635-765.
mvp-comment-375-1
Haemon professes obedience to his father, but with the implied condition that his father commands what is right. Not heeding this, Creon welcomes his general profession, and enlarges on the blessings that follow from obedience in public and private. He urges Haemon to renounce Antigone. Haemon replies by repeating the praise of her which he has heard in the city (Ar. Rhet. 3. 17, ἕτερον χρὴ λέγοντα ποιεῖν.. ὡς Σοφοκλῆς τὸν Αἴμονα ὑπὲρ τῆς Ἀντιγόνης πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, ὡς λεγόντων ἑτέρων), and begs his father not to be deaf to all opinions but his own. Creon is impatient at this, and, after an altercation, in which both speakers become exasperated, Creon orders Antigone to be brought for immediate execution, and Haemon breaks away in sullen anger. This episode interposes a necessary pause between the condemnation of Antigone and its results, i. e, between the two chief crises of the action, and assists the main impression by bringing the light of natural affection and common opinion to bear on the situation.
716-717.
mvp-comment-421-1
ὑπτίοις.. ναυτίλλεται
Upsetting, makes the rest of his voyage with benches overturned. Join κάτω στρέψας. τὸ λοιπόν as in ll. 310, foll., where there is a similar contradictory expression. The omission of the accusative after στρέψας is natural in speaking of so familiar an occurrence as the over-setting of a boat. Essay on Language pp. 73, 98. τὸ πλοῖον, which Hermann reads for τὸ λοιπόν, is hardly a correct synonym for ναῦν or σκάφος.
718.
mvp-comment-422-1
ἀλλ᾽.. δίδου
Nay, yield. Be not wholly irremovable in anger. Lit.
Afford also a removal from anger. This seems to be the best arrangement of this difficult line; i. e. εἰ θυμὸν ἔχεις, ἀλλὰ πεισθῆτι καὶ μεθίστασθαι τοῦ θυμοῦ. The asyndeton is expressive (Essay on Language § 34. P. 58). The reading of LA, ἀλλ᾽ εἶκε θυμῷ, is perhaps due to a false reminiscence of Il. 9.598, εἴξας ᾧ θυμῷ. Seyffert reads θυμῷ .. διδούς.
719-720.
mvp-comment-423-1
γνώμη .. πρόσεστι
For if any judgment proceed from me (ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ) though younger in years. Cp. Τr. 52, 3, εἰ δίκαιον τοὺς ἐλευθέρους φρενοῦν | γνώμαισι δούλοις; ib. 61, κἀξ ἀγεννήτων ἄρα | μύθοι καλῶς πίπτουσιν.
720-722.
mvp-comment-424-1
The real stress is on the last line. The paratactic form of sentence is retained, the sense being,
However excellent a thing perfect knowledge is, yet, since it is rare, it is well to take good advice.
720-722.
mvp-comment-424-2
πρεσβεύειν] The active of this verb is rare in the metaphorical sense.
720-722.
mvp-comment-424-3
πάντ᾽ ἐπιστήμης
Of knowledge in all things. Essay on Language § 17. p. 24, b.
720-722.
mvp-comment-424-4
εἰ δ᾽ οὖν Sc. μή, which is to be assumed from the next clause, where μή has a strong emphasis. For the sentiment, Hermann compares Hesiod, Op. 293, ἐσθλὸς δ᾽ αὖ κἀκεῖνος, ὃς εὖ εἰπόντι πίθηται.
725.
mvp-comment-425-1
διπλᾶ is better than διπλῇ, because dwelling merely on the two speeches, and not on their divergence from each other.
726-727.
mvp-comment-426-1
And at our age shall we forsooth be schooled by one so juvenile? For the inverted order, see Essay on Language § 26. p. 44: § 41. p. 77.
727.
mvp-comment-427-1
For
φύσιν, see Essay on Language p. 96.
728.
mvp-comment-428-1
μηδὲν τὸ μὴ δίκαιον The combination of the indefinite μηδέν with the definite article is curious, and suggests the idea that μηδέν is adverbial.. But the Scholiast is probably right in explaining the words as equivalent to μηδὲν διδάσκου ὁ μὴ δίκαιόν ἐστί σοι μανθάνειν. Cp. supra 360, οὐδὲν .. τὸ μέλλον. Essay on Language § 22. p. 36. And for emphatic el, ib. § 28. p. 47, supr. 551.
729.
mvp-comment-429-1
You ought not to regard differences of time, but rather to face the actual requirements of the case.' τἄργα are not the merits of Haemon, but the truth of his plea.
730.
mvp-comment-430-1
What? Is it a "requirement" to fall down and worship rebels? Creon, as usual, represents mercy as submission. ἔργον ἐστί seems to have the same meaning as in σὸν ἔργον, and the like phrases; i.e. ἔργον almost =
Duty.
731.
mvp-comment-431-1
Nay, I would not bid thee reverence the wicked.
732.
mvp-comment-432-1
'Why, is not she possessed by this disease?" viz. τῇ κακίᾳ.
733.
mvp-comment-433-1
Not so declare her fellow-citizens in this town of Thebes.
736.
mvp-comment-434-1
Is it right, I say, for another than me to rule this land? The reading of L and most MSS, ἄλλῳ.. μοί, (cp. Eur. Ion 1317) is supported by Thom. M. s. v. χρή, and is certainly the
durior lectio. But he may have reasoned from a faulty text. See note on l. 681.
γε is expressive. For M4 see list of MSS. in the Preface to this edition.
737.
mvp-comment-435-1
Cp. Aesch. Suppl. 370, σύ τοι πόλις, σὺ τὸ δήμιον; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, 1. 2,
When could they say, till now, that talked of Rome, | That her wide walls encompassed but one man? | Now is it Rome indeed, and room enough, | When there is in it but one only man.
The genitive ἀνδρὸς .. ἑνός is ambiguous between possessive genitive and genitive of content.
A city belonging to one man, and
A city composed of one man.
738.
mvp-comment-436-1
Is not the city counted a possession of the ruler? Essay on Language § 9. p. 12, b.
739.
mvp-comment-437-1
A splendid monarch would you make to rule a desert land.
742.
mvp-comment-438-1
This line is sometimes printed with a note of interrogation, as if the words διὰ δίκης ἰὼν πατρί were epexegetic of σοῦ.. προκήδομαι. ('Villain, when you are wrangling with your father?') But the connection of the lines in this στιχομυθία is not very close, and the more obvious meaning (Villain, to wrangle with your father!') is more probable.
743-745.
mvp-comment-439-1
οὐ γὰρ δίκαια .. οὐ γὰρ σέβεις] Here, as in 730, ἔργον γάρ ἐστι, there is the same tendency to play on the word (κομψεύειν) that was observed in the speeches of the Φύλαξ.
745.
mvp-comment-440-1
οὐ.. σέβεις
It is not reverence when you trample on the honours of the Gods. Essay on Language § 53. p. 98, с.
751.
mvp-comment-441-1
τινά i. e. σέ. Essay on Language § 22. p. 34, 4. Interpreters have avoided taking these words in their obvious meaning as implying a threat, which Haemon all but carries into execution afterwards in ll. 1233-1234. It is true, however, that this intention is less distinctly present to his mind than the conviction that vengeance will come to Creon from the gods and from popular feeling.
752.
mvp-comment-442-1
κἀπαπειλών For the participle, see Essay on Language § 36. p. 63, €, b.
753.
mvp-comment-443-1
τίς Almost = πῶς. Cp. О. С. 775, τίς αὕτη τέρψις;
756.
mvp-comment-444-1
'Woman's minion that you are, mince not your words with me.' The subdued tone of Haemon (εἰ μὴ πατὴρ ἦσθ', εἶπον ἄν) only adds fuel to the wrath of Creon.
756.
mvp-comment-444-2
For the contempt expressed in δούλευμα and μῖσος (760), see Essay on Language pp. 84, 85.
758.
mvp-comment-445-1
άληθες See on O. T. 350.
759.
mvp-comment-446-1
ἐπὶ ψόγοισι δεννάσεις
Reproach and revile me. For the prepositional phrase, cp. El. 108, ἐπὶ κωκυτῷ, and see Essay on Language § 18. p. 27.
765.
mvp-comment-447-1
So that you may exhibit your madness to those of your friends who can brook it. θέλουσι, sc. σοὶ μαινομένῳ ξυνεῖναι. There is a strong emphasis on this participle.
767.
mvp-comment-448-1
And at his age the spirit, when chafed, is dangerous. Cp. O. C. 751, τηλικοῦτος, οὐ γάμων | ἔμπειρος ..: and for voûs, see Essay on Language p. 93.
768.
mvp-comment-449-1
Cp. O. T. 1075, where Oedipus, with similar unconsciousness, says of Jocasta, who has just rushed out, ὁποῖα χρήζει ῥηγνύτω.
770.
mvp-comment-450-1
The order of words shows that the chief emphasis is on ἄμφω : Essay on Language § 41. p. 77. Hence καί is to be taken with the whole sentence: ib. § 25. P. 43, 4.
Do you really intend to put them both to death?
773.
mvp-comment-451-1
ἔρημος.. στίβος
Where track of human footstep there is none. The privative ἔρημος is used for the negative by a redundancy like those adduced in Essay on Language § 40. p. 75; and ἔρημος = ἄστειπτος (Phil. 2), so that the expression =
Where no track of mortals has been trodden.
775.
mvp-comment-452-1
i. e. τοσοῦτον μόνον, ὅσον ἄγος εἶναι. Essay on Language § 39. p. 74. For ἄγος =
expiation, see Hesych., ἄγος· ἅγνισμα θυσίας, Σοφοκλῆς Φαίδρα.
776.
mvp-comment-453-1
i. e.
Lest the whole city might suffer pollution.
780.
mvp-comment-454-1
περισσός
Bootless. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 383, μόχθον περισσόν. It is characteristic of the time (cp. Thucydides) that the political energy of Creon is combined with scepticism.
781-800.
mvp-comment-455-1
Haemon's disobedience to his father, against his own interest, is due to the might of love.
781-800.
mvp-comment-455-2
'Never-vanquished love, that layest riches waste, keeping nightly watch in the fair, soft, youthful cheek: love that roamest over seas and findest out the wildest nook! No god, nor any mortal man, escapes thy maddening power.
By love the upright mind is drawn to wrong unto its hurt. By love this present strife is kindled between kinsmen. And clearly triumphant is the influence of desire that cometh from the looks of the fair bride - desire that divides empire with the majestic law: so resistlessly doth goddess Aphrodite mock mankind.
781-800.
mvp-comment-455-3
This little ode consists of a strophe and antistrophe, of which the scansion is as follows:- CCLトしてし CICCICII CCCICII IICIICCIト(CLトー 5-0-0-ICCICI-
781-800.
mvp-comment-455-4
A glyconic quatrain is followed by two choriambic lines, and the strophe ends with a return to the glyconic rhythm. L. 7 admits of being otherwise divided, viz.: CCLCー.
781.
mvp-comment-456-1
ἀνίκατε μάχαν Cp. the similar personification of θυμός by Heraclitus, χαλεπὸν θυμῷ μάχεσθαι, ψυχῆς γὰρ ὠνέεται.
782.
mvp-comment-457-1
ὃς ἐν κτήμασι πίπτεις (i. e.
782.
mvp-comment-457-2
ἐμπίπτεις κτήμασι.) These words have been variously interpreted and emended. They probably mean,
Who fallest upon wealth, i. e. art the destroyer of possessions, ruining worldly fortunes in various ways, as the love of Helen wasted Troy, etc. Cp. Eur. Hipp. 538, foll., Ἔρωτα δὲ τὸν τύραννον ἀνδρῶν |.. πέρθοντα καὶ διὰ πάσας | ἰόντα συμφορὰς | θνατοῖς, ὅταν ἔλθῃ. So, in this instance, Haemon is losing all for love. Others interpret,
Desire who makest wealth thy object (Schol. rec.),
Love, who by attacking enslavest, or
Who makest victims of the wealthy.
783-784.
mvp-comment-458-1
ὃς .. ἐννυχεύεις Cp. Milton, L'Allegro, 29, 30, 'Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, | And love to live in dimple sleek.' Love is still figured as an enemy, who keeps nightly watch where he is ready to spring forth armed on the unwary. Pind. Nem. 8. 2, ὥρα .. παρθενηΐοις .. ἐφίζοισι γλεφάροις.
785.
mvp-comment-459-1
The poet is thinking of legendary examples, such as Paris, Leander, Anchises, etc.
786.
mvp-comment-460-1
σε .. φύξιμος i.e. δύναταί σε φεύγειν. Cp. Hom. h. Ven. 34. 5, τῶν δ' ἄλλων οὐ πέρ τι πεφυγμένον ἔστ᾽ Ἀφροδίτην, | οὔτε θεῶν μακάρων, οὔτε θνητῶν ἀνθρώπων. But see on 796 ff.
790.
mvp-comment-461-1
ἁμερίων ἐπ᾿ ἀνθρώπων The insertion of the preposition, although omitted with θεῶν, is no objection to this reading. See Essay on Language § 19. p. 27: and for ἐπί, with the genitive, meaning
In the case of,
So far as extends to, cp. Plato, Rep. 3. 406 C, 8.. ἐπὶ .. τῶν δημιουργῶν αἰσθανόμεθα, alib. The force of the preposition and case here is nearer to the original locative sense, =
Extending over, 'Quantum hominum genus propagatum extenditur. (Ellendt.)
790.
mvp-comment-461-2
ὁ ἔχων Sc. τὸ νόσημα. Wecklein compares ἔχει,
he is wounded, with reference to the arrow of love. But this is fanciful.
791-792.
mvp-comment-462-1
ἀδίκους.. παρασπᾷς i. e. εἰς ἀδικίαν παρασπᾷς.
Drawest awry to wrong. For this
proleptic use of the adjective, see Essay on Language § 23. P. 39; § 38. p. 71.
792.
mvp-comment-463-1
ἐπὶ λώβᾳ ‘Το their hurt or disgrace.'
794.
mvp-comment-464-1
ξύναιμον is an emphatic epithet added by an afterthought (Essay on Language § 23. p. 38) and by hypallage made to agree with the principal word, although more properly belonging to ἀνδρῶν. (Ibid. § 42. p. 80).
795.
mvp-comment-465-1
νικᾷ δ᾽ ἐναργής i. e. ἐναργής ἐστι νικῶσα.
795.
mvp-comment-465-2
βλεφάρων ἵμερος The modern poet speaks of love as
engendered in the eyes, with gazing fed: the ancients rather spoke of an influence passing from the eye of the beloved (τὸ ἐρωτικὸν ὄμμα, Plat. Phaedr. 253 E) to the soul of the lover. Desire was viewed as an emanation from the object. Hence Plato's account of ἵμερος, Phaedr. 251 Β, C, δεξάμενος γὰρ τοῦ κάλλους τὴν ἀπορροὴν διὰ τῶν ὀμμάτων, ἐθερμάνθη ἢ ἡ τοῦ πτεροῦ φύσις ἄρδεται .. ὅταν μὲν οὖν βλέπουσα πρὸς τὸ κάλλος, ἐκεῖθεν μέρη ἐπιόντα καὶ ῥέοντα, ἃ δὴ διὰ τοῦτο ἵμερος καλεῖται, δεχομένη ἄρδηταί τε καὶ θερμαίνηται, λωφᾷ τε τῆς ὀδύνης καὶ γέγηθεν. This ancient conception, which had a root in language as well as in philosophy, is reflected even in Milton, L'Allegro, 1. 121,
With store of ladies, whose bright eyes | Rain influence, though in this case probably with a further allusion to astrology.
796-799.
mvp-comment-466-1
τῶν .. θεσμῶν
In the counsels of princes holding an equal place with the majesty of law. This seems the best way of taking these words, which have been variously interpreted; e.g.
Equal to the laws in power. 'Assessor in the authority of the laws, etc. There is an allusion to Haemon, who, though a prince, has been led to disobey his father, and to disregard the edict of the king. Cp. Hdt. 4. 165, ἐν βουλῇ παρίζουσα. The resolution of the arsis in πάρεδρος is extremely unusual; see Christ's Metrik, § 178; and Arndt suggested ξύνθρονος ἀρχαῖς, 'Assessor with the rule of majesticlaw. But qy. πάρεδρος *ἀρχαῖς, with "πέφευγεν οὐδείς in 786 ff.? (IILUCCICII).
800.
mvp-comment-467-1
Wecklein finds here an oxymoron, turning on the opposition of μάχη and παιδιά.
She is resistless, though sport is her only weapon. But this is doubtful.
804.
mvp-comment-468-1
παγκοίταν.. θάλαμον
The chamber where all must lie. The implied contrast between the fate of Antigone and her intended bridal recurs repeatedly throughout the latter part of the play. Supr. 575, Ἅιδης ὁ παύσων τούσδε τοὺς γάμους γάμ ἔφυ: infr. 891, νυμφεῖον : 1205, νυμφεῖον" Αιδου κοίλον.
806-802.
mvp-comment-469-1
Antigone bewails her untimely death, and the chorus attempt to console her by pointing to the singularity of her end. She quotes the example of Niobe, who was encrusted with rock.
But Niobe, rejoin the chorus,
was a Divine Being. Then the maiden bursts into a cry against such vain comfort, and appeals to the forms of nature around Thebes to bear witness to the strangeness of her fate. The tone of the chorus changes to admonition.
Thou hast offended against the majesty of law. Some curse, inherited from thy sire, must have led thee on. At last they have touched her, but it is only to aggravate her sorrow. Dire indeed had been the curse upon her parents; and now she is going to be with them, having never tasted any joy. Her brother's seeming success in marriage had been death to him and to her. The chorus reiterate that piety towards her brother should have yielded to authority.
Selfwill has been thy ruin. Antigone: 'Friendless, unmourned, uncomforted, I leave the holy light of day. I die unmarried, and no one weeps for me.'
806-802.
mvp-comment-469-2
The metres in this commos, ll. 806-833, chiefly logaoedic. and for the most part glyconic, are as follows:- α΄. 806-816, 823-833. 805 luclu IIC1CCI II1CCIC ―トしかしCICLL Anapaests of cho. 817-822, 834-837- β'. Second strophe and antistrophe. 51IC (トートートートー ICCICII にかくCIトトに CICLC- トトロー CCLCICIC 15010し! 이기 5- ἐπ. } Iambic. ひトしレトCCICI- 51110CIRKIICCI CICCー トリート ―トしーしトー
806-802.
mvp-comment-469-3
The effect produced by the epitrite rhythm in a' 9. β΄ 8, ἐπ. 5, and of the spondees in ß' 6, is especially noticeable.
808.
mvp-comment-470-1
νέατον is an adjective. See on Ο. Τ. 155.
810.
mvp-comment-471-1
κοὔποτ᾽ αὖθις Sc. ὄψομαι φέγγος ἀελίου.
810.
mvp-comment-471-2
παγκοίτας is here active='That seals up all in rest.' Essay on Language pp. 98, 101. The metre suggests πάγκοιτος, cp. infr. 828, the corresponding line of the antistrophe.
812-813.
mvp-comment-472-1
Ἀχέροντος ἀκτάν Hom. Od. 10. 509, ἔνθ᾽ ἀκτή τε λάχεια: ib. 513, ἔνθα μὲν εἰς Ἀχέροντα πυριφλεγέθων τε ῥέουσι, κ.τ.λ.
815.
mvp-comment-473-1
*ἐπινύμφειος, which Dindorf has restored for ἐπινυμφίδιος, is more probable than ἐπὶ νυμφείοις, although this appears to be supported by the note of the Scholiast, λείπει θύραις ἢ κοίταις.
816.
mvp-comment-474-1
Ἀχέροντι As other maidens have been wedded to rivers upon the earth.
820.
mvp-comment-475-1
ξιφέων ἐπίχειρα
The wages of the sword; i.e. Death given by the sword.
821.
mvp-comment-476-1
αὐτόνομος The Scholiast explains this, ἰδίοις αὐτῆς νόμοις χρησαμένη. This is not free from ambiguity; but the true meaning is rather
By an ordinance peculiar to your case (ἰδίᾳ τινὶ σεαυτῆς νόμῳ), than
In your independence of law, or
As being a law to yourself. The chorus nowhere speak with admiration of the independent attitude of Antigone, although they secretly sympathize with her pious motive. The word is used with consciousness of the derivation. The νόμος which is peculiar to Antigone is the privilege of a living death.
823.
mvp-comment-477-1
λυγροτάταν
In sorriest plight. Supplementary predicate.
824-825.
mvp-comment-478-1
τὰν Φρυγίαν ξέναν Ταντάλου] Our friend far off in Phrygia, Tantalus' daughter.' Sipylus was placed by some in Phrygia, by others in Lydia. (Strabo, 12. p. 571.) Donaldson well remarks that févar is applied to Niobe,
because she married Amphion, king of Thebes.
828.
mvp-comment-479-1
ὄμβρῳ τακομέναν The conjectural emendation ὄμβροι has been very generally received. But the Highlands of Phrygia are not subject to perpetual showers. It is more natural to think of a snow-capped peak ever running down with moisture from the melting snow. On the general sense thus given to ὄμβρος, see Essay on Language § 52. p. 98.
And as she flows down with moisture, the snow leaves her not, but still she wets the ridges of her neck beneath her tearful brow. The position of T' need cause no difficulty. Essay on Language pp. 65,6. It has been observed that the words ὀφρύς and δειράς are equally applicable to a mountain and to a human being. The subj. of τέγγει is not χιών but ὁ Νιόβα.
834.
mvp-comment-480-1
It is doubtful whether θειογενής οι θεογεννής (= θεογέννητος) should be read for the unmetrical θεογενής.
836.
mvp-comment-481-1
Of the two readings, φθιμένα and φθιμένῳ, both of which are given by L, and were known to the Scholiast, the feminine is more likely to be due to a corrector.
837.
mvp-comment-482-1
The words ζῶσαν καὶ ἔπειτα θανοῦσαν have little point, and being omitted by Aldus (as in A), have never been restored except by Seyffert, who reads μέγα κἀκοῦσαι in l. 836. Those who omit 837, invert the preceding lines for the sake of the paroemiac, and read καίτοι φθιμένῳ τοῖς ἰσοθέοις | ἔγκληρα λαχεῖν μέγ᾽ ἀκοῦσαι. For ἀκοῦσαι,
to have said of one, cp. Phil. 1074, ἀκούσομαι μὲν ὡς ἔφυν οἴκτου πλέως.
840.
mvp-comment-483-1
*οὐλομέναν The conjecture of Martin. οἰχομέναν (Wunder) also deserves to be considered.
842.
mvp-comment-484-1
She first turns from the elders to the city at large; and then, remembering how little sympathy she has had from man, she appeals, like Philoctetes (936 ff.), in a fresh outburst, to the familiar presences' of nature.
843.
mvp-comment-485-1
πολυκτήμονες Thebes was proverbially a wealthy city.
844.
mvp-comment-486-1
ἰώ Here she breaks into a louder cry.
845.
mvp-comment-487-1
ἄλσος The open ground about the city. Cp. Εl. 5, τῆς οἰστροπλῆγος ἄλσος Ἰνάχου κόρης.
847.
mvp-comment-488-1
οἷα, like ὀμοιοτάταν in 832, and λυγροτάταν in 823, is supplementary predicate, and equivalent to an adverb.
851.
mvp-comment-489-1
Hermann (ed. 1839) was contented to read οὔτε βροτοῖσιν οὔτ᾽ ἐν νεκροῖσιν, but remarked that the long anacrusis of the second part of the line, οὔτ᾽ ἐν νεκροῖσιν = γάμων κυρήσας is very rare. Qu βροτοῖς, οὔτε τις ἐν νεκροίσιν? But the original line is probably lost.
852.
mvp-comment-490-1
Advancing to the utmost verge of daring thou didst fall violently, my daughter, against the lofty throne of Right. ἐκτίνεισ Α.
854.
mvp-comment-491-1
βάθρον is here the pedestal on which the image of justice is imagined to rest. Cp. Plat. Phaedr. 254 B, ἰδόντος δὲ τοῦ ἡνιόχου ἡ μνήμη πρὸς τὴν τοῦ κάλλους φύσιν ἠνέχθη. καὶ πάλιν εἶδεν αὐτὴν μετὰ σωφροσύνης ἐν ἁγνῷ βάθρῳ βεβῶσαν, Ο. Τ. 865, νόμοι. . ὑψίποδες.
855.
mvp-comment-492-1
πολύ is allowed to pass by Hermann without comment, but has been more recently called in question, partly on the metrical ground that the line should end with a long syllable.
855.
mvp-comment-492-2
πολύς is certainly no improvement. On the attempt to give special force to such a general word, see Essay on Language § 51. p. 97.
856.
mvp-comment-493-1
But thou art paying some debt of expiation inherited from thy sire.' άθλος is here a task or burden imposed by some higher power, like the labours of Heracles, and is perhaps associated by Sophocles with the derivative ἄθλιος. The combined metaphorical use of ἆθλος and ἐκτίνειν is not too great a stretch of language for Sophocles. Essay on Language p. 105.
857.
mvp-comment-494-1
Thou hast touched my saddest thought, the thrice-told tale of my father's sorrow.' Boeckh has cleared up the difficulties of this passage (1) by showing that οἶκτον harmonizes better with the context than οἶτον or οἶκον, and also gives a construction to πότμου: (2) by tracing the derivation of τριπόλιστον from πολίζω = πολέω, which occurs in the compound avναπολίζω : (3) by rightly explaining the dative Λαβδακίδαισιν. See Essay on Language § 13. p. 19. He also points out that μερίμνας is genitive, because the singular is more forcible, and μέριμναν would have suited the metre equally well. The only remaining doubt is the construction of οἶκτον.
857.
mvp-comment-494-2
ψαύειν may govern the accusative, as appears from 961. But the change from the genitive to the accusative is still to be accounted for. (1) The word ἔψαυσας was chosen with special reference to μερίμνας. ἔλεξας, or some other general word, would have been sufficient if this had not intervened. Hence the general meaning of the verb (= ἔλεξας) is alone continued. (2) The case is partly governed by the verbal notion in μερίμνας = 8 μεριμνῶ. (3) The tendency of a Greek sentence is to pass from a more special to a more general construction. Essay on Language pp. 64, 5, οἶκτον is to be resumed with πότμου, which is co-ordinate with πατρός.
Thou hast harped on what my mind broods over with saddest care, the thrice renewed pity for my father, and for the general fortune of our race, the lot that fell upon the famed Labdacidae. Seyffert thinks that in τριπόλιστον Antigone is thinking of her own ever-deepening grief. But the Scholiast and Boeckh are probably right in explaining the word (like κλεινοῖς) with reference to the widely felt compassion for Oedipus. Cp. O. C. 517, τό τοι πολὺ καὶ μηδαμὰ λῆγον: ib. 597, πᾶς τοῦτό γ' Ἑλλήνων θροεῖ. For τριπόλιστον, cp. Phil. 1238, δὶς ταὐτὰ βούλει καὶ τρὶς ἀναπολεῖν μ' ἔπη.
861.
mvp-comment-495-1
κλεινοῖς is said with bitterness, as in O. T. 1207, κλεινὸν Οἰδίπου κάρα. The dative is used in explanation of ἁμετέρου, Ist as clearer than the genitive with so many genitives preceding; 2nd with an ethical' force;
the lot that fell on us. 863. O my mother, to whom marriage was calamity, O my hapless father, who in wedlock with a mother, held guilty intercourse with her from whom he came.' ματρῷαι λέκτρων ἆται] ‘My mother's calamity in marriage.' λέκτρων is descriptive or distinctive genitive (Essay on Language § 9. p. 12), and the possessive ματρῷαι is joined to λέκτρων ἆται taken as one word. In observing Antigone's tenderness for her mother we are reminded that the plot of the Oedipus Tyrannus was not yet conceived.
865.
mvp-comment-496-1
ματρός is objective genitive, after κοιμήματα = ξυνουσίαι, and also descriptive, like γάμοι τέκνων, Ο. C. 945. For the condensed expression κοιμήματά τ᾿ αὐτογέννητ᾽ = τὸ κοιμηθῆναι σὺν ταύτῃ ἐξ ἧς αὐτὸς ἐγεννήθη, see Essay on Language § 43. p. 81, and for the force of αὐτός in composition, ibid. p. 101. The dative ἐμῷ πατρί (Ε. on L. § 13. p. 19, see on l. 861) is occasioned by the adjective; i. e. αὐτογέννητ᾽ ἦν αὐτῷ τὰ κοιμήματα. The nature of constructions in such condensed expressions can only be explained by expanding each phrase into a sentence. The meaning of the passive verbal termination in αὐτογέννητα is extremely indefinite. The other way of taking the words ('Connubium dicit Jocastae cum Oedipo quem ipsa pepererat,' Dind.), although giving a more obvious construction to the dative, has the fatal blemish of making a twofold apostrophe to Jocasta, whereas οἵων implies a reference to both parents, which is much more forcible.
865.
mvp-comment-496-2
The Laur. reading δυσμόρῳ is preferable, because of the peculiar significance of κοιμήματα ματρός.
866.
mvp-comment-497-1
οἴων is to be immediately referred to κοιμήματα,
Such wedlock as gave me birth.
868.
mvp-comment-498-1
μέτοικος may possibly have the association of an alien,' because she could not expect to meet with proper burial. But for the generalised meaning of μέτοικος, cp. supr. 852: О. С. 934: infr. 890, μετοικίας.
872-875.
mvp-comment-499-1
There is some piety in pious action; but, as towards him who wieldeth it, authority must in no wise be transgressed. A self-determined impulse hath undone thee.' Cp. Phil. 138, τέχνα γὰρ τέχνας ἑτέρας προὔχει | καὶ γνώμα παρ' ὅτῳ τὸ θεῖον | Διὸς σκῆπτρον ἀνάσσεται, where there is a similar ellipse of the antecedent. The meaning is,
He who has authority must not suffer authority to be thwarted. This may be made clearer by supplying ἐκείνῳ, as dative of the person interested, for the antecedent to ὅτῳ.
He must not have it (i.e. suffer it to be) transgressed.
877.
mvp-comment-500-1
Unhappy, I am led the way that is here prepared for me.' Creon has already entered before these words are said. Cp. infr. 933-934. Mm
883.
mvp-comment-501-1
ἀοιδὰς .. πρὸ τοῦ θανεῖν Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1444-1445, ἡ δέ τοι κύκνου δί· κην | τὸν ὕστατον μέλψασα θανάσιμον γόον | κεῖται φιλήτωρ τοῦδε.
884.
mvp-comment-502-1
εἰ χρείη
If it were allowed. Ср. О. Т. 1110, εἰ χρή τι κἀμὲ μὴ συναλλάξαντά πω, | πρέσβυ, σταθμᾶσθαι: Ο. C. 1711, πῶς με χρὴ τὸ σὸν τάλαιναν ἀφανίσαι τοσόνδ' ἄχος. This modified use of χρή =
One is to, not One must,' is only possible in hypothetical or interrogative sentences.
887.
mvp-comment-503-1
ἄφετε This is on the whole more probable than ἄπιτε. The change from the future with οὐκ to the imperative has probably occasioned the corruption of the text.
887.
mvp-comment-503-2
χρή This the Scholiast explained by χρήσει, i. e. he read χρῇ. And this is necessary, if τυμβεύειν is read in 888. But τυμβεύσει, the reading of Triclinius, is supported by τυμβεύει in AV³.
Whether she must die there, or shall live a buried life in that dark cell. For εἰ .. χρή, cp. Εl. 399, πεσούμεθ', εἰ χρή, πατρὶ τιμωρούμενοι. And for τυμβεύσει, see Essay on Language p. 64 b. The intransitive use of τυμβεύειν occurs nowhere else.
889.
mvp-comment-504-1
Creon claims to be pure from the blood of Antigone, because he has altered the doom of stoning (1. 36) to that of immurement, and because of the modicum of food that is to be shut in with her, ὡς ἄγος (1. 775).
890.
mvp-comment-505-1
'At all events she shall no longer share the right of dwelling with us in the light of day.'
891-892.
mvp-comment-506-1
'O cavernous abode of long imprisonment, at once my bridal-chamber and my tomb.'
896.
mvp-comment-507-1
πρὶν .. βίου 'Before my allotted portion of life is spent.' Cp. Il. 4. 170, μοῖραν ἀναπλήσῃς βιότοιο. For ἐξήκειν, cp. Τr. 147, ἀλλ᾽ ἡδοναῖς ἄμοχθον ἐξαίρει βίον | ἐς τοῦθ', ἕως ἄν, κ.τ.λ.
897.
mvp-comment-508-1
κάρτ᾽ ἐν ἐλπίσιν τρέφω
I do cherish it amongst my hopes.
899.
mvp-comment-509-1
κασίγνητον κάρα This must be addressed to Polynices, who is most in the thoughts of the spectators, and is again invoked in the same words in 1.915: not to Eteocles, of whose burial Antigone only knew by hearsay, supr. 23 ff. The difficulty of reconciling this with the following lines has been adduced as one of several reasons for rejecting the passage from l. 900 to l. 928 in whole or in part. The lines 905-912 are apt to appear to modern readers, as they did to Goethe, a blemish in a place which might have been expected to be most carefully finished. The saying, which Herodotus, 3. 119, attributes almost in the same terms to the wife of Intaphernes, would seem from this to have had a wide currency in Ionia-for it is a precarious supposition that either author derived it from the other-and fell in with the natural tendency of Greek life to exalt the bond of brotherhood above all other ties of affection and kindred. The general feeling of the speech is well traced by Seyffert. Antigone, when brought face to face with death, in utter isolation from human sympathy, comes down from the lofty tone she had assumed in her first answer to Creon, and recognizes the simple fact that it was the strength of her affection which impelled her to defy the law. Her love for Poly- nices was wonderful, passing the love that could be felt for a husband or a child. She dilates on this and justifies it by a primitive sophism, which the passage of Herodotus cited above shows to be more in the spirit of the time of Sophocles or of the age preceding him than of any later period. If the Antigone is the earliest of the seven plays (see Introduction), we need not be surprised by an archaism of thought which is much less remarkable than several which occur in Aeschylus. In an early English ballad, called the Douglas Tragedy, a woman interceding for the life of her father, whom her lover would slay, gives the following reason :-'True lovers I can get many a one, | But a father I'll never get more.'
900-901.
mvp-comment-510-1
In these lines she is thinking of her father and mother. The libation only had been given to Polynices, who is specially mentioned in the following line. Ll. 900, I could not have been written after O. C. 1756 ff.
903.
mvp-comment-511-1
περιστέλλουσα Decking for burial,' and SO also
protecting from insult. 904.
And certainly those who consider rightly will say I did honour thee. For the dative, see Essay on Language § 13. p. 19. Others take e with ἐτίμησα, but for the stress, it was a real honour,'-cp. the emphatic use of ἄνηρ, Ο. C. 393, and of ὕβρις, ib. 882.
905.
mvp-comment-512-1
Feeling the incongruity of saying, If I had lost a child, she says,
If I had had children, leaving the further supposition to be implied. Mm2
906.
mvp-comment-513-1
κατθανὼν ἐτήκετο
Had been wasting in death. Cp. 1. 410, μυδῶν τε σῶμα γυμνώσαντες εὖ.
907.
mvp-comment-514-1
βίᾳ πολιτών Cp. supr. 74, 5. Creon is the representative of the State, and the elders in supr. 872 ff. have confirmed his sentence. Antigone is throughout perfectly conscious of the nature of her action, and at this moment she sees more clearly than ever the audacity of it. But even after the impulse has subsided she goes resolutely, though sadly, to her fate.
908.
mvp-comment-515-1
νόμου
Principle. Cp. supr. ll. 191, 613.
909.
mvp-comment-516-1
κατθανόντος Sc. τοῦ πόσεως.
910.
mvp-comment-517-1
τοῦδε τοῦ παιδός.
912.
mvp-comment-518-1
οὐκ ἔστ᾿ .. ποτέ Although not strictly logical, this is much more touching and expressive than οὐκ ἔσθ' ὅπως ἀδελφὸς ἂν βλάστοι ποτέ, which it has been proposed to substitute here.
916.
mvp-comment-519-1
διὰ χερῶν .. λαβών διά lit. =
Between. Cp. διαλαμβάνω in Hdt., e.g. 1. 114, ἐκέλευε αὐτὸν τοὺς ἄλλους παῖδας διαλαβεῖν: Plat. Rep. В. 10. p. 615 Ε, τοὺς μὲν διαλαβόντες ἦγον.
918.
mvp-comment-520-1
παιδείου τροφῆς
The rearing of children. This is censured by Dindorf as unmaidenly: but cp. El. 963-966, καὶ τῶνδε μέντοι μηκέτ᾽ ἐλπίσῃς ὅπως | τεύξει ποτ· οὐ γὰρ ὧδ᾽ ἄβουλός ἐστ᾿ ἀνὴρ | Αἴγισθος, ὥστε σόν ποτ᾿ ἡ κἀμὸν γένος | βλαστεῖν ἐᾶσαι, πημονὴν αὐτῷ σαφή : Eur. Ion 485 ff., ἐμοὶ μὲν πλούτου τε πάρος | βασιλικῶν τ' εἶεν θαλάμων | τροφαὶ κήδειοι κεδνῶν τέκνων, κ.τ.λ. For the active sense of τροφή in the passage last quoted and in the text, see Essay on Language $ 53. p. 98, and cp. El. 1143 ff., οἴμοι τάλαινα τῆς ἐμῆς πάλαι τροφῆς | ἀνωφελήτου, τὴν ἐγὼ θάμ᾽ ἀμφί σοι | πόνῳ γλυκεῖ πάρεσχον.
919.
mvp-comment-521-1
ἔρημος πρὸς φίλων For the redundant preposition, see Essay on Language §19. p. 28.
920.
mvp-comment-522-1
θανάτων, which occurs only in L and M³, is very unlikely to have been changed to θανόντων in the Byzantine period. The latter is therefore probably the authentic reading, and not merely due to conjecture.
921-922.
mvp-comment-523-1
ποίαν..; τί χρή ..; The suddenness of these transitions is very expressive of the agitation of Antigone's mind. Her fate leads her even to doubt the providence of the gods, but not to admit that she has done wrong. She will make the admission when death has taught it her, but not before. If her judges are wrong they will suffer too.
922-923.
mvp-comment-524-1
ἐς θεοὺς .. βλέπειν Cp. El. 925, μηδὲν ἐς κεῖνόν γ᾽ ὅρα.
923.
mvp-comment-525-1
ξυμμάχων ; The partitive genitive expresses with greater emphasis what might have been expressed by the accusative.
923.
mvp-comment-525-2
ἐπεί γε δή The momentary doubt about the vindication of right in the world heightens the tragic effect. Cp. Phil. 428, τί δῆτα δεῖ σκοπεῖν; ib. 451, 2, ποῦ χρὴ τίθεσθαι ταῦτα, ποῦ δ᾽ αἰνεῖν, ὅταν | τὰ θεῖ᾽ ἐπαινῶν, τοὺς θεοὺς εὕρω κακούς; Trach. 1266: Aj. 950 ff.
924.
mvp-comment-526-1
τὴν δυσσέβειαν The vice of impiety is confused with the blame of impiety, just as ἀρετή sometimes means a reputation for virtue. Cp. Phil. 1443, ἡ γὰρ εὐσέβεια συνθνήσκει βροτοῖς. Εςsay on L. p. 95.
925.
mvp-comment-527-1
If, after all, this course of theirs is approved in heaven, when I have suffered I suppose I shall acknowledge my fault. The emphatic position of παθόντες implies, After I have suffered, but not before.' K εγ
927.
mvp-comment-528-1
μὴ πλείω κακὰ | πάθοιεν This has actually been interpreted as a prayer of Antigone for her enemies. Others explain it as a warning to them
Let them see to it that they do not suffer more. The real meaning is, that she cannot imprecate heavier sufferings on them than they are inflicting on her.
Let them suffer, I will not say more, but the same evils which they unrighteously inflict on me. For a curse, similarly half-checked in utterance, with μή. cp. Phil. 961, ὅλοιο μή πω, πρὶν μάθοιμ᾽ εἰ καὶ πάλιν | γνώμην μετοίσεις. To translate this
Mayest thou not perish yet, would be a similar mistake to that which has caused the difficulty about the present passage. It is true, however, that Antigone's tone is rather that of one who judges, than of one who condescends to ban her enemies.
927.
mvp-comment-528-2
οἴδε Sc. οἱ πολίται. See above, 1.907 and note.
929-930.
mvp-comment-529-1
For the addition of αὑταί, see Essay on Language § 40. p. 75, 2, and for ψυχῆς, which is added to soften the metaphor (since the chorus are less bold in an anapaestic than in a purely lyric passage, supr. 137), see ib. 5.
930.
mvp-comment-530-1
τήνδε γ' γε gives a natural emphasis to τήνδε, and there is no ground for the conjecture τήνδ' ἐπέχουσιν.
931.
mvp-comment-531-1
τούτων, which is genitive of the cause, is not likely to have been interpolated. It is more probable that the second τοι arose from διττογραφία.
933-934.
mvp-comment-532-1
θανάτου ἀφίκται
This word is nearest death of all that have come. Cp. Thuc. 3. 59, χαλεπώτατον τοῖς ὧδε ἔχουσι λόγου τελευτᾶν, διότι καὶ τοῦ βίου ὁ κίνδυνος ἐγγὺς μετ᾿ αὐτοῦ. The adverb of place is supplementary predicate; see Essay on Language § 24. p. 40. 935-936. μὴ οὐ follows the rule laid down in Essay on Language § 29. p. 49, 3 a. Böckh and Dindorf, taking a hint from the Scholia, give these lines to the chorus, on the ground that Creon has already withdrawn all hope. But the word κατακυροῦσθαι is characteristic of Creon, who may be thought not unlikely, even superfluously. to have made this final assertion of his will.
938.
mvp-comment-533-1
θεοὶ προγενεῖς
My divine ancestry, including Cadmus and Harmonia, and their parents. Cp. supr. 199, θεοὺς τοὺς ἐγγενεῖς, and note: Hdt. 2.143, Ἑκαταίῳ . . ἀναδήσαντι τὴν πατριὴν εἰς ἑκκαιδέκατον θεών.
940.
mvp-comment-534-1
O royal line of Thebè!' This has usually been explained as an address to the chorus. But Antigone expects no more sympathy from them (least of all if ll. 935-936 are rightly given to the chorus). It is rather an apostrophe to the members of the princely family living and dead, including the θεοὶ προγενεῖς. Cp. Aesch. Cho. 800-802, οἱ τ' ἔσω δωμάτων πλουτογαθῆ μυχὸν νομίζετε | κλῦτε, σύμφρονες θεοί.
