is used obviously with a certain geographical vagueness, as
including all that we know as Palestine, and the wilderness to the
south of it, and so as conterminous with Egypt.
Footnote 209:
Elsewhere in Æschylos (_Agam._ 33, _Fr._ 132) we trace allusion to
games played with dice. Here we have a reference to one, the details
of which are not accurately known to us, but which seems to have been
analogous to draughts or chess.
Footnote 210:
See the whole story, given as in prophecy, in the _Prometheus_, v.
865-880.
Footnote 211:
The invocation is addressed—(1) to the Olympian Gods in the brightness
of heaven; (2) to the Chthonian deities in the darkness below the
earth; (3) to Zeus, the preserver, as the supreme Lord of both.
Footnote 212:
An Athenian audience would probably recognise in this a description of
the swampy meadows near the coast of Lerna. The descendants of Io had
come to the very spot where the tragic history of their ancestors had
had its origin.
Footnote 213:
The invocation passes on to Epaphos, as a guardian deity able and
willing to succour his afflicted children.
Footnote 214:
Philomela. See the tale as given in the notes to _Agam._ 1113.
Footnote 215:
“Streams,” as flowing through the shady solitude of the groves which
the nightingale frequented.
Footnote 216:
“Ionian,” as soft and elegiac, in contrast with the more military
character of Dorian music.
Footnote 217:
In the Greek the _paronomasia_ turns upon the supposed etymological
connection between θεὸς and τιθήμι. I have here, as elsewhere,
attempted an analogous rather than identical _jeu de mot_.
Footnote 218:
The Greek word which I have translated “bluff” was one not familiar to
Attic ears, and was believed to be of Kyrenean origin. Æschylos
accordingly puts it into the lips of the daughters of Danaos, as
characteristic more or less of the “alien speech” of the land from
which they came.
Footnote 219:
So in v. 235 Danaos speaks of the “second Zeus” who sits as Judge in
Hades. The feeling to which the Chorus gives utterance is that of—
“Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.”
Footnote 220:
Some mound dedicated to the Gods, with one or more altars and statues
of the Gods on it, is on the stage, and the suppliants are told to
take up their places there. The Gods of conflict who are named below,
Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, presided generally over the three great games
of Greece. Hermes is added to the list.
Footnote 221:
Comp. _Libation-Pourers_, 1024, _Eumen._ 44.
Footnote 222:
The Argives are supposed to share the love of brevity which we
commonly connect with their neighbours the Laconians.
Footnote 223:
The “mighty bird of Zeus” seems here, from the answer of the Chorus,
to mean not the “eagle” but the “sun,” which roused men from their
sleep as the cock did, so that “cockcrow” and “sunrise” were
synonymous. It is, in any case, striking that Zeus, rather than
Apollo, appears as the Sun-God.
Footnote 224:
The words refer to the myth of Apollo's banishment from heaven and
servitude under Admetos.
Footnote 225:
In the Acropolis at Athens the impress of a trident was seen on the
rock, and was believed to commemorate the time when Poseidon had
claimed it as his own by setting up his weapon there. Something of the
same kind seems here to be supposed to exist at Argos, where a like
legend prevailed.
Footnote 226:
The Hellenic Hermes is distinguished from his Egyptian counterpart,
Thoth, as being different in form and accessories.
Footnote 227:
A possible reference to the Egyptian Osiris, as lord or judge of
Hades. Comp. v. 145.
Footnote 228:
“Shall I,” the Chorus asks, “speak to you as a private citizen, or as
a herald, or as a king?”
Footnote 229:
It would appear from this that the king himself bore the name
Pelasgos. In some versions of the story he is so designated.
Footnote 230:
The lines contain a tradition of the wide extent of the old Pelasgic
rule, including Thessalia, or the Pelasgic Argos, between the mouths
of Peneus and Pindos, Perrhæbia, Dodona, and finally the Apian land or
Peloponnesos.
Footnote 231:
The true meaning of the word “Apian,” as applied to the Peloponnesos,
seems to have been “distant.” Here the myth is followed which
represented it as connected with Apis the son of Telchin (son of
Apollo, in the sense of being a physician-prophet), who had freed the
land from monsters.
Footnote 232:
The description would seem to indicate—(1) that the daughter of Danaos
appeared on the stage as of swarthy complexion; and (2) that Indians,
Æthiopians, Kyprians, and Amazons, were all thought of as in this
respect alike.
Footnote 233:
The line is conjectural, but some question of this kind is implied in
the answer of the Chorus.
Footnote 234:
By sacrificing personal likings to schemes of ambition, men and women
contract marriages which increase their power.
Footnote 235:
The Gods of conflict are the pilots of the ship of the State. The
altar dedicated to them is as its stern: the garlands and wands of
suppliants which adorn it are as the decorations of the vessels.
Footnote 236:
Some editors have seen in this an attempt to enlist the constitutional
sympathies of an Athenian audience in favour of the Argive king, who
will not act without consulting his assembly. There seems more reason
to think that the aim of the dramatist was in precisely the opposite
direction, and that the words which follow set forth his admiration
for the king who can act, as compared with one who is tied and
hampered by restrictions.
Footnote 237:
By an Attic law, analogous in principle to that of the Jews, (Num.
xxxvi. 8; 1 Chron. xxiii. 22), heiresses were absolutely bound to
marry their next of kin, if he claimed his right. The king at once
asserts this as the law which was _primâ facie_ applicable to the
case, and declares himself ready to surrender it if the petitioners
can show that their own municipal law is on the other side. He will
not thrust his country's customs upon foreigners, who can prove that
they live under a different rule, but in the absence of evidence must
act on the law which he is bound officially to recognise.
Footnote 238:
_Sc._, the pollution which the statues of the Gods would contract if
they carried into execution their threat of suicide.
Footnote 239:
Inachos, the river-God of Argos, and as such contrasted with Neilos.
Footnote 240:
_i.e._, “Unconsecrate,” marked out by no barriers, accessible to all,
and therefore seeming to offer but little prospect of a safe asylum.
The place described seems to have been an open piece of turf rather
than a grove of trees.
Footnote 241: