223-330.
mvp-comment-136-1
The half-comic or rustic character of the watchman in this play is an extension of the common character of the
messenger, whose natural rudeness of speech and thought brings into greater prominence the horror or pathos of the events he describes. The grotesqueness disappears when he speaks of the action of Antigone in 407-440. The employment of this artifice by Sophocles arises from the same motive to which Shakespeare gave a far wider range in such creations as the
gravediggers in Hamlet, and the
rural fellow in Antony and Cleopatra. The Messenger in the Trachiniae, the Corinthian in the Oedipus Tyrannus, Menelaus in the Ajax, the pretended Shipmaster in the Philoctetes, afford the same sort of contrast to the more tragic personages: and the superstition of the Coloniatae may be compared with the cowardice of the Phrygian slave in the Orestes of Euripides.
223-330.
mvp-comment-136-2
The vulgarity of the common-place Athenian of the fifth century в.с. takes the form of misplaced subtlety of wit. Cp.
Shak. Hamlet, 5. 1
,
We must speak by the card, or equivocation will undo us. The age is grown so picked, that the toe of the peasant comes so near the heel of the courtier, he galls his kibe.
274-275.
mvp-comment-166-1
κἀμὲ.. λαβεῖν
And the lot devotes me, wretched man, to be the recipient of this piece of luck. καθαιρεῖ is used much as in ἡ καθαιροῦσα ψῆφος, not by an extension of the technical sense, but with the same general mean- ing of
Fastening upon,
Bringing down,
Overtaking and subduing.
279.
mvp-comment-167-1
*1 This is Nauck's emendation for ἡ. It involves a very slight change, and is extremely probable. Reflection suggests the fear that' (not 'the question whether')
this may be some visitation from the gods. The conscience of the elders, which was stifled at first, begins to awaken in the presence of the mysterious fact. For the pause after the 2nd iambus, here and supr. 269, cp. Aj. 340, 342, 719, 791, 803, 988, 1050, 1077, 1140, 1332.
280.
mvp-comment-168-1
Cease, ere you have quite filled me with wrath. καί, which is combined with πρίν, according to the common idiom (πρὶν καὶ..), is slightly displaced so as to emphasize the phrase ἐμὲ μεστῶσαι. The language is made clearer by the emendation καί με, but the emphatic ἐμέ is more suitable in the mouth of Creon. Cp. Phil. 1042.
281.
mvp-comment-169-1
ἄνους τε καὶ γέρων Cp. О. С. 930-931, καί σ᾽ ὁ πληθύων χρόνος | γέρονθ' ὁμοῦ τίθησι καὶ τοῦ νοῦ κενόν. See Essay on Language § 41. p. 78. 285-286. Who came to burn their pillared shrines and offerings, and to break in pieces their land and laws. It seems more likely that the ἀναθήματα are joined in one expression with ναούς than with γῆν and νόμους, which are in a different category.
289-290.
mvp-comment-170-1
ἀλλὰ ταῦτα.. ἐμοί But this explains the murmurs I have long been hearing from men in the city against me;' i. e. Those murmurs have become explicit in this act. Οη ταῦτα, see Essay on Language § 17. p. 25; and for the dative ἐμοί,
at me, ib. § 12. p. 18. μόλις φέροντες, which some have connected with ταῦτα (ταῦτα μόλις φέροντες, 'Bearing my edict ill'), seems to be used absolutely, sc. τὸ ἐμὸν ζυγόν, with an allusion to the metaphor in what follows. Cp. Thuc. 5. 80, θυμῷ ἔφερον, sc. τὸν πόλεμον ἢ τὰ πράγματα.
291.
mvp-comment-171-1
'Covertly shaking the head,' like an animal preparing to throw off the yoke.
292.
mvp-comment-172-1
δικαίως
Rightly; i. e. As I had a right to expect that they should.
292.
mvp-comment-172-2
ὡς στέργειν ἐμέ
So as to accept my sway. To this it has been objected that στέργω implies
affectionate allegiance. But this notion, although inherent in the etymology of the word, is dropped in use. Cp. Phil. 538, ἐγὼ δ' ἀνάγκῃ προὔμαθον στέργειν κακά : Aesch. Prom. 11, τὴν Δίος τυραννίδα | στέργειν. What hope was there that Prometheus would be made loyal by loyal torments? The other interpretation,
So that I should be content (cp. Phil. 458, τούτους ἐγὼ τοὺς ἄνδρας οὐ στέρξω ποτέ), would give but feeble expression to the self-will of Creon. The substitution for these words of εὐλόφως φέρειν from the citation of Eustathius, with the further change of νῶτον for λόφον, is rightly rejected by Dind., who points out that Eustathius, probably quoting from memory, has confused this passage with one of Lycophron.
293.
mvp-comment-173-1
ἐκ τῶνδε
By these malcontents. Supr. 290.
293.
mvp-comment-173-2
τούτους (1)
These guards. Infr. ll. 304 ff., supr. 260 ff.: or (2) simply τοὺς εἰργασμένους. The whole of this picture of discontent is the creation of Creon's anger from the hesitation of the chorus when told to see to the execution of the decree. Supr. 215 ff.
294.
mvp-comment-174-1
There is a stress on μισθοῖσιν, preparing for what follows.
296.
mvp-comment-175-1
νόμισμα, usually =
Current coin, is here used in the more general sense which includes this.
No such pestilent usance as money is, ever sprang up amongst mankind.
298.
mvp-comment-176-1
The object of ἐκδιδάσκει, SC.
298.
mvp-comment-176-2
χρηστοὺς αἰσχρά, is absorbed in the expansion of the sentence.
299.
mvp-comment-177-1
πρὸς .. ἵστασθαι Το address themselves to shameful enterprizes.' Cp. Thuc. 6. 34. § 7, τῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων πρὸς τὰ λεγόμενα καὶ αἱ γνῶμαι ἵστανται.
300.
mvp-comment-178-1
πανουργίας The plural of the abstract noun gives the concrete notion.
300.
mvp-comment-178-2
πανουργίας ἔχειν, like θήραν ἔχειν, Αj. 564: ὕβριν ἔχειν, Od. 1. 368, etc.
301.
mvp-comment-179-1
παντὸς ἔργου δυσσέβειαν
The impiety of every deed; i. e. Every kind of impiety in action. Cp. O.T. 864-865, εὔσεπτον ἁγνείαν λόγων | ἔργων τε πάντων.
303.
mvp-comment-180-1
He implies, This cannot be their first act of disloyalty.' The
unity of time is not to be pressed in the Antigone: see below, 11. 1064 ff. Else this suspicion of inveterate disaffection, against one who has reigned only for a few hours, would be too extravagant. The elders were selected for their loyalty. supr. 165 ff.
308-311.
mvp-comment-181-1
οὐχ ὑμὶν ῞Αιδης.. ἁρπάζητε]
Death shall not alone suffice for you, but first you shall be hung up alive to show the heinousness of this offence, that for the future, in your wrongful gettings, you may know better where to look for gain. See Essay on Language § 37. p. 64. There is a confusion of two constructions: (1) οὐχ ὑμὶν ῞Αιδης ἀρκέσει, τo which μοῦνος is added for emphasis, i. e. οὐ θανεῖσθε μόνον: and (2) οὐ θανεῖσθε πρίν, κ.τ.λ. Cp. 1064 ff., and see Aj. 106 ff., θανεῖν γὰρ αὐτὸν οὐτί πω θέλω, κ.τ.λ. The Φύλαξ is to take this message to his fellows.
313-314.
mvp-comment-182-1
The sentence is redundant, either the article or ἢ σεσωσμένους being unnecessary. Weckl. reads σεσωμένους. For the article, cp. Eur. Phoen. 606, τοῦ μέρους ἔχων τὸ πλεῖον,
315.
mvp-comment-183-1
εἰπεῖν τι δέ (v. rr.) is unmeaning. τι as in θέλεις τι μεῖζον, infr. 497.
316.
mvp-comment-184-1
καὶ νῦν with λέγεις.
317.
mvp-comment-185-1
δάκνει; (1) Act. impersonal.
Is the smart in your ears or in your mind? Cp Hdt. 7. 16. Or (2) 2nd pers. pass.
Are you stung? (2) agrees better with τὴν ἐμὴν λ. in the following line.
318.
mvp-comment-186-1
τί δαί; though not found elsewhere in Sophocles or Aeschylus, may be admitted on the authority uthority of of the MS, where it is so obviously in keeping. Cp. ὦ τἂν in Ο. Τ. 1145, Phil. 1387.
318.
mvp-comment-186-2
ῥυθμίζεις .. ὅπου;
Do you scan the whereabouts of my annoyance?
320.
mvp-comment-187-1
λάλημα The reading is doubtful between ἄλημα,
A clever rogue, and λάλημα,
Α prating fellow. ἄλημα is better known, and was read by the Scholiast, but λάλημα is sufficiently supported by Eur. Andromache 937, τούσδε Σειρήνων λόγους, | σοφῶν, πανούργων, ποικίλων λαλημάτων. And this word τίνεσθαι. fits more closely to the context of the present passage. 'Fie,
tis too clear you are a born chatterbox.
Then it is clear that I never did this deed. 323.
What a pity that one who is opinionated should have a false opinion. For the subjunctive δοκῇ, cp. О. Т. 316, 317.
324.
mvp-comment-188-1
κόμψευε . . δόξαν 'Ay do, refine now on the word "opinion."" This does not seem to be one of the cases where viv with the imperative mood should be changed to vuv, as there is a sufficient reason for the emphatic particle.
325.
mvp-comment-189-1
ἐξερεῖτε
You shall tell the world. Cp. Pind. Pyth. 2. 22, Ιξίονα φαντὶ ταῦτα βροτοῖς λέγειν ἐν πτερόεντι τροχῷ .. τὸν εὐεργέταν ἀγαναῖς ἀμοιβαῖς 332 ff. The chorus, in their first stasimon, express, in a veiled manner, their emotions at what has occurred. Not being able to say what they really think, that Creon's rash edict has already recoiled on his own family, they descant on the wonderful range of human enterprize, adding that where boldness and resource are combined with justice, they confer glory, but only bring ruin where they are subservient to wrong. The elders do not decide who in the present instance is the transgressor. The ode consists of two strophes and antistrophes, in which glyconic rhythms are mixed with lyrical dactyls, iambi, and trochees, in different proportions, the scheme being as follows:- ICC CC CI CICIC α'. } Iamb. Dact. Troch. Glycon. The two long syllables at the beginning of l. 8 of a form the transition from the dactyls to the trochees. There is a sensible change to a lighter and less simple movement at the beginning of β'. The resolved trochees in B' 5 mark a climax of feeling.
332-383.
mvp-comment-190-1
Most wonderful of wondrous things is man, Who traverses the surging brine, And wearies mighty earth with yearly furrow. His craft ensnares the finny produce of the seas And taketh captive beast and bird. He compasseth a way to master the monster of the wilds, And brings under his yoke the horse with flowing mane And the never-wearied mountain bull. Selftaught in speech and thought and civil ways, And in providing shelter from the cold and rain, There is no end to his devices. Nothing but death ever finds him unprepared. Even diseases, not to be avoided, are escaped by him. Inventive beyond hope, he moveth now to evil, and again to good. When weaving with his wit the law of justice and piety He is exalted in the city, but outcast when he harbours wickedness for deeds of crime. May I never live with such an one, and may he never share my counsels. 332. Aesch. Cho. 585, πολλὰ μὲν γὰ τρέφει δεινὰ δειμάτων ἄχη,.. ἀλλ᾽ ὑπέρτολμον ἀνδρὸς φρόνημα τίς λέγοι; Troch. Iamb. Troch.
332-383.
mvp-comment-190-2
δεινά = ' wonderful,' or
mighty, is in transition from the earlier sense of
fearful to the later sense of
clever. Cp.
332-383.
mvp-comment-190-3
ὀλοόφρων.
334.
mvp-comment-191-1
τοῦτο
This creature, man. The neuter continues the abstract notion from οὐδὲν .. δεινότερον, and is thus more impressive than the masculine would have been.
334.
mvp-comment-191-2
πέραν Το the other side of.'
Quite over. For the alliteration, which assists the emphasis, cp. El. 210.
335.
mvp-comment-192-1
χειμερίῳ νότῳ
Impelled by the stormy south-wind. Dative of cause. Essay on Language § 14. p. 21. 335-336.
Traversing half-buried in the seething surge. For ὑπό with the dative in this sense, cp. О. С. 673, χλωραῖς ὑπὸ βάσσαις. Essay on Language § 19. p. 27.
336.
mvp-comment-193-1
περιβρύχιος is probably active =
Surging round, and contains an allusion to βρύχω, for which, cp. Aesch. Prom. 1082, βρυχία δ᾽ ἠχὼ παραμυκᾶται βροντής.
338.
mvp-comment-194-1
ὑπερτάταν
Supreme, as eldest and mother ofall. Solon, Fr. 36. 3, μεγίστη δαιμόνων Ὀλυμπίων | Γῆ. Cр. О. Т. 660, where the primacy for the occasion is similarly given to the sun. Schneidewin remarks that the assonance ἄφθιτον, ἀκαμάταν ἀποτρύεται, .. ἀρότρων helps to express the persistent industry of man. This ode is full of assonance and alliteration, and of correspondences such as ἀνεμόεν, μαχανόεν-παντόπορος, ἄπορος -ὑψίπολις, ἄπολις.
339.
mvp-comment-195-1
ἀποτρύεται
Wears out for his use (mid.) the still-unwearied Earth. The present implies that the process is never-ending. Even in the common operations of husbandry the old religion finds a ground for awe. The dactyls suit the thought of the continuous round of human labour, as those of the antistrophe express the movement of the steed. The two long syllables, ἱππει-, οὐρει-, at once check the flow of rhythm (as with a renewed feeling of wonder), and by their weight give impetus to the concluding trochees. Cp. Eur. Phoen. 1039-1040, 1063.4.
340.
mvp-comment-196-1
ἰλλομένων ἀρότρων
As the ploughs keep turning year after year. The force of ἴλλω is limited motion. Thus the shuttle might be said ἴλλεσθαι, because when it reaches either end of the loom it is driven back again. Precisely in the same way the ploughs are said ἴλλεσθαι, “To keep moving to and fro within certain bounds.' ἔτος εἰς ἔτος] i. e. δι' ἔτους εἰς ἔτος, "Through one year into the next,' the first ἔτος being the accusative of duration.
340.
mvp-comment-196-2
ἱππείῳ γένει πολεύων
Breaking the glebe by the strength of mules. πολεύειν = πολεῖν in Hes. Op. 460, ἔαρι πολεῖν· θέρεος δὲ νεωμένη οὔ σ᾽ ἀπατή- The masc. is more probable than the neuter, both because τοῦτο is re- σει. mote, and because ἀνήρ follows in the antistrophe.
340.
mvp-comment-196-3
ἱππείῳ γένει i. e.
Prole equarum. Schol. ταῖς ἡμιόνοις.
αἱ γάρ τε βοῶν προφερέστεραί εἰσιν ἐλκέμεναι νείοιο βαθείης πηκτὸν ἄροτρον.
Hom. Il. 10.352. Donaldson also compares Simon. Fr. 13 (Bergk.), χαίρετ' ἀελλοπόδων θύγατρες ἵππων.
343.
mvp-comment-197-1
*κουφονόων
Light-thoughted. This is Brunck's certain emendation, anticipated by the corrector of R. (Cp. v. rr. on l. 617.) Donaldson well says that as wings express the light-mindedness of light-mindedness is here made an epithet of the winged birds. But the word may further suggest the unsuspicious nature ('Despising the earth where cares abound') which makes them an easy prey. Cp. Plat. Tim. 91 D, τὸ δὲ τῶν ὀρνέων φῦλον . . ἐκ τῶν ἀκάκων ἀνδρῶν, κούφων δέ, κ.τ.λ.
345.
mvp-comment-198-1
πόντου τ᾽ εἰναλίαν φύσιν
The brood of ocean teeming in the seas. For φύσιν, see Essay on Language § 51. p. 96.
346.
mvp-comment-199-1
σπείραισι δικτυοκλώστοις With meshy toils,' is to be joined with ἀμφιβαλὼν ἄγει. Nets (δίκτυα) were used in hunting and fowling, as well as in fishing. For ἄγειν in the sense of
making captive, cp. Il. 9. 594, τέκνα δέ τ᾽ ἄλλοι ἄγουσι βαθυζώνους τε γυναῖκας.
346.
mvp-comment-199-2
ἄγει suits well with the image of a captive enemy, which is kept up in the words φύλον and ἔθνη.
348.
mvp-comment-200-1
περιφραδής
By his excellent wit. The 1st strophe exhibits the boldness, the Ist antistrophe the cunning, of primitive man. The 2nd strophe and antistrophe describe the higher functions of civilized life. 349 ff. He not only subdues the animals, but makes them his servants.' In correcting this line, the dactylic metre is to be retained, which is hardly done in the conjj. ἀμφιλόφῳ ζυγῷ or ἀμφὶ λόφον ζυγοῖ. The words ἀμφίλοφον ζυγόν are sound both in meaning and rhythm. Brunck's conj. ὑπάξεται, supplying the preposition required by the Scholia, would be unexceptionable, if such a potential use of the future in an affirmative sentence could be defended. Blaydes' ὑπήγαγεν would be convincing if closer to the MSS. In favour of ἐπάξεται it may be urged that the repetition of the same word is in the manner of the ode, and that the figurative expression, he shall bring to his aid,' agrees with ἄγει, supr. 343. But besides the questionable future, the construction of the 2nd accus., sc. ἐπ᾿ ἀμφ. ζυγόν, is in this case dubious. ὑφέλκεται. . ζυγόν,
compels to serve him in the yoke, may be suggested, although the verb ὑφέλκειν is not used elsewhere precisely in the sense required. Else qy. ἐφέλκεται?
352.
mvp-comment-201-1
ἀκμῆτα is preferable to ἀδμῆτα, as the rarer word and as introducing a new and apposite idea. 353 ff. There is a natural progress in the thought. First, navigation and agriculture were mentioned as the arts of subduing the crude forces of nature; then the capture and domestication of animals. Now we come to the humanities and arts of life (the domestication of man himself), and lastly, in ἀντ. β', to moral or political good and evil.
354.
mvp-comment-202-1
ἀνεμόεν φρόνημα
Windswift thought; i. e. Thought which is viewless, free and nimble as the wind. Sophocles knew that the soul had been identified with the air. Cp. Plat. Phaedo, 96 Β, πότερον τὸ αἷμά ἐστιν ᾧ φρονοῦμεν, ἢ ὁ ἀήρ. ἢ τὸ πῦρ, κ.τ.λ. Schneidewin well compares Hom. Il. 15. 80, foll., ὡς δ᾽ ὅτ᾽ ἂν ἀΐξῃ νόος ἀνέρος, ὅς τ᾽ ἐπὶ πολλὴν | γαῖαν ἐληλουθὼς φρεσὶ πευκαλίμῃσι νοήσῃ | · ἔνθ εἴην ἢ ἔνθα, μενοινήπολλὰ | ὡς κραιπνῶς μεμανία διέπτατο πότνια Ἥρη. Wieseler's conj.
354.
mvp-comment-202-2
κατ᾿ ἀν. φρ., adopted by Wolff, is surely unnecessary. Why should not man teach himself to think as well as to count? (See Plat. Rep. 7, p. 522.)
355-356.
mvp-comment-203-1
ἀστυνόμους | ὀργάς is well explained by Seyffert,
Urbium incolendarum studia.
The disposition to inhabit cities. This seems more probable than
The tempers of civic life. ἀστυνόμος ὀργή is the social impulse which draws men together to become inhabitants of the same town. comparison of Ar. Pol. 6. 8. 4, (ἑτέρα δ᾽ ἐπιμέλεια ταύτης ἐχομένη καὶ σύνεγγυς ἡ τῶν περὶ τὸ ἄστυ δημοσίων καὶ ἰδίων, ὅπως εὐκοσμία ῃ, καὶ τῶν πιπτόντων οἰκοδομημάτων καὶ ὁδῶν σωτηρία καὶ διόρθωσις, καὶ τῶν ὁρίων τῶν πρὸς ἀλλήλους, ὅπως ἀνεγκλήτως ἔχωσι, καὶ ὅσα τούτοις ἄλλα τῆς ἐπιμελείας ὁμοιότροπα, καλοῦσι δ' ἀστυνομίαν οἱ πλεῖστοι τὴν τοιαύτην ἀρχήν), suggests the conjecture ἀστυνόμους ἀρχάς (already made by Valckenaer),
Administrative rule. V reads ὁρμάς, ср. О. Т. 337. Qy. ἀρετάς? Ср. 366. 355, foll. And to avoid the cleareyed influence of comfortless frosts, and the pelting of the pitiless rain.' διαίθρεια, sc. βέλη.
356.
mvp-comment-204-1
ἐδιδάξατο
He taught himself. For the directly reflexive middle, see Essay on Language § 31. p. 52. The origin of the arts was a favourite problem of the Sophists. Cp. Plato, Prot. 320 D, foll. It is here assumed that they were selftaught without Prometheus or other superhuman aid.
357.
mvp-comment-205-1
Musgr. would read either διαίθρεια, or αἴθρεια with φρουρῶν for παρειρῶν in l. 367. G. Wolff reads αἴθρεια and πληρῶν. But the repetition of in ll. 3, 4, and 6 suits the composition of the strophe better than the introduction of the bacchius and cretic in l. 3. διαίθρεια,
serene, while keeping up the alliteration, suits the context better than ὑπαίθρεια or ἐναίθρεια,
in the open air. Join *διαίθρεια βέλη as well as δύσομβρα βέλη.
360.
mvp-comment-206-1
παντοπόρος· ἄπορος This punctuation is justified by the corresponding line of the antistrophe, which cannot be pointed otherwise. παντοπόρος, sc. ὤν, is added, like περιφραδής ἀνήρ, supr. 347, to express the admiration excited by the preceding statements.
360-361.
mvp-comment-207-1
οὐδὲν . . τὸ μέλλον] Cp. l. 728, μηδὲν τὸ μὴ δίκαιον. Essay on Language § 22. p. 36.
362.
mvp-comment-208-1
οὐκ ἐπάξεται
He shall not win. For a similar metaphorical use of ἐπάγεσθαι, where, however, the reading has also been questioned, cp. Thuc. 3.10, τὴν τῶν ξυμμάχων δούλωσιν ἐπαγομένους.
364.
mvp-comment-209-1
νόσων δ᾽ ἀμηχάνων φυγὰς | ξυμπέφρασται
He hath gathered to him by his thought a remedy for many an unavoidable disease. ξυμ- marks that the healing art is a collective monument of human skill. πέφρασται recalls the notion of περιφραδής, supr. 347. For the oxymoron, cp. supr. 340, ἀκαμάταν ἀποτρύεται.
365-366.
mvp-comment-210-1
His power of artful contrivance is a miracle of unimaginable skill, wherewith he followeth one while an evil purpose, at other times a good one.' τέχνας is added as genitive of respect to complete the notion of τὸ μηχανόεν. ὑπὲρ ἐλπίδα,
beyond what could have been hoped for, or expected before the event. τι marks the indefiniteness of σοφόν as the predicate. It is in agreement with σοφόν, but has the effect of a particle or adverb (πως).
366.
mvp-comment-211-1
κακόν, . . ἐπ᾿ ἐσθλόν Cp. О. Т. 761, ἀγρούς σφε πέμψαι κἀπὶ ποιμνίων νομάς.
367.
mvp-comment-212-1
νόμους παρείρων χθονός
When he knits therewith, sc. τῷ μηχανόεντι τῆς τέχνης καὶ σοφῷ,
the laws of his land and the oath-observing righteousness of heaven. It is objected to παρείρων that it elsewhere means
Inserting incidentally, or by the way, and that such a meaning is unsuitable here. But, as Seyffert has already shown, the word (which is a rare one) may quite well mean Weaving in,' like gold-leaf, for instance, into a chaplet of flowers. Cp. Plat. Legg. 605 D, καὶ τὸν τοῦ Κύρου δασμὸν ὃν ὑπέσχετο Πέρσαις εἰς τὸν νόμον ἐνέδει. Conjectural emendations are γεραίρων, περαίνων, γὰρ αἴρων, τ᾿ ἀείρων, πληρῶν (see v. rr., and note on 357).
370.
mvp-comment-213-1
ὑψίπολις For this compound, cp. ἡδύπολις, ὀρθόπολις, μεγιστόπολις, δικαιόπολις. The construction is elliptical, sc. ὑψίπολις ὧν or ἐστί.
370.
mvp-comment-213-2
ἄπολις . . χάριν]
He is outcast from the state, who harbours evil for the indulgence of crime. Cp. supr. l. 30, πρὸς χάριν βορâs: Plat. Phaedr. 241, χάριν πλησμονῆς. This is better than joining τόλμας χάριν with ἄπολις =
He is an outcast for his boldness.
375.
mvp-comment-214-1
ἴσον φρονῶν i. e.
Of the same party in the state. For the expression, cp. Il. 15.50, ἶσον ἐμοὶ φρονέουσα.
376-378.
mvp-comment-215-1
ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας .. Ἀντιγόνην]
I stand in doubt at this strange marvel, how to gainsay what I know, and say that this is not the maid Antigone. The resumption is suitable to the chorus' perturbed state of feeling. Seyffert's ἐς δαιμόνιον τέρας ἀμφινοῶν τότε, referring to the previous scene (1. 278), is without the directness and simplicity of these short anapaestic passages, in which the chorus announce the entrance of a new person on the stage. Cp. 526 ff., 626 ff.
378.
mvp-comment-216-1
οὐκ εἶναι, not μὴ εἶναι, because the entrance of Antigone is a patent fact.
382.
mvp-comment-217-1
*ἀπάγουσι Sc. εἰς κρίσιν.
385.
mvp-comment-218-1
εἵλομεν The v. r. εἴδομεν is supported by infr. 404, 406, 423, and εἴλομεν, the reading of L, etc., may have been occasioned by καθελόντες in the nearer context. But see v. rr. on 655.
386.
mvp-comment-219-1
ἐς δέον Cp. Ο. Τ. 1416, εἰς δέον πάρεστι. εἰς μέσον, which Seyffert has restored from L, although having the authority of the chief MS, is more like a MS. conjecture than eἰς δέον. The same may be said of ἐξέβην, as compared with προὔβην. Seyffert reads ξύμμετρ᾽ ἐξέβην τύχῃ.
388.
mvp-comment-220-1
οὐδέν ἐστ᾿ ἀπώμοτον This γνώμη first occurs in the fragment of Archilochus about the eclipse (76 Bergk), χρημάτων ἄελπτον οὐδέν ἐστιν οὐδ᾽ ἀπώμοτον. Cp. Pind. Ol. 13. 83, παρ' ὅρκον καὶ παρ' ἐλπίδα κούφαν.
389.
mvp-comment-221-1
ψεύδει .. γνώμην 'For second thoughts bely one's resolutions.' ου 390. ἄv belongs grammatically to the verb ἐξηύχουν, but in meaning rather modifies the infinitive.
391.
mvp-comment-222-1
ταῖς .. τότε When my soul was shaken with the tempest of your former threatenings.᾿ ἀπειλαῖς is dative of the occasion or accompaniment, assisted by attraction. Essay on Language § 11. p. 18, с. Ср. 1. 691.
392.
mvp-comment-223-1
ἐκτὸς καὶ παρ᾿ ἐλπίδας i. e.
392.
mvp-comment-223-2
ἐκτὸς ἐλπίδος (supr. 1. 330) καὶ παρ᾿ ἐλπίδας.
393.
mvp-comment-224-1
ἔοικεν.. μήκος οὐδέν Sc. οὐδὲν ἔοικε μήκος, i. e. εἰς τὸ μέγεθος, as the Scholiast says.
395.
mvp-comment-225-1
καθευρέθη is not to be rejected because of the rarity of the compound. See Essay on Language p. 90. But the conjecture of Nauck, καθῃρέθη, is favoured by καθελόντες in l. 383.
398.
mvp-comment-226-1
ὡς θέλεις In arresting Antigone the watchman has done not his own will but Creon's. Infr. 438. 399,
400.
mvp-comment-227-1
ἐγὼ δ'. κακῶν
But I have a full right to be "away and clear" from this bad business.
401.
mvp-comment-228-1
This maiden! where, and how, did you arrest her?' The emphatic order of words expresses the profound astonishment of Creon. Essay on Language § 41. p. 77.
403.
mvp-comment-229-1
λέγεις ὀρθῶς
Do you say it with a clear mind? i. e. Have you your wits when you say this? CСр. О. Т. 528, ἐξ ὀμμάτων δ᾽ ὀρθῶν τε καὶ ὀρθῆς φρενός | κατηγορεῖτο τοὐπίκλημα τοῦτό μου;
404.
mvp-comment-230-1
ὃν σὺ τόν The collocation of antecedent and relative is peculiar, and perhaps characteristic of the rustic emphasis of the Φύλαξ. See notes on supr. 238, 269, and cp. infr. 409.
406.
mvp-comment-231-1
And how was she discovered, caught, and taken ?"
407.
mvp-comment-232-1
τοιοῦτον (1)
As you say: she was seen (1. 423), surprised (1.432), and caught (1.433). Or (2) As follows,' = τοιόνδε.
409-410.
mvp-comment-233-1
τὸν | νέκυν Α remarkable instance of synapheia. Cp. 1. 238. Essay on Language § 21. p. 33. Supr. 238.
410.
mvp-comment-234-1
μυδῶν
Dank: referring rather to the state of the corpse (cp. 412) than to the remains of the libation, which would be soon dried by the sun.
410.
mvp-comment-234-2
εὐ
Carefully. For the order, see Essay on Language p. 78, and cp. О. Т. 308, μαθόντες εὖ.
411.
mvp-comment-235-1
We sat just below the top of the rising ground, in the lee of the wind, so escaping the incidence of the odour from the dead. Supposing the corpse to be exposed on a slope of the high ground, surrounded by hillocks, they would select a point of observation on the lee-side of one of these hillocks, and to the windward of the corpse, which they would have full in view.
411.
mvp-comment-235-2
ἐκ =
On this side of and looking from. Essay on Language § 19. p. 27. Infr. 1110, εἰς ἐπόψιον τόπον : 1197, πεδίον ἐπ᾿ ἄκρον. πικρᾶς] ι in erasure of v? by recent hand Vat.
412.
mvp-comment-236-1
This line is not necessarily connected with the preceding: i.e. They may be supposed to select a spot, (1) out of the wind, (2) out of the way of the smell. But the explanation above given (411 note) is more probable. In either case the point is that in attending to their watch they were mightily careful of their own comfort.
412.
mvp-comment-236-2
βάλῃ Changed by Stephanusto βάλοι, because of the past time and the optative following. But the subj. is more vivid.
413-414.
mvp-comment-237-1
Rousing each his fellow with noisy altercation, reviling him who should take this labour easily. εἴ τις, κ.τ.λ. depends on the verbal notion implied in κακοῖσιν = κακῶς λέγοντες.
413-414.
mvp-comment-237-2
ἀφειδεῖν, ‘Το be unsparing, and so
To be negligent,
To treat lightly,
To act without circumspection. For an approach to this meaning, cp. Thuc. 4.26 § 7. Bonitz conj. ἀκηδήσοι.
415-417.
mvp-comment-238-1
This lasted till the sun had reached his station in mid-sky with unclouded splendour, and the heat was glowing.' Cp. the Homeric ὄφρα μὲν ἠέλιος μέσον οὐρανὸν ἀμφιβεβήκει.
417.
mvp-comment-239-1
When suddenly from the earth the Storm-god raised a squall, that saddened all the sky, and filled the plain, tearing the tresses of the orchard groves, and the wide heaven was choked withal.' The chief discomfort of such a visitation would be the cloud of dust, forcing men to close their eyes, and wrapping even near objects from sight. The watchman is explaining why they lost sight of the corpse. The poet also provides a motive for the act by which Antigone is betrayed. She fears that the corpse, lying in an exposed situation, may have been disturbed by the violence of the wind.
418.
mvp-comment-240-1
οὐράνιον ἄχος may mean either (1)
A trouble from the sky, or (2)
A trouble reaching to the sky. The latter is best, as the word χθονός indicates that the whirlwind seemed to rise out of the ground.
420.
mvp-comment-241-1
ἐν δ' See Essay on Language p. 26. § 18, a.
421.
mvp-comment-242-1
μύσαντες .. νόσον
Closing lips and eyes, we endured the Divine visitation.
422.
mvp-comment-243-1
ἐν χρόνῳ μακρῷ
After lasting a long while: giving time for Antigone to come out of her concealment, with the libation ready. 423, foll. κἀνακωκύει] ‘And raises a shrill wailing cry, like the voice of the despairing bird. For the descriptive genitive, see Essay on Language § 9. p. 12.
422.
mvp-comment-243-2
πικρᾶς
Embittered, 'Full of bitterness: the quality of the object is transferred to the subject: i.e. πικρᾶς, ἅτε πασχούσης πικρά. Also the bitterness of anger is joined to that of grief. Cp. the Latin dolor. For the genitive, cp. Trach. 768, ὥστε τέκτονοs. And for the omission of ὡs, which is supplied in the following clause, cp. supr. 114, λευκῆς χιόνος πτέρυγι στεγανός. G. Wolff reads ὅ. δ. φθόγγον ὥς, ὅταν κ. But this yields a less probable rhythm.
424-425.
mvp-comment-244-1
As when it sees robbed of its young ones the desolated couch of its nest. For the pleonasm, see Essay on Language § 40. p. 75.
426.
mvp-comment-245-1
οὕτω δέ The apodosis is resumed, as so often happens after a comparison. Essay on Language p. 75. Cp. Aesch. Cho. 252.
427.
mvp-comment-246-1
γόοισιν Essay on Language p. 75.
427.
mvp-comment-246-2
ἐκ δ᾽.. ἠρᾶτο Essay on Language § 18. p. 27.
430.
mvp-comment-247-1
ἄρδην.. στέφει Slightly condensed from ἄρδην ἔχουσα στέφει. στέφει,
She decorates, Honours. Metaphorical, as in Od. 8. 170, ἀλλὰ θεὸς μορφὴν ἔπεσι στέφει. Cp. καταστέφειν in Eur. Phoen. 1632, and Sophron ap. Athen. 479 B. She leaves out no jot of the ceremony: ὡς οὐδὲν ὑφιεμένη τῷ κρηύγματι.
431.
mvp-comment-248-1
Od. 11. 26, ἀμφ᾿ αὐτῷ δὲ χοὰς χέομεν πᾶσιν νεκύεσσι, | πρῶτα μελικρήτῳ, μετέπειτα δὲ ἡδέϊ οἴνῳ, | τὸ τρίτον αὐθ᾽ ὕδατι.
432.
mvp-comment-249-1
σὺν δέ νιν | θηρώμεθ' For this tmesis, see Essay on Language § 18. p. 26. συν as in συλλαμβάνω.
435.
mvp-comment-250-1
Cp. Hdt. 3. 66, ἔξαρνος ἦν μὴ μὲν ἀποκτεῖναι Σμέρδιν: 3. 99, ἄπαρνός ἐστι μὴ μὲν νοσέειν.
436.
mvp-comment-251-1
ἀλλ᾽.. ἅμα ἀλλά is to be explained as pointing the antithesis after the negative. Her attitude was not that of denial, but one to me at least pleasant and painful as well. The adverb modifies a word which is to be supplied from καθίστατο. ἡδέως ἐμοί, i. e. ὥστε ἐμὲ ἥδεσθαι, Essay on Language § 24. p. 40. There is a certain point in this which is lost in the emendation of Dindorf, ἅμ᾽ ἡδέως, in which, however, the repetition of ἅμα may be defended from Plat. Gorg. 497 Α, ἅμα διψῶν τε ἕκαστος ἡμῶν πέπαυται καὶ ἅμα ἡδόμενος διὰ τοῦ πίνειν. Schneidewin quotes also Gorg. 496 C, ὧν ἅμα τε ἀπαλλάττεται ἄνθρωπος καὶ ἅμα ἔχει, which is not really parallel.
439-440.
mvp-comment-252-1
ἀλλὰ .. σωτηρίας (1)
But all these things are to me by nature less important to obtain than my own safety. λαβεῖν epexegetic, like ἔχειν in Ο. Τ. 592, τυραννὶς ἡδίων ἔχειν. Cp. inf. 638, μείζων φέρεσθαι: Εl. 1015-1016, προνοίας οὐδὲν ἀνθρώποις ἔφυ | κέρδος λαβεῖν ἄμειvov. Or, possibly, (2) It is in my nature to take less account of all this than of my own safety. For the meaning thus given to ἐμοὶ πέφυκ cp. Εl. 860, πᾶσι θνατοῖς ἔφυ μύρος. And for λαβεῖν =
To weigh or
estimate, cp. Thuc. 2. 42, § 5, τὴν δὲ τῶν ἐναντίων τιμωρίαν ποθεινοτέραν αὐτῶν λαβόντες.
441.
mvp-comment-253-1
For σὲ δή, sc. λέγω, cp. Aesch. Prom. 944, σὲ τὸν σοφιστήν, κ.τ.λ.: Soph. El. 1445, σε τοι, σὲ κρίνω, κ.τ.λ.: Eur. Hel. 546. And for ἐς πέδον κάρα νεύειν, cp. supr. 269.
441.
mvp-comment-253-2
Creon misinterprets the action of Antigone. She fixes her eyes upon the ground, not from fear or shame, but because she is out of sympathy with all present, and her thoughts are in the other world. The hidden fire flashes out in ll. 450, foll., which are certainly not spoken with averted eyes. Cp. Ο. Τ. 1121.
442.
mvp-comment-254-1
καταρνεῖ The unusual compound, introduced, perhaps, partly for the sake of metre, has also a special sense of blame. Cp. καταμελέω, καταξιόω, καταπειλέω, καταπροδίδωμι, καταργυρόω, κατασπείρω, κατασχολάζω.
445.
mvp-comment-255-1
Free and exempt from grievous imputation.
446.
mvp-comment-256-1
μήκος Adverbial, cp. O. С. 92, κέρδη μὲν οἰκήσαντα τοῖς δεδεγμένοις.
446.
mvp-comment-256-2
'Tell us, no long tale, but briefly, knew you of the edict that forbade this deed? I knew; 'twas plain enough. How could I fail to know? And were you, then, so hardy as to transgress our law? That edict came not to me from the mouth of Zeus, nor from the Right, whose throne is with the Gods below. They also have appointed unto men a law. Methought your edict could not so prevail, as that a mortal should overleap the silent irrefragable ordinances of heaven. Their life is not of to-day or yesterday. They are eternal. None knoweth of a time when they began. I feared not so the mind of any man, as to incur before the Gods the penalty of that law. I knew, forsooth, without your edict, that I was to die. And if I am to die before the time, I count it gain. For he must surely gain by death who lives, as I do, midst abounding woes. And so for me to meet this doom is a grief I reck not of. If I had borne to leave unburied the corpse, fallen in carnage, of my mother's son, that had been a grief to me, but this is no grief. And if I seem to you to be now doing foolishly, it comes to this;-I am condemned of folly by a fool.'
447.
mvp-comment-257-1
τὰ κηρυχθέντα
The proclamation made. Cobet's conjecture ᾔδησθα κηρυχθέντα (Νov. Lect. 1858. p. 215), while restoring the recognised Attic form, is unobjectionable in point of syntax. But the use of the article in pointing to his own decree is characteristic of Creon, and if ἠείδης is retained in the Iliad, 22. 280, why not ᾔδης in Tragedy?
449.
mvp-comment-258-1
καὶ δῆτα
And then. Cp. Plat. Theaet. 142 C, καὶ δῆτα προπέμψας αὐτόν, ἀπιὼν πάλιν, κ.τ.λ.
449.
mvp-comment-258-2
τούσδε . . νόμους
These laws, i. e. The laws whose majesty is vested in me. For this use of the demonstrative, see Essay on Language § 22. p. 34.
450.
mvp-comment-259-1
I obeyed no decree of yesterday, but the eternal law. That cannot be annulled by any enactment of a mere man. It may be that I shall die for what I have done. But it needed not your proclamation to tell me that I must die. And to die before the term appointed me is to lose so much of sorrow.
451.
mvp-comment-260-1
For the mythological fancy, cp. О. С. 1381-1382, εἴπερ ἐστὶν ἡ παλαίφατος | Δίκη ξύνεδρος Ζηνὸς ἀρχαίοις νόμοις.
452.
mvp-comment-261-1
This line is rightly explained by the Scholiast and Donaldson, Ἡ δίκη, φησί, καὶ ὁ Ζεὺς ὥρισαν ὥστε θάπτεσθαι τοὺς νεκρούς.. θέλει δὲ εἰπεῖν ὅτι ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως δίκαιον ἤγημαι θάπτειν τὸν ἀδελφόν. (Schol.)
She replies, that she did not consider his proclamations as emanating from Zeus, the supreme God, or from that justice which regulated the rights of the dead, who, she says, have established these laws, namely, the laws of sepulture, which do not need any enactment, but have their ὅροι set up in the human heart. (Donaldson.) The iteration of τούσδε, in contrasting the law which she obeyed with the edict of Creon, is dramatically appropriate, and there is no difficulty in the vague use of the demonstrative. See Essay on Language § 22. p. 34. Cp. Od. 10. 326, τάδε φάρμακα.
454.
mvp-comment-262-1
ἄγραπτα κἀσφαλῆ
Unwritten and sure. Ср. О. Т. 865 ff., and note. ἀσφαλῆ is not only
Never failing to apply, but also
Never failing to vindicate their authority. Cp. II. 456 ff.
455.
mvp-comment-263-1
θνητὸν ὄντα Sc. σέ, understood from τὰ σὰ κηρύγματα.
That a mortal man should run beyond the silent irrefragable ordinances of the Gods. Cp. Eur. Ion 973, καὶ πῶς τὰ κρείσσω θνητός οὖσ᾽ ὑπερδράμω; Ο.Τ. 476-482
456.
mvp-comment-264-1
νῦν .. κἀχθές
To-day or yes- terday. The particle γε,
ay, serves to connect the sentences, and τε is unnecessary, as appears from the similar expression, χθὲς καὶ πρώην, in Plat. Legg. 3. 677 D.
456.
mvp-comment-264-2
ἀεί ποτε means
Everlastingly, without any clear distinction of past or future. πότε gives the effect of indefiniteness or infinity.
457.
mvp-comment-265-1
ζῇ
Are in force. Cр. О. Т. 481, ἀεὶ ζῶντα περιποτᾶται.
457.
mvp-comment-265-2
ἐξ ὅτου 'φάνη
Since when they came into being. Cp. Tr. 1, λόγος ..
457.
mvp-comment-265-3
ἀρχαῖος φανείς.
458-459.
mvp-comment-266-1
τούτων.. τὴν δίκην
The penalty to be exacted in vindication of these. The Gods might be said δίκην ἐπιτιθέναι τῶν παραβαθέντων νόμων, although the word in the genitive after δίκη more frequently signifies the offence for which punishment is awarded. Cp. infr. 1074, τούτων σε λωβητῆρες ὑστεροφθόροι, κ.τ.λ.
458-459.
mvp-comment-266-2
ἀνδρός
Of a mere man. Cp. O. C. 567, ἔξοιδ᾽ ἀνὴρ ὤν. 461 ff. Shak. Julius Caesar, 3. 1, 'Bru. That we shall die, we know; 'tis but the time | And drawing days out, that men stand upon. | Cass. Why, he that cuts off twenty years of life | Cuts off so many years of fearing death. | Bru. Grant that, and then is death a benefit: | So are we Caesar's friends, that have abridged His time of fearing death.'
458-459.
mvp-comment-266-3
τοῦ χρόνου, sc. ἐν ᾧ μ᾿ ἐχρῆν θανεῖν.
462.
mvp-comment-267-1
κέρδος αὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ λέγω αὔτ᾽, i. e. αὐτό, although not necessary to the construction, as appears from Plat. Apol. 40 Ε., κέρδος ἔγωγε λέγω, is better here than αὖτe, which weakens κέρδος.
463.
mvp-comment-268-1
ὡς ἐγώ Supr. ll. 4-6.
466.
mvp-comment-269-1
παρ᾿ οὐδὲν ἄλγος
Is a grief of no account. Cp. supr. 35.
466.
mvp-comment-269-2
ἐμῆς Meineke conj. ἐκ μιᾶs, Seyffert ὁμῆς, unnecessarily. The emphatic use of ἐμós is frequent in Sophocles.
467.
mvp-comment-270-1
ἄθαπτον *ἠνσχόμην ἠνσχόμην (1) may be defended by the analogy of the syncopated ἀνσχήσεσθαι, ἄνσχεο, in Epic Greek. Otherwise (2) νέκυν may be cancelled as a gloss, and ἄθαπτον *ὄντ᾿ ἠνεσχόμην read, according to the conj. of Prof. E. L. Lushington. Or (3) ἐσχόμην may be read in the sense of ἠνεσχόμην. Ε. on L. § 55, 4. p. 101. But this is doubtful.
470.
mvp-comment-271-1
μώρῳ i.e. One whose judgment is self-condemned, because opposed to the eternal laws. The word is not prompted by mere petulance, but is uttered with profound conviction.
471.
mvp-comment-272-1
'The maiden's lineage declares itself in the fierce vein that comes to her from her fierce sire.' Phil. 1045-1046.
472.
mvp-comment-273-1
ἐπίσταται Sc. ἡ παῖς.
473.
mvp-comment-274-1
σκληρά
Unbending, and so
Stubborn, Obstinate.
473.
mvp-comment-274-2
The self-will of Creon appears with increasing distinctness. (1) He asserts his confidence in the use of power to suppress insubordination. (2) He speaks of his ward, whom he does not care to name, as in the place of a slave (479): (3) he implies that to cede an inch of authority is to give the sovereignty to another (485). (4) He throws the tie of kindred to the winds. The first words of his speech are ominous of his own doom. See Introduction.
475.
mvp-comment-275-1
ὀπτὸν .. περισκελή
Baked to exceeding hardness. Cp. Aj. 649, καὶ περισκελεῖς φρένες.
476.
mvp-comment-276-1
θραυσθέντα καὶ ῥαγέντα
Broken and shattered. The strongest word is put first in the Greek. Essay on Language § 41. p.77.
477.
mvp-comment-277-1
σμικρῷ has a strong emphasis. Ibid.
478.
mvp-comment-278-1
ἐκπέλει Hesych. ἐκπέλει, ἔξεστι. Hdt. uses ἐκγίνεσθαι in a similar sense. See Essay on Language § 55. p. 101.
479.
mvp-comment-279-1
δοῦλος Creon shows his coarsely tyrannical spirit by boasting of his absolute power over his orphan relative.
481.
mvp-comment-280-1
Cp. Hdt. 3. 83, νόμους οὐκ ὑπερβαίνουσα τοὺς Περσέων.
484.
mvp-comment-281-1
Cp. Eur. I. Α. 952 ff., ἢ Σίπυλος ἔσται πόλις, ὅρισμα βαρβάρων, κ.τ.λ.
485.
mvp-comment-282-1
If this authority is to be allowed to rest with her unchallenged. By an exaggeration of feeling like that in l. 208, he thinks that to pardon disobedience is to yield authority to the offender. For κείσεται, cp. El. 361, σοὶ δὲ πλουσία | τράπεζα κείσθω: ἀνάκειμαι in Hdt. 1.97, γνοὺς ὁ Δηϊόκης ἐς ἑωυτὸν πᾶν ἀνακείμενον.
485.
mvp-comment-282-2
κράτη, as in l. 173, ἐγὼ κράτη δὴ πάντα καὶ θρόνους ἔχω.
486.
mvp-comment-283-1
ὁμαιμονεστέρα is the more rational and stronger reading: although in weighing a hyperbolical expression of this kind, that is perhaps hardly a sufficient argument, and may be urged on the other side as accounting for the alteration of the MS.
487.
mvp-comment-284-1
τοῦ παντὸς.. Ζηνὸς ἐρκείου i.e.
Our whole family, the presiding numen being put for the thing held sacred.
489.
mvp-comment-285-1
μόρου For the genitive with ἀλύξετον, cp. Phil. 1044, τῆς νόσου πεφευγέναι.
489.
mvp-comment-285-2
ἴσον is probably to be construed both with ἐπαιτιῶμαι and βουλεύσαι (‘I accuse equally of plotting equally'), and
τοῦδε τάφου is partly gen. after ἐπαιτιῶμαι, partly after ἴσον.
491.
mvp-comment-286-1
ἀρτίως Viz. after l. 331, when Ismene knew that the deed was done, and, alone of those in the palace, knew also by whom.
493-494.
mvp-comment-287-1
And it commonly happens that the spirit of those who are plotting some utter wickedness in secret is convicted of its occulted guilt before the act.
493.
mvp-comment-288-1
ᾑρῆσθαι κλοπεύς Το be arrested in some stealthy enterprise. The perfect tense marks that the detection is completed before the purpose is carried into effect. Cp. πεπραγμένα .. ἡμαρτημένα, in O. T. 621.
495.
mvp-comment-289-1
Yet I hate it equally when one who is caught in actual mischief tries to make a virtue of the offence.
495.
mvp-comment-289-2
ἐν κακοῖσι =
In trouble, i. e. In crime, and not merely, like Ismene, in the consciousness of crime. Cp. Fr. 843, αἰδὼς γὰρ ἐν κακοῖσιν οὐδὲν ὠφελεῖ.
496.
mvp-comment-290-1
καλλύνειν Creon affects to regard Antigone's appeal to the higher law as a piece of hypocrisy. Cp. Fr. 845
496.
mvp-comment-290-2
κλέπτων δ᾽ ὅταν τις ἐμφανῶς ἐφευρεθῇ, | σιγᾶν ἀνάγκη, κἂν καλὸν φέρῃ στόμα.
497.
mvp-comment-291-1
Cp. Eur. Phoen. 1211.
500.
mvp-comment-292-1
μηδ' ἀρεσθείη Sc. μηδὲν τῶν σῶν λόγων.
501.
mvp-comment-293-1
ἔφυ
Are by nature, and so cannot fail to be.
505.
mvp-comment-294-1
λέγοιτ' ἄν For the passive, see Essay on Language § 31. P. 54 *ἐγκλείσαι] Cp. supr. 1. 180. Dindorf's correction (with εί for ῄ) is retained in preference to ἐγκλείοι. The future optative is clearly wrong.
506-507.
mvp-comment-295-1
These two lines have been considered spurious. But their scornful tone may be compared with supr. 469-470.
509.
mvp-comment-296-1
ὑπίλλουσι ἴλλειν (cp. supr. 340) is
To move within bounds, or
To limit motion. So here, 'They move their lips under your restraint; i. e.
They curb their speech under your will.
510.
mvp-comment-297-1
τῶνδε .. φρονεῖς;
If you hold a course divergent from theirs. Cp. supr. 375, μήτ᾽ ἴσον φρονῶν.
512.
mvp-comment-298-1
καταντίον
In opposition to him.
514.
mvp-comment-299-1
Why then do you honour a service which involves impiety to him?
Honour, i. e. By zealously performing it.
515.
mvp-comment-300-1
ὁ κατθανών νέκυς Eteocles.
516.
mvp-comment-301-1
i. e. If you honour the impious one equally with him.
517.
mvp-comment-302-1
For the omission of the participle, see Essay on Language § 23. p. 38.
519.
mvp-comment-303-1
τοὺς νόμους τούτους Cp. supr. 452.
519.
mvp-comment-303-2
ἴσους, the reading of the corrector of L, rather injures the line by dividing the emphasis, which rests entirely on ὅμως. Essay on Language § 41. p. 76 (4).
520.
mvp-comment-304-1
ἴσος
Of equal right. ἴσos has the construction of ἄξιος or δίκαιος. Essay on Language § 36. p. 64.
521.
mvp-comment-305-1
Who can tell if this be not esteemed pious in the under-world?
τάδε, this, which you count impious, the burial of Polynices. Schol., τίς οἶδεν εἰ καθ' Ἅιδου ἀλλήλοις διαλλάσσοντες ἡγοῦνται εὐσεβῆ τάδε. τίς οἶδεν εἰ, like
Haud scio an in Latin, suggests an affirmative as possible, as in the lines τίς οἶδεν εἰ τὸ ζῆν μὲν ἐστι κατθανεῖν | τὸ κατθανεῖν δὲ ζῆν; κάτωθεν, see v. rr., is possibly right.
522-523.
mvp-comment-306-1
Creon means that Eteocles must still hate Polynices after death. To which Antigone rejoins, in the line which expresses what is deepest in her,
If it be so, his hatred is no rule for me. Creon sees that further argument is useless, and breaks off impatiently with an abrupt sentence of death.
524-525.
mvp-comment-307-1
Go, then, to your grave, and there, if you must love them, love the dead below! κείνους, sc. τοὺς κάτω, with particular reference to Polynices.
526-530.
mvp-comment-308-1
Here comes Ismene forth, shedding sisterly tears; from clouds above her brow, that moisten her fair cheek, doing disgrace unto her flushed countenance. Cp. Sh Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, 1. 1,
Lys. Why is your cheek so pale? | How chance the roses there do fade so fast? | Herm. Belike, for want of rain, which I could well | Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes. Ant. and Cleo. 3. 2. 52. Il. 17. 591, ἄχεος νεφέλη: Eur. Hipp. 173, ὀφρύων νέφος: Aesch. Prom. 144-145, ὀμίχλα .. πλήρης δακρύων.
527.
mvp-comment-309-1
δάκρυ᾽ εἰβομένη is the Triclinian reading for δάκρυα λειβόμενα. δάκρυ λειβομένη has been conjectured. But the construction, with φιλάδελφα adverbial, is less simple and therefore less pathetic. δάκρυα εἰβομένη is read in M³.
529.
mvp-comment-310-1
ῥέθος Eur. Η. F. 1204, πάρες ἀπ᾿ ὀμμάτων | πέπλον . . ῥέθος ἀελίῳ δεῖξον.
531.
mvp-comment-311-1
ὡς ἔχιδν᾽ ὑφειμένη
Having slid in secretly like a snake; i.e. Like a serpent lurking. For the feeling associated with ὑφίημι, cp. Ο. Τ. 387, ὑφεὶς μάγον τοιόνδε μηχανορράφον.
532.
mvp-comment-312-1
ἐξέπινες Cp. Tr. 1055-1056, ῥοφεῖ ξυνοικοῦν· ἐκ δὲ χλωρὸν αἷμά μου | πέπωκεν ἤδη.
533.
mvp-comment-313-1
ἄτα κἀπαναστάσεις Abstract for concrete. See Essay on Language p. 94.
533.
mvp-comment-313-2
θρόνων, obj. gen. Ib. § 9. p. 12.
536.
mvp-comment-314-1
εἴπερ ἥδ᾽ ὁμορροθεῖ The Scholiast has noticed the apparent absurdity of Ismene's adding this condition to her avowal; and Schneidewin alters the line το δέδρακα τοὔργον, εἴπερ ἥδ᾽· ὁμορροθῶ. But the inconsistency is touchingly significant of the irresolute character of Ismene, and of the ascendancy of Antigone's stern nature over hers.
537.
mvp-comment-315-1
τῆς αἰτίας is directly governed by ξυμμετίσχω, the notion of participation being silently continued in καὶ φέρω. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 331, πάντων μετασχὼν καὶ τετολμηκὼς ἐμοί.
539.
mvp-comment-316-1
οὔτ᾽ ἐγὼ 'κοινωσάμην Supr. 69.
541.
mvp-comment-317-1
ξύμπλουν Essay on Language p. 94.
542.
mvp-comment-318-1
Antigone's offering to the dead was made in solitude, and without the presence of the sun.
545.
mvp-comment-319-1
ἁγνίσαι τιμῆσαι Schol. Ismene means,
Though I shrank from the deed, let me share the glory of it by accepting the consequences.
546.
mvp-comment-320-1
ἅ = ταῦτα ὧν. Essay on Language § 35. P. 59. μή, ibid. § 29. p. 48.
548.
mvp-comment-321-1
τίς βίος i. e. πῶς ὁ βίος; See Essay on Language § 22. p. 36.
549.
mvp-comment-322-1
'Ask Creon. He has your care and duty;' i.e. Creon is more to you than your brother is.
551.
mvp-comment-323-1
εἰ γέλωτ᾽ ἔν σοι γελῶ Schneidewin's explanation of this line,
It is painful to me to be mocking you, my sister, is out of harmony with the tone of Antigone, although it is true that in this line her bitterness is somewhat softened. Either δή, κεἰ must be read, or εἰ explained as = κεἰ.
I have grief enough, I assure you, though I laugh a bitter laugh at thee. Cp. 728, εἰ δ' ἐγὼ νέος =
Though I am young: Eur. Or. 484, εἰ δὲ δυστυχεῖ, τιμητέος. See Essay on Language § 28. p. 47.
552.
mvp-comment-324-1
ἀλλὰ νῦν Essay on Language § 26. p. 43. Par. E suggests ἐπωφελοῖμ᾽.
554.
mvp-comment-325-1
κἀμπλάκω i. e. ἢ σώσω ἐμαυτὴν καὶ ἀμπλάκω.
556.
mvp-comment-326-1
ἀλλ᾽ οὐκ . . λόγοις
But not without my saying what I said, was this choice made. Ismene would clear herself from the imputation of merely shrinking from the attempt through cowardice, or without laying before her sister the grounds of her own conduct, as she had done supr. 49 ff. She also wishes to remind Antigone of ll. 78, 99, which acquit her of indifference towards the dead. But Antigone only recalls the argument against opposing those in power. Wolff compares Eur. Ion 228, ἐπὶ δ' ἀσφάκτοις μήλοις μὴ πάριτε.
557.
mvp-comment-327-1
Your counsel seemed wise to these' (Creon, etc., τοῖς ἐνθάδε),
but mine to those (Polynices and the powers below, τοῖς ἐκεῖ). The form of the sentence is accommodated to the latter part of it. If the first part were fully expressed it would be ἐδόκεις ἄν. G. Wolff and Wecklein prefer the reading σὺ μὲν σοί. But the opposition of τοῖς μὲν, τοῖς δέ, is more pointed.
558.
mvp-comment-328-1
(1) Ismene reiterates, still feebly, what she had asserted in 536-537. Or (2) 'We are both in equal error,'-you against the state, and I against the dead. The first (1) is best. In either case, Antigone rejoins, You need not trouble yourself to make confessions. You are safe.
559-560.
mvp-comment-329-1
ἡ δ᾽ ἐμὴ.. ὠφελεῖν
My soul has long been with the dead, to do them service. In these words Antigone may be supposed to say, either (1) From the moment when my resolution was taken, my life has been with the dead, devoted in sacrifice to their aid; cp. supr. 72 and note: or (2) I have long been dead to all the joys of life, and am therefore a fit sacrifice to the service of the dead. So Wecklein. Cp. Shak. Merch. of V. 4. 1,
I am a tainted wether of the flock, etc. But the former meaning (1) is alone consistent with the betrothal of Antigone to Haemon.
562.
mvp-comment-330-1
τὴν δ᾽.. ἔφυ We learn from this line, and from supr. 499-501, that there had never been much sympathy between Antigone and Creon.
563-564.
mvp-comment-331-1
The unfortunate never retain even the reason that was born with them, but lose it in distraction. Ismene intends her excuse to cover Antigone.
564.
mvp-comment-332-1
Creon echoes κακῶς πράσσουσιν.
You lost your wits when you chose to share the guilt of the wicked. Cp. 536 ff., 558.
566.
mvp-comment-333-1
Why, what life that deserves the name could be mine in loneliness apart from her?
567.
mvp-comment-334-1
Say not "this maiden." She is no longer here. The word ἥδε remains in the nominative. This often happens when a word is quoted with the article; which, however, is elsewhere omitted in similar cases, as for instance when the word so quoted is the predicate of a sentence. Cp. Plato, Theaet. 164 Β, τὸ δέ γε οὐχ ὁρᾷ οὐκ ἐπίσταταί ἐστιν, εἴπερ καὶ τὸ ὁρᾷ ἐπίσταται, where ἐπίσταται is equally out of construction with ἥδε in this line.
568.
mvp-comment-335-1
νυμφεῖα Essay on Language p. 94.
569.
mvp-comment-336-1
Ср. О. Т. 1211, 1497-1498, foll.
570.
mvp-comment-337-1
Not as their hearts were plighted. Literally,
Not in such a way as harmony had been prepared between him and her. Cp. Pind. Pyth. 9.13, ξυνὸν ἁρμόζοισα θεῷ τε γάμον κούρᾳ θ' Ὑψέος εὐρυβία.
571.
mvp-comment-338-1
The plural generalizes the expression.
571.
mvp-comment-338-2
υἱέσι Dative of the person interested.
572.
mvp-comment-339-1
*AN. The MSS. have ΙΣ. But Böckh has given strong reasons for following Aldus in assigning the line to Antigone. The last speech of Creon might well move her to break silence, which she does naturally by resenting the words not for herself, but for Haemon. There is also greater bitterness in this line than in any speech of Ismene. Then, granting that τὸ σὸν λέχος, addressed to Ismene, might mean
The marriage you prate of, the words express a much deeper feeling as addressed to Antigone. Outwardly a mere expression of impatience, they convey the only touch of natural feeling which Creon betrays. 574 and 576 are then most naturally given to the chorus. The act of Creon in sacrificing his son's happiness is more solemnly marked when his words are addressed to the coryphaeus. While adhering to this view I am bound to add that some of the best critics prefer the other arrangement of the persons.
577.
mvp-comment-340-1
καὶ σοί γε κάμοί Sc. δεδογ μένα: i. e. σὺ μὲν οὕτω δοκεῖς, ἐμοὶ δὲ δέδοκται.
We are agreed so far.
577.
mvp-comment-340-2
τριβάς Sc. ποιείσθε. Essay on Language §39. p. 74.
578.
mvp-comment-341-1
'Henceforth these must be really women, and not left at large;' i. e. They must be treated as women. Cp. l. 484. This reading, although defaced in L, may well be defended against such would-be improvements as εὖ δὲ τάσδε χρὴ | γυναῖκας εἶλαι (Dind.), and εὖ δετὰς δὲ χρὴ | γυναῖκας εἶναι (Seyffert), which are to be condemned, amongst other reasons, for destroying the singleness of the emphasis. Creon, as usual, covers his self-will under the appearance of principle. Cp. Plat. Legg. 1.637, ταχὺ γάρ σου λάβοιτ᾽ ἄν τις τῶν παρ' ἡμῶν ἀμυνόμενος, δεικνὺς τὴν τῶν γυναικῶν παρ' ὑμῖν ἄνεσιν : Ar. Pol. 2. 6. The words indicate that Antigone's going beyond the gate, supr. 18, 19, was an exceptional freedom, consequent on the war. Thus Sophocles is contented with a hint, where Euripides thinks an explanation necessary: Phoen. 89-91.
582.
mvp-comment-342-1
The fate of Antigone is sealed, and the chorus moralize over the power of fate and of Zeus, as shown in the continued calamities of the race of Labdacus, and the infatuation ('quem Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ') of Antigone. The spectator is left free to apply the same reflections to the case of Creon.
582.
mvp-comment-342-2
'Calamity is like a storm that stirs the lowest depths and sounds afar. The race once touched is never free. Each generation as it rises is struck down.
582.
mvp-comment-342-3
'The house of Labdacus has sorrow upon sorrow. Amidst the ruined grove one root was springing, only to be swept under by the cruel dues of Hades in a frenzy of infatuation.
582.
mvp-comment-342-4
Who can restrain the power of Zeus? Unchecked by sleep or age he ever dwells in the light of Olympus. This was and shall be now and evermore, a truth that spareth not the lives of men, whom hope deceives, giving comfort indeed, but also inspiring passionate folly, till disappointment comes, before the man hath seen that he is treading on fire. Wise was he who said that evil seemeth good to one whom God is drawing to perdition. Few are the days of his exemption from that dark lot.
582.
mvp-comment-342-5
The 1st strophe opens solemnly with three dactylo-epitritic or
Doric lines, which are followed by iambic and trochaic rhythms. The 2nd strophe is logaoedic, with syncope of thesis in ll. 3, 5, 7, 11 a'. β'. ILCCICcl alcl- LullLCClcclcla 10101010 51-1 CLL下CICLI トCICICI CCICCICLI 1101007ID トトー CCCII 100II
582.
mvp-comment-342-6
οἶσι .. αἰών
Whose life is free from taste of misery. Blessed, because of the rarity of their lot, and because of the unsparing persistence of calamity when it comes to any. For κακῶν ἄγευστος, cp. Ο. Τ. 969, ἄψαυστος ἔγχους.
583.
mvp-comment-343-1
θεόθεν The adverb of place supports the metaphor of a storm coming from a certain quarter. Cp. Aesch. Prom. 1089, ῥιπὴ Διόθεν.
583-584.
mvp-comment-344-1
ἄτας | οὐδὲν ἐλλείπει Cp. l. 2, ff.
585.
mvp-comment-345-1
ἔρπον The real subject of this is πᾶσα ἄτη (or τὸ πᾶν ἄτης) implied in the preceding words, the positive being educed from the negative.
Calamity stints not, but goes on till it fulfils the number of the race.
586-589.
mvp-comment-346-1
ὅμοιον.. πνοαῖς
Like as when the billow courses over the darkening deep before fell Thracian blasts from the Euxine sea. Some interpreters make
ἔρεβος subj, and
οἶδμα obj. of
ἐπιδράμῃ,
when the darkening wave courses over the main. But οἶδμα elsewhere in Sophocles is not the expanse (aequor) but the swelling of the sea, and
ἔρεβος ὕφαλον can hardly be anything else than the
nether darkness of the deep. For the accumulation of adjectives, see Essay on Language § 23. p. 37. Seyffert reads ὡς προποντίδος. 589 ff. It rolls from depths below the black tempestuous drift. 591. And the cliffs, returning the shock, groaningly resound.'
586-589.
mvp-comment-346-2
δυσάνεμον
A sign of tempest, 'Associated with bad winds, because only seen when the wind has been blowing hard on shore. Ventorum vehementiorum comitem.' Musgr. 593, foll. From of old I see with pain' (ὁρῶμαι,
ethical middle, Essay on Language § 31. p. 52) 'the calamities of the house of Labdacus accumulating on the calamities of those that are gone; nor does one generation free another, but some god casts them down; nor is there hope of redemption.'
586-589.
mvp-comment-346-3
ἀρχαῖα has the stress as suppl. predicate. Essay on Language § 23. p. 38.
595.
mvp-comment-347-1
The reading of this line has been much questioned, but the meaning is clear, although it is uncertain what word (whether φθιτῶν or some other) has been supplanted by the unmetrical φθιμένων: which may be due to a reminiscence of Aesch. Cho. 403. 4, παρὰ τῶν πρότερον φθιμένων ἄτην | ἑτέραν ἐπάγουσαν ἐπ᾿ ἄτῃ.
596.
mvp-comment-348-1
γενεὰν γένος There is no distinction of meaning (such as
One generation, .. 'The whole race'). Cp. O. C. 27, 28, ἐξοικήσιμος .. οἰκητός.
596.
mvp-comment-348-2
ἐρείπει Sc. γενεὰν ἑκάστην. Cp. infra 601, κατ᾽ αὖ νιν, κ.τ.λ.
597.
mvp-comment-349-1
οὐδ᾽ ἔχει
Nor does the case admit of. Cp. Ο. C. 545, ἔχει δέ μοι ..
597.
mvp-comment-349-2
πρὸς δίκας τι.
600.
mvp-comment-350-1
ῥίζας Ἀντὶ τοῦ, ὅπερ ἔβλαστεν ἄνω τῆς ῥίζης, Schol. The
root, for the plant.
600.
mvp-comment-350-2
*ἐτέτατο The Scholiast notes the asyndeton (λείπει ἄρθρον τὸ ὅ): which is expressive and allows viv to be referred to ῥίζας, to which it naturally belongs. And in the reading ῥίζας δ τέτατο, the order of words is questionable. For ἐτέτατο φάος, cp. Phil. 831, αἴγλαν, ἃ τέταται τανῦν. The
light is the grace and nobleness of Antigone, and her bright hopes. The conj. θάλος, for which, cp. Pind. Οl. 2. 45, Ἀδραστιδᾶν θάλος, is uncalled for.
601.
mvp-comment-351-1
κατ' was rightly restored by Triclinius for κατ' (ⅰ.e. καὶ εἶτα), which had been introduced to avoid the asvndeton. (Schol. ἐάν στίξωμεν κᾷτ᾽ αὖ νιν, οὐδὲν λείπει τῷ λόγῳ.)
602-603.
mvp-comment-352-1
ἀμᾷ θερίζει καὶ ἐκκόπτει. ἢ καλύπτει, Schol. The latter is right.
602-603.
mvp-comment-352-2
Ας καταμᾶσθαι κόνιν is ‘Το cover oneself with dust,' so, by a poetical inversion, the dust may be said καταμᾶν,
To cover, or
Sweep out of sight. Essay on Language § 42. р. 80, β.