941.
mvp-comment-535-1
*βασιλειδᾶν is Seyffert's ingenious emendation, based on Hesychius' βασιλείδης· ὁ τοῦ βασιλέως. Ismene is throughout only thought of as a foil for Antigone, and there is no more impropriety in Antigone speaking of herself as the last of her race than in the chorus (supr. 599 ff.) singing of the extinction of the light that was spreading over the last remaining shoot of the Labdacidae.
942.
mvp-comment-536-1
πρὸς οἴων ἀνδρῶν As a princess, she speaks with scorn of Creon, who is not of royal birth. The words may also contain an allusion to the ἦθος of his (or the chorus'?) last speech.
944-987.
mvp-comment-537-1
The chorus, in the manner of Pindar, moralise on the fate of Antigone through examples drawn from the circle of mythology and legend; and thus suggest the same cold comfort as in their mention of Niobe. The effect of this ode is to repress the excitement and solemnize the thoughts of the spectator. 'Danaë, though of royal lineage, and entrusted with the golden shower, was bound by all-constraining destiny in her brazen cell. 'Bound, too, in a prison of rock, was Lycurgus, who provoked the God. He knew his madness when it was too late.
And on the Thracian promontory Phineus sons, blinded by their father's wife (Idothea), bewailed their rejected mother Cleopatra's hapless lot, who, descended from an ancient line, and endowed with swiftness by her divine sire, was notwithstanding overtaken by the long-lived fates.' Danae and Cleopatra were, like Antigone, of royal birth, and, like Antigone, were bound in a living tomb. So also was the son of Dryas, himself a king: and this, in his case, was the penalty of an impetuous and defiant spirit. Sophocles seems to have followed one version of the obscure and variable legend of Phineus, according to which Cleopatra did not die, but was rejected by Phineus for Idothea, and imprisoned in a cave, from which she was afterwards released by Heracles. The sons were blinded by their step-mother. The first strophe and antistrophe are choriambic with an iambic close; the second, logaoedic. The choriambi here were probably chanted slowly, so as to have a weighty, solemn effect. The scheme is as follows: a'. First strophe and antistrophe. IILUCI LUCILー LUCILIITUCICートに IICClluclトー IIICCILUCIトに ICICICI KLCICICI CトートUICIK β'. Second strophe and antistrophe. UCCTCCICCI IICCICCII!یں ILU TUCI くいくいトCICIK Cトートしーーー ―トビトCICIK CÚCCICICICC
944.
mvp-comment-538-1
φῶς | ἀλλάξαι 'Το exchange the light' (for gloom), i. e. To lose the light. Cp. Phil. 1262, ἀμείψας ..
944.
mvp-comment-538-2
στέγας.
945.
mvp-comment-539-1
δέμας
Form. This word reminds us of the beauty of Danaë, which increased the pathos of her fate.
945.
mvp-comment-539-2
ἐν χαλκοδέτοις αὐλαῖς
In a brassbound room. The compound of δέω merely suggests the general notion of confinement (Essay on Language § 55. 3, p. 101), and has nothing to do with the riveting of brazen plates to the walls.
949.
mvp-comment-540-1
γενεᾷ τίμιος Because descended from Danaus the grandson of Poseidon.
951.
mvp-comment-541-1
ὁ μοιριδία τις δύνασις
The mysterious power of fate. For the combination of the article and indefinite pronoun, see Essay on Language § 22. p. 36.
952.
mvp-comment-542-1
*ὄλβος is Erfurdt's ingenious and probable correction of ὄμβρος. He compares Bacchylides ap. Stob. Ecl. Phys. 1. 166, θνατοῖσι δ᾽ οὐκ αὐθαίρετοι | οὔτ᾽ ὄλβος οὔτ᾽ ἀκάματος Ἄρης οὔτε πάμφθερσις στάσις.
953.
mvp-comment-543-1
Cp. Hor. Od. 2. 16, 21,
Scandit aeratas vitiosa naves | Cura.
ἁλίκτυποι is passive:
Sea-beaten.
954.
mvp-comment-544-1
κελαιναί The Epic νῆες μέλαιναι: i. e. Looking dark against the sea and sky.
955-957.
mvp-comment-545-1
The punishment of Lycurgus was the subject of an Aeschylean trilogy. It was variously related. Sophocles chooses the version of the story that suits his purpose. For the earliest description of the crime, see Il. 6. 130-140.
955.
mvp-comment-546-1
ζεύχθη resumes κατεζεύχθη, supr. 947.
955.
mvp-comment-546-2
ὀξύχολος The very probable conjecture of Scaliger for ὀξυχόλως.
955.
mvp-comment-546-3
παῖς ὁ Δρύαντος So Pind. O1. 8. 31, παῖς ὁ Λατούς.
956.
mvp-comment-547-1
κερτομίοις όργαῖς Dative of the cause.
957.
mvp-comment-548-1
ἐκ Διονύσου
By the will of Dionysus. Cp. infr. 1219.
958-961.
mvp-comment-549-1
So dire is the excess of rage that flows from madness. He learned at length that it was in madness that he provoked the God with biting speech.' The emphatic reivos applies the γνώμη to the case of Lycurgus. There is a stress on μανίαις.
959.
mvp-comment-550-1
τᾶς μανίας Genitive of derivation, partly governed by ἀπό in comp.
959.
mvp-comment-550-2
ἀποστάζει For the metaphorical use, cp. Aesch. Ag. 178, στάζει ἐν θ᾽ ὕπνῳ πρὸ καρδίας | μνησιπήμων πόνος. Others render,
trickles away, i.e. comes to nought. But οὕτω is more naturally joined with the adjectives, whose position shows that they are emphatic, than with the verb.
960.
mvp-comment-551-1
ἀνθηρόν 'Blooming, and so reaching its height: cp. Tr. 1089, ἤνθηκεν, ἐξώρμηκεν.
A fury so over-powering, i.e. Leading inevitably to such calamitous issues.
960.
mvp-comment-551-2
ἐπέγνω
He recognised afterwards, i.e. when punished.
960.
mvp-comment-551-3
μανίαις Dative of manner, expressing the predicate, quasi ἐν μανίαις. Essay on Language $ 14. pp. 20, 21. The v. r. μανίας (acc. plur.) is not so good.
961.
mvp-comment-552-1
ψαύων In the rather unusual sense of Tempting, Provoking' (= έρε θίζων, cp. καθάπτεσθαι), and hence used, πρὸς τὸ σημαινόμενον, with the accusative. For the language of this passage, cp. Plat. Polit. 310 D, ἐξανθεῖν παντάπασι μανίαις: ib. 273 D, τελευτώντος δ᾽ ἐξανθεῖ τοῦ χρόνου : Legg. 6. 783 Α, διαπυρωτάτους . . μανίαις : ib. 9. 881 Β, μὴ μανίαις ἐχόμενος. And for the construction of κεῖνος.. θεόν, cp. Pind. Pyth. 8. 12, τὰν οὐδὲ Πορφυρίων μάθεν παρ' αἶσαν ἐξερεθίζων. For ἐν, of the instrument, see Essay on Language § 19. p. 27.
964.
mvp-comment-553-1
The Bacchic fire,' i.e. The lighted torches of the Bacchanalian rout. Cp. O. T. 214: Eurip. Bacch. 146.
965.
mvp-comment-554-1
Μούσας
Inter Bacchi comites a Diodoro 4. 4, recensentur Musae.
(Musgrave.) They are associated by Plato in the Laws, B. 2, p. 672 C. The Muses are here lovers of the flute, i.e. of the Phrygian orgiastic music.
966-968.
mvp-comment-555-1
And hard by Cyanean rocks that divide the seas, are the cliffs of the Bosphorus and the Thracian promontory of Salmydessus, where,' etc. The genitive gives indefiniteness to the notion of place, and παρά implies neighbouring extent.
966.
mvp-comment-556-1
πελαγέων, see v. rr., although metrically allowable (πελᾶγεων), is condemned by the vagueness of the meaning and the tautology in πελαγέων .. ἁλός. The ingenious conjecture of Wieseler is therefore adopted. It is confirmed by the gloss πετρῶν. The 1st syllable of Ἄρης is long in arsi supr. 139.
969.
mvp-comment-557-1
The lost cretic has been differently supplied: ἄξevos Boeckh, ήτων Meineke. A verb is more wanted, e. g.
969.
mvp-comment-557-2
ἵσταται, κλήζεται.
970.
mvp-comment-558-1
ἀγχίπτολις Ἄρης This can only mean
The War-god whose temple is near the city (of Salmydessus). Cp. Aesch. S. c. T. 501. The details of the legend as accepted by Sophocles are unknown to us, and hence we can hardly judge of the appropriateness of the epithet. The Thracian worship of Ares is well known.
971.
mvp-comment-559-1
δισσοῖσι Φινεΐδαις Dative of direct reference depending on τυφλωθέν. Essay on Language § 12. p. 18.
972.
mvp-comment-560-1
ἀρατόν
Accursed; i.e. Bringing a curse on Phineus and Idothea.
972.
mvp-comment-560-2
ἕλκος τυφλωθέν. The blinding wound inflicted.' The 'cognate verb᾽ τυφλωθέν is substituted for ποιηθέν or the like. Essay on Language § 17. p. 25, c.
973.
mvp-comment-561-1
ἐξ ἀγρίας δάμαρτος For the preposition, see Essay on Language $ 19. p. 28, 2.
973.
mvp-comment-561-2
δάμαρτος Idothea, who had been made the wife of Phineus through the repudiation of Cleopatra. 974- ἀλαὸν ἀλαστόροισιν ὀμμάτων κύκλοις] Sightless (i. e. producing blindness) on the vengeful orbits of their eyes. For the causative use of ἀλαόν, see Essay on Language §. 53. p. 98.
973.
mvp-comment-561-3
ἀλαστόροισιν Bringing vengeance,' i. e. Pleading successfully though silently for retribution. The dative is partly dative of place and partly of direct reference.
Causing blindness in or to the eyes.
975.
mvp-comment-562-1
*ἀραχθέντων Lachmann's conjecture for ἀραχθὲν ἐγχέων.
When they were smitten. Another is ἄτερθ' ἐγχέων.
976.
mvp-comment-563-1
κερκίδων ἀκμαῖσιν A woman's weapon. The shuttle was sharpened at the point, so as to be inserted between the threads, in order to regulate the density of the web. This process was called κερκίζειν, and the art is named by Plato κερκιστική. Plat. Polit. 282 B, C: Sophist. 226 B: Crat. 388 A.
980.
mvp-comment-564-1
κλαῖον ματρός, | ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν This punctuation is preferred to κλαῖον, ματρὸς ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν, simply because the fate of Cleopatra, and not that of the Phineidae, is the chief point of the illustration.
980.
mvp-comment-564-2
ἔχοντες ἀνύμφευτον γονάν
Having a birth not honoured by wedlock: because their mother's marriage was repudiated, and their legitimacy was therefore not acknowledged. Note the repetition of γονά γονάν in a different sense after yovás in 950.
981.
mvp-comment-565-1
And she in lineage reached even unto the ancient race of the Erechtheidae.' Because her mother Orithyia, whom Boreas rapt from the Ilissus (Plat. Phaedr. 229 B), was a daughter of Erechtheus. Qy. ἀρχαιογενήτων?
983.
mvp-comment-566-1
τηλεπόροις δ᾽ ἐν ἄντροις The exact meaning of the compound epithet is doubtful. Either (1) Far-piercing,' i. e. Extending far into the mountainside: or (2)
Distant, the second part of the epithet being redundant, or merely repeating the notion of a hollow passage implied in ἄντροις, i.e. δι' ὧν τηλόσε πορευόμεθα.
985.
mvp-comment-567-1
Βορεὰς ἅμιππος Cp. Ο. Τ. 466, and note. And for ἅμα, Hom. Il. 19.415.
Keeping pace with the steed over the steep path of the hill. On the compounds of πούς, see Essay on Language $55. p. 101. ὀρθόπους is literally
Raising the foot upright. The second part of the compound is subordinated, but in this connection must have reference to the foot of the climber, and not to the foot of the hill. The words ὀρθόποδος ὑπὲρ πάγου are in construction with the verbal notion in ἅμιππος, sc.
985.
mvp-comment-567-2
ἅμα ταῖς ἵπποις τρέχειν δυναμένη.
986-987.
mvp-comment-568-1
ἀλλὰ κἀπ᾿ ἐκείνᾳ .. ἔσχον
But even on her the long-lived fates laid hold. Cp. Hom. Il. 21. 110, ἀλλ᾿ ἔπι τοι καὶ ἐμοὶ θάνατος καὶ μοῖρα κραταιή. ἐπέχειν is
To extend to, and the tmesis gives the preposition a fresh construction with the dative.
The Fates are ever-living, and therefore can afford to bide their time.
987.
mvp-comment-569-1
ὦ παῖ Antigone is apostrophized after her departure, like Oedipus in Ο. C. 1567, πάλιν σε δαίμων δίκαιος αὔξοι. 988, foll. The coming of Teiresias is the beginning of the περιπέτεια,
The change in the spirit of Creon's
dream. The external marks of the prophet are noticed more prominently than in the Oedipus Tyrannus. Cp. especially 998-990, with O. T. 371, τυφλὸς τὰ τ᾽ ὦτα, κ.τ.λ., and 444, καὶ σύ, παῖ, κόμιζέ με: 992-995, with Ο. Τ. 436, γονεῦσι δ', οἵ σ᾽ ἔφυσαν, ἔμφρονες. The figure of the blind prophet is more ideal in the Oedipus Tyrannus, and the peculiarity of his position is brought out, in a higher mode of art, with one or two light touches. On the other hand, his sudden and unlooked-for coming suits exactly with the purpose of this drama and the person of Creon.
990.
mvp-comment-570-1
αὕτη Essay on Language § 22, p. 35.
992.
mvp-comment-571-1
The authority of
the seer is here simply asserted and acknowledged. Cp. 1053. In the Oedipus Tyrannus he appears with still higher claims, as a prince, whose honours are guarded by his lord Apollo.
993-994.
mvp-comment-572-1
οὔκουν .. ἀπεστάτουν .. ναυκληρεῖς]
I have not aforetime departed. ..'You have guided, and still guide.' Cp. Tr. 600, 601. The conjecture ένανκλήρεις is no improvement. The present means,
You have hitherto guided safely, and this is not inconsistent with what follows. Cp. Aesch. Agam. 1, αἰτῶ,
I have been asking.
