Sophocles Trachiniae 114

ed. Lewis Campbell

οὕτω δὲ τὸν Καδμογενῆ τρέφει, τὸ δ᾽ αὔξει ἄξει αὔξει, βιότου

Trachiniae. Sophocles. ed. Lewis Campbell. Oxford. 1879.

Current edition Experimental

Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Greek) (Greek (Lewis Campbell, 1879))

Provisional text from uncorrected OCR; expect errors.

Editions (1)
Greek (F. Storr, 1912) (OCR draft) Experimental (Greek (F. Storr, 1912)) — 94-140 focus
Translations (5)
English (Lewis Campbell, 1906) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Lewis Campbell, 1906)) — 114 focus
DÊ
What more is there to tell?—Too rash, I fear,
630
Were thy report of longing on my part,
Till we can learn if we be longed for there.
German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review) (OCR draft) Experimental (German (J. J. C. Donner, 1875; OCR review)) — 112 focus
Wie man in Weiten der See, wann
Boreas oder der Süd stürmt,
Wogen sich drängend an Wogen,
Kommend und gehend erblickt:
110
So treibt den Sohn Thebe's umher
Des Lebens vielfältige Noth,
Und wächst empor, kretischen Meers
Wallungen gleich; doch läßt ihn nie
Straucheln ein Gott und hält ihn stets
115
Ferne vom Haus des Todes.
Zweite Gegenstrophe.
English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Thomas Francklin, 1758–1759)) — 114 focus
Chorus
What dost thou tell us ?
English (Robert Potter, 1788) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Robert Potter, 1788)) — 114 focus
Chorus
STRO. 1. 633
You, on the cliffs, whose jutting brow
O'erhangs the dashing wave,
At whose soft foot the warm springs flow
The weary limbs to lave;
On Œta's summits rudely piled
Who fix your habitations wild;
You, who the Melian bay command,
The golden-quiver'd Virgin's strand,
Or near the rocky straits reside
Where Greece her Chiefs in council views with pride;
Soon shall you hear the pipe's sweet sound;
To you it comes again;
No mournful notes it breathes around
But sprightly is the strain;
And, with such airs as joy inspire,
Rivals the Muses' heav'nly lyre.
The winged hours the hero bring,
Son of Alcmena and heav'n's king;
He comes, he chases all our fears,
And the rich spoils of every virtue bears.
The hero absent from our state
Twelve tedious moons we mourn,
Whilst anxious Expectation sate,
And watch'd his wish'd return,
Unknown what seas he ploughs with pain,
What shores his lingering steps detain.
Meanwhile his fond wife melts in tears, '
And yields her heart a prey to fears :
But Mars now bids his fury cease,
And closes his long day of toils in peace.
ANTIS. 2. May he arrive, e'en now arrive
Nor let the lab'ring oar
Forbear his welcome bark to drive
On Trachin's shouting shore,
But bring him from the island shrine,
Where now he offers rites divine.
Yes, let him come with all the fire
Of eager love and fond desire;
Come, as the Centaur's words profest,
Wrapt in persuasion's medicated vest !
English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904) (OCR draft) Experimental (English (Sir Richard Jebb, 1904)) — 94-140 focus

Commentary

Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879) (OCR draft) (Commentary (Lewis Campbell, 1879)) focus

94-140. mvp-comment-81-1 Parodos. Where in the wide world is Heracles, reposing in what continent, or by what narrow sea? Tell us, bright, all-beholding Sun! For our Deianira, for whose hand he fought, wears out her soul in thinking of him on her lonely couch; so ceaseless are the toils that crowd upon him like stormy billows. But God hath hitherto protected him; wherefore let not hope weary, O my queen. No life is without pain, but, by Divine ordinance, grief succeeds to joy and joy to grief. Remember this and hope the best. Zeus cannot leave his offspring to destruction.' The metre beginning with an iambic rhythm passes quickly into dactylo-trochaic, changing again in the epode to iambo-trochaic (with occasional syncope), then to pure iambics, ending with a bacchius followed by three trochees.

114. mvp-comment-95-1 ἀκάμαντος νότου, βορέα, are not simply genitives in regimen, like κύματα παντοίων ἀνέμων, Il. 2. 396, but either (1) genitives of the cause, or (2) genitives absolute = νότου συνεχῶς πνέοντος. For the former (1), cp. Eur. Or. 497, πληγεὶς θυγατρὸς τῆς ἐμῆς ὑπὲρ κάρα. And, for the latter (2), O. С. 1588, ὑφηγητῆρος οὐδενὸς φίλων. ἐν is required by the metre. 'For many as are the waves one sees passing and coming on anew over the wide sea, from the south or else the north wind blowing unweariedly, even so manifold in troubles is the life which, like a Cretan sea, sustains,-ay, and glorifies, our hero of Cadmus' race.'