603.
mvp-comment-353-1
λόγου τ᾽ ἄνοια καὶ φρενῶν Ἐριvús The reasoning of Antigone in 450 ff. seems wild to the chorus, and her conduct shows her to them as possessed with a fatal frenzy. It may be thought strange that κόνις should be retained against a reading which has been so generally ap- proved as κόπις, first suggested by Jortin. But see Essay on Language pp. 92, 93. The grotesque image of Death, or Hades, armed with a bloody chopper or cleaver, however agreeable to the manner of Euripides, or some other poets, has no parallel in the language of Sophocles. And the transition from this concrete imagery to the spirits of fury and madness is, to say the least, awkwardly abrupt. The words λόγου τ᾽ ἄνοια καὶ φρενῶν Ἐρινύς are most natural if they are added to expand an obscure allusion to the deed which had brought Antigone into danger. And the words φοινία θεῶν τῶν νερτέρων .. κόνις,
The deadly dust sacred to the gods below, convey such an allusion not more obscurely than do the words in Tr. 836 ff., δεινοτάτῳ μὲν ὕδρας προστετακὼς φάσματι, κ.τ.λ., express the condition of Heracles in the poisoned robe. Triclinius was therefore not absurd in saying εἰκότως δὲ τὸ κόνις τέθειται. διότι γὰρ ἐκάλυψεν Ἀντιγόνη ἀδελφὸν Πολυνείκην κόνει, διὰ τοῦτο τεθνήξεσθαι ἔμελλε.
604.
mvp-comment-354-1
This is suggested by the position of Antigone, whose offence brings swift retribution; but is felt by the spectator to be more applicable to that of Creon.
604-605.
mvp-comment-355-1
τίς .. κατάσχοι Essay on Language §36. p. 62. Ср. O. T. 937, and esp. Pind. Οl. 11. 20, 1, ἐμφυὲς οὔτ᾽ αἴθων ἀλώπηξ | οὐδ᾽ ἐρίβρομοι λέοντες διαλλάξαιντο ἦθος.
606.
mvp-comment-356-1
Not slumber that brings age to all things.' Cp. Hom. Il. 14. 242, where Sleep says, ἄλλον μέν κεν ἔγωγε θεῶν αἰειγενετάων | ῥεῖα κατευνήσαιμι, καὶ ἂν ποταμοῖο ῥέεθρα | Ὠκεανοῦ, ὅσπερ γένεσις πάντεσσι τέτυκται | Ζηνὸς δ' οὐκ ἂν ἔγωγε Κρονίονος ἆσσον ἱκοίμην, οὐδὲ κατευνήσαιμ᾽, ὅτε μὴ αὐτός γε κελεύοι. For αἱρεῖ, cp. Il. 24.5, οὐδέ μιν ὕπνος ἥρει πανδαμάτωρ: Od. 9. 372, κὰδ δέ μιν ὕπνος ἥρει πανδαμάτωρ. The conjecture of Bamberger, παντοθήρας, is plausible. But for the closeness of the association between Age and Sleep, cp. O. T. 870-871, οὐδὲ λάθα κατακοιμάσει .. οὐδὲ γηράσκει.
607-608.
mvp-comment-357-1
The reading adopted involves the simplest change which avoids a breach of metrical rules. Others suppose, the loss of a syllable after θεῶν, reading ἄκοποι for ἀκάματοι, with ἕρπει in the fourth line of the antistrophe. For θεῶν added as a sort of epithet =
Divine, cp. supra 454, 369: Ο. Τ. 647 : Αj. 711, θεῶν.. πάνθυτα θέσμια : Phil. 198: also Tr. 1191, Ζηνός. The indefiniteness of this use obviates the objection of Schneidewin, that the months of the Gods are opposed to Zeus, who is generally the orderer of time, as in Hom. Il. 2. 134, Διὸς μεγάλου ἐνιαυτοί. There is possibly, however, in θεῶν some allusion to the heavenly bodies, who, as Plato says, are the ὄργανα χρόνου.
608.
mvp-comment-358-1
ἀγήρῳ δὲ χρόνῳ δυνάστας
With power whose duration is untouched by age. For the personification of χρόνος, see Essay on Language pp. 81, 82. The reading ἀγήρως seems to be of some antiquity, and is embodied in one of the Scholia.
610.
mvp-comment-359-1
αἴγλαν Cp. Hom. Il. 1. 532, ἀπ᾿ αἰγλήεντος Ὀλύμπου. The conception of Olympus is here more Homeric than elsewhere in Sophocles. See on O. T. 867, О. С. 1655.
611-612.
mvp-comment-360-1
τό τ᾽ ἔπειτα καὶ τὸ μέλλον καὶ τὸ πρίν] Cp. Thuc. 2. 64, § 8.
613.
mvp-comment-361-1
The reading οὐδὲν *ἕρπων is to some extent confirmed by the Scholium ση πάμπολις, ὁ κατὰ πᾶσαν πόλιν ἕρπων νόμος, and is the most probable of the emendations of this passage. It has been supposed that οὐδὲν ἔρπει, and also ἐκτὸς ἄτας, have crept in from below; but this stasimon is peculiarly full of verbal echoes. See Essay on Language § 44. p. 76. This principle' (the sovereignty of Zeus) will last the coming time, and the time to come, as well as the time past, never swerving, as it moves onwards, from calamity to the life of mortals in all their cities. Lit.
Coming to the life of mortals (a law of every city) in no respect out of the way of calamity. οὐδέν, adverbial.
613.
mvp-comment-361-2
βιότῳ, dat. of reference (Essay on Language § 12. p. 18). πάμπολις,
universal, i.e. law not of any one state, but embracing all. For ἕρπων ἐκτὸς ἅτας θνατῶν βιότῳ, cp. infra l. 1318: ἐμᾶς.. ἐξ αἰτίας (= ἐκτὸς αἰτίας ἐμοί): Ο. C. 1575, ἐν καθαρῷ βῆναι .. τῷ ξένῳ: Essay on Language § 42. p. 79.
615.
mvp-comment-362-1
πολύπλαγκτος There is no clear instance of an active use of πολύπλαγκτος, for in Hom. Il. 13. 308, έξ ἀνέμοιο πολυπλάγκτοιο ἰωῆς,
The fartravelled wind, is a probable enough meaning. Cp. Shakespeare's
Empty, vast, and wandering air. So here Widely roving' is better than Muchdeceiving.' Cp. infr. 785-786.
617.
mvp-comment-363-1
ἀπάτα . . ἐρώτων ἐρώτων is not genitive of object, but of cause: not Disappointment of desire, but
De ception through desire.
To many, hope is but the deceitfulness of winged desire.
618.
mvp-comment-364-1
εἰδότι δ᾽ οὐδὲν ἕρπει
And it comes to him all at unaware, i. e. The event or calamity comes. For the vague subject, cp. supra 597, οὐδ᾽ ἔχει λύσιν, and note. This is better than
Nothing befals him while he is aware. 619. Till his foot be scorched in the hot blaze.' For the insertion of τις in the second clause, cp. Aj. 964, τἀγαθὸν χεροῖν | ἔχοντες οὐκ ἴσασι πρίν τις ἐκ βάλῃ : Τr. 2, 3, ὡς οὐκ ἂν αἰῶν᾽ ἐκμάθοις βροτῶν, πρὶν ἂν θάνῃ τις. Seidler's conj. προσαύρῃ is less good than the reading of L.
620.
mvp-comment-365-1
σοφίᾳ Dative of manner. Essay on Language § 14. p. 20, 2.
625.
mvp-comment-366-1
πράσσει, SC. ὁ τοιοῦτος, supr. l. 619, τις,
l. 623
, τῷδ'. Cp. Aesch. ap. Plat. Rep. 2, p. 380 Α, θεὸς μὲν αἰτίαν φύει βροτοῖς | ὅταν κακῶσαι δῶμα παμπήδην θέλει.
625.
mvp-comment-366-2
ὀλιγοστόν ὀλίγιστον has been read, and is possibly the Ist hand of L; see v. rr. But ὀλιγοστός χρόνος may mean a time that is one of few, i. e. one that comes rarely or seldom. πολλοστός in Legg. 10. 896 B, is not
small, but
many times removed, and has the force of a superlative, as it has also in Phileb. 44 E, where it means
minutest.
626-627.
mvp-comment-367-1
See Essay on Language § 40. p. 75.
628.
mvp-comment-368-1
νύμφης had probably been written over μελλογάμου or τάλιδος as a gloss. The words τῆς μελλογάμου νύμφης are omitted in VM¹. This whole expression may have been a gloss on τάλιδος, or on τῆς μελλονύμφου φου infr. 633.
629.
mvp-comment-369-1
μόρον Ε. on L. § 16. p. 23.
630.
mvp-comment-370-1
ἀπάτας (1) Gen. of cause; or (2) with ὑπερ. Cp. Eur. Hipp. 260.
631.
mvp-comment-371-1
μαντέων ὑπέρτερον
Better than a seer could tell us. Creon thus vents his impatience at the anticipation of the chorus, and also indicates his scorn of prophecy. Cp. infr. 1034 ff.
632.
mvp-comment-372-1
τελείαν ψήφον
The fixed, irreversible, decree. Creon means by his first words to exclude hope.
632.
mvp-comment-372-2
ἆρα μή
Can it be that.., expressing doubt mingled with surprise.
633.
mvp-comment-373-1
τῆς μελλονύμφου Objective genitive. Essay on Language § 9. p. 12.
633.
mvp-comment-373-2
λυσσαίνων ·
Madly raging; as if opposition to a father could only be accounted for by madness. The word is ἅπαξ λεγόμενον, and is for this reason preferable to the weaker θυμαίνων.
634.
mvp-comment-374-1
σοὶ μέν i.e. Whatever we may be to others.
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.
635-636.
mvp-comment-376-1
σύ μοι γνώμας ἔχων | χρηστὰς ἀπορθοῖς Sc. ἐμέ.
You, having good advice for me, direct me. μοι is in construction with the nearer word.
637.
mvp-comment-377-1
No marriage can, if I think rightly, be a more valued prize to me.
ἀξίως ἔσται has been changed to ἀξιώσεται. But ἀξιοῦσθαι μείζων φέρεσθαι,
To be deemed of more importance to obtain, is an awkward and unauthorized expression and, for the position and emphatic use of the adverb, which is the only difficulty, see Essay on Language § 24. pp. 37, 38, and cp. the adverbial use of ἄξιος in El. 1260 ff., τίς .. ἀξίαν μεταβάλοιτ᾽ ἂν .. σιγὰν λόγων ;
638.
mvp-comment-378-1
For μείζων, = τιμιώτερος, cp. Ο. Τ. 776, ἀστῶν μέγιστος τῶν ἐκεῖ.
638.
mvp-comment-378-2
φέρεσθαι is in the middle voice.
638.
mvp-comment-378-3
σοῦ καλῶς ἡγουμένου
Than you and your good guidance. The condition is assumed to be inseparable from the subject, as in Plat. Rep. 1. 335 A, τὸν μὲν φίλον ἀγαθὸν ὄντα εὖ ποιεῖν, τὸν δὲ ἐχθρὸν κακὸν ὄντα βλάπτειν.
639.
mvp-comment-379-1
οὕτω .. διὰ στέρνων ἔχειν
Το be thoroughly imbued with this.
640.
mvp-comment-380-1
'In all things to follow your father's judgment.' The image is that of taking up a position behind a leader: i. e. Not to break rank, but to follow in good order. Cp. Plat. Protag. 315 B, (the disciples of Protagoras) εὖ πως καὶ ἐν κόσμῳ . . ἀεὶ εἰς τὸ ὄπισθεν καθίσταντο κάλλιστα.