994.
mvp-comment-573-1
δι᾽ ὀρθῆς Sc. κελεύθου.
On a safe and successful course.
995.
mvp-comment-574-1
I have experienced benefits, and can bear witness of them. Essay on Language §36. p. 66. There is perhaps an allusion here to the sacrifice of Megareus, which was prompted by the prophecy of Teiresias. But cp. 1058 and note.
996.
mvp-comment-575-1
φρόνει, κ.τ.λ. (1)
Beware once more, as thou standest now upon an edge of peril. The participle is not to be construed with the verb, but is in apposition to the subject. For φρονεῖν absolute, cp. O. T. 617, φρονεῖν γὰρ οἱ ταχεῖς οὐκ ἀσφαλεῖς : ib. 649, πιθοῦ θελήσας φρονήσας τ', ἄναξ, λίσσομαι. Otherwise (2) Know that now again thou standest,' etc. Cp. Trach. 289, φρόνει νιν ὡς ἥξοντα: Phil. 810, σαφῶς φρόνει. The expression ἐπὶ ξυροῦ is proverbial: cp. Il. 10. 173: Eur. H. F. 630.
997.
mvp-comment-576-1
ὡς .. στόμα
How I shudder at thy speech. ὡs as in l. 82, ὡς ὑπερδέδοικά σου. στόμα has the association of privileged, prophetic utterance, as in Ο. Τ. 426, τοὐμὸν στόμα.
999.
mvp-comment-577-1
The οἰωνοσκοπεῖον of Teiresias was shown at Thebes in the time of Pausanias: Paus. 9. 16.
999.
mvp-comment-577-2
παλαιόν i. e. consecrated by use from early times.
1000.
mvp-comment-578-1
ἵν'.. λιμήν
Where I had harbourage for every ominous bird. Essay on Language § 58. p. 105.
1002.
mvp-comment-579-1
κλάζοντας Accusative πρὸς τὸ σημαινόμενον, as if ὄρνιθας ἄγνωτα φθεγγομένους had preceded.
1002.
mvp-comment-579-2
βεβαρβαρωμένῳ Rendered unintelligible,'
Confused. 1003. iv, of the instrument. Cp. supra. 1. 961. φοναῖς,
In bloody fray. Dative of manner. Cp. supra,
l. 960
.
1004.
mvp-comment-580-1
πτερῶν.. ἦν
For the whirring of their wings gave no uncertain sound: although their voices did. 1005 ἐγευόμην] By analogy for ἐπειρώμην, I made trial of the divination by burnt sacrifice,' similar to that used in the temple of Ismenus: O. Τ. 21.
1006.
mvp-comment-581-1
βωμοῖσι παμφλέκτοισιν
At the blazing altar. παν in composition is simply intensive, as in El. 1139: and the epithet is generally descriptive. See Essay on Language § 55. p. 101.
1006.
mvp-comment-581-2
ἐκ δὲ θυμάτων 'But from the sacrifice the Fire-god refused to gleam; and on the ash a dank humour dripped from the thigh-bones, and fumed and sputtered, and the gall was sprinkled abroad in air, and the thighs wasted and lay bared of their enclosing fat.
1007.
mvp-comment-582-1
For σποδός, cp Ο. Τ. 21: Hdt. 4.35, τῶν μηρίων καταγιζομένων ἐπὶ τῷ βωμῷ τὴν σποδόν.
1009.
mvp-comment-583-1
μετάρσιοι is supplementary predicate. The preposition in ἐξέκειντο is emphatic. Cp. Od. 23. 179, ἔνθα οἱ ἐκθεῖσαι πυκινὸν λέχος: Thuc. 4. 129. § 3. ἔτυχον ἐξεστρατοπεδευμένοι ἔξω τῆς πόλεως.
1010.
mvp-comment-584-1
καταρρυεῖς is explained to mean Flowing down with moisture,' but means rather
Fallen away. Cp. Paus. 10. 2, 6 (L. and S s. ν. καταρρέω 1. 4), νεκροῦ κατερρυηκότος τὰς σάρκας.
1011.
mvp-comment-585-1
The apparently active use of καλυπτῆς comes from καλύπτειν, in the sense of placing as a covering, i. e.
1011.
mvp-comment-585-2
καλύπτειν πιμελὴν μηροῖς. For the meaning, cp. Aesch. Pr. 496, foll., κνισῇ τε κώλα συγκαλυπτά· καὶ μακρὰν | ὀσφὺν πυρώσας, δυστέκμαρτον ἐς τέχνην | ὥδωσα θνητούς· καὶ φλογωπὰ σήματα | ἐξωμμάτωσα, πρόσθεν ὄντ᾽ ἐπάργεμα.
1013.
mvp-comment-586-1
Such failing tokens given by baffling auspices. Lit.
Of victims giving no sign. Cp. Ps. 74. 9.
We see not our signs; there is no more any prophet. φθίνοντα μαντεύματα are not Prophecies of decay,' but
Rites of divination fading away, i. e. losing their virtue. Cp. Ο. Τ. 902, φθίνοντα.. Λαΐου | θέσφατα.
1015.
mvp-comment-587-1
τῆς σῆς ἐκ φρενός
From thy will. Cp. infr. 1063, ὡς μὴ ᾿μπολήσων ἴσθι τὴν ἐμὴν φρένα.
1016.
mvp-comment-588-1
ἐσχάραι τε παντελεῖς
And all the number of our sacred hearths. παντελεῖς is little more than πᾶσαι, but expresses that the word ἐσχάραι added to βωμοί comprises every consecrated spot in the whole city. Cp. El. 982, ἔν θ᾽ ἑορταῖς ἔν τε πανδήμῳ πόλει.
1017.
mvp-comment-589-1
πλήρεις
Infected. Cp. 1052.
1017.
mvp-comment-589-2
πλήρης = ἀνάπλεως. Cp. infr. 1052: Phil. 1087-1088, ὦ πληρέστατον αὔλιον | λύπας τᾶς ἀπ᾿ ἐμοῦ. For the general notion, cp. Webster, Appius and Virg. p. 165, ed. Dyce,
Come, you birds of death | And fill your greedy cups with human flesh; | Then to the city fly, disgorge it there | Before the senate, and from thence arise | A plague to choke all Rome. Join ὑπὸ .. βορᾶς, not as some edd. πλήρεις.. βορᾶς.
By the act of dogs and birds in feeding, etc. So Ellendt. Cp. infr. 1083.
1021.
mvp-comment-590-1
εὐσήμους
Giving clear augury, opposed to ἄσημος supra 1013.
1021.
mvp-comment-590-2
ἀπορροιβδεῖ
Utters noisily. The word is not strictly applicable to the screaming of birds. But there is the same indefiniteness about words expressing sound as about the names of colours. This word, expressing a confused noise, is probably suggested by l. 1004.
1022.
mvp-comment-591-1
After feeding on the fatness of human carnage.' On the change from singular to plural, see Essay on Language § 36. p. 65.
1025.
mvp-comment-592-1
ἐπεὶ δ᾽ ἁμάρτῃ For ἄν omitted, see Essay on. L. § 27. p. 44.
1026.
mvp-comment-593-1
ἄνολβος here and in Aj. 1156 (τοιαῦτ᾽ ἄνολβον ἄνδρ᾽ ἐνουθέτει παρών) is a word of blame- Infatuated.'
1029.
mvp-comment-594-1
εἶκε τῷ θανόντι
Relent towards the dead.
1030.
mvp-comment-595-1
ἐπικτανεῖν Το slay a second time.' For the meaning of ἐπί, cp.
1030.
mvp-comment-595-2
ἐπεμβάλλω, ἐπιγαμέω, ἐπιπέμπω. For the idea, cp. II. 24. 54: Plat. Rep. 5. 469 D, E. 6 1031. (1)
After careful consideration I speak to you with good heed. εὐ, Carefully,' as in O. T. 308, supr. 410, alib. Or (2) εὖ σοι φρ.,
Meaning well to thee.
1032.
mvp-comment-596-1
εἰ κέρδος λέγοι For the optative, see Essay on Language § 36. p. 61, γ, α (1). φέρει or φέροι seems also to be an early reading.
1034.
mvp-comment-597-1
ἀνδρὸς τοῦδε The genitive as after ἐφίεσθαι and the like words.
1034-1035.
mvp-comment-598-1
κοὐδὲ.. εἰμί
And you practise on me with divination too. By a not infrequent inexactness in the use of the Greek passive voice, from πράττειν κατά τινοs,
To intrigue against a person, would come πράττεσθαι, 'Το be intrigued against,' and hence ἄπρακτος,
Unattempted, Unpractised on, μαντικῆς is gen. of respect after the privative adjective. τὸν πρὸσ σάρδεον Ε. τὸν πρὸ
1035.
mvp-comment-599-1
τῶν *ὑπαὶ γένους
By whose fraternity, sc. τῶν μαντέων. This is Brunck's emendation, which gives better sense than any other that has been proposed. Creon's heated imagination suggests to him that the whole tribe of prophets and diviners (cp. 1055) have greedily marked him for their prey.
1036.
mvp-comment-600-1
I am bartered away long since and turned to gain. Literally, Sold and shipped off. Although ἐμπεφόρτισμαι has the authority of the 1st hand of L, ἐκπεφόρτισμαι is more forcible.
1037.
mvp-comment-601-1
*τἀπό Professor Geddes, in his Problem of the Homeric Poems,' p. 168, note 15, prefers ἤλεκτρος as the form of nominative,
on analogy of other metals, such as χρυσός, etc., which are masculine. But the general opinion is in favour of ἥλεκτρον neuter, and although τὸν πρὸς Σαρδεῶν is not unmetrical, τᾶπό Σαρδέῶν is preferable here in point of rhythm. Granting that ἤλεκτρος is masculine in late Greek, it is unlikely that Herodotus, 3, 115, would write τὸ ἤλεκτρον, and Sophocles here τὸν .. ἤλεκτρον.
1040.
mvp-comment-602-1
βοράν He echoes the word of Teiresias supr. 1017.
1042-1043.
mvp-comment-603-1
οὐ μὴ .. παρήσω The future indicative after οὐ μή, as in O. C. 177, οὗ τοι μήποτέ σ᾽ ἐκ τῶνδ᾽ ἑδράνων, ὦ γέρον, ἄκοντά τις ἄξει : Εl. 1052, οὗ σοι μὴ μεθέψομαί ποτε. Cp. Phil. 612, οὐ μή ποτε | πέρσοιεν. In all these places there may be a slight confusion of two constructions. See Essay on Language § 36. p. 62, and for the slight redundancy of expression, which marks Creon's eagerness, ib. § 40. p. 75.
1044.
mvp-comment-604-1
'There is no power in man to touch the gods with pollution.' Creon's scepticism (cp. Aesch. Ag. 369-372: Plat. Legg. B. 10) anticipates the Epicurean notion of the Divine Nature, which
Nec bene promeritis capitur, neque tangitur ira. Cp. with this and with O. T. 964, foll., Hector's defiance of augury in Il. 12. 237, foll.
1048.
mvp-comment-605-1
The sentence, interrupted by Creon's question, is continued in 1050.
1050.
mvp-comment-606-1
Wherefore? What means this universal doubt?' πάγκοινον refers to ἀνθρώπων τις.
1052.
mvp-comment-607-1
πλήρης
Infected. Cp. supr. 1017.
1054.
mvp-comment-608-1
λέγεις Sc. κακῶς τὸν μάντιν. Essay on Language § 39. p. 73, 6.
1056.
mvp-comment-609-1
τὸ δ᾽ ἐκ τυράννων The mean- ing of the preposition is not to be pressed. It is merely an extension of the familiar metaphor of γένος,
Kind for
Class. Cobet conj. τὸ δέ γε τυράννων. But not to advert to the broken tribrach in the first place, so unlike the earlier manner of Sophocles, the expression is less forcible. It is like the difference between saying
the class of tyrants and
the breed of tyrants in English. Cp. Eur. Hec. 254-255, ἀχάριστον ὑμῶν σπέρμ᾽, ὅσοι δημηγόρους | ζηλοῦτε τιμάς. On the γένεσις of the tyrant, see Ο. Τ. 873, ὕβρις φυτεύει τύραννον.
1057.
mvp-comment-610-1
The accusative ταγούς is in a double construction with λέγεις and λέγων. The construction of the participle is also twofold: i. e. οἶσθα ταγοὺς ὄντας οὓς λέγεις ἃ ἂν λέγῃς.
1058.
mvp-comment-611-1
For you possess this city through saving it by my counsel. ἐξ ἐμοῦ depends partly on ἔχεις and partly on σώσας. The line has been supposed to refer to the self-immolation of the son of Creon by the advice of Teiresias. Eur. Phoen. 918, foll. Cp. supr. 933-935, infr. 1303. But it is not clear that Sophocles has any distinct incident in view. These things are ἔξω τοῦ μυθεύματος, Ar. Poet. 1460 a.
1060.
mvp-comment-612-1
τἀκίνητα .. φράσαι Τo utter what ought not to be mooted even in thought.' 1062. (1) These words are generally interpreted as interrogative.
Do I really seem in what I have already said to do so in regard to you? i. e. You at least are not likely to reward me for my prophecy. And this is on the whole the most pointed way of taking the words. Wecklein understands them to mean, (2) 'Methinks, so far as you are concerned, I do speak so; i. e. My speech will not bring you gain. In the former case (1) τὸ σὸν μέρος ίς τ. σ. μ. τῆς δοκήσεως: in the latter (2) it is τ. σ. μ. τῶν ἀποβησομένων ἐκ τοῦ λόγου.
1063.
mvp-comment-613-1
'I tell thee thou shalt not make traffic of my purposes;' i. e. They shall not be changed so as to bring gain to you, whether it be from me or from others that you look for gain.
1064.
mvp-comment-614-1
μή See Essay on Language § 29. p. 49, с.
1065.
mvp-comment-615-1
τρόχους ἁμιλλητῆρας ἡλίου
Not many swift courses of the sun; i. e. The days will be short, and few. On the condensation of time in this play, see Introduction. Cp. Milton, Sonnet 7. My hasting days fly on with full career: Shakespeare, Sonnet 60,
Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore, | So do our minutes hasten to their end; | Each changing place with that which goes before, In sequent toil all forwards do contend.
1065.
mvp-comment-615-2
τροχούς would mean, 'Not many turns of the sun's chariot wheel.'
