961.
mvp-comment-694-1
ἄσπετόν τι θαῦμα] Accusative in apposition with the action of χωρεῖν; i. e. the 'Stupendous marvel' is not the person of Heracles, but the manner of his coming.
963.
mvp-comment-695-1
προὔκλαιον] I mourned beforehand.' The word suits more exactly with μακράν than with ἀγχοῦ. ὀξύφωνος, κ.τ.λ.] The figure is suggested by the distance to which the notes of the nightingale are carried.
964.
mvp-comment-696-1
ξένων γὰρ ἐξόμιλος ἥδε τις βάσις] 'For here comes the step of strangers from another people.' βάσις is abstract for concrete, like ἀνδρῶν Φεραίων εὐμενὴς παρουσία (Eur. Alc. 606), and implies that those approaching are heard but not yet seen. Ας έκτοπος = ἔξω τῶνδε τῶν τόπων, and so 'Foreign,' So ἐξόμιλος = ἔξω τῆσδε τῆς ὁμιλίας. In what follows, the abstract word is treated as a collective; hence the singular number in φορεῖ, προκηδομένα.
965.
mvp-comment-697-1
πᾶ δ᾽ αὖ φορεῖ νιν] Hearing the cautious, uncertain tread of those who are carrying Heracles the Chorus cannot distinguish the direction of their movement till they come in sight. αὖ, if genuine, implies that the question occurs to them on taking second thoughts. Meineke conjectures πᾶ καί.
965.
mvp-comment-697-2
ὡς φίλου | προκηδομένα] ‘As caring for one who is dear to them, i. e. they move slowly and quietly because they are afraid of hurting him.
966.
mvp-comment-698-1
βαρεῖαν | ἄψοφον.. βάσιν] ‘With grief-oppressed and noiseless footsteps.' For βαρείαν, cp. Phil. 207, 8, βαρεία τηλόθεν αὐδά : infr. l. 982, βάρος ἄπλετον ἐμμέμονε φρήν.
968.
mvp-comment-699-1
Heracles, borne by attendants, now comes in sight. Hyllus either meets (supr. 902, note), or enters with them. For the verbal ἀναύδατος, cp. Ο. Τ. 191, περιβόατος. The polyschematism, or displacement of the trisyllabic foot (--) has troubled the critics, some of whom read φθίμενον for θανόντα, and some θάνατον, sc. κατά. But it is by no means certain that this metrical variation is impossible.
972.
mvp-comment-700-1
τί πάθω] What is to happen to me?' Cp. Ο. C. 216, ὤμοι ἐγώ, τί πάθω, τέκνον ἐμόν;
974.
mvp-comment-701-1
μὴ κινήσῃς] ‘Lest thou shouldst rouse.'
975.
mvp-comment-702-1
ὠμόφρονος] 'Wild of mood.' The old man retains a vivid impression of what he has seen at Cenaeum, and on the voyage.
976.
mvp-comment-703-1
ζῇ γὰρ προπετής] 'For he lives, though at the point of death.᾽ εἰς τὸν θάνατον προνενευκώς. Schol. Cp. supr. l. 701, τοιόνδε κεῖται προπετές, and note. The meaning is, (a) He is not quite dead, (b) He is all but dead. δακών] 'With clenched teeth.' Cp. Aristoph. Nub. 1368, 9, κάνταῦθα πῶς οἴεσθέ μου τὴν καρδίαν ὀρεχθεῖν; ὅμως δὲ τὸν θυμὸν δακὼν ἔφην, κ.τ.λ. Join στόμα both with ἴσχε and δακών.
977.
mvp-comment-704-1
ἡ ζῇ] ἡ expresses doubtful eagerness. 'Does he really live?'
979.
mvp-comment-705-1
κἀναστήσεις] The pain is imagined as a wild beast, which for the present is couched in slumber. For ἐκκινήσεις, cp. Εl. 567. 8, ἐξεκίνησεν ποδοῖν | στικτὸν κεράστην ἔλαφον.
980.
mvp-comment-706-1
φοιτάδα] 'Wild.' If the malady is once awakened, there is no saying whither it may run.
982-983.
mvp-comment-707-1
ἐπί μοι, φρήν] ‘My feelings rush upon me with resistless force.' Sophocles probably connects ἄπλετος with ἄπλατος. βάρος ἄπλετον is accusative in apposition with the action of ἐμμέμονε. Cp. Eur. I. T. 655. Heracles now awakes in delirium.
984.
mvp-comment-708-1
παρὰ τοῖσι] This form of the dative of rís is rare. Cp. Hdt. 1.37, τέοισι ὄμμασι, 2. 81.
985.
mvp-comment-709-1
ἀλλήκτοις] Epic for ἀλήκτοις.
986-987.
mvp-comment-710-1
For the two paroemiacs, cp. infr. 1006-8, El. 88, 9, 105, 6.