643.
mvp-comment-381-1
τὸν ἐχθρόν 'Their father's enemy.'
646.
mvp-comment-382-1
τί .. ἄλλο is governed by the general verbal notion, without distinctly anticipating φῦσαι.
648.
mvp-comment-383-1
τὰς φρένας γ᾽ ὑφ᾽ ἡδονῆς The reading of Vat. is retained, not as clearly right, but as more probable than later corrections. γε may be supposed to give a strong emphasis to φρένας.
Do not lose your wits, whatever you do. And this is rather confirmed by the way in which Haemon echoes the word in l. 683.
650-651.
mvp-comment-384-1
ψυχρὸν παραγκάλισμα . . ἐν δόμοις 'Small comfort comes of such a union, of having a bad wife to share one's couch at home.'
653.
mvp-comment-385-1
πτύσας
Rejecting with abhorrence. Here and in l. 1232, πτύειν seems to imply a gesture of dislike or loathing, directed towards a person or thing. Cp. Aesch. Ag. 1192, ἐν μέρει δ' ἀπέπτυσαν | εὐνὰς ἀδελφοῦ.
653.
mvp-comment-385-2
ὡσεί τε Αn Epic or Ionic form. See Introd. p. 456.
654.
mvp-comment-386-1
The construction is rather μέθες τήνδε τινὶ νυμφεύειν,
Leave her for some one to wed, than μέθες τήνδε νυμφεύειν τινί,
Leave her to wed some one.
657.
mvp-comment-387-1
ψευδή .. πόλει
I certainly will not break my word to the state.
658.
mvp-comment-388-1
ἀλλὰ κτενῶ The abruptness of the pause helps the incisiveness of Creon's language.
659-660.
mvp-comment-389-1
εἰ γὰρ .. γένους
For if I fail to bring up orderly those born akin to me, most surely I shall fail with those remote. Creon turns Antigone's nearness of kindred to him into a reason for severity. If he cannot control his kinswoman, how much less can he control the state! Authority begins at home.
659.
mvp-comment-390-1
For ἐγγενή φύσει, see Essay on Language § 40. p. 69, and p. 82, B.
661.
mvp-comment-391-1
τοῖς .. οἰκείοισιν Neuter. Creon characteristically relies on commonplace maxims.
663.
mvp-comment-392-1
The transgressor who either violates the laws. The alternative is thought of after the sentence is begun. νόμους is in two constructions, (1) with ὑπερβάς, (2) with βιάζεται.
664.
mvp-comment-393-1
τοὐπιτάσσειν Cp. supr. 485, and note.
664.
mvp-comment-393-2
τοῖς κρατύνουσιν νοεῖ The reading of L here is rather more uncommon than the alternative reading, which may notwithstanding be right.
666.
mvp-comment-394-1
For the optative, in a perfectly general supposition, see Essay on Language §36. p. 61.
666.
mvp-comment-394-2
κλύειν
Το obey.
667.
mvp-comment-395-1
τἀναντία τὰ μεγαλὰ καὶ ἄδικα.
668-671.
mvp-comment-396-1
And of this man (the man who obeys the ruler) I would have no fear but that he would rule nobly, and be a good and willing subject, and if posted near me in the storm of battle, would stand firmly as a staunch and trusty comrade. For the vague reference of the pronoun, see Essay on Language § 22. p. 34. And for δορός .. χειμῶνι, ib.
673.
mvp-comment-397-1
αὕτη .. τίθησιν The anacoluthon (for which see Essay on Language p. 65) has been avoided in two ways, (1) by omission of τε, (2) by reading ἠδ' for ἥδ'. This Homericism is defended by comparing ὥσει τε in l. 653. There is slight MS. authority for both these changes (see v. rr.). But strong reasons are required for the introduction of a particle not used elsewhere by Sophocles, and after the regularly balanced τε.. ἠδέ, the asyndeton in the next line would be too abrupt. If any change were necessary, the omission of τ' would be preferable, but the lines are more expressive as they are.
674.
mvp-comment-398-1
σὺν μάχῃ δορός
Bothe conjectured συμμάχου δορός, The rout of the leagued war. But the reading of the MS. has a more vivid meaning.
This, aiding the conflict of the spear, breaks down (the vanquished) into shapeless rout: i. e.
Disorder helps with battle to make utter rout. For μάχῃ δορός, see Essay on Language p. 75, and for the accusative τροπάς, ib. § 17. p. 25, etc.
675.
mvp-comment-399-1
τῶν δ᾽ ὀρθουμένων
Of those who are not routed, but are successful. Opposed to οἱ ἡσσώμενοι implied in τροπάς. Cp. El. 742, ὠρθοῦθ' ὁ τλήμων ὀρθὸς ἐξ ὀρθῶν δίφρων.
677.
mvp-comment-400-1
οὕτως.. κοσμουμένοις 'Thus one ought to support one's own decrees.'
Thus, viz. as I am doing. For this use of the passive participle, see Essay on Language § 17. p. 25, с. Some would explain the words as masculine,
One must defend the cause of the orderly subject. Cp. Thuc. 8. 24, ἐκοσμοῦντο ἐχυρώτερον. But such an immediate application of the γνώμη is less in character than the arbitrary assertion of authority. Cp. Hdt. 1. 100, τὰ δὲ δὴ ἄλλα ἐκεκοσμέατό οἱ.
681.
mvp-comment-401-1
The form κεκλίμεθα (supposed from κλίνω) was supported by the authority of Thomas Magister.
683.
mvp-comment-402-1
θεοὶ.. ὑπέρτατον
Wisdom, whose value is above all possessions in the world, is the Gods gift.' Haemon begins by echoing his father's thought, supr. 648, that sound sense is to be prized most highly, but gently hints that Heaven only knows on which side the true wisdom lies. The reading χρημάτων requires ὑπέρτερον, as in L2.
686.
mvp-comment-403-1
μήτ᾽ ἐπισταίμην λέγειν i. e.
And may I never bring myself to say it. Cp. Trach. 543. 4, θυμοῦσθαι μὲν οὐκ ἐπίσταμαι | νοσοῦντι κείνῳ πολλά.
687.
mvp-comment-404-1
χἀτέρῳ Schol. δυνατὸν δὲ καὶ ἑτέρως καλῶς μεταβουλεύσασθαι. Hence Erfurdt and others conjectured χἀτέρως, χατέρα, χἄτερον. Hermann, retaining χἀτέρῳ, interprets,
Another also may have wisdom as well as you: i.e. καλῶς ἔχον, sc. τὸ τῶν φρενῶν. But the context rather suggests καλῶς ἔχον, sc. τὸ λέγειν σὲ μὴ ὀρθῶς λέγειν. 'That you are wrong in what you now say I have no power, and may I never have the skill, to affirm. But it may be that from another's mouth such an assertion were not ungracious.' καί in this case belongs to the whole sentence. See Essay on Language § 25. p. 43. 4.
688.
mvp-comment-405-1
σοῦ δ᾽ οὖν πέφυκα is decidedly better than σὺ δ᾽ οὐ πέφυκας, which seems to have been suggested by τὸ γὰρ σὸν ὄμμα δεινόν, κ.τ.λ., in what follows. The true connection is,
It is not for me to say that you are wrong, though another might do so. However, as your son, it naturally belongs to me to consider in your interest what men do, or say, or find fault with. For the common citizen does not speak his mind in your presence, but I may freely hear. Haemon winds about his father with all this circumstance before pleading for Antigone under shelter of the common opinion, which he professes to quote in the interest of Creon. The tact shown in this is noticed by Aristotle (Rhet. 3. 17) and by the Scholiast. The reading of A, V pr., V³, σοὶ δ' οὖν πέφυκα, deserves consideration.
690-691.
mvp-comment-406-1
τὸ γὰρ .. κλύων
For your eye overawes the subject in conversation which will displease you to hear. λόγοις τοιούτοις is dative of the occasion or reason, assisted by the attraction of οἷς. Essay on Language § 14. p. 20.
690-691.
mvp-comment-406-2
τὸ γὰρ σόν The order puts an emphasis on σόν, as in O. Τ. 671, τὸ γὰρ σόν, οὐ τὸ τοῦδ᾽ ἐποικτείρω στόμα.
692.
mvp-comment-407-1
ἐμοὶ δ᾽.. τάδε
But I may hear all this under shadow (out of the light of your eye). The words ὑπὸ σκότου might equally have been connected with the following line.
I hear in secret what is spoken in secret.
694.
mvp-comment-408-1
ἀναξιωτάτη Sc. τοιαῦτα παθεῖν.
695.
mvp-comment-409-1
ἀπ᾿ ἔργων See Essay on Language § 19. p. 28.
697.
mvp-comment-410-1
πεπτῶτ᾽ ἄθαπτον i. e. πεπτώτα καὶ ἄθαπτον ὄντα.
697.
mvp-comment-410-2
μήθ'.. μήθ' μή, not oὔ, because ἥτις, κ.τ.λ. = εἰ αὕτη, κ.τ.λ.
700.
mvp-comment-411-1
ἐρεμνή
Dark, i.e.
Fraught with hidden danger. (Cp. ὑπὸ σκότου, supra). The word is used with something of the association of awe and dread attaching to night and darkness. Cp. Hom. Il. 1. 47. ὁ δ᾽ ἤτε νυκτὶ ἐοικώς.
701.
mvp-comment-412-1
σοῦ πράσσοντος εὐτυχῶς Cp. supra 638, σοῦ καλῶς ἡγουμένου.
703.
mvp-comment-413-1
πατρὸς θάλλοντος εὐκλείας
The good renown of a prosperous sire. Haemon thus gently hints his fear of the effect of the sentence on Creon's reputation in the city.
704.
mvp-comment-414-1
ἄγαλμα
A cause of glorying or delight. Cp. infra 1115, Καδμείας νύμφας ἄγαλμα.
704.
mvp-comment-414-2
ἢ τί πρὸς παίδων πατρί ;
Or what greater ornament (than their own good fame) can children confer upon their father?
705-706.
mvp-comment-415-1
Do not, I beseech you, wear one unchanging temper in your breast, and hold that nothing else is right but as you say. τοῦτο is added because of the imperfect correlation of the clauses. See Essay on Language p. 75.
707-709.
mvp-comment-416-1
For
ὅστις .. οὗτοι, ib. § 20. p. 31.
707-709.
mvp-comment-416-2
For the formal distinction of φρονεῖν, γλῶσσαν, ψυχήν, cp. supra 176, ψυχήν τε καὶ φρόνημα καὶ γνώμην, and see Essay on Language pp. 92, 3.
710.
mvp-comment-417-1
ἄνδρα Ε. on L. § 22. p. 37.
710.
mvp-comment-417-2
κεἴ τις ᾖ Ε. on L. § 27. p. 44.
710.
mvp-comment-417-3
τὸ μανθάνειν Essay on Language § 21. p. 34-38.
711.
mvp-comment-418-1
καὶ τὸ μὴ τείνειν ἄγαν
And not to hold too hard. This absolute use of τείνειν is generalized from the examples given below.
713-714.
mvp-comment-419-1
Note the antithesis of κλῶνας .. αὐτόπρεμνα. The one save even their branches, the others are destroyed root and branch. For the image, cp. Webster's Appius and Virginia, p. 203. (iii. 3),
The bending willow, yielding to each wind, | Shall keep his footing firm, when the proud oak, | Braving the storm, presuming on his root, | Shall have his body rent from head to foot.
715.
mvp-comment-420-1
ναὸς .. ἐγκρατῆ πόδα
The sheet which has power over the vessel. This is a more poetical and rhythmical expression than the other reading, ναὸς εἴ τις ἐγκρατής, πόδα | τείνας, ὑπείκει μηδέν.
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.