1066.
mvp-comment-616-1
ἐν οἷσι The regular construction after the negative would be πρὶν ἀντιδοῦναι: but the sentence takes an affirmative turn, and is continued as if the beginning were ὀλίγαι ἡμέραι ἔσονται .. ἐν ais. Essay on Language § 36. p. 64. Ср. О. С. 617 ff. μυρίας μυρίος | χρόνος τεκνοῦται νύκτας ἡμέρας τ᾿ ἰὼν | ἐν αἷς, κ.τ.λ. δ
1067.
mvp-comment-617-1
νεκρῶν ἀμοιβόν For a kindred fancy, cp. Aesch. Agam. 437, ὁ χρυσαμοιβὸς δ' Ἄρης σωμάτων | καὶ ταλαντοῦχος ἐν μάχῃ δορός, κ.τ.λ.
1068.
mvp-comment-618-1
ἀνθ᾽ ὧν The antecedent is to be gathered from νεκρῶν in l. 1067.
1068.
mvp-comment-618-2
τῶν ἄνω Sc. τινά: i. e. Antigone.
1069.
mvp-comment-619-1
ἀτίμως i. e. εἰς ἀτιμίαν. See Essay on Language § 24. p. 40.
1070.
mvp-comment-620-1
i.e. ἔχεις δὲ αὐ ἐνθάδε, ἄμοιρον τῶν κάτωθεν θεῶν. On the order of words, see Essay on Language pp. 66, 67.
1071.
mvp-comment-621-1
ἀκτέριστον, ἀνόσιον
Without funeral rites, and unsanctified. Cp. Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1. 5,
Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled.
1073.
mvp-comment-622-1
βιάζονται (1) Sc. οἱ ἄνω θεοί, to whom it was an offence to have a dead body intruded into their realm: or, (2) the gods generally, including θεῶν in 1070, as well as θεοῖσιν in 1072. In support of the former interpretation (1), Mr. Evelyn Abbott has adduced Lys. 2. 7, Ἀδράστου δὲ καὶ Πολυνείκους ἐπὶ Θήβας στρατευσάντων καὶ ἡττηθέντων μάχῃ, οὐκ ἐώντων Καδμείων θάπτειν τοὺς νέκρους, Ἀθηναῖοι ἡγησάμενοι ἐκείνους μέν, εἴ τι ἠδίκουν, ἀποθανόντας δίκην ἔχειν τὴν μεγίστην, τοὺς δὲ κάτω τὰ VOL. I. Nn αὑτῶν οὐ κομίζεσθαι, ἱερῶν δὲ μιαινομένων τοὺς ἄνω θεοὺς ἀσεβεῖσθαι, κ.τ.λ.
1078.
mvp-comment-623-1
φανεῖ Sc. ταῦτα, i. e. the truth of 11. 1074-1076.
The cry of men and women in thy halls shall declare it ere long. For φαίνω in this sense, cp. O. C. 721, φαίνειν ἔπη. For the ellipse, οὐ μακροῦ χρόνου τριβή, sc. ἐγγενήσεται πρὶν ἂν φήνῃ αὐτό, cp. supr. 1. 577. This is more probable than the other explanation, which is certainly possible,
A little while will bring forth lamentations, etc. Some MSS. have τριβή, i.e. τριβῇ.
1079.
mvp-comment-624-1
For ἀνδρῶν γυναικῶν, cp. Aristoph. Ran. 157, θιάσους εὐδαίμονας | ἀνδρῶν γυναικῶν.
1080.
mvp-comment-625-1
And all cities are (even now) being stirred up in leagued enmity (to Thebes), whose mangled citizens have found burial in being devoured by dogs, or by wild beasts, or by some winged bird, that bears an unholy savour into a city and its sacred hearths. This is probably intended by Sophocles as a prophecy of the war with the Epigoni, of which the seeds are said to be laid by the abomination of some bird carrying an inauspicious odour home. It is assumed, although not mentioned elsewhere in the play, that the bodies of the allies of Polynices had shared his fate, as there had been no truce for burying the dead. This is part of the legend as appears from the Supplices of Euripides. For the expression, cp. Aesch. S. c. T. 1020, οὕτω πετηνῶν τόνδ' ὑπ᾽ οἰωνῶν δοκεῖ | ταφέντ᾽ ἀτίμως τοὐπι· τίμιον λαβεῖν : Soph. El. 1487, καὶ κτανὼν πρόθες | ταφεῦσιν ὧν τόνδ' εἰκός ἐστι τυγχάνειν: Gorg. ap. Long. 3. 2, γῦπες ἔμψυχοι τάφοι: Shaksp. Macbeth, 3. 4,
Our monuments | Shall be the maws of kites.
The conceit is common with the Elizabethan dramatists. Seyffert's conjecture, ὅσαν τὰ πράγματ' ἢ κύνες καθήγνισαν,
Whose business has been marred with pollution by dogs, etc., is rather pointless, and gives a very doubtful meaning to καθαγνίζειν =
To affect with pollution. It is uncertain whether καθήγνισαν or καθήγισαν is the right word. The latter is somewhat more probable as the Ionic form. Cp. ἁγίζω.
1083.
mvp-comment-626-1
ἑστιοῦχον ἐς πόλιν i. e. Not into the wastes, where such pollution can do no harm, but to a city, where it tends to injure the sacred fire on the public and private hearths, which are the pledge of safety to the citizens. Boeckh objects to the above interpretation of 11. 1080 ff., and supposes them to contain a general maxim pointed at the case of Thebes.
Any state is sure to rise in enmity in which a mangled corse has been devoured, etc.
1084.
mvp-comment-627-1
Such arrows like a bowman have I launched at you in wrath, for you provoke me, arrows that pierce the heart and fasten there, whose smart you will not escape.' He echoes ll. 1033, foll. καρδίας is objective genitive after the verbal notion in τοξεύματα.
1090.
mvp-comment-628-1
τὸν νοῦν.. τῶν φρενῶν
The spirit of his thoughts. Cp. γνώμη φρενῶν, Ο. Τ. 524: infr. 1228, τίνα | νοῦν ἔσχες;
1091.
mvp-comment-629-1
βέβηκε δεινὰ θεσπίσας The stress is on the participle, as in 246 supra, θάψας βέβηκε.
1092-1093.
mvp-comment-630-1
ἐξ ὅτου.. τρίχα
Since I have been crowned with these locks, once dark, which now are white with age. The expression is condensed by prolepsis, so that the phrase λευκὴν ἐκ μελαίνης, which, if the thought had been regularly developed, would have been added in apposition, has the place of an attribute.
1094.
mvp-comment-631-1
μὴ .. λακεῖν μή is preferred to οὐ because of the abstract generality of the statement, which is also the reason of an implied precept not to disobey the seer. Cp supr. 1064 and note.
1096.
mvp-comment-632-1
'But by resistance to bring the stroke of calamity upon one's soul is an alternative which presents a terrible aspect.' ἄτῃ = πρὸς ἄτην. Ε. on L. § II. p. 18. The words ἐν δεινῷ πάρα have been questioned by Nauck, but nothing better has been substituted; and the phrase is supported by the analogy of ἐν καλῷ El. 384, ἐν ὁμοίῳ, Thuc. 2. 53.
1098.
mvp-comment-633-1
Κρέον, the reading of most of the later MSS, is not improbable, λαβεῖν οι λακεῖν of L. having come in accidentally from 1094. λαβεῖν, which Seyffert had conjectured, gives a kind of sense, and so does τάχα of E. But neither is satisfactory. The true reading is possibly lost.
1100.
mvp-comment-634-1
The chorus think of first saving the living and then burying the dead: but Creon's superstition once awakened drives him to the opposite course. Infr. 1197 ff.
1103-1104.
mvp-comment-635-1
συντέμνουσι .. βλάβαι
For the swiftly coming harms of the gods suddenly overtake (or 'make short work with')
the evil-minded. συντέμνειν, in the generally neuter or absolute sense of
To come quickly on, here acquires a new construction with the accusative. Essay on Language § 16. p. 23. Cp. Hdt. 5. 41, τοῦ χρόνου συντάμνοντος, i.e.
Adpropinquante, instante tempore.
1105.
mvp-comment-636-1
I find it hard indeed, but yet I wrench my soul from her place to do this thing. Cp. Plat. Rep. 10. 607 E, βίᾳ μέν, ὅμως δ᾽ ἀπέχονται.
1106.
mvp-comment-637-1
τὸ δρᾶν For the article with epexegetic inf., cp. O. T. 1418, τὸ πράσ· σειν καὶ τὸ βουλεύειν.
1107.
mvp-comment-638-1
ἐπ᾿ ἄλλ. τρ. i. e. ἐπίτρεπτε ἄλλ.
1108.
mvp-comment-639-1
ἴτ' τ' This reading, which ap- pears only in the text of Triclinius, is more probable than any other, the broken tribrach being excused by the agitation of Creon.
1109.
mvp-comment-640-1
οἵ τ᾿ ὄντες οἵ τ᾿ ἀπόντες ὄντες = παρόντες, as in El. 305, τὰς οὔσας τέ μου | καὶ τὰς ἀπούσας ἐλπίδας διέφθορεν.
1110.
mvp-comment-641-1
εἰς ἐπόψιον τόπον
To the place in view. Polynices was exposed on the highest part of the plain, and this may have been represented in outline as part of the scenery.
1111.
mvp-comment-642-1
For the personification of δόξα, cp. Ο. Τ. 911, δόξα μοι παρεστάθη, and see Essay on Language pp. 91, 92, 105.
1112.
mvp-comment-643-1
αὐτός τ᾽ ἔδησα καί For the sake of emphasis, what would naturally be expressed by the participle is made into a coordinate sentence with the finite verb. Cp. Ο. Τ. 413, σὺ καὶ δέδορκας κού βλέπεις ἵν' εἶ.. Ε. on L. p. 68.
1115.
mvp-comment-644-1
In the excitement of a desperate hope caused by the late repentance of Creon, the chorus break forth into a joyous invocation to Dionysus, accompanied with dancing or gesticulation, as appears in comparing the similar canticle in Aj. 693, where the chorus are under the excitement of a similar delusive expectation. Cp. Tr. 205-224. The Dionysiac worship, of which the tragic poet is a votary, is associated with the mystic hopes which Creon denied, supr. 780.
1115.
mvp-comment-644-2
Glory of Semele, child of Zeus, Thou that tendest Campania And rulest in Eleusis' mystic vale, Dwelling, where thy votaries dwell, In Thebes by Ismenus' waters, Presiding o'er the dragon's brood: Seen o'er the forked height By the pitchy flame, Where move the Bacchic nymphs of Corycus, Where is the Castalian fount: And ushered on thy way to visit Thebe's roads By the ivy-clad banks of Nysean mountains, And the bloomy shore with many a cluster, While the shout of the immortal strain resounds. Thebè thou honourest far above all cities, Thou and thy mother whom the lightning glorified. And now that our whole multitude Is overtaken by misfortune dire, Appear with healing tread, Over the Parnassian steep Or groaning narrow sea. Thou that leadest up the dance of the fire-breathing stars, Visitant of nightly voices, Son born of Zeus, Rise with thy attendant Maenads, Who, all night long. Celebrate thee with dances, Iacchus, the dispenser of their joys.
1115.
mvp-comment-644-3
This ode has been variously arranged. The arrangement in the text is that of Böckh, with a few slight changes. a'. First strophe and antistrophe. ICICIC lululuclalalclcl luclcla 5----- 다 !トーートしcita ICICーートト β'. Second strophe and antistrophe. トCICICに The prevailing rhythm is logaoedic, with frequent syncope (or antispastic movement), long syllables in thesi, and occasional resolution both of arsis and thesis. Each strophe begins with an anacrusis.
1115.
mvp-comment-644-4
πολυώνυμε Schol. ὦ Διόνυσε· οἱ μὲν γὰρ Βάκχον, οἱ δὲ Ιακχον, οἱ δὲ Λύαιον, οἱ δὲ Εὔιον, οἱ δὲ Διθύραμβον αὐτὸν καλοῦσιν. Bacchus is claimed as a Theban God, and at the same time, the wide extent of his dominion is celebrated.
1115.
mvp-comment-644-5
ἄγαλμα
Delight, or
Glory. The word expresses the pride taken by a mother in her child. Plat. Tim. 37 D, τῶν ἀϊδίων θεῶν γεγονὸς ἄγαλμα: Eur. Suppl. 370, ματέρος ἄγαλμα.
1118.
mvp-comment-645-1
κλυτὰν .. Ἰταλίαν The mention of Italy is singular, but hardly more so than that of Naxos in connection with Dionysus. The aim of the song being to celebrate the universality of his empire, it is not wonderful that allusion should be made to Italy, quam
gravidae fruges et Bacchi Massicus humor Implevere, Virg. Georg. 2. 143. And if Italy was mentioned by Sophocles in the Triptolemus in connection with Demeter, why not here in connection with Bacchus? Fr. 540 N. Ut..
Sophocles poeta in fabula Triptolemo frumentum Italicum ante cuncta laudaverit, ad verbum translata sententia Et fortunatam Italiam frumento canere candido. Plin. H. N. 18. 12. Some edd. substitute Ἰκαρίαν, an eastward deme of Attica, and a seat of Dionysiac worship.
1120.
mvp-comment-646-1
In the all-receiving bosom of Eleusinian Demeter;' i. e. In the vale of Eleusis, where the mystae from all parts of Greece were received. Cp. Pind. Ol. 14. 23, κόλποις Πίσας: Hdt. 4.99, κόλπου . . ἀγομένου τῆς γῆς ταύτης, and esp. Aristoph. Ran. 373, χώρει νυν πᾶς ἀνδρείως | ἐς τοὺς εὐανθεῖς κόλπους | λειμώνων, κ.τ.λ.
1123-1124.
mvp-comment-647-1
παρ' ὑγρὸν Ἰσμηνοῦ ῥεῖθρον] Some have preferred, chiefly for metrical reasons, the Triclinian reading παρ᾽ ὑγρῶν .. ῥεέθρων, for which compare supr. 1. 966.
1125.
mvp-comment-648-1
ἐπί Cp. Τr. 356, τἀπὶ Λυδοῖς.