987.
mvp-comment-711-1
ἡ δ᾽ αὐ] The disease is again spoken of as a living thing. Cp. Phil. 758, ἥκει γὰρ αὕτη, κ.τ.λ.
988.
mvp-comment-712-1
ἐξήδης] Hast thou now learnt?'
989.
mvp-comment-713-1
σιγῇ κεύθειν] (1) To remain shrouded in silence, κεύθω being used intransitively as in Ο. Τ. 968, κεύθει κάτω δὴ γῆς. This is better than (2) To hide (what you might wish to say).
991-992.
mvp-comment-714-1
πῶς ἂν | στέρξαιμι] ‘How to endure,' i. e. so as to keep silence. Valcknaer's conjecture, στέξαιμι, is based on a mistaken reading of O. T. 11, q. v. The division of l. 991 (cp. supr 981) is allowable in the freer sort of anapaestic verse that is used in laments.
993.
mvp-comment-715-1
ὦ Κηναία κρηπίς βωμῶν] Cenean support of altars; i.e. Rock of Cenaeum, on which the altars are set.
995.
mvp-comment-716-1
ἱερῶν . . ἠνύσω] ‘What glorious victims did I offer upon thee, and what a return of misery hast thou (for thy part) accomplished for me! In the MS. reading (see v. rr.) ἀντί and θυμάτων are due to glosses. Mr. Paley objects το ἐπί μοι. But cp. Phil. 1139, О. С. 414, and see
Essay on L. § 44. p. 83, g.
996.
mvp-comment-717-1
ἠνύσω· ὦ Ζεῦ,] According to this punctuation, the words & Ζεῦ are not a passing exclamation, but an address to his Father, to whom he suddenly turns, accusing him as the first cause of all (cp. infr. 1278). So Hermann. For the two accusatives after ἔθου, cp. Eur. Οr. 1038, ὕβρισμα θέμενος τὸν ᾿Αγαμέμνονος γόνον.
998.
mvp-comment-718-1
foll. ἣν μήποτ᾽ ἐγὼ.. καταδερχθῆναι] Heracles, in his delirium, confuses the effect with the cause, ἣν .. ὅσσοις referring to the sacrificial robe (cp. infr. 1048-52). There would be something feeble in his merely wishing that he had not experienced this trouble. And ὄσσοις would then be inappropriate. Wunder supposes Κηναία κρηπίς to be the antecedent to ἥν; but this is of course inconsistent with our punctuation, and is forced in any case.
999-1000.
mvp-comment-719-1
τόδε . · καταδερχθῆναι is epexegetic of προσιδεῖν. In what follows ἀκήλητον is taken up and expanded. μανίας ἄνθος] 'Bloom of madness,' i.e. madness in the highest degree. Cp. Ant. 959, 60, οὕτω τᾶς μανίας δεινὸν ἀποστάζει | ἀνθηρόν τε μένος.
1001.
mvp-comment-720-1
τίς γὰρ ἀοιδός] 'For what charmer, what master of the healing craft so famous?' etc. Incantations were regarded as a branch of medicine. Cp. Aj. 582, and note. Hermann rightly defends d, which Erfurdt had condemned: 'Incipit poeta, ut si dicturus sit, τίς ἀοιδὸς κατακηλήσει ; tum mutata structura pergit, τίς ὁ χειροτέχνης ἰατορίας, ὃς κατακηλήσει;' Besides giving an antecedent to ὅs, the article asks for one great physician to be named. What charmer, - or who is he, the famed physician?' etc.
1003.
mvp-comment-721-1
χωρίς Ζηνός] 'Save only Ζεύς,' who has power to heal as to destroy.
1004.
mvp-comment-722-1
θαῦμ᾿ ἂν πόρρωθεν ἰδοίμην] Hermann placed a mark of interrogation after this line, understanding it to mean, 'Am I likely to see a miracle coming from afar?" This is hardly satisfactory. It seems better to take θαῦμα as an adverbial accusative. Cp. supr. 982, βάρος ἄπλετον. • Mine eyes would hail him wonderingly from afar.'
1004.
mvp-comment-722-2
foll. ἐ ἔ, κ.τ.λ.] Heracles thus addresses those who approach to lift him from the litter to the bed. Hyllus takes him in his arms and places him there. while he speaks ll. 1007, 8. The outburst that follows, ll. 1009 foll., is made from the bed.
1008.
mvp-comment-723-1
ἀντέτροφας ὅ τι καὶ μύσῃ] ‘ If aught of the evil slumber for a moment, you disturb it again.' Wunder complains of the want of correspondence between protasis and apodosis in respect of mood. But the combination of categorical with hypothetical expression is not uncommon even in prose. Cp. e.g. Plat. Phaedr. 244 Α. οὐκ ἔστ᾿ ἔτυμος λόγος ὃς ἂν φῇ. The subjunctive here suggests the doubt whether there has really been a moment of ease; i.e. 'You wake what sleeps if there be aught that sleeps.' Cp. Aj. 1160, and note. Linwood by substituting μύσαι, the optative for the subjunctive, evades the difficulty. ἀν(α)τέτροφας is perfect of ἀνατρέπω with present meaning.