1126-1127.
mvp-comment-649-1
στέροψ.. λιγνύς
The blinding torch-flame hath beheld. There is an opposition of sound rather than of sense in στέροψ ὄπωπε. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 226, ὦ λάμπουσα πέτρα πυρὸς | δικόρυφον σέλας ὑπὲρ ἄκρων | Βακχείων Διονύσου, where the succeeding lines also deserve to be compared with the description of Mount Parnassus in this passage. The fabled fire on Mount Parnassus was commonly explained of the torches of the Maenads, and seems to have been so understood by Sophocles.
1128.
mvp-comment-650-1
Κωρύκιαι So named from the Corycian cave on Mount Parnassus. Aesch. Eum. 22, σέβω δὲ νύμφας, ἔνθα Κωρυκὶς πέτρα, | κοίλη, φίλορνις, δαιμόνων ἀναστροφαί.
1130.
mvp-comment-651-1
Κασταλίας.. νᾶμα (1) Sc.
1130.
mvp-comment-651-2
ὄπωπέ σε, or (2) ἔνθα Κασταλίας νᾶμα, sc. ἐστί. Probably the latter (2).
1131-1136.
mvp-comment-652-1
Νυσαίων. ἀγυιάς Bacchus is imagined as leaving the throng of revellers, who follow in his train along the Nysaean slopes in Euboea, and as crossing the sounding frith' (1. 1145) to visit the streets of Thebes.
1133.
mvp-comment-653-1
χλωρά
Lustrous with fresh green. The word suggests the richness of young vegetation, especially of the vine. See Essay on Language p. 103. Stephanus in Νύσαι .. δεκάτη ἐν Εὐβοίᾳ, ἔνθα διὰ μιᾶς ἡμέρας τὴν ἄμπελόν φασιν ἀνθεῖν, καὶ τὸν βότρυν πεπαίνεσθαι.
1134.
mvp-comment-654-1
By adding *τῶν in this line, and reading ῥεῖθρον in 1124, we obtain ーーム, a diiambus followed by an epitritus, and a trochee or spondee.
1140.
mvp-comment-655-1
νύν, νῦν, as in Pindar.
1141.
mvp-comment-656-1
έχεται Cp. Plat. Legg. 10. 887 Ε, ἐν συμφοραῖς παντοίαις ἐχομένων.
1141.
mvp-comment-656-2
ἐπὶ νόσου] See Essay on Language § 19. p. 27.
1143.
mvp-comment-657-1
μολεῖν
Der Inf. giebt etwas kindlich frommes.
Wecklein.
1146-1147.
mvp-comment-658-1
πῦρ πνεόντων *ἄστρων χοραγέ*] Cp. Ar. Ran. 341-342, Ιακχ᾽, ὦ Ιακχε, νυκτέρου τελετῆς φωσφόρος ἀστήρ. Bacchus is lord and leader of the sights and sounds of night. The stars in their courses hold revel with his torchbearers: the
voices of the night are wakened by their shouting. This is more probable than an allusion to the mystical notion that Bacchus was an impersonation of the sun. I have ventured to retain καί, transposing the two preceding words and scanning πνεόντων as a spondee by synizesis.
1146-1147.
mvp-comment-658-2
πυρπνεόντων may be taken as a compound. Cp. Hom. Il. 7. 310, άελπτεοντες.
1149.
mvp-comment-659-1
παῖ Διὸς γένεθλον i.e. as Hermann says, παῖ Διὸς γεγώς.
Ever youthful offspring of Zeus.
1150.
mvp-comment-660-1
Ναξίαις i.e. From Ariadne's island.
1152.
mvp-comment-661-1
τὸν ταμίαν The word ταμίας, as appears from its use in Pindar, had in Doric Greek the special meaning of
Lord (cp. the Anglo-Saxon
Hlafford): and may have been a favourite attribute of Bacchus in this sense.
1156.
mvp-comment-662-1
στάντα (1) The participle is to be taken closely with the adjective = τινὰ στάσιν ἔχοντα, as in the gloss of V.
There is no present position of a human life, in which I would praise it, or find fault with it. Cp. Phil. 174, ἐπὶ παντί τῳ χρείας ἱσταμένῳ, where the participle is similarly added in epexegesis. Or, χώρας] χέων Ε.
1156.
mvp-comment-662-2
ἐμοί, ποτέ] 1164. θάλλων] possibly, (2)
No settled condition, or (3), like στάντες τ' ἐς ὀρθών, Ο. Τ. 50,
No life that is in prosperity. (1) is confirmed by 1160.
1160.
mvp-comment-663-1
And no one can prophesy to mortals respecting their present state:' i.e. Whether it will continue or change.
1162.
mvp-comment-664-1
σώσας.. εὔθυνε There is a change from the participial construction to the indicative as well as from μὲν.. δέ τo τε: ie. σώσας agrees with the subject of ἦν, and the finite verb εὔθυνε is substituted for εὐθύνων. This is more in accordance with the
growing nature of the language of Sophocles, than to suppose, with Seyffert, that σώσας begins a new sentence in apposition to, and epexegetic of, the previous clause. 1165 ff. See v. rr. Seyffert conjectures καὶ γὰρ ἡδοναὶ ὅταν προδῶσιν ἀνδρός. Cp. supr. 578, and note. On the change from plural to singular, see Essay on Language §20. p. 31. And on the inversion (ἡδονὰς προδῶσιν ἄνδρες = ἡδοναὶ προδῶσιν ἄνδρας), ibid. § 42. p. 80, β. In favour of the reading of the MSS. it must be admitted that the plural ἄνδρες, in this pronominal sense, is unusual. The meaning of the MS. reading is, 'A man's pleasures, when they have deserted him, I hold of no account.' But this does not agree with the concluding lines of the speech. Line 1167 had been dropped, and then l. 1166 was altered so as to make sense.
1168.
mvp-comment-665-1
πλουτεῖ.. καὶ ζῇ This is the first hand of L, and the words are so quoted by Athenaeus according to some MSS. I have always felt that the transition to the second person imperative (which has been suggested by εἰ βούλει) was somewhat harsh. The present indicative is sometimes used in putting a hypothetical case: (Plat. Theaet. 192 Ε, Σωκράτης ἐπιγιγνώσκει Θεόδωρον καὶ Θεαίτητον, ὁρᾷ δὲ μηδέτερον. So the aor. indicative in Hdt. 7. 10, καὶ δὴ καὶ συνήνεικε ἤτοι κατὰ γῆν ἢ καὶ κατὰ θάλασσαν ἑσσωθῆναι, κ.τ.λ.) And the conversational use of εἰ βούλει (which assists the expression) is too familiar to need illustration. See L. and S. s. v. βούλομαι, 11. 2.
1171.
mvp-comment-666-1
πρὸς τὴν ἡδονήν resumes and supplements τὸ χαίρειν. Essay on Language § 40. p. 75.
1173.
mvp-comment-667-1
αἴτιοι θανεῖν Sc. τοὺς τεθνηκότας. 'Are guilty guilty of their death.
1175.
mvp-comment-668-1
αὐτόχειρ On the indefiniteness of the compounds of αὐτός, see Essay on Language p. 101. This word, as here used, is extended from meaning
By his own hand, to mean
By unnatural violence. See above,
l. 172
, and cp. the Latin parricida.
1177.
mvp-comment-669-1
φόνου
For the death of Antigone. This is better than φόνῳ, which, however, might mean
In a murderous way, i.e. ξὺν φόνῳ. Cp. 1. 1233.
1178.
mvp-comment-670-1
ἤνυσας
Didst fulfil; i.e. How true it was, and how thou hast fulfilled it! Early language supposes a causal connection between the prophecy and the event. See on O. T. 156, 720. And for ὀρθόν, ibid. 853
1182.
mvp-comment-671-1
κλύουσα παιδός Essay on Language § 9. p. 13. 1184-1185. Ср. О. T. 911 ff., El. 634 ff.
1186.
mvp-comment-672-1
κλῇθρ᾽ ἀνασπαστοῦ πύλης Said by prolepsis and hypallage for τὴν πύλην, τῶν κλήθρων ἀνασπωμένων, with the same confusion between the door and the fastening which occurs elsewhere.
I was opening the door, having drawn the bolt.
1191.
mvp-comment-673-1
Here, and infr. 1203, 1312, as well as probably supr. 993, the death of Creon's son Megareus, elsewhere called Menoeceus, is alluded to.
1192.
mvp-comment-674-1
παρών 'As an eye-witness of the fact. See Essay on Language § 32. P. 55.
1194.
mvp-comment-675-1
ὧν Sc. τούτοις τοῖς ἔπεσι, περὶ ὧν. Essay on Language § 9. p. 13.
1195.
mvp-comment-676-1
ὀρθὸν .. ἀεί Truth is always safe: i. e. never hurts him who tells it.
1197.
mvp-comment-677-1
νηλεές
Uncared for. О. Т. 180, νηλέα .. κεῖται ἀνοίκτως.
1199.
mvp-comment-678-1
ἐνοδίαν θεόν Probably Hecate. Cp. Fr. 490. πῦρ ἱερόν, | τῆς εἰνοδίας Ἑκάτης ἔγχος.
1200.
mvp-comment-679-1
εὐμενεῖς Supplementary predicate, agreeing with θεών and Πλούτωνα : i.e. ὥστε εὐμενεῖς εἶναι.
1201.
mvp-comment-680-1
ἐν νεοσπάσιν θαλλοῖς This probably had a ceremonial importance. Cp. O. C. 466, foll., especially l. 474, θαλλοῖσιν, ἢ κρόκαισιν, ἢ ποίῳ τρόπῳ;
1202.
mvp-comment-681-1
ὃ δὴ λέλειπτο resumes τὸν μέν with greater definiteness, and repeats what is implied in κυνοσπάρακτον. συγκατήθομεν implies that scattered fragments were collected.
1203.
mvp-comment-682-1
For the feeling of οἰκείας, cp. Ο. C. 406, ἢ καὶ κατασκιῶσι Θηβαίᾳ κόνει; 1206-1207. And ere we came near one heard the voice of shrill lamentings in the neighbourhood of the unhallowed cell.'
1207.
mvp-comment-683-1
ἀκτέριστον.. παστάδα
The unhallowed vault. Lit. The narrow cell, not consecrated by funeral rites.'
1209.
mvp-comment-684-1
τῷ δ᾽. ἆσσον
And as he came nearer, an undistinguishable crying filled his ears. See Essay on Language § 10. p. 17, and for περιβαίνει, cp. Hom. Od. 6. 122, ἀμφήλυθε θήλυς ἀϋτή.
1210.
mvp-comment-685-1
In the phrase άσσον ἕρπειν,
To draw near, ἆσσον, which was a rare word in Attic, lost something of the comparative meaning. Hence the double comparative.
1211.
mvp-comment-686-1
δυσθρήνητον
Lamentable. For the apparently active use of the verbal, see Essay on Language p. 98.
1212.
mvp-comment-687-1
ἆρ᾽ εἰμὶ μάντις; 'Are my heart's forebodings true?' i.e. Must I believe what my heart is telling me?
1213.
mvp-comment-688-1
τῶν παρελθουσῶν ὁδῶν Cp. О. С. 1397.
1214.
mvp-comment-689-1
σαίνει It has been supposed that this word reverts to its original meaning as a derivative of σείω, being used actively in the sense of To thrill.' But it is more in accordance with analogy to suppose that it has passed through the following changes of meaning: (1) to move frequently: (2) to wag the tail; σαίνειν οὔρῃ: (3) to make signs of recognition, to greet: (4) to touch with a feeling of recognition. See Essay on Language p. 99 (ὄμμα).
1216.
mvp-comment-690-1
In preparing the vault, an opening had been left, through which the victim was thrust into the chamber. This opening was then roughly closed with stones. (1) Through these Haemon had passionately torn his way. And the cleft so made by him is the ἁρμὸς χώματος λιθοσπαδής.
Entering within the closure from which the stones have been torn, even to the very mouth of the vault. Or (2), supposing a prolepsis,
Pulling out the stones and entering.
1219.
mvp-comment-691-1
ἐξ ἀθύμου δεσπότου κελεύσμασιν
On hearing our despairing lord and at his bidding. Cp. supr. l. 957. Haemon, on rushing in, had found Antigone already dead by her own act.
1222.
mvp-comment-692-1
καθημμένην
Fastened, sc. to the roof. Those who read καθειμένην must have understood it to mean
let down, i.e. suspended. The
muslin noose of fine tissue is the maiden's veil, the βύσσινον πέπλωμα of Aesch. S. c. T. 1039.
1225.
mvp-comment-693-1
Lamenting the ruin of his bridal, that was only to be found in death (τῆς κάτω).' λέχος]
Bride.
1228.
mvp-comment-694-1
τίνα νοῦν ἔσχες
What design possessed you?
1229.
mvp-comment-695-1
ἐν τῷ.. διεφθάρης
At what point of calamity did you go mad? Cp. Hom. Il. 15. 128, μαινόμενε, φρένας ἠλέ, διέφθορας: Eur. Hell. 1192, λύπῃ σὰς διέφθαρσαι φρένας;
1231.
mvp-comment-696-1
τόν is governed by πτύσας ('Abhorring,' i.e. expressing abhorrence of, cp. 1. 653) as well as by παπτήνας, ='Glaring wildly upon.' 1232. It is not clear whether Aristotle means to find fault with this when he says that Knowingly to intend evil, and not perform it, is at once abominable and without tragic interest;' διόπερ οὐδεὶς ποιεῖ ὁμοίως, εἰ μὴ ὀλιγάκις, οἷον ἐν Ἀντιγόνῃ τὸν Κρέοντα ὁ Αἵμων, Poet. 1453 b. But he clearly had not anticipated the refinement of the Scholiast and some modern critics, who think that Haemon only meditated suicide, and that his action is misunderstood by the messenger who reports the circumstance. Cp. supr. 751.
1231.
mvp-comment-696-2
ξίφους Seyffert thinks that the Laurentian reading points to βέλους with ξίφους as a gloss. But although the generic word is used in Aj. 658, τόδ' ἔγχος τοὐμόν, ἔχθιστον βελῶν, it would be out of place here.
1233.
mvp-comment-697-1
ξίφους διπλοῦς κνώδοντας Probably,
the double-hilted sword.
1235.
mvp-comment-698-1
ἐπενταθείς 'Stretching himself over it, i. e. Falling upon his sword.
1236-1237.
mvp-comment-699-1
He clung to the maiden, enfolding her in his slackening arm. The construction of ἐς .. ἀγκῶνα is as if λαμβάνει, or some such verb, were to follow. 6
1236.
mvp-comment-700-1
ἤρεισε.. μέσσον
Drove the blade right into his side. See on O. C. 1595. Essay on Language § 51. p. 85.