1009.
mvp-comment-724-1
πόθεν ἔστ'] The Scholiast says, τὴν δὲ ἐκ τόπου σχέσιν εἶπεν ἀντὶ τῆς ἐν τόπῳ, ὡς σχεδόθεν δὲ οἱ ἦλθεν ᾿Αθήνη (Od. 2, 267), ἀντὶ τοῦ σχεδύν. So ἐγγύθεν ἐλθών, Il. 11. 396. As Hermann truly says, there is a reason to be rendered for every such expression, and here the meaning is, From whence do you show yourselves?' because none appeared from any quarter.
1010.
mvp-comment-725-1
πάντων .. ἀνέρες] Either (1) 'Ye most unrighteous of all Greeks:' or, (2) supposing the genitive not to be governed by the superlative, but to be a partitive gen. with ἀδικώτατοι ἄνδρες. 'Ye most unrighteous' (i. e. ungrateful) 'men in every part of Hellas.' See
Essay on L. § 10. p. 17, 6.
He does not expect aid from barbarians, though he has cleansed barbarous countries too. οὓς δή] Hermann suggested ols, but it is better to retain oὕs, the inhabitants being put for the countries, with the additional notion of benefits conferred on them, and to take πολλά adverbially; i. e. ὧν γαῖαν καθαίρων, κ.τ.λ. Cp. infr. 1061.
1011.
mvp-comment-726-1
i.e. πολλὰ μὲν ἐν πόντῳ, πολλὰ δὲ κατὰ δρία πάντα, κτ.λ.
1012.
mvp-comment-727-1
Heracles calls not for healing (cp. supr. 1001 foll.), but for instant death. Cp. Phil. 747-50, 799-801.
1013.
mvp-comment-728-1
For the negatives, see
E. on L. § 29. p. 48, 1.
1015-1016.
mvp-comment-729-1
The interpretation of the Scholiast (οὐδεὶς ἐκείνων, φησί, βούλεται ἐλθὼν τὴν κεφαλήν μου ἀποτεμεῖν, καὶ ἐλευθερῶσαι τοῦ μοχθηροῦ βίου) suggests a slightly different text. Hermann would read λύων for μολών. Another expedient is to read ἀπαράξας κρᾶτα βίου θέλει | λῦσαι τοῦ στυγεροῦ. The Scholiast may have read λῦσαι μολών. Then λῦσαι having been dropped, through similarity to the last syllable of θέλει, ἀπαράξας would be changed to ἀπαράξαι for the sense.
1017.
mvp-comment-730-1
ὦ παῖ τοῦδ᾽ ἀνδρός] 'Son of Heracles here!' It is strange that this expression should have given any trouble, when the much more vague ὦ παῖ κείνου τἀνδρός is so familiar in prose.
1019.
mvp-comment-731-1
σοί τε γάρ. σώζειν] 'For indeed thou hast a fulness of resource beyond what I can do to save him.' The language is obscure, but has not the appearance of being corrupt. The Epic use of re may be compared with the digammated of in l. 650, or ἀποτίβατος, infr. 1030. Ας βλέπειν sometimes = ζῆν, so ὄμμα may be put by synecdoche for keenness of the faculties generally. And the ellipse of μᾶλλον (
E. on L. § 39. p. 73
) may be accounted for by ἔμπλεον suggesting ἔνι πλέον. δι' ἐμοῦ σώζειν = τὸ δι᾽ ἐμοῦ σώζεσθαι αὐτόν, 'The hope of saving him through me.'
1021.
mvp-comment-732-1
λαθίπονον δ᾽ ὀδυνᾶν]
Essay on L. § 40. p. 75, § 55. p. 101.
οὔτ᾽ ἔνδοθεν οὔτε θύραθεν] (1) 'Neither by my own resources nor with help from others.' Or, (2) 'Neither from within nor from without,' distinguishing between the inward pain of Heracles and the cares which press upon him. Cp. Ο.Τ. 1318, κέντρων τε τῶνδ' οἴστρημα καὶ μνήμη κακῶν : Milton, Samson Agonistes, l. 18, Ease to the body some, none to the mind.' For a similar expression, cp. supr. 730, 4 μηδέν ἐστ᾽ *οἶκοι βαρύ.
1022.
mvp-comment-733-1
τοιαῦτα νέμει Ζεύς] 'The Father holds such things in his power.' Cp. Phil. 843, τάδε μὲν θεὸς ὄψεται. Others understand, So fearful is the trouble dispensed by Zeus.'