1238.
mvp-comment-701-1
πνοήν, which the Scholiast read, is at once a harder reading than ῥοήν, and harmonizes better with the context. And panting hard, he cast on her pale cheek sharp breath of gory dew.' Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1388: Essay on Language § 10. p. 17.
1241.
mvp-comment-702-1
εἰν ῞Αιδου δόμοις The particle γε, which Heath introduced, reading ἔν γ', is defended by Seyffert:
Apud inferos saltem, inquit poeta, nactus est Haemon nuptias rite confectas, quarum vivus expers fuit: in complexu tenet mortuam mortuus (v. 1235, sq.). But iv, the reading of L², is supported by the other Epic forms which occur in the play. See Introd., and cp. the Homeric καὶ εἰν Ἀίδαο δόμοισι.
1244-1245.
mvp-comment-703-1
Cp. the silent exit of Jocasta, O. T. 1075, and of Deianira, Tr. 813.
1247.
mvp-comment-704-1
ἐς πόλιν γόους | οὐκ ἀξιώσειν
She will not deign to make public lamentation. The ellipse of ποιεῖν or some other general word (cp. 1. 577), or the imperfect construction of γύους with ἀξιώσειν, is made more easy by the introduction of στένειν in what follows.
1249.
mvp-comment-705-1
πένθος is governed at once by προθήσειν and στένειν, and προθήσειν is used as in l. 216,='To appoint as a duty,' with some allusion to the other meaning of
To lay out for mourning before burial.
1250.
mvp-comment-706-1
γνώμης
In respect of judgment. ἁμαρτάνειν is euphemistic.
1251.
mvp-comment-707-1
ἐμοὶ δ᾽ οὖν Qy. ἔμοιγ' οὖν ? See the accentuation of the MS. reading.
1258.
mvp-comment-708-1
μνῆμ᾽ ἐπίσημον
A monument with evident tokens. The blood-stained corpse of Haemon was, as it were, a monument, on which was inscribed the record of the calamitous error of Creon. The metres of the concluding κομμός are as follows. The dochmiac rhythm prevails. a'. First strophe and antistrophe. 1261-1277=1184-1300. ںトトトㄈIトトー Five Iambic trimeters. 5-トリート! トトしに Cトトートトー 10010 レム DI 15 トトーchclcl ―トトートトー つ つ 1500 「トトートトー トトートトー 「トトートca Cトトートトに tu a'. I, may be scanned either as diiambus, cretic, and dochmiac, or as an iambus and 2 dochmiacs; 3, two cretics; 15, dochmiac and iambic tri pody. The first strophe and antistrophe are followed by five iambic trimeters. β'. Second strophe and antistrophe. 1306-1325-1328-1346. トー トトートトー (トトートトー 5 トトートトー トート The intervention of the Exangelus at 1278, and the ἐκκύκλημα at 1293, are special features, which must have made this commos extraordinarily impressive. The coryphaeus chants 1257 ff., 1347 ff. The four other members of the front row interpose their remarks at intervals.
1262.
mvp-comment-709-1
στερεά may be explained, either with Dindorf, (1)
Propter duram et inexorabilem Creontis mentem, =
Stubborn, by hypallage for στερεῶν φρενῶν ἁμαρτήματα, or more simply (2) as Pindar speaks of στερεαὶ ὀδυναί, = * Hard to endure.' The first (1) is best.
1265.
mvp-comment-710-1
A confusion of ὤμοι ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων, ὡς ἄνολβα, and ὤμοι ἐγὼ ἄνολβος τῶν ἐμῶν βουλευμάτων. Ε. on L. pp. 17, 67.
1266.
mvp-comment-711-1
νέῳ ξὺν μόρῳ
By a strange doom.
1268.
mvp-comment-712-1
ἀπελύθης
Thou wast cut off. The word has some something of the notion of
Shuffling off this mortal coil. Cp. 559.
1273.
mvp-comment-713-1
θεὸς .. ἔπαισεν
A God held and smote me with mighty force. ἔχων is almost pleonastic, and μέγα βάρος adverbial. But there is some difficulty in the construction of ἐν ἐμῷ κάρᾳ with ἔπαισεν. Qy. μέγα βάρος πεσών? As the words stand, the whole expression μέγα .. ἔπαισεν must be taken as = ἐνήλατο.
1274.
mvp-comment-714-1
ἐν δ᾽ ἔσεισεν This use of language (implying 'furious driving') recurs in Plut. Phoc. 23, ἐνσείειν τὴν πόλιν εἰς πόλεμον. A similar expression occurs in El. 737. See also Eur. Or. 255.
1275.
mvp-comment-715-1
λακπάτητον is proleptic. Overturning and trampling upon.' 1277. ὡς is to be construed with ἔοικας ἥκειν, which is postponed to the participle, as in Phil. 971, πρὸς κακῶν δ᾽ ἀνδρῶν μαθὼν ἔοικας ἥκειν αἰσχρά: and the meaning is,
O master, how truly thou wouldst seem, having at τέθνηκε Α. once in hand and also in possession, to have come hither bearing one load of evil in thine arms, while there is another burden which thou wilt quickly behold within the palace. The address, ὦ δέσποτα, suggests the words ἔχων τε καὶ κεκτημένος (Creon is lord 'of dire mischance'), in which there is the distinction afterwards adopted in philosophy between ἕξις and κτῆσις.
1280.
mvp-comment-716-1
By an attraction from ἔοικας, ἥκειν ὀψόμενος, or ἥκων ὄψεσθαι, is changed to ἥκειν καὶ ὄψεσθαι. Cp. Ο. Τ. 413.
1281.
mvp-comment-717-1
And what worse evil is there? or what more of evil?' Some would read τί δ᾽ ἔστιν; ἢ κάκιον αὖ κακῶν ἔτι;
1282.
mvp-comment-718-1
παμμήτωρ
The royal mother. For this use of παν in composition, see Essay on Language § 55. p. 101; and cp. O. Τ. 930, παντελὴς δάμαρ.
1284.
mvp-comment-719-1
δυσκάθαρτος Ἅιδου λιμήν]
O harbour of Hades, hard to cleanse; i. e. Choked with the dead. Cp. Hell has enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure.'
1289-1292.
mvp-comment-720-1
What new thing dost thou tell me? that the slaughter of a wife is heaped upon the previous ruin?' ὦ παῖ is probably a corruption of alaî, suggested by the general thought that Creon is lamenting for his son.
1293.
mvp-comment-721-1
The dead body of Eurydice is disclosed by an ἐκκύκλημα. This line is what ancient commentators called παρεπιγραφή, i. e. an implicit stagedirection.
1296.
mvp-comment-722-1
τίς ἄρα .. περιμένει; The same
fearful looking for of further woe is still more finely given in the OО. Т. 1456, 7, οὐ γὰρ ἂν | θνήσκων ἐσώθην, μὴ πί τῳ δείνῳ κακ.
1301.
mvp-comment-723-1
ἡ δέ δέ opposes the case of Eurydice to that of Haemon, whose dead body is in the arms of Creon.
1301.
mvp-comment-723-2
ὀξύθηκτος
Infuriated (ὀργῇ χρω μένη, Ο. Τ. 1241). Cp. Aesch. S. c. T. 715, τεθηγμένον τοί μ᾽ οὐκ ἀπαμβλυνεῖς λόγῳ. The Scholion, ὀξεῖαν λαβούσα πληγήν, seems to imply a v. τ. ὀξύπληκτος (or ὀξύδηκτος, a vox nihili), which, however, gives a poorer sense.
1301.
mvp-comment-723-3
ἥδε Pointing to the corpse, which has just been rolled into view by the ἐκκύκλημα.
1301.
mvp-comment-723-4
βωμία At, or on the altar,' as in Eur. Suppl. 93, μητέρα γεραίαν βωμίαν ἐφημένην. Cp. Tr. 904, where Deianira, before her suicide, falls on the altar, βωμοῖσι προσπίπτουσα.
1301.
mvp-comment-723-5
†πέριξ, if not spurious, must be explained as an epexegesis of βωμία = περιπετής. No satisfactory emendation has been proposed. Arndt suggested ἡ δ' ὀξυθήκτῳ βωμία περὶ ξίφει. Others, reading πτέρυξ, suppose the Exangelus to display the
altar-knife which had given the wound. See L. and S. s. v.
1301.
mvp-comment-723-6
πτέρυξ, 11. 5.
1302.
mvp-comment-724-1
λύει κελαινὰ βλέφαρα
Relaxes her darkened eye. λύειν is used here as in λῦσε δὲ γυῖα and the like expressions in Homer. κελαινά might quite well be used proleptically = σκοτεινά = ἐν σκότῳ. But this, like other words of colour in Sophocles, has usually a picturesque force, and here is probably intended to suggest the darkness of passionate grief and despair which oppressed her eyes in their last looks before the final darkness of death.
1303.
mvp-comment-725-1
It has been suggested that the λέχος of Megareus and Haemon is the place which received each of them in death. Euripides speaks of Menoeceus, who flung himself into the serpent's lair, σηκὸν ἐς μελαμβαθῆ δράκοντος δράκοντος (Phoen. 1017), as θαλάμαις .. σφαγέντα VOL. I. 00 (ib. 938 ff.). If Megareus is Menoeceus, as would appear from Aesch. S. c. T. 474 ff., and if the body was left in the deep cavern where it lay. Eurydice may speak of this as at once her son's grave and bride-bed (for he was ἠθεος): and as κλεινόν, because earning him his country's gratitude. And although Haemon was not buried in the cell where he died, the word borrowed from the preceding clause may be less exact in its application to him. Bothe's conj. λάχος is accepted by Dindorf.
1304-1305.
mvp-comment-726-1
λοίσθιον δὲ . . παιδοκτόνῳ
And lastly uttering a strain of calamitous import against thee, the slayer of thy children. The expression signifies rather a prophecy than a mere imprecation of woe.
1307.
mvp-comment-727-1
ἀνέπταν φόβῳ
I am startled with dread. The metaphor is taken from a frightened bird.
1311.
mvp-comment-728-1
συγκέκραμαι See Essay on Language pp. 102, 105.
1312-1313.
mvp-comment-729-1
τῶνδε κἀκείνων.. μόρων The deaths of Haemon and Megareus.
1313.
mvp-comment-730-1
ἐπεσκήπτου
Thou wast accused. The active of ἐπισκήπτω in this sense, although rare, occurs in Plat. Theaet. 145 C, Aesch. c. Timarch. p. 142, and the passive appears again in Plat. Legg. 11. 937 Β, ἐὰν ἐπισκηφθῇ τὰ ψευδή μαρτυρῆσαι. vom. p. m. Vat. 1328. KP. om. Vat. 1329. μόρων L. μώρων C1. 1330.
1314.
mvp-comment-731-1
κἀπελύσατο The aorist has a distinctly middle force, different from ἀπελύθης above,
l. 1268
. 'How did she effect her own release in bloody death? This verse may possibly have been spoken by the chorus. It somewhat breaks the flow of Creon's passion.
1316.
mvp-comment-732-1
ὀξυκώκυτον She heard not only the words of the messenger (1. 1183), but the cry which was raised in the house, after they had been spoken. This must be supposed to have followed l. 1175.
1318.
mvp-comment-733-1
ἐμᾶς .. ἐξ αἰτίας
Away from blame to me; i.e. So as to exonerate ταῦτα] τ with gl. ταῦτα Α. me. Cp. 1. 614.
1325.
mvp-comment-734-1
ἢ μηδένα i.e. ἢ τὸν μὴ ὄντα. Ср. О. Т. 1019, and note.
1326.
mvp-comment-735-1
κέρδη παραινεῖς Viz. in saying ἄγετέ μ' ἐκποδών, Cp. Ο. Τ. 1512. For the plural κέρδη, cp. О. С. 92, Phil. 921.
1327.
mvp-comment-736-1
A general aphorism.
1329.
mvp-comment-737-1
κάλλιστα The adverb is emphatic, and has the force of a predicate.
Let that last doom appear, which of all coming upon me has the highest glory of bringing me the end of days. Not one doom but many have fallen upon Creon. But of all that can come upon him, death is the lightest and the best.
1329.
mvp-comment-737-2
ἆμαρ ἀλλ᾿ L.
1329.
mvp-comment-737-3
εἰσίδω ἐσίδω Vat. α ἐξ Vat.
1335.
mvp-comment-738-1
ὅτοισι χρὴ μέλειν The Fates and the Gods below.
1336.
mvp-comment-739-1
The middle voice of ἐράω is known to exist (L. and S. s. v.), and may have been used by Sophocles with a pathetic force. Essay on Language § 31. p. 52. This seems more probable than retaining μέν from the later MSS, which has no force, or reading τοιαῦτα or γ' ἅπαντα for ταῦτα. ἐρῶμεν, plur. for sing., can hardly stand with the singular following in the same line.
1336.
mvp-comment-739-2
συγκατηυξάμην 'I summed up in my prayer.
1337.
mvp-comment-740-1
The rationalism of the day ap. pears in this advice of the chorus, as afterwards in the impiety of Jocasta.
1341.
mvp-comment-741-1
σε τ᾿ αὐτάν It is unnecessary to change αὐτάν, which has a natural and pathetic emphasis. He has been the death even of the mother as well as of the son, αὐτήν τε κατέκτεινε καὶ τὸν παῖδα.
1342.
mvp-comment-742-1
πρὸς πότερον ἴδω i. e.
Whether at Haemon or Eurydice. The words that follow are suggested by the general notion of distraction which is here expressed. The words in L etc.
1342.
mvp-comment-742-2
παῖ καὶ θῶ (= 'Which way also I shall order them'), are clearly a corruption of πᾷ κλιθῶ, which, however, was probably a gloss. For if πάντα γάρ is dropped instead, the asyndeton of λέχρια, κ.τ.λ., is very harsh.
1344-1346.
mvp-comment-743-1
* πάντα γὰρ.. εἰσήλατο
For all that I am engaged with is ready to fall, while from above a destiny hard to be borne has leapt upon my head. The opposition is not between Haemon and Eurydice (Dindorf), nor between present and future (Seyffert), but between the visible circumstances and the invisible hand of fate. λέχριος is used metaphorically. (See Essay on Language p. 105.) Creon cannot bear the misery that surrounds him, and he cannot look up because of the heavy weight of destiny impending over him.
